Dark Need by Clarissa Wild

Chapter 43

Soren

Hours, maybe days, pass without any news. My wrists hurt from the tightened shackles that cling to my skin. The bolt cutter is still out of reach, barely, a stark reminder of what could have been … and a way for the people to remind me of my place.

But what eats me up the most is that April is in their clutches.

I haven’t seen her since she found me, and I don’t know what the fuck they’re planning to do with her.

They won’t take it lightly that she tried to free me, let alone the fact she snuck onto this island with ease. The guards are pissed at their own failings. The extra-deep whip lashes tell me as much.

Pain is nothing new to me. I was born to accept it with honor. But every bone inside my body screams to fight, to get up and revolt.

Because of her.

Because she is here, and she needs me.

But every movement I make is hampered by the chains on my body and this fucking pole keeping me in place like a dog.

After a while, a guard steps inside, then another, and another. They all look at me like they want something from me … the violent kind. I sigh out loud and groan. “Here to beat me up again?”

I know my mother tongue, but the filthy looks on their faces are worth speaking English for.

The three of them approach me with ropes and knives, keeping a keen eye on my movements as they get closer and closer. They tie the ropes around my waist and another one around my arms, securing them tight before unlocking the chains around my wrists.

With my strength and size, I would easily fight them off and beat them to the ground even with these ropes around me. But after spending days in this cell enduring nothing but pain, I’m spent. And I need to save whatever energy I have left to find her.

Find my woman … April.

So I let them drag me up from the ground and unlock the shackles around my ankles, freeing me from the bonds. It’s been a long time since I’ve last not felt iron around my skin, the feeling bringing me power and hunger for a fight.

But I remain calm and steady as they wrap their ropes tightly around my body to secure me in place before dragging me outside the barracks and straight into the people’s gathering. I’m pushed down onto my knees along the sidelines of the cleared circle in the middle where the bonfire usually stands.

Everyone is looking at me like I’m a filthy animal worthy of nothing but disdain, but then they all turn their heads at something else. I look up at the guards dragging someone else to the forefront. When I spot her face, a fire ignites inside my body.

“Let her go!” I growl in my native tongue, which makes her eyes jolt up to meet mine in an intense flurry of fear that splits me in half.

They shove her down to the ground too, and the people look at her with even more disgust than they did to me. But she committed no sin. She only tried to save me to return the favor I granted her. And now they want to punish her for it?

The Elder Agata, the one with the snarl, steps forward. “This woman came to our lands uninvited,” she says in our native tongue. “She sullied one of our own, took off his metal, and brought him dishonor.”

The crowd murmurs in agreement.

“Those who take from us without permission will be punished,” Elder Elin says. “To protect us. And to give back honor where it was stolen.”

Is she talking about me?

Elder Saga slams her cane into the ground. “Our judgment will be carried out now.”

Suddenly, one of the fellow men I trained with steps forward with an ax in his hands.

April begins to cry at the sight, and she throws me a look, the same one I saw in the car when she was begging me to save her. Her lips quiver while she whispers some words into the wind. “Soren.”

I don’t need to hear it to know she’s saying my name.

With her last words, she chooses to say my name.

Fury rages in my body.

The man with the ax pushes her forward onto a log, her head shoved onto the wood.

I cannot let this happen.

I refuse.

I gather every inch of energy left inside my body and roar out loud, pushing my muscles to the limit to break every strand in this rope until my arms and legs are free.

The crowd watches in amazement as I storm to her and block the ax with one hand, shielding her body with the other. I’m right on top of her and can barely keep the ax at bay, but I would rather die trying than know I did nothing to stop her from dying a death she didn’t deserve.

“Soren!” April squeals as she points behind me.

The man who was about to execute her throws me a deadly look. He roars out loud and swings his ax my way. April shrieks as I catch it with both hands, twisting it so he drops it, and I can snatch it away.

This really sets him off.

He grunts with rage as he attacks me, but I stay put and take the blows. When he relents for just a second, I kick him in the knees so hard they break, and he falls to the ground clenching his legs.

The crowd is egged on by our fight so much that some guards come out of the woodwork, glancing at the Elders for approval to attack me.

They all nod.

And all hell breaks loose.

First, three guards run at me with their knives out, and I fight them off, kicking and punching as hard as I can. One of them chucks the knife from a distance, and I narrowly avoid it, only to pick it up and use it to stab another. Another one goes to kick me in the head, so I grab his ankle and twist him until he falls onto the ground, where I stab him with the same knife I just jammed into the other guy. They all groan in pain but still try to get up, just as they were trained to, but I am more than prepared.

April lies there on the block of wood with her hands still tied, unable to do anything as I’m fighting for not just my life but hers too. Terror seeps into her eyes, and it only pushes me to fight harder, and harder, and harder.

Kick, punch, fight, shove them away.

Take a knife from the ground and chuck it right back at them.

More guards come from the sidelines, six at a time, and I fight them with everything I’ve got, ignoring the searing pain from the lacerations on my body. Three of them manage to punch me hard at the same time, and I roar out loud from both pain and anger.

“Soren, no!” Her cries are what push me over the edge.

I could’ve dealt with whatever punishment they gave me here with honor.

But when they take the only thing I care about, the only thing that matters to me, and try to kill her … I will destroy everything and anything that stands in my way to save her.

* * *

April

As I lie hereon this stump, unable to even move, let alone help, I watch the men in front of me fight to the death. Soren swings his ax, and blood splatters all around us. Each speck that hits my cheeks makes me blink rapidly, fearing I’ll miss the moment I’ll see Soren for the last time.

But every time I look, it doesn’t happen.

He keeps fighting, keeps swinging the ax until it’s ripped from his hands, keeps punching his way through people with the sheer force of his strength. When they hit him, he only hits them back stronger. When they cut him, he grabs them and takes their knife only to use it on them the same way they sliced him. Every punch he lands hits harder than any of the punches they give him even though there are six of them, and he is all alone fighting them all off one by one.

He throws the knives and hits them with the ax straight in the head, blood spraying everywhere. He doesn’t stop until all of them are dead and the remaining guards stand to the side, almost fearful to approach like they know they’re going to lose.

“Is that all you got?!” Soren roars out loud like a beast.

I’m in awe at the raw strength he exudes. I’ve never seen something so powerful yet frightening as hell before. Not because I’m scared of him, but because I’m scared of what they’ll do to him if he continues killing the guards. There’s no way he can take on the entire island … can he?

The Elder looks pissed off too, and she smacks her cane onto the ground, inspiring more and more guards to run toward us in a flurry of anger. I brace for impact, but all I hear are stomps and gashes and grunts. Nothing touches me. Soren makes sure of it by blocking my body with his the second any of them get close.

He fights them off like it’s the last thing he’ll do on this earth, even if it costs him everything. But after a heavy kick to the stomach, he falls to his knees, his strength waning fast after all the beatings he already endured in those barracks.

I cannot let him give up now. They’ll kill him for defying their rules and trying to save me.

“Soren! Don’t give up!” I yell with every ounce of my willpower. “Please!”

He turns his gaze to meet mine, a fury blazing behind his eyes that silences the storm raging in my heart. And with a growl, he swivels back around and punches his attacker so hard in the gut that he vomits blood. Another fist is thrown at an attacker coming straight for me, and he shields my body with his, going face-to-face with the guard who tries to stab him.

Soren refuses to surrender even when I can tell from the exhausted gasps and sweat dripping from his body that he’s fading fast.

Tears well up in my eyes as I watch this man sacrifice not just his honor but his life to defend mine. I can’t let this happen. I can’t lose him, not like this.

“Stop!” I yell. “Please, stop!”

But no one seems to hear me over the crowd's chants and the fighting going on right above my head. Not until Soren buckles from the weight of the men piling on top of him. And I’m helpless to watch him get tied up again.

“Enough!” the Elder with the cane yells.

Soren’s shoved to the ground, one of the guards planting his boot on Soren’s head.

I shriek. “Please, don’t hurt him!”

The crowd hollers and laughs around us, ridiculing what just happened even though there are countless dead bodies. People they knew and grew up with. Don’t they care about their own?

Is this what Soren was raised in? Mindless fighting just for the sake of honor, no matter the cost?

I swallow as the Elder steps forward and breaks the spell, causing the crowd around us to silence. They obviously revere these women. But if all of this blood is spilled without anyone giving a care in the world just because they’re men who were trained to do so, they’re not a hair better than the rest of the world.

The cane slams into the ground in front of my face, and I look up into frustrated eyes. “You … you would beg for them to stop?”

She points at Soren, who lies defeated on the ground, surrounded by men who hold him down like a hunted animal.

“I don’t want him to die for me,” I reply.

She tips my chin up with her cane, inspecting my face. “He risked his honor to try to save you.”

“I know,” I say.

Her eyes narrow and twitch.

Then she walks to Soren.

“You. You wish to live in shame?” she asks.

“I would rather die than see her hurt,” he growls back.

“You’ve abandoned all rules and honor in exchange for sin,” she hisses.

“NO,” he says, his voice so loud and strong that it silences everyone. “Not sin. I need her. More than I need life.”

I’m shocked at his words, at the softness and desperation in his voice. And my heart both flutters and shatters all the same at the realization that he can’t have what he wants. I can’t have what I want. We can’t have each other because others don’t want us to.

“You choose this over restoring your honor?” the Elder hisses.

He nods without question, without so much as a pause.

“Fine,” she says through gritted teeth. “Have it your way.”

Suddenly, I’m lifted up from the stump and taken away. I squeal. “Soren!”

And the last thing I see are his solemn eyes while the guards drag me away again.