Fable of Happiness (Fable #2) by Pepper Winters

I wanted.

Fuck, I wanted, wanted, wanted.

“Come on, please. I can’t bear to hear you beg—”

Beg?

What the fuck nonsense was that?

Of course, they wanted to hear me beg.

That was what they all wanted.

Every guest. Every session. Every rape.

They all wanted my screams, my denials, my pleas.

But she...she could be different. She could be the one to beg...for me. She could open wide and take me deep. She could be death. She could be life. She could save me and end me, and this could all be over.

The scent of burning flesh and charred skin suddenly shot up my nose. A fire roared in my mind, wrapping around me, melting the snow I was buried under, sizzling my skin until I was nothing but meat.

Nothing but a meal for these savages.

“Don’t.” I snarled. Flames licked over my back. It hurt. Fuck, it hurt. “Stop!”

“Kas, wake up! I made you dinner. Open your eyes.”

The voice grew strict, the touch turned firm, the smell of cooked meat consumed me.

That smell.

That acrid, cloying smell.

I knew it well.

I knew it because it was me. I was blistered skin and charred hair. I was flesh on a spit. I was dinner for all Fable guests.

The flames burned me alive, consuming my legs, my arms, my cock.

Whatever pleasure I’d found—the tiny shred of goodness—vanished under the gust of agonizing heat.

Levin’s voice howled around me, morphing with the fire. “See how slaves burn, Kas? You’re nothing more than scum. Yanked from the dirt to serve your masters.”

I groaned. “Stop.”

It hurt.

It hurt so fucking much.

The hand on my shoulder dug nails into my skin. “Kas, please—”

Rage poured through me. Anger and hatred, disgust and terror.

A sick, sick recipe of exploitation, perversion, and abuse.

I’d been prepared to give up.

I’d longed for death.

I’d been weak.

How could I?

I could never let them win.

Never.

Swooping upright, I collided with the woman hovering over me with false kindness. The guest who poured gasoline over me, her touch the match, her voice the devil’s fire.

I’d never lusted for a guest before.

Never actually wanted to fuck one of my oppressors, but for her? I’d make an exception. She was different. She affected me. She was right and wrong and pain. So, so much fucking pain.

Snatching her arm, I threw her to the floor.

“No, wait—”

I didn’t hear the rest of her plea as flames gusted in my ears and snow swirled in my eyes. I was nothing but elements. Hot and cold. Biting and searing.

I wasn’t human.

I was wind and smoke, ice and frost.

My head howled with pressure. My hands pawed at my enemy. And my body. Fuck, my body was hard thanks to Levin’s touch. I was needy, desperate, and out of my mind with desire.

They’d broken me.

They’d given me a promise of pleasure, only to burn me alive.

I needed that release.

I thirsted for it.

And they thought they could take that away from me?

Deny me the one precious second I might’ve been free?

No.

Fucking hell no.

They owed me.

They all owed me.

“Kas, stop it!” the woman screamed as I shoved a fist against her sternum and kept her pinned to the floor. The spark of our skin was the worst kind of magic. Her heat. Her scent. It drugged me, corrupted me.

She struggled and fought, her legs flying as she tried to get away. With my other hand, I unbuckled my jeans.

My head cracked with a fissure of wrongness.

I’d been naked in Levin’s bed. Freezing and dressed in snowflakes.

Now I was clothed and on fire.

My mind made no sense anymore.

I was lost and alone, and she did this to me.

She was the one to burn me, to feed fire into my blood and ash into my heart. Just being near her made my body sing and snarl. She was a witch with the perfect spell to ruin me, and if I gave her the chance, she’d collar me, leash me, and have me bowing at her feet. I’d shamelessly lick her toes and plead in the mud, begging and crawling for a single scrap of her attention.

Why did she have such power over me?

Why had I never been summoned to her before? No matter the sick and twisted games she’d command, my body would’ve obeyed. She would’ve been the only one.

I knew that with my entire soul.

She was a siren in my head and the conjurer of my body.

I’d never been so fucking hard.

Achingly hard.

I didn’t know who she was, but she was the most dangerous guest I’d ever served. A single touch from her was a thousand needles of poison.

She has to pay.

My nose inhaled roasted flesh. My flesh. My tongue tasted musk. Her musk.

She still fought me, goaded me. Thinking she was in charge. Thinking she could fuck me, hurt me, rule me.

Not tonight.

Tonight, it’s my turn.

I shuddered as blinding desire shot through my belly.

So foreign, so unique.

I basked in it.

I got lost in it.

It was a gift, a curse, a beginning, and an end.

If I had to serve this witch for the rest of my days, then I would sure as fuck introduce her to the animal that she’d captured. I would teach her that even though I was worthless, I still had the strength to make her scream.