Wild by Sara Fields
Chapter 8
Revna
This was agony.
The metal door to my cage rattled hard and I cried out as my body shuddered with open desperation. I’d long since curled up in a ball when the first stages of my heat had taken hold and closed my eyes, trying to rest through it, which was growing more difficult with every passing second. I’d been able to sleep for small periods, but it wasn’t long before I couldn’t rest at all.
The door shuddered again before something clicked and it creaked open, slowly and steadily in a way that made my heart stop. When it finally swung all the way open, I realized that the doorknob had been broken and it was barely holding on by a single bent metal screw.
My eyes left the metal door, turning back to the man who had been the one to break it.
It was him.
He was dressed as a soldier, like the ones who had escorted me into the center of the city, but as I looked closer, I was drawn to his eyes. There was a wild look there now, something decidedly different from anyone I’d ever seen before. I pushed myself back, temporarily forgetting about the war raging inside my body at the sight of him. I couldn’t see much of his face since it was covered by the sandy color of a soldier’s mask. It was meant to keep his identity a secret, but I’d known who he was the moment he walked through the room.
I could have been blind and still figured out it was Ivar. When the scent of him surrounded me again, it felt like I came alive, as if I could breathe easier with him around me. The omega inside me quivered and wanted to reach out for him, but I refused to do that.
I wouldn’t be the kind of woman who reached out for an alpha.
He leaned against the door and pushed the piece of cloth down his face so that it hugged his throat like a scarf. His thick knuckles curled around the fabric and pulled it away from his neck, loosening it just a bit as he stared at me like I was the most delicious thing he’d ever seen.
He looked at me like I was his prey.
I pushed myself up to my feet, standing tall before I took a step back, followed by another and another until I felt my back press up against the wall.
Several lanterns hung from the ceiling, illuminating his face in a ceaseless aurora of light and shadow. I worried my bottom lip, studying the way his thick brown beard covered his jawline. The hair at the side of his head had been shaved in an intricate angular design that hinted to the braiding of a thick rope and the rest of it was pulled into a knot at the back of his head. The light of the flame made his hair shine in a way that it appeared to be spun out of tarnished gold threading. There was a white scar splitting his right eyebrow in two and another along the cusp of his left cheekbone.
The last I’d seen him he’d been a priest, but now he stood before me as a soldier in Rosethorne’s army and I felt even more suspicious of his presence. What did he want? Why had he come to me once again?
“You don’t belong here,” I spat.
“Revna…” he purred, and I hated the way my name rolled off his tongue as if it was meant for it. Unable to help myself, I snarled in return and the corner of his lips curved up in sheer amusement.
“Still haven’t learned your lesson, have you, omega?” he replied, and my growl only deepened.
“Leave and never return,” I warned, and his smirk widened even further. Beneath the boiling of my blood, an icy chill crept out from the very depths of my bones. The back of my heel banged against the wall behind me, and my eyes leapt around the room, focusing on the broken door that was no longer locked and trapping me inside.
I could run. All I had to do was get past the smirking alpha in my way.
I expected him to come at me with every intention of forcing himself on me, but he didn’t. Instead, he continued to lean against the door, looking me up and down with those icy blue wild eyes. His gaze hungered down my body and I very much regretted tearing that silky sham of a dress off. I fisted my hands at my sides, too proud to cover myself for the likes of him. I lifted my chin, trying not to care that my nipples were hard, and ignoring the way my thighs were covered with the wetness of my slick or that my body literally felt like it was about to burst into flames now that he was in the same room as me.
I tried not to think of any of that.
“That’s not what you need, is it, omega?” he purred.
My core cramped tight, the rolling sound of his tongue vibrating within me like a song. I swallowed a cry of arousal, determined I was going to show him nothing. I wasn’t about to break for the likes of an arrogant alpha like him.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I muttered decisively, intending to challenge him with every single syllable that fell off of my tongue. His jawline tensed for a fraction of a second, but it disappeared so quickly that I almost thought I imagined it.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Revna. I know you’re an omega and I know what’s dripping between those pretty thighs right now. I can smell it all over it your nest,” he goaded and if he was closer, I would have reached out and struck him.
Brewing beneath the heat only just barely contained by the surface of my skin was an overwhelming sense of anger. As each moment passed, it grew hotter and hotter until it blazed even brighter than the heat simmering deep within my core.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I’d been labeled as a curse and banished long ago, and I’d come to terms with that. I was meant to live my life alone.
This, though. This was something else entirely.
“Get out,” I demanded.
“No,” he answered. His tone was firm, simple, and so unbearably cocky that my fury billowed out like a storm. My fingers flexed as he took a single step in my direction. I didn’t move, fearful that if I did, I would lash out at him at the first opportunity.
He strode toward me purposely, never taking his eyes off of me for a second. I simply waited for the right moment to run. Once he was within striking distance, I twisted my body hard and drove my knee up between his legs. I knew I’d hit home once his resounding groan of pain bounced off the walls all around me. I quickly skirted around him and raced for the door, but he was on my heels in an instant. I heard his footsteps slam against the tile floor, and I sprinted, reaching for the door at the same time his hand closed around the back of my neck. He pulled me back and swung me around, only to slam me against the same metal door I’d hoped to escape through.
“What is your plan, omega? Are you going to the run through the streets naked? Do you think you’d get far before the soldiers swarmed on you and forced your capture? What then? Do you think they’d be merciful?” he asked.
“Take your hands off me,” I snarled.
“Do you know they’ve captured half a dozen alphas down here and keep them in cages, just down the hall from you?” he added next, and I froze.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice quivering.
His hand wound around my throat, tightening little by little as he forced me to look up at him.
“A series of locks is all that protects you from those rabid men. You’re going into heat, Revna. Do you really think you’d be able to fight them all off when you can’t even keep me from touching you?” he pressed.
I rolled my lip and spat in his face. Almost in slow motion, I watched the liquid drip down his cheek, and I swallowed heavily as his gaze took on a hardened glint that had never been there before. He lifted his hand and used his thumb to wipe it away. For what felt like forever, he stared at me in absolute silence, and it took everything in me to stand my ground.
My heart pounded in my chest at the same time, and I felt it exceedingly difficult to breathe the longer it went on.
The musical sound of laughter filled the room, and my stomach plummeted all the way to my toes. I gritted my teeth together to keep my growing fear at bay, but it did anything but that.
“When I first saw the cultist take you, I thought you were simply an omega in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know different now though. Other people see those violet eyes and cry wolf. When a terrible fire broke out in your childhood home, they blamed you and sentenced you to death. Somehow, you managed to escape, but every person has turned their back on you since. If sickness took hold in a city and you were near, it was your fault. An unfortunate death. A failed crop. A stillborn child. Some say you are the daughter of Odiyen even though you carry the same eyes as the goddess Edia,” he began, and I stilled, a frisson of horror racing through me at his words. In a last-ditch measure of self-defense, I growled as viciously as I could manage in warning, but it didn’t stop him from moving toward me.
“Why do you know this?” I pressed.
“It is my job to know things, little omega, and right now, I want to know you,” he answered.
“But how?” I struggled. His fingertips pressed tightly against my throat and I sucked in a breath through my teeth. His body pressed firmly against mine, pinning me and holding me captive before him.
“You don’t know what’s outside this room, do you?”
I rolled my upper lip in answer.
“Do you see that mirror over there? It is a two-way observation mirror and on the other side is a collection of scrolls. In them is your story,” he continued softly. “At least your story told from an outsider’s perspective.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“How would the people here even know who I am?” I whispered, trying to keep my horror at bay.
“The Cult of the Blood Moon has been keeping an eye on you for some time. They kept a record of the girl with the violet eyes and for some reason, they decided it was time to bring you here. I do not yet know the reason why, but I aim to find out,” he said firmly.
I didn’t know what to say.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“You know my name. That’s all you need to know, Revna,” he answered, and I searched his gaze, trying to find answers in the ocean depths that stared back into mine. I found none.
“You know the man that took me, don’t you?” I pressed.
“I do.”
“Who is he?” I growled.
“I don’t know his name, only that they call him the Recruiter,” he murmured. “I am here for him.”
“Yet here you are with me,” I snarled.
“So I am, aren’t I?”
The arrogant look on his face angered me and I pushed against his chest. When he wouldn’t budge, I punched him with my fists, trying to move his massive form. He didn’t budge an inch.
“What happened last time you challenged me, omega?”
I clamped my lips together, refusing to answer.
His other hand closed over my breast, just sliding over my bare flesh before he captured my left nipple in his fingertips.
“I will give you one last chance, Revna. No other alpha would have been as patient with you as I have been,” he warned.
I didn’t listen.
My hands were free, and I slapped him across the face.
“Oh, little omega,” he chided, “that was the wrong decision.”
For one long moment, I stood frozen in the iron shackles of his icy blue eyes before I remembered myself. Without hesitation, I renewed my struggles. I tried to knee him between the thighs once more while I punched his chest, trying everything in me to break his hold. Nothing seemed to work, but I kept fighting.
I wouldn’t make this easy for him. I wasn’t that kind of woman.
He hoisted me up and wound his arm around my waist. He carried me at his side like a sack of flour until he approached the bed. Without preamble or even a moment of warning, he tossed me over his thighs. I attempted to crawl off his lap, but he pinned me to his lap with an arm as he leaned toward the bedside table. With a snarl, I fisted the blankets beneath me, trying to grasp at them to pull away but I didn’t move even an inch. He leaned back and straightened me over his thighs. I should have been afraid, but the only thing on my mind was escape. I needed to get away from him and what he had planned.
I didn’t care that my core was practically quivering with frantic need.
I didn’t care that my thighs were wetter than ever.
I just wanted to get away because I was too proud to give myself over to an alpha like him. I’d given in once and I would never do it again.
“You’re so brave even when you’re entirely bare over my knee, omega.”
One hand edged up the backs of my thighs, sliding along my slick and dragging it up across the expanse of my right bottom cheek. I bit my tongue, kicking my legs hard.
“So wet for a little omega that’s fighting so hard to get away from her alpha. You’re so wet that I can take all this slick and spread it across your pretty bottom so that it glistens.”
I wanted to come back with a smart retort, but the words died on my lips at his sordid observation. Even though I could feel the evidence drying on my skin, I didn’t want to tell him he was right. I refused to do something like that.
I clamped my legs together in an effort to hide myself and he growled. The rumbling sound tore through my core, causing it to cramp so hard that I couldn’t hold back my cry of pain. A rush of slick dripped down my thighs and his fingers descended to collect it. I moaned in shame, trying to contain the agony and the mortification that was threatening to tear me apart.
“Don’t,” I began. He cut me off before I could finish.
“You would do well to remember not to tell me what to do when you’re over my knee, omega,” he warned and without even thinking, I pressed my lips together in a huff.
“Not only did you challenge me multiple times tonight, omega, but you tried to fight me. I let you get away with it at first because I like the fire within you, but you’ve pushed me too far in your desire to escape what you truly need, haven’t you?”
He took my wetness and spread it all over my bottom. I closed my eyes, willfully hoping that all of this would just disappear.
“Let me go,” I growled, and his palm slapped me hard across my right bottom cheek. The noise met my ears before I could process what actually happened and a second later, the sting spread across my naked skin. I shrieked with fury.
“What’s between your legs, omega?” he pressed.
When my refusal to answer became obvious, he continued to smack my bottom hard with his palm.
“You will answer me, omega. Your punishment isn’t even going to begin until you tell me why you’re about to be spanked in the first place.”
I held out as long as I could, but the sting seemed more intense than before.
“It hurts more when your bottom is wet with your own arousal, doesn’t it?” he said, and my mouth went dry. I hated that he was right.
Unwilling to give in without more of a fight, I rocked my hips back and forth and tried to escape. His fingers dug into the side of my hip, holding me captive over his lap like a vise.
“I asked you a question, omega,” he scolded. “I will only ask you one more time. What is dripping between your pretty thighs?”
His palm was ruthless and nothing I could think of would work to avoid it. Before long, my gasps of shock turned into sighs of pain and I couldn’t stop a single one. I clamped my lips together, but the moment he started striking the lower curve of my bottom cheeks my cries continued once more.
“It’s slick!” I finally shouted and the spanks stopped just long enough for him to squeeze my bottom cheek with his fingers.
“It is slick, isn’t it?” he mused, at the same time he slid his fingertips along the edges of my thighs, just against the folds of my pussy and I sucked in a shaky breath of arousal.
“Please don’t,” I whimpered. I hated the sound of my voice. Even more than that though, I loathed that somewhere deep inside me, I craved his fingers delving between my thighs. I hated that I wanted him to explore me.
“How many times have you already touched yourself already, omega? How many times have you come while trying to stop the advance of your heat?”
My mouth open and shut as I tried to understand how he’d known.
“Even from here, I can see how soaked your nest is with your slick, omega.”
“I hate you,” I answered, my voice shaking with so much emotion that I had trouble identifying what any of it was. I felt so off balance that I kicked the floor and tried to reach back in order to pry his hand off my hip in an effort to free myself.
“That may be true, omega, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re in heat and I’m the only alpha here that could help you through what is coming,” he countered.
“I’d rather…” I began and he cut me off.
“If you finish that sentence, you will not like what happens next,” he warned and the dead serious tone to his voice stopped me cold.
“I don’t want an alpha,” I said softly.
“There is a very big difference in what you want and what you need, omega,” he answered.
“You made your point. Now let me up,” I demanded. He just chuckled.
“No. That’s not going to happen, Revna. I’m going to give you exactly what you need, but first I’m going to remind you of your place once again.”
I shuddered hard.
“In your rush to shove your hand between your thighs, did you happen to notice what was on the table next to the bed?” he asked.
I swallowed heavily, trying to rack my mind for any memory of what he could be talking about. I couldn’t come up with a single thing. I’d been so focused on the rising tide of arousal surging within me that I could think of nothing else.
“I… don’t know,” I eventually answered. My voice was quivering with open anxiety now.
A cool surface pressed against my naked backside. It felt hard and smooth and as he glided it over my right cheek, I chewed my bottom lip as I tried to figure out what it was.
“Whoever designed this room was so very kind to leave a wooden hairbrush for me to teach a certain omega a very thorough lesson with,” he continued, and a quiet keening sound bounced all around me.
Oh, gods.
That was coming from me.
“You see, this brush is thin and narrow enough to not only punish this naughty little bottom, omega. Do you know where else it may punish you?” he questioned, and a cold shower of anxiety poured over me.
“I… I don’t know.”
With a hard jerk, he forced my legs open. Too swiftly for me to react, he pressed the cold surface of the back of the brush against the bareness of my pussy. I froze in disbelief.
“You wouldn’t dare!” I screeched.
He tapped the brush against my tender flesh with enough force to make me cry out at the sudden sting.
“Are you questioning me, omega?” he asked, and I cried out openly this time.
“No, alpha,” I rushed to say.
“Good girl,” he murmured, and I held onto those two words as if they were a lifeline. “Now, there’s one other place that is going to be punished with your hairbrush, little omega. Can you guess where that might be?”
He didn’t move the brush from between my thighs and I licked my lips, trying to chase away the nervousness that his words were beginning to invoke.
“I really don’t know, alpha,” I finally answered. I was telling the truth and I hoped that he could understand that.
“Your pretty little nipples are going to feel the bite of your own hairbrush before I’m through with you, omega,” he explained and for a moment, I was entirely speechless.
The brush returned to my backside. Now that I knew what it was and what his intentions were with it, it carried a much heavier weight. He’d only lightly tapped my pussy with the hard surface, and I’d cried out from that single soft smack.
I had no idea how much harder it was about to get.
“Why are you over my knee again, omega?” he asked.
“Because I challenged you, alpha,” I whispered hoarsely. My voice trembled with weakness and just hearing the sound of it made me want to cry. I sounded broken, like I was so much less than before.
“That’s not the only reason, omega,” he chided.
“To remind me of my place,” I gasped. The words rushed out of my mouth so quickly it almost felt like I hadn’t said them at all.
“That’s what you need, isn’t it, omega. You need an alpha to remind you of your place and guide you through your very first heat, don’t you?”
His fingers had descended between my thighs and before I could utter a word to try to stop him, he started circling my clit and I lost every single thought of denial. He pressed just lightly enough to tease me, and I whined softly as I tried to push even more firmly against those rough fingertips. I tried to curl my hips inward and beg him to press harder, but then he purred and I lost all semblance of reason.
His sound was like a vibrating string that quivered down into the very depths of my core. My fury and annoyance at being forced over his knee faded away and the only thing I could focus on was my arousal and the buzzing heat that was simmering just beneath my skin.
“Are you ready to submit to your alpha, little omega?” he asked, and my body relaxed over his thighs. His fingers continued to worry my clit and a shameful moan fell off my lips before I could stop it.
“Yes, alpha! Please!” I pleaded, unable to handle the frenzied need that kept bubbling up from inside me.
“Good. Then it’s time for your punishment to begin,” he said firmly and at once, his fingertips disappeared from between my thighs and the brush tapped against my backside once more. I sucked in a harsh breath.
I’d hoped he’d forgotten, but I knew better than that now.
“Please don’t,” I wailed in fright.
“You can beg all you want, omega, but I’m the alpha. I will be the one to decide when and how your punishment ends. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, alpha,” I cried.
I should have known it wouldn’t have mattered. I would have gotten angry at his words, but that’s when the first real strike of the brush connected with my bottom.
A quiet whine escaped my lips as a terrible and concentrated agony spread across my backside. Immediately, I compared it to his palm and the harsh strike of his belt, but this was much more ruthless and crueler than I’d been ready for. The second smack was even worse, and I rushed to get up off his lap. As if he could read my mind, he tilted me forward and crossed one of his legs over the back of mine. I couldn’t even rock my hips back and forth if I wanted to. I couldn’t try to kick myself off him either. I was well and truly locked into place now.
“Please,” I begged.
He didn’t listen. He’d said he wouldn’t, and he was true to his word. I hated, feared, and respected that he was.
The brush really began to fall after that, and I knew nothing but its terrible brutal bite over and over again. I vowed to stay strong, but that quickly flew at the window at the cruel stinging that overtook my senses. It consumed me in a way I didn’t think possible and the only thing that I could hope for was that it would end soon.
It didn’t.
It only got harder. Initially, he was focused on the fullest part of my bottom, but that didn’t last either. He spanked the top of my bottom all the way down to the lower curves of my cheeks and then even lower than that.
The ones at the tops and the middles of my thighs were the worst.
As the hairbrush fell, there was no question in my mind that I’d lost control. I couldn’t get away and there was no stopping the punishing smacks of the wooden brush until he decided it would.
I pleaded for mercy even though I knew it wouldn’t stop anything, because it was the only thing I could do. I had to do something before he broke me.
No matter what I did or said, that merciless wooden awful thing bit into my bare flesh over and over again. With every single spank, I spiraled even more out of control until my breathing quickened into short, desperate pants before it hitched at the back of my throat.
I tried to stop what I knew was coming, but there was nothing I could do.
When the first tear rolled down my cheek, I wailed in misery and wallowed in my failure to remain strong. The second fell and then the third and a torrent of painful sobs followed. I cried over his knees, my body slumping and just taking the ever-falling strike of the brush against my scalded flesh.
The brush fell several more times as I sobbed, the cadence steady and sure and hard enough to really send home the message.
“You fight me, omega, but even as I paddle your naughty bottom with the hairbrush, your pussy is dripping with slick for me. Your body is calling to me. You need an alpha, don’t you?”
“Yes, alpha,” I wailed, trying to sniff back my tears and utterly failing at the same time. “Please, I’m sorry!”
The brush smacked against the back of my left thigh, followed by the right. There was no choice left for me but to take it.
His fingers slipped in between my thighs.
“I’m going to give you what you need, omega. You just needed to be reminded of your place first,” he said firmly, and I shook with my tears. He released his leg from the backs of mine and his arms wound around my waist. He lifted me and deposited me on my back on the bed.
For several moments, he stood over me and ran his hands over my skin. It was soothing, but I was very much distracted by how much it hurt to press my scalded bottom against the bed. My backside felt like it was against an open flame. I writhed a bit, trying to lift my hips but as he leaned over me and casually laid the brush against my left nipple, I stilled with a fearful cry.
My nipple was hard and entirely too sensitive beneath the cool surface of the brush. The chill was deceptive at first, comforting and soothing against my sensitive bud, but there was a clear warning there. My breast seemed to pulse under the threat of it.
“Your tears are so very pretty, omega. I am never going to tire of them.”
With a look of honest appreciation, he reached for me and used his thumb to wipe away a tear from my cheek. The roughness of his skin against the softness of mine was the only thing on my mind before he flicked the brush up with the full intention of seeing my punishment to completion.
