I lunged towards the guards, helping him and tried to push them off Ryker, but one of them caught me in the chin with the back of his hand. I fell back and pain exploded in my jaw, and I thought I felt my tooth loosen.
Ryker went down hard. There was no way I could have helped him, anyway. It was hopeless, and I was fucking helpless. While he was being choked, two of them jabbed their batons against his flesh and I heard the electric zap of a charge as Ryker’s body jerked at the pain. There was nothing I could do to help him. It brought up emotions in me that threatened to overwhelm me if I let them. The helplessness I felt watching Kingston fall to his knees, the horror I felt when I found out about the Organization and the things Reg had done.
All of it was churning around inside my head until I couldn’t tell where my physical pain ended and my emotional pain started. They wrapped around each other and became the same thing.
“Come on, now,” one guard said and hooked his hands under my arms. I let out a low sobbing moan of pain and confusion, but he didn’t react. “Time to put on a show and earn your keep.”
He dragged me to the bed and flopped me onto my back. As soon as I landed with a bounce on the lush, thick, red brocade cover, the old men returned to their seats. Another guard tossed me a white sheet and said, “Put this underneath you.”
“What for?” I asked, and then I realized. They wanted evidence of my virginity after their chosen beast tore into me. They didn’t know that a beast of my own had already done it, and that Ryker was somebody I desired.
I rolled to the side, and the guard helped me spread the sheet out. I edged back into the middle of it and sat up, hugging my knees to my chest as I tried to cover myself as much as I could in the see through dress.
The masked men around the bed began to talk excitedly to each other about me like I was a racehorse and not a human girl. They commented on my breasts and my hips and how much they’d like to see a perfect little virgin like me get gang banged by a row of prisoners.
I tensed up at that, but we were still the only prisoners in the room. Not that it meant anything. They could call anybody in at any time, or force themselves on me if they felt like it.
Ryker was limping when he was led to the bed, blood streaming down his chin and onto his chest. Guilt flooded my head. I should have stayed by his side and fought with him. I shouldn’t have been so weak, so useless to him.
But when I looked him up and down, I couldn’t help the other thoughts flowing around inside of me. That he was still so beautiful like that. So feral and untamed that it felt natural to see him covered in blood, his and the blood of his enemies.
I could see blood running from under the masks of a few guards, so he must have landed some hard blows himself. It pleased me to see this, to know he’d hurt them.
“We’re waiting,” Thackeray said. “Get up there and mount your prize, my young stallion.”
“Fuck you,” Ryker snarled.
“Don’t tempt any of us,” another man said. His mask was a cat, like a Siamese. I could see dark eyes behind it, through the hooded holes. They glittered with power and drink, and I hated him in that moment almost as much as I hated Thackeray. “I wouldn’t mind claiming that ass for myself after a few more drinks.”
“Here, here!” another man chortled and raised his glass for a toast.
I wiggled away from them as far as I could go. At least if I was in the center and at the head of it, I could put maximum distance between us. The white sheet was large enough to stay beneath me.
Ryker’s face was pained when he crawled up the bed towards me. His pain wasn’t from the fight, but because of what we were about to do. He wanted to fuck me; I knew it like I knew the way my hand felt in his. He wanted this badly.
But he wanted it when we were alone and able to explore. Or with the Kings, so he could share me and share our desires the way we loved so much.
“I’m sorry for this, princess,” he said, defeat threading through his words. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“I’m not,” I said, and cupped his face in my hands as he reached my side. “If it wasn’t you, it would be one of them. And I want it to be you.”
“Not like this,” he said with a choking sound.
“No, it’s not ideal,” I said. “But if we don’t, we’ll die. There’s nothing else we can do. We have to give them their show.”
Ryker resigned himself to the same fate that I’d realized moments before. His facial features softened and his body lost the tension that kept it taut and tight.
I ran my hands down his arms and felt the swell of muscles combined with the smooth sheen of sweat covering him. He was so worked up still. I could feel him trembling with the same frustrated helplessness that I felt.
“I’m sorry,” he said again and dipped his face down to kiss me. I kissed him like there was nobody else in the room with us, and for a moment, there wasn’t. When Ryker’s mouth claimed mine, I was lost in his world, a world where we were free together. The taste of his blood mingled with mine and swirled around our tongues as we joined ourselves together.
“Don’t be sorry now,” I said when we paused. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“I’m sorry because I want this so much that I’ll do it here, for them,” he said, and his mouth caught the curve of my throat, licking and sucking just enough to send a shiver down the length of my body.
“Don’t be,” I sighed and ran my hand along his head, through his bright blue hair. “Do it for me. Do it for you. But it’snotfor them, remember that.”
It was as if I gave him final permission because the floodgates of his desire opened fully and he kissed me all the way down the sheer dress to my breasts. He nipped and sucked my puckered nipples through the silken fabric, and I gasped, grabbed his head, and closed my eyes.