Chapter 6 She's a virgin
A person once said you lose the ability to scream at the sight of something truly terrifying. They were right. I realized that in the cave.
My screams died like laughter cut short.
I stared till my eyes started to burn from the hot light emanating from their faces.
The Hearthrown Alphas stood at nothing below eight feet, shoulders broad enough to block off light completely if they were not standing sideways.
The rumors were true. These were not humans, they were gods. Monster gods.
If my body could move, I would have fallen flat on my face in worship, or terror, or both. But I was a lifeless lettuce as Gianna called it, with control only of my eyes.
This, I lowered now, staring at the floor.
Thud! The first step hit the ground, reverberating round the cave.
One of them was approaching.
Like a giant, his footsteps shook the cave. The closer he got, the darker the cave became.
I did not need to look up to know they were now standing facing forward, and that their shoulders, wide enough to block out the light completely, had actually blocked it out.
Nervous tears ran down my cheeks again, but I pressed my lips hard, shutting off the faintest whimper.
Out the corner of my eye, I saw the giant lower to a squat beside me, and lean even closer. He smelled like burning embers with a faint hint of the metallic smell of blood.
My brain whirled with a thousand questions. How did they know I was here? Most importantly, why were they here?
I had told no one I agreed to the offer.
He touched me then, and the world went still.
My heart slowed to its normal rhythm, my blood running cool in my veins. And for the first time since my fall last night, feeling returned to my body.
It was brief, like ice running down the length of my spine, but I was certain that feeling just temporarily returned to my body.
I looked up to find him pulling his thumb away from my cheek, and then he sucked my tears off his thumb.
I stared, transfixed, even though my body recoiled at the sight of his face.
His eyes burned just like the rest of his face. A gooey, melting lava. They shone like burnished gold, the eye-coloring legends claimed dragons had.
The heat from them was so hot it reminded me of opening an oven to take a cake out.
I tore my eyes away, uncomfortably aware of too many things. How bizarrely intent his eyes had been on mine. How he seemed to have just stared in my soul. The stench of my pee.
“As I thought.” His voice was different from the first one I heard. “Weak!”
My cheeks burned at his words. My teeth chattered at the sound of his voice, which sounded like the chorus of a dozen bouts of thunder.
The voice I first heard made a sound that should have been a laugh if it had come from a man.
But from him, it was the sound whales made that was rumored to make sailors pee their pants. “Delicate is what I’ll call her. Tender as a lily. A fairy if you’d prefer.”
I wanted to look up, see the face of the hands that had shredded a cobra with ease, the face that was now saying words that made something in my heart kick.
But the other man was right, I was a weak coward. I did not have the courage to look up again.
“Leave a note. She’ll like that,” the one closer to me said, and the whale-laughter returned.
“I think they call that stalking now. Writing love poems to a woman who has rejected you,” the laughing voice responded.
I blinked, my eyes still on the floor. They squabbled and bantered like ordinary men.
Suddenly, my brain caught on the last two words like a snag in a crocheted outfit.
“No, I changed my mind.” I looked up, more terrified of them abandoning me, than their looks. “I agree. I’ll be your…” I sucked the awkwardness off my tongue. “Your sex slave.”
The monstrous faces stared back at me, silently.
I paused, wondering what I had said wrong. The one closest to me stood up with a grunt.
The other man, no doubt the rumored werewolf Alpha between them, walked towards me as his partner headed to the other end of the cave.
“Lys,” he said, and there was something about the way he said my name that made my heart jump even though I could not bear to look in his face.
“Queen. Not sex slave. You’ll be our queen. My apologies for the rumors you may have heard. Draki over there seems to enjoy the rumors about us bathing in virgin’s blood and whatnot, but I can assure you we’re not barbarians."
He said all these while my eyes were pinned to my knees. Unlike his partner, he had a cooling aura around him. There was still fire, no doubt, but he’s was layered with cooling peppermint, fresh.
It made one’s body relax and trust him.
Whatever they looked like though. I was not changing my mind. I would be their sacrifice, queen, sex slave, it did not matter.
I had felt my body just now, and the thought of never feeling that again, made my heart hurt and my throat burn.
“I’ll be anything you want me to be,” I whispered, and a low groan came from the spot the dragon stood.
“What do you want in return?” The Alpha still beside me asked.
I swallowed. How could they not know what I wanted? The only thing I wanted. I verbalized it anyway.
“I want my body back. I want to dance again.”
“More.” The dragon boomed, and my teeth chattered.
I blinked repeatedly, trying hard to concentrate, but I could think of nothing more. Twelve months were not enough to do much anyway. And the Grand Ascension had been my life for as long as I could remember.
“More.” The Dragon repeated, stomping forward. The earth vibrated beneath his feet.
My belly quivered, nervous sweat running down my eyebrows.
I really could not think of anything else, but he sounded angry, and I did not know how to tell him I had just that one wish.
The gloved hand that killed the cobra covered mine, and for some odd reason, it transported me back to the heartbreaking events from four years before. The sudden memory was like a knife in my ribs and I ached to pull my hand away.
“That’s her only wish,” The Alpha said to me, and my breath returned.
“OK, wolf-girl,” The Dragon said. “Let’s be certain you know what you’re agreeing to. An annulment is not an option. Do you consent to being shared?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“Think carefully. This is not going to be your conventional vanilla." His voice was still angry. “You would be cuffed, whipped, humiliated. Nothing on your typical BDSM list is off the table.”
My heart stopped. He inhaled sharply.
“She’s a virgin.” His voice was thick with disgust, like he had just found out I had STD. The Alpha pulled his hand away immediately.