Chapter Ninety-five

CONTENT ADVISORY / TRIGGER WARNING

THIS NOVEL CONTAINS DEPICTIONS/STRONG IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE OR DISTURBING:

~ VIOLENCE

~ RELATIONSHIP ABUSE

~ SEXUAL ASSAULT AND/OR ****

My whole body aches...My head is pounding, and my eyes feel heavy. What happened?

Slowly, Libelle opened her eyes, the flash of lightning from beyond the window striking pain into her sore head. She looked around the dim room with only a few candles lit on the table beside the bed. What happened? She asked herself again, trying desperately to recall the events from earlier.

She had returned home, then Gaalin had startled her...He seemed upset about something. What was it? Her eyes widened and her heart began to beat faster as the memory came flooding back all at once. She had been attacked. Gaalin had attacked her! The bluntness of the wooden board had crashed down across her temple so hard that she'd lost consciousness.

Get up, get up now, she told herself, immediately trying to sit upright on the soft cushion of her bed. She couldn't. Why was she unable to sit up? Realizing that her arms were tied above her head with the remains of her shredded sheets, she began to panic.

"Relax, Libelle." Gaalin's familiar voice spoke out in the darkness. Another flash of lightning briefly illuminated the room, revealing his figure lounging in a chair across from the bed.

"Gaalin, what is the meaning of this? Untie me!"

He stood up and slowly crossed the room to stand beside the bed. "You've managed to surprise me, Libelle, and not in a good way," he sighed.

"What are you talking about?" The panic in her was slowly being replaced with rage. What in oblivion was going on in his mind?

He moved closer to her, his rough hand caressing her parted lips. "I know about your illicit relationship with that mediocre brute."

You what? Libelle trembled at the touch of his cold hand. Had he really found out about Eskil and her? He couldn't have, could he? Her thoughts began to race in all different directions, trying to find the answer to a seemingly impossible question. His snicker interrupted all of her thoughts all at once.

"Where is Eskil?"

He ignored her question as a disturbing and sadistic smile crept over his face.

"Gaalin, where is Eskil? What did you do?"

"I am disappointed in you, Libelle. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you two. You were bedded by a dragon." He petted her cheek while his expression became more twisted. "My strong and beautiful lord...I've looked up to you for so long, and you've destroyed everything I treasured about you in a single act. If...if I had known you were pathetic enough to slut around with that...that creature, I never would have held back."

Gaalin bent down over her, his lips capturing hers in a forced kiss. "My lovely Libelle, how could you?"

Stunned, she was silent for a moment. Then her lips curled in a snarl. "Gaalin! You—"

Roughly, his hand clamped down over her mouth with a growl. "How could you?"

Suddenly, Gaalin removed his hand and forced her lips to part while pushing a thick, twisted fabric into her mouth, securing it behind her head in a tight knot. Her expression was one of surprise and fury, and a trickle of blood from her temple was trailing into her ear. By the look in his eyes, he had completely lost all sense of reasoning.

What was Gaalin planning?

He stared down at her silently, his own thoughts racing. Suddenly, both his hands twisted into the cotton fabric of her shirt, and just as fast he ripped the material in half to expose her bare breasts. She gasped in surprise, her eyes widening and her stomach churning in growing fear. She shook her head at him, mumbling the word 'stop' to him through the gag in her mouth. He didn't listen. He climbed the rest of the way onto the bed and kneeled over her. His hands slid up her sides as she tried to squirm away, then each hand firmly grabbed hold of a breast, the calluses on his skin feeling painful against her flesh as his fingers roughly pinched her nipples.

Breathlessly he sighed, "My Libelle, I have dreamed of touching you like this. How I wish I had done so sooner." His wet tongue teased her stomach, slowly tracing a line from her navel to sternum before his mouth clamped down onto one of her breasts. He swirling his tongue around each nipple before carelessly biting down onto the tender flesh. Libelle whimpered and tried to move away again, but with her hands bound above her head and his weight on her legs, she was going nowhere.

He suckled the skin on her neck, breaking the blood vessels beneath. "If only I had done this sooner, you wouldn't have been stolen away by that beast."

Gaalin shredded the material of her shirt further and pulled the fabric away to leave her upper body completely exposed. He sat up and stared down at her, her chest rising and falling rapidly with each fearful breath.

Smiling, he spoke again. "I'm glad that beast is no longer a threat."

Libelle mumbled again past the gag, her legs flailing wildly as she tried to kick him in the back. He chuckled and slid backwards over her knees while simultaneously undoing the leather ties to her pants. "You won't have to worry about him anymore, my dear."

Seizing the moment that she froze, he quickly slid her pants down to her ankles. She glared at him and as he pulled the leather pants from over her feet, she tried to kick him as hard as she could. Predicting her attack, he grabbed her lower legs and twisted them painfully at an unnatural angle. She winced, mumbling and squealing through her gag once again. "What did you do to Eskil?"

Gaalin chuckled cruelly. "The dragon scum? I took care of him."

She thought back to the blood on the wooden bat she had seen and despite her best efforts, tears formed in her eyes as she assumed the worst. Could Gaalin really have killed Eskil? It sounded impossible, but with the curse still placed on Eskil he never would have been able to defend himself if he was attacked. It could be possible. No! She mentally cried out.

Kicking wildly at Gaalin again, he chuckled and forcefully flipped her over onto her chest. Her shoulders and arms cried out in pain as they twisted and crossed over each other. She glared back at him, and the realization of Gaalin's perverted intentions suddenly became clear.

No, she thought. He's not going to...No!

Libelle screamed as she pulled on the ties around her wrists and kicked her heels at Gaalin. He grabbed her ankles again, pinning them beneath his knees while he pulled his shirt off over his head.

"My lovely Libelle. It will be just the two of us from now on. Don't be afraid."

He smiled with a sigh, his mind clouded by lust. She screamed again, her tears uncontrollably falling down her face now. "Shhhh," Gaalin whispered in her ear. "Don't fret. You'll enjoy this, I promise."

Lifting her hips up from the bed, he spread her knees apart with his own and laughed in enjoyment as she cried out, her muffled pleas going ignored. "Libelle, accept it. This is how it was meant to be."

He unclipped his belt buckle, untied the leather straps around his waist and maneuvered his pants below his ass. His eagerness exposed when his hand wrapped around his cock and he moaned, the sound filled with desire. Gaalin licked his fingers, then slid them between her legs and found the place he wanted the most. She whimpered and shook her head, trying desperately to break her bonds while he roughly, forcefully ground his fingers back and forth inside her.

The feeling of someone other than Eskil's passionate touch made her skin crawl. It made her feel sick to the stomach, and she wanted nothing more than to run away. Please no! She begged, praying to the gods that someone might hear her silent plea.

Gaalin's fingers twisted about inside her and then suddenly pulled out, leaving her to slowly exhale with slight relief. Perhaps he had rethought his actions, maybe he would stop, maybe he would... She froze when she felt the head of his cock at her entrance. Please stop! I don't want this!

Without hesitation, Gaalin forced himself inside her. His groan of pleasure mixing with her shrill screech of terror.

"Perfect," he whispered, taking his first thrust inside her.

Someone, please! Eskil!