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My face explodes in pain and I fall backward to the deck, hearing Crazy Eyes in the background wondering what’s happening. I quickly flip around and try to scramble to my feet but I’m disoriented and he’s fast and he’s grabbing hold of my legs and yanking me toward him, pinning me down from behind. My shift is pushed up again until my rear is exposed and I’m trying so hard to turn over and fight, my jaws snapping at the air like a piranha, but he’s too strong and now I’m screaming, hollering for help.

I hear Crazy Eyes running along the deck toward me saying, “What’s happening here? Princess? Sterling!”

And I’m staring up at him, my hand outreached, asking for help as Sterling’s about to violate me in the most horrific way possible. But Crazy Eyes comes to a standstill, his shocked gaze caught on something beside me.

I hear a familiar roar of male fury that fills the air, then awhoosh. There’s the sickening thick sound of metal through muscle and bone, and I feel a splatter of hot blood at my back and the weight of Sterling collapsing against me.

I try to turn over and can’t and Crazy Eyes has my hands now, pulling me out from under Sterling.

I manage to flip over to see Sterling on the deck with an axe sticking out of his spine and Ramsay behind him, holding onto the handle, his eyes wild with rage, his breath hard and uneven. My lover’s gaze goes to mine. “Did he hurt you?”

I try to speak but I can’t. He didn’t hurt me, but he was close, he was so close.

“Did he hurt you!?” Ramsay repeats, sounding feral now, a vein throbbing at his temple.

I shake my head. “No,” I say, my voice trembling, just as Sterling starts to rise from the deck.

“Arggh,” Sterling lets out a cry, cradling his arm and hand that are still torn savagely by me.

“No,” Ramsay says to him, absolutely seething as he pulls the axe out of Sterling’s back with a wet sound. “No, you aren’t going to live through this one, mate. The lady you just tried to take, my lady, had been kind enough to consider marooning you. You won’t be marooned now. Now you’re going to eat your own cock before I chop your head off. The taste of your own shortcomings is the last thing you’ll know.”

Sterling hollers and tries to get to his feet, but Ramsay kicks him over onto his back and looks over him with a manic grin. “I see Maren has already left her mark on you. How does it feel to be so thoroughly hurt by a woman?” Ramsay brings out a knife from behind him. “Never you mind, I’d rather not hear your answer.”

Ramsay drops to his knees and I look away quickly, burying my head into the arms of the bosun who is swearing up a storm of Irish curses under his breath. I hear the tear of fabric, the swift cut of Ramsay’s knife, then Sterling’s ear-splitting scream. His scream seems to go on forever until it suddenly becomes muffled and I know Ramsay is doing exactly what he said he would.

I lift my head, peeking around the bosun’s arms enough to see blood everywhere and Sterling attempting to spit out his own severed shaft that has been stuffed mercilessly inside his mouth.

Then I see Ramsay raise the axe, spit on Sterling’s forehead, then bring the axe down on his neck. His head splits cleanly from the rest of his body with a final crunch.

I hold the bosun tighter, overwhelmed by the violence even though I know I’m capable of such myself. Had I been able to fight back a man of his size, I would have done the same to Sterling. But even so, I am shocked and shaking.

Ramsay throws the axe to the ground, breathing hard, his focus now on me. He seems a little unsure, as if he lost control and went a little too far and doesn’t know how I’ll react.

“No one touches you,” he says, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Ever.”

By now there’s a crowd gathered behind him, gasping at the bloodshed at his feet.

And Crazy Eyes looks down at me in his arms. “Looks like the princess can take care of herself,” the bosun says, frowning at me. “What in god’s name are you, lass?”

CHAPTER36

Ramsay

I stare downat Sterling’s decapitated body and the only remorse I feel is that we didn’t get rid of him sooner. I don’t know how he escaped from his chains but us Brethren can pull up extra strength at times and perhaps it got loosened during the battle with the Royal Navy. Had we done what Maren suggested and found some atoll and left him there, this never would have happened.

But it did happen. And though I know Maren can defend herself, she’s better on the offensive, better when she’s the one attacking and not the other way around. Sterling had her, he…he almost broke her. Thank the lord that when I heard her get up and tell me to go back to sleep that I didn’t stay asleep for long. I had this niggling feeling in my gut that something wasn’t right.

And now Sterling is dead and we have a lot of explaining to do, not least of which is to answer the bosun’s question of “what are you?”

I go over to Maren, a little unsure if she’ll think differently after I brutalized Sterling like that in front of her, but I also don’t care if she thinks it’s an overreaction. I’d warned him once that I would kill him if he touched her again. I only followed through with the threat. Besides, I am on edge these last few days. The loss of Henry has had my rage a lit fuse. It was only a matter of time before it all came out like this in explosive violence.

I reach down and take her from the bosun’s arms, giving him a nod to thank him for taking care of her, then I hold her against my chest. Her arms go around my waist and she grips me tight. I kiss the top of her forehead. “I will always protect you,” I say against her soft hair. “No matter what.”

She nods against me and sighs, still shaking slightly. Then she cranes her neck back to look at me. “We need to tell them.”

I glance over at the crew, most of them awake and chattering amongst themselves and wondering what’s happened, Cruz poking Sterling with the tip of his boot. “Uglier in death,” Cruz comments with a grimace.

Maren pulls away from me and clears her throat, facing the crew.