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Aubrey

Wait… Where am I?

I wake up feeling strangely refreshed, but very confused – staring out into the darkness.

My eyes are adjusted to the darkness and the luminous algae makes enough light for me to see the cavern. As soon as I do, it all comes flooding back to me.

The betrayal of my fiancé.

Being captured.

The eagle. The wolf. Thedragon!

The spanking.Oh, God. The fucking!

Only Brigg is in the cave. He’s in a deep sleep, and the mushroom paste is fully dried and flaking off. Though he has some faint, new scars from the burning, he looks as though it happened months ago.

My belly rumbles, and I hope that wherever the other two Aurelians are, they’re getting food.

This must be what it was like to be a cavewoman back in prehistoric times. Perhaps these warriors will teach me how to hunt and fight, or get me a weapon like the ones they have. I don’t want to be scared going out into the world.

Then I see it.

In the murkiness of the cave, there is a deeper black. A tiny dot, near the pool.

It suddenly opens wide – a portal ripping a hole through reality. My mouth opens in shock as snowflakes pour through, whisping in with the cold, New York wind of a chill November.

The cavern fills with light as I stare into the same grungy alley I’d been abducted from, covered in sludge from a new snowfall that remain virginal for only moments before it was corrupted into the grimy slush of a New York City sidewalk.

It’s oddly metaphorical. I think of all the women who came to the city, snow white and pristine, to find their dreams – and, instead, they found rot and corruption.

I shudder.

This all feelsreal.I have my way back home, the one I nearly died for last night. I suddenly have an easy way back…

But back to what?

Back to my cheating fiancé? To the career that sucks up every second of my time? To a city in which my shame and my insecurities fill me with anxiety?

Or I can stay here – in this cavern, exploring a relationship with three huge, brutal warriors who look at me with such firm, devoted eyes. Eyes that, I know, will never look at another woman the same way as they do me. Men who, I know, will never leave my side.

Tears come to my eyes as the bright light burns through the portal. I gather my bra, the one I let fall like autumn leaves the night before.

Before.

Before our lovemaking.

With my heart breaking, I pull it onto myself.

There’s a grunt and a murmur from behind me. I turn. The light has assailed Brigg’s eyes, and he grunts, trying to lift himself. His eyes are fogged with the mushroom paste, and he’s so badly wounded he can barely move, but he reaches out for me.

I stand, shuddering, entranced by the portal that could close at any second.