Page 22 of Degradation (The Brethren Lords #3)

Devin

C igarette smoke fills the air. I take another swig of my beer, holding my cards close, watching as the four men around me do the same.

We’re off duty. The night shift has taken over and while I could leave the compound, most days it’s easier to stay.

Besides, these men here are like my brothers, as good as brothers as my real ones.

Perhaps even better because they don’t know my past, my history and then don’t keep bringing it up, giving me side-eyes when they think I’m not looking.

I don’t feel judged here, I don’t feel babied either. I’m a man, just as they are.

I glance at my cards. Poker is a new game to me, but I’ve got pocket two’s which I guess isn’t so bad. Beginners’ luck has certainly been on my side tonight.

Curtis raises. Everyone else calls. The turn reveals another two, giving me three in total. Curtis goes heavy, reraising and while everyone else calls, I reraise too.

He looks over at me and grins that shit-eating grin, like he thinks he’s got the nuts.

As the final card is laid, I know I’ve got more than a good hand. Quad twos and an ace. Not bad at all.

Everyone else folds, everyone except Curtis but just as I’m about to go all in, a commotion reaches our ears. We glance to the door and Lyndon comes sprinting through.

“Code red.” He says in warning.

We all spring up, hiding the contraband, putting out the cigarettes, knocking back the alcohol before it’s taken off us. Technically, we’re allowed to smoke in here but still.

As I neck back the last of my beer, we can hear him, we can hear his voice echoing down the passageway.

Our barracks are just to the side of the main palace building.

In total there are more than a hundred guards stationed here.

But only fifty of us are his personal guards and from that, only twenty are in his inner circle.

It’s an honour that I’ve been selected to be where I am considering my lack of experience, but I know my size absolutely played into it.

Gunther is all about appearances, and who wouldn’t want to look like they have literal giants protecting them?

“I’ll teach you. I’ll fucking teach you…”

His voice rings out and it’s more than obvious he’s having one of his fits again. That he’s in one of his tantrums.

“Here we go.” Danos mutters beside me.

I draw in a deep breath, preparing myself for the tirade of abuse that’s coming.

He may be our Chapter Lord, he may have been put here to command us by God himself, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a madman.

And I of all people would know. Would recognise the signs, considering my own family’s history.

A scream follows his words. It’s high-pitched, definitely a woman’s. We exchange glances and a few of the men start smirking as it dawns on us that it’s not us in trouble here.

He storms in, his hands holding his wife’s hair as he drags her beside him. She’s got one hand clinging to a bit of fabric to try and hide her body, but it only covers the front of her and the guards at the door no doubt get a great view of her arse.

“You want to be a bitch. You want to be a disobedient little bitch…” Gunther snarls throwing her down, slamming her body onto the hard stone floor.

She curls up, shutting her eyes, clearly aware that there’s at least twenty men here, twenty sets of eyes watching her now.

Gunther is seething, his chest is rising and falling as he starts pacing back and forth.

“Chapter Lord?” Commander Malik says.

He shakes his head, muttering beneath his breath like he’s having an internal battle. Like he too is filled with demons, and he needs to exorcise them.

“She needs to learn. She needs to fucking learn.” He snarls, slamming his hands into his own face, slapping his cheeks.

“Chapter Lord?” Malik repeats again, louder.

Gunther stops, he freezes, looking at all of us as if he’s not realised where he is. And then that face morphs from confusion into something akin to hate.

“Well,” he says. “What are you all waiting for? My wife is a disobedient little bitch. She thinks she’s better than me, better than us. She thinks because she has Founder blood that makes her special. That makes her precious.”

He reaches down, grabbing her hair again and wrenching her head up so she’s forced to look at us. “If she won’t behave then she deserves to be punished.”

“No,” She sobs. “Please, please I’ll be good, I’ll…” His boot slams into her side as she shrieks out.

“It’s too late for that. Far too fucking late.” Gunther snarls back before dropping his hold like she’s diseased. “You think you can lecture me? You think you tell me what the rules are?”

He looks around at us all again and his lips curl into a grin. “What are you waiting for?” He repeats. “Fuck her, use her. Make the bitch learn her place.”

I blink back. I think all of us wonder if we’ve misheard him. Surely not? Surely… he grabs Malik, grabs his collar and pulls him forward. Malik is a big man, almost as big as me so he must allow the movement because there’s no way Gunther has the strength to force him to do anything.

“Teach her a lesson.” Gunther repeats. “My wife needs to learn what she is. That she’s a whore. A cunt to fuck and nothing more.”

There’s nothing in the rules about this. There’s nothing to say if this is permitted or not. Sleeping with a married man’s wife will put you in Oblivion. Adultery would give you a good sentence too. But this, is this adultery when your Chapter Lord is the one commanding it?

I barely have time to contemplate that, when the men around me seem to give in, seem to move as one.

The girl is grabbed, is dragged kicking and screaming, and that tiny bit of fabric is ripped from her hands. She sobs, she cries as she’s picked up and placed onto the poker table we were sat at only moments ago.

“Don’t be afraid to make it hurt.” Gunther shouts as Malik climbs up onto the table, completely engulfing her tiny frame with his.

I don’t know why I’m holding back, I don’t know why I’m stood here but there’s a tiny voice in my head wondering if this is some sort of trick being played on us and not actually to do with his wife at all.

Are there more men lurking in the shadows, waiting to come out and gut us for this crime? Is that what this is, some fucked up test of loyalty?

She’s putting up a good fight. She lands a few punches before someone grabs her arms to hold her down. Her knee comes up and she slams it into Malik’s groin. He groans, collapsing onto her and she freaks out more.

“Stop.” She sobs. “Please, please, don’t do this. I’ll be good. I promise, I’ll be good…”

Gunther laughs at that. “Good?” He repeats. “I don’t want you good. I want you obedient. And if you were obedient, you wouldn’t be fighting right now. You’d be laying there and accepting your punishment because you know you deserve it.”

She sobs harder, shaking her head. “I don’t, I don’t. I’m your wife.” She screams. “Your wife. No one is meant to touch me but you.”

Gunther narrows his eyes as Malik recovers. He undoes his belt, gets his cock out and says something to her that I don’t catch above her shrieks.

“Wait,” Gunther says. “You don’t fuck her. Nobody fucks her. Use her, hurt her, but you stick your cock in her cunt, and I’ll chop it off, you hear me?”

“What about her arse?” One of the other men ask.

The girl whimpers more.

“No one fucks her arse but me.” Gunther says proudly. “I’ve yet to tap that delight.” He rubs his hands together as if in glee and I can’t look at him. I don’t think any of us can.

Her scream rips through the room.

Malik laughs as he works his arm back and forth inside her. “No one said anything about hands.” He states.

Her body jolts, her tits bounce and from where I’m stood, it’s hard not to admire her. She really does have a nice figure.

Malik isn’t being gentle with her. He’s brutalising her as he thrusts away and she’s sobbing, pleading, as if he’d stop.

“You hurt me, bitch. I’ll hurt you back.” He states.

Someone grabs her head, forcing her mouth open. “He didn’t say anything about her other hole either.” He says before ramming his cock down her throat.

She gags as he does it, her eyes go so wide, and she obviously screams more but the noise is muffled as he starts using her.

Two other men get their dicks out and start rubbing them along her skin, taunting her that they’re dicks are gonna be the next ones she chokes on.

I’m pretty much the only man now not involved in some way.

I’m just stood watching as they descend on her like a pack of animals.

Someone grabs her nipple, twisting it around, another starts sucking at her toes and I guess he must have a foot fetish or something because why the fuck would you go for her feet when she’s laid out here in all her delicious beauty?

I can feel my own cock stirring. Just looking at her, truly looking at her. She is breathtaking, her fear, her shame, the way she’s being forced to take one man’s cock and then as he comes down her throat, she doesn’t get the chance to even swallow it properly before another quickly replaces him.

I’ve seen enough gang rapes in my time. I’ve spent many hours enjoying the debauchery of Oblivion, but this girl, she beats all the slaves I’ve fucked, she beats every single one.

I don’t know if it’s the way she cries.

I don’t know if it’s the way the fear shows in her every petrified face but it’s addictive. Just watching her feels like the greatest high I’ve known.

Malik says something, his arm slows, and he calls her a useless slut for not coming already. She can’t exactly respond while Curtis has his dick down her throat but as he climbs off her, I see my moment, my opportunity.

I step forward, undoing my belt and I push the other man out of the way who obviously thinks he can touch her next. He tries to fight me, tries to shove me back, but one punch floors him and I glare at the others, daring them to get in my way.

Of course they don’t bother fighting me. No one does.