Page 40 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

Plates of meat, vegetables and breads are brought to the table, but I find that my appetite has mostly vanished. I force some food down my gullet so that none of the fae ask me questions, but I’m glad when it’s decided that we’ll return to the rooms we’ve taken. My mood is low.

The walk back through the street is filled with sights and sounds, but the festival no longer fills me with wonder. I’m sad and I’m angry.

When Jak closes the door to our chamber and we’re alone, I turn on him.

‘Who decided humans were to be slaves?’ I ask, trying to contain my vitriol.

‘It’s been so for a long time in the Dark Realms,’ he answers as if he expected the question.

‘How long?’ I demand.

He sighs. ‘Long enough that no one knows how or when it began, nor who was the first to bring humans here to be worked as beasts.’

He sits down and I do as well, sighing heavily.

‘You felt guilty tonight because of that slave?’

‘Yes,’ I admit. ‘But it’s not just that.’ I close my eyes. ‘Others have known what I showed you tonight. Masters have found out. Warrior realized very quickly.’

‘I don’t understand. Why would you feel guilty because of that?’

I give him a hard look and I snatch off the bracelet so that he can see at least some of my scars.

‘All these. Every mark bar one or two was made by other slaves, or by guards under orders from Odgan and Sio. All of them were to hurt me, so that they would be hurt. The first and only time I was put in the block at The Barrack, the bull they paired me with was killed in an accident as soon as he did what he was told to do. Those other males at Dead City killed in that breeding house…accidents for harming me.’ I lean back in the chair with a sigh.

‘Remember what happened to Bere when he hit me instead of Ila?’

Jak’s eyes widen. ‘The bull that rampaged through the stable? That was your doing?’

‘Not specifically. I knew something would happen but I don’t decide what it is. Fate does.’

‘That’s why you threw yourself in front of that crone in the street. You knew that goblin who was beating her would be punished.’

I nod. ‘But I don’t feel guilty about that one,’ I mutter. ‘He deserved it.’

‘Kismet,’ he whispers. ‘I’ve heard the stories, but I never thought...’

‘I’ve never heard any of the stories,’ I admit. ‘Only the names they call me.’

Jak shrugs. ‘They’re just old stories. Likely with only a dusting of truth to them.’ He looks hard at me, his eyes traveling over the scars he can see. ‘All the different ways you were hurt...They were trying to find out what they could do and couldn’t do.’

I hug myself tightly and give him a small nod. ‘I’ll tell you anything you like about all of it. You don’t...have to do any of it yourself.’

He looks horrified. ‘Gods, Bryn. I’d never!’

He stands up and takes my arms in a firm but gentle grip. ‘I’d never hurt you.’

His eyes hold so much expression. He really believes it.

‘But you did,’ I can’t help but say. ‘Don’t you remember?’ I touch my forehead where I hit it on the bars when he pushed me into the cage all those days ago.

His face pales when he recalls what he did.

‘I’m sorry. Gods. I was playacting , Bryn.

Warrior was watching me. The cunt was always fucking watching.

I couldn’t let him think I wasn’t one of them.

We’re here for a reason, you see? It’s important.

Bigger than all of us. I can’t tell you any more than that, but I didn’t mean it.

I didn’t know you then and I thought… I’m sorry. Please believe me.’

‘I do,’ I say, and it’s the truth. He’s shown me who he is and I don't believe he took any joy in what he had to do as part of Bere’s group.

I give his hand a squeeze and he looks relieved that I don’t seem to be holding a grudge.

‘Why wasn’t I punished for it?’ he mutters, his brow furrowing. ‘I hurt you, so I should have been hurt. Isn’t that how it works?’

‘All others have been,’ I say, searching his eyes in case he knows anything he’s not sharing, ‘except for you, Morgan, and Locke.’

His frown deepens. ‘I don’t understand.’

I know he’s a good actor, but I don’t think he has any idea why he and the others are safe from fate.

‘I don’t know,’ I say quietly. ‘I’ve told you everything, more than I’ve ever told anyone.’

I trust him, I realize and, then, before I can think the better of it, my lips are on his.

He’s soft and yielding at first, and I wonder if he doesn’t want this, if he wasn’t being truthful before and he truly thinks I’m ugly, but then his arms tighten around me, and his tongue skates along the seam of my mouth.

I unbuckle his belt and it thuds to the floor, and then I part his tunic. He shrugs it off and I realize he’s half undressed me already. My own tunic is dangling from one arm and my breeches are open.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes,’ I breathe. ‘I want something for me, something that’s my choice.’

He squeezes me almost desperately as he turns me toward the bed and then seems to change his mind, he swings me back to the table and after pulling off the rest of my clothes, he lays me back over it and spreads me wide.

‘Gods, you’re beautiful,’ he says, tweaking my nipples and running his hands down my body almost possessively.

I could almost believe he means it until I look down and see the jagged, raised flesh of my stomach, and I look away.

He parts me and his thumb grazes a part that makes my back bow as I let out a strangled cry.

Leaning over me, he kisses me deeply, our tongues mingling, and when he moves away I startle because, by the door, I see that Morgan is watching. He turns and throws the bolt across carefully and quietly.

‘You should have locked that,’ he murmurs.

‘An oversight,’ Jak pants. ‘Where’s Locke?’

‘He sleeps. Deeply.’

Jak smirks.

I look from one to the other, not sure what to do.

‘Would our pretty little human like Morgan to join us?’ Jak asks, and my eyes widen but I find myself nodding, albeit hesitantly.

Morgan comes closer and caresses my face. ‘Are you sure, Bryn?’

I nod again.

‘How are you feeling now?’ Jak asks cautiously, his eyes assessing.

Perhaps he believes that whatever made me need them yesterday is happening again.

‘Fine,’ I murmur. ‘It’s not like it was before. I don’t need you. I want you. I want this. I want to remember it properly without the haze . I want a choice. A real one.’

He nods, his lips curving into a slow smile. ‘Good.’

He picks me up and deposits me in the middle of the bed, dropping me hard.

I gasp as I bounce, my arms and legs splaying out.

‘What shall we do with you?’ Morgan asks in that low, growly voice I like.

I don’t have time to reply before Jak is kneeling between my open knees and widening me further.

Morgan shucks his clothes, letting them fall to the floor, his eyes not moving from me while Jak leans forward and presses his mouth to the inside of my thigh, licking a line up to my center.

‘Please,’ I whisper, not wanting to sound as I did yesterday, but unable to keep myself from pleading for more.

‘Patience,’ Jak murmurs from between my legs. ‘Good things come to those who wait.’

I look at Morgan who’s next to the bed, his cock standing to attention. I can’t contain my sharp intake of breath. I’ve seen many, of course, but most of them were bulls and none of them had...

My shocked eyes fly to his face and then back down to the rounded nodules of gold that protrude from his shaft. They’re small and not in lines, but they are dotted around in a pattern of some sort and they look as if they’re part of his body though they’ve clearly been put there intentionally.

He smirks.

‘You’ve never seen such a thing, I take it,’ he murmurs, coming closer.

Jak’s tongue begins to dance across my flesh and I whimper as I shake my head at Morgan.

‘I’ll tell you the story if you’d like.’ His eyes dart down to Jak and then up my body slowly. ‘But not now.’

He leans forward and draws my nipple into his mouth, sucking deeply and making me squirm.

I clamp my hand over my mouth as I whimper loudly, my body aflame with sensation. Two sets of arms hold me in place while their mouths and tongues pleasure me, I jerk with a gasp as Jak’s tongue delves into my other passage and I hear Morgan’s throaty chuckle.

‘I think she liked that,’ he remarks.

Jak’s reply is husky. ‘I think so too. Get on your hands and knees, little pet, and let’s see how much.’

Jak might be giving me an order in words, but in tone, it’s a request, one I’m eager to acquiesce to. I turn and lift myself to all fours, letting Morgan push me down to my elbows, so my arse sticks out higher.

I look over my shoulder shyly as they widen my knees and Jak positions his head under me while Morgan spreads my cheeks and makes a noise of approval.

He shifts closer, kneeling over Jak as he lines up his gold-embedded staff with my cunt.

‘Will it hurt?’ I whisper.

Something flares in his eyes. It’s gone before I understand what I am seeing, but he caresses my back and shakes his head.

‘If you feel a bit of pain with me, I promise you that pleasure will soon follow.’

With those odd words, he enters me slowly, stretching me gently, and although it burns a little, I find I enjoy the feeling of him and I see what he means.

Jak’s mouth resumes its tantalizing movements and it takes all of my concentration to stay on my knees when all I want to do is sink down into the bed and let them do whatever they like to me.

I realize that Morgan is inside me to the hilt, and I let out a breath.

‘All right?’ he asks, his voice sounding strained.

I nod.

‘I’m going to move now,’ he murmurs, easing out and then thrusting back in gently.

My guttural cry is muffled by the bed as I feel him, and the metal pieces that adorn his cock, massaging my most intimate of places.

‘More,’ I cry.

He lets out a growl that sounds suspiciously like ‘mine’ as he pulls out and thrusts back in harder, pushing me up the bed.