Page 33 of Warlord's Mate
Marcy looked at the warlord as Dawn’s screams grew but he never moved or gave any indication the behavior was unusual. She stared a hole in the side of his head, her jaw clenched so tight she wondered if her teeth would crack from the strain by the time he finally looked at her.
He leaned forward, folding his arms over the top of the table. “Is there something you’d like to say to me?”
She looked in the direction Dawn had been carried, her angry shouts growing in volume before abruptly ending.
Krista was on the other side of the table, her face so white she wondered if she was moments away from passing out. The girl knew what was in store for her, everyone here did, and no one was going to do a damn thing about it. “Are you going to let him get away with that?”
“Get away with what?”
She pointed a finger in the direction Dawn had been carried. “That!”
The warlord looked back over his shoulder briefly before meeting her gaze again and by the expression on his face, was unfazed by Dawn’s screams. As if hearing them was so natural, it didn’t warrant his attention.
Was he really going to just sit there while that brute raped her?
He studied her face in that way he sometimes did and she realized that yes, he was going to just sit there and do nothing. The knowledge made something in her chest rip wide open, anger heating every inch of her flesh until she felt ready to combust. Her ears started ringing, the laughter of the others at the table screaming through her head. She clenched her jaw.It’s not worth it, Marcy. Just let it go.
Dawn screamed again and Marcy looked toward the huts, visions of what Dawn was probably enduring flashing in her mind on repeat. She shook her head, looked from the warlord to the huts several times before mumbling, “fuck this shit,” and slammed the pitcher in her hands down on the table, ignoring the liquid that splashed out, and turned on her heel, heading for camp. If the warlord killed her, then so be it but she wasn’t going to stand by while these assholes treated them like—things. Dawn might be a mouthy pain in the ass but that didn’t mean she deserved to be held down and taken against her will.
She was halfway across the clearing when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. The warlord’s jaw was clenched tight, his gaze searching her face when she looked up at him. “What do you think to do? Stop him?”
“Yes, if I have to.”
“Why?”
“Why?” she sputtered. “Are you kidding me! Why the hell do you think?”
He looked across camp in the direction Dawn had been taken. “He found her. She is his to do with as he pleases.”
And that meant, forcing her to have sex with him, just like it was the warlord’s right. A right he’d yet to take but, she knew it would eventually happen. It was only a matter of time and if that alien truly did find Dawn, then it was his right to bed her as well. Like it or not, despite Jorrick treating her with what amounted to decency on this ass-backwards world, the females here were still chattel.
The realization hit her so hard she felt aged beyond her years. Prison Moon One wasn’t a vacation destination. Regardless of her not enduring any major hardships since being dropped here, she was stranded on a prison planet. Every alien here was a criminal, dumped here for crimes the universe only knew, and the one perk they had was, if they caught a female, they could keep her. And the one who caught Dawn was doing exactly what every female left here knew would eventually happen. They’d be found, captured, and used against their will and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it.
She felt weary all of a sudden. Her shoulders drooped as she stared up at the warlord and it wasn’t until the others started coming back into camp that he released her arm.
He gave her one last look and headed for the dais and his chair, the small orbs that recorded everything here following him. For once, she didn’t, instead, staring across camp to where she could hear Dawn’s muffled cries, more of the small orbs hovering above the hut before one darted inside. Not only did they have to lay down with aliens against their will, they had to do it while the entire fucking universe watched.
Marcy shot a look at the warlord, every ounce of hatred for what was happening filling her soul until it felt like a living thing. She hated this place, hated the aliens who abducted her and left her here and for the first time since arriving, she did exactly what she wanted to do and headed straight for the warlord's hut, kicked off her shoes and crawled into bed, her heart aching at the realization that this was her life now. She was a captive who more than likely would have to watch as others were treated like property and forced to have sex for no other reason than an alien ran faster than she did.
Vorta had only played a few verses of a song with hisnidiwhen she heard someone come inside the hut. She pulled the furs up to her neck and clenched her eyes shut. She wasn’t in the mood to get into another sparring match with Jityria. When no one said anything, she looked over her shoulder. The warlord was sitting next to the table taking off his boots. Marcy turned back over so he wouldn’t see her looking at him. He crawled into the bed a few moments later and she realized it was the first time he’d ever gone to bed when she did.
She laid in the darkness listening to the music outside for a long time, her thoughts on Krista and Dawn. She couldn’t protect them. Hell, she couldn’t even protect herself, and if those girls had been part of The Chase, then they knew what their futures held and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it. Her pitching a fit wouldn’t change the outcome so acting out was pointless. She sighed. “Where did they come from?”
“Why?”
The bed moved and Marcy rolled to her back. The warlord was on his elbow, looking down at her. His gaze roamed her face before landing on her lips. “We found them on our way back to camp. I don’t know how long they’ve been running but from the looks of them, I’d say a while. Should I have left them to starve? To run until they died? Or found by a group who would take turns using them until there was nothing left of them?” He searched her face for an answer but she didn’t have one to give him.
The warlord pushed his hair away from his face. “Sleep. We can fight about this tomorrow.” When he laid down, Marcy turned back over, staring at the wall of the hut, her thoughts going in so many directions, she knew she’d never get to sleep. She didn’t know how long she laid there listening to the sounds in camp before the warlord rolled toward her to pull her back into his chest, his arm resting against her waist. Marcy froze, her breath caught in her throat.
“Calm yourself. It’s been a long day,e’mahn neok.”
She relaxed against him and for once, just enjoyed the feel of him next to her. For all the weeks she’d been here and slept in his bed, he’d yet to do anything other than hold her. To say it was strange behavior was an understatement, especially when she knew female companionship was what all these aliens wanted yet—the warlord had never even attempted to take her by force. Truth be known, he’d treated her with more respect than she’d thought he was capable of giving.
He lifted his hand and laid it over her own. His thumb brushed the side of it, his breath warming her neck and as angry as she was about the treatment of Dawn, she was grateful her own fate wasn't the same. She belonged to the warlord, and he had every right to demand the same from her. She'd thought him insisting she sleep in his bed meant he'd be taking the same privilege Dawn's captor was but after all this time, Jorrick had done nothing more than hold her close and even though he’d held her like this more times than she could count, tonight it felt—intimate. As if she wasn’t a captive, and he wasn’t a man who owned her, but rather he was someone who just wanted her for no other reason than she was who he’d chosen. That him holding her like this was for her comfort, to help ease her troubled mind.
If so, it was working.
Her thoughts where he was concerned had been slowly changing day by day and the jealousy she’d felt earlier at Dawn saying she wanted him made her realize that maybe she wanted him too. That despite the fact she was his property, being owned by him wasn’t so bad.