Chapter 16

"Ahhh!" I scream as Raithe rips the duct tape off my mouth in one quick jerk. Fuck. My head pounds as fresh air enters my stale lungs. My wrists and ankles ache, my body shivering from the cold dirt. I'm at their mercy and with every second that ticks by, I'm surrendering. I'm craving more.

"Just wait until I get free," I rasp, sputtering over the icy air that invades my chest. "You'll wish you never met me."

Mordecai yanks my head back, tangling his fingers in my hair. "Yeah, keep talking. Your feisty little threats make me so fucking hard."

I feel someone's fingers sliding down my crack, probing my entrance. I bite my lip as I clench around them. An electric rush of tingles surrounds my core. What the fuck is wrong with me?

I don't want to show them. But it might be too late. "Don't fucking touch me," I sneer. My mouth protests while my body arches toward their touch.

Raithe snickers as he walks around. He fingers the eye patch, pulling it out and snapping it back. I flinch as it stings my cheek. "Let's turn our little freak over. I want her to see everything we're about to do to her."

Fuck.

Fabien drives in another two stakes into the ground next to me. Mordecai and Raithe untie my right arm and ankle before flipping me over and slamming me back down on the ground, knocking the wind out of me. Before I can react, they rush to tie me to the new stakes.

My chest heaves as I struggle for breath. Fucking hell. I look up to see the moon glinting off Mordecai's grill. His smile is deadly, disturbing, unstable. His black hair hangs over his eyes, casting shadows that I want to bathe in. He looks like the devil. A beautiful fucking devil.

They tower over me, surrounding me with their toxic lust. If this is what hate looks like, then I hope they hate me forever. A swirl of butterflies flutters in my belly. And I can't fucking help myself. Their brutality is my drug. "You feel fucking important now, assholes? I guess you weren't man enough for Nocturnus, so you had to come pick on me."

Mordecai's nostrils flare. His eyes darken as if venom runs through his bloodstream. He kneels between my legs, digging his fingers into my thighs. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Fabien hisses. "I told you. Fuck this." As he stomps off, I smirk at Raithe and Mordecai. There's a smoldering tension between us that lights a fire in my chest.

I hear Fabien cursing as he stalks back over to us. And then I hear the fucking rush of water… seconds before I scream.

He stands over me with a hose, drenching me with ice-cold water. "Are we having fun now?" he shouts over the spray.

I feel like I'm drowning. There's water in my mouth, my nose, in my pussy… My teeth chatter, and my limbs start to convulse. "Stop!" I gurgle out.

Raithe laughs while Mordecai stares at me in amusement, his cock hard as a fucking rock. Bastards.

When Fabien finally turns the hose off, I'm shivering uncontrollably. The dirt I lay in has now become mud. I squish farther into it when Mordecai presses down on my hips.

Fabien kneels down by my face. He caresses my cheek before he licks it. "You're quiet now. Good."

I arch my back as he runs his hand down between my breasts. "Fuck. Such pretty pink nipples. They're begging for my mark."

Fear, mixed with desire, overwhelms me. I whimper as he covers one of my nipples with his mouth and sucks.

Raithe rubs his thumb across the eye patch on my face. "You know how we felt now. That night they violated us. And you could've stopped it."

What the actual fuck? I shake my head, and my impaired vision makes me dizzy. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I couldn't stop what they did to me . What makes you think I had any power to stop them from coming after you?"

Mordecai's hands inch higher up my wet thighs. "You knew about Zeke. About every fucking thing that triggered the events leading up to the night of the winter solstice."

I gasp as Fabien pinches my nipple hard. "It was all your fault, little freak."

I stifle a moan as he does the same to my other nipple. My juices leak out between my legs. "You're wrong. I didn't know what Zeke was planning to do." The wind picks up, and I think I might die from the cold. I can't stop trembling as water drips into every crevice. Numbness spreads through my wrists all the way to my fingertips. What an intoxicating fucking way to die. I am just as sick as they are.

Raithe wraps his hand around my throat. "We wanted to go home," he growls. "But they wouldn't let us. No, we couldn't leave their precious princess alone in another war between the Blackwells and the Graves."

Confusion grips me. What in the fuck is he talking about? I take a deep breath as the numbness spreads to my shoulders. "Wh-what do you mean? Who wouldn't let you leave?"

"Enough," Mordecai snaps. He shoots Raithe a warning glare before turning his ire back onto me. "Do you want to cum before we kill you, princess?"

My greedy pussy aches even as the panic sets in. But I know he's bluffing. In the middle of the mud, with my limbs dying, I feel something spark. It's the energy between us, the looks we exchange. They'll make me bruise and bleed and scream. But they're not going to kill me. They're obsessed. We're obsessed with each other. No matter how much pain and trauma that we carry, it's what connects us. It makes us fiends for the torment.

Neither of us will back down nor concede.

"Let me go, and you can watch me make myself cum harder than either of you ever could," I taunt, knowing full well that this will only provoke them further.

Mordecai lines his cock up to my entrance. He peels the lips of my pussy open, pinning them back with brutal force. It almost shatters me in the best fucking way.

"There is no destruction that will ever be worse than ours." He pushes the tip of his cock inside, toying with me. "No pleasure that will ever satisfy you the way we do."

I hitch my breath as he pushes in deeper, the sides of his cock stretching me wide open. I want him inside me. I want all of them even while they deprive me of warmth and comfort and feeling in my limbs.

I shudder as the ridges of his cock flex inside my throbbing pussy. He palms my abdomen to steady himself as he rocks his hips, driving into me with deep hard thrusts.

I arch up, whimpering at the feel of him filling me. The way his gaze reflects his rage, his hatred, while his body molds to mine like we were born to fuck each other. I notice the way his lip quivers as my hips rise up to meet his, our bones pressing into one another's, wanting to break each other open as badly as we want to claim our place inside the cavities of each other's battered bodies.

Fabien twirls his tongue around my nipples, lashing at them with a hunger so ravenous I think he might actually consume me. "I have a gift for you," he whispers. I turn my head to meet his gaze, the blue in his eyes almost completely hidden by the black of his dilated pupils. "A gift for my little pet."

I moan as Raithe kisses my neck, his tongue heating my shivering flesh. Mordecai grinds into me, pushing his cock all the way in until I can feel him in my lower back. I don't know where to look or who to focus on. They are attacking my senses in every direction, forcing me to the edge of complete depravity.

Everything tingles, my core spasming as they play with my body like I'm their broken, twisted rag doll. And yet the rage simmers. The fury for what they've done to me. What they've turned me into.

I sink deeper into the mud as Mordecai pounds into me. "Let me go… I can't do this anymore," I murmur.

I fear that if they keep me like this too long, I really will be their fucking pet. I'm addicted to all the ways they hurt me. And all the pleasure that comes after. And it's a fucking sickness. One that I won't ever recover from. And then they'll leave me like this. They'll leave . Everyone always does.

Tears threaten to fall, but I hold them back. "Please, just let me the fuck go."

"It's too late for that now," Fabien purrs. He waves a needle in front of my face. "Your perfect fucking nipples belong to me now. And I'm going to leave my mark."

My adrenaline spikes. "Fabien… what are you going to do?"

The corners of his lips turn up into the most sinister smirk. He holds up two nipple rings. "You're going to look so pretty with chains attached to these."

Raithe removes the patch from my eye, and I'm overcome with dizziness. I blink a few times, my eyes watering from the glare of the moonlight. "You're going to pierce my fucking nipples?" I cry out.

They have no limits. No threshold. These psychos will mark my entire body until there's not a single piece of me that they do not own.

Mordecai stills himself inside me. "Shhh, be a good little freak and relax for us. It will hurt more if you fight it."

I can't believe I'm fucking sad that he's not fucking me. I eye the needle, and more of my juices trickle out. My core tightens as I feel every twitch of Mordecai's cock. He pulses inside me like a rabid animal biding his time before he strikes again.

Fabien licks my nipple before squeezing it between his fingers. "Tell me you don't want this. Look me in the eyes and make me believe you don't want this."

I can't. A deep spasm rolls through me. I can barely breathe as the rush of all my emotions rises in me like a storm. The fear, the defiance that rears its ugly head despite how much I crave them. All the pain and the neglect from the ones who claimed to love me. The ones who still haven't come to save me from this place. I choke back the humiliation, the memories of Nocturnus degrading me as if they had the fucking right to fuck with Libra Thorn.

I look back and forth between these three unhinged freaks, seeing their scars, feeling their agony, and knowing damn well that their obsession knows no bounds. And I fucking love it because I'm a sick little masochist.

I breathe out a deep breath. "Do it."

Fabien grins as he readies the needle. "Thatta girl. Tougher than the fucking ravens."

Raithe wedges a stick in my mouth. "Bite down."

Fuck. My lips tremble as I do as he says. There's no going back now. No end to what we'll do to each other.

"Look at me," Mordecai orders. He thrusts his cock again, slowly in and out. I moan as he throbs inside me. He rubs his thumb in circles around my clit. The stimulation climbs, my orgasm building.

Raithe presses down on my shoulders. "That's a good pet. So obedient ."

Fucking asshole. This game is sick. They try to break me. To tame me. And I resist even though I want to let them win. Hearing him say it is different. I'm no one's pet. At least I wasn't until I met them. I almost jerk up until I remember the needle dangling inches away from my breasts.

He chuckles. "You'd look pretty in a cage, doll face."

Mordecai stills again when Fabien positions the needle.

He clamps down on my nipple with a pair of forceps, creating a stiff peak. "This is going to hurt so fucking good."

I keep my eyes trained on Mordecai as I bite down hard on the stick. My breath quickens as I feel the first prick of the needle.

"Thatta girl," Raithe murmurs in my ear.

I suck in a deep breath as Fabien pierces through my nipple. A hot sting shoots through the sensitive flesh, and I try to wiggle away from him on instinct. Fuck, it burns. Fuck. I feel the tears trickle down my cheeks as Raithe tightens his grip on my shoulders, pressing me deep into the mud.

Mordecai thrusts again, and my body is torn between exquisite pleasure and excruciating pain. I flinch as Fabien pushes the silver hoop through the new hole in my nipple. It's as cold as the biting wind, confusing my senses amidst the burning that spreads through my breast.

I don't want to scream or whimper, so I bite down harder on the wooden stick, desperate not to fall apart in front of these monsters. I can't show them any more weakness than I already have.

Thrust.

His cock chases my release, pushing the pain aside, and I'm melting, drowning in the dark hole of his essence.

I moan as the burning subsides and the spasms in my core increase. My pussy trembles around his veiny shaft, clenching around it like a lifeline.

Fabien leans over me as he preps my other nipple by licking it like he did the first one. "You don't need the makeup or the fancy clothes, Lib… Only the scars we give you."

I choke back a sob as I think back to all the times I spent trying to look perfect for those who couldn't care less. All the parties and galas and family events where I was forgotten and brushed aside as soon as I made my entrance. I almost crack the stick with my teeth as my fury grows. The rage that's festered for so long from the need to be seen for who I am.

This is who I really fucking am.

Broken, scarred, raw, and feral. A wild fucking flower that's growing in the filthy mud. Surrounded by the only ones who can set me free. Even if that freedom is just an illusion that they've created. Even if it binds me to them.

Raithe takes the needle and forceps from Fabien. "Let me do this one. I want to feel her nipple swell between my fingers." He runs the length of his tongue up my breast before circling the tip around my swollen bud. "Fuck, look how hard and red you already are."

Mordecai thrusts again, harder this time, hitting my G-spot, and I almost fall apart. I'm crumbling slowly, piece by piece, unraveling before them like an offering from the ravens. I cry out as my orgasm climbs, tingles shooting up my legs and through every inch of my folds.

We glare at each other, defiant until the very end. "How does it feel to be our whore?"

I growl through the stick, wanting to rear up and bite him to death. Wishing my wrists weren't still bound so I could scratch and claw at his chest. To show him how fucking feral I am. He has no idea what he's just unleashed. Everything I've bottled inside for so long is spilling out like a tidal wave.

Raithe drives the needle through my other nipple, harder than Fabien did, just as Mordecai thrusts again. My entire body clenches, my muscles seizing in a sea of agony and ecstasy. A feral scream dislodges from my throat as my orgasm grips me.

I cum hard on Mordecai's cock as wave after wave of spasms explodes from my clit and spreads all the way down to my tender pussy lips and back inside, reaching that sensitive spot deep within me. It feels like a bomb going off. A sweet and delicious bomb that I don't want to take shelter from.

Their violence is my drug, my twisted obsession, the only thing that can curb my hunger. I ride his cock, rocking my hips as hard as my restraints will allow me to move.

Mordecai sucks in a deep breath right before he pulses and bursts inside me. His thick cum fills me up, burning and soothing my swollen flesh. He moans as he unleashes every drop.

Fabien and Raithe each take one of my nipples into their mouths, sucking them hard. Fabien twirls his tongue through my new ring that pierces it. I moan louder and bite down hard. The stick snaps in my mouth. Raithe growls and wraps his hand around my throat as the four of us rock together. As I give in to every vile impulse.

I whimper when Mordecai pulls out and stands over me, his cock still dripping with our juices. His gaze hardens over their marks on my thighs—the etching of their names that they branded me with.

He runs his thumb across each one. "For as long as you breathe, the air in your lungs belongs to us. We will allow you to live until we don't. Remember that, little freak."

I shiver as the wind picks up again, and I'm reminded that I'm still naked and wet and sinking into the cold mud. "You're a liar," I rasp. I remember everything they've said. All the cryptic comments about my past. About Nocturnus. There's more to this. Their hate is buried deep, but below it is an obsession that has been festering for much longer.

Fabien hisses in my ear. "You lose. We win."

"And this is only the start of your punishment," Raithe adds.

Mordecai glares down at me. "Untie one wrist and one ankle. If she can free herself, then she won't die of hypothermia out here."

They both snicker at his command and do as he says, amused and excited with yet another game.

Meanwhile, my rage is burning in my chest. "Don't be an asshole. I don't have my strength."

Mordecai kneels over me, pressing his knee against my chest. "That's because we took it. Just like we'll take everything from you. But I have no doubt you'll manage. You're too full of yourself not to."

He has no fucking idea what he's talking about. I try to fight the tears, but it's no use. They spill out like the water from that dirty hose. I turn my head and close my eyes, hoping that when I open them, these monsters will be gone.

Fabien chuckles as he frees my right wrist and ankle. "We did it. We fucking broke her."

My limbs tingle as the blood rushes back into them. I curl onto my side, covering myself from their view.

I don't open my eyes as I lay there shivering. I wait for them to walk away before I even attempt to untie my other wrist. The last thing I want is more humiliation.

It takes what feels like forever to get my wet fingers to work. To get a strong enough grip on the ropes. When I'm finally free, I scramble to find my bra and underwear. The straps are torn and my panties are shredded. Fucking asshole ran the hose over them as well. Fuck it. I'll go back in naked.

I stumble a few times before finding my footing. Fabien's right. They did break me…

Now they're about to find out what that looks like. I have nothing tethering me to reality anymore. Nothing holding me back from utter insanity.

With each step I take across the courtyard, I feel more unstable, more unhinged. And all I see is red.