Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Zurielle

There’s a reason I didn’t find the time to call home those two days I was in the Underworld before the auction. And I certainly had no intention of doing it now. Too bad I don’t have a choice.

My father’s voice in my ear is usually a comfort. He’s larger than life in a completely different way from Ursa. They both dominate a room, but my father has been the cornerstone of my life. My protector. Sometimes my jailor. The one who lifted me up, but then ensured I didn’t fly too far.

If Alaric is to be believed, he’s also a very bad man who does very bad things.

I wish I could call Alaric a liar, could dismiss his story out of hand. I can’t. There’s too many little things that line up with what he’s said, things that I’ve ignored until this point. Things I can’t afford to ignore any longer.

And the longer I’m outside of his house, the better I can breathe. Surely that’s not normal? I have no doubt my father loves me, but love isn’t supposed to constrict around a person until they can’t manage a full inhale. It’s not supposed to feel like a trap around your leg.

Right?

“Zuri? Are you okay? I’ve been worried sick.”

I open my mouth to assure my father that I’m fine, but that’s not what comes out. “Do you kill people, Daddy? I know that you oversee stolen goods and drugs. Do you oversee human trafficking, too? How deep does the rot go?”

He’s silent for several beats, his breathing coming down the line. “Where are you? It’s time for you to come home.”

Anger flares. It’s not solely directed at him. A healthy chunk is aimed directly at me, at my willful ignorance. There were so many times over the years when I could have asked questions, could have pushed against the boundaries he built up around me, but I was content to be a bird in a cage. Spoiled to an absurd degree, but trapped all the same. Trapped. He kept me all but locked up, yes, but I didn’t challenge him once. Not until I met Alaric. Not until I left Olympus.

“I’m not coming home. Not when my father’s a liar and a thief and maybe even a murderer.”

“Zurielle Ti Rosi, don’t you dare take that tone with me.”

“Or what, Daddy? Are you going to threaten to break every bone in my body?”

He huffs out a breath, sounding like a bull about to charge. “You’re my daughter, and I know what’s best for you.”

“I notice that you didn’t respond to that. Is it because you’ve made that threat so many times, you can’t begin to guess who I’ve been talking to?” Oh, I’m truly angry now. I didn’t even realize how angry until this very moment. “How could you? You bully and preach and force me and my sisters into the boxes you think we should fit into, until we’re damn near paragons of virtue, until we can’t make a single step out of line for fear of your anger and disappointment, and you’re leaving the house every day to play the hypocrite.”

“That’s enough.”

“That’s nowhere near enough.” So much of my life has been a lie, and it’s because of him. Maybe it isn’t love at all. Maybe it’s greed and possession. He doesn’t want daughters with their own thoughts and feelings and ambitions. He wants pretty dolls to move about at his will. I won’t go back to that. I can’t.

I startle when Ursa touches on my leg. She holds out a hand. I almost ignore that silent command, but I’m furious enough to want to hurt my father. And this will hurt him. I hand her the phone.

Her lips curve. “Good girl.” She lifts the phone to her ear. “Hello, Triton. It’s been far too long since we last spoke.”

I want to listen, to slide closer until I can eavesdrop to both sides of the conversation, but Alaric grabs me and hauls me over to straddle his lap. “What are you doing?” I whisper.

“She’s proving a point. Now it’s your turn.” He kisses me before I can ask more questions, and it’s just as well. I don’t need to listen to know what my father is saying to Ursa. He’s yelling and threatening. He’ll be too busy demanding she return me to let any important information about their past drop. Listening will only drive home how thoroughly I’ve shoved my head into the sand when it comes to who he truly is. What did Ursa say that first night? She’s a villain, but she’s not a monster.

My father is a monster.

I let Alaric kiss me, I let him pull me closer until we’re pressing together, skin to skin. No matter how much I hate that he lied to me, hate that he doesn’t care about me as much as I thought I cared about him, I can’t deny that he makes my body feel good.

That’s what I need right now. The physical anchor into the here and now. For him to touch me and make me stop flogging myself over how long I stayed in my father’s house, the willing little doll. Maybe Ursa can even flog me for real later. It seems to help settle Alaric.

Ursa shifts, and I lift my head in time to see her push mute on the phone. “Get a condom if you’re going to ride his cock. There’s extra in the cabinet next to the couch.” Without another word, she unmutes the phone and smiles. “Really, Triton, you should stop yelling. It can’t be good for your blood pressure.”

I climb off Alaric long enough to rifle through the cabinet Ursa indicated. In addition to being half-filled with condoms, it also contains several bottles of lube, a number of silk ties, and padded handcuffs. “Ursa is prepared for everything.”

“You have no idea.” Alaric grabs the condom out of my hand and rips it open. I lick my lips as I watch him roll it on. I wouldn’t let him near me last night, but that all seems so distant right now. I decided to take the pleasure I could this week, didn’t I? That’s enough reason not to stop myself from climbing back onto him.

Either that or I’m as much a hypocrite as my father is.

Alaric kisses me again before I can think too hard on that. He skates his hands down my back to grab my ass, and I whimper. I’m still sore from being spanked, and the feeling of his hands there both hurts and feels better than I could have imagined. I press myself fully against him, my breasts rubbing against his chest, the length of his cock creating a delicious friction against my clit.

He lifts me and adjusts his angle, and then he’s pressing against my entrance. Alaric hisses out a breath. “You’re like a godsdamned vice around my cock. Go slow.”

But I don’t want to go slow. I want to stop my mental spiraling and the only way to do that is to keep going until I can’t string two thoughts together. I already know Alaric can do that for me. I need him to do it now.

I brace my hands on his shoulders and force myself down his cock. He stretches me, but it doesn’t sting nearly as much as last time. I just feel…full. So wantonly full.

Alaric curses, but I don’t care because I’m already moving, letting my body guide me in a slow rolling motion. His blue eyes have gone dark as he watches me. “You look so fucking good on my cock, Zuri.”

“I told you…not to call me that.”

“Yeah, you did.” He digs one hand into my hair and tows me down until his lips brush against mine, until I can taste his next words. “But no matter how pissed you are at me, we’re still friends.”

“No, we’re not.” I slam down on his cock and moan. “I don’t even know you.”

“Sure you do. Just not all of me.” He loops an arm around my waist and lifts me, turning and going to his knees next to the couch and setting me where he was just sitting. The couch is low enough that he barely has to adjust his angle to start fucking me.

I thought he was deep before. It’s nothing compared to now, not when he loops his arms under my thighs and spreads me to allow him deeper. Alaric’s expression goes stormy as he fucks me hard enough that my breasts shake with each thrust. “Your pussy feels good, Zuri. You feel good.”

I moan and run my hands up his arms. “Oh gods.”

“Stroke that pretty clit of yours. I want to feel you come around my cock again.”

I don’t know why I look at Ursa. I’ve been vaguely aware of her still talking in that viciously amused tone of voice this entire time, but I haven’t been able to focus on the words.

She smiles at me and reaches out with her free hand to pinch my nipple. The shock of it makes me moan. Loudly.

Ursa’s damn near grinning. “You’ve truly pissed off your precious daughter, Triton. Shall I describe exactly how my man is fucking her right now? Shall I describe exactly how I intend to fuck her later? It’s inspired enough that I do believe you’d approve if it was anyone other than your favorite daughter about to come all over his cock. Can you hear her, Triton? Those aren’t moans of protest. She’s enjoying every wicked moment of this.” She pinches my nipple again. “Apparently she’s not the good girl you worked so hard to make her into. A shame, that.”

I can hear him yelling from here, and Ursa laughs and hangs up.

I try to protest, but there isn’t enough air. Not with Alaric swiveling his hips and rubbing against something inside me that has me feeling too warm, too desperate. “Oh gods.”

“You have permission to come.” Ursa shifts her touch to my other nipple, pinching it just as hard as she did the first. “I’d say you earned it after that performance.”

If I were stronger, if I were less angry, maybe I’d attempt to resist. I’m not. I’m just me, in over my head and sinking fast. When Alaric moves his hips in that devastating motion again, I come apart around him. I’m still whimpering when Ursa reaches between my legs and wraps her hand around Alaric’s cock. “Not you, lover. Not yet.”

He grits his teeth and looks almost pained, but he finally eases out of me. Ursa laughs. “Good boy. Now get rid of that condom and clean yourself up.”

Again, he hesitates the barest second, looking down at me. Finally, he climbs to his feet and walks away, leaving me sprawled on the couch next to her. Ursa shakes her head when I start to close my legs and presses my thigh back open. “I like looking at you. Don’t deny me that.” She idly strokes my thigh. “Are you angry at me or at him?”

I answer without pausing to think. “I’m angry at everyone. My father lied to me, and the longer I’m outside his house, the more problematic he seems. You’re using me. Alaric lied to me and he’s using me.”

She strokes my thigh. “Darling, do you think you’re special?”

I blink. Of all the things I could have anticipated her saying, this wasn’t on the list. “What?”

“Your father lied to you, but if you ask him, he’ll tell you he had his reasons. Do you think a man who sets himself up like a god to his daughters wants to admit that he’s anything but infallible? Of course not. At the end of the day, he’s simply a man with sins like anyone else. Pride. Wrath. Greed.”

I turn my head to look at her fully. It should seem weird to be having this conversation while I’m naked and she’s idly touching me, but it somehow doesn’t. “You set this entire thing up to get revenge on him. Why are you defending him now?”

“I’m not.” She taps my knee and moves to the other thigh, still stroking me. “I’m saying that a smart person doesn’t let rage blind them to the realities of the world. No one is wholly good or wholly bad. If you know their motivations, you can use them to encourage the outcome you desire.”

It almost sounds like she’s teaching me something. I reach out tentatively and put my hand on her leg. Her dress is silky and slides against her knee at my touch. “My father put me and my sisters in a cage. It might be because he wanted to keep us safe, but it doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t care if we suffocate in the process.”

“Yes.” Her dark eyes gleam. “How would you use that as leverage if he was your enemy?”

I barely have to think about it. “I’d take one or all of them. You can’t really undermine his business and standing with Poseidon, but the daughters are an easy target to hurt him. Which is exactly what you did in drawing me here.” Really, Ursa was smarter about it because I left of my own free will. That has to hurt more than if she kidnapped me. I frown. “What is your motivation? Beyond revenge.”

“Oh no, we’re not talking about me.” She laughs and gives my leg a tap. “We’re talking about you.”

“Me?” I shift a little. “Why me? Out of everyone involved, I’m the simplest to pin down. I wouldn’t have been so easy to manipulate otherwise.”

Her laugh seems to reach across the sparse distance between us to stroke me right between my legs. “Darling, give yourself a little credit. Your father had you nailed down and penned up. You were so desperate for freedom, you let yourself fall in love with a man you didn’t know. There’s no shame in that. Even the weakest person will find the motivation for strength if given the right set of variables. And you’re not weak.”

I don’t understand her. Is she comforting me? Setting me up for a bigger let down? I can’t begin to guess. “I feel pretty weak, and very foolish.”

“A weak person wouldn’t have gone to the lengths you did.” She glances at the doorway, where I can hear Alaric walking back toward the living room. “A foolish person wouldn’t be holding their own right now.”

I frown up into her beautiful face. “I don’t understand you, Ursa. You don’t have to be nice to me.”

“Darling, I’m not being nice.” She smiles kindly and stands. “I’m merely stating the truth as I see it. You are not part of my endgame. It doesn’t hamper me any to give you a little boost before I set you free next week.”

The reminder that this is only temporary feels like cold water dumped over my head. I have no right to the disappointment that sours my carefully balanced bliss at having Ursa’s full attention. Six more days and then I’m free. That should make me happy. This was only ever temporary, and if it’s a thousand times more pleasurable than I could have imagined? That should be a relief.

I don’t know this woman.

What I do know of Alaric is just a fake persona he projected to ensure I danced to the tune he and Ursa set.

I should be happy to leave them behind. Should use them for what they can give me and walk away stronger for it. Isn’t that what successful people in this world do? At least I can be assured that Ursa and Alaric are strong enough that nothing I can do will harm them. I can afford to be as ruthless as they are without guilt.

Except none of these thoughts gain any traction.

All I can think about as I watch Ursa offer me her hand is that I haven’t gotten nearly enough time with this woman. She exhibits a pull stronger than gravity, a slow spiral that tempts me into the deep where I’ll surely drown. It sounded like a fate worse than death a few days ago. Now, I’m not so sure.

Who needs air compared to the pleasure of drawing a smile from the Sea Witch?