“Wake up.” I was hauled off my bed by an incredibly angry looking Vanquish. “What are you wearing?”
He looked at me askance. Eying the giant scrap of beige cloth draped so loosely over me that it reached to my knees and rolled up to mid-thigh as he dragged me.
“A tunic.” I squawked. Waking enough to lurch onto my elbows and try and keep it over the parts of me I still wished to conceal.
“It’s huge on you. It looks like one of mine.” Vanquish frowned.
It probably was. They’d torn and tossed enough of my clothes I had truly little left and was taking what I could find in my hut.
“Is that my tunic?” He eyed it.
Yes.
“What do you want Vanquish?” Glancing outside, I saw it was still dark. I couldn’t keep the contempt out of my voice. “It’s too early for you to be checking to see if I followed orders.”
He must've finished Border Guard duties early.
I worried the inside of my cheek anxiously. “It’s not daylight yet, I have time!”
I was going to escape.
Somehow. Preferably without Draven killing me.
I’d go the way Lara had.
She’d said there was a place where the trees had grown over the wall enough that I could climb high and then drop over.
Easy as pie.
“You’ve no reason to be torturing me this early! Go away and come back in a few hours.”
After I’m gone.
“Na-uh.” He eyed me as if reading my thoughts.
“I know you. You were going to bolt if I waited. I’ve been telling you for days what I want.” His gaze slid over my bare legs revealed from the bottom hem of the tunic. “You're not going
anywhere now.”
I chewed my lips staring at the floor. Needing to buy time. How am I going to get out of this?
“Because of the Mating Moon?” I asked in a shrill voice.
Surely that's why they were all so intent now, when before I'd merely been like a pup they dragged along on their hunts.
“No. Wanted you before that.” Vanquish said dismissively.
“Because you saw my body?”
“No. Wanted you before that.” He was glowering at me. Green eyes reflecting his
impatience.
“Why are you here alone?” It suddenly struck me how odd it was.
He's never without them... I was certain it boded ill for me.
“Because I wanted to take you alone. To actually feel you.”
“Please don’t.” There was something less personal about when they were all bombarding me. I didn’t have to wonder what anyone was thinking or why they were doing all this to me. “Just wait for them, then you can all do what you’re going to do and leave me alone.”
The idea of Vanquish taking me, moving against me, all while he looked in my eyes was a terrifying thought.
It made me feel even more vulnerable than anything before it had.
“What?” Vanquish’s black brows lowered. Then he slowly shook his head. “That’s never going to happen, Vanna Rae.”
“What?” I blinked at him in horror.
“We’ll never be done with you. You arouse us like no one else ever has. We’re not letting you go."
He said dismissively before pointing at my clothes. Meager as they were. "Now take that tunic off.”
"W-W-Why?"
"Because I want inside you. Now." His green eyes levelled on me with permeating force.
I felt like I was naked already.
"Please, Vanquish. Don’t do this.”
“Stop saying my name. It’s making me hard.” He pulled his tunic over his head. Tossing it aside. And shucked his breeches and kicked them aside.
I pinched my lips together. Willing him to just go away.
What could I say that’d make him leave?
Growling in impatience he caught the bottom of my oversized garment and tossed it off me. Like peeling an oversized sail off a thin wooden pole.
Up and over.
I could feel myself shaking. I backed away from him, crossing my arms over my ample chest. Knowing my breasts were spilling over the top and bottom of my narrow forearms.
My knees hit my low bed. Halting my hasty retreat.
He took advantage of it to push me back then catch my legs and turn me, so I was flat on my back.
Before I could react, he was crawling atop me to straddle me.
My stomach sank as I watched him moving with slow precision.