The sound of fabric ripping made me gasp, but my head was kept in position. Kept still with a painful handful of my hair while one of his hands ripped my shirt off, still smelling my hair and neck like the creep he was! Out of nowhere, Ezra quickly sat up and stared down at me with a strange expression on his face. Lifted his nose in the air and took deep whiffs, before he hummed.
My reaction was automatic, I didn't even grasp what he really did before I started kicking, squirming, and yelling curses at him. But I didn't move from the spot. Jacob laughed but kept my hands down, and the weight of Ezra kept my body down. Even now, with his hand pressed up between my feet, stroking his hand slowly but firmly up and down over my core. Pressing and sliding, my entire body trembled with anger and humiliation.
"See.. You just don't do it for her! Let me, ill get her soaking within minutes!"
Jacob snickered, and I growled at him, letting all my anger out in one burning stare. He blew me a kiss before focusing back on his brother.
"What the fuck, girl, are you still mated?"
The anger in his voice made my entire body jerk, and for a second, fear kept under my skin. I mean real fear, making my palms feel the sweat and my muscles tense up. Grabbing my throat, he lifted my head off the ground, facing him, and he was seething with rage.
"Answer me! Did you reject your mate?!"
"No!"
I coughed the answer out, hissing almost because his hand was wrapped so tight around my throat and neck.
"And why not?!"
"Calm down, brother, you know these little skanks need to have their options open!"
I didn't answer, just glared back. I'm still angry and still feeling his disgusting hands and body all over mine. I felt dirty like his touch would be burned on my skin for the rest of my life. Forever a scar in my memory.
I nearly scoffed at Ezra's idiotic attempt to make me talk. Arching a brow. Like that would tell me all I needed to spill it all.
"Nothing? Really? Not even going to defend yourself? He basically called you a whore. "
Besides taking a deep breath, I didn't answer. Didn't even take my eyes off his, not once have I come close to caring what either of them thought of me, so why start now?
"Now, would you look at that, dear brother! What about a free whore before the hunt? I bet it would do wonders for our nerves and tense muscles! What do you say?"
"I am all in, brother!"
"Fuck you both! What is this? Teenage antics and stupid threats? Let me go, and go fuck each other!"
Drifta's presence pushed a vibrating growl up my throat. At least she backed me up a little while still refusing to resurface or shift, but it did nothing in my favor. Both laughed and made fake, scared grimaces between each other, just to burst out laughing again.
"What a sharp tongue you got there! Oh well!"
Anger quickly turned to panic, and horror when Jacob lifted me up. Still holding my hands by the wrists, twisting them behind my back so small jolts of pain fired up my arms. I fought them both as best as I could with both hands twisted on my back. Tossed my head from side to side, squirmed, wiggled, and kicked whatever I could reach. The rest of my shirt was ripped off, pieces of fabric were tossed aside, and tears burned in my eyes before falling down my cheeks when his hands touched me. The warmth of his hands on my bare skin made me feel sick, and none of them cared how much I hated it. Hated smelling them, feeling them, and not being able to send them over to the death realm.
At one point, I had no idea when or why, but I started shouting. Screaming for them to stop, begging and demanding, sobbing in between, but nothing changed. They didn't even slow down. Jacob's hand forced down my pants, causing them to stretch to the point the fabric started cutting into the tender skin on my hips and stomach. Stupid, I know, but the moment I felt him push his hand down between my butt cheeks, touching places of my body I'm not even comfortable with that pig to think of, I started sprinting on the spot. Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, faster and faster. Hated the feeling of his hand on my most sensitive and private part, hated how close he was, and that the only thing separating his skin from mine was a thin layer of fabric.
"It didn't work! The rejection didn't work!"
I threw away all my dignity and stubbornness. I just wanted them to stop, to leave me alone! Killing me would be better than this, everything would be better than this, and I shouted from the top of my lungs. My knees collided with the ground, and I hung my head and cried like a baby. I didn't care. Gasping, sobbing, and ugly crying, it all rushed out. The adrenaline that had bottled up inside of me exploded, and I cried. Cried because I felt so helpless, so angry, and so god damned lucky. I've never felt so grateful before in my life, but the feeling cost me humiliation and utter despair, and it all flushed itself out through tears.
"For fucksake. I am almost offended!"
Jacob scoffed while lifting me up by my arms.
"At least I found my first turnoff... tears and snot.. yuk.."
He continued mumbling, but this time, it felt like he talked more to himself than anything. Now I wanted to run, all I wanted was to get out of this place, away from them both. Never thought I would ever look forward to participating in the hunt, but now I do.
"Stop it, we get it now! What do you mean it didn't work?"
"I tried, said exactly what the dragon told me to, but nothing happened!"
"And you used your real name? His new rank?"
"Yes, and yes! I tried everything I could think of! That is why we are here in the first place! He said I may have to see him while rejecting him."
I stuttered while trying to get control of my sobbing and whipping my nose and tear-stained face with my arm. He scoffed,
"A dragon? What does he know about rejections? What a joke. But fine, let me hear your rejection!"
"I, Eir Moonscar, from Earth, reject you, Toke Bloodfur Alpha of the Viking Pack of Errithia."
"Moonscar? Try your real name. Repeat after me: I , Elisabeth Greywoods from Earth, reject you, Toke Bloodfur Alpha of the Viking Pack of Errithia."
"But I all..."
He lifted his hand and finger right in my face and cut me off only by some weird sounds.
"No, I don't want to hear it. Just do as I asked because this is me asking nicely. So, repeat!"
"I, Elisabeth Greywoods from Earth, reject you, Toke Bloodfur Alpha of the Viking Pack of Errithia."
Ezra stared at me intensely, but nothing happened. Exactly the same result as last time.
"Idiots.. both of you! You should say: I, Rosabella Moonscar, The lost barbarian princess, reject you, Toke Bloodfur, former alpha of the Vikings pack."
I could practically hear Jacob´s eyes roll behind me, and I looked at Ezra. Not that I needed his permission to repeat Jacob, but I did anyway. Lost barbarian princess, he got to be kidding me. This sounds more and more like a bad soap opera drama.
"You hear him."
"I, Rosabella Moonscar, The lost barbarian princess, reject you, Toke Bloodfur, the former alpha of the Vikings pack."
"No, I think she needs to use the name she sees as hers, not what was given to her at birth."
"That doesn't make sense! If rank and family name are so important, her name should be too!"
"Then just say the exact same; just say the name you prefer. Doesn't hurt to try!"
I did, over and over again. My real name, my new name, and my birth name. Nothing worked, and Jacob and Ezra continued bickering. Discussing like I wasn't even there.
"Why does it matter? Let us just leave it be.."
"No. It does matter! It can ruin the whole hunt, for us!"
"I, Eir Moonscar, blessed by the moon goddess and lost barbarian descendant, reject you, Toke Bloodfur, the former alpha of the Vikings pack."
After what felt like hundreds of versions of the rejection, this hit me right in the stomach. Leaving me gasping for air as the pain just continued to spread through my stomach. Bones crackled behind my ribs, and Drifta howled and whimpered in my mind, echoing through my head like a burning curse.
"What... What´s wrong with me?!"
I yelled, heaving for air. Not able to say more than one word at a time, I stuttered it out. I should have never listened to them; what the hell did they just do to me? To US.? The pain was immense, like nothing I ever felt before, crippling every inch of my body. Making my muscles tremble and tear; it felt like everything inside of me, everything that made me broke. My heart exploded in my chest; my mind scattered all over the place. Air, all I could do was crave air. Crave oxygen, but even that seemed to be a hard task.
"Now look at that brother, that is what I call a real rejection!"
They laughed. They laughed at my pain. But their laughter and voices, even their presence faded away, became a distanced problem. Right now, all I needed to do was try to stay alive!
Dead, I felt dead. Beaten and broken, when the worse pain began to fade, it left behind a whole. A massive void of nothing, this is how I pictured it would feel to die. Words, their conversation, I pierced through my thick and numb state.
"How long? We can't sit here forever and wait for her to lick her heartbreak wounds!"
"We will give her 10 minutes. Then she has Two hours to run before we shift. What she does with those two hours is up to her."
"I had to be done. "
"Yeah, but won't it ruin the run for us?"
"Would have been even worse with her mated, don't you think?"
"Not really... "
" Use your head! He would have killed her if she was still mated!"
"You don't know that, could have been a great way to experiment a little"
"Not worth the risk! Come on, get her up. It is time to get this started."
"Damned, she can't even stand!"
Burning pain spread on my cheek, then again, and then on the other side. Slowly my vision cleared, and I saw Ezra´s face before he slapped me one more time.
"Wakey wakey princess! Time to run!"
My feet wobbled, my knees would not hold my weight, and I struggled to remember how to make my body put one foot before the other.
"She needs motivation!"
Jacob sang right by my ear, and the cheer and joy in his voice sent shivers down my spine.
"Fine. You have 5 minutes to disappear down that way. For every minute over five, I will cut something of your precious stepmom. Fingers, toes, heck, maybe I'll just go right for her arms and legs! Let her go."
I fell to the ground, and Ezra sighed in disappointment.
"You better crawl then!"