Chapter 4 - Doriane

 Doriane felt an extreme pain spear through her head when she cracked her eyes open. The light was blinding and unwelcoming in her new environment.

She curled onto her side, splitting her eyes open to look at where she was exactly.

Memories of stuffing her face with cotton balls came rushing back.

She was starving; they looked like marshmallows.

Doriane didn't even taste them as she shoved them down her throat. When she finally realized they weren't food, she was already hunched over the toilet, expelling them from her body.

Then that man walked in on her. At first, all she could do was stare at his body.

He was by far the biggest man she'd ever met, even taller than her last master. His height was matched by large, defined muscles gripping his arms. He had light brown hair and a perfect, straight nose.

His jawline was sharp and defined, but he held a type of rugged beauty instead of a pretty boy face. She remembered his intense yellow eyes that pinned her in place.

What shocked her the most was how gentle he was acting with her and what little fear he caused her.

She noticed his anger grow when he realized what she had done, but no punishment had come for her senseless act.

Not yet anyway.

She knew better than to eat anything before she had permission. But she couldn't wade off the temptation to put something in her belly.

She remembered the calming effect this huge man had on her.

She felt like she was betraying herself and all she had learned by feeling somewhat comfortable in his presence.

For the first time, she had to consciously remind herself that she had to be cautious of a man. She had to deliberately remember all she's learned of what to do to not make him angry.

Doriane tried to blink her grogginess away, taking in where she was.

She found herself on a couch with a thick quilt draped over her. It smelled like pine and the outdoors, a surprisingly calming scent. A wood fireplace was illuminating the room an orange color and Doriane's fingers twitched at the thought of reaching out to the warmness of the fire.

She recognized she was in a log cabin of some kind, large windows displayed the wilderness that seemed to have no end in sight.

A light was casting a mild glow just beyond the huge glass, snow sparkling under its weak ray. She guessed it to be evening by the receding sunlight.

Doriane stared at the snow covering the ground and realized she didn't have any idea where she was.

“Good morning,” a deep baritone voice vibrated through her, surprisingly sitting on a couch nearby.

Doriane held back a yelp and sat up straight on the couch.

She now noticed a couch pulled in front of a doorway leading to a room she assumed was the kitchen. “Oh,” She whispered to herself, looking back at the man at the end of the couch.

He looked just like she had seen him the first time, only he was wearing different clothes.

His leather jacket was hanging from his wide shoulders, straining against his muscle mass. Dark jeans were clinging to his hips while he sat and Doriane could see the bright white shirt peeking out from under the jacket, loose at his narrow hips.

Doriane's breath hitched in her chest as she noticed his eyes. He had vibrant golden eyes that seemed to see into your soul.

His chiseled jaw was clenched as he just stared at her. Doriane met his stare before his power hit her.

She lowered her gaze, feeling ashamed for meeting his gaze full-on.

“Hi, I'm Levi,” the man spoke softly, his deep voice barely carrying enough to be heard.

She nodded lightly and got on her knees on the couch, lowering her head even more. It was the position her last owner liked her in.

Doriane could feel Levi's eyes burning into her. “What's your name?”

“Whatever you want to call me, sir,” Doriane whispered, recalling the right words to please him.

The last thing she wanted was to make him angry, he looked like he could snap her in half with two fingers.

“I'd rather call you by your name.”

Doriane resisted the urge to look up and see if he was serious. This had to be some type of test; men don't let her tell them what to do.

Instead, Doriane sat perfectly still.

With her last master, she simply had to stay still until he got bored. Then she was to get his things or do whatever he wanted her to do at the time. If she distracted him or made any unprovoked sound, she was punished then led right back to work.

She couldn't believe she finally escaped his hand just to fall back under another man's power.

“Do you want some water?” The man asked, his deep voice stirring something deep in Doriane's chest.

She nodded slowly, confused as to why he even really cared.

She bet all of this was a trick. That he was going to come back in here and hand her the punishment for eating the cotton balls earlier and waking him up.

He waited for another second as if expecting something, before nodding and standing from the opposite side of the sofa.

He came over to her and leaned in, going to kiss her hair. Doriane's heart stopped with fear and she instinctively pulled back, although all she wanted to do was curl closer to him.

Doriane looked up at him, regretting her choice. You were to never disobey.

He frowned at her reaction and nodded curtly. “Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back.”

Doriane retracted her eyes again and nodded, looking down at the ground.

He lingered a moment longer before retreating into the back of the kitchen.

As soon as he was out of sight, she shot up frantically from the couch and looked for a way out.

Doriane's foot was throbbing from her running just the night before. She clenched her teeth, gently taking a few steps and adding pressure to test the strength of it.

One time while she was with Oliver, Doriane had walked into his office to clean while he had been in a meeting. It was completely accidental and they were being so quiet that she didn't hear them in there. She had simply followed her cleaning schedule for the day.

Oliver had been furious.

He forced her to stay in the room until the meeting was over, then started plummeting her into the ground.

He had grabbed a gun from his desk drawer, saying that she didn't have enough respect, and was going to show her how to gain more respect.

He started with her arm, leaving a large bloody hole in the flesh of her bicep. Then that one was followed by a large bullet hole right below her ankle.

She had screamed at the pain that incapacitated her body and started to hyperventilate.

Before she could recover, he was kneeling in front of her, pressing a small blade into her gunshot wound on her ankle, forcing her to start begging for forgiveness before he cut off her voice box with his large hands. He had squeezed until the lack of oxygen and the overwhelming pain caused her to pass out.

Although she healed from the endeavor, her ankle was never properly taken care of and she has been in pain since then.

That was three years ago.

Doriane shook off the memory, reminding herself of the man she was now trapped with. She shuttered thinking of what a man his size was capable of, what he would do to her that was worse than using her as target practice.

She had to get out of here.

There was a set of doors adjacent to the windows, next to a hallway. Doriane rushed over to them, swinging them both open at the same time.

One was a closet, full of jackets and shoes. The other blasted her with chilled air, making her skin erupt with chills.

Hastily, she grabbed one of the jackets from the closet and made a break for the outdoors.

Doriane realized just how cold it was out here and pulled the jacket around her body tighter.

She regretted running the moment she stepped outside.

Doriane knew she wasn't going to be able to outrun anybody, especially with her throbbing foot.

She instantly thought about turning around and putting everything back in its place, looking like she didn't try to run after all. But she had snow packed into her shoes and he would be able to know where she was.

Besides, the large man would be back from the kitchen any minute now to see her trying to put his jacket back in the closet and immediately assume what she was doing.

Doriane could beg him to forgive her, say it was a moment of weakness, but what good would that do?

So with nightmares running through her mind, she zipped up the jacket and bolted for the thick trees in front of her.