Lost in the swirling storm of my own thoughts, I hadn’t heard the soft, ominous click of the bathroom door unlatching. The sound, almost swallowed by my distraction, was a harbinger of the dread to come. I froze, my body tensing as a sickeningly familiar figure sauntered in. That bastard, Ryker, holding a spare key with the casualness of a man who owned everything he saw. A smug smirk, so utterly confident and vile, stretched across his face as he took in the sight of me. My heart, which had been beating a gentle rhythm, now pounded a frantic, terrified drum against my ribs. The sound of his shoes, a slow, deliberate click on the cold tile floor, was all the warning I got before he was upon me.I screamed, a shrill, helpless sound, and spun around, my hands instinctively flying to cover my body. It was a pathetic, futile gesture. The flimsy lace undergarments the maids had forced me into revealed everything, offering no solace or real coverage. His eyes, dark and predatory, dilated a
“The boy stays here, in this mansion, where I can see him,” I said, my voice firm despite the tremor in my hands. “None of your men will harm him. He will be treated as one of the family.”Ryker pulled away from me, his face unreadable. He turned to his men, his voice a thunderous command that echoed through the grand hall. “My wife says he’s harmless and poses no danger. He will live in this house, and no one will harm him.”A roar of protest erupted among the men. They pleaded with him, their voices laced with panic. "He could be a threat in the future!" one man yelled. "Don't trust him, boss!" another cried. Ryker silenced them with a single, icy glare.“Of course,” Ryker said, a cruel smirk twisting his lips, “if we are attacked, none of you are obligated to protect him. In that case, if he dies, he dies.”The men instantly fell silent, their previous protests replaced with nods of approval. The sudden shift in their attitudes sent a chill down my spine. The way they so easily acc
That conversation was the beginning of the end. My world had narrowed to a single, stark choice: keep my head down and survive, or stand up and fight for the women around me who had no one to fight for them. In that one gut-wrenching moment, I made my decision, and it set off a chain reaction. I knew it would change everything, not just for me but for so many others caught in the web of this place. The path ahead, I realized with a certainty that chilled me to the bone, would lead to a future that was both profoundly good and utterly, irrevocably bad.“Are these women doing this of their own free will, or is it the only way they can feel safe?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. Ryker gave me a look that screamed I was being naive, even ridiculous.“They do this because they want to,” he said with a conviction that was chilling. He truly believed these women weren’t degrading themselves just to survive in a world where only men held the power. I bit down on my lip and didn’t speak, b
A groan rumbled in my chest as my feet, heavy with the weight of my indignation, thudded down the marble floor. "I don't want any dessert," I announced, the words tasting like sour grapes on my tongue. The plush carpet of my new room swallowed my footsteps. I grabbed the blanket, a thick, quilted monstrosity that felt suspiciously like it was made from the pelts of a hundred fluffy clouds, and rolled myself into a tight, human-sized burrito. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my brain to fall into a peaceful, Ryker-less coma.I heard a soft, familiar chuckle of a devil, a sound that could either charm a snake or make a saint want to throw something. I kept my eyes clamped shut, pretending to be a particularly lumpy piece of furniture. To my surprise, he didn't come closer. The silence that followed was a small, precious gift, the kind you get from an enemy when they think you're not looking. I could finally breathe. My tense shoulders slumped a little, and I was just starting to drift o
He held me in place, his grip like iron, and I couldn't escape. My eyes were a witness to a horror I wished I could unsee. Every glance was a dagger to my heart. Each familiar face, now contorted in a grotesque display, made my stomach churn with a sickening mix of anger, grief, and disgust. The vibrant colors of their habits felt tainted, the air thick with the stench of cheap perfume and sin. I wanted to scream, to run, to bury my head in the ground and pretend none of this was real. But all I could do was stand there, paralyzed, as my world shattered around me. The innocent, loving sisters I knew were a fantasy, and this nightmare was my new reality."Do you see it now?" Ryker's voice was a low, guttural growl as he seized my chin, his fingers digging into my skin. He forced me to look, to witness the desecration of everything I believed in. "Where is the purity you spoke of? All I see are whores, starving for attention. They don't care who gives it to them—a decrepit old man, a ma
Meanwhile, Ryker sauntered into the attached bathroom, a cheerful tune escaping his lips as if he'd just had the best day of his life. The sound of the shower turning on was a stark, jarring contrast to the tense silence that had settled in the room, and the water ran for an agonizingly long time.When he finally emerged, a wave of cold dread washed over me, instantly dissolving all the calming thoughts and self-consolation I'd spent the last hour meticulously building. The memory of what had happened before he left flooded back, and my carefully constructed composure vanished in a puff of smoke. My scowl deepened as I remembered how this monster had violated me.“Hello there, kitten,” he purred, a taunting smirk playing on his lips. He jumped onto the bed with the uncivilized grace of a monkey. Calling him a monkey felt like the highest praise one could give him; he was so much worse. With a face like a hyena and a personality as venomous as a toad, there wasn't a single animal in th