Chapter Twenty-Five
Stomping across the path, Libelle’s feet squelched in the deep mud that tried desperately to remove her leather boots. The weather had suddenly turned foul and she now walked towards the main entrance of her home. The entire time she was being struck in the face by freezing rain, strong winds taking hold of her long coat and trying to rip her across the ground.
She pushed open the double doors, stepping inside the dark entry room. She shook off her sleeves and glanced around, none of the candles had been lit and with the dark clouds outside: the entire house looked very similar to a dungeon. With a sigh she kicked off her boots, leaving them to dry out on the carpet. She hung her jacket on a hook near the door, feeling around for a candle stick near the washing basin to the right of the door.
Her hair was drenched and clung to her skin, even her shirt had begun to drink in the rain water through her jacket. The storm was treacherous and came out of nowhere. She fumbled around in the dark, blindly knocking several things off the shelves and table tops. Cursing she stood up straight and turned around.
"By the Gods!" She shrieked. "Gaalin, what in Odin’s name are you doing?"
She released the breath she had been holding, Gaalin surprising her when she had spun around. His gray skin blending a little too well in the dark room, he held a candle and the yellow light flickered off his skin.
"You startled me," she said. "-I didn't know you were there. You should have said something."
"My apologies." He said quietly.
She took the candle from him, turning around to resume her search for a candle of her own. She found one beneath a stack of papers, holding the wick to the glowing end of the other, then both began to burn. She handed the original candle back towards Gaalin, turning around and walking into the main hall.
"Why are the candles not lit? It's pitch black in here." She chuckled, bending over to light two more candles on the table top.
Gaalin didn't say a word in response, instead he stared down at his hand with a grim expression. Libelle curiously turned towards him, holding the candle up towards his face.
"Gaalin? What's wrong?" She asked, her gaze traveling to his hand. Wrapped in his fingers was a blunt piece of wood, splintered and bloody.
She swallowed hard, "Gaalin, what happened? Are you alright?”
Reaching for his face, she touched his cheek and turned his face so he would look at her. Fresh blood was splattered across his chin to his brow. His expression was troubled, his jaw clenched while his teeth ground together. Something was troubling her servant, and that troubled her.
“Gaalin, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
His brows narrowed when his eyes squeezed shut, shaking his head and staring at the ground. She sighed, taking his hand and twisting her fingers with his. “Follow me, we can talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you.” She took a step forward, only stopping when Gaalin did not take a step with her. He cursed under his breath, and she momentarily hesitated before slowly turning around.
“Gaalin?”
My whole body aches… My head is pounding, and my eyes feel heavy. What happened?
Slowly Libelle opened her eyes, the flash of lightning from beyond the window striking pain into her sore eyes. She looked around the dim room with only a few candles lit on the table beside the bedside. What happened? She asked herself again, trying desperately to recall the events from earlier?
She had returned home, then Gaalin had startled her… He seemed upset about something, what was it? Eye’s widening as her heart began to beat faster, the memory came flooding back all at once. She had been attacked, Gaalin had attacked her!? The bluntness of the wooden board had crashed down across her temple so hard she lost consciousness.
Get up, get up now.
She told herself, immediately trying to bolt upright from the soft cushion of her bed. She couldn't, why was she unable to sit up? Realizing that her arms were tied above her head with the remains of her shredded sheets, she began to panic.
“Relax Libelle.” Gaalin’s familiar voice spoke out in the darkness. Another flash of lightning briefly illuminating the room, revealing him lounging in a chair across the room.
“Gaalin, what is the meaning of this? Untie me!”
He stood up, slowly crossing the room to stand beside the bed. “You’ve managed to surprise me Libelle, not in a good way.” He sighed.
“What are you talking about?” The panic in her was slowly being replaced with rage, what in oblivion was going on in his mind?
He moved closer to her, his rough hand caressing her parted lips. “I know about your illicit relationship, with that mediocre brute.”
You what? Libelle trembled at the touch of his cold hand, had he really found out about Eskil and her? He couldn't have, could he? Her thoughts began to race in all different directions, trying to find the answer to a seemingly impossible question. His snicker interrupted all of her thoughts, all at once.
“Where is Eskil?”
He ignored her question, yet a sadistic smile crept over his face.
“Gaalin, where is Eskil? What did you do?”
“I am disappointed in you Libelle. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you two, you were bedded by a dragon.” He petted her cheek while his expression became more twisted. “My strong and beautiful lord, I’ve looked up to you for so long and you’ve destroyed everything I treasured about you: in a single act. If… if I had known you were so pathetic that you would slut around with that, that creature: I never would have held back.”
Gaalin bent down over her, his lips capturing hers in a forced kiss. “My lovely Libelle, how could you?”
Stunned, she was silent for a moment. Then her lips curled in a snarl, “Gaalin, you-!”
Roughly, his hand clamped down over her mouth with a growl. “How could you?!”
All at once Gaalin removed his hand, forcing her lips to part; while pushing a thick, twisted fabric into her mouth, securing it behind her head in a tight knot. Her expression was surprised and furious, the trickle of blood from her temple trailing into her ear. By the look in his eyes, he had completely lost all sense of reasoning.
What was Gaalin planning?
He stared down at her silently, his own thoughts racing. Suddenly both his hands twisted into the cotton fabric of his shirt, just as fast he ripped the material in half, exposing her bare breasts. She gasped in surprise, her eyes widening and her stomach churning in growing fear. She shook her head at him, mumbling the word ‘stop’ to him through the gag in her mouth. He didn't listen, climbing onto the bed the rest of the way, kneeling over her. His hands slid up her sides and he tried to squirm away, then each hand firmly grasped a breast; the calluses of his hands painful against her skin, his fingers roughly pinching her nipples.
Breathlessly he sighed, “My Libelle, I have dreamed of touching you like this. How I wish I had done so sooner.” His wet tongue teased her stomach, slowly tracing a line from her navel to sternum before his mouth clamped down onto her breasts. Swirling his tongue around each nipple before carelessly biting down onto the tender flesh. Libelle whimpered, trying to move away again. With her hands bound above her head and his weight on her legs, she had nowhere to go.
He suckled the skin on her neck, the suction force breaking the blood vessels beneath. “If only I had done this sooner, you wouldn't have been stolen away by that beast.”
Gaalin shredded the material of her shirt further, pulling the fabric away and leaving her upper body completely exposed. He sat up and stared down at her, her chest rising and falling rapidly with each fearful breath.
Smiling, he spoke again. “I’m glad that beast is no longer a threat.”
Libelle mumbled again past the gag, her legs flailing wildly and trying to kick him in the back. He chuckled, sliding backwards over her knees while simultaneously undoing the leather ties to her pants. “You won't have to worry about him anymore, my dear.”
Seizing the moment when she froze, he slid her pants down to her ankles. She glared at him, and as he pulled the leather pants from her ankles she tried to kick him as hard as she could. Predicting her attack, he grabbed her ankles and twisted them painfully. She winced, mumbling through her gag once again ‘What did you do to Eskil?’
Gaalin chuckled cruelly, “The dragon scum? I took care of him.”
She thought back to the blood on the wood bat she had seen, and despite her will, tears formed in her eyes as she thought the worst. Could Gaalin really have killed Eskil? It sounded impossible, but with the curse still placed on Eskil; he never would have been able to defend himself if he was attacked, it could be possible. No! She mentally cried out.
Kicking at Gaalin again, he chuckled and forcefully flipped her around onto her chest. Her shoulders stung as they unnaturally twisted and her forearms crossed over each other. She glared back at him, and the realization of Gaalin’s perverted intentions suddenly became clear.
No, she thought. He’s not going to- No!
Libelle screamed, pulling on the ties around her wrists and kicking her heels at Gaalin. He grabbed her ankles again, pinning them beneath his knees while pulling his shirt off over his head.
“My lovely Libelle. It will be just the two of us from now on, don’t be afraid.”
He smiled with a sigh, his mind clouded by lust. She screamed again, her tears uncontrollably falling down her face now. “Shhhh,” Gaalin whispered in her ear. “-don’t fret. You’ll enjoy this, I promise.”
Lifting her hips up from the bed, he spread her knees apart with his own. Laughing in enjoyment as she cried out, her muffled pleas going ignored. “Libelle, accept it. This is how it was meant to be.”
He unclipped his belt buckle, untied the leather straps around his waist and maneuvered his pants below his ass. His eagerness exposed when his hand wrapped around his cock and he moaned, the sound filled with desire. Gaalin licked his fingers, then slid them between her legs and found the place he wanted the most. She whimpered and shook her head, trying desperately to break her bonds while he roughly, forcefully ground his fingers inside her.
The feeling of someone other than Eskil’s passionate touch made her skin crawl, it made her feel ill and want to run away. Please no. She mentally pleaded, praying to the gods that someone might hear her silent plea.
Gaalin’s fingers twisted about inside her, suddenly pulling out from her, leaving her to slowly exhale. Perhaps he had rethought his actions, maybe he would stop. She froze when she felt the head of his cock at her entrance, Please stop this, I don't want this.
Without hesitation, Gaalin forced himself inside her. His groan mixing with her shrill screech.
“Perfect.” He whispered, taking his first thrust inside her.
Someone, please! Eskil!
“-please!”
Who? Urgh, my head is pounding. What happened? Why is my vision all red and blurry?
Opening his eyes, Eskil squinted in the darkness of the cellar. His vision clouded and stained with the blood that stung his vision. Dried blood clung to his skin, and his wounds caused him great pain as he forced himself to look around. He could remember what happened, faintly.
Gaalin had taken him by surprise and struck him on the back of his head. Taking the moment while he lay on the ground with his mind becoming hazy to start beating him into the dirt floor of the cellar. “That damned gray skin.” He snarled.
Blinking, he forced his vision to focus and look over his body. He had been tied up to a wood pillar, his arms wrapped behind it with sharp rope. Another tight band of rope constricting around his neck. He was bleeding all over, a pool of blood around him as wounds from all over his body oozed painfully.
“Eskil!”
The shrill voice pierced his mind and he groaned, his ears ringing as the screech echoed through his head. Why was someone screaming?
“Please!” The voices cried out, “Please, I don't want this.”
Eskil’s head snapped upwards, in an instant his head cleared and the voice became familiar. Libelle, lifemate! I am here, what is wrong?
He reached out to her, knowing his physical voice would not reach her. If she would let him, she would hear him within her thoughts; they had completed their vows so there was no reason she couldn't, but she had to let him in. He waited what felt like an eternity before he heard her reach out to him.
“Eskil!” She wept, “Y-your-”
I’m here beloved, are you hurt?
He felt her hesitation, reaching out to her thoughts. Sensing her coiling emotions, her sadness, her terror, her pain: they all flooded into him.
“Eskil…”
I’m here beloved. I’ll be alright, that bastard gray skin, he-
“I know.”
Eskil froze, Libelle, what has he done?
Again he felt her hesitation, she was suffering.
Libelle, open your eyes. Let me see what you see.
Slowly, she obeyed. Her vision was clouded with tears, the room was dark and she was staring into wrinkled sheets. Wrists bound, the torn fabric tied tightly to the posts of the bed. She blinked, turning her head even slower than she had opened her eyes. She stared at the glow of the single candle, a flash of lightning burst through the glass window. His heart skipped a beat and his blood froze to an icy current.
Looking over her shoulder, Libelle stared at Gaalin. The bastard gray-skin was digging his fingers into her hips, his head rolled back, moaning as he rapidly thrust into her. Eskil felt rage well up inside him, he had never felt so much fury boil within his cells before. He was going to kill him. I’m going to kill him.
Libelle, I’m coming. I’ll break free of these bonds, I’ll be there. Wait for me.
He snarled, pulling against his restraints. He felt his lifemate’s spirit breaking at the hands of a man he loathed, it was completely inexcusable for another man to touch a dragon's lifemate. She was trembling in fear, her body jerking with her tears; all of the emotions she was feeling, he felt as well.
I will snap that bastard's neck!