Craving Red: Paranormal Erotic Retelling of Red Riding Hood (Erotic Kingdom) (9 page)

D
ane was
well on his way to wearing a new trail through the woods.  He wanted to get as
far away from them as he could— from
her
.  But it seemed he could not
get away from the scent of her, not to mention her sounds of pleasure and worse
still, her cries of pain ringing in his ears.  His head was full of them, of
her.  He was beginning to wonder whether he was hearing them because they were
real or because the sounds were branded upon his mind, kept replaying them just
to torture him.

He wished like hell he could expel the image of
her laying there naked, of them taking her, from his mind.  It had to have been
the most difficult thing he had ever had to endure.  He kept telling himself he
should have done something to stop it.  But, he had searched his mind for
several days leading up to the mating, tried to figure out something,
anything,
that he could do to keep her from them.  But every time, he came up empty
handed.  He had never been so torn over anything before.  Now he felt that he
had failed her.  And himself.

Life had been pretty carefree until she had come
along.  Tonight was supposed to be his first mating.  His first time knowing
the full pleasure of having a female.  His official initiation into the pack. 
The manhood rite of passage he had been waiting years for.  It was supposed to
be the first best night of his life.  Instead it had proven to be the worst. 

Dane had tried to purge himself of his feelings
for Kaia.  He had no business having them in the first place.  None of the
other guys in the pack had ever developed
feelings
for the females. 
They just enjoyed fucking them whenever they wanted.  To a guy on the outside,
it sure looked to be the perfect setup.  What guy wouldn’t want that kind of
life?  Dane thought he did.  Until
she
showed up. 

Part of him cursed the night they brought her
back here.  If he had never seen her, he would have been a man by now, he would
have been able to go through the mating ritual, he would have mated
some
other
woman. 

But that was the problem.  He didn’t want
another woman.  He couldn’t even think about it.  All he thought about anymore
was Kaia.  When he tried
not
to think about her, he found it only made
him think about her more.  And he hated it.  Hated feeling like he had no
control of his own mind, of these damned feelings. 

Why did he have to have them in the first
place?  He hadn’t asked for them and Lord knows he didn’t want them.  What was
so damn special about this one female that she had managed to turn his life upside
down?  That was one question he asked himself that he actually did know the
answer to that. 

Everything
.

W
hen
Kaia awoke in the morning, she was surprised to discover that she was not back in
the cage.  She vaguely remembered Astrid telling her that if she cooperated in
the mating she would not have to see it again.  With all that had happened last
night, she had actually forgotten about it.  She was at least relieved to see
that they kept their promise.

The room she found herself in was modest, but it
was a room nonetheless, rather than a cage where she was exposed to the
elements, not to mention to the eyes of everyone who passed by.  If she wasn’t
mistaken, it may have very well been the same room where she had spent so much
time with Dane the past week.  She chided herself for thinking of him.  It was
obvious he didn’t care for her.  He had left her there. 

Alone.  With them
.

Though her hands were still bound, having an
actual bed on which to lie was indeed a luxury after what she had been
subjected to.  It was certainly far more comfortable than she had endured the
past week.  Grateful for that much, Kaia turned onto her side, burying her face
in the thick blanket and let the surge of sobs which she had held back long
enough rock through her at last.

L
ater
that day, she was sitting with the other women for the midday meal.

“I am pleased to see how well you have come
through this, Kaia,” Synnove said to her. 

Kaia was stunned that the typically brooding
alpha female had spoken to her. 
Perhaps she deems me worthy of her time now
that I have participated in the mating.

“Thank you, Synnove,” Kaia replied, having not a
clue of what to say to this woman.  “It was… quite an experience.” 
Quite an
experience is certainly an understatement!

Synnove gave her a taut smile.  “Then I expect
you are eagerly anticipating the individual matings to come?”

Upon hearing this, Kaia’s heart nearly stopped. 
“Individual matings?”

Synnove’s tone grew more strained.  “Yes… have
you not been told?”

The anxiety taking root deep within her belly
again, Kaia shook her head tensely, wondering what more she was in for.

“After the group mating, the new female is to
take a different member of the pack to her bed each night for the duration of
her week of ripeness.   It is up to the males which order they will visit you
and they may choose to come to you individually and other times two or more at
a time.”

Her stomach wrenched so hard that Kaia thought she
was going to be sick.

I thought I was done for now, I thought I had
made it past the worst part!  Now I find out that was only the beginning?  I
don’t know if I can take it again… so soon.      

“Do not worry, child,” Synnove said.  “You will
do just fine.  If you survived the group mating, then the matings henceforth
will only become easier.  In time, you will find you even come to reap great
pleasure from them.”

In time?  What then does the fact that I already
reaped some pleasure from them make me?  A whore, no doubt!

That night, it was Arik who came to visit Kaia. 
She found she was actually a bit relieved, since if she had to choose the
lesser of the evils, it would be him.  That was, one other than Dane.  And to
her surprise, he was behaved quite civilly devoid of the presence of his pack
mates. 

And though Kaia hated to admit it to herself,
she even found her time with him to be rather pleasurable.  Three times worth… But
maybe that was only because she was thinking of Dane the entire time.  Not that
he wasn’t an attractive man in his own right.  But then, none of them could
ever hold a candle to Dane in her eyes, no matter how much sexual prowess they
demonstrated.  And she was positive that no one ever would.

This lust which has been stirred within me will
send me straight to hell.

 
Racked with guilt for having so
thoroughly enjoyed her mating with Aric, on the second day, Kaia began to
lament that she had not so much as seen Dane in passing.  Something deep in her
felt vacant.  She missed their daily visits, their feisty conversations.

Kaia hoped he would put his stubbornness aside
and visit her tonight.  She would be sure to keep her emotions from
overwhelming her and just enjoy their time together, making love to him, using
her newly acquired skills on him to send him over the edge as he had so
masterfully done to her. 

Not only was it
not
Dane that would come
to her bed, it was quite the opposite.  Tripled. 

When on the second night, it was Thorin, Jorn
and
Magnar who came into Kaia’s room, an immediate sense of dread filled her.  She
had outright feared each of their dominating, borderline violent styles at the
group mating.  And that was more one-on-one than this would prove to be.  For,
to her great detriment, they intended to mate her
simultaneously
. 

That night, the three pureblood man-wolves did unspeakable
things to her which Kaia could only pray to banish from memory, though she
doubted that would ever be possible.  In addition, she quickly found out what
happened to the females who attempted to resist them.   

Do you like it?  Do you like hearing me scream
for you, making me bleed for you? 

Stripped of any remaining human dignity she may
have possessed, all Kaia could do was to strive to detach her mind from her
body and just endure it until they were through with her.  That is, if she even
survived their torture of her.  And she wasn’t sure that she would.  And by the
time they were through with her, they had seen to it that she wouldn’t even
want to. 

Though my body may betray me with its
instinctive responses, I feel my soul becoming numb, my blood frozen within my
veins.  Will I never be able to eliminate this pain which has become incarnate
within me?
 
I feel this truth driving me to certain madness.
 Since I’ve been here I’ve felt so hollow inside.  Please, God, save me from
the nothingness inside!  Am I be even worthy of being saved?  Or am I too lost,
too evil to be saved?  Did you turn away from my anguished cries once the first
blood of my purity was spilt, deeming me a worthless sinner?

The next morning when one of the women came with
her morning meal, Kaia refused it.  She did not look up or respond in any way. 
She didn’t even know which one of them it was.  She didn’t care.  Setting it
down beside her, Gisli stepped away.  She did not eat.  After all, perhaps if
she starved herself, death would soon claim her.  That is the only way she
could see of escaping the nightmare her life had become in such a short amount
of time.

But death could not possibly come soon enough. 
For, with the state her body had been put in with the vicious incident by the
three males, Kaia feared she would not be able to endure another one of their
visits the coming night.  Every one of her orifices pained her and she was
still bleeding by the time the sun had set once again. 

She prayed for someone to take pity on her.  To
let her be.  If only for one night.

Kaia knew it would be either Viggo or Dane.  They
were the only ones left to breed her.  She prayed that if this misfortune must
befall her, that the child will at least be Dane’s.  Unless he chose to opt out
again.  Then a thought occurred to her that she had not had before.  What if he
was not even allowed to do come to her for the individual mating after
foregoing the group mating?  Suddenly Kaia felt ill all over again. 

The promise of mating with Dane was the only
reason I have been able to endure all of this, that I have made it this far. 
If that is taken away from me, I will have nothing left!  I would rather die
than to remain here serving as bitch to the other pack mates if Dane is not to
be a part of it!

When she spotted Dane walking through the camp
after the evening meal, Kaia hoped her prayer had been answered.   It was the
first time she had laid eyes on him since the night of the group mating.  And
God, was he a sight for sore eyes!  Her memory of him had not done him a bit of
justice.  Running his hand through his dark, wavy hair reminded her of how breathtakingly
gorgeous he was.  How could she have forgotten? 

Little did she know that he was destined to be
her saving grace. 

Her heart raced as he was clearly headed for her
tent.

But then she cursed her present condition. 
Great!
 
He finally comes to make love to me and here I am, a bloody mess.  I won’t
even be able to enjoy it properly.

But what Dane did surprised her even more. 

When he brushed the flap aside and saw her, a
look of horror came across his face.

 “Oh my God, Kaia!  What the hell happened?”
Dane asked, the concern painfully obvious in his sensitive blue eyes.

Not sure how to tell him of all they had done to
her, and not sure how he would receive this information about his pack mates
and alpha, Kaia hesitated.  Swallowing back the hard lump which had formed in
her throat, finally she began.  “Last night… Thorin, Magnar and Jorn came to
mate me—
all together
…”

Knowing he could not bear to hear what they had
done to her, Dane held his hand up, halting her words midsentence.  Already she
could detect the rage boiling up in him, his hands shaking, his face growing
tense.

“Kaia, I am so sorry they did this to you… that
I wasn’t there to stop it,” he whispered, the deepest sincerity in his voice.  And
then his tone turned surprisingly menacing. “Mark my words.  They will pay for
what they have done to you.”

“Dane, please don’t do anything rash,” Kaia opposed. 
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 “Don’t worry about me, Kaia.  I can handle
myself.  Regardless of what happens to me, I’ll be damned if they are going to
get away with what they have done to you.”  It was plainly clear that he was
determined to make it right by her.  Even if it cost him his life.

Kaia wanted to cry.  All of a sudden the thought
of something happening to him was nearly more than she could bear.  And it was
all because of her.  But she also knew she was powerless to stop him. 

What the hell is he thinking?  How does he think
he is going to take on his whole pack and make it out alive? 

 Needing to distract her mind before she went
insane, Kaia kept talking.  “Is it typical of them to treat the women this
harshly?” She was still striving to ward off the tears which threatened like a
dam about to collapse.

“Well, it
is
typical for them to be
fairly rough with their mating rituals, yes, but still, I have never seen them
do anything quite like this.” 

Kaia frowned at that.  It would have made her
feel better to know she wasn’t the only one.  Not that she wished this on
anyone else, of course.

He reached around her head and unlocked the
shackles, freeing her hands.  She sighed in relief.

Pulling her away from her troubled contemplations,
Dane lifted his hands to her face, taking it gently within them, his eyes
gazing into hers evocatively.  She swore it looked as though he was about to
kiss her.  God, how she wanted so badly for him to kiss her.  She
needed
him to kiss her.