Golden [Bedtime stories 1] (4 page)

Was my life now just going to be walking on eggshells because a big jerk owned me? I bought extras that we could all eat and share. Why could I possibly get in trouble for that with a sane person?
And that thought just about answered that question. Did I know that Boris was sane?

“ You came back,” Boone greeted me as he lifted me out of the saddle and hugged me close. “We started to worry.”
“I didn’t mean to make you worry.” I sighed, wanting this to always be my welcome and to feel cared for as he was making me feel right in that moment.“It seems I shouldn’t pay the shopkeeper for a few things with a gem. Things got a little complicated.”
“Why do you have gems?” Boris growled as he pulled me out of Boone’s arms. “You stole from your father? Did you steal from us too?”
“No! Why does everyone assume I’d just steal?” I exclaimed, pushing at him with all my might. It didn’t work as I had planned and I fell to the ground on my tender ass. “They were my mother’s jewels and presents that had been given to me over the years. I would never steal from you and even if I did, the man
sold
me. That’s illegal but everyone seems to gloss over that detail and focus on me being a sex slave or thief.”
I pulled his bag of coins and tossed them at his feet. “I bought extras for all of us from my own money to try and be nice, to be a part of this family instead of just your whore. I was
trying
here.”
“I believe you wouldn’t steal, that’s why the idea of you walking around with gems shocked me,” Boris replied as he picked up the bag. Just then the chicks started peeping and he narrowed his eyes at me. “What was that?”
“I never had a pet and I wanted a pig but then I figured he’d become dinner when he got older. So I got chicks, they can give us eggs and I can have a pet we don’t have to eat,” I rambled. “I got everything they need though I don’t really know how to build a chicken coop.”
“No, take them back,” he growled at me, flashing his sharp teeth at me.
“I’m not a child. I can have chickens if I want to,” I whispered. He took a step closer and I curled into a ball, using my arms to protect my neck and face. “I’ll take them back.”
“Boris, stop this!” Boone shouted as he shoved his brother, finally having snapped out of his shock at what was going on.“He can have some damn chicks if he wants. I will build the coop and help him take care of them. Why can’t he have something of his own? Look at what he brought. There’s a full lamb there and enough bread for weeks. He bought that for us with his money. When has
anyone
done something like that for us and you’re being a brute over a few chicks?”
“He doesn’t listen to me,” Boris replied. “He’s a slave, not a partner. I should be able to tell him something and not get an extra headache because he wants a pet, extra meat coming with him or not.”
“I can’t do this,” I whispered, rocking myself back and forth, tuning out their argument. “I can’t. I can’t be a slave and have everyone treat me like shit the rest of my life. Mitchell was only nice to me when I showed him the gem. Boris sees me as a possession, I can’t live like this!”
I hadn’t even realized I was talking out loud until there was silence around me. I peeked out from under my arms to see everyone staring at me. It was humiliating and I wanted to die right where I sat.
“What if I bought my freedom? I could pay you back and then some for what I cost you,” I begged.
“No,” he snarled, pulling away from Boone and forcing me to lie back on the ground as his large frame surrounded me. “I like having you at my disposal. You are ours to do with what we please, Golden. Why would we give that up?”
“Because you’re not monsters who don’t have a heart,” I answered as tears clouded my eyes. “Do you really not care if I’m not happy or scared of you all the time?”
“I prefer it.” He leaned in and sniffed my neck. “The scent is enticing and we are monsters. Never forget that.”
“Then just kill me now,” I pleaded as I closed my eyes. “I just wanted to do something nice.”
“For yourself,” Boris clarified as he ran his hands over his body. “You thought if you acted like we were equals and a family, getting food we all could share like one, we would treat you as such. You were manipulating us when the one thing
I
asked you to do for us you forgot.”
“I wasn’t manipulating anyone!” I exclaimed as I beat my fists against his chest. “I’m not the bad guy here.” I froze as the rest of his words sunk in. “I forgot the books.”
“You did,” he agreed as he grabbed both my wrists and pinned them over my head. “And now you will pay for it.”
“No!” Boone snarled and tackled his brother off of me. “This madness stops, Boris. Golden isn’t our enemy and isn’t property. You’re going to make him hate us or run. Is that what you want?”
“Run to where?” he threw back, trying to hit Boone in the face. “He doesn’t know his way out of the forest and he’d be a fugitive.”
I stopped listening after that, having my fill of all this drama and anger. I stood with a heavy heart and upset stomach and walked over to the chicks. Lifting the cage out of the cart, I set it on the ground and did the same with their food. Then I opened the bag, took out a handful, and opened the tiny door.
All six started peeping as they hopped out and started eating out of my hands. “I’m sorry, guys. I just wanted to give you a nice place to live where you could be loved and lay some eggs. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was going to be happy and take over my father’s businesses when it was time, giving lots of people jobs, helping out the town when I could. Sure, I’d never marry a nice girl like my parents would have wanted, but I could have still been happy.
“Now I brought you into this misery and you’re too young to know such realities about life.” I sniffled, wiping away a tear with my forearm. “I think I’m too young to know them too, sometimes. I just thought together we could deal with them and I’d have some friends even if you were animals.”
I think I temporarily lost my mind, talking to chicks while the brothers were duking it out around me. I glanced up. Oh, all three were fighting now. Splendid. They were still going at it when the chicks were done eating and I put them back in the cage. I sighed and set it in the cart where they would be safe. Then I started unloading what I could carry.
After that I went to my room and collected all the books I could hold in my arms, knowing there was no way I was lifting the trunk full of them. I walked back outside and dropped them to the ground before putting my fingers in my mouth and letting out a whistle. Instantly they paused the fight and turned to me.
“Sorry I forgot the books. These are some of what I have but you’re welcome to all of them. I’m going to start making supper.” I turned to go back inside.
“Golden?” Boone whispered as he moved away from them and towards me.
“It doesn’t matter, Boone. It is what it is. What’s the point of fighting it? I’ll take the chicks back tomorrow and just live here until I die as a sex slave no one really wants but I’m all you could buy. At least I can still do some sketching. I like doing that.”
Yeah, maybe I really had cracked. I just couldn’t take any more of anything. No more fighting, no more issues, no more being in trouble or not what someone wanted. I was just done. They wanted to fuck me and for me to be obedient… Fine. Everyone in my life had finally pushed me too far where the will to fight left me. They won. I was a slave.
And this slave had to make dinner so the lamb I purchased with one of my mother’s jewels didn’t go bad. I found spices and herbs, rubbing them on the meat as I started the stove. Then I got the lay of the kitchen and put the bread and items away. I realized then that I hadn’t eaten all day besides a few samples the baker had given me to try.
But I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t want to eat or do anything really.
“Golden, can we talk?” Boone asked hesitantly as he walked into the kitchen through the back door.
“I was going to take a nap if that’s okay,” I answered as I slid the pan of lamb into the oven. “It’s been a long day and the food won’t be ready for hours.”
“May I join you?”
“I don’t have a say in anything anymore, Boone. Do as you want.” Maybe I was being mean, taking my feelings out on the wrong person. But I was numb and didn’t really care if I sounded harsh.
“Do you want me to? Would you like me to hold you while you take a nap?” I glanced at him then, taking in the fact that he looked equal parts worried and sad.
“I don’t care. None of it matters anymore.” I shrugged and walked out the other door to the hallway and up the stairs. It didn’t register that I was alone until I was in my room. I undressed, tossing my clothes over the chair by the window, and crawled into bed. My life was over as I knew it and it was never going to get any better.
The sooner I got that through my thick skull the better off I would be and less often I’d be in trouble.

“ Dinner’s ready!” I called out the back door later that evening. It had taken a little longer than I would have thought and I waited to get yelled at the entire time I was cooking just for that fact. But no one ever came into the kitchen. I never saw any of them and all three brothers left me alone.

Just as I pulled out the pan the door flew open and I started to drop it. I caught it just in time except without the towel covering my hand and I grasped the hot metal. I yelped in pain and was about to drop it when fur-covered, large hands took the pan from me with a different towel. It was Boris but I didn’t acknowledge his help or look at him. I simply went to the sink and pumped some water into the basin, letting the cool water soothe the burn.

“ Everything’s on the table that you should need. If not, let me know later and I will make sure it’s there next meal.” I turned to leave before they could say anything but my luck wasn’t that good.

“ You’re not joining us?” Boris asked, his tone getting dark. But then again… When wasn’t it?
“Our servants didn’t eat with us and I knew slaves wouldn’t then either,” I answered with a shrug and started to push open the door with my good hand.
“You need to eat, Golden,” Boone said gently.
“I’m not hungry, thank you. I’ll be in my room if anyone needs me.”
“Bash will be up there after dinner to fuck you,” Boris informed me quietly, almost sounding concerned suddenly. Almost.
“As you wish.” I darted out the door and away from them. It sucked that this was my life, but I wasn’t going to hope anymore that we could make it work so we cared about each other. They wanted to use me, fine. But that didn’t mean that I was going to try for more. I’d do what they told me, when they told me, and hopefully they’d just leave me alone the rest of the time.
I used the one bathroom to bathe and then one of the oils I got earlier to stretch myself out. I didn’t bother re-dressing or kidding myself that he cared what I looked like or did. They wanted a hole, okay, but I was going to try and make things as painless for me as possible.
“Come in,” I called out a bit later when there was a knock at the door. Bash entered and quietly closed the door behind him. “How do you want me?”
“Um, whatever you like best,” he said nervously. He couldn’t have been any older than my age so I doubted, if they’d been trapped in Withering Woods for seven years, that he’d ever been with anyone.
“Doesn’t matter to me.” I shrugged and flipped back the covers. He looked away from me as his cheeks heated up. Shit. Now I had to deal with a blushing virgin and help him through this?“How about you get undressed?”
“I can do that.” Bash quickly got naked and that’s when I notice he wasn’t hard. I mean he was so not hard that I started to realize this might not be about him being a virgin. When he was naked he crawled into the bed with me, careful not to touch me.
“Bash, this only works if you want me,” I said gently as I turned on my side to face him.
“It’s not you,” he rambled, his eyes wide. “You’re pretty for a guy it’s just—” He snapped his mouth closed so fast I bet he bit his tongue.
Realization dawned on me then. “You’re straight. You like girls.”
“Yes,” he groaned as he covered his face with his hands. “There is a girl from the village. She got lost in the woods a few years ago and we met. I helped her and she comes and visits me. I love her, Golden. My brothers would never approve though and I don’t know how to tell them.”
“They wouldn’t approve of you being straight?” Yeah, I didn’t get that one.
“No, wanting someone from the village. They all think we’re monsters,” he admitted with a sigh. His hands slipped away and he thumped his fists on the bed. “But Mary Ellen is different. She’s special and I love her. I’d do anything for her.”
“Have you told her this?”
“No, of course not,” Bash answered, his eyes wide. “She couldn’t love a monster.”
“You’re not a monster, Bash,” I giggled as I took his hand in mine. “You’re so not a monster that it’s almost funny you think yourself one. She keeps coming back to visit. I mean she has to since you can’t leave but she
chooses
to come visit. Something’s there, Bash. Tell her you love her and let everything fall as it may. Trust me on this, you don’t want to wait until it’s too late. You’ll never forgive yourself.”
“Did you love someone back home you never told?” he asked as he rolled onto his side to face me.
“Not like you. My mother and I had a fight right before she died. I never got to fix it before she passed and it eats at you. Life is short and bad things happen, Bash. What if she doesn’t know how you feel and agrees to marry another? Just tell her because the worst that will happen is she won’t feel the same. At least you will know but not confessing could keep you from something more.”
“Thank you, Golden.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry I don’t want you but you already have two idiots to put up with. I can’t imagine you’re sad you don’t have a third.”
“Either way, living here will never be what I want,” I admitted sadly. I tried to fake a smile for him but it didn’t work. He nodded his understanding and got back out of bed. I turned away so it didn’t seem like I was staring at the straight guy. He quickly dressed and wished me a good night before he left.
Yeah, I doubted it would be a good night. The way things were going, I didn’t think I’d ever have any good nights again.

I awoke to my door opening sometime later in the night. I knew not to be frightened, but I wasn’t exactly excited to have a visitor either. The bed dipped and I didn’t move or acknowledge they were there.