Hill, Meagan - Master Me [Masterson] (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

Mandy took a deep breath and began speaking in a soft voice. Clearly, her speaking volume was a part of her submissive stature. “I belong to the Cabela coven. Our compound is just outside El Paso.” Mitch was surprised to hear that the coven was so close. There were only about thirty known covens throughout the US, and he knew the leaders of most of them and certainly the head of the covens closest to them. The Cabela coven’s compound was about ten hours away from his current location outside of a tiny town by the name of Rockland, Texas.

Mandy continued, though her tone of voice changed drastically. “We’re a big family. We love each other and take great care of each other. Cabela is a wonderful leader and has taught me so much. I love getting to live with my coven. If I had my way, I would never leave home.” Mitch had to fight off a shiver of horror. Her voice had become completely flat, devoid of all emotion, as if she was reciting a particularly boring piece of literature. She had clearly been trained to say that.

“Is it Cabela who beats you?” Mitch asked the question, watching her closely. He could actually see her struggle to pronounce the word she wished, nearly choking herself with the effort, before giving up and stating in her flat tone, “Of course not. Even when I don’t do something right, he just corrects me gently and with love.”

Had Mitch been listening just to the words, he might have been thrown off by her answer, but he’d seen her struggle with trying to say something entirely different. He was beginning to suspect the reason for her recitations, but he needed to see her eyes to be convinced when he asked his next question.

“Mandy, please look me in the eye while we’re talking about this.” Mandy immediately raised her eyes to his, and Mitch was taken aback by the amount of pain and sorrow in them. He didn’t need to hear what her mouth was saying. If he asked his questions right, she would give him her real answer with her eyes, despite what might be issuing from her mouth.

Just as he opened his mouth to continue his questioning, the timer on the oven buzzed. With a deep sigh, he pulled himself off the couch and went to remove the casserole from the oven. He would wait until after they’d eaten to continue the conversation. For now, however, how was he supposed to get her to loosen up? After a moment of thought, he thought that perhaps he had a solution.

“Mandy…” Mitch began before startling again at how fast she was next to him.

“Yes, Master?”

Mitch sighed again. The whole “Master and Servant” thing might be fun for role-playing in the bedroom, but this was getting old fast.

“For the remainder of the evening, I want you to stop acting like you know I am a Master. I want you to answer my questions honestly and how you want to answer them, not how you have been trained to answer. I want you to relax and allow us to just get to know each other. I feel we have a lot of things to discuss tonight.”

Mitch could see Mandy struggling within herself before she relaxed her body a bit, seeming a bit more natural. “I will try to do so, Mas…Mitch. Please forgive me if I slip up, though. I have been taught my position well, and it is very difficult to reverse five years of intensive training.”

“I understand, and I promise to not get upset with you if you should slip up.” Mitch watched as relief clearly flowed through Mandy. Hopefully, the rest of the night wouldn’t be as difficult if he could continue to find ways around her training.

Chapter 2

Despite his promise, Mandy remained somewhat stiff and uncommunicative. Dinner was eaten quickly, neither really wanting to linger overly long. Mitch did notice, however, how Mandy nearly inhaled her dinner before going back for seconds. Considering her size, he concluded she didn’t often get to eat her fill.

“You were hungry, Mandy.”

“Yes, Mitch. I’m often hungry.”

“Do you not get enough to eat at the compound?” Again, Mandy seemed about to speak before literally choking on her words. Seeing her continued struggle to answer him and obey his current command, Mitch released her from the question. “It’s okay, Mandy. I understand.” The relief shining in her tear-filled eyes was profound as she took several deep breaths. Mitch wondered if the order was so strongly ingrained she would incapacitate herself in her effort to obey, though he didn’t really want to find out. He motioned for them to move back to the couch, where they sat at opposite ends but turned toward each other.

“Thank you, Mitch. I am trying to answer you as you wished, but I must also obey other orders given to me by Cabela.”

“I understand now. Can I ask you about those orders?” Mandy nodded. “Is the order specific to you speaking?” Mandy shook her head. “Is physical movement included?” Mandy nodded. “Writing included?” Mandy nodded once more. He was making progress, slow as it might be. “Is the order to not communicate anything negative about your leader or your coven?”

Once again, Mandy’s mouth began forming an answer before she began choking. Mitch hurried to assure her. “It’s okay, I withdraw the question. I can see the answer in your eyes.” Mandy took a deep breath, clearly frustrated with not being able to speak freely. “Tell me what you want, Mandy.”

Mandy apparently didn’t even have to think about what she wanted as she began to answer immediately. “I want to talk to you. I want to tell you everything. I want to spend time with you. I want you. I want you to save me.” The last part was whispered so quietly he was amazed he could actually hear it, and he didn’t miss the part about wanting him. “I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to return to the compound. I don’t want to complete my mission. I don’t want to be evil.” With this last part, Mandy had to literally force it out of her throat. Her declarations were skirting the injunction.

“I think I know a way to remove these injunctions for you, but it’s going to take some work, and you’re going to have to make some decisions. Are you ready to hear my ideas?” Mandy nodded, a small spark of hope shining in her eyes. “The orders you are under sound like loyalty oaths. Is that correct?” With Mandy’s affirmative answer, Mitch continued. “You can be released from those oaths by only two ways. One is from the person to whom you swore loyalty.” Mandy’s eyes grew wide, and she shook her head swiftly. “The second option is for you to change your loyalty to another coven leader.”

“Really? I didn’t know that was possible. He always told us once we were part of his coven, not even death would release us from the bond.”

“No, not even a blood oath can override a change in fealty. This is an option for you. My father is the head of our coven, and I am positive he will offer you an opportunity to join us, if that is your wish. This will release you from your oaths and your required subservience to your old coven. They will never have power over you again. Is this something you would like to pursue?”

Mandy sat in a daze for a moment before falling to her knees in front of Mitch again, this time weeping over and kissing his feet. Mitch was frozen for a moment at seeing her display of gratitude before the anger blew through him once again. They were going to pay for turning this beautiful woman into a petrified slave. Mitch gently took her shoulders in his large hands and pulled her up to sit in his lap. He tucked her head under his chin and held her while she cried out her relief. He could feel her tears dampening his T-shirt while her hands clasped it tightly, holding him to her as if she never wanted to let him go. At this point, he could honestly say he felt the same way. Suddenly, Mandy stiffened, the fear once again flowing off of her in waves.

“What’s wrong? Why are you afraid?”

Mandy struggled for a moment before changing her mind about her words, simply saying, “I can’t say.” She trusted he would know what she meant.

“Are you afraid of something that will result from your change of allegiance?”

Mandy nodded, appearing relieved that he was following her thought path.

“Are you afraid Cabela will be able to hurt you?” This time, Mandy simply answered with her eyes. “Has he threatened you?” Again, she could only answer with her eyes. They’d found a loophole. As long as he kept with yes or no questions and could read her eyes, something she could not control, they could communicate more effectively. “He threatened to beat you if you left the coven?” Mandy’s facial response to that was clearly r, “Duh.”Mitch was amused at the response, so he smirked and replied, “Okay, that one was kind of dumb. He beats you often. Did he threaten to kill you?”

When Mitch read the answer in Mandy’s eyes and saw she believed Cabela would make good on his threat, he took a deep breath to steady his emotions. He didn’t want Mandy to pick up on his growing anger and think she had caused it. “Has he followed through on that threat for others?” This time his answer was the pain in her eyes.

“Penny was the only friend I’ve really had since being liberated.” Mitch blinked at the word “liberated.” “She was sixteen when she came to us, a little older than the norm. She did not take to her behavior training well. Less than a year after joining us, she didn’t return from a shopping trip, though I never did hear what happened to her escort. They tracked her down about a week later.”

“How do you know they followed through?”

“Pictures. They always take pictures of their successes and tack them up in the main hallway.” Mitch couldn’t repress the shudder that worked through him at the thought of a hallway full of pictures of murder victims. “My picture is up there in several places, too, for my accomplishments.” Mandy was learning how to talk around her injunction. “My liberation, my indoctrination, when I completed my power training. The most recent is when I graduated from the behavior training, just last week.”

“Liberation? Is that their term for kidnapping? You were stolen from your family? How old were you?”

Mandy answered the one question she could. “Fourteen.”

“Indoctrination. Is that where you were beaten the first time?” Mandy’s eyes showed “yes” before a deeper pain became evident and she, for the first time since he’d ordered her, dropped her eyes from his. Pain and fury lanced through him. He’d been hoping that it had been just the physical abuse. Her response, though, confirmed his greater fear that she had been sexually abused as well. Mitch softly cupped her face in his hands, gently pulling her face back up so he could see it. His voice was thick with pain as he asked, “Mandy, were you raped?”

Mandy’s eyes filled with tears once again, telling him what he hadn’t wanted to know. “More than once?” Mandy’s eyes filled with shame before dropping down to look at his chin.

“How often?” Not a yes or no question, she can’t answer it, idiot, he reminded himself. “Cabela?” Her eyes came up to answer “yes.” “Just Cabela?” No. “Other members of your coven?” Yes. At this point, Mitch decided to back away from the topic. He could see that she was becoming more and more upset. Obviously it was something that she didn’t want to think about. Once she was able to speak freely, though, they were going to revisit the issue, and he told her as much.

“When we can talk freely, we’re going to talk about everything they did to you, Mandy. It’s going to be painful, but if you do not share the pain with someone else, you will not be able to recover from it. You have to let go of the pain for its taint to wash away.” Mandy nodded weakly before tucking her head back under his chin, snuggling deeply into his chest. Mitch could only wrap his arms tightly around her, offering her the sanctuary she desperately needed. He held her tightly, rocking slightly as one might do with a baby, as her trembling finally slowed, and her body began to relax. It wasn’t long before she was completely limp, deeply asleep, content in his arms. Mitch realized he’d never felt so content in his life.

He held her for a while longer before carrying her to his bed. He would take the couch, as the rooms that would normally be bedrooms had been converted into his office and a gym. He tucked her in, pulling the covers up to her shoulders, gently brushing the hair from her face. He smiled when she snuggled deeper into his pillow, pulling it close to her chest.

His own chest was being buffeted by the myriad of emotions blowing through him. Fury at the way she’d been treated, sadness that she’d been hurt so badly, pain for her loss of so much, fear that she would never be whole again no matter how he tried, and determination to make Cabela and the rest of the coven pay for what had been done to her. When he’d thought it was just the physical abuse she’d suffered, he’s already planned to take down the coven. With her revelation of the sexual abuse, Mitch was convinced of the coven’s evil and knew that at least Cabela, if not the rest of the upper echelon, would have to be eradicated permanently. He needed to talk to his dad.