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  Finally, everything was quiet. Shaya peeked up to see that the new Alpha had left, and only the shinno remained, staring at her with such anger in his eyes, as though something was her fault.

  She stared back at him, an anger of her own growing that he had left her hanging from this rope all day. She hadn’t been given water, she hadn't been given food, and now he dared to act as though she didn't have the right to be seen or helped by anyone.

  Her anger warmed her, running through her whole body until she felt bold enough to speak. But just as she opened her mouth, the shinno turned and stalked away.

  She considered shouting after him, but before she could decide what to say, he was returning with a knife.

  Carefully, he cut the rope holding her hands together, and she groaned as her arms dropped down. Her knees gave way as her whole body relaxed from the pressure of having to stay upright, but the Alpha caught her before she hit the ground and lifted her into his arms.

  Shaya kept her arms as still as she could in her lap, her teeth gritted as the tears in her eyes formed. She would not cry. She would not.

  She held herself stiff as he carried her, mentally urging him to move faster so that she could relax in her cabin alone and without him.

  It felt as though he was walking for ages, but finally he entered her cabin. As he lay her on the bed, she rolled to turn away from him, swallowing the hiss in her throat at the pain tearing at her arms. She desperately hoped he wouldn’t want to use her mouth again. She wouldn’t be able to hold back her tears if he did.

  She waited to hear something, anything behind her, and when the door finally closed, she began to sob, each one deeper and harder than the last. When she cried all she could cry, she drifted to sleep, only to hear a quiet “Lanatton arook, Shaya,” behind her as the darkness took her.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SHAYA

  The next morning, Shaya could barely move. The girl urged her awake again, speaking softly but persistently, but this time her whole arms were stiff. By the time she was laying out the blanket for the shinno's tools, Shaya had only just managed to climb out of bed.

  “My arms really hurt,” she muttered to the girl, who seemed very on edge. “Is there anything you can give me? Do you have anything for the pain?” At home, she would simply mix together the secretions of two plants with honey and a drop of cydill oil, and that would get rid of the most persistent pains in the body. They must have something similar.

  But the girl didn't respond, in fact, she avoided Shaya's eyes as she prepared the blanket.

  When Shaya notice the blanket on the bed, she groaned. The shinno was going to be here soon.

  “Please don't make me do anything today,” she said to the girl, almost pleading. “I can't move my arms. He will be angry with me. Please?”

  The girl turned slowly to face her and took her gently by the hands, causing Shaya to wince, and spoke gently to her in her tongue.

  Even though Shaya couldn’t understand her, her tone was apologetic, and her eyes expressed the sorrow that she could not help. Shaya nodded, her entire body turning numb. She had no idea what the shinno would do if she didn't groom him properly. Yesterday he had strung her up like fabric and hung her out to dry when she’d been unable to do her chores.

  Before she could think of it any further, the door opened and the shinno strode in.

  As usual, his imposing presence pressed in all the air in the room, but Shaya took no notice of the feeling within her. She was too concerned about what was going to happen next. Her hands simply would not work without excruciating pain.

  He sat down in the chair, waiting for her to begin and when the wait stretched too long, the girl blinked and nodded furiously at Shaya, pointing to the comb at the top of the triangle.

  Slowly, Shaya rose to her feet and reached out for the comb, breathing heavily at the pain ricocheting through her. Walking to stand behind the shinno, she combed his hair extremely slowly, working through the pain until she became used to it. However the comb trembled in her hand, as her muscles spasmed and jerked. Finally, the shinno's hair was neat along the top of his head, and Shaya sighed inwardly in relief.

  When she turned to place the comb back on the blanket, the girl was standing right next to her, holding the long knife and the jar of foam.

  Shaya widened her eyes and shook her head, but the girl widened her eyes and nodded. She took the comb from Shaya and pressed the long knife into her hands, fixing her fingers around it.

  She then moved Shaya around to the front of the shinno and quickly applied the foam to his face. The shinno frowned as she did, his eyes sliding between the two of them as though he did not expect them both to be working on him at the same time. The girl was helping her, Shaya realized. She was supposed to be doing this on her own. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. If the girl was willing to help her when she wasn’t supposed to, she would try her hardest not to mess this up.

  Shaya positioned herself at the shinno’s side and lifted her arm. Shaya let the girl guide her on how to scrape the foam from his face as though she hadn’t done it before—the pressure needed, the angle required, and the method of working across his face, but really, the girl was holding the blade.

  The girl tried to lead her as quickly as possible, but the shinno muttered something when they were only halfway through, and she froze.

  Her eyes met Shaya's and there was an apology within them. Slowly, she stepped back, releasing Shaya's trembling arm and aching hand stepping away from them both.

  Shaya returned her eyes to the shinno's face, trying to ignore his eyes boring into hers, and slowly continued to shave him. But she wasn't able to get the pressure right, and when she pressed, the spasming her arm jerked the knife the wrong way.

  The shinno grabbed her arm and growled, causing both the pain in her arm and the nervousness within her to shoot up. He rose from his chair, a line of blood blooming on his face as it contorted.

  He bellowed out something harsh and grabbed the long knife from her hand, throwing it on the bed. Gripping her by the arms, causing her to cry out, he dragged her from the room.

  Shaya tried to explain, she tried to plead with him, but the pain in her hands was the only thing that took her attention. “Please, please it was an accident. I'm sorry, my arms… my hands and arms hurt,” she stuttered, gasping at the pain ricocheting through her.

  But the shinno did not pay her any attention. He took her one or two decks below and maneuvered her through a dark corridor.

  They stopped outside a small door and he growled something in his tongue.

  Opening it, he pushed her inside and slammed it behind her.

  Inside it was completely dark, Shaya couldn't see anything. She blinked repeatedly, but her surroundings remained black. She stood still for a moment, trying to determine where she was, but something about her environment felt strange. Lifting her aching arms, she tried to feel her way forward, but quickly reached a wall. Turning to the side she ran her fingers on the wall as she stepped forward, but quickly reached another wall. Horror erupted in her as she turned the other way and realized that she was enclosed by walls that were only about a foot away. She was in a tiny closet!

  She stilled as her heart began to pound, trying to remember where she came in but it was impossible to figure out how many times she had turned, especially when she couldn't see. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stay as still as possible, but it suddenly became difficult to breathe. It was as though the walls of the tiny closet room were closing in on her, suffocating her, punishing her for her accident with the shinno. An intense fear twisted into her stomach and rose up through her chest, bringing with it the nausea she experienced the first week on the ship. She tried to take deep breaths, tried to calm her breathing because she couldn't possibly vomit in such a tiny space. The thought of that raised her fear and she began to tremble. She didn't know how long the shinno planned to keep her locked up but she wouldn't be able to last long.r />
  Within a few moments, sweat was pouring from her brow and her heart was beating so hard she thought it would pound out of her chest. Turning wildly in the space, she picked her best guess of where the door was and began to smash her fist on it. “Please open the door!” she called. “Please! I can't stay in here.” Even as she spoke, her breath was becoming short. What if there wasn't enough air in here for her? What if she was slowly suffocating? Her panic and fear jumped to new heights as she considered that maybe the shinno was actually trying to kill her. What if he decided she was useless? That he couldn't use her as he planned? What if he decided that this was the way she would die?

  Thoughts revolved in her mind becoming wilder and more extreme with every moment that passed and soon she was pounding on the door screaming. An intensity gripped her entire body, urging her to get out of there, pushing her to find any way out. She pounded on every wall and threw herself against them, hoping that one would be the door and it would open. The blackness that surrounded her pressed in, adding to the feeling of suffocation. It was as though it was climbing inside her mouth and down her throat, pushing into her eyes, exploring up her nose, blocking every possible sense that allowed her to experience life. Every sense that allowed her to enjoy the vastness of the earth; the beautiful greens of her gardens, the fresh scent of the flowerbeds just after it rained, the snarl of feral tomcats that snuck through the roots of the bushes after its prey, and the taste of home-grown herbs and spices that she added to the meals she made for her family.

  At the thought of Kyus, she burst into tears. It never once crossed her mind that she might be killed. It seemed to be important for the shinno to have an Omega, so she never thought that he would get to the stage where he would kill her. Obviously she’d been completely naive about that. She was expendable if she didn’t do what he wanted, and Kyus would now never know what had happened to her.

  She wailed and screamed, clawing at the walls as her whole body shook. As the desperate need rose to escape, she reared back and threw herself at one of the walls as hard as she could. And then again and again. Her entire body was shutting down and if she could just somehow get the door open, she would survive.

  She wasn't sure how long she threw herself repeatedly at the wall, screaming and crying and wailing, pleading for anyone who could hear her to let her out, but the darkness began to choke her. This was it.

  As she threw herself one last time at the wall, it suddenly opened.

  She landed against the thick, hard body beyond the door, clawing it in her urge to escape.

  She sobbed, gripping on to the man before her, pleading for him to help her, as her entire body became a tingling sensation of dizziness.

  Suddenly she was whipped up and being carried along the corridor. She curled herself in as tight as she could and sobbed, the horror of the experience deep within her bones. She couldn't concentrate on anything—even when she closed her eyes, it returned her to… the darkness. Her body trembled, shaking as it rejected the idea that the darkness was only ever a blink away, and the sobs that wracked her body echoed the despair that had smothered her in the room.

  Slowly, she became aware of a breeze on her face. It was cool and soft, and the mellowness of it calmed her a little. Her sobs quietened as she realized she could breathe in sharp, fresh, cool air.

  Lifting her head, she saw that the shinno held her and curled back in on herself immediately, unwilling to look at him, but the breeze around her beckoned. Turning her head, she was presented with the most wonderful sight.

  The ocean lay before her, stretching far into the distance, wide and expansive. It rippled and flicked, just like how she had seen it from afar when she was on the decks, but this time there was no oppressive heat or balcony obstructing the feel, sight or scent of it. It was the most beautiful thing she witnessed in a long time; something that could not be replicated, something that could not be forced or faked. Just like her gardens, it was real and honest and pure—an utter beauty. The waves rolled, dipped, peaked, and crashed. The breeze embraced her, chasing away the suffocating darkness. She took a breath and drew the salty, briny scent of the ocean deep into her lungs. It instantly calmed her further. She relaxed her body, her eyes lazy as she watched the ocean play. Above, the skies were a mixture of stone gray and smoky white, but it did not stop the birds from soaring high, circling in their eagerness to eat up as much of the skies as possible. She envied them for being so free.

  She sighed, and as she did, she felt the shinno's arms tense underneath her. Stiffening, she remembered that he was still holding her. Glanced around, she couldn't tell where on the ship she was. It seemed as though he stood on the very edge of the deck, and with him holding her she couldn't see any part of the ship. It was as though they stood above the ocean, just the two of them watching over the mischievous waves.

  Her eyes remained on the ocean as her mouth trembled. She hated him. She hated everything that he had made her do, everything he put her through. He wouldn't let her explain anything, he wouldn't speak to her in her own language, and he made her suffer just because she didn't understand. Regardless of what he wanted an Omega for, he was cruel. She suspected that putting her in that box was a warning. She had said she would do anything to ensure that she did not break, and yet that had almost broken her. Never had she been in such a tiny space before and she wasn't sure she could manage it again.

  She thought of Kyus, back at home in her gardens with her betrothed. As long as she was able to live the life she was meant to, with the man she loved, any sacrifice Shaya gave was worth it. Shaya had long suspected that she was an accident for her parents. Kyus had never given her much details about who her mother or father were and why they were not with them. Based on what she said, it seemed as though her father had been an Alpha who had potentially forced their mother, but that was just Shaya guessing based on things Kyus said—she didn't know for sure, and she wasn't sure how she would ever find out. When she turned twelve and realized she was an Omega, she decided she didn't want to know. If Alphas were cruel and mean, she didn’t want to think that her mother had suffered, or that she hated her child because of the father. Kyus said that her mother was aware of them both, and that she wished she could be with them, but it wasn’t possible. That always made Shaya sad and resentful of the way in which Omegas were treated, and the things they had to go through in order to protect themselves, but she never once felt as though she was at a disadvantage because she always had Kyus. Now she had nothing.

  The shinno began to move slowly, and Kyus kept herself limp. She didn't care what he did to her. She would hate him forever for putting her in that box-room.

  The jostling of her body caused intense pain to ricochet all over her, but she embraced it this time, as he slowly lowered them until he was sitting with her in his lap. It reminded her that her life was not her own; it was his to do with as he pleased. And every inch of pain was a reminder of that.

  He settled her into his lap turning her toward him and away from the ocean. She was unwilling to look at his face. Knowing that he would be watching her with those strange eyes, she kept her head pressed to his chest, face to the side.

  He began to stroke her leg, smoothing down the outside of her tunic and then slipping his hand underneath it to stroke her bare skin. The caress was so surprising that she sighed, relaxing into the feel of his touch.

  His hand slipped underneath her leg, reaching there to caress the tender skin just under her ass, and then his whole hand slipped between her legs, stroking her inner thighs. Shaya sighed again, embracing the feeling of pleasure that rose from his hands on her. She couldn't think past it, although something sparked in the back of her mind that this might be a trap. But with the ocean breeze in her nose, and the smoky white and gray sky above her, all her worries were somehow suppressed. Nothing mattered as long as she could see the sky, and breathe in fresh air. Even the man she hated, the man who was now slipping his fingers into her underwear, would be tolerated if she
could just have that, always.

  As he found that sensitive spot between her legs that had given her so much pleasure before, she remembered that what had followed last time had not been pleasant. But she was unable to stiffen, or push away, or reject him. She just didn't have the energy or the will.

  Threads of pleasure writhed all over her body as he stroked her, spiraling up her core and pushing away any last remnants of the unpleasantness that she just experienced. Her breathing deepened, but this time it was because something was coming, something she couldn't quite identify, but something she so dearly wanted.

  The shinno's fingers stroked with a rhythm that was unrelenting, and she knew the slickness between her legs had come from her, aiding him in his quest, whatever that may be. As the feeling intensified, she felt his arm behind her back shift a little, and his other hand reaching around to grab her breast. She gasped as he pinched her nipples through the tunic, sending intense pleasure shooting all over her body, and causing her to clench. She arched her back as the intensity increased, gyrated her hips, needing more. The shinno stayed with her, never missing a stroke, never slowing down his rhythm as she climbed and climbed. A low rumble came from the chest next to her cheek, and the gritty intensity of it pushed her over the edge.

  Suddenly she was soaring, free and wild and powerful. She pulled her knees up and widened her legs, rolling her hips at the intensity of the feeling, gasping at how good it felt and welcoming the magnificent pleasure that rippled through her in a crash of wild waves. And as she slowly came down, panting, all energy left her body.

  The shinno's fingers slowed as she jerked and spasmed, the lingering ecstasy still swimming through her. Her knees dropped and laziness came over her.