Call Her Mine by Lydia Michaels Page A

is your name, girl?
    She recoiled at the
title girl, but there was something so different in the way he used the term
from the way Cer used it.
    She did not know how to
project her thoughts. She simply thought her name. Adriel.
    Good afternoon, Adriel.
    Her chest swelled at the
sound of her name in someone else’s voice. She wished he would say it again
only so her ears could hear it.
    “What did I tell you
about sitting by that window?”
    Adriel jerked and turned
around only to find Cer standing behind her, a menacing expression on his face.
“Learn a new trick today, girl?”
    The shutters slammed,
although he did not move a muscle. The candles flickered to light in the dark
cottage and she gasped. “Need I tell you what I think of you allowing another
male into your head?”
    She shook with fear.
Where had he come from? How had he known? Her clothes were suddenly ripped from
her body, only he still had not moved.
    “Look at yourself.
Everything you see belongs to me.”
    Pain engulfed her from
an unseen hand clamping down on her sex. She screamed only to have her voice
strangled into silence.
    Gasping, she choked, and
stared at her laughing mate through teary eyes. Never had she imagined such
viciousness as the day he showed her how powerful he truly was and she assumed
that was the worst he could possibly do. She was wrong.
    She had been beaten so
many times she had lost the will to live. Time passed in increments of aching
moments of consciousness. She was certain she would have died a hundred deaths
at Cer’s hand had she not been immortal. She wished just once he would strike
her hard enough to decapitate her and end her miserable existence.
    One evening, as she lay
on the dirt floor in a puddle of her own bodily fluids, Cer abruptly stood. She
flinched and whimpered. He walked to the door and yanked it open. Her heart
painfully stuttered in her chest when she saw Eleazar standing in the doorway.
    “No,” she whimpered. She
was in so much pain and this male’s presence would only anger Cer more.
    Eleazar spotted her on
the floor and tried to go to her, but Cer held him back, a look of death in his
eyes. Eleazar stilled and said something to Cer, but she could no longer make
out their words. Her ear had been boxed and sound seemed worlds away from her
swollen head.
    Finally, she passed out.
When she awoke she was shocked to find herself in a bed. There was no security
in waking in such a place, only fear and distrust.
    Cer did not look at her
for days. He did not speak and slowly her body began to heal as it always did.
The more time that passed, the more she became on edge. She dare not allow
herself to grow comfortable in his presence. He was a monster and she would
never see him as anything but.
    It took many nights for
him to hit her again. Once he’d started, it seemed he had much lost time to
make up for. He’d raped her, hit her, humiliated her, sodomized her, and bit
her, feeding against her will, but she never once shed a tear. He was not worth
her tears. Her tears were for the ones she loved.
    As she lay battered on
the floor, naked, and splotched with imprints of his hand, the door burst open.
She did not flinch. She did not care. She only wanted to die.
    Cerberus roared and
flung into motion, attacking whoever intruded in his home, but there were too
many of them. Immortals, all immortals, came into the small shelter and held
Cer down, dealing blow after blow. Girl did not care. She wanted to die.
    Masculine arms gently
picked her up. Girl moaned as a voice called her a name she did not recognize.
The night air was cool over her naked skin as he carried her away. She could
vaguely hear Cer’s screams in the distance before she lost consciousness.
    When she awoke, the
strange dark haired male was beside her bed, a look of concern on his face. He
called her that name again, but Girl did not know what he spoke of.
    “Adriel, you are safe
now. He will no longer be able to do this to you. Never