Lena’s eyes went to the blanket.
Her sister was a shaking mound. The fabric rustled with each tremor. Vess’s breathing was audible—fast, ragged, choked. The outline of her body was curled so tight that the blanket barely covered her feet.
"I told you I would help you," Raven said. His voice was warm. Gentle. The voice of the man who had held her while she cried. The voice that had whispered ’do you want to rest’ and laid her down on her own clothes and kissed her forehead. "I told you I would make you strong. I told you I would give you what your sister never gave you."
Lena’s lip trembled. "Revenge? What? How? I don’t— I don’t understand. What are you doing with my sister? Why was she— why were you inside—"
"Your sister came to the pond tonight," Raven said. He sat up. Slowly. The movement made his abs flex. His cock shifted against his stomach—thick, heavy, wet. Lena’s eyes followed it. She could not stop herself. "She found us. She saw you. Naked. On my cock. Your body covered in my seed. Your pussy dripping. She saw what I did to you."
Lena’s face went white. "She— she saw me? She saw us?"
"She saw everything," Raven said. "Every inch. Every thrust. Every scream. Every drop of your virginity that I took from you. She watched it all."
"Oh no—" Lena’s hand went to her mouth. "No— she— she knows— she knows what we—"
"And she was jealous."
The word landed like a stone in still water.
Lena blinked. "What?"
"Jealous," Raven repeated. He leaned forward. His elbows rested on his knees. His cock hung between his thighs—thick, dark, dripping. The lamp light caught the wet shaft. Lena’s eyes were pulled to it again. "She was jealous of you. Of your body. Of your tight little pussy. Of the fact that I chose you and not her. She saw what I did to you and she wanted it for herself."
"That— that cannot be—" Lena whispered. But her eyes went to the blanket. To her sister. Trembling. Hiding. "She— she would never—"
"I told her," Raven said. His voice dropped. Intimate. The voice of a confidant. "I told her I would not touch you again. That I would leave you alone. That your body was yours. But only if she gave me hers instead."
Lena’s mouth fell open.
"She offered herself," Raven said. "Your sister. The commander. The woman who calls you a child. She looked at me and she said—she said her body is much more delicious than yours."
Silence.
The lamp flickered. The shadows danced. The blanket trembled.
Lena’s face crumpled.
"What?" she whispered. "She— she said that? She said her body is more—"
"She did," Raven said. "She said it. She offered her cunt to me so that I would stop touching yours. She said—those were her words—her body is much more delicious than yours. She wanted to take me away from you. To make me choose her. To steal what you had."
Tears burst from Lena’s eyes.
Not small tears. Not gentle tears. A flood. A dam breaking. The raw, overwhelming weeping of a girl who had given her virginity to a man she loved and just been told that her sister—the sister who commanded her, who slapped her, who called her a child—had tried to steal him.
"How dare you," Lena whispered. Then louder. "How dare you!"
She was not speaking to Raven. She was speaking to the blanket. To the mound. To her sister.
"You always did this!" Lena screamed. Her voice broke. Her naked body shook with the force of it. "You always— you always took everything— you never let me have anything— you slap me and you order me and you call me a child and the moment— the MOMENT I find someone— the moment someone chooses ME— you—"
She could not finish. The sobs took her. She folded. Her hands pressed against her face. The torch fell from her grip. It hit the bedroll. The flame sputtered but did not die.
Under the blanket, Vess was screaming.
Not outwardly. Inwardly. In the silence of her own skull.
’I DID NOT SAY THAT. I DID NOT— HE IS LYING. HE IS LYING TO YOU, LENA. I DID NOT OFFER MYSELF. HE TOOK ME. HE PINCHED ME. HE MADE ME— I WAS TRYING TO PROTECT YOU. I WAS TRYING—’
But her mouth was sealed.
She realized it in that moment. The magic had wrapped around her face while she was under the blanket. A band of mana across her lips. It had tightened the moment she pulled the blanket over herself. The magic had bound her wrists—pulled them behind her back. It had bound her ankles. Wrapped them together. She was trussed. She was gagged. She was a package.
And the rope. The invisible rope. It was not just around her wrists and ankles. It was around her chest. Around her tits. It pressed into the swollen, bite-marked flesh. It dug into the nipples. The pain was sharp and constant. And there was another rope—lower. Between her legs. It ran through her pussy lips. It pressed against the swollen, just-fucked, still-gaping entrance. It rubbed against her clit with every movement. Every breath. Every tremor.
She tried to move.
She fell.
The blanket mound tilted. Vess rolled. The blanket slid. Her face emerged. Her eyes—streaming, furious, desperate—found the light. She tried to scream.
"MMNPH! NNNNGH! MMM!"
Nothing. The gag held. The sound was trapped. Her face was red. Her jaw ached from the pressure of the magic. Her wrists pulled behind her back. Her legs were bound. She was on her side. The rope between her legs pressed harder against her swollen clit. She convulsed.
’NO. NO. LENA. DO NOT BELIEVE HIM. HE IS A DEMON. HE IS LYING. I DID NOT— I WAS TRYING TO SAVE YOU—’
Lena looked at her.
Their eyes met.
Vess’s eyes screamed. They pleaded. They raged. They said everything her mouth could not. ’Do not believe him. Do not. I was protecting you. I was—’
But Lena’s eyes were full of tears. Full of betrayal. Full of the memory of every slap, every order, every ’shut up and sleep, you child.’
"How dare you," Lena whispered again. Her voice was barely audible. "How dare you try to take him from me."
Vess’s soul cracked.
’NO. LENA. NO. I WAS NOT— PLEASE— LOOK AT ME— I AM TIED— HE TIED ME— HE IS—’
But Lena had turned away.
She had turned toward Raven.
And Raven was lying there. On his back. Hands behind his head. His body displayed in the lamp light. The abs. The V-lines. The cock.
Lena’s eyes found the cock again.
The incubus aura pulsed again. Stronger. Her body responded before her mind could intervene. Her nipples throbbed. Her pussy clenched. The wetness ran down her thighs in thin, warm streams. Her breathing became shallow. Fast. Her chest heaved.
She took a step.
Not a conscious step. A step her body made without consulting her brain. Toward the bedroll. Toward him. Toward the cock that had taken her virginity and made her scream and made her choose him and made her feel like a woman.
"She tried to take me from you," Raven said. Softly. "She tried to steal what is yours. But I am not hers. I am yours. Am I not?"
Lena’s lip trembled. "Y-you are mine?"