Captured

Chapter 13

The next morning, I stayed curled up on the couch - having spent the night asleep on it since there was no chance of me sharing a bed with Kane.

"What are you going to do about Calla?" I asked him when he finally came out of his room to make breakfast. I'd already been up for hours after a difficult nights sleep, incapable of thinking of anything other than what had happened the day before.

I replayed the events over and over again, from the last breath that the asshole working for Kane had taken to the conversation we had after Calla left.

"What am I going to do?" He questioned.

"Yes. That man obviously beat her. She was covered with marks and bruises. So what are you going to do about it?" I asked him.

He scoffed. "Nothing."

"What?" I snapped, raising to my feet. "You're not seriously going to let him get away with treating her like that. He hurt her Kane! If she's actually pregnant she can't be anywhere near him!"

"Perhaps if you all learnt to behave yourselves-," he started to respond.

"You did not just say that!"

"Enough of this!" He yelled. "I could not care any less about how you feel or how you think I should be running things! You are alive because we need fertile women. That is all you are! A means to an end! Do not for a second think that you are entitled to anything!"

All I could do was stare at him and shake my head. "Unbelievable," I huffed. "Tell me," I ordered, crossing my arms, "what's the difference between us? Really?" I snapped.

He simply raised an eyebrow and I scoffed. "What makes you so much better than me? Why do you believe men are so entitled and women are nothing but puppets for you to play with?"

"Because that's what you are!" He bellowed. "That's all you will ever be, no matter how much you protest otherwise. Men are smarter and stronger and more powerful and if you really were equally as strong then you would never have found yourself as inferior."

"Did it ever occur to you that we've never been given the chance to prove it?" I screamed, my fists clenched.

"You shouldn't need to be given a chance! You should just take it," he said with a scoff before turning back to continue making his breakfast.

"Fine," I said, "then I'm going to start training with the rest of your men. And when I've built up my strength, we'll see which one of us is really stronger."

He laughed. "I'm not going to let you do that."

"I'm not asking!"

"I don't care if you are. If I need to lock you away again then I will do," he threatened.

"You're just scared I'll beat you," I taunted.

"Not in the slightest."

"Then prove it. Let me train with the rest of the men and find out. Give me enough time to build up my strength and we'll fight, if I win, you'll be out of my way and my friends and I can leave. If you win, you get rid of me for good."

He stared at me for a moment, an eyebrow raised. "A fight to the death?" He asked, amusement lacing his tone. "You really are confident."

I took a step forward, levelling my gaze to meet his. "Do we have a deal?"

He laughed. "No. You might be pregnant. I'm not going to lose a perfectly good fertile woman and a possible heir."

I scoffed. "It's not me you need to be worried about."

A smirk crossed his lips. "If you're really so confident you can train for two weeks. At the end of that time you can fight one of my men until there's a clear winner and I tell you to stop. But if you lose, you'll spend the rest of your life in the cells, used as a means of reproduction and I won't hear a single complaint about it. Understand?"

I bit my lip. The idea of death had seemed more appealing. I'd either win and prove myself or die trying and escape the life of a pregnant slave. But I couldn't back down now, not when, judging from the look in his eye, Kane thought he had me beat.

"And if I win, I leave."

He shook his head. "You're not going anywhere with my child."

"My child," I snapped back. "And you shouldn't be worried, you don't think I can win, right?"

"There is no negotiation here!" He barked. "You will not leave. If you win, which you won't, you can continue to train with the rest of the men, provided you aren't pregnant."

I considered it. It could be my ticket out, the chance to build up my strength and assess the enemy. I can learn Kane's weaknesses and when the time comes that I'm strong enough,
I can fight back.

"Deal."

The corner of his mouth lifted as he took a step towards me, towering over me with a glint in his eyes. "Don't worry, when you're writhing in pain on the floor, begging for your life, I'll show mercy."

I smirked back at him. "When I've trained with your men and built up the strength to take you down, I sure as hell won't," I warned him before returning to my position on the sofa, my back to him and my heart racing in my chest.