The Prison Realm

Chapter 4: Wife

Rosa:

It all happened so quickly. After a year of feeling nothing but iron and grime under my feet, I was pulled from the cage, from my friends, and walking on hard-packed earth.

My heart was humming along to the chaos. Willow leaped after me and was immediately struck down with a baton from one of the guards. Ericka stared after me, her eyes still wide with disbelief. I gave her what I hoped was an encouraging smile. She wasn't appeased.

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye or even make sure Willow could get up again.

I was hauled through the slave tent's exit and into the glaring sun, blinding me senseless. My eyes snapped shut, and I had to rely on my escort to be leading me in the right direction. I had passed the point of no return. My decision was made. I was going home with an orc, a stranger.

My eyes never really got a chance to adjust to the sunlight before I was pulled into another tent with low light and released without warning. I stumbled but kept my balance at the end. There were even more slavers here, but they were different, not nearly as brawny as the ones that kept watch in the slave tent. The orc followed the salesman to stand before me.

"Anything you like. Anything at all," the slaver said, his tone indicating that maybe he'd been talking to my new master the whole time, and I'd been too overstimulated to listen along. I had to remedy that, even with all of this adrenaline and fear pumping through my veins.

The salesman looked to me pointedly then to the orc.

My new master looked very uncertain. He was scowling in my direction. Was I projecting? Or was he wondering if he'd just made a colossal mistake himself? The salesman seemed to understand that the orc needed more prompting, so he continued.

"Perhaps we can dress her in traditional orc garb? Or perhaps, nothing at all? Humans can burn in the sun, but the final decision is yours."

Clothes.

They were deciding how to dress me.

The salesman slaver nodded once to the guards. They moved toward me and spun me around to reach the lacings of my slave shift. I didn't even have time to protest when they loosened the ties enough that they could remove the makeshift dress and pull it right over my head. I threw my arms over my suddenly bared breasts and pulled my knees in tight when I found myself suddenly naked.

"You have time to decide. Let's begin the cleaning process first," said the slaver.

"What the fuck," I murmured but was cut off when another set of hands went in with a soaked rag to clean me. I tried to jerk away from him, but another one came in to hold me steady.

"She is a stunning choice," the slaver said. My reflex was to push back from the guy running the cloth up and down my arms and across my torso. I let out a strangled yelp and hopped to my tip toes when he reached around me to clean my back and suddenly wiped the rag from my ass crack all the way up my front.

"Get off me!" I barked and threw an elbow at the guy when my thrashing got me loose for a moment. That moment was short-lived because the first guy grabbed my upper arm with a much firmer grip and held me to him to restrain me again. I ducked my chin to hide my burning cheeks behind my hair.

Humiliating.

This was absolutely humiliating.

"Stop."

The word was not shouted but demanded with such resonating power that we all turned to face the orc. He was looking at me, his expression furious and yet still contained. This orc was nothing like the immature jerks I'd seen walking through the slave tent. Angry as he was, he wasn't making threats or bullying the others to get his way. He simply expected to be obeyed.