VLAD (The V Games #1)(24)

“I can’t believe you bought these women,” Irina mutters.

Ignoring her, I unlock the shed and push through the door. I step aside and usher Irina in. Her shoulder, now covered in a thick winter coat, brushes against my chest. If there weren’t sixteen people behind us, I’d push her against the dark, dingy shed wall and show her what other nefarious deeds I’m capable of.

I grip her elbow and guide her down the dimly lit stairwell. “This way.”

She tries to jerk her arm from mine, but I tighten it. Little Irina is going to wear many of my bruises. We make it to the bottom that opens up into a giant area covered with mats. The walls are lined with rooms used for various things. In the women’s case, they will sleep and train here. By train, they will learn to fuck like their lives depend on it.

Because they will.

As soon as Stepan, Irina, and I leave, we’ll lock the fifteen women inside. They’ll be fed and cared for. They just won’t be allowed to leave.

I turn and stare down each one, quickly assessing them. I weed out the good from the bad in one quick glance. And the one cowering behind a thick-waisted woman in the back…well, she’s going to be Father’s favorite. He likes the small, dark-haired ones. The ones who most resemble girls. The ones who are unable to put up much fight. With a barely stifled sigh, I point at her.

“Name?”

She peers up at me as though I could possibly be her savior. Big brown eyes. Messy hair hiding her from the world around her. “Darya.”

“Take Darya to stable one,” I tell Stepan. “The rest of you may choose your own stable.”

Irina is stiff beside me, but wisely doesn’t say a word. When I’m commanding in my element, people bend to my will. They bow at my feet and obey my commands. Even the sweet girl I’d love to spend each day fucking the fire out of.

“Stables? What are we? Livestock?” a mouthy blonde with a ratty fur coat challenges me.

“Call yourselves whatever you want,” I sneer. “But you belong to me now. If you’re wise, you will train, and you will succeed. If you behave, you’ll be rewarded. Simple.”

“Doesn’t sound very simple at all, asshole,” she yells back.

Belligerent bitch.

“Come here,” I seethe, my voice low and dangerous.

The woman eyes a chair nearby. With venom in her glare, she picks it up and heaves it toward Irina.

Rage.

Hot, quick, violent.

I don’t think as I knock the chair out of the way before it takes out Irina.

Yanking my new favorite hooked knife from my inside pocket, I lunge for the woman. Slash. Yank. Splatter. So fast. So efficient. I stare down in awe at the bloody, gory mess pouring from her stomach. Her intestines slide from the slices I inflicted and fall to the floor with a slurp. Several women gasp and whimper, but it’s a soft sob I recognize that pulls me from my furious haze.

I push the still standing, but quickly emptying example of a woman, and she crumples to the floor. Fourteen women now. Father won’t be pleased. However, the high-pitched screams as Stepan locks the young woman into stable one tells me I’ll soon be forgiven.

Father loves a screamer.

With blood dripping from my knife, I turn and point it at each woman. They all cower and scamper off to the stables leaving Irina gaping at me in horror.

Sweet Irina, this game is deadly and I always win.

Your stupid father threw you to the wolves.

“Y-You’re a m-monster,” she rattles out, her teeth clacking together.

I stalk over to her and smear a bloody thumb along her creamy cheek. “As if you did not know this, little Irina.”

“She was just a woman—”

I cut her off by pressing my bloody thumb to her plump lips. “I’ll only say this once, so listen clearly. I. Do. What. I. Want. She was a whore, bought and paid for, and now she’s an example to the other women.”

Her blue eyes widen, and she blinks rapidly at me. She starts to pull away from me and the monster she claims lives within me strikes. I snag her dainty throat and yank her to me.

Diana.

The Games.

Father.

I try to focus on all of that, but I can’t. All I see is her. Irina’s pink lips smeared with the whore’s blood. Lips that part so she can gasp for air. I lean forward, slightly releasing my grip, so she can suck me in. She needs to learn that I’m her master now. The moment I slid that stone on her older sister’s finger and Diana begged me to look after Irina too, they became mine. Irina is mine in some capacity, and I can feel my grip on her life tightening like a vise. It makes my cock painfully hard knowing she not only won’t be marrying someone of her father’s wishes, but she won’t be marrying anyone at all. Little Irina will die a pure, delicate virgin because I command it.

If I can’t have her perfect cunt, no one else can.

“Sir,” Stepan calls out, his voice sharp. It cuts through my haze and I snap my attention his way. He doesn’t hide behind cool aloofness like Vas or Viktor. Stepan wears his emotions on his goddamn sleeve. Another lesson I’ll have to teach him.

“Yes?” I challenge. He’s uncomfortable with me choking the sister of my fiancée. I can see it in his eyes. But he, of all people, knows every level of the game.

“The woman is secure.”

“Good. Make sure Father knows where she’s being kept,” I instruct.