The others.

There it was again; his admission that she wasn't the first person he'd abducted. And there was a part of her that wanted to know what he'd done to them. What were his plans for her?

As if he were a mind reader, he gave an answer.

Carter leaned back, licking his lips, a weird gleam in his eyes. "All the other people that have come on my land, that have trespassed, have paid."

"What do you mean?"

He stared with a blank expression, so she asked again.

"I took care of them. I helped the women get better. But none of them appreciated me. They all fought." His voice was flat and this incited more fear than if he'd yelled.

"What did you do?" Her voice was tiny and for a second, she didn't think he heard the question.

"I did what I had to." He stood up and began pacing the room. "The men...I didn't even bother bringing them here. The moment they saw me, they figured I was up to no good. So why help them?" A satisfied smirk spread across his face. He looked as if he'd done the world a service.

But Sloane knew that when he referred to the others, he meant the women. It didn’t take him long to continue.

"The women...I tried. I tried to make them understand that I was helping them. But they didn't understand. Or maybe they didn't want to." He stopped at the bed and leaned forward with a pleading expression. When he spoke of the women, his voice took on an apologetic tone.

She pushed herself away from him, scared he would try to hurt her. But he didn't move any closer to her or reach out for a touch.

"So I took care of them. Sometimes, the hunt is what I crave.” His tone had changed, becoming menacing. He lowered himself to the bed, something evil in his eyes. “Maybe I want them to misunderstand my intentions."

She took a shaky breath, struggling to keep her lips from trembling. "Do...do you want me…" There was a quiver in her voice as she struggled to ask the question, pretty sure she knew the answer. But she needed to ask anyway. "Do you want me to misunderstand?"

"You mean, do I want to hunt you?" He turned his face toward her, some of the evil replaced with hurt.

All she could do was nod.

"It's not like I ever think 'this one will be fun to hunt down'. I just think, whenever I realize that they think I intend to hurt them, that's when I realize I want to."

His explanation made no sense and it just scared her even more, but she didn't dare say a word.

"But you seem to be coming around."

The statement came as a shock. How can I be coming around when I've hit him with the tray and bit him? Maybe not struggling against him when he allowed her to use the toilet was her saving factor.

"You do understand that I don't want to hurt you, right?"

She didn't trust her voice to betray her feelings, so she nodded.

Carter moved closer to her but she had nowhere to go. Her back was pressed against the wall so hard, she was starting to get a headache.

"You understand that you're mine." He reached out and placed a gentle hand on her right thigh.

She couldn't keep her body from tensing, not just for the touch, but for the words as well.

You're mine.

He'd said that before and she had forgotten until now. Intense fear gripped her heart.

Before she had a chance to do anything, Cater slid his hand under her thigh and gripped hard enough to leave marks. He pulled her toward him, causing her to fall back. In one fluid movement, he was sprawled on top of her, using both hands to pin hers to the bed.

All she could do was yelp in surprise before he crushed his mouth against hers. It wasn’t gentle like before, but forceful.

She wanted to fight back, and she even tried to twist away, but he was so much stronger. She was trapped under him, his mouth assaulting hers.

He pushed his lower half against her, making her gasp in shock. Her brain exploded with a dozen visions of what he was going to do.

He pushed both of her wrists into one of his hands and slid his free one down the side of her face. Despite the calluses and the way he’d kissed her, his hands were gentle, almost caring.

Her body began to shake as rape flashed across her mind. His touch did little to disperse the thought since his hand slid toward her neck.

"You're mine." Carter whispered against her ear as his hand trailed down to her collarbone. He let his fingers glide across one side to the other before taking them down to her breasts.

The whimpers escaped before she could contain them. His focus was on his hand as he palmed her left breast and began to squeeze.

She cried out and tried to sink into the bed, away from him.

But he ignored this and continued to caress her. He had a sly smirk on his face before switching to the other breast.

Tears flowed from her eyes, dripping into her ears. She twisted her head from side to side, not sure how that would help, but desperate to at least try something. His body felt hard, in more than one place, against hers. She tried to lift her legs, but the chain restricted her left leg from too much movement and the way he was lying on her created the same effect on her right leg.

"Don't you like this?" His voice could have been gentle, even soothing. But she knew what he was going to do to her and she didn't want any of this.

"No! Please, no!" She wailed, no longer worried about containing her fear.

He ignored it all and slid his hand down her body. He stopped long enough to slip his hand under the waistband of her shorts and panties.

"No! Stop! Please!" She begged as he pushed his fingers into her. She cried as he pumped in and out, a proud expression on his face.

Carter found a rhythm that pleased him and he kept looking from her face to his hand until he felt he was finished.

"Just a taste of what's to come." He muttered as he released her and stood up, licking the fingers he'd used to molest her.

Instead of kicking out at him like she should have, like she wanted to, she curled into a ball and cried herself to sleep.

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