“Customer service microchip your mother!”
Across the room, Elias snorts.
“What do you think you are saying, girl?”
“I... I am telling you what I think of you!”
“And who taught you this language?”
“My father. He taught me all the words. And I read some.”
“I see.” Mattias’ palm is no longer whacking my ass. It is splayed across it, rubbing gently.
“Tell me,” Elias chimes in, his handsome face holding an expression I can’t quite fathom. “What is the worst insult you could come up with?”
“The very worst?”
“The very, very worst.”
It’s strange, how I can’t quite manage to say the words at full volume. Even now, after all these years, they slip out in a whisper, as if I’m afraid my father will hear me say them.
“Parking warden.”
Mattias and Elias both burst into laughter. I feel Mattias’ arms curl around me and squeeze me tight in something like a hug.
“You are too precious for this place,” he says with something like regret in his voice.
“Then let me go!”
“I can’t. And it wouldn’t make you any safer,” he says. “Men will seek you out. One day, sooner or later, you will be taken. It is better to find an owner now than remain wild.”
Says him.
“I liked being wild.”
I squirm and he lets me up. I could push away from him, but instead I find myself nestling into his lap. Maybe I have missed human contact. Maybe it is nice just to have another body beside mine. Even if it is a mean captor who laughs at the way I speak and punishes me for perfectly reasonable attempts at escape.
“I saw the auction,” I say. “There were so many men.”
“You’re rare,” Mattias says. “You’re in high demand.”
“But...” I bite my lower lip. “What if I don’t like the man who buys me? What if he’s not nice? What if he hurts me? What if...” My questions speed up and run into one another as I start to panic.
“You will not be harmed. You have no idea how precious you are. You will be taken very well care of. You will have the best food. You will sleep in the finest beds. And you will bear the next generation.”
I wrinkle my nose up. Food is good, but I wasn’t starving on my own. I can feed myself. Not as well as these men can, but I can survive.
“I never thought of having a man before...”
“You’re a sweet little thing,” Elias says, speaking from his seat across the room. “I know whoever purchases you will take care of you.”
I am encouraged—slightly—by their words. There is something about these two that makes me trust them. Mattias has already given me pleasure to go along with the pain, and they have fed me.
They are not like the wild men in the market who would have torn me apart just to fuck a piece of me. They are different. I find myself nestled in Mattias’ lap, wondering why they are so different.
Mattias holds me, lets me sit and think, gives me a chance to take in my new situation, perhaps even consider, maybe being open to it.
A heavy knock at the door gives me a small fright.