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"The expression on your face tells hter-in-law?" Suddenly he was standing, towering over me, all seven-plus feet of hiht ht I could barely breathe After a moment, he used it to force me over a slab of rock, facedown, and brushedstrand of his hair knotted into a harsh braided whip and, with a bone-jarring crack, he brought it sweeping across ht where the strain had been the worst

My composure vanished I screa against

"You are not my equal! Do you hear rew , his hair coiling like snakes around his head

I rolled over onup at him, mute, unable to do more than stifle the sobs that lurched up in my throat His eyes flashed and I kneere at a pivotal point I could so easily die if Imove

"I would kill you nowI would kill youbut it would spoil ainst me "How dare you lure my son away? How dare you set him up to take my place? To strike me down in his mother’s eyes? How dare you come into my family and ruin my life! You are a worthless lump of flesh You are less than the wor Did nothing My life was hanging by a thread

Hyto caught ht aroundto break He pulled rin spread across his face "Now, I think you shall learn what it feels like to ride a real dragon and not that weak son of an to disassociate I heard the swish of his robe as he pulled it back, and the next runt, he reverberated through my body like another fist in my stomach

Menolly withstood thisshe withstood worseshe was strong She h this I will survive this I won’t ever let him win--he can violate my body but he cannot violate my soul

"You like this? Answer me, slave!" He yanked on my hair, so hard I shrieked "Reed I had to respond

"Yesyes, Master" The words echoed out ofon the ith no power put into the to me

"I will kill you slowly, in front of hiony, and he will know he could do nothing to stopdoll I landed on the floor with a bone-nuh the tears and snot running down froer

"Smoky loves me He’s my husband I will always know he loves me Do you understand that? You can beat me, you can kill rave"

He stood there panting, staring atme square in the hip I screamed as he yelled for Hanna

She scurried in

"Get her out of ht Now! Before I kill her"

Hanna hurriedly yanked h the door and down the hall

"Hurry, hurry! If we stay in his presence, we die" She bustledthe curtain shut Only then did she letme onto the pallet as she huddled with me After a while, she let out her breath

"He is in a o out, to work off his anger I know not what you did to hiaze as she began tofor the oint I knehat I’d done He wanted me And he did not want to desireto hi him, to make him feel superior But most of all, I simply existed Smoky loved ht there, was the answer

"All I have to do in order to anger him is exist His son has turned on hi"

Hanna nodded "That would do the trick, all right He’s an arrogant beast--white dragons are the worst when it co ways They crave power and they feed off fear Any defiance is seen as an insult" She gently swept irl Then, sleep Right now, it’s the best you can do for your body"

As I leaned forward for her to examine er My very existence had becorace, for his fall frooat, and he wouldn’t rest until I--and Smoky--were punished for his h to ain He would never be able to terrorize us enough to o

I was in the hands of a psycho A psychotic dragon So a prospect compared to this

Chapter 13

"Caled out of slu badly My back burned, and I was sleeping on my stomach on the pallet, covered by extra blankets I’d taken a fever by the tiot est medicines and salves--but I’d been so strained by Hyto’s abuse that I could barelyout Every place on my body hurt And the fever, I suspected, caht me back to the cave, I told Hanna about my queasiness, and she helped me as I vomited as much as I could, then pressed a cup of tea into my hands A few sips helped calan to subside

"You’re a skilled herbal wo had happened--I could sense it, but I couldn’t pinpoint what "I grew herbs and helped out e as a midhenwhen I had a home" Then, she put me to bed and stroked my hair until I fell into an uneasy slule" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>