Escaping El Dorado Read online

  I wasn't sure I trusted my voice enough not to betray the fact that I was close to tears, but I didn't want to lose my connection with the other person in the dungeon with me, because there was no mistaking that was exactly where we were. In a dungeon.

  "Who are you?" I whispered.

  "Not important."

  "How long have you been here?"

  "Long enough to know I'm going to die down here." The voice was so faint I wasn't sure if it was a woman or a man or even how old they were. It was like they hadn't talked to anyone in years.

  Before I could ask another question two guards came through the main door letting in a giant beam of light. I couldn't help but look in the direction of the voice. All I saw was a brown lump, as though the person had withdrawn so far in to themselves that there was nothing left to show the outside world.

  "Stand," guard one said. He was bald and looked a little like he belonged on a cleaning product. The man was massive though, a true mountain of a man, which made me even more nervous about what was going to happen.

  I did as he commanded and the other guard who was tall and lanky said, "She's so scared of you, look at her, practically shaking in her shoes. Do we need to tie her up?"

  "You want to take her to the queen like that, be my guest," guard number one muttered.

  "Come on, sweetheart. I'll make the ropes loose, don't worry," guard two said as he waved me toward the door.

  When I was close enough he unlocked it and let me step out before closing it behind me. Without warning guard one's massive bear paw sized hands grabbed my wrists and pulled them up over my head, almost pulling me off the floor completely. My tip toes were just able to connect and provide enough traction that I wasn't just swinging from his grip.

  "How am I supposed to tie her hands if she's swinging like that?" guard two asked with a sigh, like I wasn't completely at their mercy.

  "Didn't want her tryin' anythin'," guard one grumbled before releasing me.

  As soon as my arms flopped from his grip guard two grabbed them and tied them up behind my back. If the knots around my wrists were his version of loose then I really didn't want to know what tight was. The two of them marched me up the stairs and through the thick steel door that I would have no chance of opening by myself. When it slammed shut with a bang behind us I couldn't help but jump which only made guard two giggle like a child.

  We went through a few twists and turns and up another two flights of stairs before I was deposited on a stone bench that was just as cold as the floor in my cell. My hands were tied to a thick metal ring that was attached to one end of the bench, so I had no choice but to twist my whole body to see the queen when she came in. If I had thought the sheer dress she had been wearing in the conservatory was bad, I was wrong. A micro mini skirt barely covered what needed to be covered and the bra looked more like part of a string bikini than anything else.

  "You are going to tell me how you stabilized Atlantis or things are going to become unpleasant for you," the queen said.

  "Don't you want to save your world?" I asked desperately.

  "This frozen hell hole? No. I don't. What I want is to lounge on a beach or hike through a forest, not live in an icy tundra that never gets any warmer and only seems to get colder."

  "Maybe if you put some clothes on it would help?" My comment was past my lips before my brain could catch up.

  "That was a mistake. Show her what happens to people who disrespect the queen, Wyatt."

  I almost snorted at the name. It was the absolute last thing I'd expected. Fortunately I didn't, because I was sure that if I had then the backhand he gave me would have hit me even harder. As it was I gasped and grunted as I fell off the edge of the bench, sprawling across the ground. The only thing that kept me in place was the fact that my hands were tied to the ring.

  "Want to try again?" the queen's overly honeyed voice asked as I spat blood onto the floor.

  "I don't know what I did. It was all by accident. I was just trying to survive," I said through a lip that was already starting to swell.

  "So someone or something trying to kill you triggered it? Interesting."

  Part of me wanted to fight her, to tell her that it wasn't an intentional attempt on my life. I also didn't want to give her a reason to try and kill me though, and I had no doubt that she would if she wanted to even if it would stabilize her world. My life was very literally in her hands.

  I tried to gather myself up into a sitting position but it was awkward not being able to use my hands. The best I could to was trying to brace myself against the bench until I was facing her again.

  "What do you know about the murals?" she asked.

  "Nothing, just that they exist." I started singing songs in my head even though I never knew all the words, just so I could try not to project something I didn't want them to know.

  "That will only work for so long, you know, and it also makes it obvious that you're hiding things from me," she said, sneering at me, her pretty pink lips curving up in a way that made her look almost feral.

  I tried not to pay attention and to keep the songs going.

  "It would be so much easier if you just answered my questions honestly. I would prefer not to crack your mind open like an egg, but I will if I have to, or maybe I should just give you to Bricie here." She held her hand out and guard two, whose name was evidently Bruce, went to her like an excited puppy, kneeling at her feet and looking up at her like he was about to talk to God. "Do you want her, Bricie?"

  Brice looked over his shoulder at me and said, "I want you, my queen, but if you want me to take her I will. Her heart thumps like a rabbit being chased by a fox."

  My heart was pounding in my chest. She couldn't honestly mean what I thought she meant could she? No woman would do that to another, would they? Ice seemed to be swirling through my veins at the thought.

  "I bet you can make her heart gallop like a horse," she cooed down at him, which made my stomach turn.

  What I didn't expect was for her to gently cradle his head in her hands and lean down to kiss him. It wasn't a simple peck either, and there was nothing chaste about it. Tongues swirled around each other and Brice's hands went to the queen's feet, holding them like they were the most delicate thing in the world. As moans and panting sounds started to take place between the two of them I looked away. There was no way I wanted to see the queen making out with her lover.

  I heard Wyatt behind me before I felt him, so I wasn't completely surprised when I felt a hand land on me. I just hadn't expected it to land on my head. He was able to grip my head like it was a melon or grapefruit and twisted so I had no choice but to turn my head back to the scene before me or get some nasty bruises and risk possibly fracturing my skull based on how hard he was gripping it. I closed my eyes before I could see any more. There were moans aplenty and banging noises like people were coming in and out of the door.

  "Open your eyes," the queen panted.

  I could feel my brain getting confused at contradictory orders. I didn't want to open them but something was compelling me to do otherwise. When I did it wasn't Brice who was kissing the queen but Dres. I blinked furiously, but each time he was still there. "Dres?" I whispered.

  His head turned to me and he smiled in that knowing way he had before turning back to the queen and sliding his hands up her legs and under the strip of fabric I had called a skirt a few minutes ago.

  "What are you doing?" I asked, my voice sounding more hurt than I had thought it would.

  "I'm about to fuck my queen, the highest honor in the land," Dres said. His voice sounded the same, he looked the same, but his actions... This wasn't like him. He was one of the most straight-laced guys I'd ever met.

  I wanted to respond, to tell him how wrong this was, to beg him not to do this, not to make me watch, but my mouth just opened and closed like a fish with no sound coming out. Before I could even process what was happening the queen was naked and Dres was sliding into her, hissing and grunting with ever
y stroke. I tried to shut my eyes to block it out, but the more I tried the more focused on the scene I became.

  "Stop it! I don't care if you want to fuck your queen, but why do I have to watch?" I yelled after she'd had at least one orgasm, although I wasn't sure I was convinced. It was kind of like watching porn. Was she really enjoying it that much or just playing a part?

  My eyes were watering because I couldn't blink and tears were streaming down my face.

  "I don't have anything I can tell you," I said quietly.

  "But you have something you can't tell me?" the queen asked while Dres started fucking her from behind. My vision flickered though and it was Brice once again, just for a moment, before it went back to being Dres. Whoever was controlling me was losing their grip as I was able to blink a few more times before my eyes were stuck open again once more.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone come and sit down on the bench. Niall. I crawled over to him only belatedly noticing his cock was out and gripped tightly in his fist, his eyes locked on the queen and Dres. His dark eyes glanced down at me and he licked his lips. For a horrid moment I thought he was going to force himself on me, use the fact that I was tied up to his advantage, but Niall wasn't like that, had never been like that. Before I could do anything to stop it his eyes were drawn back to the queen and the moment passed.

  Even though he wasn't looking at me I still needed to try to get him on my side, thinking with his big brain instead of his little one, not that it was all that little. "Please, take me away from here," I begged. "You promised!"

  As though that was enough to break the queen's concentration on Dres she waved Niall over and started sucking him off. The two of them going at it with her like that was too much. Not only was it overwhelming because it was Dres and Niall, but it reminded me so much of what I had done on the beach with Griff and Finn that I was speechless.

  The queen's tits swung back and forth for a while before Niall grabbed them hard enough that his knuckles turned white around her pale flesh. I thought she would scream in pain, but she didn't. Instead it seemed to turn her on even more. As though it was a practiced motion the two of them picked the queen's limbs up and rotated her around their cocks so she was on her back before they went back at it.

  I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole. This was breaking me down more than I thought it would and not being able to look away was burning the images, images that I didn't want, into my memory. The flicker happened again though and this time it was Brice and Wyatt fucking the queen instead of Dres and Niall. I was able to shake my head and blink for a moment before I was stuck in the same position I had been in before. The whole thing was just enough for me to start questioning what was real and what wasn't.

  13

  Tessa

  My mind was playing tricks on me, right? That had to be the only explanation for seeing two men I cared about fucking the woman who was threatening to torture me. Or was this the torture? Maybe she had threatened them? Anything had to be better than them coming here voluntarily while I was locked up in a cell and banging the queen right in front of me.

  Even though my eyes were still being held open by some invisible force I tried to think about anything else other than what was happening in front of me. Every time I tried though one of them would make a noise that would draw my attention back to the present. It was infuriating and I had never felt so helpless in a situation that wasn't necessarily a threat to me before.

  "Do it, baby, do it!" the queen screamed, drawing my attention back to them once again even though I'd been trying to remember what the capitol of Alabama was for the last few minutes, and that was after singing the states in alphabetical order like they'd taught me in elementary school.

  Dres's hand locked around the queen's throat pressing his lightly tanned fingers into her pale ivory skin. Niall was now full on fucking her throat and she was making retching sounds every now and again while Dres held his hand there, evidently feeling Niall's cock in her throat. The whole scene was too much and I started crying for real. As the tears streamed down my face my brain seemed to short circuit and I saw Brice and Wyatt again like a TV playing two different channels, neither of which were coming in clearly, but I could see both enough to know that they were overlapping each other.

  Shouts from both the men announced that they had finished and the queen played the role of porn star perfectly all the way to the end. When they were finished she moved into a sitting position on the edge of the chair she'd been bent around the whole time, proudly displaying her well used pussy to the room.

  Once she'd cleared her throat a few times she said, "This will continue until you no longer have any kind of foothold on what is real and what's not. I will drive you insane, take your men, and use them up until they are nothing but lust filled husks of who they used to be. Once you tell me everything, and I do mean everything, I might stop torturing you. The longer you hold out the less likely that is to happen though. Boys, take this girl back down to her cell, and give her a change of clothes while you're at it."

  The queen stood and walked out, naked as the day she was born, while Wyatt and Brice were back in full force. Thankfully they had at least put their dicks away before they approached me. I had a feeling that if they had still been out I would have done something stupid.

  Wyatt untied me from the bench and dragged me stumbling through the hallways as though I couldn't quite control my body the way I used to. When we were back in the cell block he tossed a piece of material at me.

  "Change," Wyatt said.

  "Can I have some privacy?" I whispered, not wanting to get naked in front of them.

  "No. Change."

  I sighed and unfolded the material, which turned out just to be a potato sack for lack of a better description. It was still quite dark in the cell area so it could have been something else, but all I could find was a hole cut out in the middle of one end while the opposite end was completely open. There were two arm holes as well, so that was something. I pulled it over my head and let it hang down while I shimmied out of my dress underneath. I tried my best not to give them a show, but somehow I felt like they saw more than I wanted them to anyway.

  Once my dress was on the floor Brice held out his hand and I picked it up and gave it to him. The two of them walked out afterward and I was left in the dark once again. Grief and anger rolled through my stomach in a way that had me rushing to the bucket that I knew was somewhere in the corner just so I could vomit some stomach acid into it, because I sure as hell didn't have any food or water in there.

  The coughing finally subsided and I leaned against the bars of my cage, enjoying the cool feeling of them against my heated skin. Now I was just stuck with a nasty taste in my mouth and no way to get rid of it. I sighed deeply, trying not to think about what it meant that I was here and Niall hadn't come to my rescue. It wasn't as if the guys knew where I was, so if Niall wasn't coming then I was well and truly at the queen's mercy.

  "They'll be bringing dinner soon. There's usually some water with it," the voice said.

  I had in all honesty forgotten that anyone else was in that hellhole with me.

  "It's okay, most people have forgotten about me," the voice said and from the tone and inflection I was starting to think it belonged to another woman. A laugh sounded and she said, "You're right about that."

  "Why are you down here?" I asked, wondering if they'd stuck me next to a serial killer or something.

  "For not giving my daughter what she wanted," the woman said, sounding exhausted, as though that was the only thing she'd been thinking about for years.

  "Who is your daughter?" I asked, trying to figure out what was going on.

  "An evil person who was too spoiled as a child and grew up into a psychopath with no emotions or sense of right and wrong, just the desire to get what she wants by any means necessary."

  It sounded a lot like the queen, not that I would say that aloud, although I'm sure the other woman knew
what I was thinking. She remained quiet though and the two of us seemed to get lost in our own thoughts. I wanted to figure out a way to escape the queen and the guards before I was either killed or scarred forever.

  I didn't know my way around the palace since Niall had brought me here and I'd been wrestling with the guards on my way down. I had no idea how many guards were around the palace and how many the queen was fucking in an effort to control them or keep them loyal. My stomach turned again at the reminder of what I had had to sit through already.

  How did she get into power? I thought the founding families were supposed to be supporting the queen, but how could they support someone like that? Unless Hyperborea was the opposite of Atlantis and I just didn't understand how anything worked. At least in Atlantis the worst thing I'd had to deal with on a daily basis was the queen's advisers, this time it was the queen herself, and I wasn't staying in any cushy suite with my guys now, I was in a dungeon.

  The other thing I was having trouble reasoning out was that the queen wanted to destroy the four worlds. She wanted the single world and based on the little she'd said she wanted to rule over it and was willing to do anything to get what she wanted including using her magic pussy to corral any straight male into doing her bidding.

  A snort from the other end of the room startled me from my thoughts. "That does sound like my daughter," the woman said.

  "The queen is your daughter?" I asked, trying to make sure I understood.

  "Unfortunately. Yes."

  "So were you the queen before her?" I asked, unsure about the lineage of the monarchy in Hyperborea.

  "I was. She got fed up with waiting for me to die, so one night she drugged my wine and when I woke up I was down here. I've only seen her a couple of times since then, but each time she was all but naked and claimed that the only reason she hadn't killed me yet was because she couldn't kill her own mother. She doesn't love me though, not really, I think she's just keeping me around as a scapegoat."