Bound

  Bound

  A Faery Story, Book 1

  Lexi Blake

  writing as

  Sophie Oak

  Bound

  A Faery Story, Book 1

  Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Copyright 2019 DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Edited by Chloe Vale

  ISBN: 978-1-942297-25-3

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

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  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Author’s Note

  Beast

  About Lexi Blake

  Other Books by Lexi Blake

  Dedication

  For my girls. Every time I write a heroine, I think of you, my daughters. You girls are everything I could want in a heroine – smart and honest, loyal and brave. May you both find your happy ever afters, my loves.

  Now put the book down. Until you’re at least thirty. Forty. Just put the book down…

  Dedication 2019

  Still for my girls who are really young women – one of you is far closer to thirty than I would have imagined. I still pray for your happily ever afters and know that they might not look the way I thought they would. Your happily ever afters can be anything, my loves. Life does not have to end in a white picket fence and two point five kids. Your happily ever after could include a man you love or a woman. There is no one way to love. You might find it in being happy with yourself. No matter what, know that I am your champion. I am always behind you. I might not always be able to catch you, but I will be there to help lift you back up. I’m something better than a fairy godmother. I’m your mom. Forever.

  Chapter One

  Once upon a time, in a land closer than you would think…

  She was having the weirdest dream. Megan Starke stared at the scene around her. She called it a scene in her head because it wasn’t real. She was in some sort of luxurious tent. There was lush carpet on the floor, but on the outer edges of the space she could see grass and patches of loamy earth. The tent was lit by odd lanterns. Odd because there didn’t seem to be a flame. The light was strong, but it was almost like it was moving inside the opaque glass.

  Like fireflies flickering.

  “Are you okay?”

  She glanced up from the cage she found herself in. Cage. Yep, she was in a cage. When she thought about it, the cage totally made sense. The gorgeous, slender blonde chick in the cage across from her did not.

  “I get the cage,” she explained to the blonde, who also happened to be naked, but then everyone in the cages were naked, including herself. “I even get the nudity. I’ve got a meeting with my regional manager next week and I’m not ready for it. Nudity is a sure sign of anxiety. The cage is because I hate my job and my life and I can’t seem to find a way out. Hence the luxury of the cage, though I think my subconscious is wrong about that. I mean my paycheck is good enough to keep a roof over my head, but nothing like this.”

  The bed she’d “woken” on was the most comfortable she’d ever been on. She found her naked body covered with soft silken sheets. She’d been brought delicious foods. It was only when she’d asked for coffee and the small serving lady had asked her what coffee was that she’d realized she was dreaming.

  And it might be a nightmare.

  The blonde’s head turned as though seeing her from a different angle might help her understand. “You speak too fast. I understand some of your plane’s words, but not all. I am fresh from the old plane.”

  Yeah, a gorgeous blonde who didn’t speak her language and flew on old planes. She didn’t know how to interpret that one.

  A withered hand reached out to her and when that hand touched her arm, the world had gone cold.

  What a find you are, my dear. I think I know just where to take you.

  She shook her head, forcing the vision back. The last thing she wanted was for this weird dream to take a turn. It was natural that she was anxious. In a few days she would take a step that could change her life forever.

  “I’m going to a munch,” she said to the only woman in the tent who seemed interested in her. “That’s a safe way to meet people in the lifestyle. I’m going to see if this is for me, and no anxiety dream is going to make me change my mind. Ah, that’s why you’re here. You’re the inner symbol of my insecurity. I’m fairly certain I’ll be the worst-looking potential sub at that munch. Yeah, that’s what this is about.”

  The woman merely shook her head and turned to the equally stunning woman in the cage next to hers. They began a conversation in a language she didn’t understand, and Meg sat back.

  She would forget all of this when she woke up in her own bed. It would be a blur in the early morning light, an echo of some dream life she’d had. She should really put a notebook beside her bed so she could write down these crazy dreams she sometimes had.

  Maybe one day she could turn them into a story.

  “Miss Meg, I need you to come with me. I know our ways seem strange to you, but one day you’ll see what a great honor all of this is.” The small woman who’d greeted her with pastries and hadn’t known what coffee was stood at the door of her cage. She was dressed like she was participating in a Renaissance fair. And she was seriously tiny.

  Meg stood up, pulling the sheet around her. Just because it was a dream didn’t mean she shouldn’t be modest. “I’m sure being put in a cage is a great honor.”

  Cara—she’d called herself Cara—held a circle of keys in her small hand. “You’ll be saving a life and maybe a whole kingdom if you are what we think you are. Please come with me. Miss, if you try to run, you should understand that there is nowhere to go.”

  She said every word carefully, as though she had to think about each one.

  “Well, naturally there’s nowhere to go. I think that’s what this whole dream thing is about.” She moved to the door of the cage as Cara opened it.

  She didn’t even think about running because all that would do was morph the dream into something terrible. All her anxieties would chase after her.

  Wasn’t this what she was supposed to do? When she realized she was dreaming, she should take control and then she would be in charge.

  She stepped out, ready to tell Cara that she wanted coffee and a TV brought to her room because she was going to clear off her DVR in this dream.

  Instead, two large men stepped from the shadows, and before she could
pull away, each had a wrist in his grasp. Men? She wasn’t sure they were men at all. They were humanoid, but their skin wasn’t a color that came from human DNA.

  Fear snaked along her spine as they dragged her hands up over her head and the sheet dropped away. Cold metal pressed against her palms and suddenly she was tethered to something above her head.

  This was the part where the dream went bad.

  She cursed her freaking subconscious for punishing her even while she slept.

  A bright light swept through the tent, a tidal wave to her senses. Someone was coming. She couldn’t see them, but she thought Cara and the others were moving away from her.

  Were they running? Leaving her to whatever her fucked-up brain had decided to send after her?

  A massive shadow blocked the sun and she shrank back in fear. Well, she shrank back as far as the chains she was in allowed her to.

  That shadow was a man. It became clear as he stepped inside, though he was backlit by the sun. Strong shoulders that seemed to go on for days, big arms. He was muscular and masculine, and she was naked in front of him.

  A deep voice said something in a lilting language she didn’t understand, and suddenly, the curtain to the tent dropped. She could see again. Yes, the shadow was a man, a beautiful, terrifying man, but at least he seemed human.

  “She does not speak Gaelic, Your Highness,” the small man who served as her jailer said softly.

  The man with the pitch-black hair grimaced, his sensual lips curving down as he switched to English. “I have no title here, Reeve. Speak to me as you would any other customer.”

  He looked at her straight in the eyes for the first time. She felt a thrill of excitement. Not excitement. Fear. The racing of her heart had to be fear, right? She couldn’t figure it out, but she knew the huge man in front of her made her do the one thing she was worried she might never do again—feel.

  And wasn’t that the cruelest dream of all?

  She needed to wake up and now. She didn’t want to know where this dream went.

  “What’s your name then?” His voice rolled over her skin, even from across the tent.

  It was obvious where this dream was going, and she would play along. She wanted it over with. She always woke up before the truly bad stuff began. When she had dreams about being killed, she always woke up right before the first blow. So all she had to do was push this and it could be over.

  He’d hit her, that thing that had taken her. He’d reached out with his emaciated arm and struck her into darkness. She hadn’t imagined he would be so strong, but then he hadn’t been a man at all. He’d been a shadow stalking her on her way home, following her into the alley, and then she’d woken up somewhere else.

  “Are you all right then?” The man in front of her drew her from those dark, confused thoughts. “Come on. Don’t be afraid. Tell me your name.”

  Was it two dreams sliding against each other? Maybe she was sick and this was some kind of fever dream. She had been stuffy the last couple of days.

  “My name is Twenty to Life because that’s the time you’ll do for kidnapping me, you son of a bitch.”

  She waited for the broad man to strike her, then she would wake up and she could go about her dull life.

  Then she could forget those red eyes and how cold his hands had felt. She would forget how those eyes had burned into her as he’d chuckled, and right before she’d lost consciousness, she’d been certain he was taking her to Hell.

  She’d gotten out of that nightmare. She could get out of this one.

  She should have known it wasn’t a pleasant dream and that these weirdos with their soft beds and good-smelling food would eventually turn into monsters. It was how her damn brain worked since the divorce. Sure enough, someone was going to smack her, rape her, and then potentially gut her. It looked like it was the big, hot guy’s job. She waited to feel the terrible blow that would likely signal the end of this dream, but the man with the long black hair simply smiled, showing even, white teeth.

  Her breath caught in her chest. When he smiled, he was devastating.

  “All right then, Twenty,” the man allowed in his lilting accent. “My name is Beckett, but you can call me Beck. And my mother was actually quite nice. I would prefer you didn’t curse her. Yell at me all you like, but let’s leave my mother out of it. Tell me, why should I purchase you instead of these other lovely women?”

  She hated being naked in front of him. Where the hell was this thing going? “I’m being sold? Someone is selling me like a piece of fucking meat?”

  Beck shook his head. “Language there, darlin’. You’re in a market, trussed up like a pretty, plump pigeon. Did you think you were just hanging on the chains for show?”

  “Your…I apologize, sir. The girl is rather ignorant,” said the small man named Reeve. He barely came to Beck’s waist. Compared to Beck, he looked like a boy. A boy with a bushy beard and a pointy red cap. All the jailers wore them.

  “I am not ignorant.” She also hated feeling small, and that was where she was now. Trapped. She was trapped and she couldn’t find her way out. Anger started to flare through her. She was always trapped, wasn’t she?

  “I did not mean it that way.” Reeve’s fists clenched in obvious frustration. She’d noticed that he always tried to maintain a soft tone when speaking to her. He was polite, even when she cursed him. “The lady is obviously intelligent, though lacking in any kind of manners. She is from the Earth plane.”

  Beck turned from the smaller man and back to her, his mouth hanging slightly open. He stared at her, as though he couldn’t quite process the words. It gave her a chance to study him.

  He was tall. He had to be at least six foot four. He would tower over her. She was only five foot five, and a rather round one at that. The god in front of her didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. He was broad-shouldered, his arms thick with muscle, though he didn’t look like some steroid-crazy gym guy. He’d earned his muscles. She would bet he hadn’t earned them pumping iron. He worked, and at hard, most likely physical, labor. His skin was bronzed from the sun.

  If his body was heavenly, then she didn’t know how to describe his face. It was all sharp planes and harsh angles that came together to form something truly beautiful. His jaw looked like it was carved out of granite. But his eyes were like soft, gray stones in his face. He was, without a doubt, the loveliest man she had ever seen.

  It was too bad he was a dream, and not one she would have thought to have. She’d never gone for his type before. Beck looked like an escapee from a Renaissance fair, with his open-necked, linen shirt under a leather vest. His trousers were made from some sort of animal skin, as were the boots that came to his knees. A sword peeked from behind his shoulder, held by a scabbard across his back.

  “Is she truly from the Earth plane?” Beck asked.

  “Yes, sir. You can see why I called you.” They both stared at her like she was some rare, exotic creature at a zoo.

  Suspicion tickled at Meg’s consciousness. Why exactly was she here? She’d read articles about human trafficking. Had they led to this particular nightmare? Maybe there was another way out. She bit her lower lip and looked at the five other girls in the tent with her. They were caged in the same fashion, though these women kept their heads lowered and complied with their jailers’ requests. “You shouldn’t buy me. I’m not very pretty. The other women are prettier. They’re thinner, too.”

  The other women were all blondes. They looked like something out of a Swedish high-fashion magazine. She did not fit with them. She carried around an extra five or ten pounds that never seemed to go away. She was an overblown hourglass in a world where svelte was worshipped.

  Beck frowned. It did nothing to mar the perfection of his face. “Are you cruel then, love? Funny, I wouldn’t have thought that of you. It’s mean to point out their flaws. They can’t help that they don’t get enough to eat. Why do you think they’re here selling themselves?”

  “You don’t want
her, Your Highness,” a soft voice said. Meg looked over to see the blonde nearest her staring at Beck through the bars of her cell. “She doesn’t understand a thing about our world. She yelled at Cara for not having all the foods she wanted. I believe she is cruel. I would be thrilled to belong to you.”

  Way to throw a sister under a bus. “Yeah, fuck you, too.”

  Beck shook his head and looked slightly disappointed in her. The spark of shame that went through her was unexpected.

  He walked over to the young, waifish blonde. “She is not from this plane. She is frightened. Allowances must be made. I hope you all find kind mates today. I hope your masters value you all for the precious gift you give them, but I must find a bondmate.”

  Beck gave Reeve a hand gesture that sent the smaller man into action. Within seconds, drapes were drawn, and she found herself in a private room with only Beck inside. Sunlight poured in through a hole in the top of the elaborate tent that seemed to function as some sort of skylight. Now that they were alone, it felt like a spotlight. She was painfully aware of her unclothed state. She could feel her nipples puckering under his steely gaze.

  “It is not kind to flaunt your beauty to less fortunate women.” Beck’s voice was deep and allowed no room for disrespect.

  She wasn’t sure why, but she needed to know where this went. She was here and he moved her. Maybe there was more to this than she’d thought.

  If this was some kind of bondage fantasy her libido was playing out, she would go with it. “I don’t understand. I wasn’t trying to be mean. I wanted you to buy one of the others. I’ve decided you might be difficult to get away from. I thought you would do it because they’re prettier than me.”

  Beck’s handsome face bunched up as he seemed to mull her words. “On what plane are they prettier than you?” He laughed. “Sorry, love. I do remember hearing stories of where you come from. Food there is plentiful, yet the women starve because the men won’t take care of them.”