“He-he’s just a friend okay. Let me see him, please.” She hated to beg but she’d do it if she had to.

Watching her closely, Aidan grabbed the latch and pulled the door open. Abby all but ran inside. Her stomach dropped at what she saw.

An even larger cage stood in this room as if that was its sole purpose. Alrik clung to the metal bars of the cage. Heavy metal shackles bound his wrists and ankles to a large metal loop on the wall behind him giving him only so much space to walk. Blood smudged the metal from where they’d dug into his wrists.

Abby couldn’t hide her reaction, she ran to him. Her hands closed around his on the bars and for some reason tears welled in her eyes. “Alrik.”

She closed her eyes to hide her growing weakness for him and listened to the sound of his heavy breathing.

“What have they done to you?” he said. Anger, no, fury laced his words. He was seething. The look in his eyes was something she’d never seen before. He was not in control. He had gone past that point and had snapped. The look made her shiver and sent a bolt of fear into her belly even though she knew he wouldn’t hurt her.

Abby looked up at his gorgeous face. Blood covered his lips making them bulge, and his left eye was so swollen the skin around it had turned a dark purple. “Did they beat you?” She couldn’t keep the sound of hysteria out of her voice.

A tic pulsed at the line of his bearded jaw. “I’m fine. What have they done to you?”

“Well, nothing really. Alrik, they said something about a challenge and I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

She felt his hands curl tighter around the bars beneath her hands. His gaze darkened with fury and he pinned that lethal look at Aidan. “She is mine.”

“That remains to be seen.”

Abby turned sideways so she could watch them both.

“She’s here with me right now. That shows you everything you need to know.”

Aidan shrugged. “Shows she has a kind heart, that is all. The men will appreciate that all the more.”

“Alrik, what’s a challenge?” What do I do? she wanted to say.

Alrik pulled himself into the bars with a bicep curl then his dark gaze locked on hers. “They will fight over you. Whoever wins gets to keep you, use you however they want. They will take your body, Abbigail. These men are savages.”

“Not without your wish, I assure you,” Aidan added hastily.

Abby’s head started spinning. “What? Use me?” She knew what he meant but still trying to believe that it was happening to her was an entirely different thing.

“Yes, Abby. Use you as a man does a woman. Let me out of here, Aidan, or I swear—”

“You swear what? You’ll break through the bars? I doubt it. They’ve held stronger men than you.” Aidan stalked like a predator to the cage. “Let me ask you, king, how does it feel to be on the other side of the bars?”

Alrik roared. Abby barely had time to move to the side before he lashed through the cage, his arms swiping hard for Aidan. Aidan ducked easily to the side, a satisfied smile on his lips. The chains didn’t let him reach far but if Aidan hadn’t moved he would have caught him.

“It doesn’t feel good, does it?” taunted Aidan.

Suddenly, Aidan grabbed her arm and started pulling her away. She fought it, digging her feet in. Spinning back around she grabbed onto the bars one last time. She met Alrik’s worried gaze. “What do I do?”

“I will kill them all.”

The way he said it, with such a dead finality, sent a chill down her spine. He meant it. He would find a way to get out of there and he would kill every last one of them.

“I don’t want you to kill anyone.” His gaze flickered with surprise then he stared off beyond her shoulder at Aidan. “If anyone touches her, I’ll slaughter every one of you. There will be no mercy.” He didn’t say it in a threatening way but in a casual ‘this is how it’s going to be’ way. That made it scarier.

Aidan didn’t give him a chance to say anything else; he latched onto her waist and pulled her kicking and screaming from the room. She screamed loud enough for the whole castle to hear, but no matter how loud or how hard she kicked, he didn’t let her go. She stared into Alrik’s eyes as the door slammed shut, blocking him out. She’d never felt this raw feeling before, like she was being peeled away from something so necessary to her.

Aidan set her down and she whirled on him, enraged. Her hand shot out and caught his cheek with a hard slap. His head jerked to the side. She flinched at the cracking sound and took a step back as panic engulfed her.

She’d just hit her captor. No way in her mind could this bode well for her. Aidan’s head slowly turned back to her. Something hot and earthy filled his eyes, startling her. When he stepped towards her, she flinched and threw her hands up in front of her face to catch a blow. But it never came. Something else did.

Her hands were jerked down in a rough grip, and then her body thrust up against his. His mouth came down a second later and ravaged hers. She tried to process it, but her mind struggled to keep up with all that had happened. All she knew was that he was kissing her like a man dying for his last touch. It was hard and swift and when he pulled away, they were both panting.

“I will win you at the challenge.”

It was a promise if she’d ever heard one.

She shook her head in denial but he only jerked her back upstairs. She followed him like a zombie, which worked for her because it gave her a minute to process all that had happened in such a short span of time.

 After they made it back upstairs, they forced her to sit at a table with food and drink shoved in front of her. She ate and drank like a zombie…little bites and sips. She just tuned out all the demons around her watching her with hungry eyes.

Her mind ran over that kiss and all she could think was—he didn’t kiss like Alrik did.

After picking at her food, Aidan and two other big men, one with golden blonde hair cut at his shoulders and another with dark red hair that fell down to his chest, showed her to her room. They locked her inside with a resounding click.

While the thought of being locked inside a strange room scared her, it also gave her some courage to sleep. Just not a good sleep. She woke throughout the night, her gaze sweeping the room for strange men only to fall back asleep when she found none. It felt strange to sleep without Alrik near. Her gut churned with worry over him. Had they beaten him? How was he? A part of her actually wanted him to break down the bars and come grab her, just minus the slaughtering part.

When the door unlocked the next morning, she followed the golden haired demon and the redheaded demon solemnly downstairs. She felt like she was walking her last steps to the death chamber. Only, they wouldn’t kill her. No, they wanted to use her. Her hands were slick with sweat and she wiped them repeatedly down her pants. They led her down a different hallway this time and into a room big enough to be a ballroom. It looked like it could hold many long tables but it was devoid of anything--save many demons standing around the sides of the room. Their gazes were on her immediately, traveling over her body in a way that made her skin crawl. She wanted Alrik so badly she felt physically ill with it. Her stomach clenched and she swore if she but bent over she’d vomit.

Aidan waited at the front of the room. He looked every bit the commander standing tall, his chin up. His eyes smoldered at her. The two guards let go of her in front of him then took positions on either side of the room with the others.

“What’s going on?” she asked. She had a feeling she knew but she had to hear it.

“Today we will hold a challenge for the rights of the human, Abbigail,” Aidan announced in a loud, ringing voice. The demons murmured to each other.