Surrogate For Alpha Dom

#Chapter 179 — Bound Trigger warning — Assault (non-sexual)

Ella

"It’s all right, Ella."

The first priest says, approaching me as one might a skittish horse — with slow, measured movements and hands exposed to show he holds no weapon.

"We only want to protect you."

"Protect me from what?" I question shakily, my back flush against the locked door.

"You have a very powerful magic inside you, and if it's allowed to come out you’ll be exposed.We can’t let that happen." He explains, using a tone much too gentle to be trustworthy.

It’s as though he’s trying to trick me, to convince me he’s kind when he truly intends malice.

"I don’t have any magic." I insist, wishing that I did.

Maybe if I was magic I might be able to put a stop to the things happening here — to protect the others without bringing harm to myself.I was so preoccupied with this statement that I almost missed the second piece of information.

"Exposed to what?"

"You do, it just hasn't shown itself yet."

The second priest sighs, keeping his distance but watching me with sharp eyes.

"At least not in ways you understand.Tell me, have you never noticed how much stronger you are than your peers? That you can hear and smell things from much greater distances? That you can run faster, jump higher, suffer greater injuries with less pain?"

He inquires, his hawkish gaze searing into me, "do they not follow you? Gravitate to your side and obey you as a leader?"

My head spins, making me dizzy with the possibilities.He guesses correctly, but that can’t be because I have some sort of special power.It's just the way things are...isn’t it? "And exposed to a world you cannot yet join."

The first man adds.

"It must happen when the time is right - but that time is a very long way off."

"I don’t understand."

I squeak, a sense of pure dread settling in the pit of my stomach.

"We know, Ella."

The second man proclaims, "And I’m sorry that this must happen, it will not be pleasant, but it is necessary for the future of our people."I shake my head, fighting back tears.

Their words are triggering every alarm bell in my young mind.I know what men do to little girls under the guise of necessity, the pretense of helping or protecting.

And I know exactly how unpleasant things can get.

My blood runs cold, and my pulse races, triggering a strange new energy deep in my bones.

It pulses through me like a bolt of electricity, a wild thing writhes just beneath my skin, feral and rabid — begging to be free.

hiss, my body shuddering with these

at each

was spot on — another week and we’d be too

"I’m sorry, child."

professes gravely,

not do this if there

I’ve ever experienced before,

at me to run, to get

tell me that whatever these men intend will be far worse than anything the doctor or dormitory matron have ever

isn’t anywhere to

down on me.I try to scream, but the

into his palm, but he doesn’t

from the

man grabs my legs, and I’m lifted off

thrash violently against their hold, my screams muffled and garbled as

the metallic tang

gagging, fighting for air and struggling to focus on

or how to fight them — I’m powerless in their strong grips, and they seem completely unaffected by

in the wind

distant keening pierces the

cries are deeper than my own, thick with grief and pain more complex than the

A deep voice, tinged with concern,

"It’s too much."

"Just a little more."

voice, floating above me,

"We're so close."

from, and the priests don’t seem to hear them

task with single-minded focus, and i’m nothing more than a pawn in their game — tiny and

the floor and pinned

my wrists while the other sits on my

pearlescent sheen glimmering like moonlight, glowing in

wrapping it around my body, it tightens around me with the unyielding

it

my sides and my legs tightly shut, I’m completely

grip, and soon they’re wrapping my head, as if they intend to mummify

falls over my mouth, the priest

my scream escapes before the moonlight closes over my gaping lips, locking my face into the contours

able to breathe, though

awake but I’m trapped in my own body, unable

there motionless, my brain screaming at my nerve endings and muscles to move, to do something - anything! But nothing happens because

of glass? The jostling of beads? novelebook A

nose is filled with some pungent, herbaceous fragrance a moment before drops of moisture seep through the silk

are laid over my body, stones or crystals placed in deliberate patterns on

desperately trying to fight the cocoon, that foreign electricity in my veins warning me that I won't be able

of time, but I refuse to give up hope

to chant then, speaking a

the small room, carrying arcane power older than