Trinity Rising: Book Two of the Wild Hunt (Wild Hunt Trilogy 2) Read Online Free PDF

hand grabbed her hair and twisted it into a rope around his fist; she yelled again and was rewarded with another slap, this time across her buttocks. The breath whooshed out of her at the sudden sting. That seemed to excite him, for he struck her again, left and right across her rump. She flinched but stifled her cries, knowing without quite knowing how that if she showed her pain he would only hit her harder.
    Eager fingers probed between her thighs, followed by his thick member. Grasping her hips, he pulled her hard against him. Teia squealed, but at least he had released her hair. Pushed face-first into the pillows by his weight, every breath was a struggle. Drwyn’s fingers gripped her hips with bruising force, his dense body hair coarse against her skin. Each thrust of his pelvis jabbed painfully at her insides.
    Eyes screwed shut, Teia clenched her jaw. It would be over soon, Macha willing. The panting and heaving would end, if she could just endure. His movements quickened. Teeth clamped on her shoulder and she bit into the pillow under her face to keep from screaming. Soon now, it had to be soon now. Harsh breaths, harsher words that grew into a bellow of triumph as he strained hard against her buttocks. His breath fanned her ear for a minute and then he rolled off her.
    Teia drew her legs up slowly, keeping her face hidden in her hair as she turned onto her side. It was all she could do not to cry aloud: her shoulder was on fire. Through the strands of her hair she saw him, chest heaving, mouth open in a broad grin of satisfaction. She smelled sweat, stale wine and the bitter realisation that although he echoed Drw physically, there the resemblance ended.
    Sometime towards morning Drwyn took her again, with as little tenderness, before falling into a sated sleep. Teia stared up at the tent roof, too exhausted to cry. After a while she dozed, too, but his rasping snores soon woke her again. Birds chattered outside and a finger of pale light edged across the carpet from the door flap.
    She sat up, raking her tangled hair back from her face. Between her legs she was abominably sore, but when she touched herself she found no blood, only Drwyn’s sticky residue. She looked across at him, sprawling and slack-mouthed. Still asleep, praise Macha.
    Slowly she slid out from under the covers and stood up. Her knees refused to support her at first and she almost fell. Taking very small steps, she made her way to her clothes. She put on her dress, rolled up the shift and pushed her feet into her shoes. After a second’s thought she stuffed the little looking-glass into the middle of the bundle, then peeked outside.
    Nothing stirred around the camp but a few dogs squabbling over discarded bones in the grass. Even the chief’s guards had disappeared. The sun was a pale disc in an oyster-grey sky, its light thin and colourless as the smoke rising from the heap of ash that was all that remained of the celebratory fire built on the embers of the old chief’s pyre. She thought of Drw, and how different her life had been then, and her throat closed up with tears that wouldn’t fall.
    Teia stepped outside. Normally the camp would be teeming at this hour; women building fires and kneading bread, men checking their gear and feeding the horses before going hunting. No doubt everyone had celebrated the new chief’s anointing so enthusiastically that they were still too drunk to lift their heads.
    Clutching the bundled shift, she hurried through the clusters of tents to the stream where she had gone to fetch water the night before, then downstream a little further, to the next shallow place. From there the camp was barely visible; no more than the peaks of the tents to be seen above the tall grass. That would hide her well enough. She crouched down on the sandy bank and took out the looking-glass.
    A ghost-white face stared back at her, eyes red from weeping circled with sleepless shadows. Dried blood crusted the corner of her mouth and