Belle Dowson
OLIVIA
I was floating, drifting along.
I felt him scoop me up as Lyra dropped me out of her not-so-careful hands, and I remembered nothing after that. Everything went black.
Everything began to ache as I started to feel again. I refused to open my eyes, but I could feel the warmth of something fluffy over my highly sensitized body, the softness under my head, and a firm mattress below me.
I was aware I was in a bed, which made my stomach churn slightly.
I couldn’t remember what had happened after that man injected me and Lyra let me go. What had he done to me? I wish I could remember.
I steadied my breathing as I let my eyes flutter open lightly. It was blurry. I could make out a nice-looking silver chandelier above my head, but that was it.
My hands trembled down my body. I could feel the soft throw blanket I had been covered in.
I was in the dress Lyra had put me in. But that meant nothing—I had woken fully clothed at other times and had known I had been touched.
My body felt weak like jelly as I used my upper body strength to push myself up.
“Careful,” his voice spoke. My skin prickled. “You will be dizzy and at risk of fainting.”
I closed my eyes to avoid the world spinning. As I sat upright, I felt the soft, cushioned headboard on my back. I took a deep breath to help calm myself before I slowly opened my eyes to face him.
I gasped—he wasn’t alone. Standing at the bottom of the elegantly decorated bedroom stood three of them.
He was in the middle. His striking blue eyes focused on me. I clutched the throw over my body as if that would somehow protect me.
I looked at each of them. Each man was different, but they all had a dark look to them.
The tallest and biggest guy had cropped hair and was wearing gray sweats and a white T-shirt.
On the other side was a brooding figure. He was wearing a black button-down shirt tucked into some smart black trousers. He had brown hair and warm yet dark-colored eyes.
However, my eyes went to the evil one who had brought me here. His eyes had never left me.
“What the fuck is going on? Where am I, and what have you done to me?” I asked, my voice filled with hysteria.
None of them made an effort to move. They all just stood looking at me as I sat on the huge bed.
“What do you remember, Olivia?” he asked me in a smooth, calm voice.
My eyes were looking frantically through the haze of the last time I was conscious.
“I…I…,” I stuttered as I tried to recall what had happened to me. “Lyra she told me I was going home, then you said I was going with you, and then you, son of a bitch, stabbed me with that damn needle!”
I watched as the one I knew nodded at my memory, as if I had answered well and correctly.
“I was unconscious. Wh…what happened?” I asked. I pulled the throw to cover more of my body.
I could feel tears forming in my eyes. My mind was running wild with what he and his little gang could have done to me. It wouldn’t have been the first time. It made me sick that I hadn’t been alert enough to know.
“Nothing,” he looked directly at me, his striking eyes holding mine in his captive glare. “I sedated you, yes, to make sure you didn’t endanger yourself. I brought you here and put you to bed.”
I looked around at where I was—a gorgeous and massive room. The bed could fit more than just one person.
“What do you think happened?” The one in the dark shirt spoke up. His voice was silky, but it was deeper than the first man’s.
“Nothing that hasn’t been done before,” I hissed.
“Olivia,” Mr. Blue Eyes spoke again. I knew Lyra had said his name, but it wasn’t coming back to me. “Nothing has happened to you. You were unconscious but ~safe~.”
I scoffed at his words. How could I be safe? I had no idea who these people were.
“Trust me, Olivia. Right now, we’re the only people who won’t hurt you.” His words came out with power and force.
“Trust?”
I jumped off the bed to fight and argue but my legs gave way. I fell but the man in the sweats was fast—he caught me in his firm grasp just before I hit the floor.
“I told you to be careful.” The blue-eyed guy sighed, but my eyes were locked on the one who held me. His eyes were golden like caramel. I had never seen eyes like that before in my life.
The guy holding me helped steady me before letting me go but stayed close, as if he would catch me again if needed.
“How can I trust you? You took me here under force. You drugged me.” I looked back at the blue-eyed one.
“Olivia”—he said my name with a harsh sigh—“I’m not going to go over the same topic.”
“Well, fuck you. I need answers. I ~want~ answers. Right now, I’m in a strange home with people who I haven’t met and who know my name. Yet you claim I’m ~safe~, and that I just have to ~trust~ you. Guess what? That isn’t how I work. Now, who the hell are you, and why am I here?”
There was silence after the last of my voice left the room. Nobody moved or said anything.
“You’re in the Village, a place my father Noel created to keep us safe. I’m Matt, and these are Xavier”—he gestured to the stoic one next to him, then pointed with his open palm at the one standing closer to me—“and Thomas. Life in the Village is vastly different from the one beyond. Men work for my dad doing a variety of things, and women are expected to be there for us—”
“Like a whore housewife?” I spat back, but Thomas shook his head.
“You are not a whore, Olivia. We would never—” Thomas spoke, but I cut him off.
“Wait, we? We as in…” I gestured with one hand between the four of us.
“We’re a male-dominated unit. Men are necessary for jobs and roles. But our women are special. We believe in looking after them and protecting them. Many have gone through trauma, and Lyra finds them and saves them. A family is usually three men and one woman,” Matt said.
My legs began to wobble as he finished, and I felt myself about to give way. I was in shock.
However, just as my body tried to fight the fall, my legs gave way, and I landed right into Thomas’s waiting arms.
He scooped me up as if I weighed nothing and carefully placed me on the bed.
“All of you?” My voice was weak as my world blurred.
I could hear Matt tell Xavier to get some water, but everything faded, and I was back into my darkness.
***
My eyes fluttered open. The room was darker, but there was a dim light beside me, maybe from the bedside table lamp.
“Now,” Matt’s smooth voice spoke with authority. I slid up slowly so I was against the headboard again. “Are you going to be careful this time?”
I looked at Matt, who was sitting next to me on the edge of the bed.
“What happened?” I asked as I clutched my head.
“The sedative can cause fainting and nausea. Here.” He held out a glass of water. I took it with a shaky hand and inspected it. “It’s just water. As I said, you are safe here. Now sip it slowly. It will help.”
I slowly took a few gentle sips of the cool water before handing the glass back to Matt, who put it on the bedside table. I looked around. It was just me and him; the other two were gone.
“I thought it might be better to talk if the other two were out of the way.” Matt looked at me, and my eyes found him again.
“Maybe.” I shook my head slightly. “I’m struggling to understand. I’m going to live here with you?”
“Yes.”
“How? I mean, what about the other two? Will we all...I mean... Do we all...”
I was struggling to find the questions to ask what I needed to ask. However, Matt seemed to have everything under control.
“We will all live here. This room is yours. There are three other rooms above: single rooms for me, Xavier, and Thomas. In a few days, you will be asked to join us in a union ceremony. Each of us will vow to protect you, look after you, and create a home with you.”
“If I say no?” I asked.
Matt shrugged.
“Then you will not be permitted to live here. Lyra will be instructed to take you back to where she found you. And by what I watched before—your fear of what’s happened to you—I can safely say you are better off here than alone out there.”
My stomach churned as I thought of leaving. He was right.
I had been drugged and taken advantage of before. I’d had men pay for me and then leave me God knows where instead of taking me back to the street I lived on.
I’d had to beg whores for clothes and drug dealers for food, and still I’d been hungry and cold.
But the thought of being married to three men at once scared the hell out of me.
“Our union is something we’ll all work through; we’ll all have to adjust. Nobody will expect you to do anything you don’t want to. You may feel comfortable with one of us before the others. Every union is different,” Matt explained. He passed the glass of water back to me, and I took a sip.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to trust Matt and his two friends, and I couldn’t trust that they couldn’t or wouldn’t hurt me.
But I knew what the world was like outside the Village, and I knew it was dangerous for me—for any poor woman alone.
“You promise not to drug me again?” I asked, looking at his bright eyes. He shook his head.
“No, I won’t promise that, Olivia. I will only do what will protect you. When you’re unconscious or when you’re under this roof, please know no one will hurt you—not while I’m around.”
“You will purposely drug me. That’s fucked up!” I was appalled.
“Olivia, calm down. I don’t plan on sedating you. But if you put yourself in a situation that I need to get you out of safely, I will sedate you to get you out.”
“You make it sound like my life will be in danger.”
Matt looked at me with a fierce and stoic expression.
“Olivia, outside the Village the world is shit. But you know that—why else would you assume we touched you when you were unconscious? Get some rest the next few days. You’ll get to know us before our union.”
I watched Matt take the glass from me and place it on the bedside table. I was sleepy and light-headed from my fainting earlier.
Matt stood up to his full height and pulled back the duvet. I shuffled underneath and let my eyelids grow heavy. I wanted to watch him leave, but I failed, and my tiredness overpowered me.