Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 218: Sick to My Stomach

[Suggested song for this Chapter – Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby, Cigarettes After Sex]

"I radioed Han as soon as I saw that you and your horse were gone," Alton told her. "I knew straight away what you’d done," his voice shook with suppressed emotion, whether it was anger or sadness, she couldn’t tell.

"I told him to send Miro and a dragon escort down to the harbour to wait for you outside the palace. Then I sent a message to our connection in the palace.

We don’t know who it is that remains active in there, but Brenner and Opal still have access to the pigeon network they were using with their Aunt. It’s quite extensive, and I was able to get a pigeon away within hours after I knew you’d handed yourself in. That bird probably beat you to the palace," he laughed humourlessly.

"I had no idea if the insider would be able to get you down to the harbour or not. I stayed at the message station in case they replied that it was impossible, or that they had a better plan to get you out of there."

"Thank goodness they acted so quickly," her voice cracked. "A few hours more and I would have been married to that psychopathic bastard. And if I’d tried to escape and it didn’t come off, he would have buried me so deep in that dungeon I would never have seen the light of day again," she shuddered to think what could have happened to her if she’d been caught.

Alton closed his eyes with a small sense of relief that she hadn’t been married to his Uncle. He had fully expected the man to marry her immediately so he could consummate the relationship.

Despite his ruthless nature and complete lack of empathy, his Uncle remained true to his old fashioned values that dictated no sex before marriage and brides being at least eighteen. For women he didn’t value or plan to marry, it was an entirely different set of rules, but there was absolutely no doubt that his Uncle still highly prized Delphi.

"Did he check that your virginity was intact?" he couldn’t help prying.

She nodded in wonder. "How did you know he would do that?"

"I knew he would want to marry you as soon as possible, but I’ve also never know him to marry a woman who’s not a virgin."

"You know him too well," there was a trace of reproach in her voice. "That’s exactly what he had planned. I don’t want to think about what he had in store for me if I wasn’t still a virgin."

Alton had a fair idea of what would have befallen her, but he certainly wasn’t going to share his thoughts with her. Let’s just say he had never been happier that she had held out on him.

"How did they manage to get you down to the water?" Alton was burning with curiosity about how she had managed to escape.

"I got a note inside the cherry jam jar. I suspected the jar might have been placed there by a Rebel consort because they all knew cherry jam is a favourite of mine and it’s rare. You have to specially source it and order it and you need some sway to do that. The palace only stocks strawberry and raspberry red jams. The note told me to overpower the techs when I was having my gynaecological exam, and that the door would be unlocked, and then I was to run down to the harbour."

"Brilliant," Alton breathed. "You probably wouldn’t have had another chance to escape for weeks."

They both knew he was holding back on saying the words ’after you married him’.

"Almost certainly not," she agreed.

"Are you ready to talk about what he did to you?" he asked softly.

Alton had both his arms around her now, and she rested with her head against his chest so that he couldn’t see her face, which was easier for her.

She didn’t reply for a few minutes, and he didn’t rush her, but then he felt her shoulders shake and he leant his head around to check on her.

Tears were silently streaming down her face...

"Hey. Hey there babygirl. Don’t cry now. You’re safe now. He’ll never get his hands on you again. I’ve got you," he soothed, pulling her in tight.

She buried her face in his chest and sobbed, and he let her cry for as long as she needed to.

She was ashamed to cry about something that was part and parcel of what she had signed up for with this Rebellion. Crying didn’t seem like something a soldier would do, especially a man.

But then a man would never have been subjected to what she had been put through, she thought.

Then again, men were tortured, and actually, what had happened to her when she was half-drowned by the giantess was exactly what would be done to a man. And she was pretty sure they wouldn’t be sobbing like this...

She tried to pull herself together, taking deep, steadying breaths and relaxing her muscles to stop them shaking.

She was safe now. There was nothing to cry about. She had survived, and she had barely been stuck in the palace for more than a couple of days.

Unfortunately, the images from those couple of days were paying on rerun in her mind, and the worst of them kept flashing up at unexpected moments, causing her to almost gasp with pain and shock.

She tried her hardest to lock the memories up in a little box and push them to the back of her mind. She could think about those awful moments in detail later, at her leisure, if she wanted to work through the traumatic experiences, but she didn’t have time to dwell on them now.

"What happened, baby? I’m sorry but I really need to know. My imagination is absolutely goddam torturing me."

"I’m not ready to talk about it, Alton," she sniffled.

"Did he rape you? Just answer me that," his voice was filled with agony.

"He didn’t take my virginity... but he did touch me."

Unexpectedly her stomach turned over as she said those words and the memory of his hands on her body hit her like a stinging slap to the face.

She leant over and retched.