The Chain
367 Words
Chapter 9 – The Chain
The collar returned.
This time, it had a chain.
Alesia stood at the center of the ballroom—barefoot, wearing nothing but Nico’s black silk shirt, the chain clipped to the silver loop around her neck. The room was full. Nico’s men watched in silence. No one dared speak. No one dared touch.
Except him.
Nico sat in his throne-like chair, legs spread, drink in hand, the end of the chain wrapped around his fingers like a leash.
“A lesson,” he said. “For loyalty.”
Her heart thundered.
“Nico—please—”
He yanked the chain. She stumbled forward to her knees.
“Crawl.”
Alesia hesitated.
He raised an eyebrow.
So she crawled.
Her face burned with humiliation, shame, heat—and something deeper. Something she didn’t want to name. Something twisted inside her.
She hated him.
She needed him.
When she reached him, he pulled her up and into his lap. His fingers slipped beneath the shirt, traveling slowly, possessively. She was bare underneath.
“She obeys because she’s mine,” he said to the room. “Not because she’s weak. But because I’ve made her forget who she was.”
His mouth grazed her neck, the crowd fading into nothing.
Then he whispered only for her:
“Tell me who you belong to.”
Her voice cracked. “You.”
He pulled her harder against him. “Louder.”
“You, Nico.”
“That’s right.” He stood, holding her, the chain still wrapped around his hand. He carried her out as if she weighed nothing—his conquest, his prize, his possession.
Back in the privacy of his room, he threw her on the bed, unbuttoning his shirt slowly. She lay there, trembling.
“You want me to be gentle?” he asked.
She nodded.
He smiled. “Too bad.”
And when he took her, it was brutal, relentless, designed to remind her that every part of her now belonged to him. Her body surrendered first. Her mind wasn’t far behind.
And when he finished, she was shaking—but not from fear.
From the dangerous, shameful pleasure of it all.
- Writer
