Chapter 17: Talk it out
2040 Words
I drove to work and rushed into Mrs. Denfords office. “Destiny, what happened, where have you been?”
I blurted everything out only skipping over the s****l details and made sure to explain Hunter and Jake were the only reason we were still alive, I didn’t want them being hunted down by the team’s special forces. Mrs. Denford was typing this all up, nodding here and there and by the end, my scary boss actually looked relieved and smiled, “I’m so glad you are both ok, but I need you to see the counselor, this must have had a massive toll on you both mentally.”
When I went to argue, Mrs. Denford held up a hand, “no buts, you know the protocols of this job Destiny.”
We were finishing up when Melissa came in and faltered, “oh, you already told her everything?” I nodded and Melissa breathed a sigh of relief.
“Go see the counselor girls and take some time off.”
“But—“ I started and shut up at the glare Mrs. Denford gave me.
It was Melissa who said, “umm, can we bring Jake and Hunter in to the counselor with us? I didn’t know what to do with them, so they’re waiting outside.”
I could see Mrs. Denford about to object, but the pleading look on Melissa’s face softened her tone, “fine, but you can’t all go in together, two at a time.” Melissa nodded, smiling while I groaned, I knew Melissa would choose Jake to take with her for support.
When we headed outside to get the brother’s I had to brace myself, it always threw me off my guard seeing them look so unnaturally and angelically beautiful. I tried as always to ignore Hunter’s sexy as hell face and rippling muscles when I looked at him wearing sweatpants again and a tight muscle fit white t-shirt, showing everything off.
“Why are you dressed as a little girl?” Hunter asked me.
“I’m not,” I snapped.
He looked at the white bow in my hair, but didn’t say anything else. When we went back inside to see the counselor, I quietly and quickly yanked the bow out of my hair and threw it in the bin.
We went up the stairs and sat in the waiting room. Melissa and Jake went in first, leaving me stuck with silent Hunter. yay.
When he did decide to acknowledge me he asked, “where’s the bow?” Panicking, I gave a half laugh, “oh, uh, I don’t know, it must have fallen out.” He narrowed his eyes slightly, but thankfully he had waited too long and so long to notice my existence that Jake and Melissa came back into the room, “you’re next,” Melissa said.
It looked like she had been crying, and I noticed Jake seemed unusually quiet, not making any jokes. “You can wait out here,” I said to Hunter as he got up.
“Uh, Des, the counselor thinks it’s a good idea to have them with us in there, they were our kidnappers and she thinks it would benefit them to hear our side of the story.”
“Oh God,” I groaned and dragged myself into the counselors room with Hunter following behind. Hunter sat silently beside me in the other chair and I couldn’t read what he was thinking, even sitting down he still towered over me.
The session started simple and easy and I almost relaxed until it grew suddenly deep. “So Destiny, when you were held captive, can you tell me what happened?”
I looked at Hunter and sarcastically said, “besides being raped by him?”
Hunter turned and looked at me at that and matter-of-factly answered, “pretty sure you enjoyed every minute if your screams of pleasure were anything to go by.”
I blushed hotly, and the counselor looked to Hunter, she was a much older woman and wore a wedding ring but that still didn’t stop her from sneakily checking Hunter’s good looks out before composing herself, it had been fleeting, but I still caught it.
“You don’t agree that it was forced, Hunter?”
He sneered at us both, “not really, I hardly pinned her down—“
I cut him off, “well, there was that one time when I was cleaning the tables.”
Hunter glared at me and I tried not to shrink back.
“Well I got the impression you didn’t want me to stop.”
How the hell did he know that? My only response was, “Pfft.”
The counselor took over, “Hunter, you realize that sometimes a woman may still orgasm, but that doesn’t make it consensual.”
He frowned at her, looking confused, “why not?”
“Because it isn’t something she agreed to, you chose to make her have s*x with you without asking.”
He thought for a moment and then said, “so if someone were to come up to me and kiss me, because they didn’t ask first, it’s s****l assault?”
She shook her head, “not quite, it’s not that simple, if you are dating this person, for example, it’s natural they or yourself would kiss one another without asking beforehand, but if on the other hand you told them to stop kissing you, and they ignored you then yes.”
I had never seen Hunter frown so much. “She never told me to stop, and she never tried to fight me.”
The counselor pushed her glasses up, “it’s complicated to explain to a being such as yourself, but not everybody is brave enough to say no or fight back.”
“I don’t think it was quite like that,” he replied.
She sat back in her chair and asked, “what do you think happened, Hunter?”
I watched curiously as he thought it over, “I think I just did what the queen ordered, but I made sure to be gentle and not cause any pain, I made sure it was pleasurable for her, and she didn’t seem afraid or upset or angry after.”
The counselor looked intrigued now, “hmm, so you were made to do this by someone else, but you didn’t want to hurt Destiny?”
Hunter glanced at me and quickly looked away again but nodded.
“Well, that sounds like you were both victims of forced intercourse, and you formed a sort of trauma bond with one another.”
Hunter argued, “no, it doesn’t feel like that.”
“Why not Hunter? Did you enjoy being intimate with Destiny?”
“No,” he glared at me and then looked back at the counselor, “but I’m a demon, I know torture and pain and what rape is, it didn’t feel like that.”
When she tried to ask him more about hell and what he did there, he clammed up and refused to speak anymore.
I felt guilty making out he had been some kind of brute who had forced himself on me, he hadn’t been like that, it was just like he had said, he had been ordered by the queen and even though he didn’t like me he had still in his own way looked after me and made sure to make it not hurt.
The counselor distracted me from my thoughts, “so Destiny, you say you were chained up and if you tried to escape, you would be punished for it?”
I nodded.
“How were you punished?”
I suddenly felt awkward and looked down at the floor, I hated feeling vulnerable.
“Well, uh, it depended on what you did and what mood the queen was in. I would be beaten by either one brother or both.”
“How were you beaten?”
“Do I really need to go into the details?” I mumbled.
“Yes, if you can, it can help a great deal to share your trauma, and it would be good for Hunter, one of your abusers, to hear your side.”
I flicked my eyes upto Hunter and saw him wince slightly at the word abuser being used to describe him.
“Well, uh, just punched and kicked, hair pulled, choked, that kind of thing.”
The counselor nodded looking unfazed, and it oddly made me feel better.
“How did it make you feel?”
I looked at Hunter and away again, he was watching me intently now.
“Umm, scared, angry.”
The counselor nodded again, “what else happened?”
“Umm, well, there was a time the queen wanted both brothers to humiliate me, I think? I’m not sure, she made them, uh, urinate on me.”
I breathed a sigh of relief to see the counselor still looked unfazed and professional. “And how did the experience make you feel?”
I blushed so hard, not daring to look in Hunter’s direction, knowing he was still watching me.
“Not too bad,” I mumbled.
“What do you mean Destiny?”
Screw it, I decided to do the whole ‘rip the band-aid off’ method and blurted, “I think it turned me on.” There, I said it and kept my eyes firmly to the floor.
When I dared to peek up at the counselor I was very happy to see that same professional, unfazed look. I slowly looked towards Hunter who had his cold and unreadable face on, but not before I had caught his look of surprise, an expression I had never seen on his face before.
The counselor got both of our attention with her next words, “have you always been into the submissive and dominant scene?”
I shook my head, “I was a virgin, and isn’t that a bit more than b**m?”
The counselor nodded, “you may be right, but I can’t quite remember the other terms. Destiny, I’ve noticed that not once have you cried or seemed upset, I know everyone deals with their traumas differently, I just hope you haven’t pushed it to one side and that you are dealing with what you went through.”
I nodded and decided to be a little fair to Hunter, “I am, but Hunter is right, the intercourse wasn’t forced, not by him or his brother anyway, they did a good job looking after us as best they could without the queen knowing.”
I was so happy to finally leave the office, and we met back with Melissa and Jake, who were kissing very passionately. “Awkward,” I muttered, and they both broke apart in surprise.
“Sorry, Des,” Melissa grinned.
“Yeah. You know you can always join in,” Jake smiled.
Hunter frowned at them both, and I rolled my eyes.
Melissa, surprisingly, was the one who suggested we all eat out together. On our way to the restaurant after getting ready, or rather Melissa wanted to go home and change, both her and Jake acted all loved up while me and Hunter walked in silence.
Hunter and some man knocked into one another walking along the street and the man took great offense, “watch it, idiot.”
Hunter looked him in the eyes with his usual ice cold and empty look, making the man take a step back, he grumbled, “f*****g asshole,” and kept on walking.
I smirked but looking at Hunter I saw he literally could not have cared less if he’d tried.
“Aren’t you bothered by that rude jerk?” I asked.
“Should I be?” He replied.
“Yes.”
“Why?” He asked.
“Because he was calling you names and being rude.”
Hunter shrugged, “so? He is so insignificant, what do I care what he says or thinks.”
I wished I could be like that, if the man had said those things to me, I would have gotten upset and ended up wasting time arguing with him.
- Writer
