Armin woke up lying down on a bed.
The room was painted in hideous shades of pink.
Across from him was a door that was painted pink, too.
Great, his mind raced in a panic, I’ve been kidnapped by someone with a severe obsession with cotton candy.
He pulled his frame up and staggered toward the door, testing the handle, it was locked.
A small, round window was pouring light into the tiny room.
Having woken up with a sudden start, he hadn’t initially realized the throbbing pain blooming at the back of his head.
He staggered back, clutching his head tightly in both of his hands.
He took stock of his situation.
He had clothes on.
The same brief he had been wearing—well, if a single pair of briefs counted as clothes too.
His robe was missing.
He had been comfortable in this attire when he first put it on at home, but now, he felt very exposed.
He had no idea how long he lay there on the mattress.
By the time he finally heard voices murmuring outside the door, he had wandered through his thoughts and back again, replaying every nightmare scenario until the light outside the small window began to fade into dusk.
A key turned sharply in the lock, and the door swung open.
Armin caught a brief glimpse of another door on the opposite side of a dimly lit hallway before a man entered, and the pink door swung shut behind him.
The man was tall—much taller than him—and incredibly well-built.
He wore a tight-fitting black top and a pair of dark cargo pants.
His beard was black and clipped short, matching the clean-cut hair on top of his head.
His eyes were piercingly cold; he seemed to take in every single detail of Armin but he didn’t speak a word to Armin.
Armin’s heart was pounding against his ribs, his thoughts racing a thousand miles an hour.
He didn’t say a word to the man, and the man clearly didn’t care for one anyway.
“Madam will see you now.
Come with me,” the man commanded.
Without waiting for compliance, he roughly yanked Armin off the bed by his bare wrist.
Armin yelled out in sharp pain.
The bruise on his arm from his previous fall against the concrete pillar had not been treated, and the tight grip aggravated it terribly.
The man didn’t seem to care in the slightest.
He simply dragged him along like a ragdoll.
Armin was truly terrified.
This was a nightmare situation that he hears only in wild stories.
All he could think of was one definitive thing: death.
”Where are you taking me?
What are you going to do to me?!” he stammered out, the words flying past his lips so fast he nearly bit the tip of his tongue.
There was no answer.
The man kept dragging him roughly down the corridor.
Armin tried desperately to keep up with the bruising pace, stumbling once or twice before he was suddenly flung into a room at the far corner of the hallway.
He lost his balance, falling forward onto the floor.
Before he could look back, the man was already gone, and the heavy door was shut directly in his face.
“Your brother has turned into a fugitive,” a sharp, familiar voice announced from the darkness of the room.
“He escaped last night and is currently hiding out in the next town across the river.”
Armin turned his head sharply toward the sound of the voice, blinking for the first time.
Madam Margaret sat there, looking as cold and regal as ever.
”My boys are currently searching for him, and they will get him,” she continued, her voice dripping with venomous intent.
“And when they do, and I finally lay my hands on him…
I will stew a broth with his head.”
She paused, before focusing her eyes on Armin.
“And you…
you are to be sold to a client.
Tomorrow, he will come to see you.”
She finished her declaration and leaned back comfortably into her leather chair.
As if on some secret, unspoken command, the door behind Armin burst open again.
He was immediately seized and dragged right back down the hallway to the small pink room by the same rough man.
Left alone again, Armin began to cry quietly.
He was terrified.
His frantic thoughts turned to his dad—so far away, completely unaware of what his sons were currently going through.
His dad probably wouldn’t even notice anything was wrong for days, so long as there was alcohol in the house.
It would have been a small comfort to see his brother, but even Archer was completely beyond his reach for the time being.
And now he was being sold like property?
”Oh, Archer!
What is going on, brother?!” Armin sobbed, his small shoulders vibrating as he cried harder into the mattress.
He was hungry.
Sleep would not come.
He was thirsty.
It was pitch black outside the small window before the door finally opened again.
The man who entered didn’t say a word.
He simply carried a tray over to the bed; on it sat a glass of water, some bread, and a slice of ham.
He fed Armin and gave him a drink which he would have rejected if he had been in any position to but he was famished.
The moment Armin finished the food, the man carried the empty tray out, locking the door behind him.
Armin wept again, but with food and water inside him this time, he could at least manage to cry himself to sleep.
When he woke up again in the bright light of morning, he realized he was sleeping on a different bed.
This time, however, everything was different.
He looked into the large mirror standing directly opposite the mattress, and his breath caught.
He was no longer in his briefs and robe.
What was more, he was clean, his hazel hair had been brushed back into a ponytail, but worst of all, he was naked.
This was clearly no ordinary bedroom.
Whoever owned this was wealthy.
The sheets beneath his bare skin were silk he could tell, and the heavy mirror frame opposite him was surely surrounded by gold?
The walls were patterned beautifully, and the room was perfumed, smelling of expensive blossoms.
Behind his reflection, he could make out a white door.
There were no windows in this room.
As he sat up, he noticed something else about himself.
Tied around his slender waist was a bow.
Large and bright red.
It, too, was made of silk.
He stared at his reflection, a wave of laughter washing over his panic.
I look like a birthday present, he thought.
Suddenly, the door burst open.
The man who stepped through the threshold was taller even than the man who had dragged him roughly, or the one who had fed him the night before.
He sported a modern undercut hairstyle, had sharp hazel eyes that matched Armin’s curious hazel eye color, and was muscular.
He wore only a red silk robe that left his broad torso bare, covering him only from the waist down.
He certainly was an attractive man, Armin thought.
He was clean-shaved even his chest had no trace of hair.
His physique instantly made Armin think of the bodybuilders and fitness pictures he had seen hung on the walls of the garage where he worked.
”Good evening, young man,” the stranger spoke.
His voice sounded polite and respectful, as though Armin was not lying on his bed stark naked.
”I am well aware that this must be a very unusual situation you find yourself in,” the man continued, taking a few steps into the room.
“However, you should know that I am not going to hurt you, so long as you do what I say.” He smiled warmly.
He came to a stop standing directly behind Armin.
He hadn’t even looked down at Armin’s naked body yet; instead, he kept his eyes locked onto Armin’s eyes through the mirror reflection, looking totally at ease.
Armin was bewildered.
He was still petrified, but there was something about this man’s calm demeanor that made him less afraid.
He knew the fear was coming from his own omega instincts, and this man was not telling him lies.
Then, the stranger said something that totally shattered that brief illusion.
”However,” the man carried on, the smile instantly vanishing from his chiseled face, replaced by an expression of malice.
“If you do disobey me, even slightly…
you will be made to suffer.
And you will watch your punishment in that mirror.” He nudged his head toward the gold-framed glass Armin had been staring into when he woke up.
A cry of terror caught in Armin’s throat, and his eyes instantly welled up with fresh tears.
The man, however, was suddenly smiling again.
“Anyway,” he said brightly as though they were about to discuss a movie or a dinner.
”let us get down to business.”
For the very first time, the man’s eyes raked deliberately across Armin’s body.
He looked down his neck, slowly along the line of his back to his narrow waist with the pretty red bow, across his butt cheeks, then down his slender legs, and back up to his face.
”Beautiful,” the man complimented rather quietly to himself, his voice dropping to an octave.
He reached out and undid the red silk knot.
The bow fell away from his waist, the smooth fabric brushing softly against Armin’s sides as it hit the floor.
The man stepped right up against his back, cupping one cheek of his ass firmly with his hand while leaning down to press his lips against Armin’s ear.
Armin could feel the power of the alpha leaning gently over him.
“Just as a last reminder,” the man whispered, “Disobey me, and you will suffer.”
He stood back again, untying the belt of his red robe and releasing the fabric.
Despite the sheer horror of his situation, Armin could not help but gasp.
Armin had never had sex before.
He had never been in a relationship, and between working endless shifts and paying off his father’s debts, he barely even knew his own sexual orientation.
His entire life had been strictly about survival and supporting his broken family.
The alpha standing behind his defenseless body had a shaft that was at least six inches long—and it was still completely soft.
”You really are a perfect little present, are you not?!” the man exclaimed.
Before Armin could even see him move, the man raised his hand and brought it crashing down against Armin’s left butt cheek.
His skin stung like fire, and Armin screamed out loud from the force of the spank.
“Now, young man, there is no need to scream like that,” the man chided smoothly.
“You will not scream again.
That is an order!”
“Fuck you!” Armin thundered back, the intense pain flaring his temper.
The man’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing!” Armin quickly cowed, his defensive walls crumbling as he shrank back in fear.
”Better,” the man said, his chilling smile returning.
Armin noticed that the man’s shaft was gradually hardening from the dominance display, swelling up to eight inches and growing thicker by the second.
The alpha immediately straddled Armin’s waist from behind.
Putting his massive tool between his slender thighs, he squished them around it and began fucking his thighs.
Armin could see in the mirror that the man’s eyes were closed, completely lost in the sensation of his hard shaft sliding between Armin’s legs.
Without a word of warning, the man suddenly slid his shaft out from between Armin’s thighs and repositioned the heavy head directly at the entrance to his middle core.
Armin gasped in shock as the head pressed firmly against his entrance, and then, in one fluid motion, the man forced himself inside.
Armin shrieked in violent pain as he jumped forward, leaping completely off the bed.
The man snapped his eyes open, his face darkening as he tilted his head to the side.
“Come back here, young man,” he commanded.
Armin ignored the command, rapidly taking two large steps backward, away from the bed, his chest heaving as he stared down at the man.
”Who said you could do things like this to me?!” Armin questioned, his voice echoing off the beautifully patterned walls.
“Who gave you the right?!
Did you ask for my permission?!
Did I allow it?!
Did I?!”
The questions kept pouring out of him like torrential rain.
He was getting angry without even realizing it.
He didn’t get pushed to anger easily like his short-tempered brother Archer, nor had he snapped when his own father sold him out on the porch.
But this was too much.
He lifted his finger and pointed it straight at the man’s face.
“Get out!”
Oh great, his inner voice immediately panicked.
We are pointing fingers at madam Margaret’s client now.
Fantastic life choice, Armin.
Not even bothering to retrieve his robe to cover his bare skin, the man slowly walked toward the door.
He opened it, stepping across the threshold before turning back around to face the room.
”You disobeyed me,” the man said sternly.
He was looking over his shoulder, hiding the emotion in his eyes so Armin couldn’t read what he was thinking.
The brief surge of adrenaline instantly vanished, and Armin dropped his pointing finger at once.
“In half an hour, you will see what happens when you break my rules,” the man declared coldly and slammed the door shut.
The reality of what he had just done hit him like a bucket of ice water.
The heavy click of the lock echoing through the room signaled the end of his brief rebellion.
Armin felt the hot tears come spilling down his cheeks again, his mind thoroughly confused and broken.
This luxurious room looked significantly better than that wretched den of serpents Madam Margaret ran with her angry mob.
But even here, he was being treated like one of those tragic tavern girls.
Even worse, he had successfully provoked a terrible punishment out of the sadistic man who had just bought him.