"Look at those hips. Built for making sons."
"Pick one of us, sweetheart. He'll be your husband tonight."
The men crowding around me leered without shame, eyes crawling over my body like they were seconds away from taking what they wanted.
I scanned their faces in a panic, and my gaze caught again on the identical tattoo inked into every one of their arms.
I knew that tattoo too well.
Declan had the same one on his arm, except his was red. Theirs were black.
I'd asked him once what it meant.
He'd been honest with me. It was the symbol of the Crowe Tribe, and he was their young heir. He'd even joked about bringing me back to be his mountain bride.
"Where's my cousin? And her boyfriend?"
"What did you do to them?!"
I whipped my head left and right but couldn't find either of them. Fear knotted tight in my stomach.
Declan had told me once that the people in his tribe were still stuck in the old ways. Because men outnumbered women, they practiced polyandry: one wife, multiple husbands.
Some of the tribesmen would even use the gold mines to lure women in.
But he'd sworn that didn't happen anymore.
So what the hell was going on?
"You mean the traffickers? They took their gold and left a long time ago. Off spending it somewhere nice, I'd imagine."
A bald man rubbed his chin, grinning at me like I was something amusing.
"Traffickers? What are you talking about?"
I scrambled to my feet and tried to push past them, but not a single one of them moved an inch.
The bald man shoved my shoulder, impatience flashing across his face.
"Sun's going down. Pick one, or we'll all take a turn."
"Ha ha Haha! "
The circle of men erupted in laughter.
"You're the Crowe Tribe, right? Your young heir is my boyfriend!"
The laughter died. Every man went still.
For one heartbeat I thought I'd actually scared them. Then the bald man's palm cracked across my face and I hit the ground.
His boot came down on my chest, pressing until I couldn't breathe.
"Using the young heir's name to lure women here is the oldest trick in the trafficker playbook."
"You women are all the same. You hear about our gold mines and come running with your tongues hanging out."
"Since you won't pick, tonight we all get a turn."
"We'll show you what Crowe men are made of."
Before I could scream, he grabbed me like a rag doll and slung me over his shoulder.
"My boyfriend isn't a trafficker! His name is Declan Crowe. He IS your young heir. Just bring him here and ask him!"
I beat my fists against the bald man's back, thrashing, desperate to break free.
"You dare speak our young heir's name out loud? You must be tired of living!"
He hurled me off his shoulder. I slammed into the ground chest-first, and white-hot pain tore through my ribs.
"Where did an outsider woman even hear our young heir's name? Speaking it is a punishable offense. Did nobody tell you that?"
"Today I'm going to teach you how things work in the Crowe Tribe!"
The man yanked the belt from his waist and brought it down across my body, again and again.
Every strike sent tremors through me. My chest still throbbed from being thrown to the ground earlier, each breath shallow and ragged, my body so weak I couldn't even form words.
"Barrett, take it easy. Don't kill her."
"Yeah, we paid the trafficker half a pound of gold for this one."
Their conversation hit me like ice water, and my mind snapped to Jeanette's boyfriend.
When I'd gotten into the car, I'd heard him on the phone the entire time, telling whoever was on the other end that he'd deliver the goods on schedule.
The goods. He'd been talking about me.
I never imagined my cousin had gotten involved with someone like that.
I didn't even know if Jeanette herself was okay.
"If you don't believe me, call Declan and ask him. I have photos of us together on my phone..."
From the way they talked, I could tell Declan held real weight in their world. If I could just prove our relationship, they'd have to let me go.
But before I could finish my sentence, another hand cracked across my face.
"She dares call the young master by his first name? I'll smash her mouth in!"
"This one's crafty. She just wants to get her hands on a phone so she can call the cops."
Slap. Slap. Slap.
Three open-handed blows, one after another, right across my face.
I felt my teeth loosen in their sockets. Blood pooled against my gums, metallic and warm, and my skull rang so loud my vision blurred.
Pain radiated from everywhere at once. It felt like my organs had shattered inside me.
No matter how much injustice burned in my throat, I didn't dare say another word.
These men held nothing back.
"Throw her in the pigsty. She'll behave by morning." The man in charge gave the order, and two others grabbed me by the arms and dragged me toward the pen.
The pigsty was open to the wind on all sides, the ground slick with filth and urine. I collapsed into a corner, hugging my knees, shaking so hard my teeth chattered.
I held on until well past midnight, when every light in the valley finally went dark.
I crawled out of the pen. Only one thought existed in my mind: run.
I made it a few yards before a spotlight locked onto me.
A horn blast split the silence, echoing across the entire settlement.
In less than a minute, I was surrounded by Crowe men.
Some carried axes. Others held long wooden staffs. Every face glared down at me like I was something to be put down.
"Told you this one was crafty. Trying to sneak off in the middle of the night!"
"Doesn't matter. Run her through the standard process."
"Even the most stubborn women can't survive the third ordeal. By the end they're either broken or brain-dead. Either way, they stop fighting."
Declan had told me about the old customs of his tribe, the ones he despised. He'd mentioned the Three Ordeals.
The tribe needed outside women to stay, to bear children for their men. They couldn't kill the women outright, or there'd be no one left to carry on their bloodlines. So they'd devised methods that stopped just short of death.
The first ordeal: the Itch Pool.
A bath brewed from a toxic plant. The moment it touched skin, a rash erupted across the body, an itch so maddening it could drive a person to claw their own flesh raw.
The second ordeal: the Cactus Pit.
They pressed cactus pads covered in spines against every inch of exposed skin, embedding hundreds of needles into the body. The woman was left to pull them out herself, one by one. The ones buried in her back, where her hands couldn't reach, stayed. The pain never stopped. Body and mind, ground down together.
The third ordeal: the Final Trial.
For ten days, any man in the tribe could enter the woman's room at any hour, day or night. A doctor examined her daily. It continued until she was pregnant.
"No, please, I'm begging you..." I was on my knees, slamming my forehead against the ground over and over.
"Begging now? Too late for that!" Barrett grabbed my chin and forced it up, shining a high-beam flashlight directly into my eyes.
The light seared through my eyelids. I couldn't open them. All I could do was cry.
"The young master. I need to see your young master." I screamed it through my sobs, praying I could reach Declan.
"You really don't give up, do you? Fine. Our young master's coming back tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, you'll get to see him."
"That is, if you can survive the Three Ordeals..."
Before I could process what he meant, hands seized me and I was hurled into the Itch Pool.
I hadn't expected them to start the punishment so soon.
The water was a murky, oily green. Three seconds in, my skin began to itch.
It started on the backs of my hands. I scratched lightly and the skin flushed red instantly.
Then my arms. When I pushed up my sleeves, angry welts had already erupted across both forearms in thick, raised clusters.
The rash spread everywhere within minutes, especially my face. The itching was so intense I couldn't keep my eyes open. My entire face swelled until it was barely recognizable, burning and crawling at the same time.
"Look at her! Doesn't she look just like a monkey?"
"Ha ha Haha! "
The men circling the pool roared with laughter.
I lost all control. I ground my body against the dirt, clawing at myself to make it stop. My nails tore through skin. Across my face, I raked bloody lines one after another.
But I was past caring. The itching was unbearable.
Three hours later the welts finally began to fade, and by then I was unrecognizable. I'd ripped out fistfuls of my own hair. Patches of my scalp were bare. Every inch of exposed skin was raw and stinging, the itch replaced by a searing, white-hot burn. I knelt there in the dirt, kowtowing to anyone who would look at me.
"I was wrong. Money, whatever you want, I'll give you everything I have."
"Just stop. Please stop. I'll do anything you say..."
I couldn't bring myself to imagine what the next two ordeals would be.
I'd been telling myself to hold on until Declan came back. If I could just last that long, he would save me. But my body was giving out.
"Heh. Let me tell you another rule of the Crowe Tribe."
"Once the Three Ordeals begin, nothing can stop them. No exceptions. That rule has stood for a hundred years."
"Should've behaved from the start. You brought this on yourself."
The man spat in my face. Then he snapped his fingers and two others dragged me toward the Cactus Pit.
"AHHH!"
My scream tore through the valley.
Countless needles punched into my skin all at once. Every square inch felt like it was being stabbed, a dense, suffocating wave of pain that nearly dragged me under.
I stumbled out of the cactus pile on shaking legs. The spines on the soles of my feet had driven in so deep that cold sweat poured down my temples with every step.
I collapsed on the ground and began pulling the thorns out one by one. Each one came free with a bead of blood. Tears rolled down and mixed with it, dripping off my jaw.
That was the cruelty of it. Constant, grinding pain that wouldn't kill you. Just broke you down from the inside.
The Crowe men stood around me like spectators at a sideshow, laughing one moment, hurling insults the next.
Then Barrett's phone rang. He glanced at the screen and his expression changed instantly, tension snapping across his face.
"Young master, you're back?"
"Already at the gate? I'll come meet you right now."
Declan. Was it Declan?
He was back. I was saved.
I lifted my head. For the first time in hours, something like hope flickered in my eyes. But the next second, Barrett's boot slammed into my face.
