You May Call Me Gabriel Ch. 05

Literotic asexstories – You May Call Me Gabriel Ch. 05 by SashaS_EroticaQueen,SashaS_EroticaQueen
Caged – Day 11

Natasha’s eleventh day in the cage started badly. First of all, her back was sore after the whipping she had received the day before. She was bleeding in several places where the tip of the whip had broken the skin and when she awoke, she found her shoulder blades sticking to the floor. This caused her to cry out softly the moment she tried to move, and though she did not think the sound was too loud it brought her captor straight to her side.

“Stop that,” Gabriel said, glaring at her through the bars. She did not know what he meant, which made him even angrier it seemed. The next thing she knew, he was unlocking the cage and pulling her across the floor. Ignoring her shrieks of protest, he took her straight to the dreaded hole and lowered her roughly down. Sensing his rage, she went down quietly, but she could not resist looking up at him as he went to close the trap door.

“Please, Gabriel!” she begged, but he only scowled at her while slamming the trap door down.

It truly was a terrible start and it only got worse from there.

*******

Gabriel left Natasha in the hole for the better part of the day. He knew it was neither fair nor smart, for she had injuries that needed looking after, but he had to do it for sanity’s sake. She was driving him wild, what with her soft sensuous moaning and the looks she gave him with those big innocent eyes. Just who did she think she was dealing with? Some ordinary man that she could seduce at will? The idea was preposterous, absolutely preposterous and above all insulting, he thought. Of the countless women that had tried to seduce him, not one had even come close and there was a good reason for that. They were all fakes, and he could tell… he could read them from a mile away. If Natasha thought she could succeed where others had failed, she had another thing coming. She might think she had him, but he would show her. Oh, he would show her, all right.

By the time the afternoon rolled around Gabriel had a whole new plan.

Natasha blinked painfully when he opened the trap door again. With her hair sticking wetly to her face she looked infinitely vulnerable as she gazed up at him from her prison, but he pretended not to notice. Pulling her up by her arms, he stared at her challenging her to speak. To complain. Anything to give him an excuse to punish her, but for a change she kept her mouth shut. Never mind. He still had his new plan and nothing she said or did would change that. First though he had to clean her up.

“Lie down on your front and don’t move,” he ordered, lowering her to the floor of the shower. As he washed and disinfected her wounds, he noted that she barely flinched. She was obeying his order to perfection, the clever little bitch. Yes well… Let us see how she handles the curve ball he was about to throw her. Gripping her shoulders, he lifted her up and into a kneeling position. While soaping her breasts, deliberately running his hands over her pierced nipples, he said,

“I have some good news for you Natasha… I’ve decided to take you up on your offer.”

She looked confused, so he clarified it for her.

“You said you would sleep with whomever I say, if I granted you that silly favour you asked for,” he said as he hosed her off. “Well, I’ve had a chance to think about it and I think it’s a fair deal. So, you’ll get your wish after all, now isn’t that nice?”

He looked at her askance while waiting for a reply. As predicted, she was shocked by the news.

“W…when?” she stuttered, seeking his gaze.

“Soon,” he told her, keen on prolonging the suspense. Then without another word he stood up and left, unable to look her in the eye.

*******

Caged – Days 12 to 16

Since Gabriel’s unique shelter / dungeon was miles from civilisation, it was not easy to arrange a visit from friends in order to see his plan to fruition. In fact, a regular person might never have managed it, but luckily for Gabriel he was not a regular person, and neither were his special male friends. Within hours of sending the first email, the screen of Gabriel’s laptop started to flash with incoming message alerts. The replies came swift and fast, and they went something like this,

Wolf12 to Wolf1: good to hear from you. Confirm availability 4 days from now. ETA 0600hrs at co-ordinates provided. You need us to bring anything?

It did not take him long to key in the answer,

Just yourselves.

And with a press of the enter key the deal was sealed.

*******

For four days after being told about the upcoming event featuring her as the star attraction, Natasha sweated in her cage, barely able to take her eyes off the entrance. She never doubted Gabriel’s word, particularly when she saw how sparingly he treated her. Oh, he pulled her out and fucked her each day, but he did not electrocute or cut her or burn her. The whips and canes rested on the wall like some unusual party decorations, while the skin on her back healed to its healthy self. The only exception was the scar above her breast, but even this had settled and no longer burned. He helped the process by plying her with medicine and ointments and herbs. He wanted her to eat more too, but she just could not keep the food down. He did not force-feed her this time. He understood the source of her anxiety all too well.

She was thinking of asking him to call the whole thing off when on the fourth day he announced,

“I thought you might like to know… The boys will be here tomorrow.”

He was standing over her cage as he said it, and she was glad for the small distance between them. Working desperately to still the tremor in her limbs, she was unable to speak for a while. At last, as he was turning to walk away, she called after him anxiously,

“There… there’s more than one of them?”

Oh yes, he thought. Now you think to ask.

“Aha,” he said without turning around. “Is there a problem?”

Please say yes, he thought, hearing her sharp intake of breath. But though she trembled in her chains, Natasha refused to yield even now.

“No,” she said and when he chanced a look around, he saw her hang her head, not unlike a bird whose wings had been cut.

*******

Caged – Day 17

At precisely 0600hrs the next day, Gabriel’s team started arriving. Confident in their punctuality he had left the door open, and the stream of cool morning air brought goose bumps to Natasha’s bare skin. She did not try to rub them off. She did not try to move at all, but sat as though paralysed, watching the men pile in.

He had called them boys, but there was nothing boyish about them.

To a man they were tall and broad-shouldered, with their hair cropped short like Gabriel’s: aggressively so. They wore all black clothes, and their faces were painted to match. Despite their uniform appearance she could not see an insignia of any kind. Their eyes were the only things shining in their faces, until they saw Gabriel and flashed him a smile. There were six of them in total and they were all heavily armed.

“Welcome,” Gabriel said, clapping each of them on the back. “Wolfgang… Dirk… Georg… Torsten… Henric… Bjorn… So glad you could come. Please, make yourselves at home.”

The men came into the room with long strides. Unbuckling the straps of their backpacks, they set them down softly, before doing the same with their guns. Their movements were measured and graceful, their footsteps soft. They were power carefully controlled and they sent shivers down Natasha’s spine.

“So, Gabriel,” she heard one of them say. “Are you going to introduce us or what?”

She hunkered down in her cage. Presently she could see Gabriel coming toward her, with the key to her cage in his hand.

“You’re on, my sweet,” he told her so only she could hear. As he tugged on her chain Natasha quailed, but it was too late to back out now.

The men devoured her with their eyes as Gabriel marched her over. Allowed to walk upright for the first time in almost three weeks, Natasha moved awkwardly, even though her shackles were gone. Self-evidently the restraints would only get in the way and as she thought this she shivered.

“Aww… look, she’s cold,” the man nearest to her said. She lowered her gaze, but he took hold of her hand and pulled her toward him.

“Natasha this is Wolfgang,” Gabriel said as the man’s arm encircled her waist. “He’s second in command and my right hand. I trust you’ll be nice to him, like you promised. I trust you’ll be nice to all of my friends.”

The men encircled her completely, touching her breasts and her buttocks, stroking her hair.

“She’s beautiful, Gabriel,” Wolfgang said, and she felt her heart skip a beat. Despite her nervousness she was terribly excited by the handsome young men – Wolfgang in particular, had caught her fancy – and trying not to show it.

“Who are you guys?” she asked, trying to stall for time. The men laughed and in a single, swift movement, lifted her off the ground. As they lay her trembling body across the nearby table, Wolfgang tilted her head toward him and said,

“We’re the Wolf Squad, honey, and we’re about to eat you alive.”

*******

Natasha had promised herself she would not scream. Within half an hour of meeting the Wolf Squad she had broken that promise most thoroughly, and they were only getting started. It was not that she did not like them, quite the contrary. During their brief introduction her pussy had grown wet, and she genuinely craved their attention to start with. The only trouble was the men had been instructed to fuck her rough. They were all very well endowed, their erections impressive to behold. Wasting no time on niceties, they spread her legs open and spitted her through. They fucked her hard while they held her down. They took turns doing this without a pause in-between. It was this last thing that made her scream.

“Please! I can’t take it! Please oh God…” she begged, willing them to stop, if only for a moment. Stony-faced, the men only held her tighter and continued to drill her. Natasha’s screams grew more desperate.

“Gabriel! Call them off! Pleeeease!” she almost fainted with relief when she saw him appear beside her. With a wave of his hand, he made the men pause mid-stride, before leaning close to her.

“Have you changed your mind?” he asked her, quietly. “If so, we’ll stop, but Natasha… if we do that, the deal is off.”

Natasha glanced at the men’s faces, above her. Their eyes watched her carefully, their jaw lines outlined sharply against the brightly lit ceiling. Although they had been fucking her without a pause, they were yet to break a sweat, and this, coupled with their lean muscles, told her what she was in for, if she chose to continue. Thinking this, she opened her mouth to say she wished to stop, then closed it again just as fast. She did not know why she did it, she knew only that she was turned on by them, in spite of everything.

“N-no,” she stuttered, her chest heaving. “No, that’s OK. I just needed a break, that’s all.”

Listening to her, the men grinned, flashing their white teeth and making her heart race all over again. Gabriel, however, was not laughing.

“Now you listen to me, Natasha,” he said, his expression grim. “You asked for this, and you have to take it like the slut that you are. Remember, you don’t call the shots here. They do – or rather, I do. When I invited them over, I told them you’re a masochist who likes things rough. Now, I know they’re big boys and they’re gonna hurt you some, but no more than I have done. Besides, if you ask me, you’re lucky… this here tonight is only part of the gang.”

Speared on a huge throbbing cock with multiple hands holding her down, Natasha moaned in sudden realisation. So, it was his idea to begin with! And here, she had thought Gabriel cared about her. That somewhere in the depths of his sadistic person he actually gave a damn. How foolish she had been, to think this. She did not want to scream any more and give them the satisfaction, but the men extracted more screams from her, right away.

“Aaaa! Noooo!” she howled as Dirk leaned down and took her pierced nipple in his mouth, biting on it hard.

“Hey, that looks like fun!” Georg said and he clamped down on the other one.

As Natasha bucked and writhed, the rest of the men pushed her down.

“Wow, she’s a feisty one!” Wolfgang said. He twisted her wrist to immobilise her shoulder and on the other side of her Torsten did the same.

Natasha felt as though her arms were being ripped off. Meanwhile her pussy was being pounded, her hips sliding back and forth across the table. She was a piece of meat thrown to the wolves, she thought, and she felt a kind of dark excitement spike inside her. Then, with her body shaking under their thrusts and her pussy pulsing hotly, she started to howl.

“Aooow! Aooow! Aooow!” long, loud howls that pierced the ear. It was only a matter of time before they decided to shut her up.

“Eat this,” Bjorn said, pushing his cock into her mouth. Being large, he filled it completely, stretching her jaw in the process. Her screams became muffled after that, though her body still jerked.

“Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmmm!” she wanted desperately to turn her head away, but she had no chance in hell. Holding her head tilted back, Bjorn forced his long cock down her throat again and again, while the rest of the men took turns drilling her pussy. They fucked her like this for an hour or more. Then they paused and threw her panting on the floor. They never let go of her arms and legs. With six of them there, they had plenty of spare hands. Before she could start to beg and plead, the first of the cocks was in her ass.

“Aaaaa! Aaaaa!” she screamed pitifully at an even higher pitch. The large cock slid in and out of her ass smoothly and they laughed.

“You’ve done a good job with her back hole, Gabriel!” they congratulated him while she bucked beneath them. As she began to scream once more, she felt one of them lean down and pull her by the hair.

“Aaaaa! Aaaaa! Aaaa!” she shrieked as her head was brought up. Then another cock entered her mouth, making her gag. It made her pussy grow even wetter with excitement, and she shook with the humiliation of it. If she could have, she would have asked them to slow down and take it easy on her, but she was not in a position to ask them anything. The Wolf Squad had her and they would not let her go until they were done.

*******

The gang bang involving Natasha and the six members of the Wolf Squad went on for many hours. This was nothing unusual for the men. Like Gabriel, they were extremely highly sexed and inclined to sadism too. True to their word they did not simply fuck her, but hurt her as well, practically eating her alive. Gabriel never cared in the past, but today he found the whole thing repulsive, the minutes dragging painfully by. Not by a flicker of a muscle did he show this as he stood to one side in silence watching them. He had asked them over and given the green light and it just would not do to intervene now. Having said that, there were numerous times when he wished with all his heart, he could do just that. Like three hours into it, when they made her kneel and bent her arms so far back that her shoulders almost popped. He watched them tie her with their belts in this unnatural position and he saw how her skin broke out in a sweat as she fought to stay conscious. They lifted her up and held her between them like this, while fucking her in mid air. The only practical purpose he could see behind the move was that it placed her at a more convenient height. They fucked her absolutely senseless in this way and when her screams grew faint, they restarted them by biting her, hard enough to leave teeth marks behind.

That was not all. During the brief time between ejaculating inside and all over Natasha, and getting hard again, they put Gabriel’s dungeon to good use and took turns whipping her all over her back, ass and thighs. Her screams were ear-piercingly loud as they broke the skin, but when they ran their hands between her legs, they found her dripping wet once again. This turned them on no end, and they lined up on either side of her with fresh enthusiasm, while keeping her strung up like a piece of meat – or so they told her, while pressing the tips of their cocks against her pussy and her ass. By now, Natasha could only sob weakly. Whatever arousal she felt, was eclipsed by the pain they had caused her, pain that she had agreed to in advance. A part of her wanted to back out, but determined not to lose face, she did not beg them to stop. Instead, she moaned as they impaled her, then as they began drilling her between the two of them, in both her pussy and her ass, she started screaming again. Mindlessly and without words, of course.

Gabriel had witnessed many gruesome tortures in his unusual life, but by late afternoon he had had enough. Against his nature, which delighted in cruelty for cruelty’s sake, he turned his back on Wolfgang and the gang, pulling himself up the ladder two at a time. Leaping out of the shelter like a wounded bear, he took off at a run through the forest, with the single aim of going as far away as he could get. He smashed the shrubbery that stood in his way, looking for something to punch, rip and tear. The sound of the men’s voices followed him, with Natasha’s screams clearly distinguishable in the still mountain air. Please. No more. The words in his mind were trapped like her and thinking about it, he felt a growl start up deep in his throat. He was the leader of the Wolf Squad, bound by a code far stronger than words. Were it not so, he would have gone back and beaten them all, with his own hands.

It was evening when Gabriel returned. By then, mercifully, the gang bang was at an end.

“Hey, man, where’ve you been?” Wolfgang asked innocently, looking up from his meal. He knew how sharp their senses were and he faked a grin as he replied.

“Where’d you think?” he said, carefully keeping his gaze averted. “I’ve been cooped up in here for weeks and if I didn’t get out each day, I’d go insane.”

They all laughed.

“Imagine how she feels,” Dirk said, and Gabriel chuckled with them, while deep in his chest a spear slowly pierced his madly beating heart.

*******

Caged – Day 18

Gabriel waited until his men had departed early the next morning to take his first good look at Natasha. As instructed, they had placed her back in her cage when they were done and it was there that he found her, lying curled up on the ground. She looked so broken and so still and small that it did not seem likely she still breathed at all. Cursing under his breath, he unlocked the door and crawled in beside her. Ever so gently, he grasped her right wrist and pressed his fingers over it, looking for a pulse. Moments later he sighed in relief, and it was then that he was able to take it all in. The bruises. The bite marks. The blood. Her pale skin was the perfect canvas for each of these, and it seemed to Gabriel not one square inch of it remained blank in the aftermath of the encounter. As for her insides… he could tell how raw she was without checking, based on what he knew. She would be neither the first nor the last woman that the Wolf Squad had ravaged, and that at his command. At. His. Command.

As he extracted Natasha from her cage, Gabriel felt quite certain that whatever pain she felt, it could not compare to the gut wrenching feeling in his own chest.

*******

Natasha was not aware of Gabriel’s arms cradling her or his broad chest pressing against her. After the most thorough fucking of her life and the cruel whipping on top of it, followed by another night in the cage, she was in a state of shock, no longer conscious of her surrounds. Her head lolled weakly, thrown back over his arm, her legs swinging loosely with each step he took. As he went to lay her on his bed, her free arm trailed underneath her, and he had to take extra care not to trap it there. Natasha herself could not have moved it. Natasha herself was no longer there.

“Natasha…” he said her name, knowing it was in vain. The word sorry floated up in his mind but he pushed it down angrily as fast as it came. The world was a harsh place, and the only true measure of a man was through his actions, not his words. He of all people knew that. Leaving Natasha where she was for the moment, he turned on his heel and strolled over to the medicine cabinet, already mapping out her treatment in his head.

An hour or so later he sat down at his laptop and began composing the message that would change her fate.

*******

Caged – Days 19 to 29

For the next ten days Gabriel took care of Natasha, providing her with drugs and fluids and as much food as she could keep down. Aware of her fragile state, he pumped her full of painkillers, only letting her surface for brief periods each day. She had to keep still, he told her as he injected her in the vein. She only stared at him mutely and it tore at his heart. He never meant to break her, but he had. He would give anything to see her mad.

*******

When she first regained consciousness and found herself in Gabriel’s bed, Natasha thought she was dreaming. Pretty soon the sharp pain in her body told her otherwise and she moaned. At once he came and stuck a needle in her arm. Keep still, he told her, not telling her why. She did not ask, because she knew. She wondered if she would ever be whole again. Then with the drug taking effect she slept. She had no dreams, and she was glad. After what she had been through, she never wanted to dream again.

One day she awoke to find him touching her between her legs. Her immediate reaction was to protest, but with the drug still in her system she was drowsy. In the end she decided to say nothing. What did it matter any more? She was his whore.

Days merged into nights and nights into days. Inside the underground shelter it was all the same. The drug-induced haze was her only refuge and silence, her favourite game. She was content to float along, never feeling anything. Then one day he stopped drugging her and her soul exploded in pain.

*******

Caged – Day 30

The scream began in Natasha’s head and wound its way out of her mouth with the rolling consistency of a giant ocean wave. A tsunami. Unlike a wave, however, the sound she produced did not crash against an imaginary shore but went on to build to a crescendo loud enough to pierce the eardrums of any creature standing near. Before her lungs ran out of air, the scream mutated to a howl, expressing her sorrow more eloquently than words ever could. Carried away by its haunting beauty, she kept supplying it with air while her chest constricted with pain. It was not from the lack of oxygen.

Waking up in the middle of the night to hear Natasha scream, Gabriel felt his first stirring of joy in what seemed like a very long time. The feeling was a welcome break from the doom and gloom that had besieged him for the previous ten days. She had been silent throughout that time, but now she was screaming in obvious anguish. Gabriel knew everything there was to know about pain. Most of all he knew that where there was pain, there was life and where there was life, there was hope. He let her scream for several minutes longer, then silently like a wolf, he rose from his place on the floor.

“Hello Natasha,” he said, materialising beside her apparently from thin air. Startled, she leapt away from him along the bed, and he felt a familiar urge to give chase. He suppressed it for the moment, feeling immensely proud of himself.

“How are you feeling?” he said, and he smiled. In the darkness he did not see her expression change.

A split second later, Natasha launched herself from the bed, her hands clawing at his face.

*******

Hello Natasha. How are you feeling? It was what he had said to her on the day he first locked her in the cage. A lifetime ago, but she remembered it as clear as day. Bastard. She could not answer him back then. Back then she was weak, her body free of scars. Back then she did not know the true meaning of rage.

Gabriel did not expect the attack. This and the sheer ferociousness that she employed, allowed Natasha to score a hit. Her nails scratched a groove in his forehead, narrowly missing the eyes. Her weight unbalanced him slightly, making him take a step back. Then his lifetime of training kicked in and he fought back. With that the tables were turned.

The difference in their fighting styles was immediately obvious and would have been so obvious to even the most casual observer. While Natasha screamed and flailed about madly, Gabriel was silent like the night. His movements were fast yet precise, with his weight perfectly balanced over his feet. Ignoring the blood dripping from his brow, he blocked her next move with one arm, while with the other he struck out. It looked very easy and not particularly violent, but a moment later Natasha’s screams of rage became a whine. Gabriel adjusted his grip, bending her hand back and to the side. Her arm was twisted with it and the next thing she knew she was on her knees before him.

“Aahhh…” she panted, trying to hold back the pain spreading from her wrist and her arm. Gabriel leaned over her, the better to manipulate her into position.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” he asked. She saw that his free hand was resting behind his back, and she seethed.

“B…b…bastard!” she stammered through gritted teeth. To her indignation and surprise, he threw back his head and laughed.

“Good to have you back, Natasha,” he said. He pulled her to the cage and manoeuvred her inside. As he was locking her in, she turned to him and spat,

“Evil fucker… I wish I could’ve clawed out your eyes. Then you could never look at me again.”

He became serious then, but he did not rise to the bait. He just looked at her with his pale wolf eyes and said,

“Be that as it may, I’m awfully glad I didn’t break you.”

The cage floor that night felt extra hard after the soft comfort of his bed.

*******

Caged – Day 31

Natasha realised something was different when on the morning of her thirty-first day Gabriel did not remove her from the cage. He did not put a steel collar on her neck, and he did not place her in shackles. As the day wore on and nothing changed, she began to ask herself what it meant. Was he done toying with her and if so, why? Looking down at her body, she saw it was covered in numerous fading marks. The bites and bruises left on her by his men were still not completely healed. Was this what had suddenly turned him off? A sadist like him? It was beyond comprehension, but it was the only thing she could think of. She was still wracking her brains, when late mid morning he turned around and told her it was time.

“Time for what?” she asked, unable to suppress a shudder of apprehension – and noticing it, he smiled.

“Don’t be afraid,” he told her. “I won’t hurt you this time.”

She did not believe him, and she said so.

“It’s up to you whether you believe me or not,” Gabriel said with a shrug. She saw the angry mark on his forehead left there by her nails, and it gave her another cause for doubt.

“Is this about what happened last night?” she said as he swung open the cage door. He paused and she added quickly,

“If so, I’m not sorry. You deserved that for what you did. For setting them on me.”

He blew her away when he looked at her and said,

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Then while she sat there with her mouth hanging open, he extended a hand toward her. Gentleman-like.

“Now please,” he said, his tone mild but serious. “Take my hand and come out of the cage.”

For some reason the show of chivalry made her even more nervous. Feeling defenceless before his steady gaze, she obeyed, but she kept one eye on the door.

“They’re not coming back, are they?” she asked him with a tremble in her voice.

“No,” he said, walking her across to the shower. “In fact, you have my word they’ll never hurt you again.”

That was when she knew their time together was at an end, and that she would never see him again. She should have been happy about this. Instead, she found herself on the verge of tears.

“Please don’t do this,” she choked for a moment before stammering, “I… I don’t want us to be over, yet.”

Gabriel had no intention of arguing with her. It would only make things more difficult.

“There is no us, there never could be,” he said, laying her down on the tiles. She trembled like a leaf as he bound her arms behind her back and hog-tied them to her ankles. She was too stunned to fight, reminding him of a doe in headlights.

“Please… Gabriel…” she was sobbing now. “I did everything you said… I only screamed because it hurt so much… I didn’t think there’d be so many of them when I agreed…”

He cut her off mid-stream. He had to hurry, or he would lose his resolve and he simply could not afford to do that. Grabbing a fistful of her long, glorious hair, he pulled her head back and off the floor.

“That’s what you get when you make a deal with the devil, my sweet,” he said. Then he placed the cloth soaked in chloroform over her face and watched as her beautiful eyes closed.

*******

Caged – Day 32

Natasha came to with a start. Shouting and thrashing about. Only, her shouts were more like whispers and her movements similarly so. Restricted by the drugs they gave her. She realised this eventually and she waited patiently for the effects to fade. The room swam in and out of focus around her, dazzling her with its brightness. Unused to such an abundance of light, she closed her eyes wearily, blocking it out.

“Natasha?” a male voice said softly in her ear. “Natasha, darling, can you hear me?”

In the back of her mind, a memory surfaced from a time before the cage.

“Father?” she said, squinting up at him from the hospital bed.

“My little girl!” Natasha’s father exclaimed, leaning forward and folding her into an embrace. She felt his shoulders shaking and she knew he was crying, which was astounding because her Dad never cried. He was an Army man through and through and as tough as they come. Though perhaps not as tough as Gabriel and his men, she thought, and a lump rose in her throat.

He let me go, she thought, and she too started to cry.

*******

Six Months Later…

It had been six months since her release from the cage and still Natasha could not break free of the chains. Each morning when she woke, she felt lost. Disoriented and scared and alone. Just as she had been when he first locked her in. She did not understand it at first. Her body was healing, why could not she? In desperation, she even sought the help of a shrink. When he prescribed drugs, she quit.

She did not want to forget. Not yet.

*******

“Natasha, darling, are you awake?” the knock on the door roused her and she rolled quickly, but not quickly enough. Entering the room, her father caught her lying on the floor with half her body still under the bed.

“Oh no…” he said, stopping dead. “Honey, please tell me you didn’t sleep on the floor again?”

She pulled herself to her feet.

“Sorry, Daddy,” she said, and she hung her head. Through the thin fabric or her pyjama top, the scars on her chest grinned at her. You are my prisoner now, the angel said, the whip cracking in his hand. Blood rushed to her face and her nipples hardened around the metal bars. Gabriel. Angel of darkness. Where are you now?

*******

Later, during breakfast, her father said to her,

“Natasha, darling, this has got to stop.”

She did not reply. She knew what he meant.

“I’m going overseas this week,” he continued. “To oversee an operation in Afghanistan. I have taken as much time off as I dared. I can’t afford to take any more.”

“That’s ok Dad, I understand,” she said, adding, “Don’t worry, I’ll be ok.”

His fist slammed against the table with force, making her jump.

“No you won’t Goddamit!” he ran his hand through his hair. “Natasha, I can’t leave you here and there’s no one else I trust. I’m sorry to do this to you, honey, but you’re coming with me. Whether you like it or not.”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“But…” she began, but he waved her to silence.

“No buts. I’m your father and you will do as I say. Do I make myself clear?”

Natasha felt like someone had punched her in the chest. Nodding silently, she struggled to contain the frisson of excitement that ran through her at the words. Do I make myself clear? It was what Gabriel had said to her when asserting his authority over her… That was when she finally began to understand.

She was not in the cage. The cage was in her head.

*******

War Zone

The sound of guns was never far away at Natasha’s new abode. As a General, her father was afforded decent quarters, but they were still modest by western world standards. She did not mind. Since her time with Gabriel, she found that she preferred small rooms with little natural light. Furthermore, when the night fell and the lights went out, she did not feel afraid of the dark. He had cured her of that particular phobia when he had trapped her down the hole.

*******

One night, around midnight, Natasha awoke to find a man on top of her with a hand over her mouth.

“Mmm!” she cried, squirming under his weight. His legs pinned her arms by her side. She could not see his face, but something told her it was one of the soldiers. Who else would have access to her room?

In pitch-blackness her top was ripped off.

“Turn on the torch,” her attacker said to an accomplice that she had not realised was there. “I wanna see her breasts.”

While the beam of light danced over her skin, she went suddenly still. So, they wanted to rape her. She could take that. She made a mental note to try and rip their masks off at some stage. But as she thought this, she heard them gasp.

“Fuck man, is that what I think it is?” she heard them say. She thought they were grossed out, but she was wrong.

“The mark… she has the mark!” the hand over her mouth started to shake. A second later the man sitting on top of her leapt off and she was free.

“Forget we were here, all right?” they said as they fled. She sat alone in the darkness holding one hand over her chest. Under her fingers the scar danced. And keep running, the angel said.

*******

A week after arriving in Afghanistan the fighting forced them to move.

“Someone’s leaking information to the local guerrilla fighters,” her father said. “Our base is no longer safe.”

“You mean we have a spy in our midst?” Natasha asked, confused. “Isn’t there any way to find out who it is?”

Her father the General shook his head ruefully.

“There are always men willing to sell out,” he told her, the anger tingeing his voice. “Chances are there’s more than one betrayer here… it’d take a wolf to sniff them all out.”

She fell silent abruptly. A wolf… Or better still a wolf pack, she thought. We are the Wolf Squad, baby… the men had said.

*******

Hours later they were on the road, the jeeps bouncing over the rough ground. Natasha sat between two soldiers, feeling quite at ease. Since the incident on her first night at the base, no one had given her trouble of any kind. She was just thinking about that when from up ahead there came a desperate shout,

“Mine!”

Followed by an almighty bang.

The jeep she was in shuddered to a stop, the soldiers jumping out. A cloud of smoke enveloped them as they rushed to their friends’ aid. Screams of pain rendered the air, the smell of burning rubber drifting over to where she sat.

“Natasha!” she heard her father shout. “Stay in the car!”

She nodded, though he could not see her, his back already turned. The soldiers were running all around. At the front of the convoy the broken jeep burned. When she heard shots being fired, she knew they were under attack.

Ignoring her father’s shouted order, Natasha stood and jumped out of the car. Her feet made a puff of dust as they hit the ground. She could see no enemies around and she ducked with the intention of avoiding the bullets whizzing through the air. Focusing on the fighting before her, she neither saw nor heard the figures sneaking up on her from behind. That is, until she felt their hands on her – but by then it was too late. She felt a sharp pain as a blunt object struck the back of her head and that was that.

In the middle of a war zone, Natasha was bound and taken away. For the second time in her life, she was headed straight for the cage.

*******