Ria:
I look at Drago with horror written all over my face. I whisper, "tell me that's not true. Tell me you didn't sell our children."
He looks appalled, "I didn't, don't be ridiculous. This is simply an agreement between Royal families."
I can't stop the tear that runs down my face, "you would condemn your own daughters to be nothing more than a commodity, a fucking piece of meat at a county fair?" My voice is raising in volume as I speak.
Drago bends forward and clasps my hand in his own, "Love it's nothing of the sort."
I stand up, my chair tipping over, crashing to the floor behind me. "Let me make sure it's all clarified."
I look at each of the other families, "each of you are to receive, not start to date, not get to know, not let them decide, not even marry, RECEIVE! one of my daughters the moment she becomes an adult so none of you can be accused of being fucking sick."
They all have shock and a touch of anxiety on their faces. I hear Drago whisper my name.
"So, am I to understand that at the time you RECEIVE my daughters you are going to fuck them, hopefully with at least attempted yes from her, but who fucking knows, if that wasn't spelled out on the "agreement"."
They all nodded and Drago's voice gets louder.
"Now, in fucking my daughters is it your purpose to knock them up so they can have your babies?"
They all nod, so I turn to Drago who is angry, but I am beyond livid.
"Okay so this is my understanding from all of that. At 18 my daughters will be handed out like party favors who are conveniently attatched to a womb for breeding and a pussy for fucking, and dammit to fucking hell if they want it or not. You all will take them, fuck them, and breed them with absolutely no regard if they want to go with you, want to fuck you, and want to have children. Do I have that right?" I am basically screaming at everyone in the room by this point and tears are streaming down my face.
"Stop Adriana." Drago commands me and my voice cuts off.
Right at that moment there is complete cohesion and agreement between myself and my dragon for the first time. A wave of rage, sadness, and betrayal sweeps through me in a huge powerful wave. I see all 4 of my mates clutch their chest. With that, the band of control snaps.
I look at Drago square in the eye. "Fuck you. Fuck you to hell for making a fool of me. I believed you. I believed you weren't just like him but you are. You barter your own daughters, to get something out of it, regardless of what it will do to them, or what they'll think about it. You chose yourself and you agreement over them and me. I will never forgive you for this."
I looked at the room of men, "I say this as a woman, thinking of my daughters, who will be women. You all disgust me. You are all vile men who could look at a person with a heart, soul, and mind and see a commodity for you to trade and barter. What happens if they say no? What if they won't go? What if they refuse your advances? What happens if they refuse to become pregnant? If to any of those questions your answer is you don't care or you'll make them, than congratulations, you just became evil. I can't stand to look at any of you."
With that I just walked out of the room. My heart was shattering. I had believed them. I had been willing to try. I couldn't stop my tears if I tried at the moment.
I tugged off the rings and let them fall to the floor. I ripped off the necklace and let it drop, removed the earrings and tossed them away. As I walked up the stairs I took down my hair completely.
Once in my room I headed straight for the shower and went in fully clothed and then ripped off the dress and threw it on the floor.
I turned the water to scalding and scrubbed at my skin. I fell to my knees as I sobbed and rocked. I thought of the days and nights I initiated our physical relationship and I started throwing up. I didn't even have time to get up and get to the toilet. I just huddled on the shower floor heaving, shaking, and crying.
I have no idea how long I was in there before I was able to drag myself out. My clothes stash was still under the sink so I put on layers of baggy clothes and tucked my hair into the hood of my sweatshirt.
I went out to the bedroom, and unsurprisingly, Drago was there sitting on the bed. There was no way he could miss that my eyes were red and swollen from crying. I ignored him and gathered blankets on the couch again.
We had only been home for one night but I had slept in my bed with Cinder and Cole. I wanted to burn the matress.
I used the remote to turn the fireplace on and just sat on the couch looking at it.
"You didn't finish dinner, would you like me to bring you something?" I ignored the question.
I heard him sigh and then he sat at the other end of the couch, facing me. My whole body went stiff.
"Please, don't let this destroy what we've been building." He whispers.
"I didn't, you all did." To me it's as simple as that.
"How do we fix this Ria?"
I look at him, "destroy the agreement."
"Then we go to war."
"Fine, than we go to war. At least then your daughters would know that you fought for them. That their happiness was more important than a stupid agreement."
"It's not just about them. There's other daughters, mothers, sons, and fathers out there depending on us."
"Then you just basically showed your children that everything and everyone else is more important than them. That it's okay with you to sacrifice them for someone else."
"It's not that simple Ria."
"Yes, it is. You are trying to make it complicated to justify your actions. Either they are the priority or they're not. That's it, it's that simple."
He sighed and shook his head. "I jumped off the battlements to die after everything. I would have died if you and your dragon weren't right there, and I would have been perfectly okay with that. Your daughters may not have a dragon or anything, to catch them. If you do this, you break them, like you broke me. So, just make sure you're prepared for the consequences and possible fall out of those decisions. One of those is me. This means we go back to how it was. I'm thinking it was more honest, and you were all playing me when we went on the trip. I should have known better than to ever trust my fucking rapists, and wardens holding me for the rest of my miserable god damn life."
I pause for just a moment, then look him in the eye so he understands the weight of what I'm saying. "I would choose the battlements, rather than force this on them. I would save them from what I know you have condemned them to. I would choose them, even though you probably see it as selfish, but I would die to save them, but you made sure I can't do that. You are going to force me to suffer every single day until they turn 18 knowing that I've failed them as their mother in the most horrible way possible. I have to hand them over to people who will hurt them. You have chained me and are forcing a mother's absolute worst fear on me. I will never hide from them how I feel about this whole fucked up bullshit. I will never stop fighting you on this. I will make sure they know, that at least one parent, was willing to fight for them and their happiness. That's all I can give them, just the knowledge, that to me, they were worth anything and everything, and nothing will ever be more important to me than them."
He just stared at me for a moment, then silently got up and left the room, closing the door behind him. It seemed like a fitting metaphor to me.