Austin�s P.O.V.
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We had only been in here for about thirty minutes and already Carmen had passed out from the pain. My father commanded me to keep hitting her, even though she wasn�t even conscious anymore. Every time the whip met her skin she twitched. I started to wonder if she was even unconscious at all.
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I stayed behind her, only whipping her back. I couldn�t stand to look at her face, to see it twisted in pain and probably hatred for me. That would be understandable. She should hate me for all that I have done to her. I raped her, hit her, and now I�m whipping her. I could hardly stand to even look at her back, it looked so horrible. The only reason I had done anything to her in the first place is so that my dad wouldn�t kill her. I knew that he meant it when he said there would be consequences if I didn�t treat her like my slave. I couldn�t afford to go easy on her, especially because my dad could read minds. If he saw that I was feeling even an ounce of sympathy towards her then he would kill her. If Carmen knew that I was slowly falling in love with her, he would take her away. I couldn�t bear to be responsible for her death.
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Last night I had snapped, though. I had to heal her when I found out what my father had done to her. Though I knew that he had plenty of horrid things in mind for her, raping her being one of them, I hadn�t expected him to hurt her so badly. She had been covered in blood last night and I had so nearly lost control and killed her myself. It was only my blind rage for what my father had done to her that had stopped me from sucking her dry. I had stormed out when she had repeated the message her father had told her to relay to me. He expected me to have a child with her. He wanted her to be my next Queen, but he also wanted me to treat her like a human should be treated. Marcus always believed that wives were just slaves. Getting married had nothing to do with love and if we do ever hook up with a human it was just to get a child. Vampire women couldn�t bare children and I needed an heir and bride in order to claim the throne.
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It wasn�t like that for me, though. I loved Carmen, and I believed that you only married if you were in love. I freaked out on Carmen when she had told Lilly that we might get married because I knew Lilly would tell father and he would take that as a definite yes. Without even waiting for me to confirm it. Which means that I would have to become King soon, even though I'm only sixteen. I wasn't ready for that and it freaked me out. Lilly apparently kept her mouth shut, though, because my father hasn't said anything about it.
I brought my hand back and cracked the whip against Carmen's back again. It hurt me more than it hurt her to do this. I wanted to die for doing this to her. I wish I could find a way around all of this. I could take her away somewhere so that we could be together without my dad getting in the way. But my father would come after me, I knew he would. And Carmen- would she even want to go with me? Would she even want to look at me after this? She probably hated my guts right now.
This thought had me pulling the whip back again and in my frustration I brought it back down harder than ever against Carmen's skin. She jerked in her sleep, whimpering a tiny bit. I immediately felt horrified. I hadn't meant to do that. I was just frustrated, angry at the thought of blowing my chances of being with the one I loved. The one human who was kind to me. She was always supposed to be my bride. My father put me in that auction house for me to find my next Queen. Whoever bought me was to be my wife. If it was a man that bought me, then I was to just kill him and come back home. I hadn't wanted to do this and it wasn't fight that I went. But the guards were much stronger than me since I had yet to develop into a full vampire. That wouldn't happen until I was eighteen. I was brought to that horrible place, shoved around a bit, and then the next thing I knew I was being auctioned off like a piece of meat. Lilly had come along with me because my father wanted to see if my new Queen would be good with children. I hadn't understood that one, but I guess now I do. I wasn't having a child with her, though. I'm only sixteen, for god's sake! I don't know how to be a father. I'm not responsible or mature. I still want to go out and party all night with my friends, not stay home and babysit some icky, drooling kid that just cries all the time.
