Highborn [Kidnapping][Bondage][MF]

“Cecilia, don’t forget to come home right after class. Your mother needs your help with some shopping. Those ruffians were harassing her again.”

Mervus, my father, well my adoptive father, was being overly concerned again for my adoptive mother, Bella. The ruffians were some local gangster wannabes that terrorized older people. I found out they terrorized my mother when she went shopping, starting around my sixteenth birthday. With a bit of help from the soccer team, we successfully scared them off. Unfortunately, they couldn’t always be around, so my presence was usually enough to scare them off.

“Okay dad. I’ll come home as quick as I can. You working late tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah, they got me down for overtime again. I wish I could go with your mother, but we need the money.”

“I know dad,” I said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “Hopefully, I can get a decent job after I graduate and help out.”

“Now enough of that, Cecilia. We love you and raised you to be a good girl. But when you graduate, I want you to go start a life of your. You’re getting to the age where you need to become your own woman.”

I frowned, expecting yet another long-winded explanation why I need to move on with my life. I just wanted to help the two best people I’ve ever known. They raised me, even though I wasn’t their child, from birth. They loved me unconditionally and always took care of my every need when we struggled to keep food on the table.

My father does nothing but work himself into the ground to help pay for my tuition. My mother continued to help me with my schoolwork, staying up late every night to study the material and help with homework the next day. What was so wrong about wanting to repay that kindness?

I tuned him out long enough for him to stop talking. Although, he caught on, I suppose, to that little facet of information. He was rather good at picking up those things, or maybe he just knew me well enough, who knows.

“I promise dad, I’ll make a life for myself. I just wanna help you and mom. You raised me to be like this and now get all bothered when I say that stuff.”

“Sorry sweetheart. I give you a hard time because I care. Your parents trusted us with you when you’re little, and I’m trying my best to be a good father.”

“Well, you’re not just good, dad, you’re great, the best even. I’m gonna head out now. I’ll talk to you later tonight!” I shouted, waving goodbye as I headed out the door of our modestly small home to my college classes.

We weren’t well off, but we lived a middle class life. That’s better than most lowborn could say. Most lowborn lived on the streets and held menial jobs with barely enough pay to feed themselves. It was almost impossible to afford your own home, even if it was basically a rickety shack, as a lowborn. So compared to the other, I think our family managed rather well for itself, even if mom and dad both worked themselves like dogs.

I’ve respected that about them, I just hated the shit circumstances of being born into poverty just because you don’t have any dragon blood in your veins. The Black Flame King was to thank for this unjust social system. He and almost all of his children were awful, evil creatures that tortured and enslaved all races that weren’t dragonborn. Elves had maintained some level of dignity, hiding out in the northern ice wastes outside of the kingdom’s authority.

Some long time ago, the world had been whole, supposedly. During that era, humans and dragons coexisted harmoniously until the human nature of greed drove the dragons away. Some time later, the dragons returned with their four powerful deities and wiped out most of humanity. Humans that survived the carnage were given a small section of the world, surrounded by impassable mountains whose peaks hosted massive thunderstorms.

Today, we know the mountain range as The Divide. It’s been eons since anyone has seen across those mountains and the dragons that lived beyond them in their own empire. It’s been generations since the last dragon visited us, curious to see how we lived. The closest thing to dragons we have now are the dragonborn.

Dragonborn are half human, half dragon hybrids with scales, horns, pointed ears and tails protruding from their backside. The bones and cartilage that make up a dragonborn’s tail is said to be an extension of the human tailbone. Although dragonborn needing a doctor was strange to me, the college I attended was very adamant about teaching dragonborn medicine.

Hopefully, I would never have to treat a dragonborn. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories where even when a doctor does a good job, the dragonborn will see to it they are “rewarded” generously. Most get broken bones as the dragonborn test their recovered strength. That was the best-case scenario, the worst being the dragon tearing apart the doctor for the same reason as those who break bones.

It sickened me that dragonborn could do such evil acts and get away unpunished. While most of the provinces in the kingdom followed such laws, Yulum did not. Dragonborn received fines for acts of brutality against other races. Basically, a slap on the wrist for the privileged destructive creatures, but it was better than nothing. Yulum focused more on making lives better for humans, especially lowborn humans.

Even though one of the seven children of the Black Flame King ruled every province of the kingdom, Exedin ruled ours with fairness. He was a human loving dragonborn who believed his brethren were far too barbaric towards the humans. Exedin made conditions in Yulum bearable for humans. One of the big issues, slavery, had been outlawed in Yulum. Over time, Yulum became a common gathering place for lowborn, turning the once small coastal region into a massive, sprawling, urban province filled with lively humans.

The larger cities of the province focused more containing shops, schools and other public needs buildings. There were apartment-style homes and manors for the dragonborn in the city. To house most of the population, they built smaller villages around the larger cities. Towns and harbor villages were often a mix of housing and other buildings. I had visited the harbor village, Tilithan, when I was little. It was amazing to see all the fishing schools and aquariums.

My village, Akylios’ Refuge, was a well knit community of people trying their hardest to make due. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in our tiny village. We had a post office that fed mail to the city proper for delivery around the kingdom. Along with the post office, we had a bakery, three restaurants and one clothing store. Exedin recently passed a law to have grade schools build in the villages surrounding the major cities. The people who lived in the outer villages appreciated the quality of life law, especially mine. With grade schools in the outer villages, parents could have their children schooled closer to home.

Our village’s sole source of entertainment was a small movie theater. It didn’t play many movies and was far from a luxurious job, but it provided something that was better than sitting at home in the dark. Its cracked stone walls desperately needed a paint job. I had volunteered there for a time when I was a teen, helping clean the two theaters between movies. It kept me busy during my days off from school.

I walked down the dirt paths we had for streets, passing by the town hall and the Church of Akylios. I’d always been disinterested in the church and its followers. The religion had odd practices and a dragon god wasn’t exactly something I wanted to believe in. Akylios was said to be so powerful she could raise tidal waves a mile high, or sink entire fleets in a terrible whirlpool instantly. Akylios, the monster of the deep, was the nickname given to her in the history books that touched on the terrible war of old.

I was one of the few people in the village, along with my parents, who never attended or followed the religion. I understood why Akylios was so revered in Yulum. The entire province was heavily reliant on harbor and ocean trading with Rantis, Uplon, and Sereshan. A few miles north of Port Town was a naval base that housed the fleets belonging to the king. As icing on the cake, Exedin, our prominent leader, was a water blessed dragon born, further cementing the people’s belief in Akylios.

My trip into the city proper wouldn’t take long, usually was a half-hour trip. Once I made it to the city gates, it would be a few minutes more to the school. There was a long stretch of empty grassland outside of the village. A dirt road, very well travelled, connected the village to the city. Traveling down the dirt roads, I passed by several side streets lined with houses. Many were silent, but some had stirred for their daily activities, many of which would involve commuting to into the city.

As I approached the northern road to the city, the streets showed more signs of the early morning buzz. People were groggily moving around, preparing for their days. The village baker was already up and awake, hard at work baking the fresh breads and sugary treats. The intoxicating aroma of the morning muffins is almost enticing enough for me to splurge and spend a bit of my lunch money early.

Before I could decide whether to enter the small stone building or continue my trip, the baker’s wife came out holding a blueberry muffin. She held it out, knowing my decision before I did. I giggled and took the sugary treat from her hands. I paid her the fee and gave a tip, leaving me back to my journey. When I was little, my parents would take me here often for a snack. It is one of my fondest memories.

As I expected, my trip to the city proper took just under a half an hour. The patrols watching over the road waved morning to me. Some men in the group had given me a lecherous look, making my skin crawl. I tugged down my shirt, held my books and papers tighter to my chest. As I entered the city proper, the world felt more alive. Shops were open and attending to guests. There was a buzz of activity in the street as people walked around bicycles and the rare car. After some squishing through crowds, I made it to the front gate of the college. The Medical College of Akylios was a prestigious school that trained some of the best doctors and nurses in the province. I only had to endure three classes today, human biology II, anatomy of non-human races, and medical labs.

Biology was, by far, my favorite of the classes. I loved learning about the secrets of the human body. Medical labs were important, and equally interesting, with a focus on solving medical cases. The class was very practical and was the largest definer if you could stand the struggles and stresses of hospital work. Anatomy of non-human races was a boring class with an even more boring professor. Most of the class was book reading and work sheets. The professor never quizzed us or gave us large projects to do.

“Cecilia!” a voice shouted, a voice I was familiar with.

In the crowd of people stood a classmate of mine, Connor. He was a fellow biology student, who focused more on herbal remedies. Those kinds of medicine were popular among the elves, being nature lovers and all. Ironically, Connor also shattered all my stereotypical preconceived notions about elf people. Standing at an average height and build, Connor was mostly normal save for his pointed ears. His blonde messy curls were the closest thing to stereotypical about him.

He was a refreshing friend that wanted to be something more with me and was pleasant to be around. Sadly, my heart had eyes on another, a highborn boy I shared classes with in my freshman year, Alan. He was a year ahead of me and was beyond dreamy. Every girl in the school drooled over him, but I had an advantage over the rest; we were already close friends.

“Hey Connor,” I replied to my friend, focusing on the here and now.

“Hey yourself, Cecilia. Busy day today, huh?”

“Thursdays always are. Nobody wants to take classes on Fridays, just like the teachers here,” I giggled.

“Yeah. Well, let’s get this over with shall we?”

Connor extended his arm, mocking a gentleman opening a door. His silly antics did always bring a smile to my face. After passing through the crowd and entering the building our class was in, we headed off to our morning class of Human Biology II. The classroom was already packed to the brim with students, but our usual seats were thankfully vacant.

The class ended up being mostly routine worksheets and reading assignments. Connor and I had gossiped most of the class about menial things, like new food recipes to which of our classmates was fucking who. After being dismissed by the teacher, Connor and I headed to our next class, which was a complete snore fest. We took our usual lunch break, salads and chips, then went our separate ways for the last class of the day. Not only was I excited for labs, I also got to work with Alan today. Entering the classroom, I found him sitting in the front desk waiting for me.

Alan’s jet black hair and crystal clear blue eyes were the most exquisite combination. I took my seat next to him and he lit up like a Christmas tree seeing me. After a quick hug, one that would make every girl in class scowl with jealousy, I opened up today’s case file.

“Long day today? You look a tad worn, Cecilia,” Alan said. I blushed at the random and oddly caring question. We were friends and all, but he never asked me those kinds of questions.

“Yeah, just worrying about my mom. The thugs I told you about are harassing her again.”

“Punks always want to be a pain. I’ll remind them to behave if you like.”

“No, no, no. I couldn’t trouble you like that. When I go with her, they usually leave us alone.”

“Well if you, um, change your mind, let me know, kay?” Alan said while scratching the back of his head.

Something felt very off about him today. It wasn’t like there was something wrong or terrible happened, so I wasn’t too worried about prying. Friendly question and worrying was rare for him, but scratching his head with what I thought was a light blush in his cheeks was not normal for him.

I suppressed the urge to prod, choosing to just focus on the case file for now. It was apparent Alan wanted the same. It was a relatively straightforward case file with a slightly uncommon disease. The patient suffered from papillitis, an optical nerve deterioration between the retina and the eye. Alan and I were the fifth group to finish, leaving us nothing to do for the rest of the allotted lab times. Alan got to reading a novel he’d been powering through while I did some Biology readings they assigned us.

“Hey Cecilia?” Alan asked suddenly.

“Huh? Something wrong, Alan?”

“I just was thinking. Would you like to, um, I don’t know, get something to eat tomorrow? It doesn’t have to be special or weird, it could be pizza for all I care.”

A lump formed in my throat and I’m sure my face turned a light shade of pink. Alan was asking me out, like on an actual date. Yeah, it was probably not going to be insanely romantic, but it was a start. Fantasies and daydreams started flickering about in my head as I speculated which would become reality.

“I’d… like that,” I said.

*“God damn it Cecilia! That was so lame, you dumb bitch.”*

“Cool, I’ll ugh pick you up at seven tomorrow?”

I nodded eagerly to his question; probably more than I should have. I couldn’t quite believe this was happening. I had a proper date with the hottest guy in the college. That I could see the looks on every girl’s face when Alan started holding my hand and holding me close as we walked the halls, was deviously delightful.

When class ended, we said our goodbyes, and I reminded him where I lived. Thankfully, he had a car and could easily come get me. I head out of the building, taking my path home. I hurried my pace, trying to keep the promise I made my dad.

A bit of distance down the road was a man smoking while sitting on the hood of his car. He was obviously a highborn. No lowborn could ever afford something so luxurious as a car. The man wore an all black attire, a tight fitting tee shirt and black jeans. His hair was a dark shade, maybe black or dark brown, I couldn’t tell from the distance.

Curious, I approached the lone man, wondering what a highborn was doing out here. That, coupled with my natural desire to help those in need, made it a simple decision. I noticed the car’s windows were tinted, even darker in the back two and was a superb model. This was definitely a sign of a rich, highborn, someone with lots of dragon blood in their veins but still human.

“Excuse me, sir? Did your car break down?”

The man paid me no mind, not bothering to turn to answer my question, or regard my existence at all. Typical, an arrogant highborn who thinks he is too good to talk to lowborn trash. I’ll just have to tell him about a mechanic in the village and leave it at that.

“There’s a fixer in my village down the road. If you have car troubles, he could help.” I walked past when he finally graced me with his voice.

“Cars fine, been waiting for you.” His voice was monotonous, eerie even.

“Waiting for me? Why?” I asked. He picked up a folder with papers in side, sifting through, finding a specific page. He held it up to the light, trying to confirm something was my guess.

“Your name is Cecilia Lent, right, girl?”

“How do you know my name?” Sensations of panic overwhelmed me.

“It’s not the only thing I know about you. What I don’t get is, why is a highborn living in this muck?” The man questioned, waving his hand around.

“I’m not a highborn. I’m a lowborn orphan. What do you want from me, anyway?”

“Well, you’re a highborn. I went to a lot of trouble to make sure.” The man pushed himself off the hood of his car, taking a few steps forward. I took a few strides back in response, hoping to keep the distance between us, just in case he had something nefarious planned.

“I’m not a highborn. You’ve got the wrong person.” The man sighed at my firm statement.

“Quit lying girl. It’s annoying. I know who you are.”

“You’re the idiot here and I’m done with this conversation. Find yourself a real highborn bitch and leave me alone.” Giving him my back, I took off in a sprint towards my village. I wasn’t in the best shape, but I could manage a decent speed if I tried. Before I could put distance between us, I suddenly froze in place.

“Why find another one, when I got a highborn brat who thinks she is smarter than me, right here?” The man pointed out.

“I’m… not… a highborn!” It was an effort for me to speak, let alone argue.

Suddenly, my arm jerked forward like I had thrown something. My leg suddenly lifted and slammed down on a firm object. I realized what was happening finally; the man was a shadow mage. They forced my body to lean down and pick up a roll of duct tape. I felt like my eyes would go wide if I controlled my body.

“One of my many talents, girl, is that I can track people anywhere. You were a real pain in the ass to find. So I know you’re the right person. On top of that, you loudmouthed brat, I can use shadow magic. I snared you in my web the moment you came over to try to ‘help’ me.”

He forced me to tear off a strip of the silver tape. The strip was forcibly pressed over my lips. He made me follow the motions, smoothing out the tape and making sure it was firmly pressed over my mouth. My attacker made me repeat the sequence several times until my lips were buried under six pieces of tape.

“Finally, some peace and quiet. I like you a lot better already,” the man mocked. “Now let’s take care of those annoying legs of yours. Can’t have you running off again.”

The cruel bastard forced my body to tear more duct tape off. Instead of just a slice, he caused me to wrap layer over layer around my ankles, making each wrap was mercilessly tight. Twenty layers later, I snipped off the tape, pressing it sealed. Not finished with binding me yet, the man forced me to repeat the process above and below my knees. Each time I made twenty passes before tearing off the end and finishing the wrap.

If I tried to flee now, I’d end up tripping and falling flat on my face. Not to mention that was assuming he didn’t make me do anything else while my shadow was bound to his. Why the hell was this happening to me? Things were looking great for me, but now I’m being kidnapped by some asshole who thinks I’m someone else.

I fell forward when the man released me from the shadow bind. I would have hit my face had he not caught me, his disgusting arm wrapped around my belly, pinning my arms flat against the sides of my chest. I fought against his hold fiercely, squirming and swinging my hips to dislodge myself from his grip. Unfortunately, he was just too strong and held tight.

He grabbed my wrists, forcing them behind my back in an x pattern. He stole the duct tape that I dropped on the floor after he released me and used it to bind my wrists. Twenty wraps around my wrists, first horizontally, then he did another twenty between my wrists, taping vertically over the horizontal wraps. Having secured my wrists tightly, the man did another twenty passes around my stomach, gluing my hands to my back.

I was not a prisoner to this awful man. My tears flowed freely as he forced me to the ground. I squirmed violently, grunting on the dirt path, praying someone would save me.

“Might have stood a chance against me if you had tried to fight earlier, girl.”

“N’m nrh r hrcchnng hnghhrrn!”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Sit there and behave, brat, I got a phone call to make.”

True to his word, the man pulled a cell phone from his back pocket and began dialing a number. I wasn’t going to just sit here, waiting for whatever terrors awaited me in the near future. I only got a few feet before he planted his knee in my back, pinning me in place.

“Inform the client, I have the girl. It’ll take me three days to meet his associates in Aegris. And tell that dragonborn snob I expect payment on delivery.” He cut off the phone call, putting the phone back in his pocket. “I thought I told you to behave, bitch?”

“Hrcch mrr hrncch!” I shouted from underneath my gag.

“Sorry girl, but you’re worth a lot of money to someone. You’ll be their problem in a few days. Till then, you’ll be in the trunk.”

I wasn’t sure how long had passed since my kidnapper threw me in the trunk. I kicked as best I could in the metal confines of my prison. My fight did little to relieve my anger or earn me freedom. Bored out of my mind and exhausted from struggling, I felt a wave of sleepiness set in. I spent so much energy fighting only to end up just tiring myself out. With nothing better to do, I concluded rest was in my best interest. I’d need my energy back whenever he takes me out of this trunk.

My captor shook me awake, the sun just starting to set. We had stopped in some grassy plains in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t get the chance to fully wake before as my captor pulled me from the trunk. After sitting me down on the road, leaning me against the back of his car, he tore the strips of tape off my lips in a painful quick motion. He sat down across from me, holding two bags of food. One filled with apple slices and the other filled with cookies. My captor pulled out a green slice of apple and put it to my lips, close enough I could bite.

“Eat,” he ordered. I kept my mouth pressed shut, breathing through my nose and refusing to comply. “Look, I don’t like you, you don’t like me but you need to eat. No point starving yourself.”

“What do you care? You kidnapped me, asshole!”

“Finally going to admit who you are?” He asked.

“I’m not a highborn. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that. Maybe if you got it through that thick skull of yours, we wouldn’t have to deal with each other.”

“So that’s a no. You realize it’s pointless to lie. I will not let you go, even if you are the wrong girl.”

“How are you so fucking sure, huh?” I barked.

“Cause I’m a seeker, brat. You almost convinced me you weren’t when I watched you for the past few days. You seemed like such an ordinary lowborn. The second I used my seeker magic to be sure, I could sense the extensive dragon blood in your veins.”

“You’re delusional. I am a lowborn. My adoptive parents raised me as their own, never once lying to me. Hell, they even told me they adopted me when I was born while I was still a kid. If I was a highborn, they’d have told me.”

My captor took a bite of the apple, chewing on both it and my words. It felt like the silence developing between us had gone on for ages. Then he took another bite of the apple, finishing it with a loud crunch. My hunger was overwhelming me as I watched the jerk eat. I was a moment away from snapping at him to share when he put a slice of apple to my lips. I huffed, resigned to obey for now, and took a bite of the tart green apple slice.

“You really believe that you’re a lowborn, don’t you kid?” My captor asked.

“I don’t believe, I know I am.”

“Then I’m sorry to break it to you so late in your life, but there’s no arguin’. There’s dragon blood in you. Unreal amounts too.”

“You… You’re wrong.”

“Cecilia, I got no reason to lie to you. Prince Erik paid me over six hundred thousand gold to find and capture you. And now I’m getting another four hundred thousand to deliver you. I’m not risking that much gold over a potential case of mistaken identity.”

I didn’t know what was more shocking, that someone was hired to kidnap me or that Prince Erik, a son of the king, was paying an insane price to have me captured. If he was telling the truth about his employer, then I really was a highborn, right? Why wouldn’t Bella or Mervus tell me I was a highborn? Did they even know?

A concerning question entered my mind. What would one of the royal princes want with me? I was a nobody. There was nothing special about my life that stood out as interesting enough to catch the attention of a prince. There had to be something I was missing. Maybe this man would know.

“Do you know why the prince wants me?” I asked.

“Didn’t need to know, so didn’t ask.”

“Oh…” There was a light tremble in my voice that he picked up on. “What… What did you do to my parents?”

“The stand-ins? Or your real folks?”

“Both.”

“Didn’t know your real folks. Never even heard of your name before they sent the contract my way. The stand-ins, well they would have noticed you were missing.”

“No… you didn’t… please no.”

“Sorry kid. Had to be done. I don’t leave loose ends.”

“You… You killed them?” I asked, hardly able to believe the words.

“What? No, I didn’t. I just convinced certain police officers to turn up your ‘dead’ body in a few days. Everyone you know will think you fell down a cliff, winding up a corpse. Better it looks like an accident then killing two people in cold blood. Would make crossing borders a lot harder.”

I breathed a little easier knowing my parents would be safe. Though, my heart shattered knowing they would mourn thinking I was dead. That they would have to endure such sadness was another torture in this living nightmare. He prodded my lips with another apple slice, staring at me, silently ordering me to eat.

“I can feed myself, you know.”

“I’m not cutting your hands loose. Deal with it.”

I let out another huff and took a bite of the red skinned sweet apple slice. It surprised me the fruit was relatively fresh. As a lowborn, I was accustomed to more… rotten produce. Fresh fruit, veggies and meat was a luxury reserved for highborn and dragonborn. The lowborn had to make do with scraps, yet another social injustice just because a person wasn’t born the right way.

“What were you studying?”

“Does it matter?” I countered.

“Considering I’m the only person you’re gonna get to talk to for the foreseeable future, I’d thought you’d want to have some conversation when I feed you.”

“Human biology. I wanted to be a doctor.”

“For the money?” my captor asked. I scoffed at his juvenile question.

“You probably find this hard to believe, but I want to help people. I’m not a greedy person like you… whoever you are.”

“Straze. My name is Straze.”

Straze pulled a cookie this time for his bag of food, offering it for me to bite. I happily took a large bite of the chocolate chip snack. I tried enjoying the food while I could; Straze might not be so kind later on with food.

“You seem more… docile.” Straze gave me another cookie. “Good thing you can do that, no one likes a bitch.”

“Don’t call me either of those things. I don’t appreciate slander, Straze.”

“Hit a nerve have I?.” Straze took an apple slice for himself. He chewed it slowly while his eyes examined my body. “Surprised you didn’t have a boyfriend, you’re quite the looker.”

“I’m so flattered by your compliment I feel disgusted. Good job.”

Straze let out a disappointed sigh, pushing yet another apple slice to my lips for me to eat. I continued to eat the slices of apples and cookies Straze fed me. I must have hit a nerve because Straze had gone silent. As the food dwindled, my interest in Straze rose.

Was he an evil man? He could be doing this job to feed his family back home or something. Highborn or not, no human really lives well these days. Surely there had to be a reason he was being so gentle, caring even. Straze wasn’t forcing food down my throat, he wanted me to eat willingly, trying to convince me when I wouldn’t. This probably would be my one time to ask questions about him, I guess.

“Why did you take the contract to find me?”

“Need the money.”

“What for?” I replied.

“Personal.”

His curt tone and short replies were enough for me to know it wasn’t something he liked to talk about. Bad guys normally didn’t have those things which to me meant that he had something he needed to protect. What could it be? A family? A sibling he promised to look after? A girlfriend? My interest only grew the more I thought about it.

“Too personal to tell someone who might not be live much longer. Don’t you think I deserve something before you hand me off to be slaughtered.”

“You don’t know he’ll kill you.”

“Stop dodging the question.”

“Why do you want to know so bad huh?”

“Cause I… I don’t know.”

Straze put the bags of food down on the ground. He closed the distance between us, giving me the first whiff of the vanilla aroma that danced lightly around him. I always loved the smell of vanilla since I was a child and the smell on him lowered my defenses a little. I wouldn’t have noticed the small change in my attitude had I not been hyper focused on the moment.

Straze was so close he could kiss me. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks, nervousness dominating my mind. A few inches were all that separated our faces, his body hovered just as close. All I had to do was lean a bit more into him. Why would I want that though? Could I be finding myself getting attached to him? Abruptly he pulled away, sitting himself back in his spot.

“I have a little sister, names Alli. She doesn’t know what I do but I do it for her. We haven’t lived any better than a common street beggar since our parents passed away. After I found out I was a gifted, able to use both shadow and seeking magic, I started doing these jobs.”

Straze’s expression was stern, almost lacking any expression. There was a little shift in his posture when he grabbed a cookie from the bag but he never broke eye contact with me. The intensity was intimidating, almost making me want to hide away.

“Eventually, I had done enough work to get us some decent clothes and food. The pay got better the more I did. I used the extra money to buy us a home and necessities. Once the real money started rolling in my sister was able to attend classes. I bought her a tutor to catch her up. She’s barely a teen and I’m giving her a better life than our parents had.”

Straze took a deep breath before leaning back, his two hands pressed into the road steadying him.

“Couple times she asked me how I got all this money. I never had the heart to tell her.” Straze slowly moved his eyes back to mine. “So what will I do with the money? I’ll buy Alli a better life than she can ever dream of.”

I was speechless. That story, the way he told, it all felt so real. There was no way that could have been made up. The tale didn’t stop me from wondering what she would think of the things he’s done. Kidnapping people who would end up as slaves, whores or murder victims isn’t exactly something an innocent girl could stomach.

“You get your hands dirty, so she’ll never have to,” I commented offhandedly.

A short time later Straze had polished off the rest of the meal. Finished with the food, Straze pulled me up and threw me over his shoulder. I let out a yelp of surprise and frustration of being handled like this. Instead of throwing me back into the trunk, Straze instead helped me into the back seat of his car. He buckled my seatbelt, then disappeared to fetch something from the trunk. When he returned, I paled, for in his hand was the roll of duct tape.

“Oh, come on. Who will help me out here!?”

“Sorry but I don’t take risks.”

Straze’s apology amounted to jack shit as he pressed strip after strip firmly over my lips, keeping my aggravated groans to a low grumble. Satisfied I wouldn’t be screaming for help, Straze threw the roll onto the seat next to me. Slamming the door shut. Being in the back seat was definitely nicer than the trunk. For starters, it was a comfortable leather and wasn’t a dark prison. I could see where I was going, even if I didn’t know where I was.

Taking in the sights helped distract me from my situation a little, but fears of what a prince wanted with me lingered in the back of my head. A prince wouldn’t pay so much, or even pay someone at all, to fetch him a whore. So what was I to him? Was there some secret to my past I was missing?

*“Obviously I’m fucking missing something. It wasn’t even a few hours ago I learned I was a highborn. There were likely to be more secrets hidden in my past, obscured in the misty corners of my mind.”*

It amazed me, with the vast openness that made up the rest of Yulum. I had only visited Port Town and Tilithan. Most of the inner land in Yulum was empty miles of grasslands. Occasionally, we’d pass by a farm or a small village, but it was considerably barren away from the coast.

Straze made another stop some hours later, when the sun had finally set and the light of the moon shined on the road. We stopped in a small town with gravel roads. The sign just outside of the city said “Welcome to Velia”. Straze stopped the car in front of a large, wooden building with a rotting sign nailed above the entrance. The symbol carved into the wood was used to mark human friendly inns and taverns.

*“Maybe I could get someone here to help me.”*

Straze had gone in alone, leaving me in the car pondering if I would spend the night in this stuffy car. It was comfortable to lie in, but I was hoping I’d at least get the chance to stretch my aching muscles. Not to mention the added benefit of being able to cry for help. After what like an eternity, Straze returned wearing a triumphant grin. He opened the trunk, pulling out a few bags, then came to open my door.

“I paid off the innkeeper and got us a very secluded room. Before you think you can plead with him to help you, I paid even more to get him to look the other way. So do me and the other guests a favor and keep your voice down. You trying calling for help and… well, you won’t like what happens.” Straze unbuckled my seatbelt, then tore off the tape on my lips, causing a loud yelp from me. “Got it?”

“Fine,” I replied angrily.

“Good.”

Straze pulled me out of the car, sweeping my leg the moment I was upright putting me into a bridal carry. I flushed, both surprised and embarrassed, as Straze carried me inside. The outside of the inn looked like just another average building among the town, the inside however, was a different story. The floors were chipped, pieces of wood lying everywhere. Rugs of scratchy wool covered a few places, which judging from the damage that poked out from underneath, were the worst parts of the floor. The walls were the best-maintained part of the inn. Fresh coats of paint and several pictures of varying sizes. The paintings themselves looked cheap, but it was better than nothing, I suppose. The entry hall lacked any tables or seating. There was a long desk towards the back of the hall, an elderly gentleman standing behind it. Straze and the man exchanged a nod of understanding. I scowled at the old man for letting his greed dominate him. After seeing my expression, the man quickly bowed his head in shame, refusing to meet my eyes again.

*“Coward,”* I thought spitefully.

Straze made a left-hand turn after reaching the front desk, down a long hall, going further and further until we reached a wooden door labeled “17”. Setting me down, Straze fetched a key from his pocket, using it to open the door. With our room for the night unlocked, he pulled me inside the dark room. When Straze lit some oil lamps, I got my first glimpse of the poorly kept room. The bed, oddly decent looking, had a mess of sheets piled atop the mattress. Pillows had been thrown around the room in various locations.

.

“Couldn’t have sprung for a nicer room?” I goaded.

“Oh, shut it. I’ve slept in worse places than this. You can always go sleep in the car.”

I groaned, both my options shitty, but at least it was warm inside and the bed was comfortable. I shook my head, agreeing to stay in the room with him. Suddenly, I felt my face flush from the thought of having to share this bed with him. I tried desperately to hide the embarrassment from him, but he caught it quickly.

“Don’t get so hot and bothered, girl. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“How do I know you won’t slip in the bed and rape me while I sleep?”

“You think I need to wait for you to sleep to rape you?” Straze stole some sheets, laying one out on the floor where I assumed he would sleep. “So do I have to tape your pretty mouth shut again? Or you gonna be quiet?”

“I’ll be quiet if you cut some of this tape off. I just want to stretch a bit before bed.” Straze scratched his head, pondering my request.

“Fine. I’ll cut some of it off. Wrists stay bound.”

I sighed, disappointed that I couldn’t flex my wrists, but at least I could get up and walk around. True to his word, he cut every wrapping of tape around my legs and the tape that pinned my hands to my back. Strangely, he didn’t mind watching me stretch my legs or walk in circles around the room. It was kind of creepy the way he kept staring at me, as if my movements tempted him to let the devil within have its way with me.

I tried hard to ignore him, stretching out my legs on the edge of the bed. I looked over to my left, a window left open to let a cool night breeze in. The moonlight shone brightly through the portal into our room. I examined the large luminous sphere in the star-filled sky. Since the moon controlled the tides, many considered the moon to be the spirit of Akylios often praying to it for succor. So for the first time in my life, I closed my eyes and prayed to the dragon goddess of water. There was a slight tingle in my back, then my hands and feet. The sensations quickly faded, leaving me feeling confused from the unnatural *nature of their occurrence.*

“You religious?” Straze questioned.

“No, I don’t believe in gods. Although I guess I do now. Tried praying to the moon for safety.”

“From me?”

“From the prince.”

Story finished at: [https://www.literotica.com/beta/s/highborn](https://www.literotica.com/beta/s/highborn)

Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/iaols2/highborn_kidnappingbondagemf