Underestimate Me

He curled his fingers through that idiotic looking mustache for the twelfth time as he paced through the cell where they kept Rowen’s hands tied. His forehead creased as he jaw hardened. Rowen mused that if he clenched those teeth any tighter they would either break his jaw or leave him toothless. Hadrian stopped in front of the man with bottomless pits for eyes as his mad sputtering finally broke into sensible words.

“I want the scoundrel dead!” He growled. “She would have never lowered herself to bedding a man she was not marrying.” His eyes turned to focus on Rowen.

“Maybe she wanted someone who did not make her sick when she looked at his wretched face?” Rowen smirked before he shrugged. Elrik glared at his eldest son. He wanted to scream at his youngest to get away from the criminal.

“Shut your mouth, Rowen!” Elrik spat the last word as if it were venom on his tongue. His eldest son lowered his gaze for a moment, wincing at his brother’s comforting touch before the smirk returned. That smirk needed to be wiped of the arrogant boy’s face for good.

“Death! I will not settle for less than death!” Hadrian cried.

“My son will not be murdered. He was the victim of a woman’s crime,” Elrik growled. “But he must be punished!” Rowen’s face fell as he listened to his father’s words. He felt Merek’s hand tense against his back before it fell to his side. Elrik gave his youngest son a cruel grin before he turned his eyes on his eldest son. “He will be publically whipped for his crimes.” Elrik’s glare held a lack of tolerance for nonsense.

Rowen cringed as he stared at her eyes while Laila dug the boiled cloth back into his wound. He felt something trickle down the right side of his chest, dripping from his abdomen. The exposed skin made him sicker. She had no right seeing his demons; and though he often wondered about hers, he did not try to look at more than she revealed. He couldn’t hide here.

“It is fine, just a simple scratch,” he spat before turning his head to the left. “Why aren’t you finished yet?” Laila’s hand tensed around the cloth to his wound, but she offered no answer.

“Meredith will be here soon.” Josselyn infored Laila. Rowen imagined she nodded in response because Josselyn continued. “We will leave you here to take care of the others, only a small party will venture out to keep us from having to move again so soon. Our sisters need not be worn by continuous movement.

Before Laila could say anything, Meredith popped out of the woods with several rabbits and something that looked like a fox. Her happy countenance faltered the moment she saw Josselyn in front of Rowen.

Anger filled his soul again as he stood exposed against the pole. Laila hissed as he began to fidget. He didn’t want to say something he knew he was going to regret, but his brain lost control of his mouth as words began spewing from his lips. “I always thought women were meant to be with men, but obviously here rules do not apply to beasts in forests."

Meredith dropped her kill upon hearing his words and rushed forward, only stopping as Josselyn caught her arm. She shook her head while staring deeply into Meredith’s eyes. The simple action made what little food Rowen managed to eat to churn in his stomach. He could feel the bile rising as Josselyn’s finger’s lingered over Meredith’s arm.

Meredith scoffed like a child who couldn’t get her way before he turned to Rowen with a glare that would annihilate him if looks could kill. “You are lucky,” she growled. “I would love to cut of that snake between your legs. The one that makes you feel superior!”

Rowen smirked as he opened his mouth prepared to tell the blonde just how much his snake had done for far less punishment than he had to face for the grand prize before them when Josselyn turned her icy glare and began speaking first. “I only bedded one beast in my life, I am looking at him.”

Rowen’s nails dug deeper into his skin as his jaw hardened. His eyes caught the gray flecks that reminded him of the fresh snow they played in during their childhood. Now it only reminded him of ashes of the woman she used to be. “And they called me a heathen,” he muttered more to himself, but loud enough for all three women surrounding him to hear. Laila pulled the cloth earning a loud grunt. A smile played upon Meredith lips at his pain.

Rowen arched his back to relieve the pain in his shoulder, but it only made his skin burn. It felt like lightning struck his shoulder over and over again. He wondered if Laila was secretly getting enjoyment out of his pain as well. His eyes bore into Josselyn’s as her brow furrowed for a moment in confusion before her brow smoothed again. “There might been a time I held a high opinion of you, but this is very far from that time.”

Rowen shook his head, knowing full well exactly what she thought of him before her mind made up these lies. She never held a high opinion of him. No, he was simply the letcher that wanted her body to be another notch in his belt. How is that good in any nature?

“I once held you in a high regard, and then you rose from the dead like a demon.” Rowen tried desperately to shove the bile down with the memories. However, both rose until he could no longer fight it.

Elrik slapped his younger son so hard that he fell to the floor. “I told you your bitch is dead! Now fix your shirt, and move. I have better things to do than sit at your trial all day.” He stormed from the room before Rowen helped Merek off the floor.

“You’re going to be okay, right?” Merek’s blue eyes held more fear than usual. Rowen hadn’t seen his younger brother look quite like that since he almost got caught stealing an apple from the market. Of course, he didn’t know Rowen already paid for enough apples for him for a week.

Rowen smiled and nodded. “I’m going to be fine; I promise.” He slid the wool material over his still oozing wounds. They might not have been deep but they were healing too slowly for his tastes. A man burst through the door of the cell, and without a word he pulled Rowen up by his collar and dragged him from the cell, leaving Merek’s eyes wider than they had ever been.

~~~

Rowen stood with his hands bound in front of him before the circle of men. Nine men altogether. Merek stood just outside the chambers listening through the door as Elrik began to present the case.

“My eldest son is charged with the crime of sleeping with a betroth woman. The whore is dead, and I wish to hear what your proposals of punishment are.”

Hadrian raised his hand first, but Elrik ignored his gesture before another chubby man raised his hand. “This is his first offense…”

He was cut off by another man who Rowen thought looked familiar, but he couldn’t place the face. “He slept with my daughter!”

Elrik glared at his son in the circle, but Rowen’s face did not change. It was as hard as stone, as it always was when he got accused. “Is there any proof?”

“No…but…but that heathen…!” Elrik waved his hand.

The man’s face fell before an older gentlemen opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, “If we only have proof of one event; I say we whip the heathen, and let him wallow in the death of the woman he bedded.”

“The whipping shall being tomorrow,” Elrik decreed before he adjourned the meeting.