The Tithe That Binds (6 page)

“Yes, Mistress.”

While the tithe collected the dishes and shuffled to the sink, Gabrielle looped her arm through Eli’s. “She’s adjusting well, Elijah.” Her face radiated her pleasure.

“You are doing a wonderful job, Gabrielle. I doubt any others have had such an arousing first feeding. And, she is already acknowledging you without a reminder,” Eli noted.

“I can’t wait to tell mother,” Gabrielle gushed. “Oh, Eli. I had no idea how wonderful a tithe would be.”

“There is still a lot of training ahead of her.”

“Yes, but so far it’s everything I hoped it would be.”

“We still need to gauge the tithe’s passion. She must perform and be aroused when you demand it,” Eli reminded her.

Debra shuffled to the seating area and she knelt by her Mistress’s side without the snap of her fingers. She was numbed and tired by all that was happening. Even the thought of escape or rescue seemed to be too much trouble.

Gabrielle rose and sat on one end of the small sofa. “Come, Mara. Lay on the couch and put your head in my lap.”

Debra…
no, Mara
… stood and whispered, “Yes, Mistress.” She lay on the soft cushions and wanted to turn her head into the soft cotton dress and cry. She stiffened when the devil rose and sat on the other end of the couch, lifting her legs and placing them across his lap. Another of the hidden straps, this one attached to the leg of the sofa, hooked onto the chain connecting her ankles. Debra…
no, Mara
… contained her frightened sob.

When the man’s fingers began to caress her thighs, she squeezed her eyes closed. They traveled up, brushing the inside of her sensitive skin until he reached her pussy. Mara’s eyes flew open in alarm, and she gasped and looked into Gabrielle’s face. She was smiling, and a hand brushed across Mara’s forehead while another moved gently towards her breasts.

Mara kept from pleading out loud, but she begged with her eyes. “Hush, Mara. You have had a long day and performed adequately. You are being rewarded for your effort. There are only two experiences for you now: reward and punishment.” Gabrielle smiled. “I assure you. Reward is much more pleasant for you.”

When Elijah’s fingers separated her pussy, she panicked and quivered against the cushions. “Hush,” Gabrielle soothed. Her hand massaged a firm breast and her fingers brushed across a tightening nipple. Despite her fear, Mara felt her pussy begin to dampen. She was horrified and cried quietly. “Hush,” Gabrielle continued to murmur, and Mara found herself looking into the woman’s eyes and begging her to stop this humiliation. She was already forcing herself not to respond to the seductive hand stroking her pussy. She cried when a finger entered her clasping channel and another brushed her clit.

“Please, Mistress,” Mara begged.

“Hush, Mara. Enjoy your reward.” Gabrielle glanced over at Elijah’s intense gaze on the tithe’s slit. “She’s wet?”

“Wet and gripping,” Elijah affirmed.

Gabrielle looked down into the frightened blue stare. If the girl truly had only one experience, it was doubtful she orgasmed. Still, she knew what to do with her Mistress’s pussy so she must have pleasured herself. “You will come for your Mistress, Mara. Relax and do as I order.”

Mara quivered, crying, “Yes, Mistress.”
This is too terrible. How can these people do this to me?
Mara felt the fluttering contractions in her channel and she knew the devil was going to make her climax. It happened so quickly, and her thighs slammed together around his hand as she pushed up and shrieked. Her hips kept pushing into his hand and her pussy rubbed against him, squeezing as much out of the orgasm as her exhausted body could manage.

Thankfully, it was the last torment she was put through for the day. The couple led her to the bedroom and latched her wrists behind her again. Her collar was chained to the footboard and Mara curled up by their feet. Gabrielle covered her with a light blanket, and she fell asleep to the sound of their passionate exchange… and wondering where Debra had gone.

In the morning, she woke up to a hand caressing down her back. She snuggled under her light blanket, enjoying the sensation as she slowly woke up. When her eyes half-opened in the dim pre-dawn light and she saw the unfamiliar surroundings, she froze. A small part of her mind had her convinced that she would awaken back at the farm… or better yet… back in Barrington. The second thing that registered was that the hand stroking her did not belong to a woman. Debra trembled and disappeared, as Mara, tithe to a Mistress and the devil, returned to the terrifying reality of slavery.

Elijah felt her freeze when she woke up. Before Gabrielle had walked to the kitchens to order an early breakfast for them, she had kissed him and whispered she wanted him to wake up Mara. Elijah knew his wife’s generous motive. She wanted him to enjoy her tithe before he left to go to the flatlands.

Eli began caressing Mara’s back, skating his fingertips over the goose bumps that had risen. It pleased him that she was already learning his touch. He threaded his fingers through her thick braid and lifted her, dragging her to her knees in the middle of the bed.

Even in the dim light of the room, Mara could see his black eyes shining… staring at her with a look of arousal and narrowing in threat. He rose and climbed out from under the quilt, and she squeezed her eyes closed after glancing at his erection. The wooden frame of the bed groaned as the man held her hair while he knelt behind her.

Mara was petrified; petrified when the silken skin of his hard shaft rested against the small of her back, and petrified because she felt her pussy cramp and begin to dampen. She prayed that he would not touch her and find her humiliating response. When he let go of her hair and his hands wrapped around her waist, she shuddered. A quiet wail of despair escaped her lips when his fingers brushed lower, slowly sinking between her thighs and splitting her fleshy lips.

Eli smiled at the arousal coating his fingers, and the girl stiffened and tried to move forward. He placed a hand between her shoulder blades and pushed her down into the pillows, keeping his knees between her spread thighs that remained in their folded position beneath her belly. When she tried to straighten them, he lifted her hips.

Mara panicked and screamed into the soft pillows when his arm reached around her hips to hold her still. His other hand slipped along her folds, dipping in and out of her pussy. He brushed her clit and she pressed into his hand, needing his touch and terrified at the thought. Her mind wanted him to stop, but every time she tried to will him away and pretend he was not behind her, stroking her and plunging into her channel with his fingers, her body rebelled against her. Soon, she was pressing her raised bottom into his groin and rubbing his stiffened rod.

Eli heard her wailing into the pillow and trying to shake her head, but the tithe’s body told a different story. He smiled and kept his tight grip on her hips. It was a paradox of sensation battling her fear while he gently stroked her pussy and encouraged her passion.
She will learn she can’t deny her desire.

Mara was finally reduced to racking sobs and small, stifled mewls of humiliation while she ground her pussy into his hand, trying to connect with her clit and relieve the cramping flutters with an orgasm. The devil man kept her peaked and added a new movement to his stroking. His fingers tickled across her bead, into her channel, and began pressing into her bottom. Mara began screaming again, realizing his intention.

The man never spoke. He kept her in the vise grip, and with her wrists bound behind her she could not move the stack of soft pillows to turn her head and vent her anger. Eli watched her hands go from frantic clenching and twisting, to tightly folded fists. She was shuddering, and she clamped down tightly on the fingers entering her ass.

When she was well lubricated with her own juices, he lined his cock up with her virgin hole. He would not be able to use her pussy until she was bred by one of his sons, but he could certainly avail himself of her other tight channel. He pushed against her entrance, pressing until he slowly slid and squeezed passed the muscle.

Ow… stop… please, don’t.
Mara’s muffled screams were barely intelligible. It felt as though she was being torn apart, and she pushed with her muscles, trying to get him to vacate her tortured hole.

Elijah’s crown was past her entrance, and he stopped guiding his shaft and returned to stroking her slit. After a few brushes across her clit, her attention was diverted from his cock and she began the mewling sounds and rocking into his hand again. Her muscles loosened and he slowly entered her, remaining fully seated inside and enjoying the clenching muscles while her pussy responded to his thrusting fingers.

Mara searched for his fingers with her slit, trying to create the friction she needed to climax. Her hips began rocking, and she felt the strange sensation of him sliding in and out of her bottom… mostly aided by her own attempts to chase her orgasm.

The training of the tithe was turning into as sadistically arousing an experience for him as Gabrielle had described. His balls tightened and he held himself on edge as he slid his finger over her clit. After a few seductive rubs, she was gasping and rocking into him with her climax. Elijah grabbed her hips with both hands and plunged in and out of her bottom while her channel clasped and loosened in post-climatic shudders. His sperm jetted inside her and he thrust deep, holding himself planted within her tight, hot walls, until the last of his juice was released.

Mara sagged in defeat while she felt him slide out of her. She felt his hand stroke once down her back, and then he gripped her collar. It seemed she was weightless against his strength. He lifted her, turning her in an awkward maneuver that had her scrambling to keep her legs underneath her. The room was a little lighter, and she found herself looking into his hateful black gaze. “Clean me,” Eli ordered, and pushed her head towards his cock.

Mara sobbed and trembled, far too terrified to refuse his demand. Her bottom was clenching and opening, sorely abused and leaking his juice down her thighs. When he was satisfied with her effort, he rose and began to dress, leaving her kneeling on the bed and miserably contemplating what other horrors this new day would bring.

When Elijah sat on the bed to put on his boots, Mara wanted to run. She continued to tremble behind him. “I will be gone for three days, and you will follow your Mistress’s orders. She will bring you to Caleb for correction if you deny her, and I have instructed him to punish you with a three point whipping… the same as the tithe’s display from the auction.”

Mara thought about poor little Suzy’s horrible whipping and she gasped. The devil was not done speaking. “When I return, if I see evidence of those welts of punishment, you will then answer to me.” He turned and smiled at her, though his eyes held a frightening glare of warning. “Do you understand?”

Mara nodded, and his hand snaked out and gripped her nipple, twisting it painfully. “Do you understand?” he repeated.

“Yyyes, Master.”
Oh, god. Oh, help me.
If there was any solace she could hold onto, it was the knowledge that he would be gone for a few days.

Apparently, the devil’s lust was quenched with the pre-dawn tryst. Elijah sat at his place at the table and watched Gabrielle. Mara knelt by her chair, staring at the floor. “Mara?”

She raised her head, and said, “Yes, Mistress?”

Gabrielle was holding the leather ring and arching her brow. It would become an expression that Mara would quickly learn meant the difference between obeying on her own and being forced to follow her Mistress’s order while being painfully restrained or punished. “Do we need this?”

Mara glanced at Eli and she saw that he was staring at her. His eyes narrowed slightly in warning. “No, Mistress.”

“And what is it you are to do?” Gabrielle pressed.

“I am to worship you for my meal, Mistress,” Mara whispered.

Gabrielle was already slickening from the misery in her tithe’s eyes. Her slave would learn perfection. “And how are you to worship your Mistress?”

Mara’s whole body quivered with fear, and her throat tightened so that she could not speak. Gabrielle held her chin and stroked her cheek with her thumb. “You are to worship your Mistress’s pussy. Ask me if you may do this for your meal.” The pleading humiliation in the crystal blue eyes, misery and tears filling them, was wonderfully arousing.

“Please, Mistress.” Mara’s voice was barely a whisper. “May I worship your pussy for my meal?”

Gabrielle laid the ring on the table and she reached behind her tithe and unhooked her wrists. She spread her legs, and Mara was left to lift her long skirt with shaking hands. The same trembling hands spread her Mistress’ pussy, and Gabrielle closed her eyes, relishing the moment of the first swipe of the girl’s tongue. Her hand dropped down to stroke the girl’s hair, and she felt Mara’s tears mixing in with her cream.

After what seemed like a very long time, Mara realized the woman was not going to crush her between her strong thighs. Her fingers spread the soft lips further and she searched for her clit again. This would get the inevitable act over with quicker. Over the next few meals, Mara worked at experimenting until she found what gave her Mistress the most pleasure. She never realized when the demand of worshipping her Mistress before meals became an expected routine and had stopped being repulsive to her.

Chapter IV

Just as breakfast had ended and Mara was told to wash the dishes, there was a knock on the door. She stood still with a plate in her hand, staring at the red handled pump.

Gabrielle expected Minerva was arriving early, perhaps to say goodbye to her son. Instead, Eli’s brother, Abram, walked in. Mara turned to see the owner of the new voice. The man was a few inches shorter than the devil, and his features were as pale as Elijah’s were dark. He was very muscular with white-blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Even with these physical differences, the man had the same dangerous air about him. Mara quickly turned her attention back to the sink.

“Abram, I’m sorry about the turn-around. Any trouble with Tommy McEnroe?”

“No. The bastard is such a coward. We finally gagged him when he wouldn’t stop trying to bribe his way out of it. Thing is, when we got to Henry’s, Sarah called me aside. We have another situation, perhaps a good one. I’ll leave it to you to decide.”

Elijah was intrigued. “Have a seat. What’s going on?”

Abram whispered to Gabrielle, “Is that Sarah’s girl?” Gabrielle nodded. “Well, I guess it don’t matter. Sarah found her phone. I guess she wasn’t supposed to bring it to the farm. Sarah didn’t know she had it until after you collected her. She had a bunch of text messages from a girl back home on it.” Abram handed Eli a picture of Jill that Sarah had found in Debra’s wallet.

“The girl is coming to the farm, expecting to see Mara,” Abram explained.

“What’s Sarah planning on telling her?”

“Might not have to tell her anything, Eli. The girl lied to her parents and told them she was headed about fifty miles in the other direction. That’s almost six hundred miles west of the farm, and her folks have no idea she was coming this way.”

Elijah studied the picture again. The girl was pretty. Not as good-looking as Mara, but she had a healthy strong look about her. A part of him wished his mother was there to question Mara about her, but Eli decided to give Gabrielle the opportunity. “Gabrielle, we need some information on the girl.”

Gabrielle saw that Mara had finished the dishes and she was still standing at the sink. She snapped her fingers. Mara turned and walked slowly to her chair, glancing once at Abram before she knelt. Gabrielle took the picture from Eli, and held it in front of Mara’s face. There was a gasp, and her tithe began shaking her head in horror.

“Who is she?”

“No,” Debra cried.
Oh god.
She had completely forgotten about the text messages and that Jill would be driving to the farm. Gabrielle reached down and gripped her breast, squeezing bruises into the pale flesh. Debra tried to pry her fingers off, screaming, “Please. Oh, god. Jill has nothing to do with this.”

Gabrielle arched her eyebrow, leaned down glaring at her tithe’s clawing fingers, and whispered, “I will have Abram hold you by your nipples while Elijah blisters your cunt with a cane, and then have every man in the settlement fuck that tight little ass of yours.” Gabrielle knew that Eli had no time to mess with her stalling… not with the chance of Chris hiding Sherry on them or taking off.

Debra’s hands dropped as though she had been burned. “She’s… she’s just someone from school,” she cried. She had not been able to hear Abram’s earlier conversation with Eli, but she realized they knew that Jill would be at the farm.
My phone. Mom must have found my phone. Oh, Jill. Please… please don’t come.
Debra knew that her wish would go unheeded. Jill was looking forward to the chance of spending the summer with her too much.

“She has a boyfriend?” Gabrielle pried. She relaxed her hold and stroked over the tithe’s breast, keeping her hand close enough to grip again, should it be necessary.

Debra’s mind grasped the slight hope. “Yes. Yes, she’s dated Ben Jameson since last year. He’d look for her.”

“At the college, maybe,” Gabrielle smiled. She looked up at Elijah. “Well, she’d be another slut who can’t keep her legs together, but at least she’s broken in.” There was no way the boy would have been with her for so long, if he was not getting some measure of physical satisfaction. “Elijah, we rarely get an opportunity like this to add a completely new bloodline to the clan.

Elijah made his decision. Even if the girl could not be tithed, they could send her to one of the work camps. “I’m bringing her back, Mara. I want answers, and if yours are different to hers, you’ll both be punished.”

Mara was crying in gulping sobs. She hated confiding information about her friend, but she knew the devil would keep his word. “I was going to try to get mom to let me go back home with her.”

“Does she have any physical limitations?” Gabrielle asked. They certainly did not need another ‘Barbra McEnroe’ situation.

Debra bowed her head, staring at the floor in silence. Gabrielle mashed her breast again, and she gasped and looked up at her. Any lie to try to get them not to take her friend would be easily discovered. Sarah knew as much about Jill as Debra did. “She broke her wrist last year.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked at Elijah and pleaded, “Please… please don’t bring her up here. Mom can just tell her I went someplace else for the weekend with dad. She’ll drive back home. I know she will.”

“And wonder why you never called her again?” Eli asked. “I don’t think so.” He turned to Abram. “Can you get the Preacher and Shawn and ask them to join us?”

Abram smiled. “As long as I’m in on it.”

“I think we can work out something beneficial for both of us,” Eli suggested.

Mara was released to kneel by her Mistress, and silent tears washed down her cheeks while the frightening, numbing truth sank in. Because of her, Jill was going to be brought to the settlement.
Oh god, Jill. I’m so sorry.

The Preacher and principal elder walked in with Abram and sat on the couch. Shawn said, “Abram’s explained the situation. Are we certain she can’t be traced?”

“I’ll have Henry bury her car,” Eli suggested. “No. They won’t have any idea she came near here. It’s possible someone might ask Sarah, just because of her daughter’s friendship with the girl. All she needs to say is she didn’t see her.”

The Preacher looked at Mara, contemplating the possibility. The clan rarely risked the chance of bringing outsiders to the settlement. It
did
seem the girl would be untraceable. “It would give us a new bloodline up here. I figure you already considered that.”

Gabrielle handed them the picture. “Preacher, look at the hips on her. She’s a natural breeder. Settle her with the widows as a slave.”

Elijah smiled at her. Her suggestion was perfect. The widows had turned down replacing their tithes because they had nothing of value to bid with. They depended on the charity of the clan to survive, and if the girl were a breeder then it would certainly make a welcome addition to offset their destitute position. “I want to alternate with Abram and use her for my sons. Gabrielle wants me to train Mara for a cart, and the pregnancies would have made it difficult.”

Shawn looked at Mara, and he whispered to the Preacher. “I admit she’s a looker, like her mother, but she does have half McEnroe blood in her. The sooner we can thin that out of the clan the better. Look at the mess we’re in because of Chris. Shit, and Abram just got back from picking up Tommy.”

The unfortunate truth about the McEnroe clan was their constant slip into incest. For generations, babies were born with questionable lineage, even if the mother was married. It had made them weak and lazy, and several had physical or mental limitations.

The Preacher steepled his hands under his chin in thought. “Gabrielle, will you be willing to render your tithe infertile early so we don’t have complications?”

The thought of not having to go through the moodiness of four breedings with the girl was a welcome thought, plus she would not lose her cart pony. “I have absolutely no qualms about it, as long as we can breed this new girl with Jason first. He’ll be marrying Charlotte before fall.”

“I get her next?” Abram asked.

“Then, Justin, and so on. It will take a little longer for the breedings, but it will leave Emily and Gabrielle with two unhindered tithes,” Eli suggested.

“Emmy was concerned about Dee, anyway. Her hips are a little narrow and we figured she might have problems,” Abram admitted.

The Preacher said, “As your tithe is responsible for this opportunity, I see no problem with that arrangement. She will be available for open use to the clan when she’s done breeding with your boys.” He turned to the elder. “Shawn, you’ll have to figure out an agreeable schedule to keep the lines in order. I think you might want to have the elders vote on giving Sarah a twenty-year hold on Henry’s farm in return for the girl. Mason Elliott is already pickin’ flowers for her, and with him on the flatlands helping Henry, their crop will more than make up for it.”

Gabrielle had been watching Mara while the men talked. Every time they mentioned scenarios of how her friend was to be passed around as breeding stock, the girl squeezed her eyes closed and quivered with wrenching tears. In a rare moment of compassion, Gabrielle leaned down and whispered, “The widows will be good to her. As a new bloodline, they will not risk hard punishment while she’s pregnant.” The widows were Gabrielle’s aunts, and they had lost their husbands to the same mysterious illness that had claimed Gabrielle’s parents.

Mara tried to stifle her sobs.
These wicked, wicked people. How could this be happening?

Elijah looked into Gabrielle’s eyes, questioning her unexpected gentleness. Gabrielle leaned over and whispered, “She’s feeling guilty, Eli. Training her for her own position makes her concentrate on herself. I need to get her mind off this girl or she’ll be too distracted. Her mind could even snap on me, and
that
is unacceptable. The exfoliation will keep her occupied until you get back. We can see how she’s dealing with it, then. I want you to tell the breeder, that my tithe had been setting her up. If the girl comes to the settlement hating her, I won’t have to worry about them conspiring together.”

Mara barely noticed when the men left the cabin. She continued to kneel beside her Mistress, feeling miserable for herself, miserable for Jill, and miserable for being born into a family that had deceived her for her whole life.

Minerva arrived, and Gabrielle left Mara kneeling by her chair while they sat at the table and she explained what was happening over tea. “And Eli and Abram get first breeding for my grandsons? With a new bloodline?” Minerva was ecstatic. Mara’s McEnroe lineage was the only worry she had about Gabrielle’s tithe. She agreed with the way Gabrielle had handled the situation when she noticed the obvious despondent depression shadowing the tithe.

Tara walked through the door carrying a large basket. Gabrielle snapped her fingers, and she was pleasantly surprised that her tithe was at least cognizant enough to follow the order. Mara sank to her knees, not noticing Minerva’s surprised smile. “Mara, I want you to go with Tara to the bathhouse. You will follow her instructions.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Mara rose, and Gabrielle stared into her eyes while she unlatched her wrist cuffs. She left the ankle hobble on her.

“She’s already acknowledging you?” Minerva asked. “After the scene yesterday, I was worried she would be stubborn.”

“Like most McEnroes, she has no tolerance for pain. The slightest discomfort teaches her,” Gabrielle replied.

“Well then, the exfoliation should turn out to be quite an experience for her.” Minerva smiled and could already sense the comfort of sadistic arousal building.

As soon as the girls were outside, Tara whispered, “Oh my god. You must be scared to death to be tithed to Elijah and Gabrielle.”

Mara began to cry again. “Has anyone ever gotten away from here?”

“Drop that thought right now. The last one who tried, well, you don’t even want to know what happened when they caught her. And she was only tithed to a work camp guard. You’d never get away from the acquisitioner. I’ll give you a heads up, though. The rest of the tithes aren’t going to like you. Elijah is in line for principal elder, so that makes you a top tithe here.”

“He’s horrible,” Mara cried. “The things they make me do; the things they’ve done to me…”

“Mara, you’ve only been through first feeding. We all go through that. Trust me, when they get to their own little games, that’s when things get hard.”

The girls made it across the camp to the shed overhanging the stream. There was a fire pit on the bank, and Tara explained how they heated the snow and freezing water in the winter. For now, they washed in the frigid water from the stream. Tara was pleased that they had the bathhouse to themselves. It was still early for the other tithes to begin arriving.

“This is about the only time we have alone,” Tara explained.

“What’s going to happen to me next?”

Tara decided to be evasive. There was no sense scaring the new tithe more than she was. She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess that’s up to Gabrielle.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Nine years. Next year, I’m released from the tithe contract.”

“You get to go home?” Mara wondered if she would have an ally to send back rescue for her.

“No,” Tara answered. “We never go back to the flatlands. After your tithe is finished, and depending on how well Gabrielle says you did, you get placed anywhere from kitchens and laundry, to personal service for the new families just starting out. That’s the best position and where I hope to be placed. We can even marry one of the work camp men if we are recommended for personal service.”

Tara noticed Mara was dragging her feet while they walked back to the cabin. “Come on. If we’re too late, we’ll be punished.”

When they entered the cabin, Gabrielle and Minerva were both wearing aprons over their dresses. There was a heavy white cloth draped across the dining room table. Gabrielle said, “Mara, over here and lie down.”

Mara glanced at Tara, but she was already moving to kneel beside her Mistress. She walked slowly towards the table and looked up at Gabrielle. With the arch of her Mistress’ brow, Mara did as she asked. It was futile to argue and she could not run with her ankles tied. She began to tremble when Gabrielle attached her wrist cuffs to the table straps, and she looked down to see Minerva securing her ankles. She was left spread-eagle on the table top.