Her Protector
Chapter One
For the past few months, Isabella Swan's life was full of darkness and disparity. She had barely come in contact with anyone else who spoke her language so she had mostly been silent, barely ever speaking. When she did speak, her voice was a stutter.
Her life wasn't always so dark. She grew up with a loving mother and protective father. Renee and Charlie did the best they could to teach each of their children to be upstanding, good people. Carmen, Angela, and Isabella were the three daughters of the Sheriff that lived at the outskirts of the town in the middle of nowhere. She had very few friends, but many men tried to court both her and her sisters. Carmen was engaged to a wonderful, kind physician named Eleazar while Angela was being courted by a nice lawyer named Benjamin Cheney.
Isabella was the only one who had no love in her life. Sure, she wanted love, but she hadn't found the right man yet. She was, after all, barely sixteen, but at that time, this was the age when most girls got married.
Then, one day, when their whole family was together, enjoying the sunlight and having run in their yard. Five copper skinned men came riding up. Isabella knew what they were. They were Native Americans from one of the villages that surrounded their small town. They usually never came approached any of the towns due to discriminations of the townsfolk so this seemed strange to the whole family.
Her family wasn't like the rest of their town. They had no issues with the tan-skinned natives that lived off the land. There was plenty of land for everyone to use and the Native Americans had never done them any harm.
The women were filled with fear and horror when the tallest man took out his bow and arrow and shot the Sheriff in the head, killing him instantly. The women huddled and feared they might be next, but they also wondered what they could have done to get this reaction from the men who rode up to their home.
Each man, with the exception of their leader, grabbed one of the women and restrained them while they kicked and screamed in protest. Each woman was disgusted as the leader of the natives on their property reached up each woman's skirt and put his fingers inside of them.
Angela and Carmen demanded answers, but the men stayed silent, except for speaking to each other. When the leader made it to Renee, he felt up her skirt and shook his head to the man restraining her. He spoke to the other men in his language and they started to drag the virgin daughters to wagon they had.
The woman fought and protested as they saw the man holding their mother throw her up against their picnic table, lift up her skirt, and start to force himself onto her. Isabella, Angela, and Carmen wanted to save their mother and was forced to watch as their mother fought. The leader held Renee's arms down as she cried and begged for her daughter's lives. She would do whatever they asked of her as long as her babies were okay.
Isabella shrilled out a scream when the man raping her mother finished and the leader quickly slit her throat. All three daughters were traumatized by the violence they witnessed that day, but it was Isabella who was worse off. She was very attached to her mother and to see her die like that was the worst thing she could imagine ever happening. She suffered from nightmares about what those men did to her poor family.
There were at least twenty other young women in that wagon with them, all pretty, white girls in their teens. Most of them had blood on their clothes which meant they all witnessed the death of someone they loved.
No one ever spoke because they were beaten with a bow if they did. They were constantly dehydrated and starving. Their captures only gave them a crust of bread and sip of water once a day. This kept them all weak and vulnerable.
None of them men touched any of them sexually. It was explained to Isabella that the men wouldn't rape them because they were all pure. Their families were killed and they were taken hostage because these men wanted to sell them off to the men among the tribes to be either their mistress or their servant. They were worth nothing to them unless they were pure, which is why all men and all women who had been bedded were slaughtered.
As time went on, the other women in the wagon started to disappear. The would stop in a village, their captors would tie them to a wooden post for men to look at them in that village. Girls would get bought and the kidnappers would find a new house of a white family in the middle of nowhere, kill all men and mothers, and take all the virgin girls. The wagon was always full and the Swan girls were scared that they might be killed one day soon for not being bought.
They were very beautiful, even while malnourished, but no men had wanted them yet.
The wagon slowly pulled up to the Quileute village along the shore of Washington state, across the country from where they were snatched. The leader of the captors set up with the Chief of the tribe to show off the virgin women he possessed. The three sisters leaned together, but remained silent. They were all scared of losing each other and they were scared of not being bought as well. Either alternative ended with them not being together anymore.
Three men came in and put a bag over the heads of the three sisters and dragged them out of the wagon. They were petrified as they were when they made it to every village that they were showed off to. Their feet ached from being dragged and stumbling along the rough ground.
Isabella panted as she was pushed against a wooden pole. Her arms that were tied behind her back were once again tied to the pole behind her. She was scared, scared to die, scared to lose her sisters, but one of her worst fears were that she was scared that some man would buy her to rape her then dispose of her like they did her mother.
She heard men yelling in tongues that she didn't understand before the bag over her head was lifted. She was blinded by the sun before her eyes adjusted to the new light. She saw men in what looked like animal skin skirts and wooden vests lined up in front of the men who held her captive. Some looked concentrated while others looked irritated. A few select others looked sad. She noticed the women among them. Hair in braids, long animal skin dresses, and most had a child attached to their leg in similar clothes. Everyone had long hair which was something she wasn't used to in men until she was taken captive.
The leader of her kidnappers pointed at her as he spoke in his native tongue, then he pointed to each of her sisters. She looked to Carmen who had tears down her face.
"I love you, Car." Isabella pushed out to calm her sister. The leader of the group of killers turned to her with an angry scowl, screamed at her in his native language, and slapped her across the face. Her face turned and impacted with the pole she was tied to, pain surging through her face. She slumped more against the pole as tears filled her eyes.
Suddenly, a russet-skinned man jumped out of the crowd and pushed through her captors, placing a barrier between her and the dangerous man who struck her. His hair, black as night, cascaded over his shoulders as he pointed angrily at the men who held her hostage. This man's attire was slightly different. He wore an animal skin vest and what looked like animal skin pants with some shoes of the same material. Carmen and Angela exchange a look as the two men had an intense argument in their language.
The girls were puzzled. They had no idea what was being said or what was about to happen.
The russet-skinned man turned to Isabella and approached her before kneeling in front of her. Her anxiety escalated as this man pushed the hair out of her face and tucked the matted strands behind her ear. He whispered some soothing words, but they left her confused. She really wished she knew the language so maybe she wouldn't be so scared. His dark, nearly black eyes were so apologetic, but also held some adoration within them. He leaned closer to her as if he was going to kiss her or pose thing to that effect. She moved back and he cupped her face in his hands, examining her neck before looking at her arms. He touched the skirt of her dress and she instinctively flinched away. His eyes met hers again and he looked a little hurt by her moving away from him.
He turned his head back to her captors as she looked to her sisters in panic. She didn't know what was happening or what to expect from this. None of the men from any of the villages had actually inspected her or any of the women. They would just look, pay for them with food, and they would be dragged away.
The sisters looked back upon the russet-skinned man and their kidnappers who were arguing before a young boy ran up carrying a satchel. The boy handed it over to the man who examined Isabella before he tossed it over to the leader of the kidnappers. The leader whistled with his fingers and two of his accomplices cut at Isabella's rope before she looked to her sisters in panic.
"No, no, no!" She protested as her arms stayed tied before her back and Angela and Carmen fought against their restraints. She knew what was happening when her protector handed that satchel over to her kidnappers, but she didn't want to believe it until there was no more time for denial.
This man, the one who had examined her and argued with her captors, had just bought her and she would be separated from her sisters, the only family she had left.
She fought against her captors grip, but she was still very weak from lack of food and watcher.
"Angela! Carmen!" Isabella yelled for her sister before one of the captors kneed her in the gut. Isabella coiled and hit the ground, clutching her stomach. Pain riddled her abdomen as she cried and the man who bought her pushed the men away from her, warning them to keep their hands off this poor woman.
"Please, don't separate us!" Angela begged and she got slapped for this outburst. Isabella screamed for her sisters to be left alone as her protector screamed at her captors to not lay a hand on any of them. Although she had no idea what was said. She prayed he was negotiating to have her sisters as well, but that wasn't what she was witnessing.
Her tanned, tall protector lifted her up into his arms which she didn't fight. Her stomach was still very painful. Both Carmen and Angela screamed in protest, begging to go with their sister, but no one could understand what they were saying.
Their pleads faded as Isabella's protector walked her into a wooden hut. It was so dark she struggled to adjust back to the lack of light. The walls were made of logs and the doorway was covered by what looked like wooden beads hanging on vines. It gave the semblance of privacy while allowing easy access. There was only a large bed to one end of the hut covered in an array of animal furs and the rest was completely empty other than a bowl of water by the side of the bed.
She started to struggle against him, scared of what was about to come next for her. What did this man want with her?
He chastised her with his words, but the language barrier made his stamens fall on deaf ears.
He hurriedly sat her on the bed and she struggled to scoot away from him, panting from her anxiety. She figured that she knew what he was going to try to do to her. He had to have put her on the bed for a reason and not just sat her on the ground. She would fight him if he thought he was going to force himself on her and be able to get away with it.
He put his hands up defensively as he tried to soothe her with his words, but she couldn't understand him even if she tried.
"Don't you dare touch me." She warned as he moved closer and she struggled against the rope around her hands. His hand touched her leg and she yanked it back away from him. "Keep your filthy hands off me!" She yelled at him and he took a deep breath before standing up. She thought he would move away or slap her, but what he did scared her to death.
He grabbed a knife off of the floor next to the bed and she gasped before struggling to get to her feet. She instantly started to run for the door, but was stopped mid stride when the man with her grabbed her from behind, stalling her running.
"Help me! Somebody!" She screamed as she kicked at the man holding her hostage. A woman busted through the doorway with long, straight black hair. She looked like she was an native just like the others, but she also looked panicked.
"Calm down, sweetie!" The woman tried to placate Isabella and she froze as she heard her own language be spoken by someone other than her sisters for the first time in so long.
"Yo-you speak English?" She nodded and pushed the man's hand away from Isabella. She found herself encased in this woman's arms.
"What is your name?" The woman asked as Isabella looked the man there with fear in her eyes.
"Isabella. He-he was trying to kill me." She pleaded for sanctuary from this man. What kind of man would buy a slave just to kill them? He had to be a total psychopath. The woman led Isabella to a corner in the room away from the man and helped her sit down.
"Please, don't run, alright?" She nodded and the woman turned to her attacker and started to speak in his tongue. He pointed the knife in Isabellas direction and she shrunk away in terror. After a minute of speaking, the woman turned back to her before kneeling in front of Isabella.
"My name is Emily and this is our Chief Consort. He wasn't trying to kill you. He was trying to get you unbound. Your wrists are bleeding and he wanted to tend to your wounds. Did you learn any of our language with those men?" Isabella shook her head and Emily extended her hand to the Chief Consort, requesting the knife from him. "May I…" Isabella took a deep breath and turned her back to Emily. She quickly cut the rope and Isabella gasped from the relief of not having those ropes cutting into her wrists. "How long have you been with those men, Isabella?" She gulped as she pulled her arms out from behind her back and saw the deep cuts covering her wrists. She would surely have scars covering them once they healed.
"I lost track. My sisters and I were the last that they hadn't sold." Her sisters! She became panicked. "I need to get to my sisters, please! They are the only family I have left! Please, don't take them from me!" Isabella pleaded with tears in her eyes and Emily placed a sympathetic hand on Isabella's arm.
"Were your sisters sold?" Isabella quickly shook her head.
"No, they were being sold off when I was. Please, I need to be with my sisters!" She tried to stand, but Emily kept her down before turning to her Chief Consort. She reiterated everything Isabella had just told her, he nodded, and jogged out of his hut. "What was that?" Isabella questioned and Emily gave her a smile.
"He's gonna see if he can stop them and get your sisters." Isabella was so overjoyed that she hugged Emily out of instinct.
"Thank you." Isabella cried in Emily's arms for a moment before Emily pulled away. She grabbed the bowl of water by the bed and brought it over to Isabella.
"Here, drink." She sipped at the cool, refreshing water slowly, pacing herself. "I don't know why you think our Chief Consort bought you from those men, but I assure you it wasn't for whatever you are thinking." Isabella shivered from whatever possibilities it could be.
"We were told by the others that we were being solid to be servants or mistresses which is why they had to make sure we were pure." Emily's eyes widened as she gasped.
"Oh, you poor dear. Our Chief has forbidden everyone from buying anyone from those scoundrels. He doesn't believe in their slavery trade. The Chief Consort bought you to protect you from their cruelty. He's never done that before. In my opinion, I think he might just be attracted to you, but I could be wrong." Isabella blushed in embarrassment when she said this and continued to drink silently.
"Well, I'm gonna go fetch you some food. Please, don't run off. No one here means you any harm." Isabella nodded and relaxed when she was finally alone for the first time in months at the very least.
Thanks for reading. Let me know your thought. Leave me lots of love. Please forgive any mistakes. This story doesn't have a beta yet.