I am actually amazed at how many have been responding to my Dire Wolf series, as well as Bohica before it. And there is one thing that several have pointed out.
That while there are a few sequences of sexual assault - rape, it is in no way eroticized. It is handled as "gentle" of a way as I can, and in no way with the intent of causing any enjoyment for the reader. In fact, in the only actual rape sequence I have written, the rapist has his penis savagely severed from his body before his neck is broken.
THAT is my actual belief in what should happen to such people. I will NEVER write rape or assault as anything other than wrong, and will never make it "sexy". It is a cruel violation of what should be an act of love (or at least passion), and I will never make it otherwise.
And that is also why I never include the "rape" tag. It is not sexy, and I do not want people who troll in here for such stories to find my writing. If that is your cup of tea, whatever. But I will only include such a thing for character or story development, and also try to include at least some followup.
In fact, I am sure that there are a great many stories in here that are really great, but I will never read them. Unless the author makes it clear in the description that a rape is a one time thing (which some have done) I will never read a story that has the RAPE tag in it. It is not sexy, it is disgusting.
And in that chapter of Dire Wolf, I was finding it hard to end the chapter. That is unusual for me, and I spent hours trying to find the way to close it out since it ended so soon after the assault. Then I simply had her throw away the expensive lotion in the trash. Yes, it is symbolic, something she had absolutely loved had been tragically ruined for her.
And yes, many victims have problems moving forward. My wife of over 34 years was raped before I met her. And I was her first relationship after that, almost 3 years later. Like many women, she had a hard time trusting men again after that.
Dianne throwing away the hand cream was my way of having her symbolically throw away the incident. She will never forget, but she is going to move on and enjoy her life and not let that determine how she lives it.