“I can't have a baby in here, Jai. I just can’t.”
“They’re not keeping us, love. I didn’t want to get your hopes up, but when the full moon comes, I’ll be able to reach out to the pack, find out what’s going on. This is only temporary, I promise.”
We lay on the bed together, swathed in clean blankets now, snuggled up as close as we could be. We drowsed lightly, the heat under my skin and the shitty situation standing in the way of real sleep. When the morning came, the glass around us became transparent again, and some of Hollingsworth’s men wheeled in food and supplies. One turned to me, snickering when he saw my wide eyes.
“Rise and shine, bitch,” he sneered. “Time to jerk off some shifters.”
“Shan…”
I could feel Jai’s growl all the way down my spine, particularly when he jerked me back against his chest.
“Now, now, dog dick,” the man said, holding up his control. “You wanna be unconscious, pissing yourself all over your lady love? Or you gonna play nice? She just has to get ’em to come, doesn’t have to enjoy it.”
His snarl rose and rose, a full-throated thing that clawed at my nerves, forcing me to push him away.
“Do it, beast boy.” A weird light came into the man’s eyes, the challenge writ plain. “Fucking do it.”
“Mine!” Jai’s nose was thrust down into my hair, his hands gripping me tightly, nails starting to dig in. “Mine!”
“I don’t have to touch them,” I said, forcing Jai’s eyes down to meet mine. “I just need to be in the room. I have to, Jai.”
“Put the fucking whore down. I’ve been told not to zap you too many times, in case it fries your brains and then the boss can’t use you to control her, but I’m willing to say my finger slipped or something. Let the bitch go or it’ll ‘slip’ until you’re nothing more than a drooling husk.”
“Not much of a difference to what we have now,” the other guy snickered.
I saw it, exactly what they’d do to him, the way his body would writhe helplessly on the bed, over and over, how those fuckers would just grin as he did so, until he couldn’t anymore. Somehow, being in Hollingsworth’s employment had burned all the humanity out of them, leaving these leering monsters. I took a deep breath, knowing what I had to do.
It hurt, prising his fingers off me. Those nails burrowed deeper, reacting to the men, not me, but I was the one who yelped. I wriggled free when his hands relaxed at the sound, stepping off the bed before he could grab me again, thankful I’d thought to pull another gown on that night.
“No!” he shouted as I sprinted towards the glass. “Shannon, no!”
The wall slid up to admit me into the rest of the caged area, then slammed down before Jai could stop me. I heard the thud of his body against it, the steady thump of his fists as he tried to batter his way out. Tears pricked my eyes, thankfully blurring out the fucking trolley full of gloves and samples tubes and…
“Shannon?”
Nero was going for calm, gentle, but if I needed evidence of his beast, I got it now. There was a throaty edge to his voice, deeper now, as if he would throw back his head and roar. I dashed the tears away, and when I looked up, his eyes had gone a brilliant gold.
“So, how do we…”
I was trying for professional, clinical, and calm, even though I obviously wasn’t, but that all faded away as they emerged from their cages.
“Don’t be afraid, Shannon,” Nero said as they all came padding over.
“No! Shannon! Don’t do this, love. We’ll work out a way.”
Maybe we will, maybe we won’t, but this is the reality now, I thought. I needed to put one foot in front of the other. When I looked up, all five of them ringed me, towering muscular bodies with eyes gone wild, focussed entirely on me. I snatched up a box of gloves, some lube, and some sample pots and said, “So how the fuck do we do this?”
Chapter 30
“Zane, settle the fuck down.”
Nero had suggested I ‘sort’ Zane first. The tawny skinned man paced about in his cage. Hollingsworth’s men had removed the front walls of each of them, leaving the side ones up ‘for privacy’ probably. His eyes stayed on me, a curious straw yellow as he walked up and down, up and down. His hand slid to the front of his pants, obviously wanting to push at what stood proud inside the thin cotton. He was right, that was no tiny kitty dick. His head dipped down, swinging on his neck, making sure to keep me in his sights the whole time.
“I’ll stay here to keep him in line,” Nero said, but his ragged tone betrayed the toll that was taking. His eyes roamed constantly, but kept sliding back to me. “Give him the supplies and get him in the bathroom. If he’s like the rest of us, he’s ready to burst anyway. You’ll be back before your mate within the hour.”
“Is that how you think things are gonna go?”
Zane stopped stock still, his eyes boring into Nero before a slight smile twisted his lips. Then those eyes came swivelling back to me. They slid slowly now, from my face, all the way down my body, stopping at every floor to see what I had on display. His eyes glowed almost phosphorescently, as if by will alone he could see beyond the white fabric of my gown.
“Zane, we talked about this…”
“No, you went all king of the beasts and tried to order us around, as per fucking usual. She’s receptive…”
This was delivered as a low purr, his movements slow, so slow as he came towards me.
“To you?”
Nero’s words were meant to be delivered as a sharp slap, and Zane did pause for a moment.
“Maybe. She don’t know me, but she might want to.” His tongue flicked out to swipe across his full bottom lip, and I watched its passage closely. Too closely. White teeth appeared after that, too sharp to be human. “Fuck…she smells so fucking hot.”
Nero’s arm shot out to stop him coming any closer, and the other man’s eyes slid to half-mast as he pressed against it, grinning when he saw the muscles strain.
“You feeling hot, little girl? All slick between your legs?” He nodded slowly when a faint whine escaped my lips. “Ain't no one who knows his way around a pussy better than a cat. I’ll eat you for hours. I don’t need to come up for air. I’ll lick you all the way from your sweet little clit down, suck your juices dry and tease that tight little ass, until you’re dying for this.”
Nero said something, but I didn’t make out what as Zane’s thumbs went to his waistband for the slow reveal. The other man’s voice got louder, more insistent, but the fabric came down anyway. And there it was—thick, rigid, throbbing an angry red, and twitching under my gaze. That, and the shaft was studded with little nodules.
“Ridged for your pleasure, baby…” he purred. “You’ll feel every inch of me as I work my way in. I’ll make you scream.”
The short snap of his words shocked me out of my daze. What the fuck was I doing? My skin felt like it was now dripping with sweat, my eyes flicking around wildly as I suddenly took it all in. What the…? Why was I…?