“Kaz…” he panted. “Kaz…”
“Here, beloved,” he said, covering Nero’s hand with his.
Cum came jetting out of Kazimir’s dick the minute the other man dug his fangs into him, blood running in a thin stream from the bite site, Nero’s groans muffled and desperate as he unloaded inside his lover. Kazimir’s eyes went wide, beautiful and filled with something so intense, tears pricked at my eyes. I could feel it, the bond locking down between them, the tremendous swell of joy. I felt like a great big hand had grabbed me and shaken me to the core.
I stood there, wavering on my feet, the massive deluge of shame and sadness a surprise. Did I feel like this with Jai? It was all an overheated mess. How did he feel, me leaving him after…?
Whatever it was that powered me, it was empathic, and now that I’d given it attention, I felt Jai’s emotions rushing in. The loss of what we were, what we were on the path to becoming, of me now. I was walking out of the cage as each emotion hit me, then running towards my mate.
“Shannon.”
I paused when Caleb stepped out of his cage towards me, his voice full of dark promise. I was surprised to feel the waves of desire pouring off him, even more so when my eyes trailed down that muscular body to see he had retained his knot.
“You’re still my mate. I…I don’t know how this could’ve happened, but…”
Hope smashed into me along with need and fear. I wasn’t turning towards him, I wasn’t leaping into his arms, soft and ready, letting him do what he’d been lying awake at night, dreaming of. Then my head whipped around at a rush of anger, fuelled by fear and betrayal and hurt, heralding Jai’s arrival. Sardonic amusement threaded through that, as well as hot, hot physical desire as Zane padded over. And then there was Gaden.
Fear, pure and unadulterated, poured off him, his steps towards me dragging and reluctant. His beast was riding him hard to get him to come closer, one step at a time. I couldn’t move, my eyes closing as the tumultuous displays of emotion slammed into me, pushing me higher and higher.
In my mind’s eye, I twined them all together into some kind of rope, a live wire of emotion that kept me fuelled, even as it began to destroy me. Hollingsworth was a little kid pulling the wings off flies, not realising what he was doing with this. He was maxing out delicate systems that kept a body going, and there would be a price to pay for this. Inside I could feel it—the strain, the cracks beginning to appear.
“Please don’t.”
My eyes flicked open to see Gaden kneeling at my feet. His eyes closed when I stroked his face, and a single tear rolled free. “You don’t need me, you’re singing with power. If I… If I give myself to you, I lose her. I hold her in my heart, because that’s all I’ve got left. This place has taken every fucking thing from me. Don’t take her.”
What was in me felt harsh and pitiless, looking down at him and seeing all the wild power coiled inside him, ready to be brought forth. I stilled my body, focussing on my hand on his face, trying to make that enough.
“Please…” he said finally, letting his arms fall limp, his surrender complete. He was a man waiting for his execution, and I held the blade.
“Shan, don’t!” Jai cried, his concern and his love lancing into me.
“Give me your pain then,” I said. “Keep her and give me every fucking thing they’ve done to you in this place.”
There was silence for a moment, then the sound of feet running down the steps towards us.
“She’s going nova! All of her systems are going into overdrive! You’ll fucking lose the pivotal asset for this whole project.”
“Nonsense, my boy. This little bitch has been holding out for days on her supposed mate, and she professes to love him! She’s taken the jaguar as a mate, the wolf is ready to seal the deal, and with a little push, she’ll weld them all to her side. This is a proof of concept in the making! With the manipulation chips amplifying their base desires, we’ll revolutionise shifter control! Push her further, she’s dilly dallying.”
“But sir…”
“Now, Wilson, or go back to cow midwifery!”
Stuart was right, he shouldn’t have done this.
What I’d been doing, building from instinct alone was a power base of seething emotions. Primarily sexual at first, then just emotional. As Stuart pushed whatever it was inside me further, I realised I didn’t need it. I could pull, drain, manipulate anyone’s emotions within this fucking place, so I did.
With animals, it was always a careful thing. I loved them and didn’t want to hurt them, so I cautiously tweaked and twisted, checking to see how they fared as I went.
I showed no such care now.
I reached into the minds of every single one of the men standing beyond the glass and wrenched. Jealousy, desire, brutal instincts, sadism, pleasure, I smashed into them and made them mine.
I felt like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice as I mentally fanned all the paranoia and viciousness that dwelled there. The perceived slights when they felt Hollingsworth gave one lot precedence over the other, the times when one had fucked up in front of his work mates. Petty jealousies about money, sex, dick size. They all roiled around inside them, heady fuel, just waiting for a match.
I was that match.
I amplified aggression and reduced inhibitions about striking out at your work mates. There are no consequences, I whispered in their minds. Do whatever you want.
Guns were pulled from holsters, collapsible batons snapped out to full length, which alerted Hollingsworth to what was happening, his mouth opening to protest as shots were fired, blows were struck.
“What the…?” Jai came to stand beside me. “Are you…?”
I saw his fear and his desire and his relief all swirling around him like a haze, and I hoped to hell what I was about to do would be worth it. Hollingsworth started shouting orders as men’s bodies hit the floor, exploding in splatters of blood, some bludgeoned to their knees before bullets were emptied into them. The only sound after the last body fell was Hollingsworth’s trailing off orders.
“You,” he said finally, staring at me.
“Everybody join hands,” I said to my fellow inmates, and in a mockery of what he’d always asked for, we stood in a line before the glass wall, united.
“Turn it off! Shut her down! Now!”
“Christian, if I just shut what we’ve set in motion down, we’ll kill her. I have to titrate her system lower.”
“I don’t—”
Hollingsworth’s words froze in his throat as I drew in a deep breath and speared into his mind.
It was connection I’d needed more of, I realised that now, worrying about what changes I’d unwittingly wrought, what further damage I’d done to these men, but I couldn’t dwell on that. I’d committed to this direction, and I was going to see it through. I felt it, up the line, strong from my two mates, almost as strong from Caleb, waiting to take his place by my side. Kazimir and Nero linked up, a tightly bound node of love and lust and fear and anger, and then there was Gaden. I felt him last, his hand taking Caleb’s, and a cold, heaviness came with it, something I needed to change. We smashed into the cesspool that was Hollingsworth’s mind and were instantly swamped by a deluge of refuse.