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“That’s why they’re perfect,” the first guard says. “Just the right measure of insanity makes them what we need them to be.”
What do they need us to be?
I want to ask why we are here and who we are, but I’m too scared of being hurt again.
The one holding the device gives me a dark look that would scare even the bravest person. I’m not immune to it. I feel the terror work through me as my stomach fills with ice. He steps closer to my head, and I clench my fingers into the sheets beneath me, which makes the cuffs press tightly against my bones.
I watch helplessly as he crouches at the side of the bed, his head tilting as his eyes roam over me.
“I wish I could be the one to break you in.”
His fingers ghost over my throat, the touch making goose bumps erupt over my skin. Bile pools in the back of my mouth as I turn my head away, making it clear I don’t want him anywhere near me.
Break me in?
He grabs my face between bruising fingers and yanks it back so that my eyes are forced to look at his. I don’t like what I see dancing in his irises. I recognize the predatory look immediately, and I have little doubt that I am his prey.
“Don’t act as if you’re better than me, cunt. Your kind are fucking filth. If you ask me, the best thing would be to eradicate every last one of you, but perhaps this punishment is worse.”
He releases my face with a shove, forcing my head deeper into the mattress. He groans as his palm covers my breast, squeezing tightly. The gown I’m wearing does little to protect me from his unwanted advances, but my fight response kicks in, and I thrash, tugging so hard against my bindings that my wrists feel like they might snap.
I scream at him, baring my teeth like a feral beast, even as my wolf goes wild. I feel something building inside me, and that warmth in my chest becomes hotter and hotter with every passing second.
I blink rapidly as it fills my veins, wanting to burst out of me.
It is so strong that holding it hurts, so I release it without meaning to. The guard who groped me is flung across the room, slamming heavily into the wall behind him. He hits it with enough force that the sound reverberates around the space before he drops onto the floor.
My eyes flare wide as the heat recedes back into that warm, small nugget inside my chest.
Did I do that?
The other guard darts his eyes toward me, and I see the unease as he takes me in. That cockiness he had when he first walked into this room no longer exists. He is looking at me as if I’m a dangerous animal. Perhaps I am. There is certainly a dangerous animal within me.
I snarl at him like he should be afraid of me, even though I am the one bound to the bed.
He steps back, panic momentarily flickering across his face, before he moves to the other guard. His eyes never leave mine, and he never turns his back to me as he bends down and grabs the metal device.
I know what he is going to do before he does it, and I try to find that heat again, but I can’t.
“I will fucking kill you!” I hiss at him, tugging desperately on my cuffs once more, as if they will give this time. They don’t.
He licks his lips before he presses the device to my stomach.
Pain tears through me, and my insides feel like they are melting. It feels like I can’t take any more as my back arches and I let out a blood-curdling scream.
I come to. My heart is thudding in my chest, I feel cold all over, and a scream is poised at the tip of my tongue. I want to sit up, maybe throw up, but I am locked inside my body.
I cannot move.
It takes me a moment to realize the darkness surrounding me is not another form of torture, and the familiar presence lying next to me soothes the shadows clawing at me.
Jackson.
His heat presses against my side, tucked in against me as if he has moved even closer during the night. Did he sense my distress in my dreams, or is this just a natural reaction from him? Like he needs to feel me close. I don’t move, freezing in place until I’m sure I haven’t woken him.
I have heard the others talking, telling Jackson that there is no bond between us, that he should not feel this strongly about me. I have also heard him talking back, his refusal to give in to their skepticism. He believes—he truly believes—that I am his, and I don’t know what to think because my wolf agrees. She recognizes Jackson as ours, even though we are not mates.
He has not left my side since my mind was fractured, and he has defended me at every turn, even against his own pack members. That has to mean something, doesn’t it? He would not defend me so vehemently if I meant nothing to him.
