Page 22 of Born Savage

“As usual, Savages only know violence.”

“We know danger, which is why I’m making you a promise.”

Her smile was nothing but a dare, one that I very much wanted to accept.

“I’m serious, Star.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You’ve already asked me that question.” This time as she did, a short but strong memory sparked in my mind. John hadn’t told me her name. I’d already known. But how? She seemed to sense when I was in some aspect of distress, her gaze falling to where my other hand had been clenched in a fist.

I expected anger, her reaction creating the need to follow through on my promise, but she stood with no change in expression. She was doing nothing more than darting her eyes back and forth across mine.

As if trying to determine why she knew me, why she could trust me. There were no easy answers. “Is Rage really your name?”

“It is now.” I’d had another name, one that would forever haunt me as well as place a target on my head. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes instead of a beast of creation, I’d been reborn, never to return to that boy who’d lost everything.

“Why?”

She was so close I could almost taste her lips. Yes, I craved doing so. “Because I fought with the scientists. Every day. Every experiment. Every requirement. I don’t like following rules.”

My answer was rewarded with a smile, subtle yet seductive. “That makes two of us.”

I was surprised she wasn’t trying to pull away, even when I stroked my thumb across her jaw.

“Where are the men of your group?” I asked, hoping to learn more about how many in her group might engage in a search.

“Busy protecting the women.” The forlorn look spreading across her face was short lived, but I’d caught it. “Many are too old to fight. Several are sick, not with the plague but other illnesses. And you are too young to be a Savage.”

“All things are possible.”

There was too much between us, chemistry that I had to block out. I could fight six Night Dwellers at once, sever limbs of rogue humans with a carving knife, yet I couldn’t seem to pull myself away from her.

“You’re safe now.”

“There is no such place on this earth as safe, Rage. There is danger everywhere, monsters on every corner. Even you’d say the same there.”

“Yes, you are correct, but there is safety. With me.”

“I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you.” She closed her eyes, her long lashes skimming across her cheeks.

“You have no choice. As long as you follow my rules, nothing will happen to you.”

“And what if I don’t?”

The question was more rhetorical than anything, as she had to know being outnumbered without her weapons made for an impossible threat to anyone but perhaps herself.

“I don’t think you want to find out.”

Her breathing was even less controlled and a shimmer had formed in her eyes as if she was unable to focus. So was I, a need forming that had no place.

“Maybe I do.”

I brushed my fingers across her face, feeling her shudder while a single soft moan escaped her soft lips. I took several deep breaths, incapable of stilling the beast within.

Everything shifted. I was no longer her captor, no longer a Savage, a being she feared. I was simply a man with needs that I rarely experienced.

Her lips were too close to mine, her hand now placed on my chest. Perhaps I hoped she’d push me away, breaking the tether that drew us together. One that was dragging us into disaster.