Page 17 of The Wolf and the Monarch

Their conversation had come to a lull at that point. Neither one of them were willing to say too much, which wasn’t surprising. At one point, however, Benji started to get squirmy in his chair and he needed to take a leak. He half expected to have to piss himself, but there was a toilet in the corner of the room beside a makeshift shower. Interesting. His helper brought over a urinal bottle which was one of the most awkward moments of his life. Zero eye contact was made while his dick was pulled out so he could piss then quickly tucked back. Thank fucking God. He even kept his gaze turned away when he heard the bottle being dumped into the toilet and flushed. From the set up in the basement, Benji gathered it wasn’t uncommon for the guy to have to do that. But that didn’t make it any better, honestly.

Again, hours passed and the silence carried on until he watched the man lay down on the mattress. “Are you going to bed?” Benji asked.

“Yep.”

“Down here?”

“Yep.”

“You can’t go to your room?”

“Nope.”

He hummed softly then turned his head away. “Can you sleep with the light on like that?”

“I have in the past. I can do it again.”

Benji just nodded again and fell silent. He didn’t expect to have the guy sleeping down there but he supposed it made sense. The captors seemed to think highly of his skill set (which kind of felt good, honestly) and didn’t want him escaping. And from what he could see, there were no cameras down there. He supposed that made sense. Why spend the money on a camera when you had a live in spectator down there?

After a good ten minutes of silence, the man spoke up again. “Sawyer.”

He turned his head. “What?”

“My name is Sawyer.”

For the first time in hours, Benji smiled. Just a bit. “Nice to meet you, Sawyer.” His tone dripped with sarcasm.

Sawyer immediately snorted. “Nice to meet you, Andi.”

Chapter Ten

Sawyer

The mattress that Sawyer had slept on that night, and many other nights, wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as it looked. In fact, he was happy there was even one down there. When he first started on his never ending bitch duty, Milo hadn’t really thought about what Sawyer was going to do at night. At first, he was pretty sure his uncle expected him to stay up all night every night, watching whoever they had captive at that time. Sawyer had to (gently) remind him that was impossible and that night, the old mattress was put in the basement. Compared to whoever was strapped in the chair, it was truly the life of luxury.

Sawyer woke up early in the morning and stretched out with a soft groan. His hands ran through his hair before he rubbed at his eyes, trying to get used to the brightness that assaulted him. The light that he left on was always a rude awakening. Sitting up, he glanced over towards Andi and from the soft rise and fall of his chest, he was gathering he was asleep. Good. As quietly as he could, he walked up the stairs and unlocked the door so he could get ready for the day.

The first thing he did was swing by his room to grab a change of clothes. He never wore anything fancy. Jeans, t-shirt and a zip up hoodie was his go to. Sawyer made sure to grab socks, underwear and his shampoo and body wash before he headed towards the showers. In their bunker, they had a communal shower, which wasn’t necessarily his favorite but it got the job done. Luckily for him, most everyone was still asleep so he was able to have a moment of peace while he showered. He couldn’t take nearly as long as he wanted since he had to get back downstairs, but it was still nice. The warm water rushed over his body, working out the kinks in his neck that he had earned from sleeping without a pillow.

The shower was quick, but still satisfying. Sawyer turned off the water and grabbed a towel from the rack so he could quickly dry himself off then threw his clothes on for the day. As he exited the showers, he tossed the towel into the dirty linen pile then went towards the toilet. Sawyer brushed his teeth, took a piss and washed his hands and officially felt ready for the day. The long, long day that was ahead of him.

Before he headed back downstairs, he opened up the refrigerator in the meal area and grabbed out a bottle of water and a bunch of grapes because they were easily accessible. Hearing someone enter the room, the hairs on his neck stood up and he quickly closed the fridge, seeing Tank. Sawyer tucked the water bottle into his arm, hoping Tank wouldn’t say anything about it. Water typically wasn’t something they were keen on letting their captives have after only a night. “You thirsty?” Tank asked as Sawyer walked by him, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“He needs something to drink.”

“Does he?”

“Yes. If you want him to answer your questions, he needs to be alive. He probably hasn’t had anything to drink in over twenty four hours.”

Tank didn’t say anything. He just hummed which prompted Sawyer to keep going and head back down the stairs, locking the door behind him. He definitely forgot to be quiet about his footsteps and when he reached the ground floor, he saw Andi staring directly at him. “Sorry,” Sawyer said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Andi cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders. “Wouldn’t say I was sleeping well. Kind of uncomfortable.”

That was fair. Handcuffed and tied to a chair wasn’t the best sleeping position. “I brought you some water. We’re going to ration it out though.” Sawyer twisted off the top and brought it to the man’s lips. It was easy to see how dry they were. He was clearly in need of the water. He gently poured the water into his mouth and watched Andi drink it down like it was the nectar of the gods. To him, at that moment, it probably was. He was certain that he could have drunk that whole bottle in one go, but Sawyer pulled it back and put the lid back on, throwing it over towards the bed. Taking the stem of the grapes out from between his pinky and ring finger, he fed the man grapes one by one.

He couldn’t help but notice the look of amusement on Andi’s face and Sawyer understood why. It was rather comical when you thought about it. Had they been in a different situation, feeding someone grapes could be oddly sensual. Their situation was anything but that. Instead of commenting on that, which Sawyer was thinking he was when he opened his mouth, Andi spoke up about something else. “What’s with the butterfly?”

“Hm?”