Page 16 of The Prey

I spit the pill back at him, watching his face transform from a mask of boredom to downright fury. Perhaps the robot has emotions after all?

“I’m tired of taking orders from you and being treated like a possession instead of a human. You might be my boss, but that doesn’t mean I should be treated as less than.” The words come out weaker than I intend, but they come out, and that’s all that matters.

“You’re nothing but a toy to me, and it’s your own fault for thinking otherwise.” He snarls and plucks the pill off his shirt where it landed, pinching it between two fingers. “Since you want to do this the hard way…”

“Stop. I won’t let you drug me.” Panic zips through me, and I whirl around, but the bed is right there, and the only other way out is through him. I’m tiny and fast, but Sebastian has no problem hitting below the belt to get what he wants.

“Keep acting like you have a choice in the matter. It’s more fun that way.” A sinister chuckle escapes him, and then he attacks.

I’m trapped in his dark web without any escape. In no more than a step he’s got me cornered against the bed. I fall back against the mattress in my haste to get away from him.

His reaction time is much faster than mine, and he has me pinned to the bed beneath his body before I can blink. I swear I can feel the hard length of his cock against my thigh, but I don’t even consider mentioning it.

His thick fingers sink into my cheeks once more, and I fight through the pain, struggling against him, doing whatever I can to stop him from drugging me because who knows what he will do next.

“If you do this, I will never forgive you. I will never trust you…” I barely get the words out between heaving breaths.

A wicked glint of satisfaction appears in his eyes. “Oh, Ely. Your first mistake was thinking you could ever trust me; your second was pissing me off. Now you’ll pay the price.”

His fingers sink deeper into my cheeks, and the pain becomes unbearable.

“Don’t make me have to hurt you more than necessary,” he speaks softly.

My lips part as a whimper escapes them. It’s at that instant that he takes the remainder of the pill and shoves it past my lips and into my mouth. The bitter tang of it is all I can taste, and I open my mouth to spit it back at him, but he’s prepared this time.

With two fingers, he pinches my nose closed and leans forward, his hot, formidable lips hovering over mine. He's not going to kiss me, is he? No, you idiot, he's trying to kill you.

His hand slaps over my mouth, and real fear kicks in. I start to thrash against his grasp, but he’s got me trapped, and just like a python, the more I struggle, the more his grip tightens. It doesn’t take long for my limbs to grow heavy, especially when my lungs are starved for air.

“Swallow,” he whispers cruelly.

The fear of the unknown, of him truly hurting me finally becomes a reality. The fight drains out of me, and every second without precious air brings me closer to the dark.

My hands slip from his arms and eventually fall to the mattress beside my body. My lungs burn; my brain screams at me to move, to do something, but I’m helpless. Black spots fill my vision as I try to hold on a little longer.

“You should see yourself right now, Ely. Your eyes are like frigid pools of water shimmering in the sun, and they look even prettier filled with fear. Fear put there by me.” I want to respond, to tell him to fuck off, to fly a kite to Mars, but I’m barely hanging on, afraid of what he might do to me once I’m unconscious.

The harder I try to hold on, the further I slip away. My eyelids flutter closed, and then open, and I can barely make out the shape of him in front of me, but I swear, before the entire world goes dark, he leans in and ghosts his lips against mine.

“It’s time to let go…nighty-night, Prey,” he taunts. “Enjoy your reprieve because when you wake up, you’ll discover I’m so much more of a monster than you ever imagined I could be. I’m ready to play…are you?”

7

Sebastian

What the fuck am I doing?

Exactly what I fucking shouldn’t be doing, that’s what. Ely is nothing to me—less than nothing. Her existence in my life is a reminder of how trapped I am.

If that’s true, why do you always have to remind yourself that you hate her?

My subconscious is playing Russian roulette today, and I’m considering killing the fucker. Elyse’s only real fault in all of this is that she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that’s only because her father manipulated her presence there in the first place. It’s not like she wandered in of her own accord. I have no other reason to hate her outside of that, but it’s because of her and those circumstances that I’m now trapped in the family business.

A victim of the very same shit I always said I’d never succumb to.

For one fleeting moment, I consider leaving her at the mansion to take care of herself while I take care of my business. Or I could ship her off somewhere so that I don't have to look at her face anymore. As soon as the thoughts pop in my head, I dismiss them.

Both are very appealing ideas, but I could never go through with either. As much as I despise what she represents, I need to make sure she doesn’t spill my secrets to the world, and I can’t keep her in line if she’s on another continent. Combine that with my desire to own her, and well, it’s not looking good.

---