Page 20 of Calico Descending

“Quickly now.” Medusa’s voice is less patient this time, and I slide along the wall, keeping my eyes on the soldiers, who wrangle with the blackness of the room. Like trying to rope a shadow.

Once out of the cell, I follow Medusa toward a door at the opposite side of the corridor, and the two of us wait there, as Legion guide Valdys by chains out of his room.

In the light, he truly looks like a beast, and I steal the opportunity to study the features unseen in his dark cell. Small patches of hair on his chest that give some insight into his age. The scars, so many more than I saw before, scattered over his body. The tight muscles beneath his skin that look strong enough to throttle all of us at once if he wanted. And below his helmet is a silver band I didn’t notice before around his throat, which seems to be soldered to his helmet, as though preventing its removal.

“What’s the band at his throat?”

“A tracker,” Medusa answers. “All the Alphas wear one.”

He doesn’t even spare me a glance when he passes.

“What’s happening?” I ask, sliding my hand behind my back so Medusa won’t notice the cut. “Where are they taking him?”

“Never mind that.” She sets her hand to the wall of the door beside us, and when it clicks open, she waves me inside.

Confusion settles over me, as I peer into an identical shadowy cell, and back to her. “What is this?”

“Doctor Ericsson would like to see how you interact with Titus.”

Heart slamming into my throat, I cough and choke on my spit. “Another Alpha? I … I thought … I thought the reason binding happened was because I carry some of Valdys’s DNA, or something.”

“Well, the good Doctor would like to test that theory.” A hard shove from behind sends me flying into the room and crashing to my knees, and before I can twist around to escape, the door closes.

The pounding inside my chest stutters my breaths, as the hairs on my skin prickle. Shit.

Gaze glued to the shadows, I watch for movement, the slightest twitch. At least with Valdys, I’ve developed a certain level of predictability. Surely, this Alpha can hear every breath that saws out of me, thick with the same fear that has my muscles trembling right now. Swallowing past the dryness, I clear my throat and push to my feet, knees sore from the fall and ready to buckle. “Hello?”

Bed springs squeak, and an enormous figure emerges from the darkness, into the light from the corridor. He looks like a carbon copy of Valdys. Over six foot, his skin riddled in a slightly different pattern of scars, muscles tight and prominent. An iron helmet covering his head, giving an inhuman barbarity to his appearance. He lurches toward me, and ripples of panic shoot down my spine as I back myself against the wall.

Don’t move! My brain screams inside my head.

Just as with Valdys, the cold iron of his helmet drags over my skin, as he smells me. Warm, calloused hands slide down my shoulder, tensing my muscles. He draws my hand from behind my back, and before I can stop him, he’s found my wound. He lifts my hand to his face, and though I tug my arm back, he shoves my finger through the mouth hole of his helmet. A wet, silky tongue slides over my skin, and every fiber inside my body is taut with the moment this beastly thing will bite down and chew my finger clean off.

Fleshy lips seal over my knuckle, and he glides my finger back out, kissing the burning cut, before he releases my hand. I recoil my arm so quickly, it slaps against the wall behind me, sending a bruising vibration up through my bones.

A purring rumble in his throat sends a tickle through my chest, and I don’t even have the opportunity to exhale, before he swipes my legs out from beneath me. The air moves quickly around me as he carries me across the room and sets me down on his bed.

Gently.

The bed dips with his weight, and he slides in beside me, caging me between him and the wall.

With a cautious hand set to his hip, I pull myself up to climb over him, but he pushes me back to the mattress.

“Stay.” The raspy tone of his voice is soft, but spiked with a warning.

Every cell inside of me shakes uncontrollably, and I lie back down, as he commands.

Their lips aren’t sewn, after all.

Rough hands stroke my hair, my face, and he wriggles closer, pressing me tighter against him. I’m expecting him to crush me at any minute, to smother me beneath his oversized body as he rapes me here on his bed, to touch me in ways that no male has ever touched me before.

Instead, he lies quietly next to me, his palm running over me in an investigative, rather than sexual, way.

“So soft.” He sets his palm against mine, stretching my fingers, and it’s then I notice how big his hands are, how easily they could crush mine. “You smell like flowers.”

Though there’s a husky nature to his voice, he seems to be more comforted than aroused, like one who’s not had much human contact, at all.

Minutes pass, with his curious, though not entirely violating, caresses, until the door clicks open, casting a blast of light into the cell, and Titus rolls away from me. Two Legion soldiers march into the room, and with one hand, he pushes me against the wall, growling back at them, as if he’s … protecting me.

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