Page 19 of Red Captive

Rex raises his head slowly, his eyes dull with defeat. He takes the leather from his mouth with a trembling hand. “Yes,” he pushes out between chapped lips.

“Have you learned your lesson?”

“Yes, Sir,” he croaks. “Thank you.”

“You are hereby demoted. You will go back to basic guard duties until you earn your place back in the upper guard ranks.”

I can’t seem to stop the tears. I’m still crying when everyone starts to file away. That’s when I see him. A man standing across the courtyard. No, not a man at all. It’s often evident that the people here are shifters. They’re taller, bigger; they’re extra. They’re more than simply humans. I’ve never been so acutely aware of that fact until right now, and in this moment. He’s huge. Not just tall, but packed with lean muscle, too. Although there are a whole lot of people here, his presence is impossible to ignore.

I can see every ridge of his abs since he isn’t wearing a shirt. Tattoos adorn his upper chest and arms. All of the men here have them, but not this many. He has two full sleeves, and Isuspect his back will be covered, too. Perhaps his thighs as well. His abs are all bronzed skin and clear of ink, which makes them stand out even more, somehow. His shoulders are impossibly wide. His biceps are thick.

Shit! I realize with a start that I am staring at him. I look up, and his eyes are on me; they’re dark and narrowed. His lightly stubbled jaw is tight. His hair is cropped close to his skull on the sides and slightly longer on top. He looks mean and angry. His focus is solely on me, like he has something against me. I’ve never seen him in my life. I would have remembered him. Maybe he knows Rex, and like everyone else here, he blames me for what happened. I guess I can’t blame him for his response. I wish I could apologize to Rex, who is being led away by two others. He keeps his head bowed. His back continues to bleed, dripping down his back and down the back of his pants.

I feel terrible. I wish I could tell him I’m sorry. I wish I could explain. I know that Rex would understand. I’m sure he would forgive me if he knew the whole story.

When I look back at where the stranger was standing moments earlier, he is gone. My eyes scan the crowd as they leave. I realize that I am looking for him and stop.

Some of the men undress and shift. One by one, they all depart until just a few of us are left.

“The general wants a word,” the guard holding my arm tells me, leading me back toward the castle.

I don’t pay much attention to my surroundings on the way through the castle. I couldn’t tell which path we took. The guards lead me through a door and into an empty room. The general is inside, waiting. He has removed the mask, which he is holding in a gloved hand. Droplets glint on his gloves. Crimson stains his gold crest. It’s Rex’s blood. It makes me sick to my stomach to see it there.

“Ah, Miss Harris,” he says, smiling like he is greeting an old friend. “You may wait outside,” he addresses my guards, who leave, closing the door behind them.

“Why did you have to do that?” I ask, trying hard not to cry all over again. I don’t want to give this asshole the satisfaction. “It wasn’t Rex’s fault. He didn’t deserve that.”

“You disobeyed me. Rex disobeyed me, too. He has had his punishment; now it is your turn, Miss Harris.”

“What are you going to do with me?” I pull back my shoulders and lift my chin. I won’t be so easily broken. “Do I need to kneel to be beaten?”

He laughs. “Don’t tempt me.” He shakes his head. “No, you wouldn’t survive a beating from me, and you’re far too valuable to lose.”

I half expect him to tell me that he’s sending me off to the jungle to be used by the feral dragons, but once again, that won’t be my fate since I’m too valuable to him. They just used that particular threat to try to keep me in line.

He smiles and looks down his nose at me through narrowed eyes. “I’m going to give you one last chance to do the right thing for your family back home and, well, for yourself. I don’t want this to turn nasty.”

Too late for that.

“All I want is to go home,” I tell him.

“We had a deal.”

“You left me waiting for two months. You refused a meeting with me. You just left me in the dark. Now, I’m afraid that I’ve changed my mind about mating someone for money.” I fold my arms. “I want to go home to the Mainland and to my family.”

“It’s a big pity you’ve changed your mind, Miss Harris. You do realize that you’d be going home to nothing,” he says.

“I don’t trust you, General. It’s really as simple as that. I want to go home!” I inject venom into my voice.

“You wouldn’t last more than a couple of months before you lost the home you want so badly to go back to. I looked into you and your family. I did my homework, Miss Harris. You were up to your eyeballs in debt when you were called as a Tribute. The money they paid you was an absolute godsend. What would you have done otherwise? How would you have continued with the medical billings piling up? The rent going unpaid for months? I’m sure you struggled to put food on the table and to buy the basics. What would you have done?” He lifts his brows. The general has made it his business to find out about me. I hate that he knows so much. It gives him the upper hand.

“I would have made a plan,” I choke out.

“You would have ended up on the street. Your brother would have ended up in the foster system. It’s what will happen if you return. Is that what you want for yourself? For your family?”

“If I knew with absolute certainty that my family would get the money, that I could trust you, I would go along with this farce of an arrangement,” I push out, feeling my eyes sting. “I’d go along with it, but I can’t and I won’t because I don’t trust you.”

“You can trust me.” His voice has softened. His eyes, too. “I’m sorry we didn’t entertain your request for a meeting. It was because we didn’t have anything for you yet. I told you that we needed the necessary approvals. That we needed to find a suitable candidate. I told you I would come for you as soon as the time was right.”

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