Page 15 of Despair

He needed to find a way out for her.

The idea didn’t formuntil the beta assistant brought them their dinner.

351’s hackles raised at the sight of him, a snarl forming in his throat as every instance of the pathetic man holding down his mate and helping the sick doctor torture her flashed through his mind.

But the look the beta shot his mate when he shoved the tray of food through made him pause. There wasguiltin it.

“Wait.” 351 got to his feet and made it to the bars before the smaller man had turned around, eyes wide with shock.

“Please. She… needs help.”

The beta looked past him to his mate, a worried frown making its way to his forehead. “Did you hurt her?”

351 growled, as irritated with the accusation as with the beta not understanding him. “No.Hehurts her.”

There was no need to explain whohewas—the pale expression on the assistant’s face made it clear he knew who.

The beta looked away. “There’s nothing I can do about that. Just be happy I don’t report that your dose is too low.”

351 bared his teeth. “Youcan.You won’t. Difference.”

“It’s not that simple,” the beta hissed. “Not that I’d expect a criminal to understand.” And then he walked away, toward the neighboring cage.

351 roared, smacking his hand against the bars so hard they shuddered and a satisfying pain vibrated through his palm.

The cell door in the neighboring cage rolled open, the beta calling to the woman to come out as he delivered the alpha’s meal.

From the short glimpse he caught of her, she seemed vaguely familiar. Perhaps she was one of the females he had been made to mount, but it was impossible to tell. They all flowed into one in his memory.

“It’s no use.” His mate’s voice was quiet as she came to stand by his side, hands wrapped around the bars as she stared after the other woman. “Even if hedroppedhis card, we’d never make it out of the compound. There are too many guards on the upper levels. And he isn’t going to risk his own skin by escorting us.”

351 glanced down at her, resisting the urge to rub his chest as their bond twanged unpleasantly at the defeated look on her face.

Instincts pulled on him to comfort her, and he grunted when his cock spasmed with eagerness to replace her sadness with pleasure. They hadn’t mated in days because she’d been unwilling. His nearness had made her reek of fear, and since that first time in the cell, he’d had enough control of his mind to not ignore it.

Had they been free, he would have taken her anyway, because he’d know that deep down, she wanted it too.

But here, in their shared prison… He wasn’t the only man to force her into submission. The alpha doctor forced her. Maybe not with his cock, but he brought her pain and unwilling submission every day.

The thought that she would see his dominance the same as she saw the doctor’s was what kept him from following his instincts to subdue her and take her up against the bars until her sadness gave way to bliss.

7

Lillian

“What can I call you?”

It was early morning the day after Dr. Axell had tortured 351 with electricity until he passed out. Twice.

At least, I thought it was early—it was impossible to tell for certain in the underground lab, but it had been many hours since our evening meal, and the silence from the other cells suggested most of the test subjects were asleep.

351 wasn’t. I could tell from his breathing. I didn’t know if he’d slept at all, or if he’d woken up when I did. He seemed so attuned to me, always aware of my every move. I wouldn’t have been surprised if just the change in my heart rate could bring him out of a dead sleep too.

“Alpha,” he grunted after a moment’s silence.

I lowered my lashes, letting my gaze rest on where his strong arm was wrapped around my midriff, pulling my back flush against his chest. It was better than when he was drug-addled and insisted on sleepingon topof me, but his possessive grip left no doubt as to his claim on me. In his mind, I was his mate, and he was my alpha.

My stepdad had insisted my mom call him that too.

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