Page 9 of Ruled By The Alpha

Even with my father’s idiotic interference, even after he’s been reminded of the biology that I have spent so long taming to obedience, AX2 still submits to my commands simply because I will it.

I walk toward him, every step controlled to show him how little impact his anger has on me, and stop right in front of his kneeling figure.

He stares blindly at my midsection, unmoving. His breathing is steady and silent. Uncowed.

Anger fizzes in my gut. I reach out without thought, wrapping my fingers around his chin to force his face up. The warmth of his skin is a shock to my system, but I temper the urge to recoil, gripping tighter instead. “Look at me.”

His green eyes flick up to meet mine, anger still darkening their depths.

“I want you to remember what your time with me was like when you first came here,” I say, my voice a soft counterpoint to the iron grip I keep on his ruggedly handsome face. It is impossible to tell where artificial skin meets biological.Idid that. “How many months of pain you endured while you became the formidable weapon you are today. Do you remember, AX2?”

“I remember, ma’am.”

I smile thinly. “Good. Because I do understand how…confusingthis new approach must be for you. You have spent years shedding your, ah, social impulses, and then here we are, suddenlyencouragingthem.

“But I want you to remember those first long, difficult months you endured, and I want you to never, ever forget. Because if youeveragain look at me like I’m something you can fuck, I willhurtyou like you’ve never imagined possible. Do you understand?”

For the first time since I entered the lab, the anger in AX2’s gaze sways. Not out of fear, nor respect—instead there’s a flicker of confusion. Blankness sweeps it away. “Ma’am. I have no such desires.”

He dareslieto me? I grit my teeth and slip my hand from his chin to his throat, squeezing. His pulse thrums under my fingers, only slightly elevated, the muscles in his neck too thick for me to be able to do any damage, even if I tried. But all I want is the reminder that I can take away his life far more easily than I gave it.

“No? Then tell me,soldier:What went through your mind when you were staring at me in that room? This is a command, AX2.”

He draws in a sharp breath, unhindered by my fingers against his windpipe, his eyes widening ever-so slightly. It’s all the warning I get before he’s on his feet, knocking my arm awaywith the movement, and wrapping his massive hand around my throat.

I squeak, an undignified noise. It’s the only sound I manage before he squeezes, and my ability to speak dies on a rattle. The next second, he shoves me backwards by his grip on my throat and slams me against the window to the stasis chamber so hard pain bursts through my muscles.

What is happening?Disbelief fades to terror as I stare up at the enormous alpha soldier who has me pinned at arm’s length. He’s not supposed to be able to do this! He can’t hurt me, I made sure—

His face is still blank, the only sign of emotion that darkness in his haunting eyes, and belatedly I realize that, yes… hecanhurt me—as long as his desire to do so outweighs the debilitating pain from his chip. I can see it in his eyes, that terrible agony searing his nervous system as he disregards one of the first, most fundamental orders I gave him. He is in far more pain than any man should be capable of bearing, yet it is nothing compared to the blazing hatred in his gaze as he stares me down.

“I thought about killing you,” he says softly, his gaze flicking from mine down to where his hand is wrapped tight around my throat, making it hard to breathe and impossible to say the words that would resume my control over him. And save my life.

Naked terror pounds in my veins as I wheeze for breath, survival instincts finally kicking into gear at his words. I claw at his arm, my nails drawing superficial lines of red on his skin and revealing the gleaming metal beneath.

This can’t be happening! I can’t die—not like this. Please, not like this.

AX2 watches my pathetic fight for survival impassively, unmoved by my scratching and kicking, his hand warm and unyielding around my throat. Just one little twitch of thoseinhuman muscles and he’ll break my neck. One flinch and I’ll die at the hand of my own creation.

I whimper at the yawning realization of my own imminent death, the sound gargled and raw. It draws his attention back up from my neck to my eyes, a soft sound leaving his full lips.Surprise.

He reaches forward with his free hand, touching my cheek. When he retrieves his fingers, wetness glistens on their tips.

A small frown pulls his dark brows in as he stares at my anguished tears on his digits as if their presence there is perplexing. An unsolvable mystery.

And then he touches them to his mouth. Tasting my fear.

Another noise leaves his lips, rougher than before, the sound traveling up from the depths of his chest, his eyelids fluttering shut.

“You taste—” He cuts himself off, exhaling shakily. Then slowly he opens his eyes again.

Hunger.

It’s not outrage that grips me by the gut in the face of the alpha’s carnal attention this time.

I scream brokenly against his crushing hold on my neck, clawing and kicking and frantic as the giant beast closes the distance between our bodies, bends his head to my neck, and sniffs me.

He grunts, the sound deep and rich, the exhale of his breath tickling right below my ear, the warmth of his body overwhelming. And… and something low in my abdomen seems to…melt.

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