Page 20 of Protector

There is no saving her. He knows it in his gut even before he reaches for her hair and twists her head to the side, displaying the deep indents of teeth left there.

Her claiming mark.

She has been claimed. And her alpha…

He lies dead down the hall.

NINE

AX2

The woman in front of him erased much of what he was, but there are a few precious things that even she could never take. Less than human as he is, he is still all alpha. And his alpha instincts recognize the meaning of that mark on a level that runs deeper than his DNA.

Her captor bonded her to him. Made her a part of him. Now that he’s dead, she will die too.

Save her.

AX2 bares his teeth against the impulse from his chip. He grabs her wrists to stop her attempt at digging out her pair-bond despite the futility of doing so.

She gasps another sob, struggling weakly to resume ripping at her own flesh, and he growls as his chip fires painfully.

Save her. Save her. Save her.

“It hurts,” she whimpers. “Ithurts!Make it stop. Please,pleasemake it stop!”

He stares down at the woman he hates more than he will ever hate anyone or anything else—and feels a thread of pity worm its way through his gut. He didn’t know he was capable of such emotion, let alone forher.But as she sits in front of him, so fundamentally broken he knows nothing will ever be able to glue her back together again, something aches in his chest.

“I can’t,” he says.

Her breathing stutters and a fresh bout of tears floods down her cheeks. But when she looks to his side, to his gun, a whisper of steel echoes in the determination crossing her features. “Yes, you can.”

AX2 inhales sharply. His orders are to save her, and the fundamental parts of his wiring have been programmed to never allow him to hurt her. The chip sears his brain at the thought of giving her what she asks for, and he remembers the feeling of her throat in his hand. How he couldn’t bring himself to snap her neck, no matter how much he wanted to.

He repeats,“I can’t.”

“I command you!” Her high-pitched voice rings with desperation. “Stop the pain. Whatever you have to do, just fucking stop it! That’s an order, AX2.”

The command burns through his nervous system, his fingers twitching against her wrists. Her demand conflicts with his previous orders, manifesting as an excruciating sizzle in his chip.

If he obeys her, he will die too. The realization is sudden and sharp on the wave of agony.

Icy exhilaration runs up his spine.Death.He has longed for it, only to be denied over and over.Shehas denied him, forcing him back from the relief of nothingness more times than he can count. But now?

One flick of his finger, and he'll be free. His death won’t be easy, won’t be clean. Disobeying orders will be maddening. But he is not afraid of pain;shehas made sure of that. And he will go to his grave knowing that in the end, he took her life, just as she took his.

Which seems a far more satisfying end than he could have ever hoped for.

AX2 releases her wrists and steps back. When he grabs for his weapon, the agony in his brain nearly blinds him, but he still presses the barrel of his gun to her forehead.

Her breathing quickens, her sobs pitching higher as she squeezes her eyes shut.

He has killed so many times before. She has given the order for most of them on the orders of someone else. They are both cogs in the same machine.

He stares down at her tear-stricken face and the wild, dark hair he has only seen smoothed back and tight against her skull before.

She has been here for days. She has been at that now-dead alpha’smercy fordays, and the proof of what has been done to her during that time is caked to her skin and smeared over the sheets beneath her.

Perhaps she has longed for death for some time.

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