Page 48 of Beg the Night

“Oh, god,” New Girl groaned from behind me.

Heart racing, palms sweating, I turned to her. Fuck, was I imagining it, or were my senses heightening?

“It’s them,” she said. “They’re drugging us.”

FOURTEEN

athena

My heart pounded, my pulse beating in my fingertips and all the way down to my toes.

First, I thought their plan was to incapacitate us again. Kill us, maybe. Clearly, I was wrong.

Sinner stiffened, the broad shoulders beneath his shirt tensing as he too realized what was happening. “Why would they do this? It isn’t even the night of the blood moon!”

I scooted back on the bed until I was pressed up against the cold concrete wall.Slow breaths. Slow breaths. Lower your fucking heart rate, Athena. You’re not going to let a heart attack take you out. Not after everything you’ve been through.

In front of me, Sinner shuffled to the front of the cell and gripped the bars so tight that his hands shook. “This isn’t right.”

“Obviously.” I choked on the fog and fell into a coughing fit. My eyes watered, my throat stung. “Gas invading the room is typicallynotright.”

He growled again, igniting the tiniest spark in my chest. I didn’t fear him, but sometimes I was reminded that he was a monster. He was one of them—a mystic. A powerful one at that.

And now I was trapped in this tiny room with him, and he was getting angrier by the second.

At least, that’s how it looked. And I could practically feel the fury simmering inside him as he stood with his back to me, tense as a freaking rock.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, still willing my body to calm down. Sinner had draped his jacket over my shoulders at some point, which was a blessing considering I was still wearing the very thin dress from the ball.

I didn’t want to die wearing a flimsy dress. It would be a real shame.

My racing heart slowed a fraction, but the pounding changed from panic to something wholly different. Heat emanated from my chest and rolled through my extremities. I took a few long breaths, silently begging the warmth to dissipate.

Instead, it settled in and morphed into something else. Something…deeper.

Sinner pressed his head against the bars as he shook them with abandon. “They want us to mate. That’s what she warned us about. They’re drugging us so we’ll willingly mate. I’d bet they’re using tonight to test us before the blood moon comes around.”

My heart lurched painfully. “What? That’s crazy! They can’t do that, can they?”

He tilted his head to the sky, back still to me, and laughed. It was a laugh to whatever god had cursed us with this fate.

“We have to fight it,” I said. “A drug can’t make us do anything.” On cue, the heat that had worked its way through me began to pool between my thighs. Okay, maybe a drug could make me feel things, but it sure as hell could not make me willingly touch Sinner.

Absolutely the fuck not.

“As long as you stay over there and I stay over here, we’ll be fine.” His voice was rough and strained, his knuckles white as he clutched the bars. “I’m not touching you.”

“Feeling is mutual.”

The fog started to dissipate, the hazy cloud lifting a little. I focused on my breathing. That was a good sign. Maybe it would clear out as quickly as it had settled in here. There was no way this tactic would work. If it did, then the Ministry was taking the free will aspect out of the claiming.

Or would it be successful? Was there some sort of loophole?Shit.If that was the case, then the Ministry could pair whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted to. Hell, they were already pretty much doing that.

This would simply speed up the process.

Every second that passed was more torturous than the last.Breathe in. Breathe out. Focus on the cool air, focus on it cooling your body.

I sat up and pushed Sinner’s jacket off my shoulders, tossing it onto the edge of the bed.

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