Page 34 of His Toy

Trish sighed. Not in a mean or derisive way, but like she was disappointed that Bella needed it spelled out. “When was the last time an orphan was taken by the Wolf?”

“Umm…” Bella cast her mind back. Some people on the Moon who were obsessed with the Wolf knew every name of every person taken and as many facts about the victims’ past and current lives as they could collect. “Sorry, I’ve never been a Wolf follower.”

“Five years ago. He was kept for one month.”

“Oh!” Bella dimly remembered that, mostly because it was such an odd amount of time. Most people were either kept for a few days or months on end. “He was taken with that other guy, Bryce-something.” That had been huge news because Bryce had been kept for much longer. It was the only time something like that had happened. “I don’t think I realized he was an orphan.”

“Why would you? I only knew because he was from the same orphanage as me,” Trish said, a sad kind of little smile on her face. “The news stations aren’t as interested in people like me as they are in people like you and Alex.”

“But that’s wrong!”

“You have families. People they can interview. Important people. Connections. I don’t have any of that.” The young blonde said it matter-of-factly, not at all put out by her own description. She looked at Bella curiously, as if surprised she was disturbed by the implications. “I’m sure if you and Alex hadn’t been taken at the same time, I would have been bigger news.”

Bella pushed down her gut reactions. Feeling defensive was stupid. If the news shows weren’t talking about Trish, that wasn’t her fault, and it didn’t seem like Trish was blaming Bella, anyway. She needed to focus, not get upset about the disparity of the situation.

“Have you been around the compound? Seen anything that might help us escape?”

Trish shook her head. “I haven’t even been able to figure out which doors lead to the outside. Any time Jordan’s going out, he locks me into the room.”

“Do you have any computer access or anything?” That would have been incredibly helpful.

Trish was already shaking her head again. “Not really. He leaves me there, and I can access games or books or things to entertain me, but it’s not connected to anything. I can’t access anything that’s not saved to the computer, itself.”

There were a million more questions Bella wanted to ask, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. When she looked over, Jordan was turning around. Bella snapped her head back toward the pool. Alex was on the far side, holding onto the edge and watching them. He looked exhausted and curious; how long had he been over there staring but not wanting to interrupt?

As Jordan’s footsteps came closer, Bella could only hope that she hadn’t gotten Trish into trouble with the big man.

“Time to go back in,” he said. Bella peeked up at him while he took Trish’s hand and pulled her up from the bench. His expression was stoically blank, so Bella had no idea if he was upset with them or not.

* * *

Food. All Alex could think about was food. Bella had tried to talk to him about her conversation with Trish, but he couldn’t focus on it. His body ached. Working out with the anticipation of food, rather than the reality, had been stupid. But what else was he supposed to do? Sit around and think about his upcoming surrender?

He tried to tell himself it wasn’t really a surrender, but that was still what he felt like.

The gnawing emptiness in his stomach and the hazy way his brain was working made eating a priority. He wouldn’t be able to go another day. Hell, he didn’t know if he’d make it to dinner at this rate. Even after his slow, lazy laps in the pool, his muscles felt so weak that, for one awful moment, he’d thought the soldiers might actually need to help support him.

The only thing saving Alex was that no one denied him water. But that had stopped helping the emptiness yesterday.

As he and Bella came into the main room, Alex looked up at the dais, and his gaze crossed the Wolf’s almost immediately. Alex could practically feel the hate burning out of himself. The collar around his neck felt like it was choking him, and, for one savage moment, he wished it actually would. But then Bella would be unprotected and alone with the Wolf and these twisted bastards.

To his surprise, the Wolf kept his face blank as Alex and Bella approached. The came around to the front of the dais and stood at the edge. There were only a few people sitting at the mostly empty tables in the room, but Alex didn’t focus on them. He kept reminding himself why he was doing this. And the girl to his left—beautiful Bella with her soft, pink lips and nipples, her nervous trembling and bouncing, brown curls—filled his vision.

Yeah. That’s why.

“Sit over here, Pet.” The Wolf’s lips curled up in an anticipatory smile. He pointed to his left, right at the edge of the dais, and Bella obediently trotted forward.

An incredible smell wafted up from the back of the room, and Alex’s mouth watered as his knees nearly buckled. God, he was so hungry. His stomach growled loudly enough that he was pretty sure everyone within ten feet of him had heard it.

“Do you want to eat today, Toy?” the Wolf asked, softly. Almost coaxingly. The way a man might do with an animal he wanted to tame.

Alex had never felt more like growling. He nodded his head: one short nod, barely perceptible. That was all the Wolf needed. That one small gesture. He didn’t force another answer from Alex. Instead, he just pointed to the spot right in front of him.

“Come here and kneel, Toy.”

There were men who stayed on either side of Alex as he approached the Wolf, and he felt a small spurt of pride that they still considered him worth guarding. Unfortunately, he was too weak right now to be of any threat. He practically fell to his knees in front of the Wolf and cursed himself for his lack of control over his muscles. His knees hit the ground with a thud that seemed to echo throughout the room.

Behind him, a few people called out, but the words in their sentences blurred together. He didn’t look up. He looked straight ahead at the bulging front of dark-green pants.

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