Page 40 of Defiant Beta

He squeezes.

I fight to breathe, choking, gasping, my legs kicking out, weaker and weaker until…

He suddenly releases me.

I splutter, dragging delicious air into my lungs.

“Now…” Zach stares down at me, one hand still wrapped loosely around my throat. He holds the taser against my side,right under my heart. A promise and a threat of something even worse to come. “Have I convinced you to see reason?”

“Of course.” My voice is husky from his choking hand, but I smile brightly at him. “Can you spell reason?”

Pain explodes down the side of my face, and my vision turns hazy and gray.

The weight trapping me disappears, and male voices swim around me.

Something about a taser.

Another about a heart attack.

I guess they want me alive and kicking for a little while longer.

A hand grabs my hair and drags me. A door slams open, but no matter how hard I fight, the fist clenching in my hair never loosens an inch.

The dragging stops as suddenly as it started.

A shock of ice-cold water stuns me.

I press my palms against the edge of the toilet seat and struggle to push myself away.

The person gripping me holds me until my lungs burn. When I start choking, the hands release me and I’m free again, coughing and spluttering.

“Learned respect?” Zach whispers into my ear.

“Learned the meaning of respect, jackass?” I pant out.

He dunks my head in the toilet again.

After the third time, I black out.

I wake up flat on my back, my skirt up over my hips, and the blond alpha doing up his flies.

I don’t make a sound or even move, but his head swivels my way, and he freezes.

A sick churn starts up in my belly. I’m no longer wearing my panties, and there’s no sign of them in the room. When I lift my gaze back to his, he’s walking to the closed metal door.

He knocks twice. The door swings open, and he walks out, slamming it shut again.

I tell myself to get up, run to the door, and force it open before they lock it.

But I can’t seem to make myself move.

The clang of the lock clicking into place startles me.

I lie on the floor, my hair wet from being dunked in the toilet, my skirt still over my hips, and I feel… different.

Not right.

Outside, the sound of male laughter bleeds through the door.

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