Page 27 of Into the Fire: After
Three more pitiful sandwich trays made their way to me before the chatty guard returned. Good thing there were no vampires in the vicinity; they’d have clocked my sky-high pulse and blood pressure the moment I recognized the guy.
He didn’t have a tray in hand, but instead gestured to another guard who stepped up to my bedside. My return visitor said in a strong voice, “You’re being relocated to Cell 23-G.”
The cuff opened around my wrist and my arm fell away. I groaned at the sharp sting of a million tiny needles digging their way out of my muscles. He then hoisted me up by my sore arm and marched me from the room.
I did as well as I could to take in my surroundings—cold metal, no windows, sterile lights too bright to look at.
I hated the thought of Taryn in a place like this.
“Your compatriot,” my maybe-ally continued, “has proven himself to be a handful. If you can’t get his alphadrenaline episodes under control, we will.”
I swallowed. Was this part of the guard’s front for bringing us together, or was Caine really struggling so much?
¿Por quéno los dos?
We took a right turn and then a quick left before Maybe-Ally unlocked the door and the secondary guard shoved me through it. And there was Caine, shackled to the bedframe as I’d been, wrist red and bloody from having pulled at it. Black scrapes on the floor showed where he’d dragged the bed out of place in his rages.
Even now, he was covered in a sheen of sweat, the brown waves of his hair stuck to his temple, and his eyes were frantic, the eyes of a caged animal.
Which, to be fair, we both were.
“Caine,” I said, rushing to his side without any further inducement. I placed my palm against his cheek. “Breathe, Caine.”
He stopped struggling, his head collapsing back against the railing of the bed.
I looked back to Maybe-Ally. “Has he eaten anything?”
The man’s jaw clenched. “His last two trays were tossed across the room.”
I rubbed soothing paths over Caine’s cheek and neck. The fight left him breath by breath, practically tangible beneath my fingers, like a cold front moving in. He sagged completely, absolutely spent. I narrowed my eyes at the guard. “I’ll keep him calm. Now uncuff him.”
The secondary guard looked to his superior for permission, but the head guard stepped around him. He bent with his back to the door—and the other guard—and pulled out a crowded keyring. As he appeared to be jangling through it, he hit me with a sharp look before looking to the space of mattress beside Caine’s limp pillow.
I sat on the edge of the bed, stroking Caine’s hair with one hand. The other, I leaned on the mattress. To support myself as I leaned forward to kiss my packmate on the forehead. When I sat up straight and moved my hand away, I left the chip behind.
And prayed to every being that could hear me that I’d trusted the right person.
Caine
Breathingwasfinallygettingeasier. One excellent part of being an alpha: the fucking fast healing and recovery. Though my eye was still swollen, my nose sore from being broken, my ribs no longer felt like they were stabbing into my lungs with every breath.
Not that it did me any good. I was still too damn weak to do anything other than rest my head against the pillow, my arm shackled to the bed.
My stomach had stopped rumbling with hunger days ago. Even as my injuries healed, hopelessness and lack of nourishment kept me limp and motionless.
So when one of the limpdick motherfuckers holding us captive had told me days ago to start throwing somealpha tantrums,I’d nearly laughed in his face. Even assuming that one more alphadrenaline spike wouldn’t be my death knell, I had enough energy to exist…and not much else.
Do it,he’d said as he picked up my untouched tray,and I can bring your friend to you.
No other options before me, I did as he said. Wasn’t hard. I just thought about my omega. Imagined her in a room like this. Looked at my own handcuffed wrist, wondered if they’d chained her to a bed too.
That usually set me off pretty quick.
And the limpdick motherfucker kept his word. Lin sat here—unless I was delirious—stroking my hair and soothing me through the bond.
Talons of pain sliced down my arm when I could finally move it again. I groaned, turning away from the others.
Limpdick stood and rejoined his comrade. “Any further episodes will not be tolerated. Understood?”
