Gunner was on his feet with his hand on the cell panel before the pirate made it to his destination. Ely’s voice rang softly in his ears.
His target had come back too soon and had woken what he wanted to remain asleep. An ugly laugh bubbled up in the back of his throat. It was time to sow chaos.
The door to the brig shut, willed closed, over-ridden. The guard glanced back but it was too late.
Gunner felt the metal under his fingers heat up the instant his restraint snapped. The panel of his cell unlocked just as he thrust it open, stepping out and into the passageway.
“What the hell!?” The guard jerked back in surprise, a fleeting emotion quickly replaced by disbelief.
He heard Ely scramble and rise, heard the mutters of the other prisoners as he stormed toward his target, closing the distance in seconds.
Gunner reached the guard long before he even had a chance to draw his weapon.
“What the—”
Gunner fisted the thick cloth of his vest in his hand and lifted him off the ground, feeling his eyes burst red. The color reflected back at him in the man’s final moments.
“Don’t! Please,” the guard strangled out.
The guard’s words went unregistered as Gunner held him, his kill command overriding his rationality.
The lights went out, covering him and everybody else in impenetrable darkness. The blanching noises of the other prisoners filled his ears, only to be tuned out a moment later.
Gunner slammed his target straight into the metal floor, bearing all his weight in one swift move.
He didn’t wantherto see this. Didn’t want her to feel any guilt or remorse for the life she requested. The lights weren’t to protect him or anyone else from discovery, but to protect Ely from his savagery.
The man’s spine snapped, back shattered from the weight, his skull knocking and cracking, breaking open like an egg, the contents of it remaining within and under a thin layer of skin that hadn’t torn open. The force of the impact echoed off the metal walls.
Gunner leaned over him, his hold on the guard’s form stiff as the body caught up with its inevitable death. In a matter of seconds, it was over, but the body continued to shudder and jerk. The final death gasp, filling the pitch black for everyone to remember for the rest of their lives.
When the body stopped moving, Gunner lifted up and dragged it behind him and toward the exit, refusing to switch on his night vision so he wouldn’t have to see Ely’s face.
There was nothing like the sound and feel of dragging a dead body, even if it was muffled under the cacophony of distress from the prisoners. He willed the brig door open and thrust the corpse outside of the hold.
And before it hit the ground, sirens blared overhead.
The footage was there, he erased it in a moment, but it was there, and he only hoped that no one had been watching. Only time would tell.
He gritted his teeth, his anger still burning in his veins. The jackal within him was not satisfied. Gunner placed his palm against the wall and willed his control to return. His consciousness delved into the ship, stripping away the entire security system, blasting it without caution.
Because he neededmore. His beast neededmore. And he was going to take it. He had given the guard a quick death and it hadn’t been enough. Gunner sensed the ship descend into chaos, and as he turned around to face the dark, the screeching alarms covered the growls that rose from the pit of his throat. His cock hardened in his jeans.
He wanted more, needed more, and in the next moment, he was standing before Ely’s cell, his hand on the panel, opening it and entering her space. Her smell was everywhere here, he was everywhere here with her, and he sucked in a deep, delicious breath, letting their mixed scents fuel his jackal.
It wanted to fight or it wanted to fuck, and he suppressed the metal panels of his body from vibrating into a full shift. He swallowed another breath, clenching his fists as he stared in her direction. His nose twitched, feasting on the fresh beads of sweat that dampened her skin.
Gunner knew he could take her, catch her up in his arms and overpower her, and in the dark, he could strip her naked and reveal her secret and graze his teeth along her flesh.
His claws extended from his fingertips, pushing out his nails. He pressed them into his palms. The searing heat of his blood caught underneath them to pool outward. The iron smell hit his nose and his beast howled in delight.
But Gunner didn’t close the gap, keeping his distance with mere feet between them.
He switched his vision then, finally looking at her, preparing for the worst.Why?It made no sense. None of this made sense. He’d just killed for her.
As his visual shifted and the darkness receded from his eyes, her features filled his view. It reminded him why he was an outcast. A miscreation banned to the farthest edges of the galaxy.
That he was, at this moment, more animal than man, more animal than Cyborg, and when his monster took over, it wanted to stay.
