Sweat rolled down my temples as I dug my fingernails into the rock. “Fine. Keep your secrets. However, you’ll have to fight your own battles today, I’m afraid.”
He made a soft grunting sound and came to lean against me.
My right hand stopped clawing at the stone and dropped to his head. Touching him sometimes helped. Borrowing his brutish power was sometimes the only way I stayed conscious. Scratching behind his ears, my gaze slid back to the wall trapping me in this estate of horrors.
I glowered at the sensors, cameras, locks, and barricades.
I wished I could blow them all up. Tear them apart and smash them to pieces.
A hot flash of agony had me groaning and abandoning those thoughts.
A steady buzz grew louder.
My fingers froze around Whisper’s ear as a drone appeared, its shadow drifting over me as it hovered, putting itself in a position of authority.
I bared my teeth, wishing I could shoot it down and destroy the message it was about to deliver.
“Fuck off, Marcus.” I swallowed hard as a rush of nausea warned me I was mere moments from being knocked out.
“Is that any way to talk to your nearest and dearest friend?”
I didn’t bother answering. I wouldn’t waste the last dregs of energy onhim.
The drone dropped a little lower—but not too low. They’d learned to stay out of swiping distance after I’d managed to destroy a few.
Marcus’s voice crackled through the speaker. “I’ve been waiting for good news, Lucien. I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed that you haven’t progressed.”
I grinned, wishing I had fangs as sharp as Whisper’s. “Is that why you’re punishing me so much lately? For something you think I should’ve done?”
“It’s not a punishment,” Marcus drawled, his tone smug and faintly amused. “It’s merely a correction. You’ve had that girl in your house almost every day since she arrived. Tell me, seeing as you refuse to let us have cameras inside, have you fucked her yet?”
My mind filled with images of being with her in that way. Of finding out what it would be like to kiss and touch and give in.
The idea didn’t disgust me nearly as much as it should have.
I smirked. “Why? Are you jealous?”
“I merely need to know if today is the day I can stay true to my promise.”
“What? To finally kill me?”
The drone’s speaker system hissed with white noise. “You know you mean so much to me, Lucien. It pains me that you don’t see that.”
I laughed. Marcus’s lies would never stop being funny. But then my laugh turned to a groan, and I wobbled, fighting the fog creeping over my thoughts. “Nice of you to say such things while your finger is on that little button feeding me whatever drugs keep me useless.”
“It could all stop you know.” The drone circled me. Whisper snapped his jaws, swiping with his huge paw. “All you have to do is get one of them pregnant. The moment we have confirmation of your child in someone’s belly—”
“I’m not your breeding whore.”
“—I’ll personally collect you and take you home.”
“Iamhome.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t.” My skin drenched in sweat as I continued to fight the burn.
“Stop being difficult. Just have a little fun and knock one of them up. How hard is that?”
