He reaches up to my face slowly, a slight tremble to his large hands as he brushes a tear away with a careful fingertip.
He narrows his eyes as his gaze cuts between his tear-stained finger and my face. He lets out a single frustrated-sounding grunt.
“You don’t like my tears?” I say, trying to put words to his expression.
At his singular nod, my lips pull up into a wobbly smile.
“Ah, yeah, sorry about that. I shouldn’t be crying.” I press the palms of my hands into my closed eyes and take a shaky breath.
Rage growls, making me freeze before I peek at him through my fingers.
“You really don’t like it when I hide my face, do you, big guy?”
He shakes his head.
“Alright,” I say, my hands falling to my sides. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He gazes at me, almost as if he’s afraid I’m going to burst into tears again.
I almost want to tell him that my crying isn’t going to make mewhither away, but I don’t want to upset him. It really seems like he cares a lot.
After a beat of silence, he seems to decide. Still cradling my head to keep it from hitting the cold concrete floor below us, he leans down and buries his face against the crook of my neck, scent marking me.
He leans down onto his elbows, careful not to put his full weight on top of me. But his bare chest still brushes up against mine, making my nipples perk up against his warm skin. I don’t know what it is about alphas, but they all seem to be like big walking furnaces.
It’s nice, especially with the cold concrete at my back.
His chest vibrates with a purr, and with him on top of me, I can feel it flowing through my body. It’s an indescribable, out-of-body experience, how calm I feel with him surrounding me entirely.
I want to kiss him.
The thought hits me so suddenly that I’m left reeling. It’s such a… foreign thought, considering that I’ve never really had any opportunity for that kind of intimacy before.
Despite the fact that we’re locked in a concrete cell together, despite the fact this man is a feral alpha everyone else seemed sure would rip me apart the first chance he got, despite the fact that we’re being held captive by crazy, sadistic people who live their lives with no rules, I feel safe.
This man might as well be a wall of pure muscle, with the way he seems to block out the rest of the world.
I reach up and brush my fingers through his hair, running my nails across his scalp in the way he seemed to really like earlier.
I never would’ve expected to find four men like Rowan, Griffin, Ash, and now Rage in a place like this. All of them seem to fit in my brain in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s hard to describe.
It’s probably best ifI focus on the here and now.
I don’t think I’m going to die here today. Rage, despite his name, doesn’t seem at all interested in ripping me apart.
Which means the thing that I have to worry about is what happens to me after the handlers decide to come see whether I’m alive.
I’m starting to realize the feral alphas they think are the dangerous ones are the least of my worries here.
CHAPTER 16
Rowan
Istumble to the farmhouse, my vision swimming. It took me a lot fucking longer than I would’ve liked to get over here.
Please, please, please fucking open the door.
I bang on it like my life depends on it. Technically, my life doesn’t depend on it, but Mirabelle’s probably does. She seems to have an almost magical way of handling herself around the fighting dogs, but Rage is a wild card.
