threw them off. He stood there, wavering drunkenly on his feet as Gaden held out a hand to me.
“No, Shan…” Jai slurred, taking a step towards me.
Gaden shook his head and took my hand, backing off as soon as he got me upright.
“Purse your lips like you were going to whistle,” he told me as I fought to suck in breath. I followed his instructions, feeling more blessed oxygen filling my lungs.
“Well, well,” Hollingsworth said to me. “It looks like you’ll be doubly useful. Everyone back to their cages. You have five minutes to gather some food as we will clear the rest away for the day. In the morning, specimen jars and gloves will be provided.” The fucker’s eyes swung to me. “Unless you prefer to get hands on? Shannon, you’ve been educated in the sperm sample retrieval process, so you know what to do. I’ll need at least one from each specimen before the day ends, or they’ll experience pain much worse than your beloved has. Though he will be excused if he makes his deposit inside you.”
“You’re going to make her…” Caleb said, looking sideways at me, “get…from us?”
He shrugged. “She needs to be in the room at the very least. It’s her scent that prompts this extreme response, so I’ll not chance getting lesser samples. Now, move to your cells.”
Nero grabbed a trolley of food and wheeled it over to Jai and my space before collecting items to disseminate between the others. They moved quickly enough, the compliance sitting oddly on such big, powerful bodies. Big powerful bodies I was about to see so much more of. I frowned and edged back towards Jai, just as the glass walls came down.
“Shan…” Jai groaned, and I rushed to his side.
It was around now I started to get mad.
Jai looked fine. They obviously knew what they were doing, able to incapacitate shifters without permanently damaging them, but somehow, that made it worse.
“You… They…” I stared blankly at the room, seeing Hollingsworth, the men pulling down their pants, Jai falling backwards, and my jaw locked as each memory smashed into me. My fists balled, but they were so ineffectual. Small, weak by comparison to the men, and locked away behind the glass. I couldn’t even bloody the fuckhead’s nose. I couldn’t do anything.
“Babe…”
I felt Jai’s hands on my arms and flinched. Hollingsworth’s instructions… The samples… An unconscious Gaden on my first day here. Fuck, was Nick in on this? I shuddered.
“Sweetheart, I won’t let them—”
“Touch their dicks? Jai, they’ll fry their fucking brains and torture them until I do what they want! You haven’t seen it yet. Watching another person struck dumb and writhing on the floor while whatever it is they zap you with immobilises you, your body twitching and jerking…” Tears filled my eyes, blurring him out until all I could see was my memories. “Fuck this fucking place…”
“Shan…” He tugged me close, wrapped his arms around me, and rested his chin on my skull. “This is just a speed bump, love. It’s not the end for us. You gotta believe that.”
But right now, I couldn’t. The walls, the glass that seemed to defy the rules of physics to obey Hollingsworth’s will. My eyes flicked up, feeling like they were pushing down on me.
I pulled free of Jai’s arms, not able to take that soothing pleasure right now. My heart thumped as I paced the all too smooth floor, staring at the ground but not seeing it, until I bumped into the food cart. The abundance of luscious looking food felt like a personal affront, to organise such a bounty and yet feel justified in locking us up. He would have had to source it from somewhere. From the town? Did the good burghers of Harvest Grove know what the fuck was going on in here? Did they…?
Never let them know what you are. My grandmother’s advice reverberated through me. Your nan’s not here. Didn’t listen to her own damn advice at all, did she? People ’round here, the old timers, they knew what she was, what she did, Rob said in my mind. Stuart looking at me through the glass, listing all the ways I’d given away I wasn’t human.
“No…” I whispered. “No, no, no…”
You should have run. I told you that. The voice was Nan’s, but not her words. You were stupid enough to stay. Stupid enough to try and build something. You thought the rules didn’t apply. You thought you could have—