Human Pet Prison (Possessive Aliens #7) - Loki Renard Page 0,21

and cold and the fear of dying. I hate being this pathetic, but there are imperatives which come with human flesh. I am an animal, and I am afraid.

Warden makes a shushing sound, even though I am not making any noise, and he crouches down near me with his arms outstretched, picking me up off the shower floor.

“It’s okay,” he says, even though it is obviously not okay. I am not just in prison. I am in danger.

“You have to send me away,” I tell Warden. “You have to get me off this ship. He’s going to kill me.”

“He’s not going to hurt you.”

“I think being ripped apart by your brother would hurt,” I say through chattering teeth. I hate the physical effects of fear.

“He’s not going to hurt you,” Warden repeats. “But I am going to put you in more secure quarters. I wanted to keep you as a pet would be kept. I wanted to domesticate you, but that will not work now. I need to ensure that you are out of Scizzor’s grasp.”

“I can’t be out of his grasp on this ship. Put me in a shuttle. Send me off to wherever. But I heard him planning to kill me.”

I don’t know why I am bothering to beg a scythkin for mercy. For all I know this was part of his plan. This could all be a set up to frighten me. And I know there is no escape.

He carries me from the shower through a door at the back of his chambers. The hall here is dark and echoes with every step he takes, so loudly it almost drowns out the panicked beating of my heart.

I have been close to death many times before, and never panicked. But it’s different when you have a weapon in your hand and some way to defend yourself. As a prisoner, I am helpless.

I find myself having to trust Warden to protect me. I don’t like the idea of relying on a scythkin to keep me safe, but I have no choice. They have taken my choice along with my freedom. They have taken everything from me and left me as a whimpering, sniveling, shaking little human in the arms of a being a thousand times more powerful than I am.

* * *

There is a wall with a circle on it. It glows dimly as Warden puts his hand on it. There is a sound like something sharp moving through something hard, a puncturing noise, and when he pulls his hand away, there is blood, just a drop — but a drop is all it takes.

ACCESS GRANTED

The wall slides open, revealing a round space six feet in diameter. The floor is lit through bright plastic, but there is nothing inside it. The walls are pitch black and metallic. It looks like a storage space, but there's nothing stored here… and then it clicks. I am going to be stored here.

This is the most claustrophobic sight I have ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on. I’ve been in cages, but you can almost always see out of cages. The world still exists outside them, even if you can’t get to it. But here, there’s something about the way the dark walls suck all the light out of the floor, which doesn’t seem able to generate enough light to fight the dark. It’s like being inside a metaphor for my most hopeless moments.

“This is a secure part of the ship. Scizzor cannot reach you here,” Warden tells me. “I will obtain furnishings for you, and perhaps some kind of entertainment so you do not go mad.”

“Why are you trying to save me? Why not just give me to him?”

“Because I believe you deserve punishment. Not death.”

I don’t know if I believe him, but I do know that he could have given me to his ferocious broodkin to be torn apart and he didn’t. Scythkin are one thing, even more than they are aggressive. They are possessive.

And this one has chosen me.

That terrifies me, but it is also my only hope of survival. If I escape and that angry scythkin brother of his comes after me, I will be hurt, badly. He does not care that I am human, and that my flesh is sacred. I heard the pain in his voice, and I know what it means. It means he will destroy almost anything for a chance at feeling even slightly better. I know that feeling too.

“I’d say stay here, but