by Nikki McCoy
As for exposing Connor and his band for the lying thieves they were, it would be his word against the head commander of the Mackaeo. He had no proof. Had he accepted Connor’s initial invitation to join his group and gathered evidence, participation would have been necessary. Thus his crimes would have been no less punishable than that of the others. Extenuating circumstances did not exist among the rules of the Order. Kyle would still be denied contact with him owing to the law prohibiting members of the Mackaeo to take a mate, and the relative freedom Connor was proposing for his mate would be forfeit.
Once in the main garage, they took the outer elevator directly down to the first floor below ground level. There were three floors underground consisting of the weapons rooms, training facilities, and storage and holding cells for those criminals waiting for transport and sentencing. Above ground lay the separate living apartments for each Mackaeo, spread out in a circular pattern with a larger building in the middle where they could congregate for meetings and social gatherings.
Connor and the driver walked him down a long enclosed corridor containing several doors leading to the holding cells and unlocked one on the far end. Inside was a standard sized cot and other basic amenities.
“These living arrangements won’t last long. During the past few months we’ve been sizing down each compound and putting up others. Spreading our ranks to cover more of this country and others. In about a week, you’ll be assigned an apartment with Rodego.”
“How kind of you. So I’m assuming that this compound will be run solely by you and your men?”
“Yes. It should make your life and our operations run more smoothly, don’t you think? I’m not a completely unreasonable man. You’re not a prisoner here, merely a comrade who will remain under close supervision for the duration of your stay.”
“You mean for the rest of my life.”
Connor shrugged nonchalantly. “Someone will be in shortly with your injection and some food. Make yourself comfortable. I’ll have a file sent to you on your upcoming assignment.”
They left him alone, locking the door from the outside. Shortly afterwards, a man came in with a tray of food and a needle containing the serum that would temporarily sever the mental link between him and his mate. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to submit to the injection and refrained from ripping the man’s throat out.
Lucas spent the rest of the night exercising. It helped him to focus, but every alternative for his situation or plan of escape ended with there being too much risk to Kyle. The only thing that would bring him peace would be the knowledge that Bastian had managed to find his mate and ensure that he was happy. Unfortunately, Connor would never let him know if it happened. It would diminish too much of his control over Lucas.
Chapter Ten
Kyle awoke to the jostling of a hard body pressed tightly against his. Firm muscles flexed along his flesh underneath his layer of clothing as body heat warmed his chilled skin. It had all been a dream. The men. Lucas’ panicked warning. Bastian fighting to get to him. All of it. He wasn’t sure which of his Doms was carrying him now, but the presence of either one was strong enough to drive his fears away.
Snuggling in, he inhaled deeply and immediately tensed. The scent was wrong, as was the pressure of the fingers on his arm and thigh holding him in place and bordering on painful. The low chuckle that drifted to his ears sent a fissure of alarm racing down his spine. Opening his eyes, he peered up into a face that didn’t even slightly resemble those of his Doms.
Not a dream.
Kyle shoved at the man’s chest and bucked his legs out. His sudden action gained him a few seconds to roll out of the large arms and land clumsily on his feet but a hand clenched his hair and wrenched him back. An arm banded around his arms and chest, constricting his airflow and lifting him from the ground.
“Don’t bruise him. We need him ready for auction by the end of the week.”
Flinging his legs wildly, he felt a sliver of satisfaction when his right foot connected with something solid followed by a curse. When his eyes flew open again, it was just in time to see a fist hook towards his stomach. Engulfing pain radiated from his gut but his body was denied the involuntary reflex to curl in on itself. More hands snatched his ankles and stretched out his tender abs between two men. Still he continued to struggle.
“This one’s a fighter. It’ll lower his value.” The voice came from the man crushing him.
Another off to his side replied, “After the auction, I’ll teach him his place. It’ll take us at least two weeks to deliver him to his new owner. He should be healed up by then.”
Unmitigated terror leapt into his heart and he doubled his efforts but they were in vain. A heavy iron door was opened leading to a small, windowless room made entirely of cement with a floor drain in the centre. The two men holding him flung him inside where he landed roughly on the ground, rolling several feet with his momentum.
“Strip.”
Kyle rose shakily to his feet and glowered at the pair blocking the doorway. They parted to admit a third, who stood taller than them by at least five inches, with a bald head and square body. His eyes appeared black in the dim light of the overhead, caged bulb and his face expressionless. He nodded to the others, who began to advance on Kyle. He was outnumbered, outmuscled and definitely not dealing with his own species, but still he had to fight.
His swing at the first man was easily dodged and a vicious punch to the back of his head sent him reeling into the second. They had him stripped of every article of clothing before he could manage to look up again. Through blurred vision, he saw that all three were once more at the door. One held a thick hose with its large nozzle pointed directly at him.
Kyle scrambled until his back hit the wall but there was nowhere to run. The man flipped the latch on top and an explosive current of water shot out. It hit his face before he could react, burning his eyes and blasting down his throat in a choking torrent. The force kept him braced against the wall like a magnet and it took all of his strength to twist to the side to shelter his face and crotch. Thousands of sharp, icy needles stabbed him mercilessly. The freezing barrage numbed his skin instantly but the biting pain—like knives cutting every inch of him—remained.
The stream switched angles and drove him up from his crouched position. Just as he was about the move to his other side, it hit his cock and he screamed in agony. Kyle lost track of time. The slicing pain and aching numbness sapped every ounce of energy from him until he was reduced to a quaking mass of sodden flesh and bones.
The pounding flow ended abruptly. Hands jerked him in different directions as another set of clothes was tugged over his naked body. The movements cleared his ears of water and he was able to make out parts of the conversation going on around him.
“…see the scars on his back? Do you think Deluc…”
“…obviously he was a slave once, he will be again…”
“…find a buyer who enjoys the harsh stuff. We’ll still get a decent cut. He’s got the looks…”
Kyle felt himself being hoisted over the shoulder of one of the men. They were walking again and the action caused the shoulder blade to jut into his tender stomach. It wasn’t long before he was tossed onto another hard cement floor with the sound of a door slamming shut ringing in his ears. In misery he lay there, rattling with convulsive shivers and lacking the strength to draw his arms and legs in close. A moan escaped at the feel of a gentle touch to his side.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
The tone was high-pitched and soothing, that of a young woman. She brushed her fingers through his soaked bangs and lifted them. Cracking his lids open over what felt like layers of sand, he made out the form of a small yet voluptuous woman hunched over him.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
When his frozen lips refused to shape a reply, she called out to someone and slowly raised him into a sitting position. A man appeared, perhaps a few years older than him, and hooked Kyle’s
left arm over his shoulders while the woman took his right. Too weak to protest, he was led to the back of the room where more men and women sat huddled together for warmth.
After laying him down on a threadbare blanket, the woman spooned him from behind while the man tucked another, slightly thicker covering over them. He was dimly surprised to find the woman taller than he’d first guessed. Her chin rested just above the crown of his head and her long limbs draped over his.
Then the pain of heat set in. The piercing sting of needles returned and set fire to his skin and extremities. Humiliation flooded him as whimpers he couldn’t suppress escaped from his raw throat, attesting to his weakness, but the woman merely held him closer.
“Shhh. Give it a minute. You’ll feel better. Just try to relax.”
The pain gradually eased and with it the last of his reserves. “Lucas?” There was no response. It felt as though a wide chasm had replaced what had once been the vibrant thread of their connection. Not even the ever-present thrum of his lover’s emotions was discernible. He wanted to rip away and demand to know where his Master was but exhaustion took his will and pulled him under. He fell asleep to the quiet whispers of the woman and man beside him.
Sometime later, a loud booming noise jerked him awake and he sat up in time to see the same two men who had manhandled him throw a young man into the room. The woman beside him launched herself at the huddled form that shied away from her touch. Eyes blazing with fury, she stood and looked defiantly at the bald-headed man Kyle could now see standing behind what must be his guards.
“What are you doing to him?” she spat out.
The two burly men parted to allow Baldy through. “Nothing he can’t put an end to. He knows what’s expected of him, and he knows what will keep happening if he doesn’t start cooperating.”
Those words incited dread such as he hadn’t known since Craig. The woman, however, was undeterred.
“You sick bastards! You’ll kill him if you keep this up.”
“I don’t get paid to deliver corpses, but I will take away his eating privileges if you don’t shut up right now. I will not be ridiculed by a human.” Baldy paused to give her a chance to defy him but she wisely bit her tongue. “Good girl.” He left with the guards trailing behind him.
The woman unleashed her fury as soon as the lock clicked into place. Flinging herself against the door, she pounded and shouted a string of invectives that would have made a stone-cold biker blush. When her futile tirade finally came to an end, she turned to the boy still huddled on the ground and made her way cautiously over to him.
“Jules…”
The man cast a baleful glance at her then clambered stiffly to his feet. His knees gave out almost immediately but when the woman moved to help, he shrugged her off. On all fours, he crawled to one side of the room, away from everyone else, and sat hunched to the side, taking care to keep his back from touching the wall. The older man who had aided Kyle earlier came up behind the woman and put a placating hand on her shoulder.
“He’ll talk when he’s ready, Amy. Give him some time.”
“We don’t have time. They’re going to sell us soon and we’ll probably never see each other again.” In a voice drenched with unshed tears, she begged, “Jules, please. Don’t shut me out.”
When there was no response, she sighed and let her friend guide her back to the group. Kyle caught the flash of longing Jules sent to the retreating pair between the locks of dirty pale hair shrouding his face. He knew that look of defeated hope. That awkwardly angled posture meant to reduce pain along the backside. Kyle saw himself in every rigid line of the young man’s body. There was no mistaking the tenuous mask Jules used to hide the torment of his abuse.
How many times had he blown off Lucas’ concern during his employment with the man in resentment and frustration? It was a defence mechanism that he’d hated but one that had been necessary to keep from crumbling under the strain of despair.
Amy took the blanket they’d been using and laid it at Jules’ feet without a word. Kyle found himself fixed by a scrutinising stare as Amy sat in front of him. Underneath the film of grime on her face and hands, she really was a beautiful young woman. Her long, raven-coloured hair curled around a pixie face that was luminescent in comparison. Despite her callous demeanour, large doe eyes and a heart-shaped mouth made it hard not to trust her.
“Feeling better?” At Kyle’s nod, she asked, “What’s your name?”
“Kyle.”
“I’m Amy. This is Todd,” she gestured to the man who had helped him earlier then went down the list of names for the seven other people occupying the room. “And that there is Jules. He’s not big into talking anymore but he’s a good guy. So how did they catch you?”
Kyle hesitated on his answer. She deserved the truth from him, but he didn’t think now was the best time to admit that he was bonded to a man who belonged to the same species as the ones who were holding them captive.
“They took my Master. I was out with a friend when they caught us, too.”
“Your Master?”
He allowed the love and pride for his mate to replace the anguish over their lost connection. Lucas was too valuable to the Mackaeo for them to kill. Though their bond was somehow broken, Kyle refused to entertain the idea that it was permanent.
“My Dom,” he said, smiling.
Amy’s lips formed a perfect O but she didn’t comment on it further. “Jules and I met each other on the streets about four months ago. I agreed to teach him how to break into houses and cars for money.” She laughed half-heartedly. “He wasn’t any good at it but we were a great team. Jules could sell a dream vacation to a dying man so he met with the buyers and I stole the loot.”
Her voice quieted with her next words. “They grabbed me one night when I was lifting the radio out of a Beemer. Jules was out of sight at the end of the block keeping a lookout. They were so strong I knew I didn’t have a chance. I screamed at Jules to run but he’s as stubborn as I am. He wouldn’t leave me. We were the first to arrive here three weeks ago. Funny thing is…they were after me but this whole time they’ve been more interested in him.” The three of them glanced at the lone figure of the beaten man.
“What do you think they want from him?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t spoken a word since the first time they dragged him out of this room.”
A shiver raised the fine hairs on the back of his neck. If his experiences with Craig were anything to go on, Kyle could imagine what Jules was hiding from Amy. Sometimes it was better to protect friends from the truth when there was nothing they could do to help.
“Why did they bring you here?”
The look passed between the woman and Todd did nothing to alleviate his foreboding. “We’re to be sold as slaves. They didn’t tell you?”
His thoughts careened down a path he’d hoped never to travel again. It seemed a divine prank that he should be rescued from a lifetime of slavery only to be thrust back into it after finding real love. Looking at Jules, a reflection of himself as a slave to Craig’s maniacal demands, he knew he couldn’t survive another round.
Death, however, was not an option. If he allowed himself to waste away, he would be sacrificing not only his life, but the piece of Lucas’ soul intertwined with his. They would both die for his failure to hold on until Lucas came for him. Or Bastian. Kyle’s very presence here had to mean that Bastian had heeded his warning and kept his power under wraps—or they would still be on the run trying to figure out a way to break his mate free.
He had to have faith. Lucas was the most powerful man he’d ever met, and Bastian was too much of an asshole to let the Mackaeo get away with outsmarting him and taking the two men he loved. Kyle willed his terror to shrink in the face of his newfound confidence. Bastian would find him and ‘port them all to safety. He was as certain of it as the love he held for both of his Doms.
His elated grin made Amy and Todd frown and scoot back as though his impulsive sp
ark of insanity might be contagious. It wouldn’t be easy to explain to them that not all Mackaeo, or Tsielen for that matter, were a threat. Looking around at the room of lost souls waiting to be sold, he knew they needed to hear that there was hope. Especially one in particular.
Leaving the pair to stare at him perplexedly, he walked over to Jules, who watched him approach warily. Kyle sat beside him a few feet away. Kyle guessed him to be around the age of eighteen or nineteen, though his small, willowy frame had made him appear younger at first. His features were soft yet gaunt, with dark bags under his light blue eyes. Limp hair hung down to his slim chest and the same flimsy rags Kyle had been dressed in revealed pale skin marred by a collection of bruises and welts, both old and new.
Still, the man was stunning. The challenging look in his eyes brought sudden clarity to Kyle. They were training Jules—just as Craig had once trained him to abandon his independence and accept his boyfriend’s authoritarian rule. The fact that they concentrated on breaking Jules instead of the rest of the flock could only mean that he’d already been sold and that his new owner wanted him docile and pliant.
The thought made Kyle sick but he pushed his revulsion aside. “I was a slave once. I thought my boyfriend loved me but all he really wanted was someone to control. He took everything from me, and when that wasn’t enough, he punished me for it. I knew he would kill me eventually but I couldn’t escape. For five years I lived in hell until I met the man who saved me.”
Ignoring Jules’ scowl, he continued. “Lucas used his power to find me after my boyfriend Craig had kidnapped me. By rescuing me, he sacrificed everything in his life. He showed me that I didn’t have to be afraid anymore, and I’ve been in love with him ever since.”
“What do you mean ‘his power’?”
Kyle paused, unsure of how much to divulge about their captors. Then again, if they were all sold into slavery before Bastian could find them, didn’t they deserve to know the truth behind the men who had kidnapped them? Keeping his gaze on Jules, he replied, “He is Tsielen, part of the same species that kidnapped all of you. More specifically, he once belonged to the Mackaeo—a group of Tsielen who are assigned to police their kind because they each possess a power. The same group that is holding us now.”