Hers, Unbroken

by Anna Adler

  After the sound of the bottle breaking in the kitchen, she couldn’t stay quiet anymore. Chase didn’t answer to her pleas, but now she finally heard movement. He was coming.

  Holly stood in the cage, clutching the bars, wishing she could bend them out of the way. “Chase?”

  He limped into the bedroom, the sight of him making her gasp. He looked terrible. He was covered in sweat, his hands bloody and his eyes red. The bandages on his back were coming apart, showing the thin, red marks from the whipping. He left bloody footprints on the white carpet as he came to face her.

  “Oh my god,” she whispered.

  Chase dropped ungracefully to sit on the floor in front of the cage. Carefully, Holly sat down on the floor as well. She tried to peer into his eyes, but he hung his head.

  “What did you do to yourself, Chase?”

  He shook his head and didn’t speak.

  “Please, Chase. Talk to me.”

  He blew out a defeated breath and rubbed his face. Now his face was bloody, too. “I’m sorry, Holly,” he growled under his breath, not meeting her eyes.

  “It’s all right.”

  “Nothing’s all right.”

  “Let me out of the cage,” she pleaded.

  He shook his head.

  “Chase…”

  “No! Stop talking. It hurts.”

  Holly was silent for a few heartbeats. Then she spoke in a soft voice, “Please, Chase. Why are you like this?”

  “I can’t deal.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re sending me away. You might as well just fucking kill me.”

  The ache in her heart increased, making it hard to breathe. She didn’t want to part from him, yet she saw no other way. But Chase was clearly out of his mind and she needed to take care of him. “Let’s just calm down and talk, all right?” she said. “We’ll find a solution.”

  “You’re sending me away.”

  “Not today. Don’t think about it right now. You’re in terrible shape, Chase. We need to take care of you.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Yes, it does.” She inched closer and put her hand through the bars. “Let me take care of you, all right? It hurts me to see you like this.”

  “Hurts.”

  He looked so defeated that Holly wanted to cry. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Let me out of the cage, okay? I can’t help you if I’m stuck in here.”

  With a pained groan, he stood up. Holly sprang on her feet and took a step back. He pressed his thumb on the keypad and opened the cage door. Holly stepped cautiously closer. He moved aside and let her out.

  Holly let out a breath of relief. She faced Chase, who stood there, his eyes slightly unfocused, looking as if his mind was wandering. As she inched closer, she smelled alcohol.

  She frowned at him. “Are you drunk?”

  “Not drunk enough,” he growled. “Don’t you have any more booze?”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “You drank my plum liquor?”

  “Disgusting stuff.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “Okay, Chase, we have a lot to talk about…but first, let’s fix you up. And no, there isn’t any more alcohol in the house, so don’t go looking.”

  Cautiously, she put a hand on his arm. He didn’t resist.

  “Can you walk?” she asked. “I think it’s best if we go to the bathroom.”

  He didn’t reply, but he limped along and let her guide him. He swayed dangerously and Holly slid her arm around his waist. Once they reached the bathroom, she helped him to a padded table that slid out of the wall at her command.

  “Sit here,” she told Chase. “Are you steady?”

  He only grunted.

  “I’ll have to get some things. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  Holly left the bathroom. She wanted to take a quick look at what he had done. The kitchen was a mess. The fridge door hung open. The countertops as well as the fridge and the cupboards were covered in bloody handprints. Shards of glass littered the floor, and bloody footprints led to the bedroom.

  Okay, so he drank my liquor and stepped on glass.

  She went to check the office and gasped. The devastation in that room was complete. He had smashed everything to pieces. Holly went back to the bathroom. She quickly dug up her medical box and a bunch of towels. She tapped on her wristband and called one of her household bots to hold a water basin for her. A small, white bot rolled into the bathroom, holding a basin of warm water steadily above its robot head.

  “Here,” Holly called it and tapped her foot. The bot parked in the position she pointed out.

  Chase looked like such a mess that Holly didn’t know where to start. She wasn’t a medical expert, but she couldn’t call outsiders to witness this mess. Rebellious pets were terminated, and Chase might go crazy again at any minute, especially if strangers came into the apartment. He might think she had called them to take him away.

  His foot was bleeding a lot, dripping a thick red puddle on the floor, so Holly decided to start with that. She put a gentle hand on his bare shoulder.

  “I know your back must hurt, Chase, but could you lie down? I’m going to take care of your foot first.”

  He collapsed drunkenly on the table and put a hand over his eyes. “You sure you don’t have more booze?”

  “You drank everything. And you don’t need more alcohol.”

  “Hurts.”

  She looked at him with concern. “I’ll get you painkillers.”

  “No.”

  “But you’re in pain.”

  “Here.” He struck his chest.

  Her heart went out for him.

  “You’re gonna toss me away like some piece of trash,” he muttered.

  “No.”

  “That’s what you’re planning.”

  “I’m trying to save you.”

  “By shutting me out. Throwing me away.”

  Holly began to understand. He had gone ballistic because he felt abandoned and unwanted. She put down the towel she was holding and leaned over him. She took his face in her hands. Chase removed the hand from his face and blinked up at her, looking drunk and in deep pain.

  He didn’t want to leave her. It made her hurt so much inside. She kissed him, not knowing if she did it to alleviate his pain or hers. He stiffened as her lips touched his, but she kissed him deep and thoroughly, trying to convey how much she cared about him.

  She pulled back and said, “I don’t want to throw you away. I want to fix you up and talk to you. I…I care about you a great deal.”

  He stared up at her, looking too drunk to reply.

  “Let me take care of your foot,” Holly said and moved to her task. She tried to clean away as much blood as she could in order to better see the wound. A nasty shard stuck out of the sole of his foot. “This will hurt a bit.”

  Chase didn’t make a sound as she yanked the shard out of him. She found that no other pieces of glass were still embedded. Holly asked the bot for a medical opinion because it knew first aid. After she was done bandaging his foot, she told him to sit up again and looked at his hands. His palms were covered in tiny cuts and Holly spent a quarter of an hour plucking shards of glass and plastic out of them.

  “I’m sorry,” Chase said, hanging his head. “I fucked up. I know…you don’t want to have me here anymore.”

  “Why did you go into such a rage?” she asked softly as she cleaned and bandaged his hands.

  Anger-management issues?

  She didn’t know anything about his history. Pet training required the pets to forget about their past, so Holly hadn’t asked him questions.

  “I just couldn’t cope with it,” he said.

  “We’re in a bad situation, Chase. We can’t afford mistakes. We’re lucky it’s in the middle of the day and my neighbors are at work. If they had been at home to hear the noise, they would have called security to break down the door.”

  “I’m a fucking mess. I’m sorry.”

  “Is this
normal of you? Do you always behave like this when you get news you don’t want to hear?”

  “No! I’m a laid-back guy…Jax picked me as his second-in-command. I got to rub it in everyone’s faces.”

  “Why did you trash my office like that?”

  “I don’t know. I just couldn’t handle losing you. But now I’ve definitely lost you. It’s all over. You might as well put a bullet in my head.”

  Holly looked at him sharply. “Don’t you dare talk like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “No one’s going to put a bullet in your head.”

  “I don’t mean it. I’m just drunk.”

  “Don’t even fucking joke about it.”

  Chase blew out a breath. “Fuck, Holly, I think I’m love with you.”

  Holly’s belly flipped. She resumed tending to his injuries, a slight tremor in her hands.

  He went on, avoiding her gaze, “I’ve loved women before and been disappointed. That’s nothing new. I’ve never gone into a rage about it. But you…I thought you loved me back. I hoped…”

  She paused to stare at him. “You don’t know me that well. How can you claim to love me?”

  “You’re different from anyone I ever met,” he replied. “I thought I had met the woman of my dreams, the one I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. You rejecting me…fuck, it hurts.”

  Holly leaned closer, struggling to contain the rush of emotion inside. “But I didn’t want to reject you. Don’t you understand? I care about you.”

  I would keep you if I could.

  He raised his head and met her gaze.

  “I’m trying to send you away because I want to save your life.”

  “But you won’t come with me.”

  “I wish I could…but I can’t turn my back on the other pets. Someone has to at least try to help them.”

  He frowned. “See? You’re choosing them over me. You call that caring?”

  His accusing tone made anger flare inside her. “And what are you choosing?” she snapped. “You want me to come with you because you want something for yourself, that’s all. You don’t care about anyone’s fate but your own.”

  Chase bounced on his feet and stormed to the other side of the bathroom. He leaned his bandaged palms against the wall and fumed. Holly watched him warily. She thought he might explode again and she glanced at the doorway. Shit. She wouldn’t make it out of the room. He could easily cut her path.

  Chase turned and marched back to her. Holly stiffened, readying herself for trouble, but he only stood there, his head bowed. Then he dropped to his knees before her.

  “You’re probably right, baby,” he muttered, staring at the floor. “I’m sorry.” He put his arms around her thighs and pressed his face to her belly. “I see something I want so badly I’m ready to go mad. I want you, Holly. If you want to save the aliens on this planet, then fuck it, let’s save them.”

  Holly blinked with astonishment. “What do you mean?”

  “Let me stay. I’ll help you do whatever it is you want to do.”

  She swallowed. “But you can’t stay. I can’t buy you and the pet training center will terminate you.”

  “We have two days, you said.”

  “That’s…not exactly a lot of time.”

  “Better than nothing. We should get cracking then.”

  “You need to sober up.”

  “Yeah…and shit, I made a mess out of your office…I’m sorry…”

  “I’m more worried about you than my office.”

  “I swear, Holly. I’m a mess, but as soon as I get my head clear, I’m going to help you.”

  Holly didn’t dare to believe it, but she smiled. At least he was calmer again. “Come on. Get back on the table.”

  Chase clambered up and sat on the table. She thought he could use a shower to wash away the blood, but with so many injuries, it was not a good idea. Holly ordered the bot to fetch fresh water while she tossed the bloody towels into the laundry and grabbed clean ones to work with. She helped Chase out of his jeans and wiped him thoroughly with a washcloth.

  “So how many aliens are we talking about here?” he asked as she worked.

  “About fifty thousand.”

  “Shit.”

  “That’s a relatively low number. The human population on Silenia is twenty million.”

  “Twenty million? Compared to the twenty billion on Earth? This is one sparsely populated planet…”

  “You can say that again. But this planet can’t support life. All the cities are under domes and we’re dependent on food and clothing and other materials from Earth. The water comes from an ice-covered moon. Silenia is nothing but bare rock with a toxic atmosphere.”

  “But I saw a lot of pets here in the city.”

  “Yeah, this is the capital. All the richest people live here, so there’s also the biggest pet population. Go to Earth Dome thirty or higher and you won’t see many pets.”

  “How are the cities connected? How do you travel from one city to another?”

  “Magtrains.”

  “And how many cities are on Silenia?”

  “I’m not sure. I’d have to look it up.”

  “So we’re talking fifty thousand odd individuals spread out thinly over a planet where the only means of transport is a train.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And the cities are under domes.”

  “The Sky Dome cities are under domes. The Earth Dome cities are completely underground.”

  Chase chuckled. “Sweet. And every pet wears a chip in the neck. And a collar.”

  “Why all the questions?”

  “I’m just trying to get a full picture of the situation. If we’re thinking about freeing all the pets, we need the facts.”

  Holly finished cleaning Chase. She chuckled and shook her head. “You’re sweet when you’re drunk.”

  “I’m dead serious here.”

  “I’m going to redo the bandages on your back. Lie down on your stomach.”

  Chase moved stiffly into the correct position.

  “Stay still and relax. This might sting a bit.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Applying more healing salve into the wounds.”

  Gently, she applied the salve into a wound on Chase’s shoulder blade. He gasped and shrunk back.

  Holly froze. “Sorry.”

  “No, that felt good,” he rumbled. “Feels great. Do it again.”

  Holly applied more medication, causing Chase to inhale and exhale deeply. He groaned with pleasure and she saw how his muscles relaxed. His big frame seemed to sink into the table.

  Holly went on, “Even if we somehow managed to disable security, including the pet chips, pet collars, surveillance and security bots. And even if we managed to clear a free path to the nearest spaceport for every single pet…we face the dilemma that they’re not going to run simply because we tell them to. They’ve been trained to obey the owner, and that’s what they’ll do under all circumstances. Even if presented with apparent freedom, they’ll still turn to the owner for approval.”

  “Mm,” Chase said.

  “So we can’t just set them free. It’s impossible.”

  “We’ll think of something.”

  “Like what?”

  “Something. Keep talking. Tell me everything there is to know about this planet. We need all the facts.”

  Holly’s heart glowed. Something stirred inside her, something warm and bright that she hadn’t felt in years. Hope. Chase was drunk and deranged, but she wanted to believe they could pull something off.

  Chapter 15

  Chase was in heaven. Holly’s hands petting his back, gently spreading cool salve over his burning wounds, felt so good he wanted to pass out. She had forgiven him for his shit behavior and she cared about him. He felt battered and exhausted, but immensely relieved, like a survivor of a shipwreck. He wanted to help her. If she was so adamant about doing something to help the poor bastards stuck on this p
lanet, then he would do anything in his power. He knew it was the right call the moment he said the words. Holly’s attitude had changed. She didn’t believe him, but she admired him now. Earlier, she wanted to send him away, but now she had dropped the topic and indulged him.

  He listened as she explained the details of Silenian geography and how the cities were structured. Holly was right: getting all the pets off this planet in two days was impossible. Maybe if they had an army, but even then, the casualties would be enormous and they didn’t want to start a war here. Holly would definitely object to that. She wanted to save the pets, not put their lives in danger.

  But he didn’t want to fret about the impossible odds. Right now, all that mattered was that his Mistress cared for him. He focused on her lovely voice as she talked about her homeworld, and her deft hands as they tended to his back. Despite the aches all over his body, he felt brilliant. He was warm, loved, and under the influence of alcohol. Although he wished the alcohol would go away now because he didn’t need it anymore. The pain in his heart had vanished. He could tolerate any pain to his body, but not the pain of rejection in his heart.

  Holly’s magical hands on his back were also causing a growing erection. He eventually had to shift in order to take pressure off his swelling cock.

  “Are you comfortable?” she asked.

  Yes. No.

  “I’m good,” he rasped out.

  He was getting turned on, quickly. But Holly wasn’t going to welcome his advances. He had already behaved like a monster. He had locked her up in the pet cage, trashed her apartment, gotten himself drunk, and so badly wounded himself that she had to now put time and effort into healing him. Shame burned inside him as he thought about it. If he now demanded she satisfy his other needs too…

  I am not an animal.

  He was going to help her, not burden her any further. He was supposed to be her warrior and protector, not some uncontrollable maniac… Discipline, that’s what he needed. Self-control. She was going to teach him that.

  Chapter 16

  Once she had tended to his wounds, Holly ordered Chase out of the bathroom.

  “Put on your clothes while I shower and dress.”

  Fifteen minutes later, she was showered and ready, her hair dry and tied back, and she stepped out of the bathroom. Chase had gotten dressed as instructed. She found him in the office, staring at the mess.