Despair: Feral, Book 2

by Nora Ash

  The heat rising in my body was so slow, it took me a while to realize I wasn’t cold any longer. I’d gotten so used to always freezing whenever I wasn’t wrapped up in Zach’s embrace that at first, it was a relief.

  Then the delicate ache between my thighs set in.

  I gritted my teeth and prepared for the onslaught of need, but when it came, it was nowhere near what it’d been the last time. It was a sweet, sultry pulsing in my clit and lower lips that drummed gently through my body, and I sighed and shifted my footing.

  Behind me, Zach growled again, but questioning this time. Richer, somehow. He could undoubtedly smell me.

  I flushed at the thought, remembering how eagerly he’d licked me last night. No doubt my natural scent was quite a bit of a turn-on for him.

  It seemed like Dr. Pervert and his staff were looking to get another show, and as my clit throbbed between my thighs, I quietly resigned myself to my fate. I might fear Zach’s size and roughness, but at least the drugs would ease our mating.

  And, I told myself as the door clanged open again and I shakily prepared for what was to come, last night, he’d stopped himself. If he were even remotely in control of his own mind, he wouldn’t touch me today, either.

  Somehow, the knowledge that the man who’d claimed me as his mate wouldn’t ravage me if he had any other choice made what I knew lay ahead bearable.

  The pulse of desire between my legs also helped.

  A loud howl, followed by several snarls from the hallway on the other side of the now open door, made me jerk up, anxiety slamming my heart into overdrive as I looked over my shoulder.

  What?

  Behind the bars, Zach roared. He rammed against them, trying to break through the solid metal with a desperation that did nothing to ease my terror.

  The howls from the hallway came closer, mixing with Zach’s fury until my ears rang with alpha rage.

  Every hair on my body stood on end as I stared open-mouthed at the door.

  No!

  The speaker mounted somewhere above my head scratched to life. “As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, today’s test is a little different,” Dr. Axell said. “May I suggest you close your eyes and think of the importance of this sacrifice you’re about to make for science and our nation’s defense?”

  They spilled into the room then. So many huge, naked men. Alphas, snapping and snarling at each other and at the guards driving them in with metal poles attached to their collars.

  The guards released them, slamming the door shut.

  Leaving me alone with five feral alphas.

  8

  Lillian

  They smelled me instantly.

  A hush fell over them as five sets of eyes locked on my shaking form at the other end of the room. Zach’s heavy body smacking repeatedly against the bars was the only sound for a few agonizing, drawn-out seconds.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  They were on me so fast, huge hands grabbing at me, yanking on my body.

  I screamed, kicking wildly at the alpha who got between my legs, cock poised and ready to breach my pussy. Another pulled him off me, trying to take his place.

  They ripped at me, unconcerned with my terrified shrieks. They fought each other like a pack of wild dogs, snarling and clawing, seeking my weeping but unwilling sex. The stench of alpha rut enveloped me, choking me with a thick blanket of male hormones.

  Metallic screeching pierced the din, demanding the alphas’ attention. I managed to look over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of the bars separating us from Zach lifting up.

  A jolt of wild hope shot through me as the alpha leapt across the room. He impacted with the feral beast closest to my backside, slamming him to the floor with his weight. Another immediately took his place, but Zach managed to twist up and out, kicking the other male in the side of the knee so he tumbled to the floor.

  Wild howls and snarls followed, mixing with the thuds of bodies colliding.

  The remaining alphas seemed to deem Zach a big enough threat that they turned their focus from me to him.

  It was an unfair fight from the start. They were five against one, and though they’d been fighting each other to get first rights to me, they all recognized the need to subdue the newcomer.

  And yet he fought them. Punching, kicking, clawing, and biting like a beast, he tore into my attackers with a rage I’d never seen in a human before.

  I couldn’t see every part of the fight, couldn’t see Zach most of the time as he was buried underneath the five hulking men trying to subdue him. All I could do was press myself against the wall and pray. Pray that the connection between us that I’d denied since he placed his mark on my neck was strong enough to somehow let him overcome impossible odds.

  After what must have been at least twenty minutes, one of the alphas slumped to the floor, unmoving. Five minutes later, another crawled a few feet away before collapsing.

  The next two followed more quickly, and then there was just Zach and one other feral left.

  My heart clenched when I could finally see my defender.

  Blood dripped from his eyebrow, one eye was almost swollen shut, and his already scarred body was marred with long, bloody gashes. The only consolation was that the other alpha was in a similar state.

  They pulled away from the fallen alphas, getting to their feet so they could circle each other, still snarling, spitting blood onto the floor as they sized up their opponent.

  If he wins this fight, I’ll never turn him down again.

  It was perhaps a ridiculous promise to make—but it was the only thing I had to give. I couldn’t give Zach his freedom, couldn’t give him any reward for saving me from the most horrific experience a woman could go through, other than my silent promise that I would submit to him. It was the only thing he had demanded of me, and as he launched himself at the last of my would-be rapists, I swore to myself that whatever he needed from me… I would give to him.

  They were both tired, which was made obvious by their slower reflexes. They each landed several blows, and I winced at the spray of blood that fanned across the room when the other alpha punched Zach in the jaw. But Zach managed to spin around and push forward, using the momentum to smack his knuckles directly into his opponent’s temple.

  The other alpha omitted a sickly groan and collapsed as if the life had left his body. Which it might have, judging from the power of that swing.

  Zach straightened, his snarl withering as he stared down at his now lifeless opponent.

  “Thank you.” My whisper broke through the sudden silence in the room, raspy and hoarse. “Thank you.”

  Zach jerked his head up, and the wild darkness in his eyes made me simultaneously shrink back and clasp my thighs tightly together as a sharp pang of want flared between them. Apparently, whatever hormones the doctors had triggered appreciated the conquering of other alphas to save me… quite a bit.

  But Zach didn’t seem to notice either reaction. He rolled his shoulders to ease the pain in his body and then strode to my side.

  A concerned growl as he touched my back made me realize the alphas had ripped my skin in their eagerness to mount me, but it was nothing compared to the injuries he’d sustained while protecting me.

  “I’m fine,” I said, bringing my bound hand to his face to try and stem the blood from his split eyebrow. “But you’re hurt. I’m… I’m so sorry.”

  He grabbed my hands and yanked on the cuffs trapping my wrists, but they were enforced with steel and didn’t give.

  “Don’t,” I said when one of the cuts on his torso began bleeding again from the effort.

  He didn’t obey, clearly angry with the state of what he considered his female.

  “Zach,” I whispered. “Stop. I’m okay.” Hesitantly, following the pull of the tether in my chest, I leaned in and rested my cheek against his chest, allowing the closeness between us to settle the agitated male—and, after a little while of listening to the drum of his heart, my own frayed ne
rves.

  He’d saved me. Again. Right then, I didn’t care about our audience, or the passed out alphas scattered on the floor. I just cared that he was there, big, strong, and warm, protecting me.

  “Thank you,” I murmured against his thick chest.

  Zach made a rumbling noise in response, and something in the rough tone made my abdomen clench.

  “Oh.” I pulled back, realizing too late what he’d take my touch as.

  The big alpha grabbed me by the nape and pulled me back in, bending his own head to the side of my face, nostrils flaring to take in my drug-enhanced scent. It seemed my attempt at calming him had worked far too well, letting his attentions shift. And rapidly so, based on the hardness that swelled between us.

  I swallowed at the feel of it as the alpha drew his nose up the length of my neck, nibbling on my claiming mark. Tendrils of sensation went straight from his teeth to my nipples and clit, and I moaned. Everything about him, from his touch to his sounds to his scent, made the bond behind my ribs hum with excitement and slickness drip from my sex. Despite my reluctance for what he clearly had in mind, and the trauma we’d just been through, my body was preparing for him.

  He maneuvered behind me, large hands brushing along my sides. He was gentler than the feral alphas who’d tried to rape me, even though the strength in his grip was unmistakable and his intentions the same.

  It made it so much easier to remember the promise I’d made only moments earlier.

  He’d saved me. And I wasn’t going to resist him again.

  When he grabbed my thighs to spread them wide, I leaned forward until I could rest my torso against the wall, surrendering my pussy to him.

  Zach growled, pleased with my submission, and dragged his thumbs up along my lower lips, exposing my pink tunnel.

  He didn’t touch my clit this time, and I bit my lip when he pushed his cock head against my opening, clutching my hands in the shackles to steel myself for what I knew was coming. My head swam with drug-fueled hormones, heating my body, softening it for penetration, but I knew from experience that this was going to hurt.

  As if he knew my thoughts, the alpha wrapped an arm around me, pulling my torso back so I could rest my head against his chest. It also pushed out my ass, opening my pelvis up and pressing my straining lips around the very tip of his cock.

  I groaned at his girth catching in my opening, but the angle and my wetness made the stretch bearable.

  Zach groaned with me and buried his face in my hair, his breath ghosting against my neck and sending delicious shivers down the length of my body.

  And then he pushed home.

  I let out a scream and rose to my tippy toes as he barreled through my tight sheath, forcing me wide with that monstrous cock, but the alpha grabbed my hips and dragged me down flat again, forcing his cock all the way to the bottom of my pussy with a grunt.

  I gasped in agonized protest as I shook in his embrace, but beyond the pain of penetration… something else stirred.

  When he’d had me in his cell, it had taken a long time for the first inklings of pleasure to drown out the agony of his size. This time, however… I wasn’t sure if it was the angle, the drugs… or just my body growing accustomed to his brutal penetrations, but pleasure so sharp it made my toes curl rocked through my pelvis in equal measure to the pain of being so full.

  He grunted again and drew his hips back, dragging the thick shaft and hard rim of his head through my pussy much rougher than I was prepared for, only to slam his cock back in before I was ready.

  “Fuck!” My pained cry rang through the room as the alpha fucked me hard and rough, making my pussy squelch lewdly for every push through my straining opening.

  But through the deep burn of his ruthless stretch, hot pleasure crackled in every nerve ending, mixing reluctant moans with my pained cries.

  He was so big behind me, inside of me, taking control of my body so he could force pleasure into me for every savage thrust, and I finally understood what it meant to surrender.

  The second I gave into the pleasure, the ache faded to the background, still there but irrelevant. There was just him, his scent, his touch, his brute strength, and the torturous ecstasy rolling through my pelvis.

  When his thrusts became shorter and sharper, Zach released my torso and grabbed my hips instead, and this time, I knew what was coming.

  I braced my palms against the rough concrete wall and widened my thighs for him, taking the pounding all the way to my core, urging him to finish with mewled pleas.

  It worked.

  The swelling at the bottom of his already too-thick shaft grew swiftly, catching against my opening for every time he slammed in hard. The alpha growled in response, grinding against me, forcing the still-growing knot through my opening only to pull it back out on the backstroke.

  It hurt like hell, and despite my resolve to submit, I yowled and clawed at the wall, trying to tuck my ass to escape his brutal knot. I knew it would only get bigger before it was over.

  He didn’t let me.

  Zach clamped his teeth around the back of my neck, forcing me to still with a desperate whimper as he kept grinding his fat knot in and out of my aching channel. Finally, several strokes later, it was too big to pop back out.

  Growling with unmistakable pleasure, he tightened his grip on my hips and slammed his cock all the way to the very bottom of my pussy, the wide head kissing my cervix as his knot forced the narrowest part to gape before it finally hooked behind my pelvic bone.

  I screamed, the pain so overwhelming it took me several seconds to feel the roar of orgasm burning through my entire abdomen with a force so great my vision blackened and my knees gave in. If he hadn’t kept me upright, I would have fallen—but he did.

  Zach held onto me, grinding his horrific knot in just the right place to keep my conquered sex pulsing and spasming in frantic ecstasy, forcing my climax to go on and on until I forgot what it felt like to not be tied by my pussy to the brutal male. There was only him, and me, and unending, agonizing pleasure.

  * * *

  I had no recollection of time passing, only of slowly settling relief as my body’s frantic contractions on the cock lodged deep in my core eased to a tremor. The fog of bliss was even slower to subside, and for a long time, I simply hung from my chained wrists, unable to think as Zach held me tight against his body, ensuring I didn’t fall.

  He was crooning at me, I dimly realized. Praising me with nibbles and licks against the mark on my neck.

  Checking that I was okay.

  I squeezed my pelvic muscles experimentally, then winced as my pussy found no give in his still-swollen knot.

  Zach groaned, a pleasured sound, and I stilled, not wanting to encourage another mating. The time he’d rutted me in the cell had been all the proof I needed that the alpha was capable of multiple rounds.

  But the more the blissful fog around my mind retreated, the more aware I became of my own body—of the tired muscles and the soreness between my legs. And, most especially, of the fat knot still lodged snugly behind my pelvic bone. And it wasn’t sexy anymore.

  Before, despite the pain, there’d been pleasure and perverse excitement about getting plugged by the huge thing, the stretch forcing my reluctant body into a mind-bending orgasm. But now, with the desire for sex throughly fucked out of me? It was just uncomfortable.

  I shifted, trying to ease the pressure in my gaping pussy, and earned a scolding growl from the alpha and a twinge from my pelvis when I accidentally pulled on our tie.

  The other times he’d mated me, I’d passed out shortly after getting the knot. I wasn’t prepared for this—the phase after.

  Maybe it’d be different if we were in a bed, just the two of us, with no one watching and the physical intimacy of his knot tying us like the humming bond lodged in my chest. But here, now… It was just awkward, and I wanted it to be over.

  A sensation that didn’t exactly die down when the door behind us burst open and Zach jerked, head sna
pping around as a warning growl made its way up his throat.

  I whimpered from the pull and he mercifully stilled his hips, but the growl only built to a snarl when guards entered the room, followed by Dr. Axell.

  “Ah, the coital tie,” the doctor hummed, an amused note to his voice as the guards began dragging the still passed-out alphas out of the room. “No better way of keeping an alpha in check.”

  “He’s injured,” I gritted out, trying to swallow my loathing for my former boss to ensure Zach got the treatment he needed for his wounds. “He needs medical attention.”

  “No worse than he’s been before, but once you’re back in your cell, we can provide you with some things to look after him. Some nurturing will only solidify the mating bond, after all.”

  The doctor stepped up beside us, careful to stay out of Zach’s reach. The snarl rolling off the alpha still tied to me increased in volume, but Dr. Axell kept his expression clinical as he looked us over.

  “Not that I’m sure your bond needs any more strengthening—we are very pleased with 351’s instincts to protect you. Fighting off five equally matched rivals? No army unit has been able to get anywhere close to our results.”

  He shot me a small smile. “Of course, we will need to find his physical limits before we deploy him. What do you say, Lillian? Think he can save your sweet little cunt from ten alphas next time?”

  9

  351

  His mate was quiet while she cared for his wounds, but he felt her despair in their bond—and smelled it on her as she moved around him, dabbing stinging liquid on his skin.

  He purred for her, even though it was hard to keep calm while she was agitating his many cuts and bruises, and was rewarded with a sad little smile. It made the purr come easier, and when she was done fussing with his wounds, he wrapped himself around her and lay down on the mattress. He didn’t stop purring until their bond hummed contentedly.