Despair: Feral, Book 2

by Nora Ash

  He listened to her slow breathing, finding the sound of it soothing over the general noises from the lab and the chattering from the cell next to theirs. They’d brought the same female back to the alpha, and she was talking at him. 351 was too focused on his own female to care much for what she was saying, but her tone had lost some of its initial fear.

  “The next time… don’t fight them,” his mate whispered. She turned halfway to look up at him, though she didn’t move from her position with her back against his chest. Not that she could have, with his arm around her waist. “The next time, there will be more alphas. And more. And more. Don’t… don’t fight them, Zach. They won’t stop until they find your breaking point. You can’t… you can’t save me forever. At some point, there’ll be too many, even for you.”

  He growled, a rush of anger at her suggestion drowning out his sense of calm. Did she really think he would ever stand back and let others rut his female?

  Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes as she brought a hand to his face. “I wish I could make you understand. I don’t want you to get hurt again, when the end result will be the same.”

  He growled again and rolled her over to her front. If fighting off five other alphas wasn’t enough to prove to her that he was strong enough to keep her safe, he would show her another way.

  His cock rose hard and proud between his thighs as he took up position between her legs. Her cunt was still flushed red and open from their previous mating, but she didn’t resist him when he reached down to manipulate the little nub that made her ready to take him.

  She even arched her back for him when he penetrated her, easing the push into her swollen depths.

  He rutted her thoroughly, until she could have no more doubt he was strong enough, virile enough, to keep her all to himself, wringing orgasms from her fitfully spasming cunt that had both of them howling.

  After, he lay with her, knot locked safely in her warm pussy as his cock drenched her inners with his seed, and listened to the alpha in the next cell mount the female locked in there with him.

  It didn’t come as a shock to him when, as the female howled in pain from taking the knot, the sound of teeth tearing into flesh mixed with the sounds of the final stages of sex.

  His mate, however, jerked half up, wide eyes locked on the concrete wall. “Oh my God! W-What was that? What did he do?”

  “Claimed,” he grunted.

  She shot him a quick look over her shoulder. She probably hadn’t expected him to speak.

  “You mean… that sound was him biting her?” She winced as she touched her own mostly healed claiming mark. Then her hand fell. “Wait, so he… he actually claimed her? Like… like you did me?”

  The low sobbing from the female behind the concrete wall was underlined by a deep, pleased purr from the alpha.

  “Yes,” 351 grunted, tightening his grip on her hips to still her movements. His knot had softened significantly, but it was still uncomfortable when her swollen channel tugged on him.

  “But… how? I thought…? When you claimed me, before even… Isn’t a bond meant to be… special?”

  He could tell she found the notion of his neighbor claiming a female upsetting. She was probably worried for the woman—his mate had a soft heart. He brushed his nose against the back of her neck, pressing his lips to her claiming mark to calm her. She would never understand the desperate loneliness every single man in this cursed cell went through. How most of them would do anything to end it, even claiming a woman for life purely because she offered them some kindness.

  “Sometimes… just available,” he murmured, unable to fully explain the complexity of alpha bonding with his limited vocabulary.

  “Oh,” she whispered, and he felt an uncomfortable twang in their bond. But before he could investigate, commotion from the lab diverted his attention. He covered his mate with his body as the scientists chatted excitedly outside his neighbor’s cell and the alpha growled furiously. 351 was unable to feel sorry for the dumb fuck so long as the scientists’ attention wasn’t on his female.

  The fog surrounding his mind only lifted enough for him to remember why he wasn’t supposed to mate his female the next day.

  He watched her awkwardly wash his scent from between her legs and swallowed thickly at the thought of his seed catching. If she became pregnant, his life would be forfeit.

  But… it was already. He sighed at the twang behind his ribs. He’d give his life for her alone, and the evil pricks holding them captive knew as much. And there wasn’t anything they could do to prevent matings when his mind was overtaken by the drugs—he was fully in his instincts’ control then, and his instincts wanted nothing more than to rut her full of babies. Constantly.

  He palmed his once-again hard cock, groaning low at the need to be inside of his woman again. Judging from the stiff way she was moving, she needed rest. Besides, it wouldn’t be long before their captors would bring breakfast, and then another day of testing lay ahead. More than likely, she would get mated again before the day was over.

  The thought of yesterday’s test made his stomach churn—it was only sheer force of will, and the magnitude of his panic at seeing those five ferals try to mount her, that had allowed him to defeat them. And it had been a close call—despite her tending to his wounds, his body was still battered and sore today.

  Then he remembered what she’d said while they lay together in the cell after, and his heart sank.

  She was right.

  They would keep pushing to see how much it would take before he broke. They wouldn’t stop until he failed, and she would suffer the consequences.

  The sickening knowledge that they would make him watch his mate get raped took care of the last remnants of his persistent erection.

  “Breakfast.”

  The familiar voice of the beta assistant cut through his horror, and he turned around and snarled at the bars.

  “Yeah, that’s great, I’m terrified,” the man said, rolling his eyes. He held up a syringe and tapped a finger against the tray of food. “Now be a good boy and offer your arm willingly, or your mate isn’t eating today.”

  351 snarled again, wanting nothing more than to snap the man in two, but just the thought of his female not eating brought him to the bars more easily than had he been pulled by a leash.

  “I must say, you’ve gotten a lot easier to deal with since Lillian joined you in there,” the beta said conversationally as he readied the syringe. “I guess there’s not much you wouldn’t do to keep her safe, huh?”

  The alpha glared down at him. This beta would never understand what it was like to be bonded. Under normal circumstances, 351 would have pitied him. But in here… having everything to lose was a fate worse than death.

  “Too bad for you the drugs keep you from plotting anything that could get you out of here, I guess,” the assistant said as he pressed the syringe to the alpha’s skin. But where 351 had expected the usual prick of the needle, only the flat plastic pressed into his bulging bicep.

  He stared down at the syringe as the beta pressed the plunger down, and the liquid inside trickled down the side of the alpha’s arm. When he looked back up at the beta, he stared back at him with wide, fearful eyes, but a determined set to his mouth.

  “Because I’ve read your file, and no one in here would be more capable of staging an escape than you. Sure, they were watching Lillian when she tried to break you out; they were expecting it after seeing how she cared for you. But now it’s only the overnight guards keeping an occasional eye on the exit cameras on the weekends. Must suck for you to know your mind’s too muddled from the drugs to save her. If you are even aware enough to realize.”

  He put the syringe in his pocket and pushed the tray of food through. “Eat up. You get some time off to recuperate after yesterday, but Monday, you’re scheduled in for a repeat performance. I’m sure you’ll need your strength for the ten alphas you’ll have to fight then.”

  351’s heart hammered in his
chest as he watched the beta administer the drug to the neighboring alpha, and then shove food through the gap in the door. The female was babbling pleas to be let out while the alpha growled possessively. From the deepening of his snarl, it was pretty obvious he had been jabbed with the needle.

  351 wasn’t sure why the lab assistant had suddenly had a change of heart—or if it was some sort of trap. But he knew he wasn’t going to get another chance like this.

  By Saturday evening, his head was clearer than it had been in over a year.

  A year.

  He wasn’t entirely sure of the days, but he knew he’d been here for more than twelve months. He hadn’t had the capability of realizing before, but he did now.

  And with it came a new kind of rage—the sort that smoldered and festered deep in his gut. He pushed it aside, and focused on his goal at hand: freedom.

  Revenge could come later.

  * * *

  It wasn’t until Sunday that he had a fully formed plan, and by that point, the deadline for executing it was looming.

  The biggest hurdle was getting out of the cell. He’d gone over every inch of it, even considering unscrewing the toilet bowl, but the only way out was through the door. And without a keycard, it wasn’t opening.

  So in the afternoon, a few hours before the evening feeding, he turned his attention to his mate. He’d not spent much time with her; he had been too focused on finding a way out for them to do much more than hold her for warmth when she slept. And she hadn’t tried to gain his attention, either.

  The anchor in his chest twinged unpleasantly as he watched her curled up form on the mattress. She’d wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, her chin resting on her knees as she stared at the concrete wall separating them from the now pair-bonded alpha and his mate. Her blonde hair hung lank and unkempt around her naked shoulders, and even if they hadn’t been tied with a pair-bond, he’d known she’d given up hope. The depression weighing on her was a near-tangible entity in the cell.

  “Lillian,” he said, voice gruff from not being used for days.

  She started and turned to him. Though her eyes were wide with surprise, the life in them was dulled. “You know my name?”

  Of course he knew his mate’s name. Though… he hadn’t spoken it before.

  The damn bond twinged again and he rubbed at his chest. This wasn’t how a claim was supposed to happen. The female should have been worshipped, felt treasured… surrendered willingly. Not like the parody of a claiming they’d gone through.

  The result was a damaged bond.

  He’d been too drugged out of his mind to give her anything more than the very basest of care during the vital first days. And now, instead of something beautiful and serene, the hook in his chest gnawed and twanged with her distress.

  Smoldering anger flared in his gut. He pushed it down again, promising himself that the scientists would suffer for the damaged bond as well as the months of his life they’d robbed him of. After he’d gotten his mate to safety.

  Nothing would matter if he failed.

  He moved to the mattress and knelt by her side. Unable to keep his hands from her when she was so close, he stroked a lock of her hair from her cheek. She didn’t flinch away, but she lowered her eyes, unwilling to meet his gaze.

  Worried he’d want to rut her.

  He pushed down the instinctive urge to force her into submission and remind her that, no matter the circumstances, she enjoyed their matings. And she was his.

  There wasn’t time. Not now.

  “Lillian,” he said again, because he liked the taste of her name on his tongue, light and soft like a kiss. “I have a plan to get us out, but I need your help.”

  Her eyes widened even further, some of the dullness finally receding as hope bloomed. “How?”

  “When they bring dinner, you will pretend to be ill. Get them to open the door. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  She frowned. “I don’t think that’s going to work. Even if they care, even if we get out of the cell, we can’t make it past the guards and escape the compound.”

  “Leave that to me. I promise, if you get that door open, I will get you out of here. No matter the cost.”

  “Oh.” She looked up at him, uncertainty in her eyes, but nodded nonetheless. “Okay. We’ll try. Can’t get much worse, right?”

  He touched her cheek again. “If things don’t go to plan… if I am held up or killed, you need to find your way to St. Halls in Georgia. Find Jerome Willis. Explain to him what’s happened. That you’re my mate. He’ll take care of you. Got it?”

  She nodded again, hesitantly. In her eyes he saw the instinctual agony just the thought of losing your pair-bonded mate brought. But he knew it was a very real possibility that he’d die for her tonight. And if he did, he needed to know that she would be taken care of.

  “How are you so clear?” she asked, the waver in her voice the only outward indication of her emotional response. “They haven’t tested you for days—the drugs should be—”

  Noises from the lab interrupted her, and they both turned to stare out through the bars. The tell-tale clanging of metal trays announced the arrival of dinner.

  “Zach.”

  He turned back to look at her at the sound of his name, but though his female’s lips were parted as if she wanted to say something more, she never did.

  When the sound of the clanging trays came closer, he got to his feet and stepped toward the back of his cell, giving whoever came to feed them the impression that it’d be safe to open the door and tend to Lillian. “Now.”

  She drew in a deep breath and crawled closer to the door. Once there, she lay down on the cold concrete and stilled so completely she looked like she was dead. If it wasn’t for the quiet strumming of the bond in his chest, he’d have panicked at the sight of her lifeless form.

  They waited for nearly five minutes—long enough that he had to fight the urge to pull his mate off the cold floor. Her discomfort now would be worth it soon enough.

  He heard the neighbor alpha receive his food, and the female once more plead for freedom, and then it was their turn.

  351 sent a silent prayer to a god he’d long since stopped believing in and tensed his muscles, readying himself for the battle ahead.

  “Jesus Christ, Lillian!”

  The voice belonged to the lab assistant. Good. This should go smoother.

  The beta fumbled with his keycard and smacked it against the door, abandoning the food trays. The second the door swung open, he knelt on the floor by the unmoving woman. “Lillian? Lilli—!”

  351 didn’t hesitate—he leapt through the room and grabbed the beta by the lapel of his white lab coat, swinging him up and around so his back hit the bars.

  He groaned from impact, eyes wide and terrified as he clawed at the alpha’s fingers. Whether it was for show when his superiors reviewed the security camera footage, or he really thought the alpha was about to tear him apart, 351 didn’t know. He also didn’t care.

  He grabbed the man’s keycard and threw him to the floor with a warning snarl—an unspoken threat of what would happen if he tried to move. One final look confirmed that the man was going to cooperate.

  351 strode out of the cell, allowing himself a lingering glance at his mate, who was getting to her feet. “Stay here. I’ll get you in a bit.”

  She blinked, confusion clear on her face when he shut the door behind him, locking her in the cell with the lab assistant—but for what he had planned now, she wouldn’t be safe out in the open.

  Moving as quickly as he could, he ran from cell to cell, smacking the keycard against every single door until nearly one hundred alphas joined him in the now crowded center of the lab.

  Snarls rose from the anxiously milling crowd, but every single one of them were focused on the exit.

  351 leapt through the crowd and scaled the stairs in two steps, then touched the card to the lock. He didn’t have to guide them. The second that door swung open, the othe
r alphas poured through it and into the hallway that led to freedom.

  He didn’t know if they’d get stuck behind more sealed doors farther ahead, but even if they did, he didn’t expect anything to be able to stand between them and the smell of freedom. Not even steel.

  But when he ran back to his cell, he noticed his neighbor was still there, clutching the terrified-looking female.

  The smell of his fear rolled between the bars in waves.

  351 spared him a single, pitying thought—clearly, he thought keeping his mate here was safer than risking her life out there among a hundred ferals and armed guards. Little did he realize the second Lillian and 351 were out of the compound, they’d be the new guinea pigs.

  Lillian was dressed in a white lab coat, ill-fitting pants, and shoes that looked like they were too big for her when he returned to the cell. Next to her, the lab assistant had his arms wrapped around his body, now wearing nothing but boxers, socks, and a t-shirt.

  “Got his wallet too,” she said, patting a pocket in the lab coat. “There’s enough cash to get us on the road.”

  Pride swelled within him, and he rumbled his approval at her wits. But now wasn’t the time for praise. It was time to run.

  “Come,” he told her as he unlocked the door again. “Hurry.”

  The lab assistant looked like he wanted to follow, but a warning growl had him quickly stepping back into the cell again.

  It was as much thanks as the beta would get for his help. He’d spent months assisting the doctors in tormenting 351—but he had made this escape possible, and for that, 351 put steel bars between the beta and any violent alphas who might get driven back here once the guards clocked on to what was happening.

  351 reached a hand out, and his mate clasped it without hesitation. Her palm was small and cold against his, and he could feel the tremble in their bond from her nerves. But when he glanced down at her pretty face, she was all determination, eyes locked on the exit.

  They ran through the lab and up the stairs, and were greeted with the distant sounds of snarling and fighting. A gun went off. The guards had arrived.