Riven’s eyes were wide with terror and his pallor was ashen. As much as that terrified me, I turned away, pretending I didn’t notice, and kept walking to the next cell.
“Outside.” I instructed the guard.
He knew the procedure by now, opening the door and hovering within view as I headed for the figure curled in the bed. The drugs in the Daughters’ systems were waning and right now they were more susceptible than ever.
I gripped the tiny flashlight and moved through the motions, checking her vitals before starting the same questions I had before. “Who do you belong to?”
“You.” She whispered, looking up at me.
“And when instructed, what do you do?”
“Obey.”
I met her stare. “Who are you?”
Those dull eyes were lifeless as she answered. “Daughter.”
I stayed a while, pretending I cared as much about this one as I did the next. Only the act was just that…an act. I gave a slow nod, finished my questions, and rose. The next one was the one I needed, Helene.
“Next.” I commanded.
Doors locked. Footsteps thudded. But Riven was still standing there, with that same pale complexion and that same haunted stare, waiting for me as we neared her room. He looked like he was about to pass out. As the guard strode past him and unlocked Helene’s door, he turned.
“I’ll need an updated report.” Riven murmured, his tone hollow.
I gave a nod. “Of course.” Then I glanced at the guard and gave a jerk of my head. “You can wait out there.”
He flicked his gaze to Riven and shook his head. “You want to talk, then you talk here.”
What the fuck? Anger flared. Still, I swallowed it down and instead gave a careful nod. “If you insist.” I turned to my brother. “Several have elevated vitals. We pushed too hard to hit the markers. They require rest.”
Click.
Helene’s door opened. That same darkness waited.
“I’m not sure that’s an option.” Riven answered carefully. “Anymore.”
I cut him a glare before I turned my focus toward the room. But she wasn’t curled up in the bed like all the other Daughters had been. A quick scan of the room and I found her sitting on the floor in the corner.
“Helene?” I approached and knelt down in front of her. “Can you hear me?”
She lifted her unfocused gaze to mine. Shit. She looked bad…worse than the others. I checked the dilation of her pupils as Riven stood next to me.
“We might need to speed up the process.” He murmured.
I jerked my gaze to his, letting him see how pissed off that remark made me. “Speed it up?” I jerked my head to the woman we both cared about and hissed. “Do you want me to break her damn mind?”
Movement came through the doorway. The guard popped his head in, scanned us, then turned away. Riven waited until he was barely out of earshot before he moved, bending fast to grab my shirt and snarl in my ear. “They’re moving them in two fucking days. Two days and we lose her. You want to make sure she’s prepared.”
Two days?
Instantly, the warmth drained out of me .
I turned back to her. “It’s not enough time.”
“Then you’d better make sure it is.” Riven snarled, then jerked his gaze to her.
She turned to meet his stare and in a moment of weakness, Riven released his hold on my shirt and instead caressed her face.
“We’re right here, Trouble.” He murmured, his tone husky. “We’re going to do everything we can to protect you.”
She just stared at him, then closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his touch. “Obey.” She whispered. “I obey.”
She obeyed alright. The only problem was…which one of us?
Jealousy flared, seething and corrupting. I’d wanted nothing in my entire life like the way I wanted it to be my hand she rubbed herself against.
“Then it looks like I have my work cut out for me.” I said carefully. “We’d better get started.”
THE AIR SCRAPED like a blade against my skin when I stepped into the training room. The Daughters were lined up, looking washed-out and vacant, just what I expected when we pushed them too hard. Nurses moved between them, piercing the crook of their arms with the drugs designed to make them more susceptible to the techniques we used. They didn’t even flinch with the injections anymore, just stood there unmoving…even Helene.
Coulter and his guards stood in the shadows, watching with their beady, hawk-like eyes. Hale had never been so hands-on, leaving me to have complete control. But with this asshole, we were under the goddamn microscope.
Then a gap in the line of Daughters drew my focus. I headed toward it, scanning the unblinking stares as panic rose.
A scream came from the corridor, shrill, filled with terror. One that grew louder the closer it came. Riven turned instantly, then jerked his head toward Walker, who strode from the room. But he was barely out of sight before one of Coulter’s men dragged the missing Daughter into the room by a fistful of her hair.
“This one.” He shoved her hard, causing her to stumble toward me. “Refused to cooperate.”
I grabbed her shoulders, holding her steady as I scanned the red palm print on her face. “And did you need to beat her into submission?”
Fear was the one emotion we tried not to use. It was unpredictable…and it spread like the damn plague. It was the main reason they were showered and fed as soon as possible after inserting the tracking device. These women already came conditioned to a degree, you add in additional fear stimuli and it could turn toxic fast.
The guard never said a word. But the hate in his eyes said it all.
I lowered my gaze to the yanked down strap of her bra, then to the stretched elastic of her panties at the crotch. It didn’t take me long to understand what had happened. “You were explicitly told the Daughters were off-limits.”
I jerked my gaze to his… “unless you wish to pay?”
He said nothing.
The bastard needed to be taught a lesson.
I turned to the Daughter and the wide, panicked look in her eyes before I motioned for a nurse to come forward.
“Easy now.” I brushed my thumb along her shoulder as the nurse gently turned her arm, swabbed the injection site, and pushed the needle in.
Seconds, that’s all it took, before the crease smoothed between her eyes and her breathing deepened.
“That’s better.” I murmured, keeping my thumb brushing the same spot on her shoulder over and over.
Coulter’s guard might’ve tried to have a taste of what a million dollars could buy in The Order, but force took that taste and it wasn’t at all what could be explored.
I fixed my gaze on her, ignoring the bright red mark on her face and instead, I murmured. “Undress.”
She never hesitated, reaching up to slide the strap of the bra down, showing a level of obedience that hadn’t been there a second ago. Pale, full breasts were revealed. I risked a glance toward Coulter, standing in the shadows.
Every other male’s focus was on the Daughter in front of me, except for his.
His stare was directed to Helene, the one woman he couldn’t have.
Desperation trembled inside me as I turned back to the woman in front of me. I didn’t care about her, not about her fate or her happiness. She was a tool to me. One I’d wield to keep the woman I loved safe.
“Keep going.” I urged. “Take it all off.”
She did, sliding her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and dragged it all the way down. I barely saw her. Vacant eyes, perfect tits, a shaved, tight pussy.
“Kneel.” I commanded.
She did, instantly sinking to the floor.
“Hands behind your back, knees wide.”
The guard’s gaze was riveted. But it wasn’t him I watched in the corner of my eye, it was Coulter. The bastard looked our way for a second, but it didn’t last before his focus moved back to Helene.
“Show him.” My tone was hard and husky. “Turn over, cheek against the floor.”
I swallowed the flinch as she turned onto her knees, then lowered her face to the floor, desperate to obey like the Daughter she was.
“Spread yourself.” I snarled. “Show him what could be his.”
The tips of her fingers dug into soft flesh as she gripped her plump ass and spread herself wide. A low, tortured groan came from the guard in front of me.
My brother was right.
It wasn’t excitement I felt at the sight of this woman.
It was savagery.
I wanted to grab her by the back of her neck. To bellow and roar in her face until her eyes shimmered with tears. I wanted to cast her aside, right into the middle of the pack of these ravenous wolves. And while they tore her apart, I wanted to capture the woman I loved…and get her the hell out of here.
My body trembled with that need until it was crushing.
“You want to tie her up?” I started. “You want to fuck her until you forget your problems, you can.”
He jerked a wide, startled gaze my way,
“You want to bring your buddies over to your house and have her service all of them in front of you? You can do that too. You can do anything you want with her. Every dark, debased, carnal desire you ever harbored in secret, you can finally drag into the light. She won’t scream when you fuck her brutally…unless you want that. She won’t ever say no, or I’m tired, or go away. How does that make you feel?”
“Like a god.” He croaked.
The corner of my mouth twitched. Exactly.
He jerked that desperate stare my way. “How much? Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.”
I stepped past him, heading across the room. “You couldn’t afford it.” It was Coulter I made for, standing in front of the bastard who was about to cast Helene to Hale in two goddamn days. “But you can.”
He never looked away from me.
Want her, you sonofabitch, want her and not Helene.
Coulter just looked past me, at the Daughter still spread wide for everyone to see, before he met my stare once more and smiled.
