Chapter 10: Faking It For The Drone

’Twas the night before the Moonfire, when all through the room,

not a soul was awake to witness her doom.

Most girls dreamed of mates and a future to map,

Nova spent hers sedated on a kidnapper’s lap.

Yes, she woke up on his goddamn lap. The bar for acceptable was six feet under.

Her eyes snapped open, now fully awake. She was straddling the masked stalker, her head in the crook of his neck. Hands tied. Mouth gagged. Hood up. Relocated into a glider pod.

His arms tightened around her. "Don’t try anything. I won’t ask twice."

The glider pod slowed to a halt. A security check if she were to guess. That’s when she noticed how hard he was under her. Her face burned.

To her absolute horror, he started to grind against her.

Drones hovered above the glass ceiling.

Her cloak covered them both so the pod looked very occupied. She understood the play.

Both of his hands slid to her ass. His palm cracked on one cheek. She screamed in her gag and her hips moved.

"Fuck me just like that."

The line came out wrecked. Performing for the drone.

Pressure started to build out of nowhere. Her pulse dropped between her legs and stayed there. She fought the urge to move her hips. His scent was not helping. Was she aroused? Oh gods. He was insane. This was insane. What the hell.

He swore under his breath and he started jerking his hips faster. All part of the act.

Then his mouth found her neck. Also part of the act. Unfortunately, her body responded to it immediately and the pressure broke. Her vision went white. Then she felt his fangs graze her neck and the orgasm was canceled.

She jerked away, horrified, ignoring the heat between her legs. That must have snapped him back to reality because he stopped grinding under her.

Chest heaving, he sat up straight and turned his head away.

Dead silence followed.

There was no way she read that correctly. Marking was the most intimate thing a wolf can do. Done only once in a wolf’s life. His venom would create a matebond between them. Slaves don’t mark or get marks. Silver kills the wolf. No wolf, no matebond. He would have wasted his on her. She also would rather hug a cactus than be marked by her kidnapper.

The glider pod descended into a bay and locked in. Without a word, he stood, setting her on her boots, and spun her around.

Doors opened.

"You will not outrun me. Don’t try. Walk."

There was irritation in his tone that hadn’t been there earlier. Noted.

They moved into an elevator that opened to a regular, non-slave entrance. Immediately, her heart started pounding. This was a no-no. He pulled her hood up more, making sure her face was hidden.

"Slower. Lean into me. Act like you’ve been here before."

If someone saw them from a distance, they’d see a couple entering a bit early to watch the ceremony.

"I’m taking you back to the slave tunnel. You are going to walk into that arena with every other slave and you are going to perform exactly the way you were going to perform before I interrupted your night."

A person came close. He pulled her flush against him and dropped his face to her cheek.

"There are four bombs set to go off inside this arena today. If you cooperate, they don’t detonate. If you don’t, people die."

Her knees folded. He steadied her.

The person passed. Then they were moving again while his words did laps in her head. Here she’d been stressing about orgasming on her abductor. Turns out it was on a masked bomber.

Slave tunnel entrance. Keypad out. He typed a code blind. Bored. Like crime muscle memory.

It took her a grand total of four digits to understand it was her code. This man knew her name and which shelves were hers in a shared closet. Naturally he knew the alphanumeric twenty-one digit PIN unique to her. Sure. Why the fuck not. Every slave had their own if the silver scanner was ever down. And of course this scanner was down.

"You do not leave here. This scanner will reactivate in one minute. Your cuffs will register as tampered. The alarm will trigger. Automatic kill switch."

He stopped her just inside the door and untied her wrists. Gag next. Cold air hit her lungs like a slap. She looked up at him, trembling. He was still wearing his mask. Hood up.

"Two things. If you try to report this, the bombs go off sooner. You don’t say a word. Second, you will faint after your endurance hologram replay stops. The crowd will be chanting your number. Two stomps follow. They repeat that. Count the stomps. On the sixth, you faint. Nod, if you understand."

She nodded. Sure. She was supposed to faint. In an arena. Rigged with bombs. After being drugged.

He dropped her bag in front of her and slipped back through the tunnel entrance. She had zero idea how she was going to leave today if she survived because the scanner would activate.

Wonderful. Add that to the list.

Of all the slaves, this evil genius puppet-master chose her. The whole bomb-rigged bullshit circus was now her problem to carry into an arena where ten thousand wolves expected her to be normal.

The Moonfire Rite was in one hour. She took a steadying breath, picked up her bag, and beelined to the locker room.

She needed a minute. Badly. She didn’t get one. Just before she reached the door, Kai Starborne rounded the corner.

"7709."

She immediately knelt, eyes on the ground. It was just them. Something she would normally avoid at all costs.

"My father woke me up to find you. Me. The Alpha’s son. Fetching a slave before sunrise. This is rock bottom." He threw a cloak at her. It hit her in the face. "If you go against Celeste, you wear this, Alpha King’s orders."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Out of nowhere, Kai grabbed her wrist. She gasped, completely stunned. He had never touched her before.

"What the hell is this, 7709?"

Immediately she wondered if he could tell they were tampered with. But she played it cool.

"Sorry, Your Highness, I’m not sure what—"

"I’ll use small words. This," he shoved her wrist in front of her where she had rope burns, "Marks on your wrist. Makes you ugly. Ugly means cheap. Cheap means Alpha loses money—" He pointed at her, then at himself. "Make Alpha angry. You understand angry? Angry is when I—" he mimed a backhand with a grin. "What does that mean, 7709?"

"Angry, Alpha."

He patted her head twice. "See? Even the dumb ones can learn."