My Wild Pet (Whispers from the Imperial Cage #2)

Chapter 70

CHAPTER 70

Briar

Gael ushers us through a narrow corridor from the transport onto his own ship. I hug my arms tightly around my body as we walk. Gael gave me the clothing off his back. It’s the first time I’ve had clothing to cover my breasts and groin in eight months and I’m relieved. However, the fabric can’t stop me from wondering anxiously about what happens next.

Gabriel hovers protectively behind me. I sneak a glance at him over my shoulder. He looks torn, like a man traveling between two worlds—one that kept him leashed since he was sixteen, and another that offers freedom but no promises.

We’ve all been silent since Gael said “Run!” And like obedient human pets, we obeyed a different grey man. Ironically, this is exactly the kind of behavior Aefre always said made humans not fully sentient. That we don’t think about things logically, but act solely on instinct.

“In here,” Gael grunts, leading us into a small medical bay. The walls are white, but scuffed with the marks of countless procedures. Instruments hang from the ceiling on retractable cords, clinking softly as we enter. The room smells heavily of antiseptic.

A woman is waiting for us inside. She has grey skin and short black hair. Despite looking Imperial there’s a gentleness to her expression that I never saw in Aefre or Kaelin. She inclines her head in greeting, green eyes gliding over Gabriel and me.

Gael clears his throat and then speaks in perfect Imperial, “They’re yours now.” He sounds tired. “Remove their collars before their trainer can track us. He’s a rich man and lost a lot of pride today. He will spare no expense to pursue them, even if there’s just a faint signal to follow.”

The doctor gives a short nod. “Okay, I got it.” Then gesturing to us, she says more gently, “You can sit.” She speaks clearly, as if she’s used to talking to non-Imperial patients.

Gael leaves without a word to us. I guess he doesn’t want his shirt back yet.

Gabriel and I exchange a brief, nervous glance. I perch on the edge of a bench, while he hovers an arm’s length away.

The doctor beckons him gently, “Let me remove yours first. As you’ve worn it the longest.”

Slowly, Gabriel steps closer to her. He’s still wearing the dark training bodysuit from the final challenge. Blood from a shallow cut on his arm has dried in a dark rust stain, a reminder of how close we came to losing everything.

“The collars,” she says, switching to an even gentler tone in Imperial while she opens a box full of equipment. “They’re still transmitting. We need to deactivate them, but I can’t do that while you’re still wearing them.” She begins fighting with Gabriel’s collar and he grimaces. “Sorry, it might shock you a bit, but don’t worry you’re in the medical bay and I’m a doctor.”

Neither Gabriel nor I acknowledge her joke if it were meant to be one.

I watch as Gabriel holds part of the sleek metal ring around his neck, trying to help the doctor or holding on to the memory of Aefre for one last second? More than a decade under one man’s control can warp anyone.

The doctor unclips a handheld device from her belt. She fits a small, disc-like attachment to it, and a faint electronic whine fills the bay. “It’s safe,” she murmurs, stepping closer to Gabriel work on removing the collar. “This one is tricky.”

He nods stiffly and tilts his head.

She presses the device to the collar’s seam, and I watch a light go through a series of colors. With a click and then a hiss of releasing pressure, the collar snaps open.

Gabriel exhales, his posture sagging like he’s just been allowed to exhale after years of holding his breath.

I swallow against a swell of emotion. If Gabriel’s not crying. I shouldn’t be crying.

The doctor sets his collar aside, carefully powering it down with her tools. I watch her tinker with it and then finally she says, “Done. This was an old one. I don’t see many of these especially on men. You must have survived hell many times over,” she says and puts a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “But you did survive.”

He’s lost in thought and doesn’t acknowledge her words. He just keeps rubbing his neck where his collar used to be.

The doctor lets him be and then turns to me. “It’s your turn.”

I walk toward her and she begins investigating my collar with cool and gentle hands.

“Yours is very new,” she says just as much to me as to herself. “This will be much easier. Some friends gave us the fail-safe code.” She grabs a tool. The device vibrates near my ear, and I brace for a pinch of pain. But I only feel relief as the collar’s lock unlatches, a cool rush of air caressing the raw skin underneath. My breath escapes in a shaky gasp. Gone . The constant sense of being tethered is just… gone. There’s a mild twinge of pain where the collar’s edges once dug into my skin, but it’s drowned in the rush of relief flooding my body.

The doctor sets my collar down with the same delicate care, then powers it off.

“I know these are the last things you want to keep right now, but you need to. They’re part of your payment to join the colony,” she says softly. “There’s an initiation ceremony to take you from pet to citizen in Haven.”

I recoil at the sight of that metal ring, the symbol of everything I’ve endured. “I don’t want it,” I whisper in English.

But she presses it gently into my hands, unwavering. “It’s not a choice. The ceremony is important,” she explains, her Imperial still calm. “You must bring them so that your freedom is recognized and… protected.” Then she looks over at Gabriel, who is holding his own collar like a foreign object he doesn’t understand. “And it’s important for your healing. To mark the end of you’re being owned. Especially for him.”

I look over at Gabriel and I can’t help it. I wipe a tear away. Is this real? Is he really free? Am I? I can’t stop staring at him—at his bare throat, at the faint red line where his collar once was, at the tears shining in his amber eyes.

The doctor smiles wearily, giving us space with a nod, and quietly steps out of the med bay.

“C’est fini,” Gabriel murmurs.

I meet his gaze, and something fierce and electric passes between us. It’s a wild, reckless elation, the high of survival. My pulse pounds in my ears. We’re alive, we’ve escaped, and all at once, a torrent of emotions floods me, joy, disbelief, and most of all sexual desire.

Without speaking, we reach for each other. His hands tremble as they cup my face, and I feel the warmth of his breath as he whispers my name, “Briar, Je t'aime comme un fou. I love you like crazy."

Suddenly, all the tension, all the near-death terror, converts into a blazing need for human contact—for him. The press of his lips is urgent, a plea to affirm that we’re still here, and that this is real.

I answer his lips with equal fervor, my fingers twisting in his golden hair. Our kiss deepens, and a soft whimper escapes me, half-sob, half-laugh. We’re free, no collars, no leashes—just this raw, desperate need to confirm we’re alive . I run my hands along his shoulders, feeling the sinew and strength that carried us both through the horrors of captivity.

He whispers in halting, emotional French, “ Mon ange... tu es ma vie. Nous sommes libres maintenant. Je ferai tout pour toi.” Even though, I can’t piece together every word, the tenderness in his voice nearly brings me to tears.

I respond by pulling him closer, nails digging lightly into his skin, and he shivers. My body ignites at every point of contact, a primal wave of urgency for him to be as close as two humans can be to one another.

We topple onto the medical bed our bodies intertwined. The ship’s hum seems to fade, every one of my senses is focused on him—his hot breath against my ear, the way his heartbeat matches mine, the savage hunger in our lips. Each touch feels heightened, magnified by relief and adrenaline.

When our eyes lock, his beautiful amber eyes are teary. And I know why. I’m thinking and feeling the exact same thing, We did it.

I trail my hands across his muscular chest covered in golden hair, marveling at the absence of any device controlling us, any ring that might sting with a punishment. This is our choice.

There’s something reverent in the way Gabriel kisses my neck, as if worshipping the fact that no collar remains. I hold him tighter, murmuring half-formed words of comfort and desire. The ghosts of our old cages hover at the edges of my mind, but I push them aside, letting the rush of euphoria carry me forward. Right now, we exist only for each other—no trainers, no illusions, and no threat of an electric jolt.

Gabriel positions his large penis at my entrance and I thrust my hips forward to impale myself on him before he can thrust. It’s not long before we are moving quickly and in time with each other. Our hearts pounding and our breaths mingling, as if we’re trying to become one.

Quickly our orgasms build and crash over both of us almost simultaneously in a wave of sensations, the warmth of his skin, the taste of his mouth, the muffled sounds of my own moans and his whispered, “ Ma chérie… tu es libre… ” The sweetness of those words collides with the fresh shock of escape. Everything I’ve craved, every moment of closeness I’ve been denied, all of it is bursting into reality now.

And nothing has ever felt so real.

There are no collars now, no manipulations, it’s just us alone in this room.

When the urgency has been fulfilled, we lie tangled in each other’s arms, and out of breath.

I trace a fingertip along the faint red ring that circles Gabriel’s neck.

He does the same for me, and says, “It’s gone.”

I can’t speak. I close my eyes, but I can’t stop the silent steady tears.

“Briar,” Gabriel says softly. “It’s okay.” He holds me close to him. The familiar feel of his body against mine helps me relax into full blown sobs. “You’re mine and we’re safe.”

When the doctor returns, she opens the door slowly, for politeness. A kindness we’ve not had in a long time.

“Doctor?” I say, stumbling over the Imperial words. “Can you… remove this?” I gesture to the tail. “And… these.” I point at the small silver studs piercing my nipples. “I want them gone. I want to be—” I hesitate, swallowing hard. “—like I was before, if that’s possible?”

She gives me a compassionate nod. “A proper facility is needed. The tail is attached to your spinal column. It will need more than a portable kit.” Her eyes shift between Gabriel and me. “On the colony, they have advanced equipment and they can easily remove those enhancements.”

Gabriel’s gaze flicks to the tail, then to my face. “Are you really going to remove it?” he asks quietly in English. “I kind of like it.”

I feel my throat tighten, uncertain if I should laugh or cry. A part of me wants to snap that he’s been twisted by Imperial standards of pet beauty, but I bite down on the words. He’s in such a fragile state and if he were in his right mind, he’d never suggest I keep my tail.

“Gabriel, I want my old body back. I hate that they gave me this tail to make me look more like a sexy human pet.”

He looks wounded, eyes drifting to the collar in his hands. I realize, too late, I might as well be insulting the entire life he’s been forced to live.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur, and I reach for his arm.

He lets me settle my hand against him, though he won’t quite meet my gaze. “It’s… fine,” he replies, even though it isn’t.

Silence weighs on us. The only sound is the hush of the ship’s engines and the distant murmur of Gael speaking with someone in the hallway. Freedom was supposed to be a relief, not this tangle of guilt and confusion.

The doctor touches my shoulder, as if reading my mind, she says, “It’s natural to feel confused.”

“I don’t know if I can be human,” Gabriel admits quietly in Imperial. “I don’t know if I’ll be accepted in a human colony like this.”

“Many have come to Haven feeling the same way as you, Gabriel. And some were even born in Imperial captivity and didn’t escape until they were adults. We all have our own stories,” the doctor says sympathetically.

It’s odd to hear his human name spoken in an Imperial sentence, and I see him react to it as well. “And they have all found their way to come to terms with what happened and live as free humans. I have no doubt, you’ll find your way too. I can read your mind. I know you worry Aefre and Kaelin might have changed your brain, but they didn’t really. They just conditioned you. And you have the power to uncondition yourself.”

Relief washes over him. “They didn’t?”

“No,” the doctor answers him with confidence. “But I understand why they wanted you to believe they did. It’s a common tactic.”

My own collar lies cold in my hands, unwanted.

But Gabriel is still clenching his own collar tightly, like he’s worried he might need to put it back on.

I wish I knew how to help him.

“This is real,” I remind him.