Chapter 13
Thirteen
Caine
Lin wasn’t okay.
Neither was I. But in a bigger way than how I wasn’t okay.
Having my packmate by my side had been a godsend.
That didn’t even feel like an exaggeration, in this place.
A few days of actually eating my meager meals instead of skipping them or tossing them across the room, and my strength had improved.
With added strength, my injuries had healed almost entirely.
Limpdick Motherfucker didn’t make a repeat visit after reuniting us, and by unspoken agreement we’d kept any chatter about the chip or plans to get out of here to a minimum. Any talk at all, really, we kept as quiet and as little as possible.
Through the bond, though, Lin’s essence was changing. Where he’d always been smooth and cool like the polished wood of his antique desk back home, now he felt…rougher. Running my hand along him left me with splinters.
His second night in my room, I woke to find him sweating, twitching and murmuring next to me on the bed. Three things Lin never did in his sleep.
Then it hit me.
Fucking withdrawal.
He’d been on the supplements for as long as he’d been an alpha—rut suppressants, scent blockers, pheromone dampeners.
Cold-turkey was a fucking bitch. If anyone would know, I would.
Daytime came—or so we assumed, since two new trays of food arrived—and he only got worse. He couldn’t sit still for more than a moment at a time, standing to stretch or pace. Every little sound made him wince, and even the flickering of one of the lightbulbs had him growling.
A role reversal for the ages, and I had no goddamn tools to help him. Fuck, he’d saved my strung-out ass years ago. Given me purpose and support as I went through addiction recovery, then as I adjusted to daily life without the alpha meds everyone else depended on.
Instead, I sat there like an asshole, watching the sleek surface of Lin grow pitted and jagged.
On and on it went, for hours. Tense, tedious, exhausting hours.
Until the moment I felt the break in him. The leg of the desk giving way and sending the whole thing crashing down.
He stopped his pacing mid-stride, head snapping toward the door.
“Lin?”
Our bond thrummed with tension, but he didn’t so much as twitch at my voice.
Did he even hear me?
His chest expanded and fell with heaving breaths, his eyes glazing over. His hands shook. Blood rushed up his neck and face, turning it blotchy and red.
I stood, approaching carefully. “Breathe, Lin.”
Wrong move.
He bolted, jumping past me to the steel door of the room, pulling uselessly on the handle and pounding his fist against the metal with all he had. Harsh grunts and growls tore from his lips, his scent a cacophony of explosive sour blackberry and raging alpha aggression.
I ran to him, pinning his arms to his side and pulling him from the door. “C’mon, Lin,” I muttered between clenched teeth as I dragged him backwards. “Do what you always tell me to, yeah?”
Snarling, gasping, clawing, he broke from my grasp and made back for the door, beating at it like he thought he could actually tear his way through. Unintelligible shouts tore from his throat.
“Lin!” I shouted. “They will fucking kill you! Get your shit under control!”
His flying fists grew slower, weaker with each swing. His furious yelling melted into despondent sobs. “Taryn,” he whispered. “Can…can smell…” He met my eye. “Pain.”
My heart thumped once in my chest, hard, like one of Lin’s strikes. I sniffed the air, but couldn’t detect even a suggestion of Taryn’s scent.
Could he actually smell her? His senses would be on high alert, more sensitive…
My hesitation, my momentary panic in our bond was enough to let his alpha regain control. He stood again, snarling, pounding at the door. Shouting his rage. Streaks of red from his busted knuckles smeared over the steel.
Inside my chest, my own alpha rose, responding to its leader giving the go-ahead on unfettered feral rage.
Fuck, Caine, fight it. I squeezed my eyes shut, fisting my hands as I willed the beast inside to retreat. Both of us couldn’t fall apart. They’d get rid of us, and Taryn would be alone. If she was hurt—if they were hurting her—we owed it to her to stay sane. Stay alive.
The alpha receded. I unleashed an exhausted sigh.
But Lin was still all feral fury.
Had to calm him. Sedate him.
How?
I grabbed him by the arm, spinning him around to face me. “Take it out on me,” I told him. “I can take it.”
His elbow connected with my jaw, but I didn’t let go of my grip. His hand came up, open palm slapping my face in the opposite direction before it closed around my throat.
I’d been in the throes of alphadrenaline more times than I could count.
Everything you knew in life, every code you lived by, every person you loved—they were only shadows in this state.
Barely ghosts on your subconscious. You were nothing but your basest self.
All that existed was pure, primal instinct.
Could an alpha kill his packmate in an alphadrenaline rage? Absolutely.
I wrapped my own hand around Lin’s throat. Squeezed with the same force he did.
“Go ahead,” I seethed toward him. “Beat me. Break me. Do your worst.”
His ragged, choppy breaths blew hot on my face. My own face stared back at me from his glassy eyes.
I waited.
He leaned in. Attacked my lips with his own.
I yielded.
Lin’s grip didn’t loosen a bit. The pressure, though, shifted so slightly. I relished the pins-and-needles feeling of restricted blood flow. My face felt pinched. My head felt airy.
When I thought I’d actually pass out, he released the pressure.
Only to turn my head roughly to one side and run his tongue up the ridge of that artery, pulling goosebumps from my skin and a groan from my throat.
Open-mouthed kisses and aggressive nips covered my jaw until he reached my mouth again.
Lin meant to claim me, mark every bit of what he found as his. My alpha rose once more, and this time I gave him the reins. Because he came not to attack, but to surrender.
I slid my fingers through the fine strands of Lin’s dark hair.
He mirrored me with one hand. The other dug desperately into my pants until it could squeeze my cock.
His teeth dragged along the skin of my jaw as he pumped me.
I choked at the intensity, his grip almost too tight, his speed almost too quick.
But fucking goddamn hell, it was just fucking right.
I nipped at his bottom lip before pulling my face back to meet his eye. “That’s it, Alpha,” I said, even going so far as to let a taunting smirk rise over my face. “Show me what my head alpha can do.”
The fingers in my hair curled, pulling the strands taut as he pushed me down until I sank to my knees. Lin was beyond words. My submission and obedience were the only language he spoke. Hopefully the ferality of his lust would be enough to dampen his rage.
Or, at least, redirect it.
He didn’t wait for me to pull his cock out, bringing it over the waistband of his scrubs himself and all but shoving it between my lips.
Yes, Alpha.
Lin’s eyes rolled back and a rumble of approval rolled through his chest. His head tipped back as I slid my lips along the length of him, slicking it up before taking him almost entirely into my mouth.
With a light suction, I pulled slowly off, trailing the tip of my tongue along his underside as I went. He shuddered with pleasure.
Over and over, I devoured and released him. Dragging my teeth carefully over him, or the flat of my tongue, or just the softness of my lips.
Getting him ready. Getting myself ready. Within moments, I was panting as hard as he was, my own cock hard and throbbing.
With a heated growl, Lin pulled me by my hair again and bent me over the side of our tiny bed. He yanked my pants down, spread my cheeks, spat on my asshole before lining himself up and plunging in.
“Fucking fuck.” I bit the pillow below me, bracing against my alpha behind me. Whatever tiny piece of Human Lin was aware and functional worked himself in me slowly, inch by inch, until his hips were flush with me and we both breathed heavily.
He leaned over my bowed back, forehead pressed against the top of my spine. His teeth grazed the skin there as he thrust into me. The bed squeaked like the biggest damn cliche as he fucked me to jelly.
I fisted my cock, speeding toward the release I was sure I’d die without. I moaned into the mattress.
“Caine,” he breathed into my ear. I looked toward him, and he took my lips with his. Gentler now.
Once more man, rather than beast.
“Welcome back,” I said against his lips. He held my face to his as he sped his movements.
He didn’t say another word as we both chased euphoria; Lin finished first, gasping with the force of his orgasm while I hummed and trembled as I covered my hand with my own cum.
Or as we lay down—Lin behind me, arms banded around my chest like a child grasping a teddy bear to ward away the monsters.
I didn’t think Lin had ever had an alphadrenaline episode before. In the bond, he was still all rough edges and turmoil. Raw in every sense.
“Can you really smell her?”
Silence answered me. Wrecked me.
His grip grew tighter.