4. Cherry #2
“I can walk,” I tell him when I finally get enough air to talk. He doesn’t answer. He just exits his apartment and carries me down the hall. After a few minutes, he unceremoniously drops me onto my side on a metal table. “Ow!” I cry out, pushing to a seated position as I rub my sore hip.
Then I see where we are. Back in Dr. J’s lab. Blaze pulls out a phone and texts something before shoving it back in his pocket. Then he moves to stand directly in front of me, his arms crossing over his wide chest as he glares at me. As if I’m the bad guy here.
My eyes drop to my hands as I resist the urge to grab my ring hiding under my shirt. Maddox’s shirt. I miss my guys so much. Can they even track me underground?
I need to figure out a way to escape. Glancing at Blaze, I realize I’ll have to get rid of my guard dog first. I look at my wrist, and the lack of a mate bite there.
I rub my thumb over the unblemished skin and try not to sniffle.
That mark should have lasted forever, not been ripped away so soon after getting it.
“He’s not your mate anymore,” Blaze says, making me glance up at him. “He couldn’t even protect you.”
I realize he keeps saying mate, not mates. He doesn’t know I have several mates. Does he not know I’m an omega? That seems unlikely, but Dr. J and Blaze have never said anything to make me think they know about it. And I need to keep it that way. Who knows what they’ll do if they find that out.
“He’s a better protector than you,” I tell him, gesturing to the room we’re in. “He’d never subject me to this place.”
“If he was so good at protecting you, then how come I was able to take you so easily?”
“You tell me,” I say, narrowing my eyes as I wrap my arms around myself. “What did you do, use some sort of magic to hide yourself?”
A smirk pulls at his lips. “Let’s just say I had a little magical help.”
“Is that—”
I’m cut off by the sound of the door opening, my head whipping around to see Dr. J enter. He glances between us with a small hint of amusement on his face.
“Good to see you looking so well, zero zero three.”
“My name is Cherry,” I grit out.
“It is?” Blaze asks, sounding genuinely surprised.
“Did you think three was my real name?” I ask him with a frown.
“Well, yeah. Kind of.”
Dr. J gives him an amused look as he starts to do something at his bench along the back wall. Being here feels different than it did before. Partly because I’m in my human form and partly because Blaze is here too. But mostly, I realize it’s because I haven’t been tied down.
If I want to escape, I need to get my hand on one of those key cards. I glance around, not seeing any lying around, but I know Blaze and Dr. J both have one.
“No,” Blaze says, making me frown as I forgot what we were talking about. “I don’t like it. I’m gonna keep calling you Three.”
My jaw tightens as I try to remain calm. He likes it because it reduces me to a number instead of a person. As much as he may think he’s my fated mate, that’s not the way he’s treating me. I’m like a toy to him. A toy he’s desperate to start playing with.
“What’s taking you so long?” Blaze asks, turning his focus to the doctor.
“These things take time and preparation,” Dr. J replies calmly as he continues to flip through his notes and hold up different vials.
“No,” Blaze says sternly as he drops his arms to his sides, his hands clenching into fists. “I’ve been waiting for years. You promised that if I brought her back, you would bond us.”
“And I will,” Dr. J says, as a shiver rolls up my spine. “But we only get one shot at this and I don’t want to mess it up.” He glances at Blaze’s aggressive posture then adds, “Why don’t you go get yourself some breakfast while I figure this out.”
Blaze literally growls then stomps loudly from the room like an overgrown child throwing a tantrum. As soon as the door shuts behind him, the doctor sighs.
“That idiot is as annoying as he is useful.”
“You have no idea how to bond us,” I say. Watching the doctor's movements over the past few minutes, I noticed he kept picking up the same few items over and over again.
Dr. J offers me a knowing look. “I’m not a fool. I know a wolf only needs to bite his mate and knot her to seal the bond.”
“Why tell him you will then?” I ask in confusion, even as fear fills me at the thought of Blaze doing those things to me.
“If you haven’t noticed, Blaze is a little bit of a loose cannon. I’d rather have him on my side, and holding that over him has kept him compliant. It stopped him from running off with you once he finally caught you.”
“You won’t be able to drag this out much further,” I tell him, not understanding his endgame here. Blaze is literally expecting us to bond today.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” he says cryptically right before he turns to face me, a small knife in his hand.
“W-what are you doing?” I ask in alarm.
“You know, when you first arrived here, all those years ago, I just wanted your blood. But Blaze, he’s the one who saw the opportunity to explore what you are. It was his idea, you know?”
“What was?” I ask, hugging myself tighter, keeping my eyes glued to his knife.
“Hurting you. Killing you.” My blood turns to ice in my veins. All that torture, all those deaths, they were Blaze’s idea? My stomach churns in disgust.
“He was obsessed with your healing and wanted to see it firsthand. I’ll admit I became quite interested myself.
Of course, I had to keep him away from you because I worried he’d do something stupid like free you.
But rest assured, every time you were in my lab, he was watching.
” He points to a camera in the corner of the room, and my stomach lurches.
I twist just in time to vomit over the side of the table.
He watched every time I was tortured? Like I was some sick form of entertainment? I gag again. The thought of being watched by someone who enjoyed my torture is just too much for me to hold the contents of my stomach down any longer.
Dr. J just stands there, waiting for me to compose myself, and after wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and sitting back upright, I ask him, “Why am I back here? Haven’t you got what you need from me by now?”
He grins. “My dear zero zero three, I will never be done with you. You offer me a never-ending supply of wealth.”
I frown, shaking my head as he moves toward a cupboard at the side of the room. “What do you mean?” I ask, a ball of dread forming in my gut.
He opens the cupboard door and reaches in, pulling out a large bundle of red fur.
Very familiar red fur.
He drops in on the bench beside me, and I recoil, falling off the bench as I try to quickly move away. I stumble to my feet, pressing my back into the wall, my wide eyes staring at it. At my pelt.
“At least I waited until you were dead this time before I skinned you,” he says, as if that would offer my comfort. I twist, heaving what’s left in my stomach on the ground beside me.
He plans to keep skinning me and selling my coat. I heave again, tears streaming down my face. I grab a cleanish patch of Maddox’s shirt, pull it to my nose, and get a faint whiff of his scent. It calms me enough to stop me from vomiting anymore, but my stomach still clenches painfully.
“Now,” Dr. J says, stepping closer as he twists the knife in his hand. “Are you going to shift on your own, or do I need to force you to do it?”