Chapter 51
Scarlet
“Wait!” She shouted as Crav held out his arms.
Obligingly, like the powerful leader he was, Svit and Danya stepped forward to begin pulling apart the seals that kept his shirt on. To accommodate his wings, it had a wide, open back, and sealed at the neck and his waist.
They unsealed his shirt and pulled it away, revealing his well-trimmed body.
Crav might be disgusting, but he wasn’t ugly.
And that seemed unfair. It seemed like a kind of cruel joke that he dared to have a fit form and a pleasant face when he was looking at her like a holiday dinner, spread out for his personal enjoyment. All greedy and grasping and hungry.
“Don’t worry,” he said, wings rustling. “I know humans have the tiniest cunts-”
“How the fuck do people keep hearing about that?!”
“-I’ll be gentle with you.”
Danya was unsealing his belt and pulling it away, allowing Svit to come in and unseal his pants so she could pull them down.
Scarlet refused to look. She did not want to know what horror rested between his legs. Instead, she kept her eyes on his face as the females knelt to remove his shoes.
“Why are you doing this?!” She shouted, desperate to do anything to delay him.
Havali would come.
He had to come.
“For the good of my people. You,” he smiled at her indulgently, “are possibly the greatest hope my people have had in centuries.”
“You don’t even know if we’re compatible! Humans are only known to be compatible with one other species. One! And we’re not even sure how yet!”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take,” he said like he was the one strapped down on a bed and about to violated. “I have to do something. And the reward will be well worth it.”
“Look, just take a third mate! Surely, your odds are still better with a female of your own species than risking mine! Hey! No!”
He was climbing onto the bed now, between her legs. She was struggling again. For all the good it was doing her.
“But a female of my species couldn’t give me what you can.” He ran his hands reverently up her thighs making her roar in fury.
“Fuck you!” She screamed, thrashing. Her ankles and wrists were bound, but her hips weren’t, and she wasn’t going to give him an easy target. “You can find a tight pussy among your own people!”
He chuckled, like she had said something funny. “I don’t mean that. Though, it is a benefit.”
“Then, what?!”
“A hybrid youngling,” he whispered, surprising her.
Her movements ceased. She was panting, looking at him in confusion. “What? A hybrid? Why is that so important?”
Crav made a sound of dismissal. “You didn’t see it, did you? I don’t think the others realized it either. I mean, they saw it, but they didn’t grasp the full implications.”
“What are you talking about?” She demanded to know, desperate to keep him talking. So long as he was talking, he wasn’t coming any closer to her with that disgusting thing between his legs that she still refused to look at.
“Atem’s hybrid is capable of perfect camouflage.
” He laughed once in amazement. “A newborn and he practically disappeared against the background. Domini can’t do that until they are grown adults.
And some never get that kind of mastery.
But this youngling? A hybrid youngling? It was like the addition of human blood made him better. Superior!”
Scarlet just gaped, shocked by the practically manic look in Crav’s eyes. They had all seen Viktor’s camouflage abilities, but they had been worried. Their primary concern was in making sure that Viktor wasn’t going to go prematurely gray, or worse, because of his ability.
But Crav saw only opportunity.
“Imagine,” he whispered, putting a hand to her belly, pressing her down into the cot. “A perfect version of a vir. Will it be able to fly the moment it’s born? Will it be stronger? Faster? What part of us will be enhanced by your human blood?”
“That’s crazy! Even if we are compatible, there’s no way to know that the hybrid will be better off for it. They might be worse!”
“Or they might be the solution.” Crav laughed.
The relieved laugh of a man that had thought of an answer to all his problems. “Female vir are no longer being born and the best our scientists can come up with is some sort of genetic instability. That’s it!
And there’s nothing we can do because it doesn’t appear until the embryo is already fertilized and tries to grow in the womb.
“But if we had human blood? If we had a human female to stabilize the genome? That would cure the disease entirely. My bloodline would be immune to the disease! My bloodline would be the savior of all vir!”
He looked down at her. Smiling so sweetly. It was like he was charmed. Adoring her. A perversion of love that made her skin crawl.
The kind of feeling that Havali had never invoked in her.
Because she knew that, no matter what, Havali wouldn’t do this. If she asked him not to watch her, he wouldn’t. If she asked him not to bite her, he wouldn’t. She had used her safe word and, even high off her blood, he had stopped.
Scarlet wasn’t okay with Havali’s creeper tendencies because he was hot, and it was okay for hot guys to do creeper things.
She was okay with it because she knew that Havali would never hurt her.
Would never look at her like this – like she was an object and not a person.
That he still respected her. That the things he did, he did with pure intentions and, most importantly, her permission.
The difference between Havali wanting to breed her and Crav wanting to breed her was the place that it came from.
Love.
Versus obsession.
Similar outcomes, completely different stories.
Crav reached down between them, and Scarlet renewed her struggles. Determined to keep that thing away from her.
“Forgive me this first time,” he said. “I’m too excited to lock you to me. I must have you first. There will be time later. Or maybe, your species doesn’t even need the lock to get pregnant. Wouldn’t that be something?”
The pain in her wrists and ankles bloomed anew as she tore open the skin again.
“Hold her down!” Crav ordered, struggling to line them up properly.
Svit and Danya came forward and put their hands on her belly, pressing her against the cot. Forcing her hips to be still.
Crav licked his lips again. No doubt anticipating his prize.
Scarlet screamed Havali’s name, tears blurring her vision. She couldn’t see what Crav was about to impale her with even if she looked now.
He was there. Between her thighs.
“What is that?” Svit asked suddenly, lifting her head.
Scarlet had no idea, but Crav and Danya must have noticed it too, because they stilled, turning their heads towards the door.
Scarlet screeched Havali’s name so loud, her voice broke, and she tasted blood.
A roar answered her call. And it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard.
Tears poured down her temples as the three vir above her shared panicked looks.
“How did they find us?” Crav asked, as though shocked that someone had been able to anticipate what he was doing and where.
“What do we do?!” Danya backed away from Scarlet, her smile finally replaced with fear. Like she couldn’t handle the idea of consequences for her actions.
Svit’s hands remained on Scarlet, but the pressure was weak, allowing Scarlet to thrash again, trying to pull away from Crav’s still, frightened form.
His wings had begun to spread, and she could see the desperate thoughts quickly racing across his face as he tried to figure out what to do even as his body prepared to flee.
But there was nowhere to flee.
The simple, spartan, square room had only a bed, a pale light overhead, and the very same door they had entered through. He had trapped himself where his wings would do no good and, with only one exit, he couldn’t even try to run.
Scarlet screamed again, shouting for Havali as though to try to lead him to her.
That’s when she finally heard it.
Distant, but growing rapidly louder, the pounding of many, heavy feet. Racing her way as though they knew exactly where she was.
Above it all, roaring with fury and desperation, Havali was yelling her name.
He was coming.
The sound of him shouting for her seemed to break some kind of spell over the three vir.
As though they had been held still by some vague hope that maybe the approaching group – and it was a group with that many footsteps – might not be there for her at all.
Like they had this delusion that they could just hide, and it had been abruptly shattered.
Danya began openly weeping. Loud and obnoxious, practically childish. Svit looked at Crav as though she expected him to do something.
Crav looked between Scarlet, the door, his mates, then back to Scarlet. Weighing his lies, weighing his options and his expression becoming more panicked as nothing came to mind.
He had been so focused on getting what he wanted, he had no exit strategy. Now that it was blowing up in his face, he was helpless.
“Let her go!” He ordered.
Svit didn’t question. She obeyed, reaching down to the bottom of the cot and pressing some kind of release. The effect was instantaneous. Scarlet’s limbs were suddenly free.
She wasted no time in rolling away, thinking that maybe Crav was hoping that by freeing her, he might buy himself some time to escape. Or some leniency.
She didn’t expect any, knowing how the domini solved their problems.
It was a na?ve thought for her, really.
Even as she was scrambling to run, the manacles still around her wrists and ankles, he was grabbing her by the hair. She shrieked in pain as Crav jerked her back against his chest. He held her tight, putting his claws at her neck.
Outside, so close, Havali roared again.
“Shut up, Danya!” Crav hissed, wings smacking at the air, betraying his panic. “Just do as I say!”
His entire world was crashing down around him. He had to know that. He was clinging to the last hope he had.
Hostage.
The pounding footsteps were so close now. Scarlet could feel them in her chest as she struggled uselessly against Crav’s hold. She didn’t care when his claws pricked at her throat. She paid it no mind as she bucked against him.
He was so strong, he wasn’t even jostled. It was like she was bound by the manacles all over again. He kept one hand at her throat, the other arm wrapped around her torso, keeping her arms bound to her sides. He didn’t even flinch when she kicked back with bare feet.
The footsteps outside suddenly ceased.
The air was tense. Anticipatory.
Crav opened his mouth – probably to threaten or make some demand.
He didn’t get to do more than draw a single breath before the door slid silently open.
And there stood Havali. Dangerous. Snarling. Claws at the ready as his black eyes flashed in the low light. He had dressed in camocloth and now his body matched the same, stony gray that surrounded him. A predator on the hunt. Fearsome and strong.
Beautiful and safe.