Page 155 of Sawyer

The doctor is still out there somewhere, carrying on his research.

Sawyer

Cotton fills my mouth as I become aware of my surroundings. My muscles ache, and it feels as though pins and needles spread across my limbs, so I shake my legs to wake them up. I lick my lips, repeatedly trying to will saliva to quench the dry feeling taking over my lips and mouth. Even my skin itches like I have had nothing to drink in weeks.

Days.

Everything comes crashing back into focus, and I sit up fast enough to make my head spin. The room I’m in blurs around me, spiking my fear until logic reminds me that I don’t have my glasses on.

A bark of laughter gusts from my lungs, and my heart rate slows enough for me to turn to the side and see the dark outline of glasses. Fingers trembling, I reach for the frames and slide them up my nose.

I’m sitting on a four-poster bed, with cream silk sheets wrapped around my legs and a thick down comforter lying on top of me with just the perfect amount of weight. If Sin’s father hadn’t kidnapped me, I’d burrow back under the squishy pillows and take a day where I did nothing but lie in bed.

As it is, I’m not safe here. I look around my new prison, and a sharp spike of fear spears my heart.

The bed sits high off the floor, and it’s fit for a queen, with cream and burnt orange accents like little round throw pillows that, again, I would love on any other day.

Just not today. Whatever day that even is.

A door leading to a bathroom sits partially open across the room, and to the right is a hand-carved dresser with a television hanging above it.

It’s the bars on the windows, however, that draw my eyes. Thick, dark iron stretches from the top of the frame to the bottom. Gauzy curtains spill on the floor between the two windows, and they’d be beautiful if it weren’t for the bars.

“Bet he locked that door,” I whisper to myself.

“I did,” comes a reply I didn’t expect nor want.

Squeaking, I spin to the right, where Sal sits in a shadowed corner. Wearing a white button-down and gray pants, he appears innocent, but I know his heart is the blackest of all alphas on Terra.

His green eyes spear me in the yellowing light spilling through the windows.

“I wasn’t sure when you’d wake,” he says, his hands folded together to rest on his lips. He brushes his fingers slowly across his lips, moving left to right in a hypnotic pattern. His movements are disarming and charming as he sits relaxedly, watching me watch him. “I admit I was starting to worry.”

Licking my lips again, I try to speak. “Why?” My throat is so dry, it comes out crackled and broken.

“I’m an impatient alpha, Sawyer, and I’ve been holding onto your courting gift for days now.” He drops his hands and moves forward, causing me to freeze up. “Don’t you want to know what I got you, Sawyer?”

The way he keeps saying my name is the only tell that his intentions aren’t genuine and that something dark and sinister hides behind his emerald eyes.

Eyes so much like Sin’s.

I miss him.

I miss them.

“But first…” Sal reaches for the end table, pulls out a remote, and waves it in front of me. “I need to break you a little before you get that courting gift, because you will love what I got you. Won’t you, my sweet Sawyer?”

I say nothing as my heart pounds in my chest, thumping erratically.

I don’t want any gift he has for me.

“Won’t you love my gift, Sawyer?” His head tilts to the side, a lock of dirty blond hair falling over. Silver strands catch the light just right, indicating he’s much older than he looks. “Won’t you?”

I don’t want to answer him, but he’s looking for one. “Yes.” I clear my throat, but there’s no water on any surface to assist me. Nothing but the bathroom across the room, where I could turn on the faucet and wet my lips.

“Good, good.” He smiles, and just like that, the sinister nature that is Sal Pearson falls away. “Let’s call this steering you in the right direction.”

He points a remote at the television over the dresser, and the screen turns on.

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