Page 20 of Act of Command

Oddly, it helped.

Closing her eyes, she thought first of her sculpture and then of the man with the long blond hair. The more she concentrated on him, his face, every detail she could recall, the more her body heated as if it wanted him to be who fulfilled its need, not some random person.

Crying out, she thrashed.

Brad hit the window. “Mae, look at me. Please. If you keep yelling they’ll come in and they’ll know this is the best moment to try to breed you.”

She managed to look at him through the pain. She just wanted to wake up back in her dorm room, laughing with Alice about how blessed her sculpture was. This was all a horrible nightmare that she couldn’t seem to wake from.

The door to her cell opened and she glanced up, hoping Caesar was there to help her. It wasn’t him. It was one of the other men. Brad slammed against the window, yelling and carrying on to no avail as the man came straight for Mae.

He laughed as he bent, raking his gaze over her. “A bitch in heat.”

She glared at him and shook more, the pain unbearable.

He touched her leg, running his hand up it, and the pain intensified. Screaming, she kicked out at him, trying to get his hands off her. He caught hold of her ankle and then leaned in and slapped her face, knocking her glasses from her. They scattered to the floor.

“Leave her the fuck alone!” shouted Brad. “You piece of shit!”

The man with Mae sneered and touched his belt loop. “They want you bred, bitch. I got a dick. Seems to me, you need what I got.”

Something built deep in her and the pain increased tenfold. The urge to lay her hands on the man was so strong she couldn’t have ignored it if she tried. She did and at the same moment she began to sing, her focus on the man. She could almost feel herself directing the sound at him and no one else. The minute the words left her mouth he jerked. Snatching out, she caught his upper arm, and the moment her palm met his skin he shrieked, ripping his arm back. The smell of sizzling flesh filled the room, making her nauseous.

“You burned me, bitch!” he yelled, standing and then drawing back a foot, kicking her in the midriff so hard that she lifted off the floor. The air left her lungs with a swoosh, pain holding her so tight she couldn’t manage a scream and she certainly couldn’t sing—not that it would do much good with as little control as she had over it.

“Denis, what the hell are you doing in here?” a man asked. She didn’t recognize his voice. “Her chart clearly states no unmated males are to be in this wing. Why is she on the floor like that? What is that smell? Smells like someone held a barbecue in here.”

“Fucking cunt is in heat,” snapped Denis, kicking her again. “And she burned me!”

“Whoa, dial it down,” said the other, dragging Denis back. A handsome man bent, his green gaze finding her. He reached out to touch her cheek and then stopped as she whimpered more. “Shit. She’s having an allergic reaction to something given to her. Get one of the doctors!”

“That bitch burned me!” yelled Denis. “I’m going to cut her up and teach her how to behave for a man.”

“Go!”

“Fuck you, Ezra,” Denis ranted. “You aren’t my boss. You aren’t mated. Neither is Caesar, so how come the two of you can be by her? Huh? Keeping her all for yourselves?”

Ezra stayed near Mae, avoiding making contact with her but she got the sense he was keeping his rather large frame between her and Denis. “Denis, you’re a simple man. That much I get, so ask yourself—would Felix want your lowbred spunk in her? She’s a big money item. Think of what he’ll do when he learns what you were going to do.”

Denis stopped ranting and lowered his voice, “I wasn’t going to touch her.”

“Bullshit!” yelled Brad, pacing the other cell, looking crazed. “He was going to force himself on her.”

Denis snarled. “I’ll deal with you later, asshole.”

“Yeah, I’d like to see you fucking try,” snapped Brad. “I’m not a defenseless young woman. I’ll hand you your ass.”

“Enough,” countered Ezra. He brought a hand near Mae’s forehead. “Can I touch you?”

“I hurt,” she managed.

He sighed. “I know. Your skin is pale. Too pale. Sweat is dripping off you and I smell something is wrong. I think your body is rejecting what the doctors are administrating to you.”

“The bitch burned me,” said Denis. “No one told me she had the power to burn.”

She didn’t have the power to burn. Did she? What had they done to her?

She locked gazes with Ezra. “Please make the pain stop.”

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