Page 35 of Alliance

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Fásach took a steadying breath. “You’re right, Roz. Youcanhelp,” he confirmed with a quick glance.

Roz smiled again, pleased that she was being included. Her emotions were written on her face like the Xenoden’s fluorescent sign. “Good! Tell me how.”

Fásach licked his lip. “Basic survival and sparring bring on the change more slowly than… than other things.” He cursed himself for chickening out, just when he was about to say the word.

“Like what things?”

He creased his brow. “Do you have self-defense protocols, Roz?”

“Hmm.” Roz went blank, retreated into herself. She returned with a flicker of her eyes as they recalibrated, focusingon his face. “Not self-defense, but related protocols, maybe. I have struggle, resist, cry, beg—”

“Stop!Fuck.”Fásach jumped to his feet, hands trembling. It twisted his gut that some of that made his cock pulse with interest. He resumed his pacing the same as if he were standing outside her door, with barely two strides of floor space in the tiny room. “I can’t do this.”

But Roz shrugged, unaffected. “I don’t think they’rebad,Fás. From what I understand, a lot of clients like those protocols. Or I have slap, boss, demand, bite… oh, and a random safe word generator–”

“Doyou?”

“Huh?”

Fásach stopped pacing, staring down at his companion with an intensity that bordered on anger. “Do you like those protocols, Roz?”

She shrugged, color rising to her cheeks. “I’ve never used them before, so I don’t know. Thank you… for asking.”

Fásach stared at her, his heart hammering into his sternum like a battering ram. Mouth opening and closing, Roz linked her fingers together in a nervous knot.

“It’s not a priority of my coding for me to enjoy them, so I never thought anyone would ask.”

Fásach sighed, rubbing the velvet of his forehead. His jaw creaked from how hard he clenched it, so he sat with a bounce, thumb pressing up against his chin to relieve the pressure. “Have you had any…”Rapists? Creeps?Maybe those words would cut too deep into her, so he decided to use her phrasing instead. “Clients?”

Roz shook her head. “Rosy has memories, but they’re fuzzy for me. Just voices and sounds. But my unit is fresh off the factory line. Well—” She looked down at herself with a little laugh that eased the tension. “A nano-foamdidattempt to eatme alive, so maybe I’m not so fresh anymore, but you know what I mean.”

Fásach smiled.

“...There was an overseer, though,” she said with discomfort. Fásach’s ears flattened, his hand curling into a fist. “He was in the middle of-of quality control when Imani and Vindilus ran after my originator.”

“The memory you showed me,” Fásach growled, rolling one shoulder. “The venandi that Mijka yanked away.”

“Yes. He touched my breasts and was testing the heat between my legs when—”

Fásach stood again, baring his teeth. He snapped them as he breathed in and out, trying to rein in the indignation and disgust. His fur nearly burst, and without conscious thought, he began to pace again.

He had been a good boxer and wrestler, but he’d never craved violence before, a concerning turn of events.

No, a predictable turn. He'd never gone into rut before, but it was on the horizon for him now, and nothing fed the need quite like war. He wanted to mount the man’s head on a stick and park him right out front of Roz’s room. He wanted to serve the man to her on a platter. To witness her scratch out her own vengeance on the gift he'd given her, then drown in the gifts she'd surely give him in return for such a glorious hunt.

There was no way he could ask her to do what he needed now. Not after learning that shehadbeen used like that. He wouldn't contribute to that basket of horrific memories in any way.

“Absolutely not,” he growled to himself.

“You mean I can’t help?” Roz tilted her head like a pup, her light of excitement dimming.

Fásach’s eyes widened. Unbelievable, really. She was so sweet and genuine. He rubbed his facial velvet and the back of his neck in an attempt to flatten his own hackles.

“Maybe slapping and biting?” he blurted, trying to thread the needle as his feet picked up their pacing again. He chuffed with bitter amusement. “Gods know I deserve it. It could be therapeutic for us both. Should we try that? Or maybe I should download all those bullshit vids people swear make it go quicker.”

Stuck in the thick mud of his own thoughts, Roz caught Fásach off guard when she stood up on her bed and spun him around. She grabbed him by the scruff and slapped him hard enough that a bright white light exploded in his vision. He barked with surprise, and then she…

Shebithim.