Day 219
It was the day that rattled everyone from our ‘team’, especially Jay. After he recovered from giving his three days of penned up emotions, I told him what exactly had happened that day – day 219. And it wasn’t what he had heard or what I had allowed White to believe. I expected that he would tell Jay, and that he wouldn’t believe the man that enjoyed reminding everyone who was in charge. I just didn’t expect Four to be the one to do it and that made everything worse. It could throw us back for weeks or force us into disposing of him.
And the worst case scenario was the possibility of Daniel telling White what really had happened. My first impulse was that this wasn’t the case, because White would have never allowed Jay and me to spend a second together if he knew. ...Unless he was working on a better plan.
However, this is day 219 and I will write it down, because... what if this day is the reason it happened.
I still only had two ‘patients’.
In the mornings I would work with Nina on ‘controlling’ her transformation and in the afternoons I would have to face Daniel and convince him that he was a human, too, or at least still somewhat human.
I remember the session with Nina went very well. They started removing the bars about a month ago because we got along so well. We spent most time sitting together and I had started to take my fake diary with me.
Either Val or Austin managed to sneak in a few sheets of paper, so that I could actually communicate with Nina, while she pretended to re-learn writing, by scribbling on my diary papers. And, in order to not draw too much attention to it, another vital part of our sessions was Yoga and Tai Chi. I showed her the movements and she imitated mine.
Once Austin told me that the guards had started to leave or stopped paying attention to the monitors and windows, it was Nina who started showing me hand to hand combat, which was even more fun. And we weren’t ever caught. Probably due to Austin’s help, after all he was a hacker. He surely did replace Nina’s teaching time with more Tai Chi.
So, I was completely relaxed and content when I got to Four’s cage at 2pm. However, I never made the mistake of meeting this guy without caution.
I was working regularly with him after my first ‘big success’ a month ago, but Daniel and I were still looking at each other through the bars. And I had no intention of changing that. Not only because he still did not react to his real name, but also because of the way he looked at me. It made me absolutely sure that he knew about the special arrangement White had forced upon me when I first came here, and also that Four would like the very same.
I still remember the time when I had feared that White would really take me away from Jay and hand me over to his favorite pet Four. Because this beast was able to shift at his own will, the only thing it couldn’t do was think rational, behaving with restraint, and I realized that it was in everyone’s interest if he could walk around as a human and not as beast.
After four weeks he still welcomed me in his shifted form, flexing his clawed hands and shuffling with his feet while his glowing green eyes watched my every step. His eyes didn’t have the beautiful color Jay had, and not my green, which was more intense, like saturated, dark grass, while Daniel’s – Four’s – were more yellowish, as if the sun had bleached out his.
Although I now was infected and in transition to becoming a beast myself – I still had growing pains, especially at night – I never felt really comfortable in Four’s cage when the metal door behind me was closed and locked shut with its scratching metallic sound.
I pretty much lost hope on counting on him, after two weeks of sessions, because all he did was watch me and move around. And when he had started to shift into his human form, I knew it wasn’t because I had somehow managed to reach him, but because he was toying with me. He just did it to be able to talk to me, since in beast form it was way more uncomfortable to utter human words. And when he spoke, he was never a gentleman.
What I noticed this time when I entered was that he stood extremely close to the bars with his chest almost touching the metal. He had taught me to be observant.
“What are you up to, today, Daniel?” I asked him, choosing to call him by his given name on purpose because I knew that he hated it.
After such a perfect morning I just didn’t have patience for his attitude, because I always left him feeling annoyed, angry or exhausted; usually all three.
I didn’t expect him to answer, because he usually didn’t just to spite me. If he was hoping that I would lose all my patience with him, and especially, to stop caring, then he was close to reaching his goal.
It would have been perfect to have him on our side, because he felt that comfortable as a beast.
He would be White’s perfect soldier if he didn’t have trouble following orders, and that was why White needed Jay, Daniel’s commanding officer. As far as I knew the both of them had been sort of pals and Daniel had always followed his Lieutenant, as all his comrades did. It had been smart to just take an entire troop of soldiers and change them instead of picking single ones from different companies. Those thoughts were what made me realize every time how truly dangerous White really was.
Four always wanted me to look at him – I knew that – because he sadistically enjoyed believing that I felt unsafe and threatened with him around. And I had given him the satisfaction during our first meeting. Not because of him, but because of what White had insinuated.
And because he wanted it, I would never give it to him.
The sound that came from his throat that day made me freeze and turn around: he purred. I knew something was wrong that very second. I turned and looked at him.
That’s when I saw that he had shifted into his human form, probably right after the sound. But what scared me was the fact that he had placed his hands around two bars and stuck his face between them. Usually those bars were electrocuted, and although it eventually didn’t make a difference whether he was able to withstand the electricity or if it had been shut off. The conclusion was the same: I wasn’t safe in this cage.
“This session is over,” I said clearly with a surprisingly even voice.
This phrase didn’t only tell him that he was dismissed, but it also told the guard that I was on my way out. Until I had my official success with Nina, it was my request for the metal door to be unlocked, after that I had received my very own wristband that gave me an additional illusion of freedom.
It did in fact mean that I could go to the gym and to my regular health checks at Val’s without a babysitter, which was in fact a big improvement for me.
So, that being said, I walked to the metal door and placed my wristband against the embedded and secured scanner next to it. The familiar beep filled the room, but I didn’t hear either the sound of the door being unlocked or the metallic sound which meant the enforcements of the door were removed.
When I looked at the display above the scanner it said ‘locked’ in large, digital cyphers.
Of course my first impulse was to clap my hand against the door and tell people to open it, but I knew that if the scanner didn’t react to my wristband it was on purpose. And this wasn’t good, it wasn’t good at all. The back of my head and my neck started prickling and this feeling rushed down my spine in a second. If I was an animal all my hair at those places would stand up straight.
I slowly turned around to check on Daniel. He was still standing there looking at me, reminding me of so many movies that rendered homages to the movie poster and scene of ‘The Shining’, because he looked exactly like it. Yes, he had started to grin.
“You’re all mine for the next few hours,” he spoke, using a tone that sounded as if he was trying to sound seductive, when it was just plain creepy.
There was no room for false hope, I just knew that the bars would be removed any moment, and there was nowhere for me to go. All I was trying to understand was why this was happening just now and what was the reason or rather intention behind it. Daniel was happy to deliver.
>
“It’s been, how long, two months?” He asked with a tone to his voice that I couldn’t quite put a finger on.
“One,” I answered, leaning back against the door and crossing my arms over my chest, showing him that I wasn’t worried, which was a lie.
“Yes, you’ve been visiting me for a month now, darling, and that’s not what I meant,” he gave back and chuckled.
I hated when he called me names, especially endearing ones. I preferred when he called me ‘Ten’s whore’ because that was more fitting to his character.
“Two months since you lost his brat,” he added and I flinched, instantly gritting my teeth and clenching my fists.
“Two and a half,” I corrected, pushing the words out, stopping myself from insulting him or showing him how much I hated the choice of his words.
Of course it had been longer, and we were still able to keep the fact from everyone that I was pregnant since two months. I hadn’t bled, or felt abdominal pain, apart from my ‘growing pains’. The pregnancy was proceeding just fine and without any problems. Of course I couldn’t tell him that. But that he came up with the topic made me shudder.
“So, that’s what this is about?” I asked, tilting my head slightly and shaking it, noticing the scanner at the opposite wall, wondering whether it wouldn’t unlock either.
“What do you mean?” Daniel answered innocently, but he wasn’t really trying to sell it.
I wasn’t sure if I should risk walking to the other end of the room, when the door I was standing at was the safe way out, because the other door lead to the training grounds.
“Why don’t you be a good girl and come over here?” Daniel suggested when I didn’t answer, his choice of words made me cringe; however, they also made me decide to stay right where I was.
“Okay, guys,” he pulled his head from the bars and clapped against them with his flat hands. “Open it, I wanna play.”
I instantly stood up straight, fully alerted. I had expected this to happen, I told myself not to stick my head in the sand, because in this place good things happened only with a big, fat portion of luck.
Of course the guys at the upper level did what he asked – obviously, Daniel had made a deal with the devil – and I closed my eyes, listening to the rhythmic sound of the bars sliding. I didn’t have to see to know what would happen. I took in a long, controlled breath and let it out slowly, before I opened my eyes to look into beast number four’s burnt green eyes.
Four had placed his claws to the right and left of my head, showing me how much taller he was than me, ignoring that I could escape by just ducking. Probably he didn’t think I would even try. Slowly his face closed in and I instinctively turned my face away, which was what he wanted, because he pressed his nose against my exposed neck, sliding it up as he sucked in my scent.
“You stink of beast,” he murmured against my skin, and I could feel his lips at my carotid. “You were visiting Twenty again this morning, did you? Were you cuddling with her?”
Involuntarily, I tensed, of course he would smell the beast in me, maybe even be able to realize that I was pregnant. Luckily, Jay thought my changed scent was because I had been infected differently. Four didn’t have that information. Right now he seemed to believe my strange scent was because I had not only woken up next to Jay, but also had been very close to Nina.
“It that the reason why you cuddle up to me now? Are you jealous?” I gave back, trying to put him off.
And in fact, it worked. I slid through beneath his arm and tried to bring more space between us so that I actually had a fighting chance, but I wasn’t nearly fast enough. With one swift movement he had turned around, grabbed me by my throat, swung me against the wall that stood parallel to the bars, and pinned me against it. My back hurt as did the back of my head and I got a little bit dizzy. I still saw enough to watch him shift back to human form. He wasn’t able to stay in-between.
“I said you are all mine for the next few hours,” he growled and his hot breath rolled down onto my face.
Again, I instinctively turned my head to the side, and his thumb assisted me by pushing my jaw into the same direction.
“You’re living with him now,” Daniel spoke right into my ear, his lips brushing against it. “And you’re still not pregnant. Did you think that he forgot about your main task?” I knew exactly whom he meant with ‘he’, White, of course. “Just because you have now cozied up to him doesn’t mean that he has softened.”
“So why isn’t he here to watch?” I gave back hoarsely, because his grip on my throat was that tight. “He loves to watch me and Jay.”
Daniel yanked at me head to make me face him.
“His name is Ten and I am Four,” he hissed, glaring at me with annoyance. “Get that in that pretty little head of yours.”
“So, why am I still Meghan and not Thirteen?” I spat back, clenching my hands into fists painfully, so that my beast wouldn’t come out, because the guys upstairs could see us and so did at least one camera.
The only existing blind spot in all the cages was the one corner at the door, which lead to the antechamber.
I needed him to move me there, but Daniel had other intentions, and I was well aware of that.
“You shouldn’t do this and you know it,” I told him as calmly as I could possibly muster. “He’s your Lieutenant... he’s your alpha and I’m his mate.”
“You are nothing but a tiny, little human whore,” he said, pressing his body up against mine. “And not a beast’s mate.”
I growled lowly, because that was the only thing I could do. If I showed my beast now, it would be taped and White would see it and then our entire plan would fail. I would be taken from Jay, from Valerie, from Nina, and they would put me in a lab to probe and prod me, just as they had done to Jay, over and over again.
“Are you trying to speak my language, little darling?” Daniel asked amusedly and I rolled my eyes in frustration.
If I just knew which position his head was in right now so that he would cover my face, I could give him a bit of his own medicine. But I just couldn’t risk it. I had to get back into that corner and I had to do it fast.
“Jay sees that differently, why don’t you ask him first?” I suggested and Daniel’s eyes started glowing beneath his puckered brows.
“It’s Ten.”
That’s all he said before he shifted right in front of me, his body against mine. I could feel the claws on the hand that was holding my throat grow against my skin. Four loosened his grip just before they would draw blood.
I concentrated on not beasting out while my body was on full alert. My pulse was racing, my breathing shallow. The worst was that my own body seemed to betray me, because I wasn’t in flight or fight mode, I wasn’t paralyzed either, no it was worse. I hated this guy and still he aroused me being this dominant, this demanding, sliding his free hand up to squeeze my breast, rubbing across my nipple that had already hardened. And I was lost for words as the same clawed hand moved down and snuck into my pants and panties, sliding two fingers right inside of me, because I was wet.
This scene reminded me far too well of the first encounters with Jay, and I realized how much I had really loved them, how I enjoyed that he couldn’t control himself because of me, that he had needed me that much, that his beast had wanted me that much that it overpowered him.
But this was different.
“Whore,” Four managed to articulate and it almost sounded like a growl, but I understood perfectly.
I gritted my teeth and bared them at him. He chuckled and pushed his fingers further up. I tensed, but not for the reason he certainly came up with. That was far too close to my unborn child.
“You’re nothing like a rabid dog,” I spat at him. “You won’t manage to do it and Severin will simply put you down if you don’t start to comply. He would never give this order, and you know it.”
Four pulled his hand out of me, while he squeezed my throat and lifted me up against the wall and gr
abbed my pants to yank them down to my knees. Since it was his left hand that was choking me, chances were good that he would toss me to the left, back to the door.
There was no theory that I could come up with in which it made sense for White to give me to Four. Maybe a few weeks ago, but I was making such good progress with Nina and I actually did manage to get somewhat close to him, he grew fond of me, so that the chances of this being his idea were extremely low. This just told me that we had to speed up our plan and try to break free without Daniel helping us. I just hoped in that moment that Jay was more successful in recruiting the beasts he was assigned to.
I started to become dizzy and instinctively brought my hands up to try and pry his hand from my throat. I felt between my legs that there was some awkward sort of uncomfortable friction.
Finally, Four was realizing that he was choking me to death and so he tossed me aside, just in the direction I had hoped for. Landing on my knees and hands I didn’t manage to crawl the last few feet towards the door because my body was in desperate need of air.
I didn’t need to bring up the strength, because Four already grabbed me by the neck and lifted me up as if I was nothing but a rag doll. With vertiginous speed I was smacked against the corner right next to the door, my face being grazed against the rough surface. This would leave bruises, which I couldn’t explain to Jay without throwing him into a murderous tailspin. I could only hope for my beastly regeneration to take care of this quickly.
I was still catching my breath and fighting my dizziness as I felt something hot and hard rubbing against my bare butt cheeks and Four purring into my ear contently.
“Hell, no!” I managed to push out hoarsely, bringing up my hands against my wall.
He simply chuckled and pushed into me, grunting, sliding all the way in. Oddly enough, I noticed that he was smaller than Jay, but that was just the shock of the moment.
I was in the corner, literally and metaphorically. I had gotten to where I wanted but definitely not what I wanted. My hands here against the wall, next to my shoulders and the second I felt him filling me up I let go. But not in the way Four wanted. With my face pressed against the wall I could watch my claws grow for the first time. They didn’t become as large as Jay’s or Four’s, but they were still very clearly claws.
The Beast In Us (The Beast And Me Book 3) Page 16
