CHAPTER 28

Dorian

T his was a type of torture I never could have imagined existed. Up until a few weeks ago Arthur Mercer was just a boy that had been taken by some bad guys. Sure, I’d been sad about it, but I’d taken the loss in stride and focused on the people who were still here.

Now, she was a woman that had been subjected to The Program’s whims for so long I had no clue how insane she or her abilities were, there were children to save, two of our group had also become The Program’s subjects, and I had just watched two men share a woman in front of us all for the sake of a mad man’s experiments.

I would have said I was disgusted by the whole ordeal. The prospect of watching Cadmus get intimate with an established couple alongside the man who’d issued the demand revolting on many levels. The throbbing tent in my pants would have said otherwise, however.

My surprise over my reaction ran deep. I’d known Artemis as a man, and a particularly young-looking one at that. I’d also witnessed her viciously slaughter people twice to thrice her size like it was nothing. So how could I be so attracted to her now? Or perhaps it wasn’t neces sar ily attraction but my body responding to the general arousal of a woman?

But I knew that was a lie, even if I didn’t wish to speak it out loud. I hadn’t been attracted to Arty the man, but Artemis the woman was, at least objectively, stunning. Nothing was making any sense. My entire world had tilted on its axis and was tossing me about like salt in a shaker. I felt like my brain and my body were disconnected, and my dick was betraying me. It couldn’t want Artemis. She was taken, and apparently by more than one man.

No, I didn’t mean Cadmus. I doubted his involvement here was anything more than a bit of fun to let off some steam in a stressful situation, or because of his fear of missing out. I was referring to T, who had been glaring so hard at the trio without their knowledge for the duration of their threesome.

His pants were also tented, though I could admit without shame that his protruded significantly further than mine. He was a pure-blood Tornu, after all. They were obnoxiously large all over.

Eventually the trio slowed down, savouring one another after all three of them were spent.

A slow clap snapped us all out of our trances, bringing our attention back to the reason this was happening to begin with. The scientist – Demari, I believed Artemis had called him, was applauding them with a small grin stretching across his cheeks. It was a strange sight, the man typically unemotional, but he seemed to be pleased with the show.

‘Lovely,’ he said, his smile plastered on eerily, like he physically couldn’t move it. Or that he thought smiling used a formula, and this was the ideal setting. Either way, the effect was stars-damned creepy. ‘Absolutely stunning. You really are quite the whore, aren’t you Subject A-173?’

I hated the way he referred to her as an object rather than a person, but though it made my blood boil she seemed unfazed. Her lack of reaction implied she had become desensitised to such treatment, and that merely worked to infuriate me more.

‘While that was certainly intriguing to watch, I need visual evidence of the insemination,’ he continued, and my face burned with fury at the direction this was going. ‘Come here, precious girl.’

Oh, fuck no. He did not give her a fucking pet name.

‘How?’ she asked, her voice devoid of emotion. A stark contrast to only moments ago when she was coming apart so beautifully in the arms of two men.

‘Come here.’ She obeyed. ‘Good girl. Sit on the ground.’ Again, she complied. ‘Now spread your legs and show me that cum dripping out of you.’ This time, she hesitated.

‘Oh, come on,’ he cooed derisively. ‘It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, precious girl. Let me see that cum filling up your cunt.’

I wanted to be sick.

I wasn’t the only one, if the various noises of protest the rest of our group made as we watched her spread her legs and expose herself were any indication. Demari bent down into a crouch, resting his elbows on his knees for support as he leaned forward for a closer look.

He hummed thoughtfully before addressing her again. ‘Push it back in. There’s too much seeping out.’

With mechanical movements, she brought her hand to cover herself, scooping up the sticky substance and pushing it back in, plugging her entrance with her fingers.

‘That’s right, precious girl. Hold it in there. I do so enjoy it when you’re a good girl for me.’

I didn’t care how the bastard died, but I was going to ensure he suffered first.

She maintained her position until he left, though he took his sweet fucking time to do so. When he was finally out of sight, she still remained on the floor, hand holding in Bromm’s release inside her, her naked body on full display for anyone to see if they walked past the room.

Unable to stand it a moment longer, I removed my shirt and gently laid it over her bare breasts in a feeble attempt to protect her dignity. Though it wasn’t long enough to cover her pelvis, I felt better for trying. But something caught my eye as I pulled away. I traced a finger over a green tattoo in the shape of a cog, a strand of DNA in the centre. Her gaze bounced between my finger and my face, and she shot me a confused look. Then dropped her eyes as if shame had suddenly consumed her.

Oh, no. I wasn’t having that.

‘Hey,’ I scolded firmly. ‘You did what you had to do, and it took a lot of mental and emotional strength for you to do that. Especially in front of all of us. You don’t ever have to feel ashamed of that.’

Her head tilted to the side in confusion. ‘Ashamed of… what?’

I blinked once. Twice. ‘Of… well… what you just did…?’ It wasn’t meant to be a question, but I suddenly wondered if I’d misinterpreted her response.

‘Sex?’

‘Uh, yeah.’

‘Oh,’ she giggled, the sound a little nervous. ‘I’m not ashamed of sex, Dorian.’

‘So, what were you ashamed of?’ I asked, needing clarity.

‘You… covered me.’

My brows dipped low over my eyes and created a fuzzy ledge on top of my sight. ‘You’re naked.’

‘Yes, I am…’

I was clearly missing something. ‘Artemis,’ I began, unsure how to proceed. ‘I’m sorry, it’s just… when I knew you before you were pretty self-conscious.’

She snorted, the sound full of self-aimed derision. ‘I’ve spent far too much of my life naked and under scrutiny. I’m not self-conscious, I was just trying to hide my girl parts while I was trying to pass as a dude.’

Oh. Oh…

My face heated in embarrassment. ‘Right. Of course.’

‘You touched my tattoo,’ she blurted, and I felt my face heat even further.

‘Uh, sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you without asking…’

She cocked her head to the side, confusion contorting her features. ‘You’re not going to ask?’

‘Um… ask what?’

‘About the tattoos.’

‘What’s going on?’ Reece’s croaky voice interrupted the strange interaction and I swivelled to look at him with wide eyes. I felt like I’d just been caught out even though I hadn’t done anything wrong and stepped away from Artemis. I needed to put some distance between us. I couldn’t even look at Bromm or Cadmus, and I struggled to determine why I was behaving so strangely.

All this stress was clearly getting to me.

Urman nudged me with his elbow when I retook my spot next to him, a single pale eyebrow raised. I shook my head, the movement minute to avoid drawing attention, but he still sensed the turmoil inside me. I didn’t understand it, but with my friend’s support I was at least able to push it to the recesses of my mind to ruminate over at a better time. I shot him a grateful smile, small but affectionate. He’d been my rock for this past solar, and I felt like I’d neglected him since Artemis showed up. Which wasn’t that long ago despite feeling like a lifetime.

I knew he would have been the most uncomfortable after what had just happened. He was unwaveringly loyal to his woman back home so witnessing another woman get pleasured by two men right in front of him would have no doubt gone against all of his morals.

He’d gone radio silent with his loved ones to protect the woman he loved, especially after we’d started making plans to run. He didn’t want it coming back to bite her in the ass in his stead. The last thing he needed was to watch another woman get fucked when all he wanted was his own, and I felt a twinge of shame for not immediately checking in with him the way he was with me.

I didn’t know what it was about Artemis, but I struggled to focus on anything else when she was around. Perhaps it was my instincts sensing the predator in the room, or perhaps it was something else entirely, but I felt no small amount of frustration that she was taking up so much space in my head.

‘Reece,’ Artemis brightened when she saw her friend awake and upright. But when she stood back up she started scanning the room instead of giving him her attention. I thought it was strange until T held out her discarded jumpsuit.

‘Here,’ he spoke up for the first time since Demari had appeared again. His tone terse and his scowl fierce, but there was a gentleness in his eyes that I wish I’d missed. It was obvious that their history was convoluted with emotion, and his turmoil was evident in the way he treated her. One moment they were sniping, and the next they were comforting one another. Their warring emotions were giving me whiplash just from observing them.

She took the outfit from him with a grumbly gratitude, but quickly donned the unattractive garb. I relaxed a little when she was covered, though the tight fit didn’t leave much to the imagination, especially now that I was aware of the lack of anything underneath. How anyone could pull off a maintenance uniform, I had no idea.

Bromm came to stand beside Reece, resting a hand on his shoulder. He was still stark naked, but I didn’t think he noticed. Reece, however, did, and scrunched his nose up in disgust.

‘Put some clothes on, man,’ he said, leaning away from the Griknot’s still-hard cock, glistening from being inside Artemis.

‘Hmm?’ Bromm hummed the question, then looked down at himself. ‘Oh, right.’

While he hunted for his own clothes, helped by a smug-looking Cadmus, Artemis approached her recovering friend.

‘How are you feeling?’ she asked, her concern genuine.

‘I’m feeling like I have no idea what’s going on. Arty, last time I checked, you were a man.’ He seemed particularly distressed over the revelation, and though I could understand it to a certain extent, I also knew the reasons behind her lies. She wasn’t necessarily being deceitful, and it wasn’t personal so I wasn’t holding it against her, but I wondered if Reece would view things differently.

I hoped things weren’t about to get even more complicated…

‘Well, I was never really a male,’ she admitted, and if it weren’t for what I’d already learned about The Program and their experiments I would have believed it an unnecessary statement. Now, though…

The silver-haired man eyed her as if she were a complete stranger, and my chest ached a little for her when I saw the heartbreak in her eyes at the reaction.

‘Do you want the long story or the short one?’ she asked him, but the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway outside put a halt to the conversation before it could continue. I expected Demari, but was surprised – though equally pissed off – when another face appeared instead,

‘She’s been a subject within The Program her entire life, for some reason she was pretending to be a boy, and now you’re all trapped by The Program again. The end,’ he said, obviously having heard our conversation. Were they watching us, or did our voices simply travel that far for him to hear at a distance?

Reece locked eyes with the very man that had put him behind bars in the first place, but my attention was on the cowering figure behind him. I recognised her as the original victim of the assault charges Reece had been convicted of, and my back snapped straight, unease coursing through me. She may have seemed timid and helpless, her head bowed low and her hair covering her face, but she was still Tarren Christianson’s sister. There was no way she was as helpless and pathetic as she was making herself out to be.

‘Tarren,’ Reece spat the name out like a curse.

‘Mutt,’ the other man responded. ‘You’ve gotten yourself in quite the pickle, haven’t you?’

Oh, how I hadn’t missed this racist asshole.

‘Come to gloat?’ Reece needled, but something in the way the siblings were holding themselves caught my attention. They were jumpy, as if afraid they were going to get caught.

‘No. I’ve come to help.’

Reece snorted in disbelief. ‘You? Help?’

The Terran man’s face scrunched in disgust, as if even he couldn’t believe the lows he was going to. Yet, I believed him. I was just waiting for the catch.

‘I can help you get out,’ he offered, and I waited for the but.

‘To what end?’ I asked, getting annoyed at the run-around. I just wanted him to get to the point.

Tarren looked physically uncomfortable with this conversation, but he was the one who came here. He could get over it and spit it out. Thankfully, he did, though he seemed to drag it out of himself kicking and screaming.

‘I want you to take us with you.’

A beat passed with nothing but stunned silence, and then Reece burst out laughing. It wasn’t humorous, but dry in disbelief. ‘You cannot be serious. I’m in here because of you and your lying bitch of a sister, and you want me to let you tag along when we leave?’

Tarren’s nostrils flared at the insults, the muscles in his jaw ticking as he ground his teeth. But he didn’t back down. Instead, he raised his chin even higher, the resulting look even more haughty than before.

‘If you take us with you, I’ll help you remove the barrier, and I’ll take you to the children,’ he bartered.

And damn him, even if I hated to admit it, and even if I didn’t want to take him or his sister with us, it was a good deal.

‘How?’ Artemis stepped forward, her confidence shining through along with the threat running through her veins. There was a lethal quality in her glare that sent shivers cascading over my skin, and I was suddenly glad I’d gotten to know her as Arthur Mercer before seeing her this way. Mercer was a tender soul, even if he did break through unbreakable punching bags. He was sensitive and tormented, yet still remained kind and compassionate. He was a true friend to those he cared about, even to his own detriment, which he’d proven when he’d sacrificed himself during the take-over to keep us all safe.

I saw those qualities in Artemis, too. She was here for the children, but she’d come for us as well. She was putting herself on the line yet again to ensure our safety and wellbeing, and my respect for her grew tenfold, but so did my fear. She was a dangerous woman, through and through, and despite the moments I’d seen of her ability to completely obliterate anything she touched, it was this moment that it really, truly sank in. She was the predator here, and though she was currently in a cage she wouldn’t remain so for long.

And stars help whoever got in her way.

‘I know what technology they used to create the barrier. I can help you neutralise it,’ he confessed.

‘And why should we help you?’ Reece asked. ‘If you can actually help us get out of this room, why should we take you with us? We can’t trust you. For all we know, you could be playing with us. Or it could be another trap.’

The Terran man huffed as if he was put out by the whole ordeal, but I could see the lines of exhaustion in the corners of his eyes. ‘Do you have another choice?’

Artemis looked to Reece who wrenched his own gaze away from the newcomers, unwilling to take his eye off the threat. He met her eyes with steady confidence, a silent conversation occurring between them. I didn’t know what was happening, exactly, but I could see a range of emotions on both of them. Artemis looked pleading, which was met by stony stubbornness which melted into curiosity. That curiosity was countered by a tentative smile in which Reece responded with one of his own. Then, their expressions mirrored one another’s with a determined confidence as they turned to face the Christianson siblings again.

For a moment there I thought they were going to make the decision for all of us, but Artemis asked for some privacy so we could deliberate instead.

Reluctantly, the siblings moved away from the door and we listened as their footsteps retreated further down the hallway. They were still around, but at least we could talk without them watching.

‘He’s lying, Artemis,’ Adara spoke up from beside me, and I startled at the sound of her voice. She was still lying on the table, but her bright pink eyes were wide open. I hadn’t even realised she was awake.

‘Maybe,’ she admitted thoughtfully. ‘But we need to get out of here and he might be our only choice.’

‘I don’t like it, but Artemis is right,’ Reece conceded

‘I don’t think they’re lying,’ I said, and every eye swivelled to look at me. I tried not to squirm under their scrutiny, reminding myself that I wasn’t sticking up for the Terran man but pointing out my observations. ‘He and his sister didn’t want to come to us, and I don’t think anyone knows they did.

‘They were acting rather squirrely,’ Urman backed me up

‘Why don’t we just hear them out, see if they’re telling the truth?’ asked Henrik

‘We can agree to their terms without following through if it comes to it,’ Urman suggested. ‘If we can get out, that’s all that matters. I say we leave them behind if they’re dead weight.

‘I’m good with that,’ I agreed.

‘Me, too,’ said Henrik.

‘We might need them to collect Xander and my mother,’ came T’s input.

‘Where are they, anyway?’ asked Artemis.

‘Hangar bay,’ T answered brusquely.

‘Oh. Well, that’s useful. It’ll be easier to grab the kids and go straight there.’

‘Too many,’ he said.

She turned her frown on him. ‘What?’

‘There’s too many kids. Hundreds, not dozens. Can’t get them all out.’

‘We can help with that, too,’ a soft feminine voice spoke from the doorway. The Christianson siblings had returned and were clearly eavesdropping despite their agreement to give us privacy.

‘How?’ asked Artemis, ignoring the breach in favour of more important matters.

‘The laundry carts,’ the other woman answered, her voice barely above a whisper. She seemed to shrink in on herself at all the attention directed at her.

She was raped and beaten , I reminded myself. Just because she put the wrong man behind bars doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Not for the first time I wondered why. Why Reece? What happened to make her ruin the wrong man’s life?

The answering silence to the timid Terran’s statement was loud.

‘She means we can put the children in the laundry carts and wheel them out in batches. Like oversized pushchairs,’ Tarren elaborated on her behalf. An understanding of their relationship and their actions regarding Reece slowly started to form in my mind when she shrank back and he stepped protectively in front of her, and though I didn’t like it, a begrudging respect began to form for the man.

If I was correct, perhaps he wasn’t as evil and malicious as we’d originally believed.

‘And you can access those easily?’ asked Artemis.

‘The laundry rooms aren’t too far away,’ Tarren confirmed. ‘It’s just a quick detour.’

She pursed her lips. ‘No detours.’

He huffed in exasperation. ‘Fine. I’ll go grab them now.’ He walked off, but his sister remained, wringing her hands awkwardly in front of her.

‘The barrier…’ she began, then cleared her throat when her voice came out weak and strangled. When she spoke again it was marginally louder and clear enough for us to hear her properly. ‘The barrier is a magnetic shield. We just need another magnet with the same force to neutralise it.’

Artemis slapped a hand against her forehead, shaking her head. ‘Of course. I’m so stupid. I should have figured that out.’

I scowled at her. ‘How could you have known that?’

The look she sent me was sheepish, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment. ‘Because I’m pretty sure I can create a magnetic shield myself.’

Reece almost fell off the table in his astonishment. ‘Sorry… what?’