Chapter 23

Need. Want. Desire.

Every thought was consumed by it and being held down while Bash poured water down my throat was torture. I could feel how hard he was for me. How easy it would be for him to fill me and slake the terrible emptiness quickly turning painful the more my heat took hold.

Then the bottle was gone, and I felt his hands at my waist. Words escaped me, forgotten, unable to be formed, and I whimpered for him to hurry. It was all I could manage, and I hoped he understood. Then he was inside of me, and the emptiness faded. The stretch of him satisfying the monster clawing at my insides.

Friction. I needed it. But he stayed seated, licking at my neck and panting. His hot breath danced across my feverish skin. I couldn't scream. Screams, just like words, were lost to me, and it was all I could do to wiggle beneath him in a silent plea.

Then he was moving in and out of me. Never all the way out, pushing in deep to fill me and withdrawing just enough that he rubbed against me in the most fulfilling way. An orgasm crested, and I held him as it shuddered through my body, knowing it wouldn't be the first. He'd slammed the door. No one else was coming. I had only Bash, only this one time, and then I would have to wait for him to recover.

The thought of being empty and at the mercy of his stamina made me weep, but then he pressed in again with a grunt, and I saw stars. It was all I could do to cling to his back and feel his movements as he pounded into me, chasing his own release.

He found it, and the throb of him within me sent me higher. I gasped as I lost myself in the sea of sensation. Prepared to cry out when he pulled away—only he didn't.

Instead, he nuzzled into my neck, kissing it and nipping in an equal measure that sent firecrackers chasing along my nerves.

The ache for more friction was painful, and I arced my back, settling into the familiar sensation of burning alive and shooting towards heaven that the heat provided. Bash rose up with me, becoming hard again, and it felt so good I could cry. May have been crying. I didn't know. Couldn't tell. I was barreling towards heaven again, squeezing my eyes shut and crying out as the tension within me unraveled, and I shattered.

He pulled out, but he didn't go far, like he was stuck in place. Never leaving me empty as he rolled his hips against mine.

It never ended. All animal instinct, our bodies moved with one purpose. The heat consumed us both, but the continued contact with him never left me empty and waiting for the next man to come. It made the heat bearable. Enjoyable even. Each time the heat consumed me, he came with me, his body satisfying my needs just as they started. I clung to him, not sure where we were or what existed beyond us. Beyond sensation. Our hearts beat in sync. Two bodies, now one. Combined. Interwoven like a piece of knitting with no loose strings. Something kept us together, held us with a force beyond either of our understanding.

He slammed into me, moaning, and I clung to his shoulders as an orgasm tore through me. His mouth on mine, pure fire in his kiss and awakening a need in me that couldn't have been from the heat. It was as if he, too, was going through a heat and bringing me into it surely as I brought him into our own.

Hours passed. Or maybe days. I didn't know. Every moment was pleasure and pain, need and satisfaction, bliss and famine—until, at last, I lay boneless on his chest, his warmth a soothing comfort as sleep claimed me.

When I awoke, he slept soundly beneath me, and I looked up to study his face. Bash had given me himself, completely and wholly. Something nobody else had done. What would have happened if I'd managed to follow through with my plan to leave the door open and hope those assholes in the common room lined up to take turns?

What if they hadn't? They might have left me in here, suffering in agony through my heat. Alone and afraid.

Bash hadn't let that happen. He'd been there for me, and for the first time, I understood what a heat was meant to be. A bonding between mates, a time of togetherness and peace. I wondered if it would be less intense without an induction. Smiling, I rested my chin on my hands, trying not to move and disturb Bash while he slept.

He really was beautiful, and I wanted to look at him a while longer. My man. Mine. The thought was a truth my body and soul had whispered to me from the moment I'd met him as The Stag, but it hadn't been something I'd been willing to acknowledge until this moment. I'd been right. He would be the man to get me pregnant. He had to be.

Because he was my breeder, and he'd bred me. Fucked me so deep and so well that the heat had passed without its usual terror. Once I was pregnant, I'd be released from this place, but Bash would still be mine. Even if we weren't together, because something inside of us had joined during the heat. The thought put a smile on my face.

Bash's hair was mussed with one long strand hanging almost to his eye, and I gently brushed it aside. He moved towards my hand like he'd sensed it, a small moan rumbling through his chest. He stayed asleep, but his sound had affected me, a shiver of arousal running through me almost reflexively.

I wasn't surprised to find him half hard, and I slid down, my arms on either side of him as I tried not to wake him. I wanted him to wake with his cock in my mouth. A thank you for the way that he'd come to my rescue even when I'd lashed out at him for it. I eyed his cock hungrily, tracing the curves with a light touch. He was long and deliciously thick. My tongue traced along a vein, and he groaned again.

With a chuckle, I admired my prize, trying to decide which part of him to put my mouth on next—when I saw it. Shocked, I peered closer, not able to believe the truth of what I was seeing.

It couldn't be.

There was no way.

But there it was. Scars. A crisscross pattern of scars just underneath Bash's cock, the kind that meant—

No. Not this.

I looked up to find Bash blinking blearily at me. He caught my wrist and sat up in one motion, pulling me along with him until we were both sitting opposite one another.

My mind worked as I tried to think of any other explanation for what I'd seen. Bash studied me, his grip uncomfortably tight on my arm, his shoulders stiff with tension.

"Bash, why would you—why would you have scars there?" Scars. It was hard for lycans to form scars, so hard in fact that there was a special herb used for one kind of delicate surgery they didn't want us healing from.

The kind they gave to defectives to ensure their genes wouldn't accidentally make it into the next generation.

Bash's jaw stood out as he tensed, his eyes falling to catch on where he gripped my wrist. Loosening his hold, he looked up at me with shining eyes.

"Syl, listen, I'm—"

But I lunged forward before he could tell me what I knew he was about to, pressing a finger to his lips.

Shaking my head miserably, the tears threatening once more, I stared at him and let the shock wash over me.

"How? Why? What are you doing here?" Slowly, I removed my finger so he could speak, hating the way the wetness of his mouth had tingled up my arm.

"I'm—I was a watcher. Your watcher, Syl. I-I came here to meet you."

A watcher. The lowest of low amongst the defectives, those who were too weak for the fields, but Bash wasn't weak. He was a big guy. He was strong. I didn't understand. But the reality of what this meant sank in, and I sat back hard on my heels.

"You were my watcher." I was in a haze, my vision unfocused as my sight turned internal.

"Yes, I was your watcher, and when I saw you on my monitor, I knew I had to come here to meet you. Syl, everything was for you, to be here with you, to know you."

My eyes shot to his. "To fuck me."

He grasped both my upper arms hard enough that I winced. "No, Syl, that's not why I came here. I needed to just speak to you, to understand you better."

Tears sprang loose, and I swiped them away. "I thought I knew you, Bash. I thought you were going to be the one."

The one. The one to get me pregnant, to buy me my freedom with a child or two I could take back as a prize to the family compound.

But that had never been possible with him, not once had it been possible to conceive because he'd been prevented from siring a child. It was too much, and I covered my face with my cool hands, letting them soothe the feverish skin as I sobbed.

How could he have done this to me? On my last two cycles, I'd wasted so much time sleeping with a man who couldn't get me pregnant, no matter how much he wanted to or how hard he tried.

"You're-you're an imposter!" I let the accusation fly, parting my hands to see the words hit home in a bloom of pain.

"Yes. I am."

Realization coursed through my veins, and I tried to stumble to my feet, but my leg gave way. Bash tried to catch me.

"Don't help me," I shouted. "I don't want your help." Eventually, I made it onto my legs, still shaky from the intensity of my heat, and pulled open my nightstand drawer. I whipped out the magazine I'd found in my room, the one someone had taken and filled in the other half of the dress.

The paper wrinkled in my fist as I held it out to him, but I couldn't give a shit. Bash's guilt was apparent in the way his eyes shifted from mine, his lips pressing together in a tight line.

"Was this you?" I still remembered how surprised I'd been to see this. How it had felt like someone had made it just for me.

My tone would not accept a lack of response, and he nodded slowly.

"Fuck, Bash. I trusted you."

A look of fear flitted across his features, and I felt my heart clench at the sight. "What are you going to do about it?"

Fuck. He was right. I could turn him in. They might even banish him for this. A watcher infiltrating the breeding program was unheard of. He had his place in the pack the same as anyone else. To think he would find a way to compromise the system was something they'd want to squash down as quickly as possible.

Could I turn him in? His betrayal was cutting. I'd come here for one purpose—to secure my future by becoming a pack mother, and he'd doomed me by occupying my time. I'd still had other men, but every occasion we'd slept together could have been another opportunity with someone here who was fertile enough to give me a child.

He'd hidden this from me, taken my choice away, let me believe he could give me something that he absolutely could not. Furious, I stood, cursing the way my legs still shook. My mouth was parched. Fucking heat.

"No, I'm not going to fucking out you, Bash, but you need to leave right now." I pointed to the door, my arm stiff and unyielding as he stood and searched the ground for his clothes. Eventually he located the shorts and shirt, and I thought back to when he'd first shown up at my door like a hero set to save me.

Fucking save me, yeah right. He'd occupied me for a heat, albeit pleasurably, but it wouldn't get me pregnant, which meant everything was riding on the breeding party and the next few weeks. I thought he cared, that he was helping me, and he'd really been here for his own selfish reasons.

Bash paused at the door with his hand on the knob, his head bowed. "Syl, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just…" He sighed heavily, rattling the handle. "I wanted this time with you."

He left, and the door closed with a definitive snick behind him.

She knew. Syl knew who I was, what I was, and she'd reacted with the same kind of revulsion I'd come to expect from the people in my life, ousting me from her room like trash. As much as it hurt, I couldn't blame her. I'd come here as a man with a secret, and of course, she'd be the one to find out.

I hadn't wanted that, had planned to slip away from this place without her ever knowing where I'd come from or how I'd been so taken by her. At least she wouldn't out me.

After sharing her heat, it was physically painful to be so far apart, and I tried to fill the emptiness with a pile of fried chicken in the fridge and a few bottles of water. I took my meal back to my room, not wanting to see anyone.

There was still a chance she'd come around, but the look in her eyes, the betrayal I'd seen in their depths filled me with a guilt and shame that had carried me out of her room and away from her.

I was a watcher. I couldn't get Syl pregnant, and I'd known how badly she'd wanted to be a mother. How she'd cried when she'd failed to conceive, and I'd still put my worthless self in her path, refusing to let her go through her induced heat with anyone else. I could've called someone else in. A better man, maybe Jace, someone who was fertile and could give her what she needed.

Shit, I hadn't deserved to go through a heat with her, but I also knew I would never forget it. The closeness we'd shared had gone beyond sex or love. It had been the one time in my life I hadn't felt so alone in this cold, cruel world. She'd been there right with me. A comfort—a joy—easing each need as it rose to meet hers and driving us both towards ecstasy. It'd been what I'd been missing when she'd pulled me into her heat before we'd met, and I'd ridden it out watching her on the monitor. My hand cramping up. The room covered in my cum. Alone.

But here I was, alone again, and hating myself for it because it was my own fucking fault.

Furious with my behaviour, I pulled out the black duffel from under the bed and began packing my things. I'd planned to stay until her breeding party, to have her one more time, but would it even work when she'd induced it early the way she had? I didn't know and couldn't face her.

I had to leave.

Each article of clothing I threw haphazardly into my bag felt unbearably heavy—like a dumbbell my achy muscles couldn't bear to lift. My heart wasn't in this, but it had to be. I packed everything I'd brought. Slowly but steadily, forcing myself through the motions, knowing they would take me away from Syl.

My angel. My muse.

Still pissed at Bash for lying, I struggled to process my new knowledge of him. He'd come here under false pretenses, but why? Bash was perfect in every possible way. Taller and hulkier than any of the other guys here, and so fucking hot it made my panties wet just thinking about him. His mind was keen. It was in the way he spoke carefully and reacted quickly. Then there was his art. Beautiful would be too weak a word to describe his creations.

So why had they chosen to exclude him as a breeder? I thought about it until my head began to ache, and I had to go retrieve a water bottle. Pushing my way through the crowd in the kitchen, I kept my head down the whole time.

Dizziness nearly overwhelmed me, and I caught myself on the fridge handle. Damn, I was dehydrated and hungry. Finding food and water for myself hadn't been my priority when I'd woken up in Bash's arms, completely blissed-out. After I'd found his scars, it had been the furthest thing from his mind.

But my body hadn't forgotten, and I swayed on my feet, pulling open the fridge and grabbing a handful of water bottles and making my way back to my room. I chugged the first eagerly and reached for the second, nearly choking on the cool liquid when my stomach turned and bile rose in my throat. I needed to go slow. The world spun, and I became aware of just how dangerously dehydrated I was. Bash had forced me to drink water just as my heat was starting.

My heart clenched, and my eyes pricked with tears. Bash.

He'd saved my life. Without a doubt, with how messed up I'd been and the lack of preparations I'd made before inducing myself, I might have died.

Bash had saved me. He'd saved me in more ways than that. Comforting me when my period had started, making me feel something other than the fear that drove me forward.

But those feelings of betrayal and anger mixed up with all the other emotions I had towards him. If he'd just come to me and told me who he was and why he was here. But he hadn't. Instead, he'd lied to me and consumed my attention when I'd never been able to get pregnant by him.

What the fuck was I supposed to do now?

Pass him in the hall like the heat had never happened? Like I didn't know he was here under false pretenses?

Feeling stronger, I returned to the kitchen. Keeping my back to the guys at the counter, I grabbed some lettuce, cucumber, and radishes and snagged a knife from the drawer to make myself a quick salad to take back to my room. I thought I heard my name at one point, but I ignored it. Whatever those douchebags had to say to me, I didn't want to hear it.

After eating, I was thinking more clearly. I needed to talk more to Bash. To understand what he'd done and why. He'd said it had all been for me, but what did that mean? What else had he done in his pursuit of this position?

Setting the bowl on the nightstand, I went to knock on his door when Jace tapped on my shoulder and stopped me.

"Hey, Syl, this is the last call. Run's starting."

The run. Right. Whatever had allowed them to excuse Bash and I during the previous day's run while I was working through my heat, I didn't know, but the softness in Jace's eyes made me wonder if he'd been the reason for our reprieve.

"Be right out." I smiled and nodded at him, realizing that Jace had been a good friend to me, despite his previous status as Head Asshole of the Asshole Club.

Knowing I wanted to be alone with Bash for this, I waited until Jace rounded the corner and exited the hallway before knocking. I couldn't have Jace overhearing, not when I was still puzzling out what to say. What if I accidentally mentioned his status as a watcher? The importance of keeping his secret was staggering.

They'd banish him. The angry human who still haunted my dreams, his spear raised over his head just before he'd been knocked aside by a guard, came to mind. Bash didn't belong out there. He belonged in here, where it was safe.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I knocked three times, growing more nervous with each bang before the door opened to permit me.

Hair still mussed from the heat, Bash's eyes widened when he saw me, and he stepped wordlessly back to permit my entry.

"Okay, so you're a watcher, huh?"

"Yes."

Fuck, his voice sounded depleted, like he'd given up on anything good ever happening to him.

"And you watched me."

"Yes."

I moved farther into the room, and he followed. A shadow at my back.

Myshadow.

"For how many cycles?"

He hesitated, and I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the answer, even if I needed it.

"Two."

Two cycles he'd watched me getting railed by masked men. I hadn't known there were cameras in the room, much less someone keeping tabs on us, but it made sense. The breeding parties came with a lot of rules about touching and talking, and the watchers must be there to make sure the rules were followed. Otherwise, how else would they know?

I looked around Bash's room absentmindedly while I worked through the idea of him seeing me through a camera.

His dresser drawers were ajar. Strange. Frowning, I pushed one in, noticing as I did so that it was empty. Shocked, I found a black duffel on the floor by his nightstand filled with clothes.

"What the fuck is this, Bash? You're leaving?" I toed the black duffel, staring at him aghast, and hoping there was another explanation. There wasn't. It was written on his face.

He. Was. Leaving. Emotion choked me as I stared around incredulously. Anything but this. I couldn't take it. Let us have it out, clear the air, fucking fight, but to leave? Now? With so much unsettled between us? It was unthinkable.

"Oh, I get it. You've fucked me now. Had your fill, so off you go back to being a watcher. Job done. I bet you can't wait to brag about this to your friends." Tears pricked at the back of my eyes, and my face went hot.

I'd meant nothing to him if he could leave so easily. All thoughts of talking things through, hearing the details of his infiltration, slipped from my mind, and I pushed past him, taking off down the hall at a run.

Out the door, I found a line of clothes where the others had shifted for their run. I ripped off my tank top as I went, stepping out of my skirt and shifting before the fabric had hit the ground. I felt Bash at my back, and it brought a fresh wave of piercing pain to my damaged heart.

Joints popped and bones shifted position, halting my progress for a moment, but not long enough for Bash to stop me. I took off at a dead run towards the tree line and into the pines.

My world was in shambles. He'd leave me, now? When we had, at most, a few weeks left before my final cycle ended? He'd leave me to the wolves who had shown their black hearts?

Animal whimpers escaped my throat as I pounded into the dead leaves littering the forest floor. Bash was close behind, almost keeping pace with me, but I was always the fastest wolf. Always. Nobody had ever beaten me in a race, and I pushed myself to the limit, feeling a triumphant surge when I glanced back and saw him falling back, unable to keep up.

Only he was falling farther behind. I hadn't realized how badly I'd wanted him to catch me, to explain himself, but now—I stopped. Something was wrong. A chill went up my spine, and my ears turned directions as I searched for a threat. The brown shape of Bash's wolf was just visible, but it wasn't catching up, and I startled when he shifted back to his human form.

Not understanding what was going on, or why he would shift back to his human form, I raced back, tripping clumsily over a log in my haste. It stung, but I carried on, not willing to spare the injury a moment when Bash was behaving so strangely.

He was lying on the ground with his back against a thick pine. My heart broke, and I shifted, sure my human hands were needed. Eyes bugging out, Bash clutched at his chest and stared up at me helplessly. Seeing him this way–fuck. Panic took hold of me, and I moved without thinking, dropping to his side, scanning him for injuries and running my hands across his chest.

"Bash, Bash. What happened? What's wrong?"

Each of his breaths seemed to come with great effort and an accompanying rattle. Oh, please. Tears pricked my eyes. He shook his head, mouth open as he gasped. I looked around frantically, not knowing what to do.

"Help! Help! Someone help, please! He can't breathe." My voice echoed in the forest, and I could only hope someone would hear it. Bash's lips drained of colour, his face pale.

"Puffer. Pants." The words came at significant cost and weren't above a whisper, but I heard him.

A puffer. Pants. I thought I understood, but I needed to make sure. Tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn't lose him. Whatever foolish conflict we'd been having, I may as well have been the one on the ground dying. Not this, anything but this.

"You have a puffer and that will help you. It's in your pants? The ones you took off to shift?"

He gave a single nod, and that was enough for me.

But I couldn't help dropping a quick kiss on his head, not when I could see how much distress he was in. I only hoped my speed was enough to save him.

Shifting even as I dropped, I ignored the sensations of the change, already running as my bones were settling into place. I stumbled, but didn't fall, and once I was in my wolf form, I raced back to the dorm, not bothering to change back to my human form.

Now which fucking pants had he been wearing? Grey. I thought they might have been grey, but a quick check of the two pairs in the right spot revealed no puffer. Fuck. Bash needed this. Where was it?

If it was medicine, it would smell strange. I closed my eyes and let my nose guide me. Yes, a bit of a sting in my nostrils. This was it. It had to be because not finding it wasn't an option. The black sweats were closer to the tree line than the others because he hadn't lined up with them. He'd been chasing after me. My own clothes were strewn across the manicured lawn further up.

Oh, Bash. Please hold on.

I hurried over, using my snout to dig into the pocket, and finding a plastic cylinder. I searched the rest of the pants to be thorough, but found nothing else. This must be the puffer, and a quick sniff confirmed it was where the stinging smell had been coming from.

Carefully, I took it between my teeth and set off to find Bash.

When he came within sight, I stumbled over my feet and almost fell face first into a fallen branch, only catching myself at the last moment. I'd very nearly dropped the medicine. Fear squeezed my heart in a vise, and I knew its icy grip would only let up once I saw Bash well.

His chest heaved, the skin around his ribs pulling with each breath, and I raced up to him. Shifting and hating the extra few seconds I had to wait before having human hands to help him.

"Here's your puffer, Bash. Tell me what to do."

His mouth hung open and his lips were chapped, but he took the puffer and brought it to his lips, fighting with the top part of it.

When I realized he was trying to press it, I helped, pushing the top part in and watching as he took a deep breath of the medicine. I helped him press it again, watching with bated breath as he used the puffer, slowly improving and moving away from the grim embrace of death with each moment of proper inhale.

Tears of relief sprang to my eyes, and I sat down hard on the forest floor, snapping a twig in the process. Now that Bash could breathe, I found I could breathe, too, and I reached out a hand to take his hand in mine. He looked gratefully back, and I smiled reassuringly. He was getting better. He'd be okay. I couldn't remember the conflict between us, hated that it had existed. Nothing mattered so long as he was all right.

I swiped a tear away, putting my head between bent knees.

"I'm okay." His voice was rough and distorted, but clear. "Syl? I'm okay."

It was only then I realized I was sobbing, my back heaving as the fear worked its way out of me in fits and starts. I looked up and found his deep blue eyes fixed on mine.

He squeezed my hand. "It's alright. It's over."

Seeing him well enough to speak, how he didn't need to fight just to breathe, calmed me.

"This was why you didn't chase me? Why you disappeared after that first time?"

A sad smile curled his lips. "Yes. I wanted to chase you, Syl. I wanted so badly to chase you, but I couldn't. I'm defective, you see." He looked away at the last, and it was my turn to squeeze his hand.

My heart broke for him. To think how I'd gone off on him. How angry I'd been thinking he was rejecting me when he refused to give chase. But he hadn't refused. He'd been physically incapable of chasing me. Staring at his pale face, I understood.

He'd given me everything of himself. Had always wanted me. He'd done everything in his power to be as close to me as possible, and I'd rewarded him with my ire. Made him feel less than. Guilt clawed at my insides. I'd lashed out at him for something he couldn't control, punished him relentlessly. The look of panic I'd seen in his eyes before he ran off made sense now. I'd been so sure it'd meant he didn't want to be with me, that he'd left me to chase someone else, but now I understood how all his actions had been for me. My eyes pricked, and a new protectiveness towards Bash surged within me. I vowed right then and there to never let anyone make him feel less than.

A growl rose up in my throat, and I was just about to tell him how foolish the idea of him being anything less than perfect was, when a foot came flying into Bash's temple, knocking him to the ground.

"Well, look what we have here."

A familiar, hated voice chilled my blood, and I was on my feet in an instant, standing between Carter and Bash.

"How the fuck did someone like you con your way into the breeding program, huh?" Carter smiled cruelly, revealing a swollen eye. With one hand, he shoved me aside roughly, and I fell sideways. "You piece of shit. You really thought you could be one of us? You're nothing but pack garbage." Carter kicked Bash, spitting on him, before I could struggle to my feet.

Rage consumed every thought. Everything else was gone but the need to defend Bash. Bash, who had almost died. Who was recovering and being beaten like a dog for fucking existing.

I flew at Carter, wrapping my arms and legs around him, and clawing at him with my fingernails. I scraped them across his face, growling.

"You piece of shit, buttmonkey-fucking, cunt-shitting, motherfucking asshole, fucktwat!" I screamed as I attacked, venting everything on Carter—the asshole who dared treat Bash this way.

But then I was pulled off by too many hands to fend off. Pulled off and restrained by a group of breeders who had heard the commotion and come to aid me. To stop Carter? I didn't know, but I'd fucking kill Carter if he touched Bash again, and something in my face must've tipped him off because he swallowed. Wet, hot blood dripped down his cheek from scratches I hoped would be deep enough to scar his face.

Jace stepped between us, his arms raised.

"Okay there, let's all calm down. What's going on here?"

Carter gave him a petulant look, but he didn't touch Bash again.

"This fucker is a defective." He spit on the ground in front of him, wisely away from Bash, whose back faced me. I couldn't gauge how injured he was. "He was out here with his filthy illness and his medicine. No way they would include someone who couldn't breathe without medicine in the breeding program."

Jace nodded thoughtfully, and I wanted to kick him next, to take a bite out of his flesh for not instantly defending Bash.

"And you saw this?" Jace smirked.

"Yeah man, he was breathing funny when I ran up, and he had that filthy medicine they have to use. It's over there."

Jace nodded, giving me an apologetical look before turning his back to me as he faced Carter.

"Then we take him into custody, but you are not to strike a man wounded on the ground. Do you understand me? That is not our way."

Take him into custody.

Bash—in custody, punished.

"No, please, Jace, please," I cried out, but he didn't turn, didn't acknowledge me.

"Her too. Bitch fucking attacked me."

I saw the back of Jace's head nod slowly.

"Her too."

Two burly guys with identical buzz cuts hauled Bash to his feet, and the rough hands holding me by the arms turned me about, marching me back towards the dorms, or maybe to prison.

I didn't know, but at least—at fucking least—I'd be there with Bash.