Page 262 of Cruelly Bitten

I yawned, bored.

“All I see is Ryder engaging in his version of foreplay,” I deadpanned. “I’m not much of a voyeur, Cane. That was always your preference, not mine.”

Hence the playroom,I thought to myself. This was exactly the kind of space my brother would enjoy.

Because he could watch the others fuck.

Cane’s lips twitched. “I’m just waiting for the mutt unit to confirm they’re ready.”

“Mutt unit?”

“The lycans you saw earlier,” he explained. “The ones who grabbed Khalid and his bitch. They’re the mutt unit. They’re like glorified guard dogs who also know how to retrieve.”

When I didn’t comment—mostly because I was processing that information, as well as the derogatory tone my brother had just used—he told the system to display the mutt unit.

“See,” he said, pointing to five bare-chested men on the screen. They appeared to be pulling on black bodysuits. “Those collars control them. They also create a protective helmet, one I’m waiting for them to engage before I continue our demonstration.”

“Are these the lycans Thida and Jenkins brought with them?” I asked, recalling what my vampire driver had said.

Cane snorted. “No. Those mutts need to be broken and tamed. And only a few of them will be given the privilege of joining the mutt unit. The others will go to the labs.”

Jenkins visibly stiffened in my peripheral view, the dark-haired alpha obviously overhearing my brother’s crude words.

However, Cane appeared to be oblivious to the lycan’s outward response. Perhaps because it could have been the result of the female on his lap. Or, more likely, because my brother just didn’t care.

Cane clearly believed lycans were lesser beings. While they weren’t immortal like vampires, they certainly possessed their own strengths and abilities. To attempt tobreakortamethem was a mistake.

Alas, engaging in that debate with Cane would only distract him at this point.

And I really didn’t want to prolong thisdemonstration.

I needed every detail he could give us in regard to his security schematics. Primarily because he’d just essentially informed me that Izzy and I couldn’t simply leave.

He’d know. And while the profile he’d shown me might have depicted me as a system administrator, I strongly suspected he could change my status with a simple command.

“Yes, you’re free to engage,” Cane said, his finger at his ear as he watched the wolves on the screen touch their collars. “Capture, not kill. Affirmative.”

Helmets materialized out of thin air, the opaque material covering their faces.

“What’s it made out of?” I wondered, curious about the technology.

“It’s similar to these displays, only more durable,” my brother explained as he flicked away the video of the wolves and pulled up Ryder and Willow once more. “Think of it like an electronic shield that also happens to be bulletproof. Very useful. All the mutts have them. Particularly for this reason, though.”

He pressed a button on the bottom of his console, the action bringing up a series of command keys. I quickly scanned them, my eyebrows lifting. “These are all attack codes.”

“Yes, they are,” my brother murmured, selecting the one labeledNeutralize Lycans.“We have underground shields that protect everyone from these frequencies, but above ground…” He trailed off as he minimized the command console to show Willow cringing on the rooftop. “Above ground, they’re not protected.”

Ryder hovered over his mate, his concern palpable as he attempted to determine the cause of her distress.

He lifted her into his arms in the next moment and jumped off the roof, then phased.

The camera followed him the whole way, the impressive technology streaming the events in real time. It almost felt as though I were phasing right along with them.

It absolutely rivaled Khalid’s technology, yet my brother taking the royal into custody proved Khalid wasn’t the source.So who is?I wondered as Ryder hunkered down with Willow.

She seemed to be coming to her senses. Or she was at least in less agony than before, anyway.

My brother pulled up the control panel again, selecting a volume-like icon that he slid upward. “This expands the radius,” he said as he moved it about halfway up.