Page 20

20

Bloody Pig

C oming back to consciousness again feels like an overdone plot point. There must be some serious side effects to being put out so frequently. Still, as I take in my surroundings, the sterile laboratory from before, I realize I have far more significant problems to worry about. I’m strapped to a metal table again. It’s boring, honestly, but this time, I’m not the only victim imprisoned. Brick is in a chair beside me, his head lulled to the side, his hands behind his back. His chest rises and falls, letting me know he’s drugged and still alive. I sigh in relief, but it’s short-lived. I turn my attention to the man standing at my other side; Kilo is visibly giddy that I’m awake.

“Good morning. You’re just in time for some fun. I love it when they’re conscious.”

I groan. “Kilo, do you have to be so stereotypical?”

He ignores my pleas, picking up a manila folder at the small table to my side. “You know, I envy you, truly.” I don’t reply, because clearly, he’s having this conversation with himself. “You think you deserve a full life. You’re not disgusted with who you are. What I would give to live as blind as you.” His words shouldn’t affect me, but I can’t help feeling sorry for him, as fucked up as it sounds. I can’t imagine the world he was reared in, filled with torture, teachings of self-loathing, and lack of love. He’s entirely in control of his actions. Everyone can choose between good or evil, and I hope that if I were raised in the same environment, I might make the right decision. I’ll never know for sure, and although my upbringing wasn’t easy, I’m thankful that it didn’t lead me to this moral crossroad. It’s my job to ensure people like him cease to exist and create a better world for future generations. It’s not just my noble cause, it should be everyone’s.

“Kilo, it doesn’t have to be this way. You are not inherently dirty. You can live a good life full of love.” I try, but I know it’s a feeble attempt. I imagine other women have dished out the exact same words. There’s nothing special about me that could make the truth sink in. He’s too far gone.

“That’s cute,” he says, patting my arm, his eye skimming back in his folder. “At first, I did enjoy this whole thing you’ve got going on. So sure of yourself, so confident. I was a little jealous of Brick for having all the fun.” He leans in. “I could tell you two were mates. I decided to try to build a wedge between you. See if you could open those pretty legs for me just like you did for everyone else in this shit-hole town.”

I bare my teeth, unable to grow fangs and snap at him. He darts back, laughing, and I realize that’s exactly what he wanted me to do.

Brick groans from beside me, chains jingling as he attempts to move his arms. It’s surprising that we’re tied up so close. If we could break free from our binds, we could touch each other. But once he opens his eyes and they settle on me, I realize the placement is not a kindness. Need washes over me, and I struggle against my binds. Brick closes his eyes and clenches his jaw, visibly in pain.

I’ve known my whole life that the mating bond was powerful, especially on a Blood Moon, but the Blood Moon isn’t happening right now, and the tether between us is white hot, nothing like I’ve ever experienced or witnessed. Maybe it’s because he’s different, not a werewolf, but a werepig. Maybe their mating frenzy is more intense. It’s the only logical conclusion.

“Ah, Brick! Just in time for the fun,” Kilo cheers.

I should be freaking out. I’m helpless, and the other half of my heart is bound next to me, to witness my demise before succumbing to his own. But all I can focus on is the raging fire in my core. I’ve never thought pleasure could be such torture.

“Kilo, I’ll fucking kill you,” Brick seethes, turning his attention away from me.

“It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.” He walks around the table and stops at Brick’s side, folder still in hand. “You know what I hate more than Weres? Weres who know the truth, who have been privy to the reality of our sickness and choose to procreate anyway. You’re a special kind of perversion, a pig. We almost eradicated your kind, and yet you persevered. It would be noble for you to join our fight, but all you care about is fucking this dog, spreading your disease to new, disgusting heights.”

Neither of us respond, whether out of the knowledge that it wouldn’t matter or the will to focus on anything other than our throbbing sexes. Probably a mixture of both.

Kilo taps on his folder. “The mating rituals between you freaks have truly been fascinating. The ovulation period of a female makes things so much more exciting. I can’t help but play with my experiments, especially during their heightened cycle and after giving them ecstasy. One thing I’ve missed in my studies is having two mates together at the same time. What would happen if I’m the one to ring the pleasure of your mate while you sit back and watch? What kind of power could I extract from both of you?”

Brick shifts fully, his face that of a wild boar, every inch of his body covered in thick brown hair. He roars, yanking against his chains that barely budge. Kilo squeals in delight. “Yes! This is exactly the kind of reaction I’ve hoped to see! I can’t wait to document this.” He waves the folder before walking to the other side of me and placing it on the table. “This is getting full with all my discoveries. I’ll be using this to write a book soon. Then all the Hunters from all over the world will know how to harvest female Were menstruation for their power, and they can have a bit of fun with the ovulation bit, too. What’s a life without pleasure? Wouldn’t you two agree?”

“Brick,” I cry. It’s the wrong thing to do. The words slipping from my lips cause him to shudder, losing his focus on his anger. I need him mad. I need him to break free and rescue us both.

Kilo runs a finger from my foot up my body, traveling over the ridge of my breast covered by my gray prison uniform and stopping at my lips. “Don’t worry. I’d never fuck a beast like you. But I can touch, explore. That’s what science is, after all.”

Brick roars from next to me, and I whip my attention to him. He’s enormous, his arms squeezing in his tight bonds. The chair must be welded to the ground, because it doesn’t budge. I don’t think the drugs affect his powers at all. It must be silver. Werewolves grow powerless when bound with it. I guess werepigs are similar to us in that aspect. “Your sad attempts of male domination won’t help you now, Brick. I’ve sent everyone home so we can have all the fun to ourselves.”

His words focus me through my lust-filled haze. It’s only us and the prisoners. We just need to overtake one pathetic man and we can get out of here. It’s an idiotic move on his part, but he must trust the effects of the drugs over me and the integrity of Bricks binds. If only I could grab a hold of my power from somewhere deep inside of me. I’m ovulating, apparently something that can give normal humans powers once harnessed. I just need to find the strength within myself and use it to escape. Sure, I’m strapped to a metal table, but I could break free if I used all my might—if I shifted.

Kilo’s finger travels lower, and I can’t help the breathy moan that passes my lips. I swear Brick’s eyes turn red. I close my eyes as Kilo’s touch moves between my breasts, rolling down my stomach. Instead of Kilo’s fingers, I imagine Brick’s, tuning in to his yelps of desperation, pretending they’re that of need for me. I trick myself, imagining my stomach filled with Brick’s baby. His hand rubbing my swollen belly, whispering soothing words to our soon-to-be child. It’s not something I want, at least not right now. I barely know Brick, but my instincts as his mate takes over. It’s not hard to imagine carrying his baby and starting a family with him. I can play pretend, at least for now. At least to trick my body into needing my mate so severely that it overpowers the chemicals swimming through my veins. It’s a lofty hypothesis, but it’s all I got.

Just as Kilo’s fingers meet the hem of my shorts, something combusts inside me. All my nerve endings turn to fire, my blood lava—red washes over, a deep and desperate anger, blinding me of my senses. I feel the snap, I hear the screams, but it’s as if they’re a story being played from somewhere else, not from my actions. Consciousness rolls back to me in soft waves, more of my awareness returning to me like a windshield wiper clearing away the frost. My lungs heave in my chest. It’s silent, and my heart pounds steadily. I’m seated on the metal table. My hands aren’t human; they’re monstrous claws, furry and dripping with blood. Noticing the carnage focuses me, and I remember myself, cradle my head, and feel my snout and muzzle.

“Carmen!” Brick yells, repeating himself in a desperate plea. I whip toward him, still bound, and in his werewpig form. “Brick?” I get out, my voice a foreign sound. “What happened?” The hairs on the back of my neck loosen, sucking back into my pores.

“Are you okay?” he asks desperately.

I contemplate myself, feeling no pain, returning to myself every moment. “Yes. What happened?”

“You shifted. You broke free and attacked Kilo.”

I look down at the ground, taking in Kilo’s blooded body. His eyes are wide, and he clutches his neck, a chunk removed and sputtering blood in a large pool underneath him. I’m back to my human self now, naked, my ripped clothes beside me, and covered in blood. I stand, stepping around Kilo, wobbling momentarily before catching my bearings. I kneel next to him, and he reaches for me, but I swat his hand away, diving into his deep lab coat pockets. I pull out a large ring of keys.

I charge toward Brick, my throat void of moisture as I approach, my bare chest pinched tight with arousal from the sight of him. “Carmen,” he moans thoughtlessly as if a single-minded beast put on this earth to devour me. In fact, that’s precisely what he is. I guess that’s what I am, too, since I just killed a man to reach him, to have his knot inside of me.

My hands shake as I work through the keys, inserting one after another into the keyhole attached to the metal chains around Brick’s wrists. Finally, one clicks, and the chains fall to the ground. Brick stands like an angry dark wave sucking the energy from the room. I’m nearly knocked off my feet, but his arms wrap around me, roaming my skin with desperate groans. “Brick,” I try to form a reason to tell him no and that we need to go, but his touch is too demanding, too desperate. I can’t form words, and I comply as he drags me to the metal table, his snout flicking over my neck. He turns and bends me forward, and I moan as his fingers search for my heat, pulsing as he touches my wetness.

His pants haven’t ripped off him during his shift. They must be made of heavy-duty, stretchy material. He pulls his cock free, grunting and moaning as he positions himself at my entrance. I arch for him, grinding my ass against him in a hungry plea. I can’t focus on anything but the warmth from his head as he pushes it inside of me. My cunt makes way for him, stretching easily.

He roars, thrusting in and out with so much power that if I hadn’t regained some of my own, I’d surely be knocked off my feet. I cry out as he moves deeper within me, reaching his hilt and shoving in his half-deflated knot. “My mate. Mine,” he growls in my ear. His voice isn’t his own, a deep monster claiming him.

My nerves tighten and if I thought something combusted in me earlier, I was clearly mistaken. An atomic bomb destroys me as my orgasm bursts to its height, taking my vision, taking my sense of self. I’m a bundle of nerves, exploding into a dark, warm hole. I register Brick crying out from behind me, slapping against my bare ass until he bursts inside of me, filling me with his seed as his knot inflates within me, stretching me so deliciously that I come again, less intense this time but longer lasting.

It takes what feels like hours but is probably only seconds to come down, regain myself, and take hold of my breath. Brick falls on top of me, barely holding himself up, and my legs quiver, attempting to take his weight. I look down, witnessing the blood from underneath me, smeared from my body, and on the ground lies Kilo, his eyes blank and his body stilled. “Fuck,” I mutter, pushing myself up. Brick jolts from behind me, removing his weight and grabbing me. He attempts to turn me to him, but we’re stuck. “Fuck,” he whispers, sad and defeated. I reach back, feeling his neck, running my hand against his chiseled jaw. He’s already returning to his human self.

“I’m sorry, Carmen. It wasn’t me.”

“No, it’s okay. I felt the same way. We’re okay.”

“Fuck, no. We’re not okay. We need to get out of here.”

I caress down his skin, pebbled with stubble, trying to calm his panic I sense rising. “If what Kilo said is true, we’re the only ones here. It will be okay. This had to happen. We wouldn’t have gotten far without knotting. Our bodies wouldn’t allow it.”

My words settle him, and he leans into me, sniffing my hair and roaming his hands over my stomach. “You did it. You saved us.”

“I guess so.”

“How did you shift?”

“I don’t know. I think it was because I was ovulating. I willed myself to imagine being impregnated by you.”

He tenses. “You did?”

I pat him. “Don’t worry. Your sperm hasn’t reached my eggs, and now that I’m thinking clearly, I’m building that wall.”

He kisses the back of my neck. His cock hardens inside of me, his knot deflating. “God, thinking about you carrying my child does something to me. That must be the hottest fucking dirty talk I’ve ever heard.”

I laugh, the sound so foreign in the cold, lifeless room. “You’re a freak.”

His teeth graze over my skin. “I’m your freak, forever.”

Forever. The word hits me—the implications of having a mate. I haven’t had time to register all of this, and now is not the time to do so. I straighten, and Brick falls from me with a pop, his semen running down my legs. “Fucking, Christ.” He moans, stepping away from me, clenching every part of himself as if in an attempt to steady.

I’m a fucking mess, covered in blood and semen. My clothes ripped to shreds from my shift. A fresh lab coat hangs in the corner, and I grab it, pulling the fabric over myself.

Brick glances at me briefly but diverts his attention. “God, Carmen. A lab coat? Why?” He whimpers, rubbing his eyes as if the sight pains him, before shoving himself back in his pants.

“It’s all I have. Please, Brick. Will yourself to focus.” I can’t imagine that I look appetizing at this moment, but to my mate, I’m apparently a Michelin star meal. He takes a deep breath, steadying himself.

My eyes catch the manila folder atop the metal table. I grab it, skimming the contents. “Jesus Christ.” My stomach churns, but I force myself not to look away. There are pictures of werewomen, lying unconscious and bare. Notes are scribbled next to the images, describing what’s happening, but I don’t believe it for a second. This wasn’t science for Kilo. This was a perverted way to get himself off. He hates Weres so much that he became obsessed, finding pleasure in our torture. I hold back my bile, my eyes landing on a detailed report of the serum. “Brick, look.” I hand him the file, and his eyes scan, widening as he takes in the information. “This is it. This is what we’ve been looking for. This could give us what we need to counteract their attack, to find an antidote for their discovery.”

Could it really be this easy? Kilo brought us into a room, alone with the answers so close. It’s idiotic of him, but it makes sense. He was a sick man, driven to desperation that clouded his sense of reasoning. I can’t waste time pondering his actions. We need to get the fuck out of here.

I grab my mate, folder in tow, and open the metal door. We have women to free, an evil establishment to dismantle, and all of this is just the beginning.