Page 3 of Kingly Bitten

I closed my eyes as I forced that thought to leave my mind.Choices are just false hopes, I told myself.Do what you’re told. That’s how you survive.

With another deep exhale, I continued on with my task, my resolve hardening with each keystroke.

Until I reached the final sequence of commands.

The ones that required me to pull up the video feed of the lab and unleash the toxins onto all those inside. The two lead lab technicians were the only ones who could stop me from completing my task; therefore, they needed to be incapacitated.

My two closest friends in this hell.

My only true family.

Not because we enjoyed each other or often spent time with one another, but because we all grew up here. We all understood this place, our purpose, and the research our lives helped perpetuate.

I was created first, almost six decades before them. As a result, I often chose to remain in my head.

But James and Gretchen… they’d chosen a different path. One they exuded now as they smiled and helped one of the lycan shifter pups up onto a table. The little one gave James a big lick across the cheek, causing him to grin in that boyish way he favored. Gretchen watched on with an adoring gleam in her dark, almond-shaped eyes.

The two of them were in love, something Lilith knew and allowed because it made their research stronger. Hence, the product of that love sitting on the lab table now.

A baby.

A tiny little white ball of fur.

One Lilith wanted me to kill with a single stroke on this keyboard.

I swallowed and closed my eyes again, my mind reciting all the doomsday sequences that had been drilled into me for the last century. Longer than that, really. This lab had been created before the revolution.

Half my staff were immortal subjects turned researchers. James and Gretchen were the only two I considered to be family, but the others were still part of my life. They meant something to me on a level I couldn’t define.

Murdering them would protect them in a way. The explosives might not be able to do the job, but I had the weaponized serum in my arsenal that absolutely would. We were all difficult to truly kill since most of us were linked to an immortal out there in the real world—immortals we didn’t know.

Our bond mates. Lilith’s biggest secrets.

My jaw ticked as I considered our options.

Lilith had tested me ample times throughout my life, but never with an experience like this. She was cruel, but also practical. Destroying all her creations seemed a bit far, even for her.

Which suggested, again, that she really was dead.

And meant I had options to consider.

Tapping my nails against the table, I considered the files waiting in the outbound folder. They were still loading, and that final keystroke would enable the course of action designed to send them along.

After incapacitating Gretchen and James.

I sat in my chair and studied the screen, then looked at the lab surveillance feed once more.

My wrist buzzed again.Thirty-five hours, I translated, realizing I was losing time. But I couldn’t move. It was as though fate had tied my hands to the chair, refusing to let me execute the final order.

Instead, I uttered a vocal command to bring up videos throughout the compound, checking on all the other labs under my control. It was business as usual, everyone testing results and cataloging their findings. Some socialized freely. Others remained quiet and kept to themselves.

None of us were here by choice, but we recognized that our lives in this bunker were more favorable than being on the outside. Humans were toys who existed purely for vampire and lycan enjoyment. Like pets, only far less cherished.

At least we were somewhat respected in this bunker, our knowledge and skill sets seen as worthy of a higher distinction thancattle.

However, we would only maintain that status if we followed the rules. And right now, I was breaking the biggest one of them all by not hitting that button.

They could kill me for this disobedience. Yet they were asking me to die regardless. So what was the difference? One option provided an ounce of dignity, allowing me to leave this world knowing I’d done the right thing. While the other choice would send me to my grave as an honorable and obedient disciple who had never really lived.