Page 60 of My Wild Pet (Whispers from the Imperial Cage #2)

CHAPTER 60

Gabriel

I watch from the pets’ observation deck, my knuckles white against the railing as the latest men’s round begins below. The judges have set up obstacles with razor sharp spikes and rotating blades. Unlike the women’s competitions, there are no illusions here, just raw brutality. In the Empire, men aren’t considered clever enough for mental tasks. We’re the “muscle,” forced into these lethal gauntlets, treated like performing beasts. C’est cruel , I think bitterly.

I watch as another man slips at the final jump, and the crowd cries out before he falls to his death. My stomach turns violently. I never used to feel this horror. Last year, even the year before, I watched men lose their lives without this physical revulsion.

But today, it’s different. I can’t look away from the crushed remains of that man’s life. And then it occurs to me.

I raise a trembling hand to my collar, tracing the smooth metal with Aefre’s name on it. Did he keep me numb last year? Or was it that I only wanted to win? My pulse hammers at the possibility that these feelings—this sudden empathy—might be artificially stirred or suppressed by Aefre’s meddling.

The crowd roars below as the next male pet staggers into the arena. Why am I only seeing the cruelty now, after so many years?

In the distance, the overhead speakers announce the next pet’s name, but the words don’t register. All I can do is stand here, grappling with the question I can’t shake, Which part of me is real, and which part belongs to Aefre’s manipulations?