His Mate to Keep by Ivy Sparks

4

Xavier

Well,the little human sure put up a good fight. Too bad it got her nowhere.

I grimaced at the idea of her becoming as placid and obedient as all the other prisoners here. Seeing her spirit break was not something I was looking forward to.

Then an even worse thought crossed my mind.

What if they made me fight her? It wouldn’t be anywhere near a fair fight, not with our difference in size. And even if it meant my life, I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to hurt her. Unlike the other prisoners here, there was something mesmerizing about her. Something… tantalizing.

Again, my eyes found their way to her curves, and my cock twitched with desire. I’d met plenty of females outside of this place, but none intrigued me in this way.

Her tawny hair scattered across the floor in gleaming waves. Her eyelids hid glittering gray-blue eyes that had scrutinized me earlier. Her sharp chin and chiseled cheekbones went soft in her sleep.

Sleek, black leather pants hugged her rounded hips. Her black leather vest had been stitched from several mismatched scraps of different shades and textures. The bulky, ostentatious stitching showed exactly where she patched them together, as though she were proud of her status as a scrappy pirate. The shirt underneath was also a mishmash of scraps quilted into one fabric.

I knew soon enough those clothes would be stripped from her, and she’d be put into the same drab attire the rest of us wore. But for now, I admired her style.

It was clear she was a warrior. She was used to fighting and winning. She fought from the moment they brought her in and seemed surprised when she failed to best her captors.

Despite myself, something drew me to her. She was a derelict adrift in space, just like me. What brought her to the pirate’s life? She was too young to be a veteran of any war or military service, like most pirates I had dealt with.

She might have spunk and bite, but she had no idea what she was dealing with here. Should I help her? If she insisted on getting herself punished like this, I would have no choice but to turn my back on her. I couldn’t risk my own hard-won survival for someone who wouldn’t listen to reason.

Despite her attitude, she didn’t look very strong. She probably wouldn’t survive the initial rounds of experiments, and I didn’t see her coming back from her first visit to the battle room.

I needed to keep myself from getting attached.

Still, I didn’t enjoy thinking about her going through what I went through. But I had never helped anyone else in the past, and she would be no exception. I could give her my sage advice through the wall, and that was it. What she did with it was up to her.

I decided right then not to concern myself with her fate. She would go down sooner rather than later, and when she did, I couldn’t let my emotions distract me from my main mission: to survive.

After a few hours of drooling on the floor, she heaved herself up. She looked around, and this time, she didn’t run into the walls. She brushed her hair out of her face, and her fierce eyes rested on me. The light of recognition came into them, but it wasn’t a warm and welcoming light.

She wiped her palm across her face and went to sit in the corner near the cell entrance. She gathered her hair into a knot and pressed the glass with her fingertips, but she didn’t mess with the seams again. She was learning.

After a few minutes, she shot a glare in my direction. “You could at least help me.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

“You’re just sitting there.”

“What would you like me to do? A war dance?”

Her head whipped around and she stared at me. Then she burst out laughing. Her whole countenance burst into a radiant sun of delight. “That’s funny! Thanks. I feel better now.” She then stood and started poking at a corner of the cell’s ceiling.

“You’re dumber than you look if you keep messing with that.”

“How does it work?” she asked. “What can you tell me about how these cells work? What’s with the glass, and how does it just magically open and close?”

“I don’t know anything, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. What good would it do? You don’t listen.”

She kept her head turned, looking at the smooth, featureless glass. “I’m going to get out of here. You’ll see. I don’t care what it takes.”

“No one gets out of here,” I told her. “Not alive.”

“You’re hopeless. If you don’t fight back anymore, you might as well let them kill you. Do you want to spend the rest of your life in here being useful to the experimenters?”

Those words stung. “I’m biding my time. That means having to make compromises I’m not happy about, but it’s better than being dead and never having a chance. It’s impossible to escape. We can only wait for rescue.”

“What makes you think it’s impossible if you don’t try?”

“I’ve survived here longer than most, and I’ve tried harder than most. I know more about this facility than you do.”

She fully turned to face me now, and something about her pouting face was endearing. “If you know so much, why don’t you share so at least one of us can break free?”

“I know this facility is a spaceship. It’s floating somewhere out in remote space. So even if we could escape these cells, it’s not like we can get much further than that. We must wait for rescue, or at least some kind of external intervention. And that means surviving long enough for that to happen.”

A sad smile spread over her lips. She opened her mouth to say something when a sentinel returned with yet another glass transport container. It set it on its side against her cell and pushed it through the glass for her to enter.

Merrit scuttled away from it. She scooted as far across the floor as she could, again not cooperating. I sat still and watched her jump and screech as continuous shocks traveled through the floor to drive her into the case.

With every yelp, I felt an instinct reawaken within me. An instinct to protect her, to not let any harm come to her. But there was nothing I could do.

I lowered my eyes as I seethed, my muscles tightening at the sound of her yelps. “Please,” I told her. “Cooperate.”

She looked me in the eye for a long moment, then lowered her gaze. “Fine,” she whispered. “I guess you’re right. No point in fighting.” With that, she entered the transport container.

I watched as the sentinel picked up the container and carted her away. She actually listened to me? That was a surprise, and it left me with a mix of emotions. I was relieved that she’d spare herself the punishment, but disappointed to see her fighting spirit broken.

Or maybe she was biding her time. Having spirit didn’t mean acting stupid. Maybe she’d survive this place after all.

Just before she vanished into the lab, she whirled around inside her rectangular prison. She pressed her palms to the glass and her eyes searched the area until she saw me.

Those brilliant eyes flooded me with some forgotten emotion that I couldn’t identify. The next minute, she was gone.