Ann H by Unknown Page B

room.
    “Very nice,” the man said. “Load him up!”
    Another shot and he was out. When Brandon
woke, again, he felt coldness on his back, and a bright light shined on his
face. He groaned, struggled to turn over to his side and sat up.
    “Are you okay?” a faint, female voice called
out in the dark.
    “Yeah, just peachy,” he answered, leaning
back against the cool bars.
    “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “Didn’t
think he would make me do that in front of everyone.”
    “You’re human,” he stated, shaking his
head to get rid of the effect of whatever the drug is.
    “Half,” she said. “My father is shifter.”
    “How’d you get messed up in this shit?” He
took a deep breath and once more was hit with her sweet scent.
    “My father owed Charlie a lot of money
that he couldn’t pay back. So he took me as payment.” She rolled her eyes.
“Charlie Stentin is a very crooked shark. He has lots of money that he likes to
loan people so he can get stuff other than money back. He’s also impotent. On a
full moon he doesn’t have the normal erection but still has the burn of the
heat. The only way he can take care of the need is by watching others do it. My
father wasn’t able to pay Charlie what he owed him and instead of Charlie
taking what little of value we owned he took me instead. My father tried to
fight him, but Charlie had one of his men beat him up so he wouldn’t stop him
from taking me.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “Diana. What’s yours?”
    “Brandon Michael.” He rubbed his face,
trying to shake the drug off as well as fight the itchy sensation of his heat.
“Kind of shitty for your father to let him just take you.”
    “He didn’t have a choice.” Her voice
dropped and, instantly, Brandon picked up hurt from her. “It was either me or
my mother. He had to choose, and when he didn’t Charlie flipped a coin. I
lost.” She took a ragged breath and he could smell her tears. “Doesn’t really
matter anyway, their all dead.”
    “What?”
    “My father tried to stop him anyway and
Charlie had them shot. It was a statement for others to not screw him out of
money, or at least that is what he told me.”
    Brandon didn’t know to say. He couldn’t
get over that this man, who bought him, was going to do lord only knows what to
him, had killed her family over money. Yet, in their world, that kind of shit
happened all the time. Hell, in the old days a father could kill a young male
for touching his daughter before a Gathering.
    “So what does he want with me then?” he
asked.
    “He likes to watch.” Her voice broke off
but he heard her anyway. “We are his entertainment.”
    Brandon closed his eyes and suppressed the
groan. This is just what he didn’t need, not right now. “So what is he going to
do then on this damn red moon crap?” He strained to ask the question.
    “Like I said, he enjoys watching.”
    “Shit,” he said under his breath. It’s rising! “You’re, um, half right.”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you have the cycle?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “Shit,” he said again a bit louder.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “This moon.” Brandon slowly stood up,
holding the bars, and shaking them to see how strong they were. Very. This
Charlie must’ve used himself as a tester to see if the cage would hold another
male. “We need to get out of here.”
    “We can’t.”
    “We will.”
    * * * *
    Charlie Salas sat behind his desk in his
small office in the dark, watching his two pets with a smile on his face. On
his computer webcam was a gentleman he hadn’t met face to face, but one that is
lining Charlie’s pockets very nicely. He didn’t know the guy’s name and didn’t
want to make things all that much safer.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to watch?”
Charlie asked, turning in his leather seat to the man on the camera. As usual,
he couldn’t see the face. “It’s very interesting to watch a mating in the full
moon.”
    “I’ll pass.”
    “I heard about