4

Rain pov.

I breathe out a frustrated sigh when the human woman leaves. Admittedly she didn’t treat me like any of these people here have treated me and if I had just given her my name my manhood might not have been in danger. She’s dangerous though. Anyone who doesn’t have a fear of anything is dangerous and what I saw in her eyes is something to be scared off. Not the first time around but definitely when she was grabbing me like it was a part of her everyday routine. Her sweet scent is still hanging in the air, and it makes me on edge. There’s nothing sweet about her and I hope I never see her again, even if she implied there would be a next time. An attendant enters the room and hands me a change of clothes.

“Put that on and come out. We have things to do before we deliver you tonight.” I want to ask him what he means by that, but he closes the door before I can. I quickly change into the sweatpants and the long-sleeved shirt before stepping out of the room, finding another woman outside the door. This one has short neon orange hair, and I find myself preferring the long dark hair of Morgan Cane. The short woman leads me to a room where a single chair is in, and she walks over to it motioning for me to come in.

“Take off the shirt and sit down straddling the chair.” I do as I am told, rolling my eyes as she straps me down to the chair, both my arms and legs before leaving the room. I close my eyes and lean my head on the rest underneath me, wondering if this life was ever going to end. When I came here looking for a job, I didn’t think I would spend my days fighting in a ring, getting told when to lose and when to win. The meals are crap, and I never get enough sleep between training, being in the ring and doing manual labor. If I knew Gerald Hutting was a liar and a cheat, I would have never taken him up on his offer. Three hundred coins a month plus room and board my ass.

The door opens once more and another man comes walking in, holding a steel pipe in his hands. I watch him until I can’t see him anymore and he doesn’t make a lot of movements before I feel the heat on my back. The restraints are too tight for me to move so I have no choice but to endure the pain searing into my back. I growl low in my throat until he removes the thing from my back, spraying something that cools it a little but it’s my own healing that does most of the work of making the pain subside a bit. I’m left there until I almost fall asleep but the woman with the bright hair comes back and undoes my ties.

“You have thirty minutes to pack whatever you have and meet Benna at the entrance of the rooms.” She tells me, leading me back to the empty hall filled with mattresses that they call our rooms. I head to my sleeping spot and reach into the hole I tore in the bed the first night, taking out the tiny device that’s hidden there and sliding into the pocket of my pants before putting on my shoes and going to meet Benna.

“You done?” Benna asks as I open the door. I give him a curt nod. “I’m going to give you some advice. Don’t think because you’ve been bought, you’re free from Gerald and don’t cause yourself any trouble where you’re going. Do everything you can to stay away from this place Rain. Trust me, the second time won’t be as pleasant as the first.” He warns, as we walk, handing me over to the guards at the gate. Benna walks away whistling as I’m roughly forced into the back of a van, and I wonder what the hell he could possibly mean by things getting worse in this hell hole. Lucky for him, I don’t plan on finding out.

The car takes a lot of twists and turns until we stop, and the back door of the van is thrown open. The attendant motions for me to get out, his cigarette already lit, and I wonder if he can afford new lungs if it kills him. I step out into the inner city, a place I’ve only been once in my life, back when I first came to the Bio-Glaze. It’s as clean as I remember it being, not that the trading grounds aren’t clean, but this is cleaner. It doesn’t look like people walk on these roads, even when there’s a lot of people around us at the moment. No one bats an eye at me climbing out of the van and the attendant walks me into the tall building in front of me.

“Package for Morgan Cane.” He tells the man at the front desk who eyes the smoking attendant.

“You’re not allowed to smoke in here. You can leave him with me.” The man motions for the exit and the attendant chuckles low in his throat before giving me a once over and slowly walking out of the building, taking his time and dropping his cigarette ashes as he goes along. “I don’t know where Miss Cane found you, but you should count yourself lucky to be out of there.” The man behind the desk tells me before walking around the desk to an elevator and motions for me to follow him when he sees I’m not.

“Miss Cane?” I frown and then it all makes sense. “The human bought me?” I ask, more to myself than the man standing next to me.

“Yes, and you are better off for it. Try not to hurt her, she’s a kind soul.” I can’t do anything but nod even though I don’t know what’s so kind about her. She had my manhood in a power grip within moments of meeting me. How on earth is that kindness? We step onto the elevator and the man presses the fifteenth floor. The ride up is silent and when we step out there’s only two doors in the hallway. He knocks on one and a screen appears on the door, so he selects a package icon.

“Scan for identification please.” A voice comes from the door and the man gently positions me in front of the door. “Rain Redwood, package accepted.” The door slides open, and the man waves me inside.

“You’ll be fine.” He says, sensing my hesitation and for some reason I feel like I can trust this human, so I step though the door. It closes the moment I do so and for a split second I’m surrounded in darkness before a circle of light flashes around me.