Chapter 29
Thea aborted trying to pull the chain free of the wall and dropped to the ground. Something was still wrong with Marko. He looked…scary!
She hadn’t seen him since they’d brought her to Apex. She’d seen their doctor, Pyper Ames, about a hundred times, she’d met their Dominant, Tyce Steele, she’d even formally met all the Walkers that resided at Apex, but there’d been no sign of Marko. Even when she’d asked about him, she’d been told he was “recovering”.
Now, staring at him, he didn’t look anything like himself, and it was terrifying because he wouldn’t take his eyes off her. She was afraid of why they’d been chained to opposite ends of the large room. Was it so he could see her without getting to her? Was he that bad off? Worse, what did the Walkers think he’d do if he could get to her? Yes, she’d run from him, yes, she’d shot him, and clearly, he’d rescued her and something had happened to make him into that beast that had been captured right along with her. He seemed livid, and Thea didn’t know what she was supposed to do.
Lifting a knee, Thea’s hands worked feverishly at trying to remove the manacle secured to her ankle. Her frantic attempts at freeing herself slowed until she swiveled around to look across the room at Marko.
He’d only made it a few steps when the wires that were still hooked to him stopped his progress. His lip peeled back in irritation as he looked down at his chest with a snarl.
Does he look bigger? Oh God, she swore he was bigger. His eyes were certainly lightening. Trying to take advantage of his distraction, Thea tried to scramble to her feet, but couldn’t manage it. It was like her legs wouldn’t hold her. Without looking at Marko, Thea rolled to one side and rubbed her hip. She’d gone down hard earlier and knew she hurt herself.
Checking to see that Marko was still preoccupied ripping all the wires from his chest, Thea quickly peeled up her skirt to eye the area on her hip that was already bruising. It looked bad. She’d landed on the thick chain when she’d gone down and damn it hurt. She rubbed her hand over the quickly darkening bruise and hissed. She shouldn’t have.
Marko’s head jerked up, and the remaining wires still connected to him snapped free as he dropped his hands and stalked determinedly across the hangar toward her. Nostrils flaring, his eyes darkened. He looked murderous.
Thea jerked her skirt down and winced when she tried to scoot back. She was too slow though, and suddenly Marko was on her.
Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it would leave her chest and as Marko knelt over her, she had to recline back to keep from bumping him. Finally, laying flat on her back, she looked up at him imploringly. Does he even recognize me? She lifted a shaky hand and settled it on his chest, just over his frantically beating heart.
One of Marko’s hands was locked behind her neck, and the other was settled on her leg, just above her knee.
Where he’d been feral mere seconds ago, his expression was now concerned as he eyed her intently. His hand slid up, taking the material of her skirt with it until the satiny white of her panties showed, and the bruise on her hip was exposed. He smoothed his hand gently over the mark and Thea whimpered, drawing his concerned gaze back to her face.
She breathed a quiet, “Marko?”
The door at the opposite end of the room, the end where Marko had been chained, opened and Bronco was back.
Marko jumped over Thea’s leg and crouched, crawling forward to place her behind him as he snarled and balled his hands into fists. He was protecting her!
Slowly he stood to his towering height and lowered his head in a clear challenge to Bronco.
In an instant, Marko was stalking across the room. Bronco suddenly stopped, but Marko kept walking toward him, and Thea knew she needed to do something.
She yelled, “Marko!”
He slowed but didn’t stop. It was almost as if he was torn. When mere feet separated him from Bronco, Thea tried to get to her feet again and went down hard. She cried out and curled onto her side with a whine as pain tore through her.
As if slamming up against an invisible wall, Marko stopped. His head jerked around and his eyes locked on her.
Rocking back and forth, Thea sucked in a breath and tensed against the pain shooting through her leg. She’d hurt herself worse than she’d thought when she’d fallen. Still, she couldn’t let Marko go to war with Bronco. Taking a steadying breath, she tucked her legs beneath her and pushed to her feet with a soft whimper. Using the wall, she managed to make it upright. Lifting her head, her eyes locked on Marko and she took a step toward him.
The instant she put weight on her leg, it gave out, and she went down. Bracing for the hard collision she knew was to come, Thea gasped when Marko was suddenly there, catching her before she could hit the hard ground.
Her leg hurt too much to do anything besides cling to Marko even as an enraged snarl left his lips. For a second she thought he was angry with her, but when she peeked up at him, his eyes were on the shackle attached to her ankle. One strong hand gripped the length of chain that still secured her to the wall and with a vicious yank, he managed to rip it out of the wall. Once Thea was free he didn’t put her down. If anything, his hold on her tightened as he lowered his head, brushing his nose against her hair. Turning, he kicked the door closest to him and growled, “Get Pyper! Thea’s hurt.”
Bronco appeared from behind them and quickly used a key code to open the door before Marko carried her out of the hangar.
She had to admit that being in Marko’s arms settled something inside her that had been restless. Even if he was angry with her, right now, she’d never felt safer. Quietly, she whispered, “Thank you for catching me.”
She watched his jaw tick, and because she had the opportunity, she studied his face. He really was too good looking for words. Dark eyes, dark hair, and dark stubble along his jaw like he hadn’t shaved in a while, he was ruggedly handsome.
“Marko?”
“Don’t thank me for shit like that, Thea.”
She didn’t know why she wasn’t supposed to thank him, and she didn’t want to ask.
“You chained her to a fucking wall?”
Thea’s head snapped up to look at him, and she followed his line of sight to where Pyper was hurrying toward them, her heeled shoes clicking loudly in the corridor before she skidded to a stop, her wary gaze on Marko. She asked, “Are you okay?” She didn’t wait for a response though. Her eyes shot to where Bronco stood behind Marko. “Is he okay? Is he safe?”
Confused, Thea looked up at Marko.
“He’s come out of it,” Bronco remarked.
Come out of what?”
Pyper took a few steps closer. “Thank God! When you contacted me, I thought our experiment failed. I thought you hurt her.”
“Nah,” Bronco answered. “She fell. It pulled him completely out of it.”
Thea had to know. Looking at Pyper, she asked, “Out of what?”
Pyper was to her now. “He’s been feral since we brought you here. We didn’t know how to bring him back. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Her lips thinned into a grim line a moment. “It was only recently suggested that you might be the key to bringing him out of it.”
“Feral?” Thea looked up at Marko with worried eyes. “What does that mean?”
Marko shook his head and stared at Pyper. “She’s hurt.”
Pyper studied Thea. “How are you feeling, Thea? How’s your leg?”
“It hurts.” Thea rubbed gingerly at the sore spot on her leg. “I fell and landed on the chain. I can’t put any weight on it.”
Pyper reached for the hem of Thea’s dress but stopped when Marko snarled.
“Oh, knock it off,” she snapped. “I can’t fix her if I don’t see it.”
Confused, Thea looked between Pyper and Marko as Pyper inspected her leg. “Yeah, you landed hard. It looks bad, but I don’t think anything’s broken.” She settled Thea’s dress back into place. “Aside from the leg, how are you feeling?”
“Cold,” she answered quietly.
A growl vibrated Marko’s chest, and she looked up at him but asked Pyper, “Is he growling at me?”
“No,” Pyper lowered her head to shoot Marko an annoyed look over the rim of her glasses. “He’s growling because you’re hurt and uncomfortable and he wants it fixed.”
“He’s…he’s not mad at me?”
“No,” Marko answered looking down at her. “I’m not mad at you, Thea.”
“B-but I shot you.”
“Yeah, out of curiosity, why did you shoot him?” Pyper asked.
Thea felt guilt bite hard. Dropping her head, she stared at her fingers. “He told me Jenny wanted to do more tests. I didn’t want the baby getting hurt.”
From the moment she arrived at Apex, everyone already knew she was pregnant, so she’d given up on even trying to hide it. But, this was the first time she’d talked about it openly in front of Marko, and she was afraid to look at him because she didn’t think she could handle any negative reaction.
His response was, “You shot me to protect our child. I forgive you.” And, as if thinking about it, he tagged on, “Just don’t do it again.”
Turning, Pyper barked, “Bring her. I need to look at that leg.