Ava went for her attacker’s eyes, her fingers curved like claws. Without her spear, it was her only option.

The massive brute deflected her with embarrassing ease. Sweeping her arm aside in a move so fast she didn’t register it until it was over.

All too soon, her wrists were stretched above her head and pinned to the rocky surface, her body arched over a large boulder, sandwiched between unforgiving rock and an equally unforgiving predator. The heavy weight of him between her legs a menacing promise of what was to come. Something thick and hard digging into the cradle of her thighs.

And the worst of it? Thanks to her husband’s twisted toy, flames of need licked at her center. The nanotechnology shoved inside her brain clawing at her to thrust upward and rub up against the savage criminal about to kill her.

“You shouldn’t have run.” Eyes empty of mercy stared down at her.

She reared upward, gnashing her teeth. “I won’t make this easy for you.”

“I disagree.” A hand wrapped around her throat, immobilizing her with a simple hold. Making a mockery of her bold claim.

She braced for the pain. For the sharp snap of her neck.

Instead, the slow, heated intensity of his inspection prickled along her skin. Every place his gaze landed like the drag of a calloused finger along overly sensitive flesh.

And all she could do was take it. Like always.

“You’ve changed,” he grunted at last.

Shame flared, pinking her cheeks, old training kicking in as she thought of her wild hair, the dirt and bruises dotting her face—and her husband’s harsh voice insisting his new chosen Council bride and breeder must always look her best.

“Y-you’re right.” Tipping her chin, she met her new captor’s condemning gaze head-on. At one time she’d believed the lies of duty and sacrifice. Clung to the importance of her role in repopulating the planet with Council “superior” genes. No more. “I’m not the woman I was and I’m glad. That pitiful female is dead and gone.”

Her captor’s scowl deepened.

She relished it. “You’ve changed, too. And not for the better.” The knowledge that death was coming made her bold.

Two years ago, the man looming above had been a media favorite—even on the Council sanctioned channels—his harsh, brutish beauty lending a sadistic thrill to the reports of his alleged murderous crimes and Resistance exploits. But his arctic blue eyes were even emptier now. As if any ounce of softness had been cleaved away, leaving behind a beast as hard and ruthless as the stones surrounding them.

“Where did you get the silver ore to make that blade? The one hanging from your harness?” She couldn’t die without knowing this at least.

A flare of surprise, followed by suspicious amusement. “Hoping to fashion one quickly so you can stab it through my heart?”

“Tell me.” Desperation made her shrill.

A moment of hesitation. Then, a smirk. “I stole it. From your precious husband’s mine. We’re supposed to turn over every kitlom to that greedy bastard, but my men and I don’t always do what we’re told. You planning to turn me in?”

“You’re mining it? That’s what he has you doing down here? Mining for this ore in particular?” It made sense. Hollisworth’s latest technologies, including the one inside her, relied heavily on a mineral found inside the ore—its location a heavily guarded secret, until now.

The hold around her throat contracted. “Why are you asking about the mines?”

So many answers she could have given. She went with the simplest—and hopefully most persuasive. “The tracker he put into your blood? I know how to neutralize it. The ore—the same one he has you mining—can be used not only to make the device, but to destroy it. I…I can show you—if you let me live.”

He scoffed. “So that’s your angle. Grandiose claims of deliverance so I’ll keep you alive. Do you think me stupid?”

“I’m not lying.” To be so close. After all this time.

“And what would the Supreme Councilman’s official fifth breeder know of such things?”

She fought the surge of shame. “I’m not Hollisworth’s anything. Not anymore.”

His hold tightened further. “Pretending to switch sides so I’ll go easier on you is pointless.”

“I’m a chemical engineer now. A scientist.” It was strange to say her title aloud, and not simply because her tongue was growing clunky from lack of air. “I’ve spent every waking moment of the last two years studying everything I can about Hollisworth’s experimental nanotechnology.”

She’d never told anyone about her plan before. Never even admitted her past to Bella, the colleague who’d somehow become her friend. It was oddly liberating. Even if it came far too late.

“I’m not pretending to switch sides.” His continued silence and her certainty that this was her last chance had her talking fast. “I was never on Councilman Hollisworth’s side to begin with. I can be of use. I can disable that tracker.” Now, with the location of the ore confirmed, she was closer to freedom than she’d ever been before. “Let me live and I’ll show you how.”

Her heart beat fast as her captor studied her.

“You’re lying,” he said at last, destroying her hope in a single sentence. “Those lofty goals are too much for a Council bride and breeder trained for one thing alone.” The shimmer of condescending amusement cut like a sharp knife. “I need an immediate, realistic solution. One that will actually work.”

Hollisworth had mocked her aspirations as well.

The pain of it made her reckless.

“Do…it…then.” She tilted her chin upward as much as the bastard’s unbending grip allowed. “Kill…me, non-Council grunt,”—why not make him bleed a little too?—“and lose your one chance to disable the tracker.”

It might come in a different form than she’d wanted, but at least she’d finally be free.

He reared back as if surprised, but only for an instant, his eyes narrowing as he recovered quickly. Too quickly. His grip never faltering as he leaned in, bringing his lips so close they brushed the shell of her ear. The scent of him—ash and steel and power—blanketed her. “Don’t imagine it will be that easy, breeder. I have no intention of killing you quick.”

An icy film swept across her skin.

Janus knows, she didn’t want to die. But she’d learned long ago there were far worse things than death.

“What…what do you plan to do with me then?”

One full lip titled upward, the almost-smile never reaching his eyes. “I plan to use you.”

She flinched despite herself.

Because her husband had used her, too. And this brute was a hundred times bigger and stronger and more savage than her husband would ever be.

“I’ll escape,” she vowed.

Escape or die. She refused to become some monster’s plaything again.

“Wrong.” As if he already had the right, her captor’s thumb tracked the interlocking Cs that proved her Council designation, a slow, predatory glide over her vulnerable tendon that sent unwelcome shivers down her spine—and, Janus help her, thanks to the nanotechnology, straight to her core. “This isn’t like New Earth, breeder. There’s no one to run to. No husband and his army to do your bidding. And whatever I have in store, it’s nothing compared to what the other prisoners will do if they get hold of you. Accept it. You belong to me now.”

Without warning, he lifted his massive paw from her throat…and ripped the sleeve from her body.