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  in quiet tones, meant to soothe. He wished to take away whatever creased the skin near Ben’s mouth.

  The human’s shoulders rose and then fell on a loud exhale. He waited a heartbeat before turning around and meeting Kee’s gaze. “Kee, right?” Ben approached the cages until he stood close enough to touch the metal. “You’re the leader here?”

  Kee met Ben at the bars. He wasn’t sure exactly what Ben meant, but understood the way the human was sizing up the others in the cages. Kee nodded. “These are mine.

  My steins.” He hated using that term. Each of his men had a name.

  The quick bob of Ben’s head conveyed he understood. “I have to take you out of these cages.” He eyed the doors and the bars. Then, in a movement that froze ice in Kee’s veins, his eyes darted to the stun gun in the corner. “I need to take you to a new room. I’m sorry.” Ben blinked his damp eyes, sniffling. Then he swallowed.

  Kee wondered what the odd movement meant. Perhaps he hadn’t considered using the weapon. Maybe he’d looked that direction by mistake.

  “Yes, Ben.” Kee tried to flex his muscles without seeming obvious. “I’ll help.” He

  couldn’t guess what the pretty human meant to do with them, but Kee knew it had to

  be better than staying where they were.

  “Good.” Ben’s wan smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Good…” He surveyed the room, the door, and the locks. Ben pulled a plastic card from his pocket.

  Kee’s heart pounded. He hadn’t seen a key card so close to his cage in months.

  “I’m going to open the door now.” Ben reached the plastic rectangle to the reader and Kee held his breath. Behind him, the steins hooted and grunted. They shifted in confusion, feeling Kee’s nerves as well as their own.

  When Ben slipped the plastic through, the beep and click signaled the door had been released. But it wasn’t just Kee’s cage—it was the whole block. Kee waited for Ben to pull the door open. He could hardly contain his desire to reach for Ben, to touch him, to smell his flesh up close.

  Instead, Ben let go of the door. “You open it.”

  Kee grasped his hand around the bars. He allowed the feeling, the moment to stretch and fill him with the importance of this power. When he next spoke to Ben, he couldn’t keep the growl out of his voice. “Move away.”

  Ben stepped quickly to the side and Kee pressed forward with slow deliberation.

  He felt the weight of the hinges, the easy give of the joint. Then he stepped over the doorstop that was his threshold.

  “Ready?” Ben’s voice shook. He stepped past Kee, breaking the spell. “Please lead the others this way…” He paced in rigid steps to the exit. Kee wondered if Ben would let him open that door as well, but Ben grasped the handle himself. He turned and gazed at Kee, who stood hovering only a few feet outside his cage.

  “Will they come?”

  Kee gestured to Gar and then to the other steins, urging them out of the cages.

  Slowly, they filed along behind.

  Though he knew the landscape, the white room looked different from outside the cages. Kee walked in careful steps, frightened something wasn’t quite right. At the larger door, Ben stood stiffer than before. He’d closed his eyes.

  Kee held up a hand to stop the approach of his men. He stepped close to Ben’s back.

  He couldn’t help but notice Ben’s pants swelled invitingly at the ass. Ben was round there, deliciously biteable. Kee moved close enough to talk in Ben’s ear. “Are you okay?” He touched Ben’s sleeve, and smiled when Ben didn’t pull away.

  “No.” Ben’s answer was brittle and frightened.

  Anxiety rolled over the men in the room like a wave. Their bodies jostled behind

  Kee. They eased toward the door even though Kee kept his hand aloft in an old-as-days signal of “Stay”.

  “Ben. What do you need?” Kee touched Ben’s back through his clothes. The material was rough and rigid, but he felt the curve of Ben’s spine beneath. Instead of bending and softening as Kee hoped he would, Ben’s eyes flew open.

  “Shit. I can’t do this.”

  In quick strides, Ben walked back through the room and to the doors to the cages.

  “You’re all going to have to get back inside.” A moment passed where the entire room fell silent. Ben cleared his throat. “Only for an hour or so. I’m going to call the Department of Health again. See if I can appeal to—”

  The room erupted in mayhem. Steins rushed and shoved, trying to get to the door.

  Kee shouted at his top men, but they couldn’t hear him over the groans, snarls and yelps. Those at the back had turned on Ben, smacking him with open hands.

  Kee grabbed the handle, wrenching the mechanism to try to get it open. But though bodies pushed at him and fingernails scraped his flesh, the door remained shut.

  Perhaps it required a plastic key. Kee had none.

  With a roar, Kee waded through the mess of bodies. He threw men to the side until he reached Ben. “Give me the card.” He tugged Ben inside the cages and shut the door to block the onslaught of frightened steins. “Card. For the door.” Kee shoved Ben against a wall and searched his pockets. He struggled with Ben’s zipper, ripping open the fabric. His fingers searched and probed for the plastic answer to everything he’d ever wanted, but instead his hands met only hard human flesh.

  “Get off me!” Ben shrieked. He slapped and kicked, eyes wide in terror. His scream echoed off the slick white walls.

  Kee blinked the red haze of fury from his vision and saw Ben’s suit had torn to reveal a white t-shirt beneath. His face had grown red and his hair had fallen out of its stiff style to cover his eye on one side. He looked young and frightened. Kee realized he was pinning the human to the wall.

  “I’m…” He didn’t know how to express what he felt, so Kee placed a hand on Ben’s

  shoulder and bowed his head. “Card. I need the card. For the door.”

  A loud knocking outside drew Kee’s attention.

  “Hello?” A female voice boomed from outside. “Hello? The last text message said you can talk. Can you talk?”

  Kee sensed from the speaker’s pause she wanted a response, so he answered, “Hello?”

  The voice outside laughed. “Okay. It’s a start. I’m going to come in now. Please don’t rush the door, or I will have to shoot you.”

  Everyone near the door stepped back. Something about the speaker’s voice conveyed an authority that had Kee’s men obeying without question.

  Chapter Three

  Ben tugged at the edges of his torn coveralls, though they had been ripped beyond repair, and wiped the blood off his mouth. He watched as a stein he’d never seen

  before—a female stein—opened the door and sauntered inside. He held his breath, trying to force a calm he didn’t feel and slow his galloping heartbeat. Ben had heard rumors about free steins. They were the stuff of ghost stories for folks who worked in labs.

  With wild coils of hair forming a halo around her face and a hard stare, this one looked fairly scary. “Hello, steins of Built Corporation,” the free stein called out to the room. To Ben’s surprise, her voice was low and sure. In fact she sounded almost like a real person.

  “I come from the Zombie Underground. Our organization rescues steins from their makers and helps them achieve a level of self-reliance.”

  The room full of lab steins began shuffling and growling. Ben stepped back until his shoulder hit the wall. He eased behind Kee and out of the female’s line of sight. It seemed like a / chance that the free stein would kill him and take the steins away.

  Odd as it was, Ben felt as if Kee might just protect him.

  “You’ll take us out?” Kee shouted to the female. He reached back with one hand and urged Ben farther behind his back, as if he too thought Ben was at risk. He smelled rank—like sweaty gym socks. Like a man who hadn’t showered in months. Ben breathed through his mouth. He stared at the broad shoulders and back only inches from his face.
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br />   “What’s your name?” the free stein asked. Ben peeked around Kee to watch as she wove through the room. Some of the steins touched her as she passed, maybe wondering if she was real, or unable to tell if she was human or stein. The free stein didn’t flinch, instead walked slowly until she drew to a stop on the other side of the cage Ben shared with Kee. Her gun hung loosely from her hand.

  “My name is Kee.” The alpha didn’t pound his chest this time. His arms were busy forming a backward cage around Ben.

  The free stein nodded. “I’m Shani. I want to open this door. Let you out.” She plucked the card off the floor and held it aloft.

  “Yes. Out.” He pointed to the exit door, the one that had caused the stampede when

  Ben had hesitated. “There too?”

  “Yup.”

  When Ben peered out around Kee’s shoulder, the female lifted an eyebrow. She wrinkled her nose and looked at Ben as if he were a piece of gum she found stuck under her shoe. “You’re going to have to let go of the human. He can’t hurt you now.” She gestured at Ben without meeting his eyes.

  Making a growl that sounded like “Humpfhh” Kee backed up until Ben was sandwiched between him and the wall.

  Ben felt the swell of Kee’s ass cupping his groin. Seemingly in answer, Ben’s dick started to plump. His mind and body went different directions—his body thrilled at its first time pressed close to a man, his skin itched and his throat dried to feel Kee’s heat and strength. Meanwhile, Ben’s mind spun through a range of horrid possible outcomes. He closed his eyes, wishing he could disappear.

  Shani barked out a laugh. “Got yourself a pet there, Kee?”

  Kee turned a little so he could pat Ben’s head. Kee’s huge hand smoothed his hair.

  Ben’s clenched eyelids forced back his tears of humiliation. The day had just been too much—from guilt-ridden to horny to terrified. He wanted things to go back to how they were before—with him on one side of the bars and the alpha on the other. Ben

  struggled to push away from the wall, but Kee wrapped him in a bear hug.

  “I’ll let you two lovebirds work this out while I load up the others.” The free stein laughed.

  She walked to the door and opened it, but the neutrals all turned to Kee. Ben stood on tiptoe watching the scene. He saw from the steins’ stance that they were asking Kee’s permission. The alpha nodded and said something Ben didn’t understand. His vocalizations sounded more like growls than words, though Ben recognized the phrase “Gar” to be a name. One of the taller steins nodded to Kee over the heads of the others and started out the door. The rest of the neutrals filed out after Shani, leaving Ben and Kee alone in the cage room.

  “Shh… You’re safe. I won’t let her hurt you.” Kee folded to sit cross-legged on the floor, dragging Ben into his lap.

  Ben fell in a mess of limbs, wiping snot from his nose and tears from his eyes.

  Knowing only Kee would hear him, he sobbed.

  Kee felt Ben’s body shiver and listened to the pitiful sound of his mewls. Ben’s face dampened Kee’s shoulder, a tickling wetness Kee didn’t want to wipe off. He wanted to hold the human longer, to pet Ben until he smiled. But when Ben pushed up to his feet, Kee let him go.

  The pretty male paced, his hands patting some imaginary dirt off his pants. Ben was upset, which made sense given the female named Shani wanted to gun him. But now Ben was safe, and Kee wished he could find a way to take away his fear.

  After a moment, Ben wrapped his long fingers around the bars. Kee thought his male would shake the cage, or shout. But Ben only squeezed the metal until his arms trembled, until his frustration sang through the room, scented the air.

  “You want water?” Kee only had so many things to offer, and if Ben didn’t want physical comfort, Kee would share what he could. He hopped up from the ground and crossed to the row of faucets. He turned a handle so water ran into the wide basin that ran along the length of the wall. “You want?” Still staring at the graceful line of Ben’s

  back, Kee cupped some liquid in his hand. His body tightened to think of Ben sipping from his palm.

  “When she lets us out…” Ben turned. His face flushed with emotion, Ben pointed a single digit at Kee’s chest. “You let her kill me. Or let me go. Or whatever she’s going to do.” He gestured in a stabbing motion Kee felt spear through his body. “You understand? You let her shoot me.” He spoke each word distinctly, as if Kee was too stupid to understand what he meant.

  Kee stepped closer and snatched Ben’s wrist. When Ben tried to pull away, Kee grabbed his chin. Ben’s face was smooth.

  “No.” Kee spoke directly into Ben’s eyes. And when Ben gave him a mutinous glare, Kee pressed his mouth to the other man’s lips and swallowed his words.

  He tasted like nothing Kee had ever known. Sweet—like that fizzy soap the scientist used to use to clean out Kee’s mouth—but with the spicy flavor of man. Even Ben’s

  words were delicious. They started angry, then melted into quiet resistance. And when Kee wove a hand into the man’s hair, Ben stilled.

  Kee broke his kiss to smile at his male. But Ben didn’t look happy. His mouth was a hard line. A muscle in his jaw jumped.

  “Are you in pain?” He hadn’t done anything to hurt the man, and now that he’d

  tasted his mouth, Kee wished he could know more about what Ben needed.

  “What?” Ben’s eyes narrowed to an icy hardness. “Screw you.” He kicked his knee up into Kee’s balls and then swung his fist in a hard punch to Kee’s temple. The move dropped Kee onto one knee, gasping.

  Ben swung his leg in a kick, but Kee grabbed his ankle and twisted so Ben lost his balance. Springing forward, Kee caught Ben before his head collided with the floor. Kee pinned the other male’s body with his own.

  Despite the nauseating pain in his groin, he ground his hips into Ben’s. “Do not…”

  Kee struggled to find the words, when all he could feel was Ben’s body, helpless,

  beneath his. The other male was hard, and stronger than Kee had realized. “Do not hurt me.” Kee pressed another kiss on Ben’s frowning mouth—this one faster. Ben gasped,

  but Kee couldn’t tell if the sound expressed desire or fear. In that moment, Kee didn’t care—he just wanted Ben under him, mouth open and legs spread. Kee pumped his hardening cock between Ben’s thighs.

  “Time to go.” The stein named Shani entered the room alone, calling to them both from the door.

  When Kee lifted his head, Ben rolled from side to side, knocking around in Kee’s grip, but Kee kept him prisoner on the floor. He watched Ben’s face turn red again with anger and humiliation.

  With his cock and balls aching from Ben’s blow, Kee took a perverse enjoyment from Ben’s embarrassment. He pecked a kiss on Ben’s scalding cheek.

  “Go?” Kee called to the approaching Shani. He didn’t release his hold on Ben’s wrist.

  “Where?” Only now did Kee consider the place Shani took them might be worse than here. He surveyed the white-tile walls, the water flowing freely from a bank of faucets. The food bowls were filled almost every day. There could be worse places. Plus, Kee had Ben now.

  Shani slipped the card through the reader. “I promise it’ll be better than here.” She looked at Kee as if she could read his mind. Shani studied Ben in a cold way that made Kee angry. She said to Ben, “Thanks for calling us, by the way. My boss says you’re free to go.”

  Kee rose from the floor. Holding Ben’s hand, he stepped out of his cage for the second time that day. This time, Kee felt much less confident. Now he had something to lose. “Free to go?” he repeated Shani’s words, trying to gain more meaning from them.

  “Where does Ben go?”

  Shani led them through the far door and into the hall beyond. Outside the white room, the walls were another color. A darker color, like skin. There was no water or food. There were more doors everywhere. Shani walked forward, the gun hanging from her hand. “I dunno. I guess the human will go ba
ck to his house or something.”

  Blood pounded in Kee’s ears as the three of them walked through the corridors. Kee couldn’t imagine how he would find Ben’s house. Even the hallway seemed intimidating. And the room beyond the hall was bigger still—filled with boxes and equipment, and even more passages.

  Reaching yet another door, Shani paused. She said, “Outside, there’s a lot of space.

  And there’s a box with wheels on it called a bus. You will climb into the back and I will drive you to the Zombie Underground in Seattle.”

  She said some other things too, but Kee couldn’t focus on her words. He

  understood only that Ben was leaving. And when people left, they never came back. Lo never came back.

  Kee studied the mechanisms of the door. A long, rectangular lever ran the length of the doorway. Above that, a locking handle hovered. It was a “deadbolt”. He knew because Frith had briefly placed one outside Kee’s cage—before some other scientists had come to tell Frith it wasn’t allowed.

  “Are you ready?” The coldness in her voice worried Kee. She wouldn’t look Ben’s way, either. For some reason, Shani didn’t seem to like Ben. For all Kee knew, she might gun Ben as soon as they went outside. A lump rose in Kee’s throat. Shani seemed nice enough, but he couldn’t trust her with Ben’s safety. Ben was his to protect.

  “Yes. We can go.” Kee tried to sound as sure as he could. When Shani opened the door, Kee shoved her out into the blinding light, wrenched the door closed and spun shut the deadbolt. He turned to press his back to the door in case Shani tried to open it again, but other than a series of hard pounds on the other side, the door stayed closed.

  “What the fuck did you do?” Ben’s sweet brown eyes grew rounder. Only then did Kee notice his thick lashes, and the way his bottom lip trembled when he was truly terrified.