Gideon looked down at the tiny woman sprawled out in his palm, unconscious. He ran one finger over her little curves, pausing at the sparkling amethyst collar. Then he dumped her onto the table, noting that she didn’t wake back up. The little thing had had quite a fright.

Good.

The women in his belly had stopped moving as well, which probably meant that they are suffocated. Or succumbed to his stomach acids. Either way, they were dead and he felt a sadistic sort of contentment. The first time that he eaten a woman, he had experienced a heady rush of excitement. Not only was it taboo, but the idea of it, that he was a superior predator, thrilled him. He had eaten Nulls as well, but they couldn’t shriek like women. Mostly they just made that horrible choking sound that substituted for screams.

He glanced over at Paige, lying facedown on the table with her dark hair spread out around her. It was difficult to believe that years ago, she would have been around his height. Oh, he had seen all of the old news footage, read through the newspaper articles and scientific journals and even the op-ed pieces. Gideon had gone through a period in which he was obsessed with the pre-virus era. What surprised him was how many men (they weren’t called Alphas back then, he supposed) had actually defended the rights of women and Nulls.

There had been one article in The New York Times by a man who wrote poignantly about his wife and daughters. It had made Gideon feel uneasy and he couldn’t understand why. The thought of actually caring for a non-Alpha child was particularly puzzling. He had tried the breeding route himself (most Alphas were expected to do so) but when he had shown up at one of the breeding centers to satisfy his curiosity, he had been severely disappointed. He had picked up one of the females, her belly already swollen, and asked the physician what it would be.

When the other Alpha had refused to meet his gaze, he had known instantly. A Null. The thought had been too horrible to bear and he had immediately dismissed the physician, glancing down at the frightened creature in his palm. A quick squeeze, a subtle crunch, and the woman stopped moving in his hand. He had glanced briefly at the ruined red thing and then flicked it in the garbage can on his way out.

Gideon sat there, lost in thought, until Will showed up again.

“I picked up the dry cleaning,” the other Alpha told him, staring at the drying blood on the plate. Was that concern on Will’s face?

“Wonderful. Now go put that one back in her cage.” Gideon pointed at the unconscious woman. She moaned and stirred slightly at the sound of his voice. Will did as he was told, scooping up Paige and carrying her away. As the other Alpha disappeared through the doors, he reached out and touched the maroon splotches of blood on the plate, slowly swirling them beneath his fingertips.

***

Paige was running, her teeth bared in hopeless determination.

Ahead of her was a gigantic open door, tantalizing close. Over the threshold were trees and flowers and a breathtakingly beautiful sky. And her freedom.

But no matter had fast she ran, she couldn’t reached the door. It seemed as if she were trapped in one spot, like being on a treadmill. In the back of her mind, she knew that she had to get away, that Gideon was coming for her and that the last thing that she would see was his vicious smile.

She was still running in place when she awoken by the sound of running water. Warily, she looked around, sitting up. The surface below her was warm and leathery and with a sinking heart, she realized that she was on an immense palm. At first, she expected to see Gideon’s looming face above her, but when she saw that it was Will, she relaxed a bit.

They were in the vast kitchen with its designer appliances and granite countertops. The Alpha was holding her in one hand while he soaked a white facecloth under the faucet. Paige flinched when he began to run the wet cloth over her skin.

“Hold still,” Will said as she quivered. “He did quite a number on you, didn’t he?”

Not as bad as what he done to the others, she thought, gazing up into the giant’s hazel eyes. They were disarmingly gentle and she found herself blurting out, “He’s a monster.”

Will frowned. “He’s a bit extreme at times, I’ll admit that.”

The cloth felt good against her bruised and bloodied skin, as did the antibacterial lotion that he rubbed on with the broad pad of his index finger. She got the impression that Gideon hadn’t asked him to do this, but she didn’t question the small act of kindness.

“Do you ever wish that it was different?” Paige asked.

“What’s that?”

“Everything.”

“Sometimes,” he answered to her surprise. She had been expecting a resolute “No.” Although she wanted to probe further, she didn’t dare. He was an Alpha, after all, and if she angered him, he could kill her just as easily as Gideon. But it turned out that she didn’t need to question him; he began to elaborate on his own.

“I’ve been taught that Alphas are meant to rule the world, that we’re larger and stronger than everyone else. But sometimes I see horrible…things…that disturb me. A lot.” Will was struggling for words. “I know that most Alphas view women and Nulls as less than human.”

Paige didn’t interrupt; she remained quiet as he laboriously followed his thoughts.

“I had a fraternal twin. From what I understand, her name was Kylie,” Will said. “I wasn’t supposed to know and such information isn’t readily available. After all, what Alpha wants to know that his twin is…”

“…like me?” Paige finished for him.

Will nodded, obviously not understanding the implicit insult that he had directed her way. “I don’t think Gideon knows. I don’t think many people outside of the breeding center where I was born know, thankfully. Anyway, I think about her a lot, especially what’s happened to her. Sometimes I even think about trying to find her.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Because there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to see her,” he admitted. “Because I’m afraid that I’ll just pity her. Or feel repulsed.”

“I see,” Paige said quietly.

Will smiled uneasily at her. “I’d better bring you back to your cage now, huh?”

She muttered a reply, wishing that things were indeed different.

***

Alicia was ecstatic to see her, hugging her fiercely. When she asked what had happened, Paige lied. “Not much” was a better answer than the horrific truth. That idea that Gideon could and probably would do the same thing to her friend was terrifying.

They had to get out of this place somehow. Despite the Alpha’s threats, Paige knew that she had no other choice. She also understood that she had to take Alicia with her. If she managed to escape and her friend didn’t, Gideon would take out his anger on Alicia. And it didn’t take much imagination to envision what he’d do to her. She saw the serrated knife again, wet with fresh blood.

Yes, Alicia had to come with her.

But each escape plan that she imagined ended in failure. Trying to pick the lock on the cage door? The lock was on the outside, not the inside. Trying to flee from the giant when he took them out? He would flatten them underfoot before they could make it across the room. The frustration of her situation made her grind her teeth.

As she stared sullenly through the cage bars, a Null appeared. It was the one from before, an older man with salt-and-pepper hair. He began to slide food between the bars, carefully keeping his gaze on the floor of the cage. Paige watched him for a moment, and then she called out, “Thank you.”

The Null looked startled, as if she had zapped him with a jolt of electricity rather than address him. His face was lined with age, she saw, and she guessed that he was middle-aged. Once again, she wondered how he had managed to survive so long when the Alphas detested their smaller brethren.

“Don’t talk to it!” Alicia hissed, clutching her shoulder.

Paige gently but firmly removed her friend’s hand. “Why?”

“Because it’s a Null! It gives me the willies just looking at it. It’s so…gross.”

“I don’t think he’s gross,” Paige asserted. The other women in the cage had obviously overheard the conversation and were now staring at her with shocked expressions. The Null’s expression was neutral and she couldn’t tell if he was offended or not. Most likely, he was used to hearing such comments.

Alicia screwed her face up into a disdainful grimace and for once, Paige felt anger toward her friend. She got the impression that Alicia would have said more, but the Null scurried away, disappearing back down the cage ladder. The women practically pounced upon the food, hands greedily grasping for chunks of bread. Paige was particularly ravenous and she ate until her stomach ached.

She was just finishing eating when she spotted Gideon in the doorway, towering there ominously. Her stomach twisted painfully at the sight of him. Please, please, please leave us alone, she silently begged, her eyes tracking him as he walked past the first few cages.

He went to the cage across from them, unlocking the door and snatching up a fistful of women. They wiggled in his hand but not one of them dared to make a peep. As the Alpha turned back toward the doorway, he glanced back over his broad shoulder, gazing directly at Paige.

And then he winked.

***

The women in Paige’s cage were pacing around, trying to exercise their legs as best as they could. Gideon hadn’t visited them in a week and rumor had spread that he had gone to D.C. for some sort of important meeting. She hoped that his plane or car would crash and that he would die in a fiery wreck, screaming as he burned alive.

If only she could get out the cage. She was running her fingers along the bars, testing them, when Will entered the room. With Gideon gone, he hadn’t bothered to wear his suit jacket, and she could see the powerful lines of his torso beneath his white dress shirt. As she studied him, she remembered the way that he had treated her wounds; for a second, she even felt the facecloth against her skin again. Paige blushed when the giant looked over at her. He was handsome, like Gideon, but unlike the other Alpha, he wasn’t a bloodthirsty monster. So she allowed her eyes to linger on him, even when he approached the cage.

She wondered what he wanted. The Alpha moved with a certain hesitance, almost as if he were afraid that someone was watching him. Well, someone besides all of the tiny women. Someone like Gideon, except the other giant was miles and miles away.

The cage door squeaked noisily as Will pulled it open. To her surprise, he didn’t snatch her up but offered his palm to her. Paige looked up at the youthful, freckled face, trying to determine what he wanted. But his expression gave nothing away. Carefully, she crawled onto his hand, the mammoth fingers curling around her.

The giant locked the cage door again and then brought her outside, to the exact balcony where Gideon had butchered those poor women. Paige stared at the patio table, once again seeing the plate with the splatters of blood. When she blinked, it was gone and all that she saw was the table and the balcony and beyond that, the splendor of the gardens.

Will put her down on the table, rolled up his sleeves. His darkly-tanned arms weren’t overly muscular but they were undeniably masculine, with wide hands. Gideon had the long-fingered hands of a strangler; Will had the hands of a workman. She found herself admiring them in a way that she hadn’t before.

“I’ve been thinking about our last conversation,” Will said, folding his arms across his chest. Paige had just started imagining what it would like to have those enormous fingers run over the length of her body. Not like Gideon’s touch, which had been hostile and possessive, but gentle. She felt herself blush and turned her face a bit so that he wouldn’t see.

“You have?”

“Yes. I mean, the way that Gideon acts. There’s not really much that I can say, since he’s my boss and he could have me blacklisted if I piss him off. And he would, too.” Will looked contemplative. “I’m hoping that someday, I’ll have enough influence where they’ll allow me to keep my own women.”

A long silence ensued; Paige wasn’t certain what to say. The Alpha’s eyes were on her, almost yearningly, and then his hand was stretching toward her. His index finger paused a fraction of a centimeter next to her skin, so close that she could feel his body heat. She saw where he was looking: at the “G” tattooed into her back, the constant reminder of her owner.

“Go ahead. He won’t know,” Paige told him.

Will touched her almost shyly, the raised ridges of his finger tickling her bare skin. This was clearly a man who was accustomed to procuring women but who wasn’t used to touching them in intimate ways. At least he was gentle, feeling her limbs and breasts and the dark tresses that surrounded her face. When the pad of his finger touched the junction of her legs, she experienced an unexpected jolt of pleasure. The pressure and warmth against her clitoris made her gasp and instinctively thrust her hips forward against the gigantic finger.

Encouraged by her cry, Will began to stroke more boldly, spreading her thighs with the tip of his finger. The giant’s caresses were exquisite, like nothing that she had imagined. The pleasure swelled, expanded, until she felt the violent spasms of climax. Paige shuddered against Will’s finger, reflexively digging her own small hands into his skin.

She savored the sensations that rippled throughout her body. But most of all, she enjoyed this small act of defiance, knowing how furious Gideon would be if he found out. She imagined his handsome face, his mouth contorted into a snarl of rage, and it brought a small smile to her lips. Now there was a wonderful thought.

***

Over the next few days, Will visited her cage on a routine basis, becoming bolder and bolder each time. Paige found that she didn’t mind being held by him and sometimes, she would fantasize about having him as an owner. And once in awhile, she would imagine that she was the same size as he was, which was an utterly ludicrous fantasy. Still, she tried to picture what it’d be like to unbutton his suit jacket with her fingers and then kiss the solidness of the chest beneath.

If only things were different.

Much to her disappointment, Gideon didn’t die in a car crash like she had been hoping that he would. When he swaggered into the mansion, back from his trip, Paige felt utter desolation. He inspected each of the cages, his eyes hovering possessively over the tiny captives. When his eyes fell on her, she wisely looked away. Better to appear docile than defiant. She was aware of what happened to those who dared to stand up to the giant.

His cell phone rang, making her jump. Gideon noticed her surprise and smiled fiendishly at her as he answered it. It was impossible to hear the caller, so Paige only overheard parts of the conversation. Something about his (Gideon’s?) birthday party. Apparently, it was in a few days and he was making plans for it. As he talked, he approached her cage. Paige and the other women backed away as he slowly ran one finger over the bars, still chatting and occasionally laughing.

As the finger slid past her, Paige ground her teeth together. I hate you, she thought. Almost as if Gideon heard her thoughts, he stopped talking and flicked the cage, startling her even more. She scrambled to the corner of the cage, her heart throbbing.

“Oh, it’s going to be a great party,” the giant said to the caller, all the while grinning at her.

***

“It’s going to be a terrible party,” Annie told Paige. She was a small, unassuming brunette, her features neither homely nor beautiful. Of all the women, Annie had been there the longest and Paige suspected that it had to do with her ability to blend in. In a place like this, standing out was extremely dangerous.

Annie glanced around cautiously, as if Gideon was eavesdropping on them. The onyx collar twinkled around her neck. “I was here for last year’s party. At first, it wasn’t so bad. Gideon brought us all out to show off to the other Alphas. They stared at us a lot, which was uncomfortable, and some of them picked us up. But that was it. It was after the party that…”

The other woman’s voice trailed off.

“What happened?” Paige gently prodded.

“He took us back to the bedroom.” Annie’s gray eyes were distant. “There were at least a hundred of us. He just…went mad. We were on the floor and he started to stomp on us indiscriminately, one after the other. I remember being near my friend Elisa, trying to run, and then his foot came down on her and-and I felt her blood on me. It was on my face, my hands, everywhere. I felt like I was drowning in it.”

“Oh my God.”

“I managed to hide behind a table leg. Gideon stepped on everyone that he saw, hunting them down like animals. To this day, it was the most awful thing that I’ve ever seen. The carpet was so drenched with blood that it squelched when he walked on it,” Annie said, and her voice was flat and eerily emotionless. “He went to bed after that, and the next morning, he put me and the rest of the survivors back in the cages as if nothing had happened.”

The horrible thing was that Paige completely believed her. Gideon was certainly capable of such atrocities, and she feared that this year’s party would be no different than last year’s. She closed her eyes, once again plotting her escape.

***

The tiny woman remained on her hands and knees, looking up at Gideon with trepidation. He was almost certain that her name was Lisa, although he didn’t bother to confirm it with her. To him, she was Lisa, whether that was actually her name or not.

Gideon had playing with her for half an hour and frankly, she was beginning to bore him. Lisa noticed his growing restlessness and it clearly frightened her. She had redoubled her efforts to amuse him, moaning and using lines that were straight out of some old-fashioned porno.

“Oh, Master, I’m so horny! I want you to pleasure me! Please!” Lisa pled. God, she was a terrible actress. The boredom was starting to get to him, so he reached over and picked up a small black bag. Inside were all kinds of objects that were help make the situation a lot more exciting.

Lisa saw him unzipping the bag and her eyes opened impossibly wide.

“No, wait! Don’t hurt me, please!” This time she wasn’t pretending. The fear was real and he enjoyed it.

“You’ve outlived your usefulness, I’m afraid,” Gideon told her with a smirk.

There was desperation spreading across her face. “I’m useful, I swear! I have useful information!” Lisa saw him take out an X-Acto knife, the blade lethally sharp. “I’ve seen what Will has been doing!”

Gideon put down the knife, raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Do tell.”

Watching him warily, she sat up, trying to be bold. “If you promise to let me live.”

He grabbed her before she had a chance to run away, cupping her in his palm. With his other hand, he withdrew a wooden barbecue skewer from the bag. Lisa spotted it and started to wail, holding out her hands as if she could actually stop him.

“You are in no position to bargain with me,” Gideon sneered. He caressed the tiny nubs of her breasts with the sharp tip of the skewer, excited when her eyes bulged from their sockets.

“Will’s been seeing Paige! I saw him taking her out of the cage! Don’t hurt me!” She cried out.

“Is that so?”

“I swear! I swear!”

Gideon mulled this information over. He should have been irritated. Hell, he should have been furious. But curiously, he was only mildly amused.

“I believe you,” he said to the tiny woman who was shivering and sweating in his hand. Then he gently placed the point of the skewer between her legs, forcing them open. Yowling, she began to writhe, but he ignored the frantic noises that she made. His mind was on Will, and how he was going to make him squirm.

The skewer met a small amount of resistance as he forced it upward, through her vagina and into her uterus. Her legs drummed against his hand, her shrieks unrestrained. Up through her body cavity the skewer went, and she was dead by the time that it erupted out of her gaping mouth.

He dropped the skewer and the minuscule body impaled upon it. It was time to see his personal assistant.

***

Gideon stirred the drink in his hand, looking at the flames as they danced in the fireplace.

Will eventually poked his head in, and perhaps it was the other Alpha’s expression, but he immediately looked uneasy. Flashing him a disarming smile, Gideon gestured toward one of the other chairs.

“Sit down, Will,” he said. Reluctantly, the other man did as he was told, his face blanching. Gideon enjoyed his obvious discomfort, watching as he folded his hands in his lap.

“My goodness, you look nervous,” he observed. “Is anything alright?”

“Everything’s fine,” Will muttered.

“I’m glad to hear that. Care for a drink?”

“I’d rather not.”

Gideon was already standing up, and his words were forceful. “I insist.”

Will looked like a beaten dog as the other Alpha made him a drink and then practically shoved the glass into his hand. The only sounds were the ice tinkling in the glass and the faint crackling of the logs in the fireplace. Gideon didn’t sit back down until Will had taken several reluctant gulps of the gin.

“So your trip went well?” Will asked, trying to break the silence.

“It went very well, especially considering that I had you here to watch over my things.”

The glass shook in Will’s hand as he raised it to his mouth, took another large swallow. “It was my pleasure, of course.”

“Of course. I’m so glad that I can always trust you, Will,” Gideon commented, noting how the other Alpha refused to meet his eyes. Will drained the rest of his glass, looking utterly miserable. He set it down on the table and Gideon promptly snatched it up, refilled it.

“Thank you,” Will murmured, downing that glass as well. Gideon didn’t answer; he just stared until his assistant looked up and met his eyes.

“Gideon, I need to tell you something,” Will said, and a smile slowly crept across Gideon’s face.

***

Paige was sleeping on the floor of the cage, stretched out near Alicia, when footsteps awoke her. she looked up in dread, expecting to see Gideon towering above her. But it was Will, swaying ever so slightly. She could smell the alcohol on him; he was practically sweating the stuff.

“Will?” She whispered.

“Shhhh.” The Alpha opened the cage door with clumsy fingers. Paige would have stepped into his hand, had he offered it. But he seized her roughly, pulling her upwards so quickly that her head spun. In the darkness, she could feel his breath on her, redolent with the faint juniper scent of gin.

“What’s going on?” Paige demanded, although he didn’t answer. His breathing changed, faster and more irregular, and then something warm and wet splashed down onto her upturned face. Another huge droplet landed on her chest, soaking her.

“Are you okay?” She was concerned, although her thoughts were more immediately focused on how tight Will was holding her. The giant’s fingers dug painfully into her stomach and hips, and she tried to wiggle into a less restrictive position.

Will didn’t respond right away, although she saw him wiping repeatedly at his face.

“Gideon knows,” he finally mumbled.

Paige stared up at him, horrified. The implication of his words…well, she couldn’t even think about that without her blood turning to ice. I’m a dead woman, she thought. The coldness in her veins had spread to her limbs and she felt numb as Will brought her out into the hallway.

The Alpha’s eyes were bloodshot, and it wasn’t just from the booze. He sank down in one of the plush chairs lining the hall, his head lolling a bit. “I-I shouldn’t have drank with him. I can’t handle alcohol at all, and he just sat there, staring at me. I never felt so guilty in my life…I had to tell him.”

“Will, how could you—,” Paige started, interrupted when the giant raised her to his mouth. Normally, his kisses were gentle, but now they were desperate and she tried to shove his questing lips away. It was like trying to push away a mountain and she gasped as he threatened to smother her, his gin-fragrant breath hot against her skin.

“Please, no! Mmmph!” Her face was pressed against his lower lip, the soft flesh suffocating her. And although she pounded at the lip, hammering it with both fists, he didn’t pull away until she was convinced that he would kill her by accident. The hand holding her drifted downward, coming to a rest on his belly. As the mammoth fingers gradually relaxed, she saw that his eyes were closed, his mouth slack.

Paige remained where she was until she was convinced that he had passed out. She hesitated for a split second, studying Will’s faraway features. Then she crawled out from underneath his hand, kneeling on the warm expanse of his abdomen. She rose and fell in time with his steady breathing.

This was her chance.

Despite the fact that his body was limp, Paige still had a difficult time crawling down. She clung onto the fabric of his trousers like a spider, slipping and sliding down. More than once, she feared that he would wake up, but he remained in an alcohol-induced slumber. Finally, she made it to the floor, Will high above her like some gigantic seated statue.

As much as she wanted to get outside, she knew that she had to free Alicia first. After one last glance at the sleeping giant, she darted across the hallway, toward the room with the cages. Every second was precious; Gideon knew about her betrayal and would no doubt be coming for her. She imagined him appearing at the opposite end of the hallway, that horrible smile on his face.

Paige sprinted faster.

The Null moved out of the darkness and she gasped, nearly running into him. She recognized the gray and black hair, the neutral expression. For some reason, she expected him to reach out and grab her, or at least, warn the Alphas that she was escaping. But he merely moved out of her way, his eyes following her as she ran for the ladders.

Paige’s hands found the rungs of the ladders and she began to climb, working her way past the stacks of cages. The other women watched her, their eyes shining in the darkness, and she wished very much that she could free all of them. But there were so many cages and so little time.

“Alicia!” She shouted as soon as she reached her friend’s cage. Alicia rushed toward her, gripping the bars and peering through them.

“Paige, what are you doing?”

“Freeing you!” Already she was prying at the lock, working at it with nimble fingers.

“But won’t Gideon know?” Alicia sounded horrified. “Where will we go?”

“Anywhere but here,” Paige replied, trying to concentrate on the lock. It was taking all of her strength to open it, something that the giants could have done effortlessly.

“But there are cats and hawks out there. We’ll get killed!”

With a metallic thunk, the lock finally opened. Paige sighed, relieved. “We’ll get killed if we stay here, and it’ll be much worse than anything that a cat or hawk would do.”

Her friend didn’t argue with this, pushing at the cage door and slipping through. The other captives in the cage didn’t follow her, except with their eyes. There were a mixture of expressions amongst them, hesitance and fear and wishfulness. Paige and Alicia didn’t linger for very long; they clambered down the ladder. Where would they go? The question gnawed at Paige as she groped for each rung with her feet and hands. There weren’t very many houses in the area, so maybe they could survive in the forest. But for how long?

Longer than they’d survive here, that was the answer.

Paige’s feet touched the floor at last and she helped Alicia down. Even in the darkness, she felt terribly exposed, standing out in the open. As quietly as they could, they crept toward the open door, pausing when they reached the hallway. Paige peeked around the doorframe, noticing that Will hadn’t woken up yet. The other end of the hall was still empty.

“Let’s go,” she whispered, finding Alicia’s hand and pulling her along. They stepped out into the bright light of the hallway, her friend shielding her eyes. It was safer to stay close to the wall, and so they scurried single file down the length of the hall. What would have taken an Alpha a few dozen steps took them hundreds, and the hallway seemed to be impossibly long.

When they reached the end at last, Paige experienced a brief burst of triumph. But that quickly turned to terror as Will groaned and tried to sit up in the chair. Alicia froze, staring at the giant as he turned his head in their direction.

“Alicia, come on!” Paige yanked on her friend’s shoulders, dragging her through the doorway. Already she was looking for an escape route. As the floor began to vibrate with the approaching giant’s footsteps, she spotted an air vent. To them, it was hundreds of feet away. To an Alpha, it was only a few feet. Paige took a deep breath, then bolted for the vent. Behind her, Alicia was panting and whimpering at the same time.

The vent stood before them, their gateway to freedom. She lowered her head slightly, forced her legs to pump harder. It was so close…

And then Will’s foot stomped down right in front of them, close enough that Paige felt the floorboards tremble beneath the impact. She looked up, saw his grasping hand and beyond that, his red-rimmed eyes. Although she was able to dodge the gargantuan hand, Alicia wasn’t so lucky. Her friend disappeared in his fist.

“Don’t,” she pleaded, trying to stay away from his other hand. But he knocked her over with his immense fingers, trying to grab her. She fought him like a feral cat, twisting on the floor and scratching at the leathery flesh all around her. At one point, she felt the collar around her neck break, amethysts scattering all around her. Of course, she was no match for someone who could have crushed her beneath his thumb, and his fingers closed around her body.

“Will!” She cried, punching at her captor’s hand. “Will, put me down!”

He didn’t respond, so she said as calmly as she could, “You need to let us go. If you bring us back to him, he’ll kill us and you know it.”

The giant raised to her to eye-level, close enough that could have touched his dark eyelashes. “I’m sorry, Paige. But if I let you go, Gideon will know and I’ll lose this job.”

“Jesus, Will! It’s just a job!”

“No, it’s a place in society. If I want to move up, I have to keep it,” the giant explained as if she were an idiot. In his other hand, Alicia wept. Paige felt her mouth quivering with rage and hopelessness.

“You’re as bad as he is,” she hissed, pleased when he glanced away, ashamed. But her victory was small; already, he was carrying toward the study…and Gideon.

***

“So you were going behind my back?” The blond-haired giant was standing by the fireplace, half of his face illuminated. “How disappointing.”

He certainly didn’t sound disappointed, that was for sure. Paige loathed everything about him: his cruel eyes, his smug smile. Every time that she struggled in Will’s hand, he squeezed her hard enough that she had no choice but to stop. Alicia was no longer crying, although she stared at Gideon with abject terror. When he lowered his head down toward them, she flinched. He spent an unnecessarily long time studying her, probably trying to unnerve her even more.

Then his murderous gaze moved to Paige, focusing on her like a spotlight. When she managed not to look away, his eyes crawled from her face to her neck.

“Oh my! It seems like your collar has come off,” Gideon observed. “And we know what that means, hmm?”

His grim warning of what would happen if the collar was removed came rushing back to her. Paige’s voice was shrill, desperate. “No, Gideon! Please! Not her! She didn’t do anything!”

To her surprise, Will spoke up. Or tried to, at any rate. “Gideon, I…”

“Shut up, Will,” the other Alpha snarled.

“Yessir.”

“Give the blonde one to me.”

“But Gideon…”

Without another word, Gideon held out his hand, his dark blue eyes flat and cold and dead. Will didn’t listen to Paige’s high-pitched protests, instead dropping Alicia onto his palm. He looked down at the tiny woman, his eyebrows lifting slightly.

“You can blame your friend for this,” the Alpha told her and she began to screech incoherently.

Alicia’s scream was cut-off as Gideon’s thumb and index finger closed around her head. With one quick motion, he twisted her head and pulled, as if it were the cap on a tube of lotion. Alicia didn’t shriek as he decapitated her, although she had an astonished expression on her pretty face as blood spurted up, flecking her pale skin. The giant pinched her friend’s head, several of the gore-streaked vertebrae still attached, and then pitched it into the crackling fire.

Paige continued to shout threats at him until her throat ached. Not that it mattered. Alicia was dead, and soon, she would be as well. And who would remember her? Will? Maybe. But she hated him as much as Gideon. Even now, he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Defeated, she slouched down in Will’s fist. Gideon rubbed his bloodstained fingers together, continuing to chat as if he hadn’t just slaughtered her friend. “Tomorrow is my birthday. And oh, do I have some special plans for you.”

She couldn’t even summon up the strength to be terrified.

“See how easy they are to break?” Gideon said to Will, as if Paige wasn’t even there. “I’d suggest that you keep that in mind for when you get your own.”

Will said something in response, but she was no longer listening. Her mind floated far, far away, and there she remained until the giants put her back into the cage.

****

“Alicia, get up! Please!” Paige shook her friend, panicking when the other woman just turned her head slightly. She looked more apathetic than anything else, lying there on the cage floor. What was her problem? This was their chance to get away, and she didn’t move, except to smile sadly.

“Gideon will be back any minute! Don’t you want to be free?” Paige was practically shouting. Alicia shook her head, her melancholy smile broadening. Reaching up, she yanked on her diamond collar, hard enough to break it. Glittering jewels spilled around her body; a second later, her head also hit the cage floor, rolling to a stop near Paige’s feet.

Paige screamed loud enough to wake herself up.

She was alone in the cage, the first rays of dawn filtering in through the window. Of course she was alone. Alicia was gone, her body nothing more than cold ash in the fireplace. And today was her murderer’s birthday. She recalled what Annie had said about his previous birthday, how the carpet had been saturated with blood. Was he going to do the same thing to her? Although she wasn’t sure about the method, she knew that he was going to kill her, probably in a excruciating way.

So this was her last day on Earth. Through the bars of the cage, she could see the window and the outside world, so beautiful that it was almost ethereal. At least she had that sight. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she wept for Alicia, for herself, for everyone in this wretched world.

A head popped up in front of the cage, followed by two hands. It was the older Null, the one that Paige had seen so many times before. Not surprisingly, he didn’t say anything as he finished pulling himself up the ladder. She thought that he was there to deliver food, but she quickly noticed that he didn’t have any supplies with him. Strange. Even stranger, he began to pick at the lock on the cage door. No, he couldn’t be trying to free her.

Could he?

Astonished, Paige watched as he unlocked the door. As the door swung open, she had a hundred questions that she wanted to ask him. At the top of the list was the obvious question: “Why?” But she didn’t inquire. Instead, she merely said, “Thank you.”

The Null’s expression didn’t change, although his hands rose up into the air, moving with a fluid grace. Sign language, she realized, watching the elaborate hand movements. That was probably how the Nulls communicated with one another. She wished very much that she could understand him, although she took some consolation in the fact that he could understand her.

She crept out of the cage, wanting to thank him again for this opportunity. But she knew better than to waste her last chance at escape. With one last glance at the Null, she began to climb down the ladder, moving as quickly as she could manage. Getting outside was her objective, and she concentrated on that. It helped to push away the overwhelming fear that Gideon would suddenly show up and grind her into the floorboards. She ran across the room, then down the hall, each step bringing her closer to freedom.

When Paige arrived at the entranceway, the same area where Will had captured her earlier, she heard earthquake-like footsteps. She didn’t hesitate; she raced toward the air vent, reaching it before the footsteps became louder, more forceful. Although it took some doing, she was able to wiggle between one of the slots in the vent cover, landing with a thump on the other side.

It was dark inside of the vent shaft and Paige felt her way along, her bare feet stirring up fine particles of dust. Something scratched in the blackness, the ominous sounds echoing around her, and she hoped very much that it wasn’t a rat. The noises eventually stopped and she continued to grope along, her fingertips feeling for the smooth metal of the vent wall. Honestly, she had no idea where she was going. But at least she wasn’t in the cage anymore.

Occasionally, she heard voices, rumbling and unintelligible. At first, they sounded calm enough; then, she heard the dangerous anger in them. It seemed like Gideon had noticed that she was missing. For a moment, she thought of the Null, and she prayed that the Alphas hadn’t blamed him for her escape. If they knew that he was responsible for freeing her…well, she could imagine what they’d do to him. If only she could help him as well.

Eventually she spotted dim, yellowish light up ahead. There was another vent cover, and when she glanced through it, she didn’t see anything at first. Paige began to climb through one of the slots, then stopped when she spotted him. Will saw her as well and strode toward the vent, the ground shaking at his approach. She pulled her head and shoulders back through the slot just as the giant stooped down, grabbing for her.

The light vanished as Will’s freckled face appeared in front of the slots. They stared at one another, the Alpha and the tiny woman. Then he said softly, “Come out, Paige.”

She didn’t move.

“You can trust me,” Will coaxed. She wished very much that she could believe him, but she heard the desperation and the slightest hint of anger in his voice.

“Good-bye, Will.” Already, she was backing away from the vent cover. He blinked, once, twice, his lips parting. Paige watched him, creeping away backwards until she was far enough down the vent shaft. His eyes continued to follow her until she rounded the corner.

***

The ventilation system was like a maze, and she followed it blindly until she found it: her escape route.

Through the narrow slots in the vent cover, she could see that someone had left a window cracked open, the wind causing the curtains to flutter gently. Paige crawled out of the vent, her eyes scanning for Gideon or Will. But they were nowhere to be seen. Thank God that this was such a huge house. It made finding her more difficult, although she knew that Gideon would eventually grow weary of chasing her and do something drastic, like throwing bug bombs into the ventilation system.

She dashed to the bottom of one of the curtains, grabbed the edge of it, and started to climb, gripping the thick threads with her fingers. The curtain swayed and rippled from the wind, but she managed to clutch onto the fabric. By the time that she reached the window sill, her arms ached dully and she wanted nothing more than to rest. But she couldn’t, not with the giants pursuing her.

Paige looked out, trying to determine her next move.

There was a neatly-trimmed bush of some kind directly below the window. It was probably no more than a foot away, but to her, it seemed like an incredible distance. She stood there, trying to decide what to do, the cool wind causing her skin to break out in goosebumps. When a door slammed nearby and she heard rapid footsteps, she drew a deep breath.

And jumped.

Her body tumbled through the air, leaves rustling and twigs snapping as she fell through the bush. Just before she struck the ground, she managed to latch onto one of the branches. She hung there, her breaths coming out in ragged gasps. Once she had gathered up enough strength, she pulled herself up onto the branch and slithered along it. Paige transferred to a lower branch, then another and another, until she was close enough to the ground that she could drop down safely.

She had made it.

It was difficult to believe. Slowly, she looked around her, at the lead-colored sky and the gardens and the woods in the distance. Despite the chilly wetness of the air and the dismal gray sky, she still felt a burst of joy. For a moment, she stood there, caught up in the exhilaration of freedom, and then doubt began to creep in. What about wild animals, like raccoons? How should she eat? What if Gideon found her?

It didn’t matter.

She began to run through the towering blades of grass, as fast as her legs would carry her.

***

“She’s gone,” Will informed the other Alpha, cringing like a whipped mongrel.

“Yes, I can see that.”

“Do you think that she made it outside?” Will asked, watching as Gideon pulled on his fox hunting boots, one after the other. He moved with a deliberate precision, his face oddly calm, even serene.

“That’s a possibility,” Gideon answered. Really, he was hoping that she had made it outside. After all, it would make hunting her so much more exciting.