Fight or Flight [SAMPLE]

Chapter 1: Desperation in the Dark

The sharp intake of breath did not register as Georgianna awoke with a jolt. For the briefest moment, the nightmare that had plagued her filled her every thought and she didn’t realise that the surprised gasp had not been her own. However, a shift of weight on her bed and a warm hand against her skin brought her back to her senses.

The lamps had been extinguished in the prison block yet through the dank grey of the night, Georgianna could see the man hovering over her. He perched on the edge of her bed, his hand frozen against her stomach.

His long, lank hair was pulled back in a tight braid that hung between his shoulders, brown eyes gleaming. Leaning over her, he pushed his hand harder against her skin, her shirt rumpled just under her breast. His fingers slipped under the material and his lips pulled back into a predatory snarl as he shifted his weight, holding her against the bed.

Georgianna screamed, forgetting reason as she kicked and hit out. The man, a prisoner she had seen around the block but never actually spoken to, bared his teeth and clambered onto the bed. Wrestling Georgianna against the mattress, he pinned her thighs with his legs.

“Shhhh!”

She gnashed her teeth as his hand came down against her lips. Thrashing beneath him, she stared fearfully up at him with wide, brown eyes, thrusting against his chest.

“Get off!”

She wriggled, trying to find any way of upsetting his balance and toppling him onto the cell floor. Squealing and thrashing, she squeezed her eyes shut and hit out, catching him in the shoulder and bringing forth a grunt of pain.

Without warning, a large hand clamped down on the man’s neck and hauled him off. Georgianna opened her eyes. Squirming up the bed, she sat up. The newcomer, Dhiren, was glaring at her attacker as he held him captive.

“Vtensu!” Dhiren snarled at him. “You’re fucking filth, Hallun.”

Struggling to free himself from the hold on his neck, Hallun could barely turn his head to look at the other man. Dhiren was stocky, and tall too. Despite how hard Hallun struggled, it was clear that he stood little chance of freeing himself.

“Get off, Yote!” he sneered.

“You calling me a coyote, Hallun? Nothing more than a dog?”

There was a whisper of amusement in Dhiren’s voice. Georgianna stared back at them, too scared to move, but she could almost believe that the second man might be enjoying himself. It wasn’t the first time Georgianna had heard Dhiren called a yote within the Lyndbury Compound walls. The other prisoners saw him as a savage attack dog, only controlled by the brothers who ran the block.

Since her incarceration for her involvement in the escape of two dreta, slaves to Adveni owners, Georgianna had learned the way things worked in the compound. Having visited the compound regularly as a medic, she knew that the guards rarely entered the prison blocks, but she quickly realised that there was a strict hierarchy within the block walls. The laws within the block were to be followed unless inmates wanted to suffer at the hands of those in charge when the guards were not around. Dhiren, fortunately for her, had a high place in the hierarchy, second only to the brothers, Ta-Dao and Vajra.

Tugging Hallun towards the door of the cell, Dhiren stopped short as he realised that the way had been blocked. Georgianna sat up a little straighter, wrapping her arms protectively around her stomach at the sight of Ta-Dao.

“Dhi?” he murmured.

Ta-Dao’s stance in the doorway, the way he lifted his hand and rubbed it blearily over his face, gave the impression of a man who had been woken by the commotion and stumbled into it by accident. However, even in the dark, Georgianna could see his alert gaze dart from Dhiren, over Georgianna, before finally settling on Hallun.