2
Escape
The gatesof the prison were opening. They weren’t supposed to do that for people like Will. Once those gates closed, they were supposed to remain forever sealed to those with sentences for life. William took a step forward, past the chainlink fence and let out the breath he hadn’t known he was holding. This was real. He glanced briefly over at Maddox, who was looking forward with a slight smile on his face. He seemed very pleased with himself. Every instinct William had told him not to trust this man. He had met people like Maddox before. They enjoyed power, and because they enjoyed power, they often enjoyed inflicting pain. It was how they felt a measure of their control.
William was under no illusions that this represented a true chance at freedom. Whatever he’d signed no doubt indebted him to the cold master beside him. But it might still be an opportunity for freedom, given enough time. These gates and walls, their razor wires, dogs, and armed turrets, these were obstacles that would no longer be in play on the outside.
An armored SUV slid up outside the gate. It looked like military or federal origin. William took a breath to calm himself. There was an agenda in play that he was not familiar with, but he was sure the truth would emerge soon enough.
The disinterested lady in the cloak room had given him his stuff back in a paper bag. There wasn’t much. A lighter. A pack of cigarettes. A phone.
The clothes he’d gone into prison with didn’t fit anymore. The t-shirt was now so tight over his shoulders and across his belly it threatened to rip. He’d been much less muscular when he went in. Running and hiding had left little in the way of opportunity to lift weights or bulk. But three years on the inside lent itself to nothing but weights and bulk. He was almost twice the man he’d been when he went in.
“We’ll get you some new clothes,” Maddox said as Will’s pants complained with the sound of seams pulling as he got into the vehicle. “Do your job well, and you’ll have the best of everything.”
“What job?”
“The only job you’re good at,” Maddox smiled.
These promises made William skeptical. The more Maddox said was coming to him, the more he was certain he was in danger. This was the definition of too good to be true, but the gates of the prison were receding behind them. That was one promise that had been made good on.
He sat and he said nothing. He was watching and waiting. Side-eye observing the man who had just done the absolute impossible and freed him. There was something about Maddox which suggested horrors. He had the calm and polished demeanor of someone who was hiding not just something, but everything. Will had learned to follow instinct throughout the course of his life. Everybody had instinct, of course, but hardly any of them could hear theirs the way he did. His gut told him that Maddox was the quiet kind of apex predator that even other predators had to worry about.
The prison was located outside the city, but not so far outside it wasn’t easy enough to reach for workers and staff. To William’s surprise, they turned toward the city and drove through the outskirts and into the very heart of it. Tall buildings and throngs of people wrapped themselves around the vehicle, the city seeming to move more than the car from time to time. He felt his breath catch in his throat and had to force himself to breathe normally. Was this freedom? Why did the city suddenly feel even more oppressive than prison ever had?
He startled as Maddox’s hand wrapped over his, bringing a sudden flush of warmth and strength and intimacy which he had not experienced in a long time.
“You’ve been incarcerated for a long time. Three years is enough time for the self to begin to degrade,” Mad said. “This will not be an easy adjustment, but I will say this: do not do anything stupid.”
His hand moved away. Will was left missing his touch. There was something magnetic about this man, the easy way he moved through the world, past barriers which were impenetrable for normal humans. It was very attractive.
The car slipped down into a basement garage underneath one of the grander buildings. Again, Will felt the walls of the world closing around him. His breath started to shorten and quicken. His muscles became tense. He felt his vision narrow as he…
“Easy,” Mad said calmly.
Will shot an annoyed glance over at him. They were strangers. How did Mad seem to know him so well already?
Mad looked back and in that glance, Will understood. Maddox was sensitive. Not in a way that made him weak, but in a way that made him exquisitely attuned to his prey. Mad felt him. Knew him. Could smell him. Could probably hear his fucking pulse.
He’d helped him settle though. The fear which had threatened to bubble up dissipated again into calmer waters.
“Who are you, really?”
“Who is not the question, is it, boy?”
He was right. The only question that really burned was what was he.
In the darkness of the underground parking garage, he had a pale appeal. There was something unholy about this man. Something entirely wrong and yet wildly charismatic. In the prison he had seemed like just another suit. Here he was something else again. A chameleon, shifting to be what the moment required him to be.
“Come,” he said. “You will be eager to see your new home.”
Will was not eager, but he was curious. Maddox had promised him a great deal for what seemed to be very little. There had to be a catch. He was certain of it.
The parking lot felt as oppressive as any part of the prison. Familiar too. Solid concrete walls, lights designed to be harsh and cold in tone and not very good at actually illuminating the spaces over which they hung.
Maddox walked toward elevator doors. Will followed. He wondered why there were not more people here. It was not safe to be alone with a criminal like him. Maddox should have known better.
Behind the man, Will felt his hunting instincts come to the fore. Neck. Kidneys. Knees. So many devastatingly vulnerable places he could strike. What would Maddox’s pain sound like? Would he scream? Probably not. He seemed like a growler.
The elevator doors opened as if they had been waiting for Mad. Will stepped in behind him and stood next to him. The violence which had flashed through his mind stopped for the moment as they rose up through the core of his new home.
Mad cast a glance over at him, his thin but sensually shaped lips curling with some secret amusement. Will pretended not to notice.
When the elevator doors opened, it was onto a large space in which furniture seemed to languish. It was probably a very modern and expensive apartment, but Will had never seen the point of houses so large you could conceivably ride a bicycle around their interiors. There was nothing cozy or home-like about a place like this.
“Nice,” he said, lying. It was not nice. It was gray. The floors were polished concrete, the walls were of similar construction. It was as though the place had never been fitted out properly, just given a coat of lacquer. The only notes of color were the red glass backsplash in the open plan kitchen which floated like a ship on a stormy sea, and in a few paintings dotted around the monstrous space, all of which shared the red theme. “Is this where you live?”
“This is where we will reside,” Maddox said, removing his coat and hanging it on a black hook next to the elevator doors.
“Just you and I?”
Maddox smiled and his teeth flashed uncomfortably pristine white with a grammatical correction. “You and me.”
One of the many incongruent oddities suddenly stood out to Will. The place was large and bare and nigh barren. It should have sounded like the inside of a tin can when they spoke.
“Why isn’t there an echo in here?”
“The walls are insulated very well, as are the floors and ceiling. The place is designed to absorb sound.”
What an elegant and refined way of saying nobody will hear you scream.
Will’s fists clenched. Again, he thought about attacking Maddox. This was not a safe place. This was a trap. It looked like one, and it felt like one.
“Don’t,” Maddox said calmly. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” Will looked at him with resentment and fear. The calming influence was not working anymore. He wanted to be out of here, out of the presence of this man.
He swung.
It was a mistake.
Maddox pulled his hand from his pocket and casually hit him with thousands of volts of electricity via a small handheld tasing device. It was like being hit by a very painful truck. Will went down within a split-second, convulsing and cursing. This wasn’t his first time encountering a taser, but tasers had a way of making themselves feel fresh and new, every body-destroying time.
“Stay down.”
It was not just good advice. It was an order.
Will laid on the floor, aching and pissed off, sweating from the adrenaline, and hating the man standing over him for all he was worth.
Maddox crouched down next to him with a slightly sympathetic look. “You don’t know how how behave yourself,” he said. “You’ve been taught a series of lessons that will not serve you in my care. If you want to make this easier and less painful, trust me.”
“You just tazed me, bro,” William pointed out through chattering teeth.
Maddox’s brow rose at being called ‘bro.’
“I did what was necessary to keep you safe. I will always do that, even if you do not understand it. This will be a confusing time for you. There will be many things you are afraid of.”
Will bristled at being called a coward, as far as he was concerned.
“I’m not afraid of anything.”
“That is because you know nothing.” Maddox said, brushing Will’s hair back from his head with a tender touch.
Will had never been condescended to so charmingly before. It might have disarmed him if not for the aching tremors left in the aftermath of the convulsive electric current. He looked at the man who held him captive, and he wondered how he had ever missed that spark in Maddox’s eyes. It was a look he’d seen many times in prison, and often in the mirror. This man was a predator. A killer.
“While I have you here, this is a good time to do some housekeeping,” Mad announced. Will laid where he was while Maddox retrieved something from nearby. He was back very quickly, with a slim black circlet of a material that might have been plastic but felt more like metal in his hands. He slid it around Will’s neck. There was a final sort of click when the two ends met. It sounded final in a way William did not like.
“This is a tracking collar,” Maddox explained. “You know some people wear similar devices on their ankles when on probation. This one is more advanced. It will not only let me know where you are, it will tell me how you are. It measures everything from breathing to perspiration. I’ll know if you have a drink of alcohol, or any kind of drug.”
“I’m not a fucking dog,” Will cursed, reaching up to grab the collar off.
“You’re a long way from a dog. You’re a pup.”
Mad nearly burst out laughing at the sheer outrage and humiliation written on the younger man’s face. Will was not the sort of man used to being talked down to in this way, with some measure of affection.
“That collar will hurt you quite badly if you try to remove it. I wouldn’t advise it.”
“Asshole,” Will cursed. His adorable rough features were hot pink with annoyance, his eyes sparking with an energy Maddox could have drunk in all day.
“Keep a respectful tongue about you, boy. I have an appetite for pain that will be well sated if you cannot behave.”
“Get fuc…”
The curse was cut off as Maddox grabbed the collar and hauled Will against his body. He already adored the way this man felt in his grip. Will was strong and stocky. There was always resistance in him. Holding him was like holding something wild. Maddox very much enjoyed that. Will was begging to be hurt. He didn't know it yet, but he was telling everybody he met in every moment to hurt him. Badly, if possible. The fact that he was still alive was testament to his strength and, no pun intended, will.
“fucked…”
Will finished the word, but only just.
Mad’s cock throbbed against Will’s belly. He was hard. Wanting. Dominant.
Will stared, not knowing what to do with this sudden physical sign that his lust was not going unrequited. He still hated this man. Hated him more than he had hated anybody in recent memory. He had promised freedom, but these chains and shackles were much more intimate and harder to shake.
Maddox looked down at him with those eternally hooded, all-too knowing eyes.
“You’ve never been fucked before, have you? Always the top, my boy. Not with me.”
The floor suddenly slammed into his belly. Will had no idea how he had been moved so quickly, or so roughly. In an instant he was not only prone, he was naked from the waist down. His clothes had no chance of withstanding the desires of his new master — and nor did Will.
“I’m going to fuck you,” Maddox told him, speaking with a measured tone, informing Will of his fate. It shouldn't have turned Will on as much as it did. There was a faint taste of blood in his mouth, the taste of passion and defeat. He could feel himself throbbing against the polished concrete, his lust overpowering any reluctance or resistance as Maddox pinned him down, drizzled his ass with a sweet-smelling oil Will had never encountered before, and proceeded to do precisely what he had warned Will he would to.
He fucked him.
Will didn’t resist. He didn’t even try to resist. He submitted, because it felt the like the biologically right thing to do, because it was drawn from some part in the very core of him he didn’t even knew he had. A couple times behind bars, bigger men had tried to do this to him. He’d killed them without thinking about it. Had years extended to a sentence that was already life, and spent days in solitary to pay the price.
Will didn’t feel that rage this time. He felt a warmth spreading through him from his core. He felt the influence of the man above him, that easy control and natural dominance which made it all feel like it was supposed to happen. The cock pressing at the entrance of his body was much thicker, and a whole lot harder than he’d anticipated. He did not usually take dick, but with Maddox it was obvious that would be his place.
Maddox’s flesh was surprisingly cool for how hard he was, but maybe that was just a trick of relativity. Maybe his own ass was hotter than he knew. He was fucking burning up, that much was certain. His cock was rock fucking hard too, pressed against the floor uselessly.
He told himself he didn’t have a choice. But he knew he had one. He could be saying no. He could be trying to get out from under Maddox. He wasn’t doing any of that. He was lifting his hips and he was ever so subtly offering himself for what was inevitably going to happen.
“You’re tight,” Maddox observed. “I should probably be careful with you, stretch you slowly with fingers and toys. Is that what you want, pup? You want this soft and gentle?”
Will did not want that. He’d never wanted any of that. When he fucked, he fucked hard. He expected to receive nothing else.
He looked back over his shoulder at Maddox, saw the dark eyes looming over him, boring into him. He felt a bolt of connection, and the smart ass remark he’d planned to say died on his lips. He shook his head in a quick no.
Maddox let his hips drop down just a fraction of an inch, his big hand wrapped around the side of Will’s face supporting his head as he slid inside Will, not because Will was relaxed and made it easy, but because Maddox’s cock, like the rest of him, was an absolutely irresistible force.
Will was lucky he was being careful, showing some small deferential regard for the physical limits of Will’s ass. He was much stronger than Will expected or understood, and he seemed to be taking care while also enforcing his sexual desires at all costs. Will had witnessed rough encounters in prison. It wasn’t often that a dominant top intent on breaking a reluctant bottom took any care at all.
Will’s cock throbbed harder, making him grind against the floor as his new master’s cock pressed inside him, demanded entrance to his body and overcame the resistance of the muscular ring with little difficulty. Lubricant made his passage easy physically, but not mentally. Pinned down beneath his master, Will grunted and growled, felt his pride being torn away from him with every motion of Maddox’s hips.
He’d never bottomed before. This was shameful. Maddox wanted it to be shameful too, he could tell. He wanted this to be an emotional whipping, even as he worked to pleasure his captive boy. Will was starting to understand Mad in ways he wished he didn’t. The hints of darkness he’d sensed from the beginning were unfolding all at once and far too completely for his liking. To make matters worse, his erection still throbbed painfully against the concrete floor, demanding attention it was not going to get.
The strokes got deeper and firmer, harder and longer. Maddox was inhabiting Will, stretching him wide, making him a vessel for his lust. Will closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, tried to relax. He couldn’t. With every thrust, he was being pushed deeper and deeper into his new place, his flesh being shifted and moved to accommodate his master’s cock.
Mad was nuzzling at his neck, his teeth grazing against Will’s sensitive skin. It felt good. Too good. Will did not want to submit to the pleasure any more than he had submitted to the pain, but he had little in the way of choice for either. Maddox owned him in every way possible and was manipulating his senses somehow. Hard thrusts were matched with nuzzles. They were incongruous and ever so slightly an irritant. Will didn’t want romance. He wanted passion. He didn’t want kindness. He wanted to be fucked into oblivion…
“OW!”
He cried out as teeth speared into his neck, deeper than they should have been able to go. Will let out a bark of fear and outrage, the hot rod still buried inside him keeping him in place. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. He was impaled and now he was being bled by the monstrous creature now sucking on his neck.
The final revelation was upon him. It came too late and all at once. He did not believe it and yet he could not deny what was happening, what word could only be used for a beast that did these things. He felt himself giving up his sanguine essence. He felt it being taken from him. He felt Maddox's rough cock pulsing deep inside him, pounding with insistent strokes as if to drive the essence Mads desired from his weakening body.
Will panicked. He tried to fight. But Mads wrapped one impossibly strong arm around under his neck and kept feeding and fucking with equal languid pleasure. Will’s cries turned to animal whines and whimpers, the arching and thrashing of his body only serving to impale his ass on the monster draining his life force.
There was an awful, horrible moment when the darkness overwhelmed him and he could do nothing but submit to the awful, wonderful, beautiful, painful, terrible surging inside the deepest parts of him.
It was over.
All over.
It was not over.