Free The Siren's Call (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) by Donna McDonald Page B

help him figure out what was going on.
    “Of course,” she said on a light laugh. “Do you honestly not remember me—or us? Though we are new to each other, you have served me faithfully. We have been very happy together. You don’t know how much I regret the distance this illness has put between us. I have given the doctor large sums of money trying to fix you. I heard you slept well last night.”
    He paced and then sat down on the bed, which was the only real surface in the area allotted to him. “Actually, I did not. I had bad dreams. I dreamed a female shot me with a weapon at close range. It was not you.”
    He noticed she smiled at his last statement, obviously pleased about it somehow. He wanted to tell her that he wished now that his attacker had been more successful because he might not still be trapped in a cage making idle conversation with a lying female he detested on sight.
    “I think we’ll be able to go home soon,” she said softly. “My bed is lonely without you. Is there anything you wish?”
    A thousand things rolled through his mind, but he let none of them escape his mouth.
    “I only wish for my life to be normal again. This space is very confining,” he replied, forcing himself to smile at her.
    The female practically beamed through the bars.
    “Soon, my prize. Soon,” she said, twirling on heels and walking away.
    He clutched his stomach and looked for a place to hide the food he had no intentions of eating that night. If they came to give him drugs again, they were going to get a surprise, pain or no pain.
    He was tired of being controlled.

Chapter 7
     
    Guards escorted Ania and Gwen into a building just inside the city walls. Gwen was immediately put into a cage with several others wearing collars like hers. She could see everything happening in several rooms from her location, including the one where Ania had been taken. A large male in a pressed uniform greeted her from behind a desk.
    Gwen watched as he smiled and motioned Ania to a chair. She couldn’t hear the conversation clearly, but she picked up the gist of it being an explanation from Ania. The male ordered one of the guards to fetch her a drink. Gwen had a tiny moment of envy because she was thirsty herself, but then a wave of dread and a vision of Ania in shackles wiped it away.
    “No—don’t drink it,” she whispered, clutching the bars of her prison and wishing she dared free herself.
    Then it was too late. She watched Ania lift the glass, drink, and swallow. Waiting for her vision to come true, Gwen breathed hard and bit her lip. She was positively shocked when Ania rose and walked calmly to the cage to talk to her.
    “Sorry you’re in a cage. You’ll be released shortly. It’s standard procedure to secure slaves when they are not working or serving in some manner. We’ll be on our way as soon as I convince the chief that we have nothing but honorable intentions,” she said.
    Gwen nodded and watched Ania turn and start back to the male, who saw her coming and rose. He smiled and said something to Ania that made her gasp.
    Then she saw Ania fall unceremoniously to the floor a short distance from the desk.
    The giant male walked to her and toed Ania’s fallen body with the edge of his boot, then motioned to two guards to take her away.
    Then he walked to the cage where Gwen couldn’t help glaring at him from behind the bars. She stepped away preparing for a fight, but trying not to look like she was.
    “Hello there, my beautiful prize,” he said to her.
    “Hello,” Gwen said back, thinking playing nice and acting afraid instead of disgusted was probably better than indulging her sarcastic streak at the moment.
    “You owe me your life,” he said, smiling at her as his gaze swept her body. “Your previous captor was one of the walking dead. She carries a demon’s power, but the entity does not seem to be within her at the moment. Fortunately, we have drugs for controlling just about every possible entity