Free The Change: Episode one by Angela White Page A

clenched, trembling
hands, to that deer caught-in-the-headlights glaze over his eyes.
He needed to be gently loved back into who he was… and I didn’t
have it in me. Knowing that would make it both easier and harder.
Not ready to start his retraining, I studied him, starting at the
top. I didn’t think I had the control to work my way up.
    His hair wasn’t long, but it was obvious
that he’d never had a real cut. The shaggy, uneven locks fell over
his forehead and ears in a golden mane that fit him perfectly. It
was darker, not nearly the bright curls I’d been so fond of
watching move with the apocalypse winds. Now it was streaked with
dark brown, and I wondered if he’d had to dye it for one of his
renters.
    I swallowed the revulsion, the absolute
fury. I would stay away from those doors or we’d spend our time in
pain, and I wasn’t wasting it now that I had my future back. I knew
I wasn’t the only one who’d suffered, though.
    Daniel was also scarred, physically as well
as mentally. It was subtle and mostly hidden, but I picked out the
nail marks along the grooves of his hairline, the top of his
forearms. He’d been hurt so much. Would he ever be able to trust or
really accept what I had to give?
    Only time would tell, and I went back to my
appraisal of the prize I’d killed so many to win.
    He wore a network jumper, dirty and reeking,
and it clung to that wide chest in a way that outlined the swells
of thick muscles and accented the slight bulge waiting for my use.
Saliva flooded my mouth, and I swallowed the lump in my throat.
    I saw the mark on his
forearm, the one proclaiming him now my property… The Network had the ability to power this city,
keep food growing indoors, and to run the labs where scientists
were currently working on a cure for the Change. It wasn’t a city
of light, but it was way beyond the Wild West setting of the
Borderlands… and they’d branded him.
    My hatred of the Network, which had already
been growing, took a sudden leap. If I ever came face-to-face with
the bitch who had marked him, I would kill her - just doing her job
or not.
    His eyes filled with worry at my expression,
and I headed for the small kitchen area. “Join me.”
    Daniel moved slowly, warily, and I kept my
distance as I prepared our first meal. After a minute, he perched
on the edge of the stool, watching my every gesture,
expression.
    When I cracked the eggs, I saw his flinch
from the corner of my eye. They’d taken him, hurt him, and left me
with this trembling shell instead of my mate. What was I supposed
to do? I’d never considered that he might not remember me.
    My grip on the wooden spoon was more than
I’d meant it to be, and it snapped in half with a loud crack that
sent him flying off the stool and across the room.
    Controlling myself, I dropped the ruined
utensil into the garbage bin and got a new one, saying nothing. It
was good the apartments were equipped with double and sometimes
even triple of everything. It came in handy when anger was the most
common emotion in the population. As for Daniel, I would do the
best I could with what they had left me.
    The eggs were done before he found the
courage to retake his seat. I set his plate and cup on the counter
and stood with my own, a few feet back. Seeing I wouldn’t be as
close as right over the narrow ledge, he sat down again, body
tensed for flight.
    I ate and drank in silence, not appearing to
be aware of anything but my own food, and subtly watched him shovel
the scalding eggs into his mouth like he was starving… was he?
     
    D
    I couldn’t stop staring at her while I
enjoyed the treat. Without the blood to hide her beauty, I was
shoved into a situation I’d never experienced. I’d expected to
submit to my new owner like I’d been taught, but the sight of that
tattooed body had me a bit uneasy for reasons I understood all too
well after my training. I might…enjoy this one. I had spent years
in the programs before being pulled out,