Chapter 13: Sebastian

I’m not trapped here, Paige. I never have been.

Suddenly, the entire scope of her personal mission here had been flipped upside down. There were no damsels in distress here, just infiltrators and deceivers. It was fortunate that these were roles that she was comfortable with.

“What do your people call themselves, Subject Alpha?”

The ghost of a smirk played across Sebastian’s full lips. “Nothing in a language your people would understand.”

So, the Lycans had their own form of communication. Paige jotted it down but didn’t ask him to elaborate. “Do you know what the people here have decided to call you? Homo Lupus – Lupus Sapiens.”

“Wolfman,” he translated, chuckling deep in his chest. “The sentient wolf. Very clever.”

Paige’s brows rose in genuine surprise. “You speak Latin?”

He lifted one thick shoulder in a shrug. “Latin is an old language. We like old things.”

Paige shifted forward in her seat. “Is it accurate, that description?”

“It must be since the all-powerful humans were the ones who came up with it, huh?”

She suppressed a smile and sat back, pulling out a sheet of paper. “I’m going to list some words. Tell me the first word that pops into your head in response. Okay?”

He nodded. “Whatever you say, Dr. Paige.”

“Pack.”

“Family,” he replied without hesitation.

“Forest.”

“Protection.”

Paige nearly stumbled on the next word as she ran down her words of associative buzzwords. “Mate?”

Sebastian smirked. “Power.”

Interesting. That wasn’t a response she had anticipated, but then again, that was the point of this exercise. What questions did you ask when you had nowhere to begin? By throwing a bunch of things at the wall and seeing what stuck.

“Moon.”

“Catalyst.”

“Technology?”

Sebastian paused in his back-and-forth pacing, his eyes sliding as they often did to the two-way mirror. “Rusty.”

Paige cocked her head to one side and readied her pen. “What does that mean?”

He turned his attention back to her and continued to pace, grateful for the newfound opportunity to regularly stretch his legs that had been afforded to him since the beginning of Phase 2.

Paige would bet cold, hard cash that this development had more to do with the Director wanting to see how long it would take him to rip her to shreds than any of the numerous emails she’d sent requesting an upgrade to his surroundings.

“We Lycans enjoy a…simpler way of life,” he replied after some careful consideration.

“You would have fooled me. You keep up with my speech patterns well enough.”

“We partake in human society often enough. We just don’t live in it.”

She studied him as he prowled restlessly. The power in him was evident enough when he was bound and still. Upright and moving, Sebastian was every inch the caged animal he was.

The shift of his muscles, the intensity of his eyes as they roved from point to point as if he was taking in things she couldn’t begin to sense…he was captivating.

Beautiful.

“Why is that?” She asked. “For our protection or yours?”

“It’s not about protection at all. At least not for the ones who can protect themselves. It’s just the way things are. Tradition.”

“You sound like you don’t agree with this practice,” she posed.

He took a seat on his mattress and leaned forward as he spoke, leveling her with his undivided attention. “Funnily enough, I see the merit in keeping our distance.”

Paige cracked a grin. “I bet you do. But it’s not a physical safety concern? No uncontrolled bloodlust once a month?”

His eyes cheekily swept her from head to toe and back, but his tone was deadly serious. “Oh, there’s plenty of lust. A fair bit of blood, too, but it’s for everyone’s best interest when those don’t mix. To each their own, though.”

Paige forced herself not to squirm in her seat as words made her flush. This was one of their clandestine meetings. The Director was watching. “Does it always hurt?”

Sebastian blinked in confusion. “Does what hurt?”

“The…change. Transformation. Sorry if I’m not up on the lingo.”

He went silent, once again considering the line between playing along and giving too much away. “Sometimes. Not always.”

“What makes the difference?” He didn’t answer. “Do you always shift on the full moon?”

The edge of his lips quirked upward as he folded his hands behind his head and leaned back against the wall. “You’re treading in dangerous waters, Dr. Paige.”

She raised her hands in acquiescence, taking that as her cue that he’d given the Director enough for one day. “I just ask the questions. It’s up to you whether or not to answer.”

Paige gathered her supplies and stood. “We’re finished here,” she called, throwing a final glance over her shoulder at Sebastian as she waited for the guards to escort her out. “Enjoy the rest of your day, Subject Alpha.”

His eyes tracked as she left, but she caught his parting words all the same.

“I’m sure I will.”

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“So, you actually live in the forest?” Paige asked, her voice rising in pitch with skepticism.

Sebastian nodded and bit into the apple she’d snuck him along with whatever else from the cafeteria she could slide into her purse without drawing undue attention.

“Villages, underground cave systems, and the like,” he replied. “And thank you for this, by the way. It beats the hell out of the swill they usually feed.”

Paige’s brow furrowed as her hackles shot to attention. “You aren’t being fed?”

“Oh, I’m being fed.” Sebastian rolled his eyes and took another bite of his apple, “Meat, mostly. Really leaning into the carnivore meta. I haven’t seen a vegetable in damn near a month.”

Paige’s jaw dropped. “How are you even functioning right now?”

He shrugged, a little sheepish. “Granted, we do eat a lot more protein than I’m assuming the average human does. Often raw. But, I’ll be damned if I turn down a good spinach casserole. A growing Lycan needs his leafy greens.”

“Growing? I thought you said you were thirty. And I honestly can’t imagine you getting any bigger.”

Sebastian’s eyes flashed with a lascivious heat. “Then you aren’t trying hard enough.”

Paige fought down a blush. “You’re being cheeky, Subject Alpha.”

He groaned and tossed his apple core back into the paper bag she’d smuggled their makeshift picnic in.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t use that stupid designation, even if I’m just joking,” she apologized.

“It’s not that. It’s just inaccurate.”

Paige perked up.

“Oh? Earlier, you associated the word pack with family. So your familial unit has a designated leader?” She hesitated, the word feeling strange now that it had actual meaning. “An Alpha?”

His smile held more than a little melancholy.

“My father,” he answered and turned the question back on her. “Last night, you said that the humans here weren’t your people. So? Who are your people, Dr. Paige?”

“My father,” she replied. “And my sister. A twin. We, uh, aren’t close, though. Not anymore.”

Sebastian frowned and tentatively took her hand in his own, twining their fingers together. “That’s rough. Siblings are hard. My parents always said my brother would be the death of me. They’ve probably skinned his hide by now,” he laughed.

“Why?”

He threw her a sardonic look. “You can’t think I fell into these asshole’s trap. Look at me.”

“Your brother’s the reason you got caught?” Suddenly, Paige felt an uncomfortable kinship with this unknown Lycan. What a twisted thing to have in common.

“We were on a hunting party, following our sister Pack into newer territory. Caleb got impatient and chased his quarry outside of our perimeter and right into theirs. The soldiers came in guns blazing, and I got incapacitated during the firefight.”

“My God,” she breathed. “But everyone else, they got away safely?”

Sebastian’s eyes darkened. “They better have.”

He didn’t elaborate, and he didn’t need to. The threat was self-evident.

Paige brushed his arm with hers. “Thank you for sharing that with me. For sharing anything really.”

His eyes were trained on their clasped hands. “How much do you feel, Paige?”

No ‘Doctor,’ just her name.

He ran his thumb across the inside of her wrist, making her shudder. “You felt that,” he muttered, almost as if to himself.

Sebastian brought her hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss against the small circular scar marring the center of her palm. “Did you feel that?”

Her breath stuttered in her lungs, but she managed a stilted nod. “It’s…it’s just pain that my mind doesn’t register.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “So pleasure’s still on the table?”

“In theory. Haven’t tested it out in a while.”

“For shame.” He nuzzled her wrist, peppering her fluttering pulse with whisper-light kisses. “Are you game to?”

“You’re forward,” she reprimanded him breathlessly. “Yes.”