Chapter7 On the Elysium, there are only two kinds of people who receive my protection

Maeve Thorne

My stomach dropped, but I refused to let the fear show on my face. I’d faced down gang members in emergency rooms with knives to their own throats. I could face this.

The operative closest to me reached for the cuff on the pole, clearly intending to secure both my hands before they started the real fun.

The moment the metal loosened around my wrist, I moved.

I drove the edge of my hand into the precise spot on Gideon’s neck with clinical accuracy. His eyes widened for half a second before they rolled back. He dropped like someone had cut his strings.

In the same fluid motion I drove my elbow hard into his stomach, knocking the air out of him before he even hit the floor.

The two operatives froze in shock. That half-second hesitation was all I needed.

I snatched the fallen water bottle and smashed it against the nearest man’s temple. Glass shattered. He howled, clutching his head.

The second man lunged at me, but I was already grabbing a pool cue from the rack. I swung it with every ounce of strength I had left, connecting hard with his knee. The crack of bone was sickeningly loud. He went down screaming.

I didn’t wait to see if they’d get back up. I ran. My heart was a war drum in my ears. Every breath burned.

I kept thinking about Lira’s face, how she’d look if I never came home. The thought fueled me even as pain screamed through my battered wrists and ribs.

My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. Every step sent fresh pain shooting through my wrists and ribs, but I kept moving.

The alarm started screaming through the entire ship before I’d made it fifty meters. Red emergency lights began flashing, bathing the corridor in blood-red pulses that made my heart slam against my ribs even harder.

Heavy fire doors slammed shut ahead of me with a deafening metallic clang, cutting off my escape route like a guillotine. Boots thundered from every direction, the sound closing in like a pack of wolves.

They came from both ends of the corridor. At least fifteen men in black tactical gear. I was herded backward until my spine hit the cold metal wall. No way out. The circle of men closed in.

My mind exploded with panic.

Oh God, this is it. They’re really going to catch me.

My chest tightened so hard I could barely breathe. This was the end. I had run as far as I could, and now I was trapped like an animal.

They didn’t grab me immediately. Instead they started toying with me, shoving me from one set of hands to another like some fucked-up game of keep-away. Their laughter was low and ugly.

“Little doctor runs fast,” one of them sneered. His face was all scar tissue and broken teeth. “But you’re ours now.”

Another reached for the collar of my shirt. I slapped his hand away hard. Someone else shoved me from the opposite side and I stumbled, barely catching myself. The laughter grew louder.

One of them actually started unbuckling his belt, making obscene gestures while the others egged him on. The sight made bile rise in my throat.

My vision started to tunnel. The edges of my mind frayed with panic.

Then I heard it. Steady footsteps cutting through the chaos. The men went still. The circle parted like someone had yanked a curtain.

Silas Voss walked toward me flanked by Viktor Kruger. Silas was still wearing that pristine white three-piece suit, not a wrinkle in sight.

His expression was completely detached, like he was observing some mildly interesting lab experiment. Viktor puffed on his cigar, clearly entertained by the whole spectacle.

I don’t know what broke inside me in that moment. Maybe it was the cumulative terror of the last twenty-four hours. Maybe it was the knowledge that these animals were about to do things to me that I would never recover from.

Whatever it was, something raw and desperate exploded in my chest. I lunged forward.

I broke through the circle of men with strength I didn’t know I still possessed and threw myself at Silas’s feet.

But I looked up at him, straight into those cold, unreadable eyes, and the words tore out of me like they’d been ripped from my soul.

“You saved me last night. You know I was set up. Please… help me one more time.”

The silence that followed was deafening. I could feel the eyes of every man in that corridor on us. Viktor’s eyebrows rose in mild surprise.

The security team shifted uncomfortably, no longer sure what the rules were.

Silas stared down at me without a flicker of emotion. My heart was trying to beat its way out of my ribcage. I swallowed the last fragments of my pride and whispered the words that would change everything.

“I’ll do anything.”

The confession burned like acid on my tongue, but I meant it. For Lira. For survival. For one more chance to fight another day.

Silas studied me for what felt like an eternity. Then his voice came, low and calm and utterly final.

“On the Elysium, there are only two kinds of people who receive my protection. My guests… and my vassals.”

He paused, those dark eyes cutting into me like scalpels.

“Are you willing to become the latter? Sign the Eden Act. You will wear the biometric collar, become my private property for ninety days, to be used as I see fit. In addition, you will serve as my exclusive personal physician. In exchange, no one will touch you during that time. Not Gideon. Not anyone. That is the deal.”

Ninety days. A tracking collar. Twenty-four-hour availability.

That’s basically slavery, isn’t it?

In what fucking century was this? Who the hell still offered women contracts like they were buying a pet in this day and age? The whole thing sounded completely insane, like something out of a nightmare.

If I said no, I was dead or worse. Gideon would make sure of it. So even though every sane part of me was screaming how fucked up this was, I clung to it like a lifeline.

This collar, this cage, this humiliating deal — it was still better than what waited for me if I refused. I had no choice. None at all.

My voice came out surprisingly steady.

“I accept.”

Something shifted in the air around us. Silas gave the smallest nod, then turned to Viktor.

“Mr. Kruger, Dr. Thorne is now under my protection as a vassal. Per the rules of the Elysium, no one touches what belongs to me.”

Viktor shrugged, the signet ring catching the red emergency lights as he waved a lazy hand at the security team.

“You heard the man. Rules are rules. Stand down.”

The men backed away, faces twisted with clear disappointment. But they obeyed.

Relief flooded me so strongly my eyes stung with unshed tears. I was safe. For now.

Silas looked down at me one last time. For the briefest moment, I thought I saw something flicker behind those impenetrable eyes. Not warmth. Not mercy.

Craving.

Why did Silas look at me like that? Like a man who was starving and I was the only thing that could keep him breathing.

We’d only gone a few meters when the voice cut through the air behind us.

“Wait, Mr. Voss.”

My entire body locked up. I knew that voice. My breath caught hard in my chest as I turned my head just enough to see Gideon Adler step forward slowly, one hand still pressed to his stomach.

His ice-blue eyes burned with pure hatred as they locked onto mine.

*Fuck. He looked like he wanted to kill me right here in front of everyone. *