“Get out there before I get angry,” Colbert snapped.

Pembroke gritted his teeth and nodded. Colbert was angry because he’d caught Pembroke in his human form, which wasn’t something Pembroke was allowed to do. As Colbert always said, he hadn’t bought Pembroke because he was cute. He’d bought him to defend his home, and Pembroke wouldn’t be of any help in his human form.

Colbert wasn’t wrong. As a human, Pembroke was on the short side and couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag. He was thin, with no muscles to see, and it was more probable that people would laugh at him than be afraid of him.

But not in his shifted form. As a hydra, people were terrified of him. It probably had something to do with him looking like a massive dragon or having three heads. He’d been forbidden to shift into that form when he was at the auction house and hated it, but now, he was forbidden to shift into his human form. He’d gone from one hell to another and didn’t even have his friend to help him through it. Pembroke had been separated from Tyler when Colbert had bought him.

He hadn’t seen his best friend since then.

“What are you waiting for?” Colbert added.

He sounded angry, and life wasn’t easy when he was angry, so Pembroke obeyed. He didn’t have a choice. He had to get naked in front of Colbert and always did so as quickly as possible. Usually, he was already shifting before he was fully undressed. He could feel Colbert watching him, but he hadn’t tried anything so far, and Pembroke hoped that would continue. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to fight him off him if he tried to touch him in any way.

He shook out his three heads and dropped his t-shirt to the ground. Colbert stared at him like he was an interesting insect. Pembroke didn’t look back and kept his focus on the ground because the last time he’d looked straight at Colbert, the asshole had used a cattle prod against him. Pembroke’s thick skin protected him from many things, but he’d still been able to feel the pain of the electricity zapping into his muscles.

He moved away from Colbert and went to place himself in his spot. It was always the same, because Colbert didn’t trust him not to run if he was out of sight, even with the ankle monitor. It wouldn’t be easy as a hydra, but if he got far enough, he could shift and disappear into the trees around the mansion in which Colbert lived. Colbert knew that, so he’d kept Pembroke in the courtyard at the center of the mansion. Since the estate had been built around it, Colbert could see Pembroke from pretty much anywhere in the house.

Pembroke hated it.

He hated everything about his life. He missed Tyler, but not just him. It had been years since he’d seen his brother, and he always wondered what Ryland was doing. He needed to remind himself that even though Ryland was human and they were only half brothers, Ryland cared about him. What Colbert always said about no one caring that Pembroke was gone was a lie.

Logically, Pembroke knew that, but sometimes, when he was especially homesick, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Colbert was right. Ryland had probably noticed he was gone, but was he still looking for him after three years? Had he made peace with the fact that Pembroke would never be back, or was he still hurting over his disappearance? Pembroke wished he knew the answer to that question. It might give him more hope.

He couldn’t listen to Colbert. The man wanted a slave who would do anything he asked and not rebel, and that wasn’t Pembroke. He wasn’t afraid of fighting back, no matter how many cattle prods Colbert had.

But Colbert could not merely hurt him but also kill him, which was what the damn plastic monitor around Pembroke’s ankle was for.

It had been put on him as soon as he’d arrived here, and Colbert had told him that if he ever tried getting away from the mansion, it would electrocute him so badly that it would kill him. Pembroke didn’t know if it actually would, but he hadn’t been willing to test it so far. Over the three years since he’d been kidnapped from college, he’d been beaten, forced to stay in one form or another, and hurt in as many ways as the people who’d taken him could come up with. At least Colbert had never touched him in a sexual way. The memories of everything else that had been done to Pembroke made him shiver in horror, and he told himself things could be much worse than how Colbert treated him. Here, he was nothing more than a massive guard dog, and he didn’t mind it as much as the other times he’d been bought.

Until Colbert changed his mind about him, anyway. If that ever happened, Pembroke wouldn’t hesitate to bite his head off and try flying away. At this point, he didn’t even care if he died.

Pembroke settled at the center of the courtyard. He didn’t expect anything odd to happen because nothing ever did.

He was wrong.

Colbert disappeared inside, and for a little while, everything was normal. Pembroke could feel the breeze sliding over his scales, and if the situation had been different, he would have enjoyed himself. He liked being in the courtyard because it meant he wasn’t inside. He could tell himself that here, he was free, even though he really wasn’t.