Surviving My Deadly Contract Beast Husbands

Kenzie dragged in a sharp, jagged breath, her lungs burning as if she had just inhaled broken glass.

Her eyes snapped open. The cold, unforgiving bite of a metal floor pressed against her cheek. Her chest heaved. The phantom sensation of rotting hands tearing at her clothes-the last memory of her death on Earth-still crawled across her skin.

A violent wave of nausea hit her. She pressed her palms against the floor, trying to push herself up, but a sudden, blinding pain split her skull.

Memories that didn't belong to her slammed into her brain. Extravagant parties. Cruel laughter. A high-society monster named Kenzie Banks. She gagged, her stomach twisting into a tight, agonizing knot.

A low, guttural snarl vibrated through the room. It was a sound born of pure, unadulterated murder.

Her head snapped up.

Through the dim, blue-tinted lighting of the massive bedroom, she saw him. He was chained to the far wall like a rabid animal. Heavy alloy restraints dug into his wrists and throat. His bare chest was a canvas of fresh, bleeding whip marks and dark bruises.

Josue.

His silver hair hung in his face, but it couldn't hide his eyes. They were a toxic, glowing green. He stared at her throat, his jaw clenched so tight she could hear his teeth grinding. He looked exactly like a man calculating how much force it would take to snap her neck.

She scrambled backward, her survival instincts taking over. Her spine slammed hard against the base of a massive bedpost.

Ding.

A sharp electronic chime pierced her brain.

"AI Sev activated," a lifeless, mechanical voice echoed inside her skull. "Warning. Current host possesses a critical negative reputation. According to the Interstellar Marriage Act, your contract beast-husbands possess the legal right to execute you at the end of the two-month trial period."

Her breath caught in her throat.

A glowing red holographic timer materialized in her line of sight. Sixty days. Counting down.

She tried to mentally scream at the AI, demanding to know how this was legal, but the numbers just kept ticking.

Josue saw her wide, terrified eyes. He mistook her panic for anticipation. He thought she was getting off on his pain.

He lunged forward.

The heavy alloy chains snapped taut with a deafening crack. The metal bit deep into his raw wounds. Fresh blood spilled down his pale skin, dripping onto the floor. He didn't even flinch. The murderous intent in his green eyes only burned hotter.

Her stomach plummeted. The memories of what the original Kenzie had done to him flooded her mind. The electroshocks. The starvation. The humiliation.

She needed a weapon. Now.

She closed her eyes and reached deep into her consciousness, searching for the subspace inventory she had relied on during the apocalypse on Earth.

"Access denied," Sev's cold voice chimed. "Host biological energy level is insufficient. Subspace locked."

Her eyes snapped open. Her hands shook. She was trapped in a weak, pampered body with absolutely nothing to defend herself against a man who wanted to wear her intestines as a necklace.

Josue let out a harsh, broken laugh. His voice was shredded, like he had been screaming for days.

"Do it," he rasped, spitting a wad of blood onto the floor. "Stop staring at me like a coward and pick up the whip, you piece of trash."

She didn't argue. She didn't defend herself. She forced her erratic breathing to slow down.

Her eyes landed on a small, sleek black remote resting on a glass table a few feet away. The collar control.

She gripped the bedpost and pulled herself up. Her legs trembled. This body was pathetic. She dragged her feet across the floor, closing the distance to the table.

Josue's muscles coiled. His silver wolf ears flattened flat against his skull. He was bracing for the pain.

She picked up the remote. She turned and walked straight toward him.

With every step she took, the growl in his chest grew louder, vibrating in the air between them.

When she was barely two feet away, he snapped. He threw his entire body weight forward, his jaw snapping inches from her face. The chains jerked him backward so violently he crashed onto the metal floor.

Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She stumbled back, her hands slick with cold sweat.

She swallowed the bile in her throat. She stepped forward again. She crouched down, bringing herself to his eye level.

She pointed the remote at the heavy collar around his neck.

Beep.

The solid red light on the collar flipped to green.

The magnetic locks disengaged with a heavy clunk. The thick alloy chains fell away, crashing onto the floor in a heap of useless metal.

Josue froze.

He stayed on his hands and knees, his chest heaving. His green eyes darted to the chains, then up to her face. Total, paralyzing shock radiated from him. He was waiting for the punchline. The hidden trap.

She tossed the remote onto the floor. She held both of her hands up, palms facing him.

"I'm tired," she said. Her voice was raspy, stripped of any emotion. "I don't want to play games today."

Josue slowly pushed himself up. He towered over her, a massive wall of scarred muscle and lethal intent. His claws slid out from his fingertips, scraping against his thighs.

She needed to prove she wasn't a threat.

She turned around. She put her back to him, exposing her spine and her neck completely.

The silence in the room was deafening. She could hear his ragged breathing right behind her. She waited for the claws to sink into her flesh.

Seconds dragged like hours.

Then, she heard the heavy, uneven thud of his footsteps backing away. The bedroom door slid open, then clicked shut.

Her knees gave out. She collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air, her hands shaking violently as she realized she had just survived her first ten minutes in this hell.

Kenzie pushed herself off the bedroom floor, her legs still feeling like lead. She stumbled toward the en-suite bathroom, pushing the frosted glass door open.

She gripped the edges of the marble sink. She turned the faucet on full blast and shoved her hands under the freezing water. She splashed it over her face, letting the shock of the cold ground her.

She looked up.

The woman staring back at her in the mirror was stunning. Sharp cheekbones, full lips, and flawless skin. But her eyes looked cruel. Entitled.

She hated the reflection immediately.

She closed her eyes and dug into the original Kenzie's memories, searching for anything useful. Money. Weapons. Allies.

All she found was an obsession. Kayson French. A Major in the imperial fleet. The original Kenzie had thrown away her dignity and her fortune trying to buy his attention with rare gifts and luxury ships.

She tapped the sleek, metallic terminal wrapped around her left wrist. The biometric scanner flashed green.

She pulled up the banking app.

The numbers floating in the holographic projection were bright, glaring red.

Negative two million credits.

Her stomach dropped. She swiped to the next screen. A dozen overdue notices from elite credit institutions flashed in front of her eyes.

She wasn't just marked for death by her husbands. She was completely bankrupt.

She slammed her fist onto the marble counter. Pain shot up her arm, but she didn't care.

"Stupid bitch," she hissed at the mirror.

"Warning," Sev's voice echoed in her head. "If the minimum payment is not met within thirty days, your privileges as a female will be revoked. You will be exiled to the outer wasteland planets."

Her chest tightened. Exile meant death.

"How do I unlock the subspace?" she asked out loud, her voice tight. "I have supplies in there. I need them."

"The subspace is bound to your biological frequency," Sev replied. "Your current physical vessel is extremely weak. You must reach Level 3 biological enhancement to unlock the first tier."

She pulled up the interstellar encyclopedia on her terminal. Enhancement primarily came from absorbing the energy cores of alien beasts in the hunting zones. But there was a catch. For a female to break through the initial bottleneck and reach Level 3, she required 'Bio-Synergy'-a deep spiritual and physical energy exchange with high-level contract beast-husbands.

She stared at her thin, manicured hands. She couldn't even open a jar of pickles right now, let alone fight a monster.

She needed muscle. She needed her husbands.

She grabbed a plush towel and aggressively dried her face. She needed to fix this. She needed to show them she was useful.

She tossed the towel aside and walked out of the bathroom. She crept out of the bedroom and into the massive, silent hallway of the mansion.

The lights flickered. The place felt dead.

As she neared the top of the grand staircase, a low murmur of voices drifted up from the basement level.

She stopped. She pressed her back against the cold stone of a decorative pillar, holding her breath. She peeked over the edge of the railing.

Josue was leaning heavily against a rusted iron door at the bottom of the stairs. His chest heaved.

Standing next to him was a man with dark, messy hair and eyes like shattered ice. Alfie.

Alfie's hands glowed with a faint, pale blue light as he hovered them over Josue's bleeding chest. He was using a water-healing ability.

"You should have snapped her neck," Alfie said. His voice was quiet, but the hatred in it was thick enough to choke on. "She's a parasite, Josue."

Josue winced as the blue light touched a deep cut. "If I kill her now, the court executes all of us. You know the law."

Alfie clenched his jaw. The muscle ticked violently under his pale skin.

"Two months," Josue rasped. He looked down at his own blood-stained hands. "When the trial period ends and the divorce is finalized, I'm going to rip her organs out while she's still breathing. I'll feed her to the rot-blossoms."

A chill violently ripped down her spine. The hairs on her arms stood up.

They weren't just angry. They were methodically planning her butchery.

Alfie sighed, the blue light fading from his hands. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, crushed plastic tube. The liquid inside was a sickly, cloudy yellow.

"Take this," Alfie said, holding it out. "It's the last nutrient pack."

Josue pushed Alfie's hand away. "Give it to Buren. He's starving."

Alfie's eyes darkened. "She hasn't let us eat in a week, Josue. You're bleeding out."

Her heart stopped.

A week. She had starved them for a week.

She backed away from the railing, her steps completely silent. She pressed her hands over her mouth to muffle her breathing.

Apologies wouldn't work. Promises wouldn't work.

She needed food. Now.

She took a step back toward the safety of the hallway, but a massive, bone-rattling thud echoed from the basement. The floorboards beneath her feet vibrated.

She froze. She crept back to the railing and peered down through the narrow gap in the metal spindles.

Josue was on the floor. His body was contorted in an unnatural angle. His muscles spasmed violently, bulging under his skin as if something was trying to claw its way out of him.

His green eyes were gone. They were entirely, terrifyingly red.

"Warning," Sev's voice chimed in her head. "Target is experiencing an ability rampage. This is a fatal backlash caused by severe lack of female spiritual soothing."

Alfie dropped to his knees. Panic shattered his cold exterior. He shoved both hands against Josue's chest, a massive surge of blue water energy erupting from his palms.

Josue roared. It wasn't a human sound. It was the raw, deafening roar of a wild beast.

A shockwave of kinetic energy blasted out from Josue's body. Alfie was thrown backward, slamming hard into the concrete wall. He coughed, sliding to the floor.

Josue's fingernails elongated into thick, black claws. He dragged them across the metal floor, tearing deep grooves into the steel. He was losing his mind. He was looking up toward the stairs. Toward her.

He knew she was up there. The beast inside him wanted to tear her apart to stop the pain.

But Josue didn't lunge for the stairs.

Instead, his eyes locked onto a rusted metal cart left near the cell bars-a tray the original Kenzie had used for her twisted interrogations. He lunged, stretching his arm to the absolute limit, and snatched a serrated thermal-blade from the pile. Without a second of hesitation, he drove the six-inch blade straight into his own leg.

Blood sprayed across the floor, splattering against Alfie's pale face.

She clamped both hands over her mouth, biting down on her own finger to keep from screaming. Her stomach violently heaved.

Josue ripped the blade out. He gasped, his chest heaving as he sucked in oxygen. The extreme physical agony forced the red out of his eyes. The green slowly returned.

He dropped the knife. It clattered loudly against the floor.

Alfie scrambled forward. He grabbed the hem of his own shirt, ripped it off, and tied it tightly around Josue's bleeding thigh.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself?" Alfie's voice broke. His hands were shaking as he pulled the knot tight.

Josue leaned his head back against the wall, his face completely drained of color. "Because if I don't, I'll go up there and beg that bitch to touch me. I'd rather bleed to death."

Alfie's jaw clenched. Tears of pure frustration pooled in his eyes. "Look what she's done to us. The Douglas brothers sent to the front lines as cannon fodder. Dallin rotting in a maximum-security prison because she framed him. And now this."

Josue grabbed Alfie's wrist. His grip was weak, but his eyes were lethal. "Two months, Alfie. Just survive two months."

Alfie wiped the blood off his face. His expression turned ice-cold. "I already contacted the cleaner in the black market. The second the contract dissolves, she disappears. No traces."

Her blood ran cold. The temperature in the hallway felt like it had dropped twenty degrees.

These men were broken, desperate, and completely lethal.

Josue's head suddenly snapped up. His wolf ears twitched. He stared directly at the spot on the second floor where she was hiding.

She threw herself backward, pressing her body flat against the wall. She squeezed her eyes shut and stopped breathing. Her heart pounded so hard she thought it would crack her ribs.

"What is it?" Alfie asked.

A heavy silence stretched.

"Nothing," Josue muttered. "Lost too much blood. Hearing things."

She waited until she heard the heavy iron door of the basement creak open and shut.

She let out a shaky breath, her lungs burning for air. She pushed herself off the wall and sprinted silently down the hall.

She shoved open the door to the master suite's walk-in closet and locked it behind her.

The motion sensors activated. Brilliant, warm light flooded the room.

She slumped against the door, sliding down until she hit the floor.

She looked up. The closet was the size of a small apartment. Floor-to-ceiling glass display cases lined the walls. Hundreds of designer bags, diamond-encrusted heels, and haute couture dresses stared back at her.

It was a sickening display of wealth built on the suffering of the men downstairs.

She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. She chewed hard on the inside of her cheek.

She needed food. She needed medicine. She needed money.

She pushed herself off the floor. She walked over to a shelf holding a row of exotic leather bags.

In the apocalypse, a diamond ring couldn't buy a sip of dirty water. But here? This was her ticket out of hell.