Oh hey! Here's a continuation to this. I wrote them as two seperate pieces but thought they fit quiet well. There will be a next part... eventually
cw: feral price. canon-typical violence/gore. (he bites a thumb off). blood and description of blood but really an excuse to write hot feral man.
They’d hit him twice before even asking what they wanted just to prove they could.
The first blow split his lip; the second tore his brow open. Blood crawled down his face in slow rivulets, catching in his beard, soaking the hairs until they gleamed wetly in the flickering light. It slicked the corner of his mouth, laced his teeth when he smiled.
They had stripped his tac gear and torn his shirt away earlier, leaving his torso bare to the damp chill of concrete and the rising bruise spreading across his ribs. The chest plate had taken the bullet, but the impact still thrummed beneath the skin, an ugly, pulsing ache that made every breath feel thin. He could feel it each time he inhaled too deeply: the bruised cartilage grinding, ribs shifting like misaligned drawers.
They’d chained him to a steel chair bolted to the floor. His wrists were raw where the cuffs bit into him, skin flayed in crescent moons where he’d tested the restraints until the metal chewed through the flesh.
His knuckles were swollen, fingers stiff, breath rasping as he dragged air through blood clogging the back of his throat.
The concrete beneath him was slick where blood had pooled, nose, brow, mouth, and maybe the graze along his arm; he could no longer tell what belonged where. The room smelled of iron and mildew, the light above him stuttering.
He spat when one of the men crouched in front of him. The arc of red caught the man’s cheek. Laughter followed—four… no, five of them, shapes moving in and out of the faltering light. Hard to track with the ringing in his head, the ache in his chest, the sluggish drag of his pulse.
“Mean bastard, isn’t he?” one muttered.
Price let his head hang, chin grazing his sternum, his shoulders pulled tight by the cuffs behind him. Footsteps approached. Fingers slid into his beard and wrenched his jaw upward, forcing his gaze to meet the man’s.
“It really is you,” the captor breathed. “Fuck.”
Price blinked slowly, as though struggling to focus. His vision trembled with the light. Then he lunged.
Instinct and old muscle memory overriding the sting of his ribs. He jerked his head and his teeth sank into flesh and he bit down until he felt bone give. The scream that followed was raw. Blood sprayed across Price's face and the wall in a scatter of dark droplets.
Price spat. Something small and pale hit the floor with a soft, wet tap, a thumb.
The others froze just long enough...
Price twisted hard, a guttural sound tearing from him as he dislocated his thumb and slipped one cuff. Pain flared up his arm but he moved. His arm came free and he swung, knuckles slamming into a jaw.
Movement erupted around him, ahouts and boots scraping concrete, the thud of bodies colliding. Someone crashed into him, and he went down with them, dragging two men under as he hit the floor.
His ribs lit up, someone kicked him again, square in the bruise, and the world narrowed to white heat.
He snarled and bit another arm, fabric tearing under his teeth before he tasted copper again.
He wasn’t a captain. Not a man. Just a wounded animal trying to chew its way out of a cage.
It took four of them to pin him. Even then, every muscle in him trembled with the effort to keep fighting, chest heaving, breath sawing wetly through his nose. His beard was streaked with blood, his mouth stained red, one eye starting to swell shut.
They wrestled him back onto the chair. More rope this time. A rag forced between his teeth, yanked tight at the back of his head. His breaths came harsh through his nose, each one shallow to avoid dragging on his ribs. Still, he lifted his gaze, scanning each face with the quiet promise of more violence.
He’d done a number on them. That much was clear.
The one who had jammed the gag in stood over him, breathing hard through his own pain. “Captain? More like a fucking animal.”
Price’s eyes lifted, and somehow, he managed a smile.
He laughed through the gag, short and sharp, until the laugh broke into a cough. With no place for the sound to go, he gagged on it and forced himself to breathe slowly, fighting the instinct to drag in too much air at once.
They filed out eventually, limping and cursing, leaving him alone in the cell. The light overhead flickered and hummed. His ribs throbbed with each breath, sweat cooling on his bare skin, blood drying in his beard.
He let his eyes slip shut for just a moment. Let his head lean forward as more blood dripped from his nose.