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Logan was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming. Sheila would not let him pin her to the wall, or rip her close off as he was doing right then.
“Logan.”
Her whispered word drove him insane. It dripped with need. He latched on to one exposed breast, feasting on her body.
“Oh, yes.”
Her hands fisted in his hair, keeping him there. Logan wanted Sheila’s trust and pleasure. In the dream, he mentally pushed his feelings toward her, wanting her to know that in that moment he was hers; her lover, friend, and protector.
Stroking her folds and sensitive clit, he relished her gasps of ecstasy. Sheila screamed, her pleasure washing over them. He kissed her, stoking the fire between them.
A rumbling growl echoed through his head. His tiger was fighting the dream. It was a strange experience. He felt like his body and mind split in two. Half wanted to stay in that beautiful dream and half wanted to wake, screaming that something wasn’t right.
“Logan, wake up!”
A slap to his face decided it for him. He woke up fast and swinging. Trick blocked his punch.
“Trick? What...?” The male was pale and had a panicked, wild sheen to his eyes.
“Sheila’s missing!”
“What?” Dazed by sleep, Logan met his Beta’s fear-filled eyes. What was Trick saying? Sheila was right next to... He reached for her and found the bed empty.
“Sheila’s missing! Get up!”
Logan jumped out of bed in an instant, roaring in fury.
“How in the hell did this happen?! Where were the house guards?! The border patrols?! Why haven’t you tracked her scent?!”
“Alpha, we tried, but there is no scent to track. No Sheila either. We searched everywhere.”
Logan fought for control. Killing his Beta in a fit of rage would not help his mate.
“That’s not possible. She left something behind. I know it. She was upset and felt guilty about that woman’s death, but she wouldn’t surrender to Cain of her own free will.”
Going into the walking closet to get ready for a hunt, Logan stopped when a piece of paper fell from the women’s side. He picked it up. The betrayal and threat from someone in his pride was apparent. And the blackmail. But the scent was missing. He suspected who had betrayed him and his mate and he was going to rip out her throat.
Logan snarled, slapped the paper into Trick’s chest, and let the tiger loose. The angry roar of the beast shook the house. He will find his mate and he would kill anyone who will dare stand in his way.
*
Sheila woke. Something was hammering inside her brain. She was also freezing. What was going on? Wasn’t Logan sleeping next to her, keeping her warm? She tried to move, to search for his heat, but her body didn’t listen to her commands. Groaning, she opened her eyes slowly. The bright light hurt her eyes, and she closed them again. Why was her vision so blurry? Had she been drinking?
“Good, you’re awake. I gave you a stronger dose, just in case.”
It was a man’s voice speaking. To her? A stronger dose of what? Then her memories came in like an avalanche. “No, no, no. This isn’t happening!”
Cain, her enemy, had taken her in exchange for the safety of another shifter. Where had he taken her? Why wasn’t her body responding to her commands? And where were her heightened senses? She couldn’t feel or scent anything.
Logan! Was he safe? Had he woken already to find her gone? Was he relieved or angry?
“Hmm, we’ll wait a bit longer. Your half shifter metabolism will get rid of the drugs faster than a human’s. Then the fun will begin.”
The fun? Cain was clearly insane.
“Until then, I’ll deal with another project of mine. Rusty, bring in the bitch in heat.”
Sheila listened. It was her only working sense. She searched in her mind for the cat, the other half of her, but couldn’t find her. Was she asleep? Or was she dead?
“Yes, sir.”
The footsteps grew fainter. A door opened and closed.
“You know, I didn’t think Kayla’s plan will work.”
Kayla? Logan’s healer?
“She isn’t the brightest half-shifter agent I recruited, but she sometimes has a stroke of genius.”
That bitch! Sheila wished she could go back in time and slice open that slut’s throat. She will have to find a way to let Logan know about the traitorous bitch.
The door opened again. Sheila heard feet shuffling.
“Please, don’t. Not again. Please.”
The cries of the woman broke something inside Sheila’s heart. She felt the woman’s distress. It wasn’t what she wanted to sense, but at least she felt something. Her own heart rate picked up, matching the woman’s.
“Good. On the table, please. Don’t make me tell you twice or your son will suffer the consequences.”
Her son? What...? Sheila had a terrible feeling about the situation. Was Cain keeping the pack under his control by keeping the pups hostage? She focused on the sounds. The soft whisper of clothes being handled. The clank of metal. Velcro being fitted. And the muffled cries of a woman.
“Very good. Now, stay still. If you move like last time, both you and your pup will die. I have spare bitches to experiment on.”
Sheila listened. She needed to gather information. Maybe she could tell the pride. The scream that came next and the wave of pain stabbed through her. She would have fallen to her knees if something wasn’t holding her up. Sheila gasped, lifting her drooping head. Eyes widened in shock, she fought to see through the haziness of her vision.
The black-haired person sitting, shifted. She knew it was Cain.
“Interesting. Can you feel her pain, I wonder?”
Sheila didn’t answer. He did something to the female, and the pain made Sheila scream in time with the other woman.
“Fascinating, but let’s finish this.”
Sheila breathed through the dizziness of agony. Minutes passed. They seemed like an eternity. The screaming and cries finally subsided. The slap of latex gloves sounded in the room.
“There! The insemination is done. Pray it will take because this is your last one. If it doesn’t-”
The open-ended sentence spoke of the outcome if that procedure didn’t work. Insemination? What in the world was he trying to achieve?
“Rusty, take her to the recovery room until she’s able to walk.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rusty’s voice was so monotone it grated on Sheila’s nerves. Still. She recognized it as the man who escaped during her attempted kidnapping.
“And bring this bitch’s pup. I think our Alpha female needs an incentive to behave.”
Oh, Mother of all! As long as Cain had prisoners, she was under his control. Cain walked to stand in front of her. Sheila squinted. Her vision was improving by the second. Her other senses were coming back to life as well. She felt the ties keeping her wrists together. She was hanging from something; a chain? A rope? He’d tied together her ankles, and she felt the touch of clothing against her skin.
“Now, let me tell you what will happen.”
Sheila felt Cain’s finger’s caress her face. She growled and snapped her human teeth at his hand, though her animal wasn’t stirring. A feeling of dread creeped into Sheila’s soul. She usually felt her cat like a distant presence at the back of her mind. But now was nothing.
Cain chuckled. “Oh, bad kitty. Actually, I know your cat is not with you. One small injection while you slept the tranquilizer away and the beast in you is gone.”
“Gone?” Sheila’s croaked word barely carried. She felt the blow to her heart. Wasn’t enough that she was only a half-shifter? Now her cat was gone for good? What was she, then? She wasn’t fully human. Nor was she a halfling. She was a freak. Would Logan want a non-human, non-shifter being?
“Gone,” Cain breathed the word with satisfaction. “Anyway, what I want-”
The beeping of a machine interrupted him.
“Ah, the blood tests are in. Let’s see what we’ve got.”
Sheila watched him study the spreadsheets on a monitor. Her vision was back, but she couldn’t see what the numbers said. And she probably didn’t know what they meant, anyway.
“Oh, Sheila, you have been a bad kitty. Look at the pregnancy hormonal levels! They are through the roof!”
Pregnancy hormonal levels? What? Cain looked at her with a huge, very pleased smile.
“You are carrying the Alpha’s cub. Oh, this is wonderful news! You did so well!”
Sheila watched the crazy scientist in shock. She was pregnant? How could he tell? It was too early, wasn’t it? And he was talking like the both of them had planned this. Sheila’s stomach churned with dread. He was going to have access to her baby. She felt the blood drain from her head and she almost fainted.
Logan’s baby. Will he ever find out she was carrying his cub? Would he be happy if he knew? He seemed to want children but... Would he take her baby away because she was an unfit mother? Not a shifter anymore?
The opening of the door made her focus. Rusty came in with a small, malnourished child. The boy couldn’t be older than eight years old, but his bones shone beneath his pale skin, making him resemble a walking skeleton.
“Ah, Rusty, you came just in time. Our Alpha female is already pregnant. Isn’t this exciting!?”
Sheila watched Rusty’s unimpressed expression. He had a good grip on the kid.
“Yeah, good news all around.”
“Tie the kid and help me with the cat. I want to see if the fetus is already showing. The gestation period is shorter in shifter females because the fetus is growing faster.”
The bastard kidnapper did as he was told. Sheila didn’t see or sense one drop of remorse for what he was taking part in. Actually, she felt nothing from that man. His mental and emotional control was air tight. Cain came back to her.
“Now, be an obedient cat. I will let you loose. But if you try to hurt me or escape, Rusty will shoot the pup. You already have two deaths on your conscience. You don’t want to add to that, do you?”
No, she didn’t. Sheila stayed quiet. She will bide her time. She wouldn’t let the mad scientist have her and Logan’s baby. Logan.
Cain opened the cuffs holding her prisoner. Sheila collapsed. Her feet felt light, like she had no bones.
“Careful now. You don’t want to hurt the baby.”
Cain’s concern for her unborn child disturbed her. What was he going to do? Kill her and take her baby? Breed her? Experiment on her child? He was twisted enough to do it.
“Come. To the table with you.”
He grabbed her arm, pulling her up. Sheila struggled to her feet, wanting to slice his throat. A look at the gun pointed at the boy’s head stopped her twitching hands. She half-stumbled, half-walked to the medical table Cain guided her to.
“Sit and lie back.”
Sheila did, gritting her teeth when the monster lifted her shirt and pulled down the waist of her pants, revealing her belly.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
He pulled a cart closer. It held a hand-fitted screen with a wand attached. He placed the wand on her lower belly and the immediate thud-thud of a heart sounded in the room.
“Oh, it’s strong! Listen to that heartbeat. Beautiful. Too bad daddy-tiger doesn’t know his kid even exists. It will make it easier to hide the cub. No one will look for it.”
Sheila didn’t register Cain’s words. Her mind stayed focused on the fast beat of her baby’s heart. He, or she, was growing inside her womb. Losing the battle with her emotions, Sheila allowed the tears of joy and distress to fall. The protective instincts of the cat should have woken, but she only felt the woman’s.
“Rusty, let’s take Sheila to her cell. Arrange for a female to bring her some food and water. The best we have. I want her to be as healthy as possible during the pregnancy.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sheila lay on the bed, allowing emotions to rush through her until the numbness settled in. She needed that numbness to stay focused on the goal—escape. She will not let her baby fall in the hands of a lunatic scientist!
Cain pulled her to her feet, holding her arm in a tight grip. He led her out of that medical room and down a hallway. Rusty followed, still holding the child hostage. At the end of the hallway, double doors opened automatically. Cain dragged her in.
Transparent glass cells waited in the large space that once had been an exercising room for the pack. Three females and five children, each occupying a cage, sat on dirty cots. Cain dragged her forward, opened the last cage on the right, using a code. The snick of the latch was her sentence. He pushed her inside, closing the glass door in her snarling face. Cain knocked on the glass.
“Don’t bother trying to break the glass. It’s safety glass so thick it can stop bullets.”
Sheila knew it was probably true, but she would try to escape, anyway.
“See you later, little cat.”
With a loud laugh, Cain left the holding cells area. Sheila looked around her new prison. It held a dirty cot, a bucket probably for relieving herself, and nothing else. She sat on the cot, wrapped her arms around her belly, brought her knees up, rested her forehead on them, and cried silently.
“Logan, please find us.”