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The Alpha tiger watched the Alpha of the Dark Claw Pride stalk the woman responsible for the kidnapping of his daughter.
John had arrived two hours later after he’d found out Sheila was missing. Logan had called Kayla under the pretense of talking about their relationship. She had been very willing to discuss that topic, so she’d arrived at the guest house so fast he would have thought she flew there.
“Logan, I-”
He’d gripped her by the throat, lifting her in the air.
“Where is my mate? What did you give her to mask her scent?”
“I- didn’t-”
Logan had thrown the female into the wall. Kayla had crumpled to the floor, gasping for air. He hadn’t cared if she would have died. She had been responsible for his mate’s disappearance.
“My animal sensed there was something off with you, but I ignored him.”
The front door had opened, and a huge black panther had entered the living room. Trick had walked in behind the beast.
“I told Alpha John you knew the identity of the traitor. He demands first blood.”
Now, the father was in hunting mode. Logan stood aside, letting John scare the bitch.
“Logan, please. I didn’t-”
“Save it! I know you are involved. I scented the chemicals of the pill you gave Sheila. And I remembered that in one of my lust-filled periods, I scented that in your private quarters.”
The black cat snarled.
Kayla cowered.
“What I want to know is, where you in Cain’s plant from the beginning? Or did he recruit you in the last ten years?”
Kayla shook her head. “No, Logan. Please, I didn’t... I swear...”
“Don’t even bother.” He was done with her lies. Turning to the Alpha panther, he nodded. “Take care of her.” Logan turned to leave, ready to start his own search for his mate. He heard the cat’s snarl before the traitor screamed. Trick opened the front door of the guest house.
“I’ll tell you! I’ll show you!”
Filled with pain and terror, Kayla’s words stopped Logan in his tracks. He looked back. The panther stood crouched in front of the woman, ready to attack. Blood coated its muzzle. Kayla whimpered. Deep puncture wounds and long gashes crisscrossed her arms and legs. Down her face, the cat’s teeth had raked through the skin, exposing bone.
“Did you say something?” Logan’s tone was flat. He had no mercy for the woman who had betrayed the pride for the last ten years.
“I’ll show you the way, but... you won’t let the cat kill me.”
Logan studied the female. John’s cat snarled in fury. “Deal. Trick, help her up and keep a leash on her until we reach the crossing spot.”
“Got it, Logan.”
Not ten minutes later, Logan walked through the forest, heading toward the edge of his territory. Kayla led the way. He’d tied her hands behind her back and was now holding the leash. John Black, still in cat form, ran through the forest in a parallel line. Behind Logan, Trick kept mumbling.
“I knew this bitch was dirty. There was something wrong with her from the start. Why haven’t I listened to my cat?”
Logan sighed. He had the same thoughts.
The north-east path Kayla took resembled a jungle. The bushes grew thicker the further they walked. Logan doubted she was taking them on the right track.
“Almost there.”
Her broken whisper came at the right time. Minutes later, they broke through the bushes, standing on the high bank of the river.
“There.”
Logan gripped Kayla by the back of the neck. He saw the neatly arranged stones creating a path through the river. That was the crossing. The one Perry probably had used to get Sparrow out of his territory.
“Please, Logan, I-”
The snarling wolves stepping out of the forest across the river, enraged the tiger in him. Before anyone could move, Logan gripped Kayla’s head in both hands, snapping her neck in an instant. No pain. No torture. He had promised her he wouldn’t let John kill her. He said nothing about himself. Logan let her body crumple at his feet, glaring at the wolves prowling like caged beasts.
“We can cross over and kill the bastards.”
Trick’s suggestion was one Logan’s tiger approved of. However, Logan shook his head.
“We do not know how big the pack is and how far we have to walk until we reach Sheila. We don’t even know in what direction we should search.”
John shifted to his human form. “I can find out. Give me a few days.”
Logan turned to him, the fury tingling through the fingertips, making him wish he could choke the man. “Days? You want to leave Sheila with that deranged scientist for days?”
“I don’t like it any more than you do, but it takes time to send a message to my contact in the pack. Cain keeps a tight hold on the shifters there. They can’t roam without a good motif. The informant and I we have a meeting spot, but he can’t get to it every day.”
“And until then, Sheila suffers,” Logan growled.
“She’s stronger than you think. My daughter might be young, but she had a powerful spirit and a deadly animal. She’ll be fine.”
Logan’s tiger snarled. He didn’t like the situation at all. Standing back and waiting was not his way of doing things. But he couldn’t endanger the pride either. So, he would wait for a few days.
*
“No!” Sheila’s screams echoed through the pack house. Cain tightened the leather restraints around her wrists and ankles, pinning her to the cold metal table.
“Now, now, don’t be angry. It’s not good for the baby.”
Sheila jerked in the restraints, glaring at the crazy scientist. In horror, she watched Cain walk to a table and take a syringe filled with milky liquid.
“What is that? What are you doing?”
Fighting to get free, she screamed inside her mind, trying to find her cat. She needed the strength of the panther. “Wake up! Where are you?” Nothing. The cat was silent. Sheila felt her in the back of her mind like a flickering light. It was getting dimmer and dimmer. Was her cat dying? What will happen when that flicker was gone? Will she die, too?
The crazy scientist came back to the table he just strapped her to, holding the syringe.
“This is going to keep your beast asleep. You can fight, but your human strength won’t help you much. Also, when the baby is born, the cat won’t bond with the cub, so she will not be protective when I take it away.”
Sheila screamed in fury. Tears of helplessness fell down her temples.
“Of course, this might kill the feline. It has happened to some wolves in this pack. Either way, you are dispensable. The baby is the prize.”
The rage turned her vision red. “Fucking bastard! Let me go!” Sheila struggled, but the restraints held. Before Cain could inject the serum into her arm, the door to the medical room opened. That mercenary, Rusty, entered.
“Sir, the Alpha tiger has found the crossing point. The mole is dead. The pack is guarding the bank.”
Alpha tiger? Logan! Sheila smiled. He knew she was missing and was searching for her. Hope bloomed in her heart. He wouldn’t let her go. Cain turned away from her. She breathed a sigh of relief. That liquid wasn’t inside her.
“Fucking tiger. Check with the patrols. I want all the crossing points covered. No one passes through. Kill anyone who tries.”
Sheila watched the mad human pace, his good mood shifting, turning unpredictable. Cain returned to the torture table, still holding the syringe. Their eyes met, and she saw madness swimming in his midnight black eyes.
“Don’t think I will let anyone take you, freak. I only have to wait five months. Once I have the baby, you can go back to your mate.”
“Yeah, right!” Sheila thought wryly. Clenching her teeth, she watched the needle pierce the skin of her arm. The cold liquid entered her body slowly, burning her veins as it advanced. The flames of pain spread with a violent intensity she didn’t know existed. How could a person survive such torturous agony?
Then. The pain got even worse. It intensified a thousandfold. It felt like her head was being split open with a hammer. Sheila screamed. Her body bowed on the table. The heightened senses she should have had, disappeared under the onslaught of lava pouring through her. Could her brain survive? Could she? Or her baby?
What seemed like a century later, she slumped on the metal table. Was she still breathing? Sheila couldn’t feel her chest moving. She couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, and couldn’t feel her limbs. Was she paralyzed or was she dead?
Floating in that numbness, Sheila lost track of time. The first sense to come back was her eyesight, though it wasn’t as sharp as usual. A film of grime seemed to cover her eyes, blurring her vision.
Her ears rang. The sound was annoying, but she was grateful for it. The muffled voices reaching her weren’t coming from far, but she still couldn’t understand the words.
“Take her down.”
“Yes, sir.”
The male voices barely registered in Sheila’s fried brain. Take her down? Where? A face appeared above her. A man. Sheila blinked. Her eyelids weighed a hundred tons. The man said something. She saw his mouth move, but she heard nothing. Her senses were fading again. Then her brain decided it had enough, and in a defying action, it shut down. Sheila’s world succumbed into blackness.
Sometime later, the veil of darkness lifted. Sheila didn’t move, waiting for her senses to kick in. She heard shuffling and whispers. The slam of a door drove spikes through her brain. Groaning at the pain, she reached for her head. Her hands barely moved. Where they filled with lead? Shivering from the chilling air, she slowly opened her eyelids. The bright light pierced her eyes. Why was the light so bright?
After squinting and blinking to allow her vision to adjust, she finally saw. Gray. Everything was gray. The concrete room reminded her of the dangerous situation she was in - kidnapped, hostage, pregnant, tortured and experimented on. Basement.
Groaning, Sheila lifted her body half-way up before her trembling arms collapsed under her. She fell on the foul-smelling mattress. “Shit.” Speaking hurt her throat. What had happened to her voice? It was a broken whisper.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
Sheila stiffened at the man’s voice. Cain. She looked at the cell’s door. He stood on the other side of it, smiling in satisfaction.
“The serum kept you out for longer than I expected. At least you didn’t die and ruin my plans.”
Sheila would have spit in his face if she had the energy to move. He sounded like she had stayed alive for his benefit.
“The baby is alive, just in case you wonder. I checked while you were unconscious.”
The hairs on Sheila’s body rose in revulsion. What else had he done while she could not fight?
“Don’t worry, dear, I’m not interested in your body.”
The revulsion on Cain’s face mirrored hers.
“I’m interested only in the little monster you carry.”
“Fuck off.” The croaked words made Cain chuckle.
“You know, my father created many Alpha shifters, including the beast who raised you. My father created you. Then the beast now calling himself John Black killed him. As the heir to my father’s legacy, and by human law, you belong to me.”
Sheila sat on the mattress, glaring at the delusional man. “I’m not a piece of furniture, you son of a bitch. And neither is my baby.”
“Oh, but you are. Created in a tube. No soul. God gives birthed man a soul. You don’t have a mother. Thus, no soul. The ancestors created your species through an error of judgment.”
Scoffing, Sheila stood slowly. “But we are still alive. We can love, can mate, can reproduce. If your God gave birthed man a soul, that means my baby will have one. She or he deserves to be free, just like any human.” With every word, she stepped closer to the cell door.
“Debatable. You have an animal inside you and so will your baby. That’s not a human being.”
“Sir, the patrols signaled a breach.”
Sheila heard Rusty, the human mercenary, speak from the end of the hallway. In front of her cage, she saw Cain stiffen, glowering in annoyance.
“Go. Take care of it. I have several tests to run, so I’ll be busy for a while. The fluids we took from our little cat here while she was unconscious will keep me occupied for a day or so.”
Sheila stiffened. The implication of his words made bile rise in her throat. Had he invaded her body so intimately?
“Yes, dear. Rusty undressed you, and I took vaginal samples. I need them for my work. You can’t possibly understand but, your hormone levels are higher than expected for a shifter pregnancy. I need to know why.”
Tears pricked at Sheila’s eyes. She fought them back. It wasn’t the time. Slowly, she shuffled backward, placing distance between herself and the monster keeping her caged like an animal. She kept silent as Cain checked in on the other prisoners, including the boy he had used as leverage over her.
“Don’t worry about anything, Sheila. Just keep that baby growing.”
His voice echoed through the concrete cells. Sheila sat on the mattress, resting her back on the icy wall. The sweat pants and long-sleeved blouse didn’t help her stay warm. It felt like ice water was running through her veins. Maybe it was the thing Cain had injected her with.
Drained of energy and frightened for her baby, she started planning her escape. Logan was looking for her, but by the time he will find her, it might be too late. She was on her own.
Cradling her flat stomach, she whispered. “Don’t worry, kid, I’ll get you out of this.” She made the promise to herself and to her unborn cub.