Authors: Celeste Anwar
Boredom had dulled most of Erin’s fear by the
time a guard came to collect her late in the afternoon. She was almost more
relieved to think something would be settled than afraid anyway.
A female had brought her food and water around
mid day and, revoltingly, a bucket to take care of her needs. The flat bread
had been tasteless, though, and the meat and peppers stuffed into it hot enough
to make her breathe fire. She’d finally dumped the contents into the slop
bucket and tried to assuage her hunger with the tortilla and water alone.
She thought she might kill herself if she had to
endure much time as their prisoner, if she didn’t starve to death first.
Her milk was going to dry up very quickly with no
more food than bread and water.
She thought the man who came to get her was the
same one who’d shoved her into the cell just before dawn, but she wasn’t
entirely certain.
She didn’t really care until it occurred to her
to wonder if there was any chance at all that she might use the only weapon she
had with her--her femininity.
She was doomed, she thought a little
hysterically, if that was the only weapon she had. The man scarcely glanced at
her as he caught her arm and hauled her down the corridor to the great room.
The room was filled with people, or at least what
appeared to be people. She knew better now, and she was still relieved that
they were once again in human form.
Her heart skipped several beats when she saw that
Jesse and the other Lycans were seated among them.
As if he sensed her presence or had heard their
entrance, Jesse turned to look at her. His gaze flickered over her torn,
bloodied clothing before it met hers. Fury blossomed in his eyes.
She must look like hell. “I’m alright,” she said
quickly, fearful at the tension she saw in him--that he would do something
rash.
Her outburst drew all eyes and she was almost
sorry she’d said anything.
“Thes is your woman, Lycan?”
Erin glanced at the man who’d spoken, alarmed at
the tone of his voice more than what he’d said. There was a satisfied purr to
it, almost as if he welcomed the opportunity to taunt Jesse and saw in her a
pawn he could use to goad Jesse into doing something stupid.
She hoped she was wrong, because they were very
badly outnumbered.
Jesse ground his teeth. “She is, and the mother
of my son,” he growled, threat evident in his voice.
A satisfied smile curled the man’s lips. It was
hard to gauge when he was seated in a chair, but he looked to be close to Jesse
in height and build, perhaps a little shorter and a little broader, but of a
similar weight. He was swarthy, his hair as black as ink. She thought he must
be around Jesse’s age, or perhaps a few years younger.
She didn’t at all care for the assessing glint in
his gaze as he studied her thoroughly from head to foot and finally gestured to
the guard to bring her closer. “She is human,” he said as she neared him,
glancing at Jesse again. “But then I have always believed the Lycan were not
very discerning in their breeding habits.”
Obviously, this was intended to be a huge insult,
and it seemed to Erin from Jesse’s expression that it had struck home. “It
wasn’t by choice,” she interjected quickly. “We …uh … were prisoners and the
scientists used us both in their experiments.”
The man grinned at Jesse. “So--you did not choose
the Lycan?”
Erin glanced uneasily at Jesse as the guard
leading her shoved her into a chair beside the man who’d summoned her. Would
it be better to say she had? Or she hadn’t?
She hadn’t had any opportunity to assess the
situation she’d found herself in and suddenly regretted saying anything at all.
She drew no clue from Jesse’s expression. He
looked murderous by now, but that hardly told her which way to jump.
Without waiting for the response to his question that
she had no clear idea of how to answer, the man lifted her limp hand nearest
him and examined it. “And yet you bear the marks, I’m told, of the beast who
claimed you as his mate. Me, I think that sounds like choice, not force.”
Erin’s head whipped in Jesse’s direction of its
own volition, as if her mind had no control over the action. “Marks?” she
gasped faintly, her mind too chaotic to form any sort of opinion over the news.
She felt the brush of a hand along her throat.
Jesse’s chair squawked against the floor as he
made an abrupt attempt to surge upward. Billy Ray and Tavian, seated on either
side of him, grabbed him before he could get to his feet, restraining him.
Jesse gave both of them a deadly look, but he subsided. “As you say,
mine
,”
he muttered through gritted teeth. “Take your hand off my mate, Carlos, or
I’ll take your head off your shoulders.”
Carlos withdrew his hand, but he chuckled.
“You’re in no position to make any demands,
señor
Lycan. This is my
territory,” he continued, his voice becoming deadly cold now. “And I can have
your head removed from your shoulders. Your mark means nothing once you are
dead. Perhaps I will keep your woman to entertain me.”
Jesse ground his teeth, but he seemed to come to
grips with his temper with an effort. “You can challenge me for her, according
to the laws of the werefolk, and nothing else, or your own people will think
you nothing more than a coward.”
Carlos’ hand tightened on the hand he still held
until Erin winced.
Fury glinted in Jesse’s eyes as they flickered
over her face and then settled on Carlos again. “You will live to regret it if
you simply dismiss what I’ve told you,” he ground out. “If they do not know
you are here already, they will, and they will be just as eager to experiment
on your people as mine.”
Carlos shrugged, but Erin could feel his
tension. He wasn’t as certain the feds wouldn’t target them, or that the
entire tale was fabricated, as he was trying to pretend.
“Take them back to their cells until I decide
what to do with them.”
Jesse stood. “She comes with us.”
Carlos’ eyes narrowed. “You do not issue orders
here,” he growled.
“It’s the law!” Jesse ground out. “And even you
are not above that.”
Carlos flicked a glance around at his people.
Apparently what he saw there was not the support he’d expected. His full lips
tightened with anger, but he forced a shrug. “For now,” he said finally,
releasing his grip on her arm at last.
Rubbing her arm, Erin surged to her feet and made
good her escape, hurrying toward Jesse. To her surprise, he grabbed her,
enfolding her tightly in his arms. Warmth flooded her. Before she could hug
him back, the guards separated them, shoving them to get them to move.
Erin contained her impatience. At least she
would be with Jesse. The thought was more of a comfort than it should have
been under the circumstances.
Chapter Twelve
The cell she’d spent the night in was practically
palatial compared to the one she was escorted to with the Lycans. This cell
was perhaps twice as big, but contained her and eight men, none of whom were
small. There wasn’t so much as a single narrow cot or a stool to sit on.
When they’d all managed to squeeze inside and the
door had been barred behind them, the men looked around and settled on the
floor with their backs to the wall.
“What now?” Erin asked, looking up at Jesse
hopefully.
He was busy examining the floor for a place to
sit. Catching her arm, he led her to the corner and sat down, drawing her down
on his lap. “We wait.”
More than a little discomfited at being pulled
into his lap, Erin resisted as Jesse drew her close, cradling her head against
his shoulder. “For what?”
He shrugged. “The big party. You aren’t hurt?”
“I feel like hell and probably look worse, but,
no, bruised and a little battered and scratched. What party?”
Jesse lifted a hand and, after rolling something
around in his mouth a moment, removed it and tossed it onto the stone floor.
“The Fed party. I’m thinking they’ll probably wait for dark to hit this
place.”
Erin sat upright and looked down blankly at the
metal that had hit the floor. “That’s--”
“Dr. Wagner’s locator chip. I thought it might
come in handy.”
“But … it’s dead,” Tavian said sharply. “You
said you’d deactivated it after we’d run it around the city a few times to have
the Feds chasing their tails.”
“Deactivated, not dead. I activated it when we
were captured.”
The Lycans in the room all exchanged worried
looks. “You sure that was a good idea?”
Jesse’s lips flattened into a thin line. “No.
But I am certain our current situation is really bad.”
“They didn’t kill us,” Billy Ray pointed out.
“Which only means they have something else in
mind for us that we probably won’t find any more to our liking,” Jesse said
dryly.
“How’s it going to help us if the Feds get us?”
one of the other men demanded. “I ain’t keen on becoming one of their
specimens.”
“How many clan members did you count coming in?”
Jesse retorted.
The man shrugged and glanced at his neighbor.
“About thirty,” Tavian supplied.
“They came at us with roughly three to one.”
“Yeah,
mon ami
, but you stopped fighting
as soon as they tole you they had your woman. If we had fought on--”
“They caught us with our pants down, trapped
between the jungle and the beach. The end results woulda been the same.”
“I would’ve been willing to fight to the death,”
the man groused.
“We came to rescue my son and destroy their
research. Dyin’ wouldn’t have helped our clansmen.”
“And this will? They’ll be expecting us now.
There won’t be no sneak attack.”
“They will be diminished now,” Jesse growled.
“They are too arrogant to resist the temptation of assaulting this compound.
They’ll throw everythin’ they’ve got at it. When they do, we’ll use the
distraction to escape … and the panther army will become part of our army,
whether they agreed to help us or not. While the clansmen and the Feds are
busy slugging it out, we’ll take the facility and take care of our business
here.”
Tavian grinned abruptly. “Good thinking,
mon
ami
!”
Billy Ray studied Jesse thoughtfully. “What if
they’re not interested in rescuing Dr. Wagner?”
Jesse grimaced. “Then we’re up shit creek
without a paddle. Anybody else got any suggestions? I’m wide open.”
A man near the back spoke up. “So dey come and
dey distract de panther clan. We’re stuck in dis cell. What den?”
Jesse shook his head. “This cell cain’t hold us
once we shift.”
Everyone looked the cell over a little
doubtfully. “The walls must be two feet thick, solid stone.”
“The door isn’t,” Jesse said dryly. He glanced
at Billy Ray. “I suppose it’s too much to hope they didn’t scuddle the yacht?”
“It’s on a sand bar in a little cover maybe six
miles north of here. The tide was out when we hit it, though. It shouldn’t be
too hard to dislodge it once the tide rises again.”
Jesse frowned in thought. “When we make our
break, I want you five,” he said finally, pointing to Tavian, Billy Ray and
three other men, “to take Erin back, and get the yacht out into open water
again.”
Tavian and Billy Ray immediately began to
protest.
“This ain’t a democracy. It’s an order,” Jesse
said tightly.
Erin sat up. “What about the baby?”
“We’ll get him.”
“Sneak in, you mean, and then out again?”
“I don’t think we’re going to have to worry too
much about stealth--the bulk of the soldiers will be here, unless they don’
take the bait.”
“But all the noise will scare him,” Erin pointed
out. “I’m the only one here that has something to keep him occupied and
quiet.”