A Dragon for December (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 11) (8 page)

“What’s going on?” Lok asked.

Her phone went straight to voicemail. He
dialed a few more times, his anxiety spiking. “I don’t know. I was
fine, and then I felt like I was being choked. I can’t feel her as
strongly as I did before through our mating connection.” He moved
swiftly through the room. “Call her guards. We need to go to the
spa immediately.”

As he rushed down the stairs, with his guards
behind him, he was joined by Wei and Dai in the kitchen. Within
moments, Tosh was in an SUV as Dai rushed through the streets of
Culiver on the way to the spa.

He closed his eyes and reached for his
connection to Deci. Where it had been a bright tie between them
earlier that morning, it was now dull and faint. He could hardly
feel her at all. He knew she must still be alive, but something had
dampened their bond. He didn’t want to think what that might
mean.

* * *

Deci woke slowly, feeling first a rough
concrete floor and then metal encircling her wrists. Her vision was
blurry, and she blinked to clear it, trying to draw on her polar
bear to help her heal whatever had been done to her. She had little
memory of what happened, only that she’d been lying on the table in
the room and then the steam had suddenly smelled strange. She’d
tried to move to get away from it and call for help, but she’d
found herself paralyzed and unable to even open her eyes. She had
slipped away into unconsciousness swiftly and had no idea where she
was or how long she’d been gone.

While trying to remain calm and not flip out,
she peered around the concrete room. A disconcerting drain was in
the center of the room, and the heavy scent of harsh cleanser made
her nose itch. As her vision cleared, she reached out to her bear,
but she couldn’t feel her beast very strongly. It was as if her
bear, and the strength and power she normally felt with their
connection, was covered under a heavy blanket. She didn’t want to
think what it meant that she couldn’t connect to her beast, and as
she closed her eyes and tried to reach out to Tosh through their
mating connection, she couldn’t feel him either.

Utterly alone, Deci fought the sudden tears
and breathed deeply, giving herself a chance to calm down. Wiggling
into a seated position, she closed her eyes as dizziness swamped
her.

After the dizzy spell quickly passed, she
inspected the room more thoroughly. The walls were rough concrete,
the same as the floor. A single bulb in the ceiling harshly
illuminated the room. Her wrists were covered in heavy shackles,
with a thick chain that attached to the floor with a bolt. She
tugged on the chain, and it rattled loudly, but the bolt didn’t
budge.

The air in the room was cool and chilled her
skin. Without the protection of her beast, she was more susceptible
to cold temperatures. Unfortunately, she was nearly naked. She
could be thankful that she was still wearing her panties, but being
chained the way she was didn’t lend any comfort to the
situation.

Thinking back to what happened, she realized
that Meiling must have put something into the steam that had been
directed at her face. The question was, why?

The lock on the door of the windowless room
clicked loudly, and Deci struggled to her feet and moved as far
away from the door as the chain would allow, trying once more to
reach her bear.

The door creaked open, and a man in a white
lab coat entered the room, followed by another man in a suit. She
didn’t recognize the man in the lab coat, but the other man looked
familiar. It took her only a heartbeat to realize it was Tosh’s
uncle. Behind them, two men in gray uniforms armed with guns stood
in the open doorway. Her only exit was effectively blocked, and
without the use of her beast, she knew she wouldn’t even make it
out the door.

The man in the lab coat said, “So this is the
one who’s trying to steal your throne?”

Yuon stared at Deci. His face twisted into a
grimace as if he were looking at something unpleasant. “It is.”

“Good. We can get started in a few minutes.
Do you want to watch?”

“Watch what?” Deci demanded.

The men ignored her.

Yuon shifted his body until he had virtually
turned his back on her. “It won’t be pleasant for her, correct? I
don’t want her to enjoy herself.”

The man snorted. “She’s mated. Nothing about
this will be pleasant for her, but it
will
help me a great
deal.”

“And she will never appear again?”

The man in the lab coat looked at Deci, his
gaze roaming over her with curiosity. “If she survives the trials,
I’ll ensure she never surfaces. You needn’t worry about being found
out.”

Yuon marched toward the open door, and the
guards moved away to allow him to pass.

“What’s going on here? Who are you? What is
Yuon doing here?”

The man smiled coldly. “What’s going on here
is that I paid Yuon handsomely for you. Polar bear shifters are
unique. There aren’t many of you in the states.”

“You paid for me?”

He hummed. “I’m working on a breeding drug
for shifters. You’re going to help me test it.”

Her mouth fell open. “What? No, I will
not.
I won’t have sex with anyone but my mate.”

“You’re not really going to have a choice.”
He turned on his heels, glancing over his shoulder to give her
another cold smile. “Have fun.”

He disappeared from the room, the door
swinging shut behind him with a loud bang. Deci stared at the door.
What had just happened? Had Tosh’s uncle really betrayed him by
selling Deci to some doctor who wanted to use her to test a
breeding drug? She tugged on the chain, wrapping it around her
wrists a few times and reaching for her beast’s strength. The faint
connection to her beast offered her no increase in strength, and as
she pulled on the chain she knew she wasn’t strong enough to break
it.

Releasing her hold on the chain, she closed
her eyes and reached for her connection to Tosh. What had once
appeared like a golden tie in her mind to her dragon mate was now
so dull that it was barely a spark. She felt tears press against
her eyes, but she fought them back. Falling into a weeping mess of
emotions wouldn’t help her. She needed her wits about her if she
was going to get through this. Her only hope was that Tosh knew she
had been taken and would be able to find her before the drug did
whatever the scientist was hoping it would do.

There was a sliding sound, and Deci looked up
at the ceiling to see a row of black tubes descend approximately a
foot and stop. A thick mist rolled from the tubes, and Deci
shielded her eyes, ducking her head as the mist settled around her.
It soaked into her skin and made her flesh goosebump. It smelled
like lavender, but underneath the cloying scent was a deeper
chemical stench. Her stomach rolled, and she fought nausea.

Her fingertips tingled, and then an almost
soothing warmth spread up her arms. It felt as if someone caressed
her skin. She shivered and rubbed at her arms where the mist had
soaked into her skin. She still couldn’t feel her bear or her
connection to Tosh, but suddenly she couldn’t think about anything
else except how warm she felt. Her skin tingled pleasantly and a
wave of warmth spread over her. She went to her knees and settled
back on her heels, rubbing her palm across her collarbone. Her
pulse thundered under her fingertips as she stroked her throat.

She knew she should be worried about the
chains that rattled every time she moved, but she wasn’t. The door
opened with a soft whooshing sound, and Deci opened her eyes,
finding her vision a little blurred around the edges. Two naked
males were pushed into the room by the guards she’d seen earlier.
They fell to the floor with grunts of pain as the door shut,
locking them inside the room with her. Her brows rose as she
watched them roll to their knees. They were well-built males, but
had clearly been mistreated – their hair was long and shaggy, their
faces bushy with untrimmed beards. While they were muscular, they
seemed far thinner than they should be.

She scented the air, but all she could smell
was the lavender chemical scent. Opening her mouth to ask them who
they were, she felt a wave of pleasure pass over her. It started in
the center of her body and spread swiftly, making her skin tingle
and her stomach clench. She gasped and fell forward, catching
herself with one hand as she pressed her other palm into her
abdomen. She heard soft growls and lifted her head to see the two
males crouching near her, their eyes the amber of their beasts and
their fangs elongated in their parted mouths.

Tosh’s name flitted through her mind, and she
scrambled back as far as the chains would allow. Finding her voice,
she said loudly, “I don’t know who you are, but I’m mated to a
dragon, and you need to keep yourselves far away from me.”

“You smell good,” the dark-haired male said
with a growl.

Anger roiled through her, and clarity burst
through the haze in her mind. She looked up at the ceiling where
the black tubes were still visible. “They drugged me. I don’t smell
good for anyone but my mate.”

The lighter-haired male tilted his head
slowly, his eyes shifting between amber and blue. He put one hand
on the dark-haired male and shook his head. “She’s not ours.”

“I don’t care. She smells good and ripe,” the
dark-haired male said as he loudly scented the air.

“Oh gross,” Deci said, shivering in disgust.
“You didn’t just call me ripe.”

She looked around the room, pushing past the
strange, warm feeling she had and found what looked like a tiny
camera in one corner by the ceiling. Staring at it, she said, “You
need to let me go now before my mate comes here and destroys
you.”

A crackling sound was followed by a tinny
laugh as the scientist’s voice came over a speaker. “You’re not in
any position to make demands. Your mate is far from here,
completely clueless as to what happened to you. When he fails to
produce you for the ceremony at sunset, Yuon will take his rightful
place as king. Not that it matters to you.”

“Tosh won’t stop until he finds me,” Deci
said, wrapping her hands around the chains and tugging with all her
strength.

“He won’t find you.” He snorted. “You
shifters think you’re the be-all and end-all of the evolutionary
scale. I hate to break it to you, but we’re not even in the same
state as the dragon nest and we’re underground. In a few hours,
Yuon will be king, and he’ll have your mate killed as a usurper.
I’m sure, though, that before he ends his life, Yuon will tell him
what’s to become of you.”

Fear slithered over Deci, but she pushed it
away. She was a polar bear and not used to being afraid of
anything. “What would that be?” She looked at the two males
warily.

“I already told you,” he said with an
exaggerated sigh. “You’re going to help test a new batch of
breeding drugs. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when a
polar bear goes into heat artificially.”

Tugging harder on the chains, she winced as
the cuffs bit into her wrists, but she continued to pull. The bolt
in the floor didn’t budge. “I won’t touch any male but my
mate.”

“I think you’ll do whatever I want.”

The speaker crackled again as it turned off.
She looked at the males who stared at her as if she was a steak and
they hadn’t eaten in weeks. Her mouth watered as she looked at
their naked bodies, their cocks hard and ready, their muscles taut.
Licking her lips, she looked down at herself and caught sight of
the mating tattoo. She brushed her fingers over it and felt a
tingling connection to her mate. It was too brief, but it blasted
through the turned-on feelings she had toward the strangers.

“This says I’m a dragon’s mate,” she said,
running her fingertip over the green, white, and black tattoo. Her
beast roared in her mind, a muffled, anguished sound, and tears
sprang to her eyes. “Please don’t touch me.”

The dark-haired male snarled. “You’ll never
be found. We’ve been here for months. Our mates must have given up
the search for us by now, and yours surely will too. That mark
means nothing here in this hell.”

Tears rolled down Deci’s cheeks. “It means
something to me. I’ll fight with every last ounce of strength I
have to stop you from touching me. I’d rather die than betray my
mate.”

The harsh sound of the mist coming from the
tubes sounded. Deci shuddered as what felt like a thicker mist
collected on her skin and absorbed into her body. Heat spiked
within her, and the brief connection she’d felt to Tosh slipped
away. Slapping her hand on her tattoo, she screamed, a sound that
twisted into a bellow of rage and sorrow as she found the last
shred of connection to her bear and her mate, grasping hold of it
before it disappeared altogether.

Chapter 9

Tosh immediately knew something was wrong
when they pulled into the parking lot of the spa. The SUV that had
carried Deci, her friend, and escorts was sitting in the parking
lot, with the driver’s side door opened. Zixin rushed from the SUV,
and after a long moment, he appeared from behind the door, carrying
Tai.

Lok rolled down the window and asked, “Is he
dead?”

“Unconscious. He’s covered in a chemical
smell. I think he tried to get out of the vehicle but didn’t make
it far.”

Tosh got out of the SUV and said, “Put him on
the backseat.”

Zixin did as instructed, and Tosh followed
the other three males to the spa, his worry over his lost
connection to Deci making his beast irrational. The front doors
were locked, but Wei broke them down easily, the steel and glass
doors no match for his beast’s strength. As they raced into the
spa, Tosh could scent the metallic tang of blood, and his heart
pounded as his beast roared in rage. They turned a corner and found
two females on the ground. Io was a nest female and a spa worker,
and Meiling had been with Deci when she left the house.