New Species 03 Valiant (34 page)

turned his entire body to snarl at them, revealing sharp

teeth, a flattened nose, and those strong, wide

cheekbones that New Species all seemed to have.

Pete yanked hard on the chain attached to her wrists

to make her stumble forward. Tammy whimpered. Her

gaze refused to look away as the large New Species

furiously stormed closer to the bars. His hands gripped

them, which made her glance at his muscular arms and

chest before he made loud sniffing noises. Dark, nearly

black eyes met hers.

“We brought you a friend,” Mike laughed.

“Play nice,” Pete taunted. “She’s someone you might

like. She enjoys spending time with beasts a hell of a lot.

She’s screwing one of your kind. We caught her just for

you, 927.”

They stopped by the cage door about seven feet from

the enraged New Species who sniffed loudly again. The

weight around her neck dropped away, the collar gone,

and she barely took notice as the shackles were removed

from her wrists. She remained terrified and focused on

the New Species. They planned to push her into his cage.

He was almost as tall as Valiant. Maybe an inch or

two shorter at about six-feet-four, if she were to guess.

His shoulders, thick chest, and muscular arms were very

similar in size to Valiant. It was his face that terrified her

the most.

A vicious, low growl of warning rumbled deep from

within his throat as sharp teeth flashed. Like Valiant, this

one had more dominant animal features than most of the

New Species. That probably accounted for how terrifying

he looked as he snarled at her, flashing teeth that looked

as if they could easily tear her apart without effort. Fear

sizzled along Tammy’s spine like lightning and ran down

the length of her body.

Tammy realized something as a hand shoved her

forward, past an opening into the cage. A thick glass wall

partition stood between the man growling at her two

captors and the door they’d just opened. The man behind

the glass suddenly lunged and his body slammed into the

clear barrier. A loud crack came from the action and

parts of the glass spider-webbed.

“Son of a bitch,” Mike hissed. “Hurry up. That isn’t

going to hold for long. He’s really being aggressive

today.”

Pete pushed Tammy hard, knocked her off balance,

and she stumbled farther into the cage but managed not

to fall face first on the metal floor. The door slammed

closed behind her and she turned, lunging for the bars

that now locked her inside. She jerked hard but the door

didn’t move. She stared at Mike and Pete, pleading with

them silently. They refused to even glance her way as

they spun and disappeared into the other half of the

warehouse at a hurried pace, seeming not to be able to

flee fast enough. The hair at the back of her neck rose.

She knew why. Her breathing increased and her

fingers clung so hard to the cold metal that she knew

they were turning white. You can’t get out. You’re going

to have to face him. Maybe he can be reasoned with. She

drew in a deep breath and blew it out. You have no

choice. Just talk. You have nothing to lose.

Tammy slowly released the bars and turned, dread

making her stomach heave a little. The scariest eyes

she’d ever seen watched her from the other side of the

partition just feet from her. His seemingly black gaze

narrowed and he growled at her again. She backed up,

moved away from the door, and pressed against the bars

as far away from him as she could get in the small space.

His hands lifted and he glanced at them. She

followed where he looked, wishing instantly that she

hadn’t. His hands ended in thick fingernails similar to

Valiant’s but they hadn’t been clipped. They resembled

short but lethal claws that scratched over the damaged

part of the glass. A piece of it fell away, letting her know

he could get to her. A scream rose but became trapped

inside her throat. He scratched the divider with his nails

again. It was a hideous sound when more bits of the

glass fell away to ping on the metal floor.

“Please,” Tammy begged softly. “Don’t hurt me. I

was kidnapped and brought here against my will. I’m not

your enemy. I don’t work for Mercile Industries.”

The New Species stopped watching his hands to peer

at her instead. She only saw aloofness in his stare as

their gazes met. His hands pulled away from the glass,

he backed away, and she hoped her words had meant

something to him.

He suddenly lunged forward, his body turning at the

last second, and his shoulder slammed into the glass.

More of it cracked. Tammy whimpered again and slid

along the bars until she reached the corner a few feet

away. She couldn’t escape. He was going to break

through and reach her.

Her knees seemed to turn to liquid and she slid down

to the cold, unforgiving floor, on her butt. She drew her

knees up in a protective manner and wrapped her arms

around them tightly to hug her body. He moved with her

to the edge of the cage. He growled again.

“Listen to me. Please? I know a lot about people like

you. Do you know that a lot of them are free now? The

testing facility they were imprisoned inside was raided by

the government and they’re no longer locked up. They

live outside, no bars, and no cages.” She sucked in air,

knew she babbled, but was proud she could at least

speak. She kept going. “They call themselves New

Species. They are really free and if they knew where you

were they would come to save you. Do you understand

me?”

The man’s eyes narrowed more and he stopped

growling. He did continue to glare at her. She hoped that

he wouldn’t break through the glass and just kill her in

the blink of an eye. Her talking seemed to have at least

distracted him from battering through the glass.

“I live with one of your kind. He tells I belong to him

all the time. It kind of annoyed me until he told me that

he never owned anything, never was allowed to care

about anything, because it was used against him. He

named himself Valiant. He’s part lion. He has the most

amazing golden eyes. He loves me and I love him. We

live at New Species Reservation. It’s a large area of

woods and open land. It’s where your kind live and work

together to have better lives. It belongs to them and they

are in charge there.”

The man growled at her, tensing. She saw his

muscles bunch and he put his hands against the glass. He

started to push. The glass groaned and she heard a

cracking sound. He would break through. She only had

about four feet between her and the barrier. She fought

back tears.

“The first time I met Valiant he scared me. He

growled the way you are right now. I’d never seen

anything like him before. I thought he would kill me but

he didn’t. I’d accidentally gone to the wrong place and

ended up at his house. He terrified me but he was also

the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. His eyes are

amazing and he has this mane of reddish-colored hair

with blond streaks running through it.” Her voice broke

and she blinked back more tears. “He’s a little bigger than

you are. Taller. That’s another reason he scared me. He

picked me up, carried me into his house, and we started

talking.”

The glass cracked more while the New Species

continued to push on it. Tammy darted her focus away

from his eyes to the barrier between them. Large jagged

splinters in it had spread upward toward the top of the

room and down to the floor. She didn’t have much more

time before it gave way.

“Valiant told me I’m family to your kind now that I’m

with him. They call each other that since none of them

had parents or blood relatives. That means I’m family to

you too. Valiant…” her voice broke from emotion and hot

tears slid down her cheeks. “He loves me and he’s got to

be terrified for me right now. He doesn’t know where I

am. I was kidnapped from Reservation. He’ll be looking

for me and he’ll never stop. Please don’t kill me.”

The man backed up to study the glass. Tammy

stopped talking to watch him. She hugged her body

harder, trying to appear as small as possible while she

pushed back tighter into the corner. She knew he

examined the glass, searching for the weakest parts. Her

words didn’t seem to matter and nothing she’d said made

him want to stop attacking the partition to hurt her.

He moved suddenly, backed up about five feet, his

attention fixed on one section of damaged glass. She

held her breath when he paused but gasped as he lunged

forward. He twisted his massive body at the last second

before he threw his entire weight against the partition

and to her horror, it gave way. He came barreling

through it and slammed into the bars only feet from

where she huddled. The wall section where he’d broken

through crashed to the floor, barely missing her.

Tammy whimpered and lifted her head as he

straightened to his full height. He rolled his shoulder that

had taken most of the impact from the glass and the

bars. A few scratches marred his skin but the wall had

broken in chunks, obviously some kind of safety glass.

He turned toward her, glaring, and growled. He took a

step toward her and another until only inches separated

her body from his legs.

“Please,” she begged softly. “Don’t do this. I’m telling

you the truth.”

He spread his thighs as he crouched, pinned her

between them but didn’t touch her as he sniffed. Tammy

stared into his dark, terrifying eyes, hoping he’d have a

harder time killing her if he were looking into them. She

saw emotion flicker in those dark depths. His hands

reached for her, fisted her shirt between her breasts, and

yanked her hard from the floor when he quickly rose to

his feet.

Tammy heard material tear when she was forced to

stand. She whimpered again. He had her by her shirt and

used it to slam her against the wall bars at her back. She

stared up into his face and locked her knees together to

keep from collapsing. She shook badly when he hunched

down to get closer to her face with his own.

Black eyes narrowed into slits as he continued to sniff

her. His mouth tightened into a grim, tight line when he

stopped. A soft grumble came from his mouth, far too

near her own. He pressed in closer until his hot skin

touched her arms, which still hugged her waist, and his

head lowered more. He smelled her hair, his nose

brushed over it, and he bumped his chin against her

cheek, pushing.

Tammy squeezed her eyes closed and turned her

head away even though she could feel his warm breath

fan across her neck as he continued to examine how she

smelled. Please don’t tear out my throat with those sharp

teeth. She couldn’t get the actual words out, too terrified

to speak with his hands on her, and his body nearly

crushed hers against the cold metal. His sharp teeth

never touched her.

His body against hers turned rigid. Her heart

hammered inside her chest so hard that it began to hurt.

He moved, easing the pressure of his chest away from

hers until she breathed easier. It took every bit of

courage she had to look up at him again as she turned

her head back. He glared into her frightened gaze.

He backed away and released her torn shirt. “Stay.”

He snarled the word.

Tammy didn’t dare move. He watched her intently

until his gaze lowered down her body to study her. It

shocked her when he suddenly dropped to his knees

before her, his hands gripped her hips, and his face

pressed against her skin between her breasts where he’d

torn open her shirt. She sucked in air but managed not to

scream, too terrified it would set him off. A hot tongue

suddenly licked the side of her breast and he snarled.

She stopped breathing but his tongue left her skin.