New Species 03 Valiant (37 page)

smart.” His voice broke.

Justice reached out and gripped his arm. “We will

find her.”

Tiger nodded. “We’ll get her back, Valiant. The SUVs

are ready. Let’s go.”

Valiant buried his face against the mattress of the

small bed. He inhaled deeply, growled, and fought the

urge to roar. “My Tammy was here. They had her

chained down and she was very frightened. I’m also

picking up a strange smell mingled with her sweat. They

drugged her with something. It’s faint but there.”

Tiger examined the handcuffs still attached to the

metal frame of the headboard and foot rail. He didn’t see

or scent blood on either set. “We’ll find her.”

Justice nodded. “We hiked in from the woods so we

wouldn’t be spotted. The upstairs bedrooms are currently

lived in. Someone will return. Their things are still here.”

Tiger nodded at the five men inside. “We watch and

wait.”

Valiant moved, climbed up on the bed, and pressed

his nose against the mattress again. Tammy’s scent

lingered there. The smell of her terror was strongest

there. He didn’t want to move for fear it would fade

away. He had to find her. He sensed Justice and Tiger

watching him.

Justice sighed. “Does it help?”

“A little,” Valiant admitted softly. “I do not want to

live anymore if we don’t find her.” He turned his head to

stare at them.

Tiger cringed and Valiant understood why. They all

knew it happened sometimes with New Species inside the

testing facilities. They gave up hope and just stopped

eating. They allowed their bodies to die. He never

thought he’d be one to release life once they were freed.

He refused to regret falling in love with his Tammy

though.

“I hope I never fall in love if it means losing a

woman makes me want to give up my hold on life,”

Tiger muttered.

“Hopefully the male she’s been taken to won’t hurt

her,” Justice said. “He will scent you on her unless she

showered and changed her clothing after you left her.”

He shook his head. “She did not. She’d already

changed into her clothing when I left. I held her and my

scent is all over her. He won’t be able to miss it.”

“Good.” Justice turned his attention on Tiger. “There

are more of Species still imprisoned by Mercile. We need

to find them and we’ll be able to if we find her.”

Tiger lifted his cell phone. “I’ll go upstairs and let the

others know. We will try to find out who bought or

rented this house. Maybe they are using the same name

or funds to pay for wherever Tammy is being kept. I

doubt that Zenlelt is a real name. They set Charlie A rtzola

up to die. They’ve been dealing with New Species who’ve

never known freedom. I’m sure they assumed we’d

behave the same and kill him instantly. They gave him

the weapon that took Flame down and had to know he’d

survive. I can’t figure out why they didn’t just shoot the

attorney instead of sending him back to us alive.”

Justice growled. “Mercile enjoys trying to make us

appear dangerous and unstable to humans to justify what

they did to us. They probably thought we’d murder the

bastard with humans around to witness it. That or they

just think we’re stupid and it was worth the risk of

leaving him alive on the chance of keeping an insider in

place if we believed everything he tried to lie about. I

dread trying to discover how much he’s betrayed us and

what information he’s passed to them.”

Tiger glanced at Valiant. “I’m sorry, man. We’ll get

her back.”

Valiant couldn’t speak. Emotion choked him. Justice

turned away to whisper to Tiger but he still heard the

words.

“He’s so fierce. To see him this way breaks my heart.

Let’s give him some privacy with his mate’s scent. Make

those calls and order our men to stay hidden. Hopefully

they will return here. I don’t know what else to do.”

* * * * *

“Wake up,” a voice growled next to Tammy’s ear.

“They come to feed us. Stay on the bed and do not go

near the bars.”

Tammy’s eyes snapped open. She met 927’s gaze as

he lifted off her. He stood, putting his body in the path of

the cell door and her. Tammy sat up and noticed with

some alarm that the broken glass wall had disappeared

but the debris from it remained on the metal floor. How

did I sleep through that?

Her attention lifted to the top of the room when a

hum sounded and she saw a two inch gap in the cage

roof. The length ran across the room where the glass

wall had been. She heard a louder noise, a whine of an

engine, and another glass wall was lifted by some kind of

crane system from the other side of the warehouse.

She gaped, watching as it was positioned over the

cage, lined up with the slot of the opening and lowered

slowly from the ceiling. She stared in shock at it.

Obviously the glass walls were removable from the top

and the broken one had been lifted out. A new one slid

in all the way to the floor to separate the cell from the

door.

The New Species with his back to her tensed and

growled deeply. Tammy realized he did it in an attempt

to protect her. That seemed a vast improvement from

being sure he’d kill her when she’d been tossed into the

caged room with him. He’d held her instead while she

slept and hadn’t hurt her. Gratitude toward him and hope

that Valiant and the New Species at Reservation would

find them flooded her. She just needed to stay alive.

“You didn’t mount her.” Pete approached the cage.

“Why not? Do you like men, 927? The doctor said to

leave her in there and your nature will eventually make

you fuck her. That smell thing must have worked since

you are interested in her. I guess you guys don’t mind

sharing, huh?”

Mike snorted. “If you bend her over it’s just the same

as taking a man.”

“One asshole is as good as another. Just close your

eyes and pretend she’s Mike.”

“Hey, that isn’t funny. Don’t have him fantasize about

bending me over. I don’t want him looking at me that

way.”

Pete laughed. “Better he thinks about you that way

than me and we’re the only two he sees unless you want

to count the doctor. Nobody would want to screw him.”

“True.” Mike laughed. He opened the cell door and

set down a large platter and a container. “Come and get

it.” He slammed the cell door and both men left.

A minute later the loud noise sounded again. The

glass partition started to slowly rise. 927 relaxed and

turned to meet Tammy’s gaze. “I will go over there. You

can use the toilet without me watching you.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

There was no privacy inside the room. She glanced at

927. He had walked to the cell door and stared out of it,

keeping his back to her. The toilet was just that, a

portable one that had been set on the metal with tubes

shoved between the wall and the cage that led out of

sight.

Toilet paper sat on the back of the lid. Tammy

hurried and used it. There was a hose and a drain hole

had been cut through metal next to the seat on the floor.

She used it to wash her hands. It was similar to turning

on a garden hose and just pointing the weak spray into

the hole on the floor. This had to be his only way to get

clean. It was barbaric.

“I’m done. Thank you.”

927 turned and nodded. He picked up the silver

container and carried it to the bed. 927 pointed to the

floor when he took a seat there, indicating she should sit

next to him. He used the bed for a table. She cringed

when he lifted the lid to reveal the food. It was “Valiant

food” only. She could tell it wasn’t cooked much. They’d

brought steaks, sliced into strips, seared only, on a

bloody plate.

She sat. “I can’t eat that. It’s too raw.”

He frowned at her. “You will eat. You need strength.

Close your eyes and think why you must survive. You

must take down at least one.”

She cringed but knew he had a point. She hadn’t

eaten in a long time and her belly ached from hunger. He

picked up a chunk of seared meat and held it out. Her

hands shook as her fingers gripped an end of it, careful

not to let blood drip onto her clothes.

He lifted another and locked gazes with her. He

showed her how to sink her teeth into it and yank to tear

the meat. She tried but the meat was very tough and her

teeth weren’t sharp enough as his were. She had to fight

the urge to be sick at the taste of blood. The meat had

dripped it into her mouth when she’d bitten into it, trying

to tear it unsuccessfully. She tried to bite into it but since

it was so tough and thick that she just took it out.

“I can’t eat this. I can’t even get a piece. I can only

gnaw on it.”

He reached over and used his fingers to open her

lips, his knuckle against her teeth to nudge them open

too. Tammy opened her mouth for his inspection. He

frowned. His fingertip ran across the edge of her teeth

before he explored her back teeth. He pulled his finger

away.

“They are too smooth. Why did your kind allow

someone to grind your teeth down? They are useless.”

“They just grow this way. We don’t have a need to

tear things with our teeth. We use forks and knives.”

He pulled the meat from her fingers. He opened his

mouth and tore a small piece of meat from the steak and

handed it to her. She hesitated and took it. Good thing

I’m not a germ freak, huh? She cringed as she ate the

small piece of bloody meat. He tore another small piece

off and placed it on the tray in front of hers. He used his

teeth and kept tearing her small strips, making a pile.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Never in a million years would she think she’d eat

raw meat and thank a man for using his sharp teeth to

rip it apart to make the bites small enough for her to

chew and swallow. She also never believed she’d be

hungry enough not to gag at either reality.

Tammy couldn’t eat it all. What she didn’t eat, 927

did. He ate more than Valiant had. He removed the

empty tray and walked to the cell door. He turned the

tray and shoved it outside the cell. When it dropped it

made a loud crash that Tammy winced over. He returned

and twisted open the metal thermos. He sniffed it before

handing it to Tammy.

“It is safe. Sometimes they put drugs in my drink but

I’d smell it.”

She smiled at him after enjoying the icy-cold water

and handed it back. He drank while staring at her. Her

smile slipped at the odd expression that darkened his

eyes and made him study her a little too intensely for

comfort.

“What?”

“You are attractive. You smell sweet.”

A n uneasy feeling made her nervous. “Valiant said

when I’m scared I smell that way. I’ve been scared a lot

since yesterday.”

He hesitated. “You belong to this Valiant?”

She nodded. “We’re getting married.”

“Married? What is this?”

She considered her words. “It’s a ceremony that

binds us together until we die in my world. He wants to

marry me to make sure human law acknowledges that I

belong to him.”

He nodded. “But you already belong to him?”

“Yes.”

He softly growled. “That is too bad. I want you.”

She inched back from him, feeling fear. “No.”

He frowned. “I said it is too bad. Do you not

understand this?”

“I belong to Valiant.”

“Keep your voice down or they will hear us. I know. I

agree.”

Her heart rate returned to normal. “I was afraid you

didn’t care that I am his. The way you said that implied

you were going to…touch me anyway.”

He shrugged. “I would want him to protect you if you

were mine and you were taken from me to be given to

another. I would kill him if he mounted you. I will not

force breed you, Tammy. I may want to but I can control

it. My mind rules my body.”

Good thing.