Dark Wrath (7 page)

Even as she cried
out in panic, she felt the rush, though, as her milk glands expanded and
filled.

He released her
nipple abruptly.  Jerking away from her, he stared down at her nipple for
a long moment, too stunned for the implications to sink into his mind for many
moments.

As the
realization sank into him, he lifted his head and caught her gaze.

Erin stared back
at him with a mixture of guilt and trepidation.

What he might
have said or done she was never to know.  At that moment, he lifted his
head, gazing up at the ceiling.  Startled, she looked up, too. 
Moments ticked past and then she, too, heard the sound that had drawn his
attention.

The thrum of
helicopter blades bouncing off of the trees.

Rage filled his
eyes as he looked down at her again.  “You
bitch
!  You brought
them with you!” he ground out through gritted teeth.

Erin felt her jaw
go slack with stunned surprise.  “I didn’t!  You have to believe me,
Jesse!  I didn’t know!”

He leapt off her,
sprang from the bed even as he adjusted his jeans.  Before her horrified
gaze, he shifted.  She screamed in terror at the look he bent upon her,
but after hesitating only a moment, he leapt through the window with a crash of
shattering glass and vanished from her sight.

Briefly, relief
flooded through her, but it was very brief.  If he was right and it was
them, she had to flee.  Her arms landed on her body so hard the club they
made knocked the breath out of her.  It had taken every ounce of will
power she could muster even to move them that much.  Gritting her teeth,
she struggled to work feeling into her arms and finally managed to sit
up.  Her fingers were stiff and uncooperative.

Doing her best to
ignore the approach of the helicopter as it drew steadily closer, she wiggled
her fingers and finally sat up, leaning to reach for the binding around first
one ankle and then the other.  She was weeping with fear and frustration
by the time she managed to free her ankles.

They were
close.  The sound had become near deafening.

She was stark
naked, but she didn’t have time to grab anything even if she could’ve pulled it
on with her wrists still bound.

If she could
elude them, she could come back for something to wear.

She saw the
chopper hovering just above the trees as she reached the edge of the
porch.  Even as she stared up at it, lines dropped and men began repelling
down them like spiders dropping from spun web.  Leaping off the porch, she
glanced around a little frantically.  It was full daylight, and too late
to hope they hadn’t spotted her.

She suspected it
was Jesse they wanted most, though, and he’d had plenty of time to disappear
into the swamp.

There was no boat
at the dock and she certainly couldn’t swim with her hands still ties and her
arms still woefully uncooperative.  Finally, she dashed around the side of
the cabin, searching the tree line for a path.  Seeing nothing, she ran
toward the woods anyway, leaping over the tall fronds of wild ferns, praying
she wouldn’t land on a cotton mouth or a rattle snake--or a gator.

She hadn’t made
it far into the brush when she was body slammed.  The breath left her
lungs in a painful rush as she landed on the ground with the man on top of her.

She screamed,
slinging her bound hands at the man like a bat.  The struggle was a
frustratingly short one.  Before she’d managed to club him more than
twice, someone else seized her arms.  The soldier that had tackled her
grabbed her legs.  She kicked at him, managing to free a foot long enough
to really piss him off by kicking him in the face.  He lost his cool,
leaping to his feet and kicking her several times before the guy holding her
arms released his grip on her and shoved him back.  “Stand down,
soldier!  We’re supposed to bring her back.”

She hadn’t
managed to recover the breath he’d kicked out of her when both men grabbed her
and hauled her to her feet, half carrying her and half dragging her back the
way she’d just come.

She saw Dr. Wagner
as soon as they’d rounded the cabin and crossed the ‘yard’ toward the dock,
where the helicopter had settled low enough to disgorge the bastard onto the
cypress planks.  He looked so pleased with himself, she saw red as fury
replaced the sense of defeat that had swallowed her when they’d captured her
and begun dragging her back.

She caught the
soldiers off guard.  Pulling free, she closed the short distance that
separated her from Wagner and slugged him with her bound fists.  “Where is
he, you son of a bitch?  What have you done with my baby?” she screamed at
him, pounding him several more times before the soldiers caught her and dragged
her back.

S
tunned
by her attack, Wagner merely stared at her blankly for several moments,
examining his bloody nose.  “Any sign of the beast?” he asked finally,
transferring his gaze to the guards.

The soldier
holding her right arm shook his head.  “He heard the chopper.  He’s
probably miles from here by now.”

Wagner looked
enraged for several moments.  “You said the tracker we implanted in her
would lead us to him,” he said angrily.  “What use is the damned tracker
if you were going to scare him off with the chopper?”

“You
tagged
me?” Erin screamed furiously, disbelief momentarily distracting her.  She
realized then with a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach that Jesse had
been right.  She
had
led them to him.

She hadn’t
escaped.  They’d let her go so that she could help them capture him again.

Bait.  The
bastards had used her as bait.

“I’ll kill you if
you’ve hurt my baby,” she ground out.

Wagner frowned at
her.  Feeling around the pockets of his lab coat, he produced a
syringe.  “You won’t be in any condition to do anything,” he said almost
pleasantly, stepping up to her and stabbing the needle into her arm.

Pain lanced
through her and she winced, feeling despair fill her as the drug began to
circulate through her.  “Take me to him.  Please!  He needs me!”

“He’s in good
hands,” Wagner said easily, his voice beginning to slur in her ears and grow
distant as the sedative kicked in and her knees turned to jelly.  “Take
her to the chopper.  This is a bust.  We’ll have to think of another
way to trap a specimen.”

* * * *

Jesse emerged
from the reeds slowly as the chopper lifted off, struggling against the temptation
to leap onto the dock and hitch a ride on the helicopter’s pontoons. 
While he internally debated the pros and cons of giving in to the urge, the
chopper gained altitude and the moment was lost.

Frustration
surged through him for several moments, threatening to further disrupt his
ability to think.  After a moment, he tamped it.  Summoning his
beast, he loped after the chopper, trailing it with his keen senses, praying
they wouldn’t turn toward sea where he would have no way of following.

His prayers were
answered.  They followed the coast line for miles and finally turned
inland.  He shadowed them until they reached the edge of the swamp,
watching from the concealment of the trees until the helicopter was no more
than a speck in the sky.

A sense of
purpose filled him as he saw it begin to descend.

He had hoped that
they would not go far.  He hadn’t expected that they would, but there had
been a risk in allowing them to leave without him.  He stayed to listen a
while, reaching out with his senses until he could no longer even hear the
chopper.

That didn’t mean
it had landed, but the swamps were where their prey lived.  Knowing that,
they wouldn’t have set up shop far from the source.

He’d wondered if
he was mad to give Erin the second mark, virtually sealing his own fate.

He was fiercely
glad now that he hadn’t been able to resist the impulse.  Their tie was
stronger.  He could follow her.

After a time, he
melted back into the swamp and lifted his head to summon the brethren. 
Ordinarily, he would not have been able to contain his impatience to go, but it
was different now.  There was more at stake and he couldn’t risk harm
coming to them.

He would need
help to take back what had been stolen from him--his woman and his son.

* * * *

It took an effort
to throw off the after effects of the sedative.  Erin’s first awareness
was of discomfort, minor aches that nevertheless discouraged her from coming
fully awake.  Memories began to intrude, however, making it impossible to
seek oblivion again.

She opened her
eyes slowly, staring up at the ceiling for many moments before she allowed her
gaze to sweep the room she found herself in.

It could’ve been
the same room she’d been imprisoned in for nearly a year.  It had the same
institutional look to it, clean, cold and impersonal.

The inevitable
sense of loss swept over her as she became fully conscious, aware of the aching
tightness of her breasts, and she placed a hand over her flat stomach. 
Joshua was gone.  For weeks now she’d thought of little beyond finding him. 
She’d thought, or at least made herself hope, in the beginning that they were
only running tests on the baby and they would bring him to her once they’d
satisfied their curiosity.

When one week had
dragged into another and then another, the hope had dwindled and the
determination had grown in her to find her baby and take him back.  She’d
refused to allow herself even to think of the possibility that she might fail,
struggling to pump her breasts the best she could to keep her milk in
production so that she could feed her baby when she had him back.

She’d been so
focused on escaping and rescuing Joshua, she’d blinded herself to the ease with
which she’d finally won her freedom.

They’d let her go
in hopes of recapturing Jesse--or another Lycan, anyway.  It was possible
they thought he was dead considering how many times he’d been shot while
escaping.

And she’d led
them right to him.

Before the full
implications of that could set in, she pushed herself upright.

She saw she was
wearing one of the ugly gray shifts they had provided her with since she’d been
imprisoned.  Once she’d studied the room thoroughly, she was certain she
was in the same cell, not just another one that looked like the one she’d
occupied for so long.

Looking back, she
realized her naiveté was almost pathetically laughable.  Even after they’d
drugged her and used her to collect the specimens from Jesse, she had been
screaming the house down when she’d been brought here and imprisoned, demanding
her rights, threatening to sue, threatening to bring charges against them.

It wasn’t as if
they didn’t
know
they were romping all over her rights as an American
citizen.  Jesse, whatever he was, had those same rights and that hadn’t
deterred them one iota.

They were the
government.  She
had
no rights unless they gave them to her, unless
they upheld them and they weren’t the least bit worried about consequences.

She’d been afraid
when she’d first come to the conclusion that they didn’t care about her
rights.  That the reason they were so unconcerned was because they didn’t
intend for her to live long enough to make waves.  It had dawned upon her
after a while that that wasn’t necessarily the case.  She couldn’t prove
any of the things that they’d done to her.  Even if they finally decided
to let her go, it was much more likely that she’d find herself
institutionalized for paranoia than that anyone would actually listen to her.

The sense of
impotence made her blood boil.  She tamped it.  Raging wasn’t going
to get her anywhere.

Throwing her legs
over the side of the cot, she got up and used the facilities, then washed her
face, brushed her teeth to get rid of the horrible cotton mouth from being
drugged, and combed her hair.

They were
watching, she knew.  They were always watching.

As if in answer
to her thoughts, a panel in the door slid back and a tray scraped along the
floor as one of the guards pushed food in to her.  She turned at the
sound, just in time to see the arm disappearing again.  The panel slid
shut.

She had little
interest in the food, but she retrieved it anyway, taking a seat on the cot
with the tray across her lap.

As she nibbled at
the tasteless food, she considered her situation.  They’d brought her back
and they hadn’t given her her baby, so it had nothing to do with any anxiety
about his health.  She refused to consider that they might have no reason
to be concerned about it because he was beyond the need for care.  He was
alive.  She felt it in her soul and she didn’t believe that was only
because she wanted it to be true.  She felt certain that she would have
sensed it if he was dead.  Maybe she was lying to herself.  Maybe
that was something every mother believed deep down, that they’d just know
because the link was so strong between them and their child, but she refused to
consider that it was only hope.

And if she was
right, then there was only one reason that she could think of that they’d
brought her back.  They expected to have use of her.

Either they meant
to use her to breed another hybrid.

Or they meant to
try using her as bait to catch another Lycan.

Possibly both.

Either way, they
weren’t going to allow her to escape.  They’d already tried that and
failed to capture the Lycan they wanted.  If that was the agenda, then
they would try something that gave them more control next time.

Unwelcome,
thoughts of Jesse crept into her mind.

Guilt had swamped
her for a long time after she’d orchestrated his escape, because so many had
been killed, but mostly because, by releasing him, she’d been his
executioner.  She wasn’t certain how she felt about the fact that he’d
survived.  Relief was part of it.  That she needn’t shoulder the
guilt of having a hand in his death, and the death of her child’s father.

Her feelings went
beyond that, though.

In the first
months after she’d been imprisoned, she’d had nothing but time and her
thoughts.  As reluctant as she’d been to relive that time, she hadn’t been
able to help it and every time the memories had replayed, she’d discovered some
nuance in his expression and the things he’d said and the way he’d behaved that
she hadn’t noticed before.

She’d convinced
herself she cared for him and mourned his loss.  She was no longer certain
that it was anything else beyond a need to convince herself that what she’d
been through hadn’t been the clinical nightmare she’d thought, though. 
Maybe some, or even most, of it was true.  Maybe not.

It didn’t really
seem to matter now one way or the other.  If she had guessed right and he
had had feelings for her beyond lust, he hated her now and she doubted she
could change that even if she wanted to.

That thought had
no sooner crossed her mind than she realized she did want to.  It didn’t
really matter how she’d come to care for him, it seemed, whether she’d fallen
for him by way of fantasy, or because of who and what he truly was.  The
bottom line was that she did care--enough that it hurt to think he hated her
and the need filled her to try to make him understand that none of the things
that had happened were things she’d done or even had any control over.

It seemed unlikely
she would get the chance.  The agency wasn’t through with either one of
them.  If they captured him again, particularly if they used her to do so,
he would hate her all the more and she didn’t think it was likely that he would
allow his desire for her to influence him in her favor.

She wasn’t even
certain he desired her anymore for that matter.  It seemed to her that he
had been pretty damned good at teasing her and remaining aloof.  In the
end, he had given in--just long enough to discover her secret--and he probably
hated her even more for that.

It was hopeless,
she realized.  If there had ever been a chance, there wasn’t one now.

Worse, she didn’t
know how he might feel about Joshua.  If he’d been human, there was
probably at least a 60/40 chance in her favor that he wouldn’t give a damn
about the baby one way or the other--certainly not enough to challenge her for
the child.  He wasn’t human, though.  He was Lycan, and she had no
idea how strong his parental instincts might be.  If they were strong enough
to goad him into going after his child, he would take Joshua and she would
never see her baby again because he hated her, because she was human and she
knew that as much as he despised humans in general and her in particular it was
very unlikely he’d allow her near his young.

If the worst case
scenario was that Jesse would find Joshua and take him away from the agency,
then she could rest easier with that than to think the agency had their hands
on her baby.

What were the
chances, though, that he could find Joshua when she hadn’t been able to? 
He hadn’t even been able to find her.  If she’d understood what she’d
heard correctly, he had had to rely on her returning to the lab.

God only knew
where they’d taken Joshua, she thought, swallowing against the knot of misery
that formed in her throat.

He could be in
the same facility where she was, but she didn’t think so.  She’d been
transferred to the current facility after his birth.  He was either still
at the hospital where he’d been born or they’d taken him to a different
facility altogether to prevent any chance that she could get near him.

When she’d
finished eating, she got up and set the tray on the floor in front of the panel
on the door.  They hadn’t given her anything to eat with.  She’d used
the utensils before to destroy the cameras and tried to work the lock
open.  Since then, she’d gotten nothing she couldn’t eat with her hands.

She searched the
room for the cameras anyway, squirting a good dollop of mustard on the lens of
each--there were three, two in plain sight and the last ‘hidden’.  She
would’ve used the catsup except that she liked catsup.  She wouldn’t be
getting any more mustard.

It was a lame
rebellion, but the only thing she could do at the moment.  For now, she
had a little privacy at least.

She moved back to
the cot and settled on it, trying to jog her memory of her outward trip the day
she’d escaped.  Assuming she was in the same facility, she had to be on
one of the lower levels, which meant underground.  The walls were poured concrete. 
She wasn’t going to be able to dig out.