Tane's Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifter's on the Run Book 1) (18 page)

“Until that day comes, I’m going to run some tests.” The bravado with which he spoke was laced with fear.

That’s when she realized her feet were in stirrups. He cracked them apart until her legs hurt and she was put on display.

“I wanted everyone to see what you looked like.”

She looked up at the one-way mirror trying to hide the mortification on her face.

“
It’s going to be hard letting you kill him, when I want his head.”

“Tane?”

“It’s me.” A soft hand caressed her mind.

“How?”

“Must have happened with the claiming.”

She wanted to smile even as she could feel the evil hands of the doctor violating her.

“Don’t smile. They don’t know about this.”

She had to remember not to nod in response. “All right. What do we do now?”

“Do you know where you are?”

“No. I was out when they brought me in. This could be the same place I was held before or a different place. All the labs look the same, white and sterile”

“I can feel you. We are driving in your direction. The bond between us should lead me to you faster. Hold on, Leza.”

“I have a doctor to kill, I’ll hold on. You hold on.”

“I have a mate to love, I’ll hold on.”

He whispered bye to her before the connection broke.

“Why I believe you have signs of sexual activity. If we had known you wanted to be fucked, we could have provided that right here.”

She looked up at him, but refused to rise to the bait.

He released her legs and tied them down to the table before he looked at her smiling. He dragged the sheet that was covering her body away revealing nothing but her naked skin. Standing over her, he lifted a scalpel. She never even blinked as she prepared herself for a world of pain.

They would refer to this as a tissue sample. Seeing if anything had changed with how her skin kept her safe. Checking, he once told her, for her DNA composition and matching it up to what her blood samples would tell them.

All normal procedure he assured her. None of that ever made her understand why he needed to squeeze her breast or finger her during her vaginal examination. That she put down to the fact that he was maladjusted and no women in her right mind would ever let him touch her. He was sick.

*~*~*~*

She woke up in a cage, not that she expected anything different. They put her under when they moved her to confuse her senses and keep her from figuring out where she was.

There were six other unoccupied cages in the room with her. Were these for Tane and his men or were they already spoken for, but the other occupants were being tested or trained?

With a heavy sigh she closed her eyes as she waited for the last of the drugs to leave her system and the lethargy she was feeling to disappear. She could see her mother rising up in front of her pulling her in for a hug. She missed her parents, the way they loved her.

Her mom was one of the sweetest people she had ever known; her eyes were so light that Leza used to think she was magical. Her dad was dark skinned, stood tall with the widest shoulders and the whitest smile. She still remembered the last time she saw them.

“Honey, it’s not too late for you to come with us. You have a month before school starts.” Her mom gave her a smile that made her heart stop.

“Mom, you and dad have been talking about this cruise forever. You don’t need your nineteen-year-old hanging around.”

“Quick, Holly, buy her a ticket. We can’t leave someone that young home alone,” her father’s deep voice spoke with a slight edge of panic to it.

Her mother’s feather light laughter had joined with hers as Leza hugged her dad tight.

“I’ll be safe. I just want the two of you to have fun.”

“I’ve been waiting for this forever. Your Dad and I are going to have a blast.”

After a kiss for both of them, she took their car. They said she could drive it if she wanted while they were away even though she had one of her own.

Going home that night had been rough. For reasons she could never pinpoint she was a loner. She never liked to just hang out with people or party. The music was too loud for her. Her mom would kiss her and tell her it was ok; people like them felt more comfortable when they were by themselves, or with a few true friends.

People like them. Leza always wondered what that meant. She called Pam that night. She truly was one of her few friends. They talked on the phone all night then made plans to meet the next day.

She was almost ready to leave when her phone rang. It was her mother.

“Mom, how are you calling me? You’re supposed to be in the middle of the sea.”

“The captain made port, said there was a rough storm and he wanted it to pass. We’ll be leaving in a couple of hours. I just wanted to remind you that your dad and I love you and make sure you know where the paperwork is if anything happens to us.”

“Mom,” she could still feel the lump of fear she felt when she talked to her mom. “Maybe you and Dad should come home and go next year.”

“Nonsense, I didn’t mean to scare you. We’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”

The next call she got was from someone from the cruise line telling her there had been a freak storm. Something no one could have predicted and all aboard the ship had died. She had been alone ever since, until she crossed Tane’s property.

If they thought they were going to take the family she was just getting to know, they should think again.

The sound of footsteps pulled Leza out of her planning stage. Six males walked in. They were tall and brawny, obviously ex-soldiers and now they were shifters just like her.

She watched as each walked to his cage, opened the door, and climbed in. Then, without a thought, they closed the door behind them and settled down as if they were content to be where they were.

Her mouth opened as she gaped at them. One solider walked in. One. Solider. He walked up to each cage and set the electronic lock. What was happening here? Was this a dream? More like a nightmare. Why weren’t they fighting demanding their freedom? The solider turned and grinned at her liking the look of confusion on her face before he turned and left the room.

Not knowing what else to do, she turned to study the six males with her as if they were a zoo exhibit.

“Who are you?” The male with jet black hair and blue eyes as bright as cobalt asked her.

“Leza. Who are you?”

“Rim. Why are you here?”

“Because these…they caught me and brought me here.” She took a steady breath reminding herself there was no need to take her frustration out on them. They were as much a victim as she was.

“I don’t like you around my men.”

She took a look at his men who were eyeing her up like she was dessert. She didn’t like being around them either.

“Don’t worry; I plan on breaking out of here as soon as possible.”

“I can’t let you do that, Leza.”

“Let me?” Her finger changed to claws. “You won’t have anything to do with me gaining my freedom. So take your let me and shove it.”

Were they newly made? Maybe that was why they seemed to be loyal to a cause that only wanted them dead—after they defeated some of the cause’s enemies.

“Have you tried to escape?” She looked around meeting each male’s eyes.

“Why would we do that?” Rim asked her with surprise lacing his voice.

The other males made sounds of agreement and support for Rim.

“You’re a scientific experiment. One they plan to aim at whatever enemy or threat they perceive. Once you’ve been victorious a few times, you will either end up on a lab table being dissected or in a breeding program to create more of you.”

“You’re wrong. We are the wave of the future. We are in these cages until we can prove that our animals are stable. Soon we will be given new quarters and allowed to come and go like we did with our unit.”

“They’ve done a number on you to get you to believe that. They stole you from your life. How can you think they plan on treating you as equals?”

“We volunteered.”

That took the steam out of her sails. She sank to the floor of the cage as that little bit of news sank in. Had the government changed? Was it treating the shifters it was creating as valuable citizens? The horrors of her exam came back to her and she shook her head. No, they were using these males.

The door opened letting in a guard who brought a try laden down with food. He passed plates through a slot in each cell. When Rim took the top off his plate, the smell of steak made Leza’s stomach growl. Each shifter got a plate like that. She received a bowl with slop in it, a bottle of water, and a glass of soda.

“Bon Appetite,” the guard said to her with a sneer before leaving.

Rim looked over at her plate and shrugged before tucking into his steak.

She gave a disgusted look at her slop and then poured the soda out in the bucket they left for her to do her business in.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because somehow they are controlling us with it.”

“You really do have issues, woman.”

“Female.”

“What?”

“They stopped referring to me as a lady or a woman or even a human when they placed this animal within me. Now I’m a female and you know what? I’m ok with that. And just so you know, you’re no longer a man. You’re a shifter commonly known as a monster to those in charge. You’re a male shifter and you will never be a man again.”

She sat down picked up her bowl smelling it before she took a taste. Grimacing, she took bite after bite until it was all gone.

“One day you and every member of your team will get this to eat. There won’t be a fancy steak and potato dinner because they won’t need you anymore. I don’t expect you to believe me but do yourself a favor. Make escape plans even if you only do it as a game. One day you’ll thank me.”

She stood and walked to the edge of the cage where she sat down again. Her eyes were focused on the door as she made her first escape plan. From now on she would be the weapon the military wished it had.

*~*~*~*

“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

Tane threw Dai a look before concentrating on the road ahead of him. Not that he really needed to look. There was nothing but wide-open space. They hadn’t seen a car in hours, something that would have posed a problem if they hadn’t brought lots of extra gas with them.

“She’s out here somewhere. I can feel myself drawing closer to her.”

“How did they think you would find her? This isn’t a place we would trip over,” Jay asked as he scanned the darkening horizon.

“I think they were going to set up a trap. Not sure how. They had our general direction. Maybe they were hoping to follow us to where we were planning to build a life then set a trap to draw us out. Or at least draw me out. They have no idea that with the mate bond I can find her. I didn’t know either but I feel her calling to me. I know I can find her anywhere they take her. Underwater too.” Tane gave a smile more feral than human and Dai sat a little closer to the door.

“Sorry,” Tane muttered as he wrestled with the animals that were pushing at his skin.

“We could call in reinforcements,” Jay said softly.

“No,” Tane said. “I won’t have anyone else putting themselves in danger. Our chances are better with a small group than they are with a bigger one. We are going to get in there and out of there with Leza.”

“What about the others?” Dai looked at him.

Pain lashed across Tane’s face. “We can’t save everybody. Once we know where the facility is we can come back. We will come back.” Dai closed his eyes for a moment and nodded.

The openness of the plain was coming to an end. Up ahead of them were trees lined so thick he wondered at first if the vehicle would go through until he saw the road.

“Follow the yellow brick road,” Jay’s voice came out in a song.

Sure enough the road was now yellow but it wasn’t brick, it was concrete. It looked like someone had come out with one of the machines they used to paint lines on the road and painted multiple yellow lines almost connecting them into one yellow paved road.

“Why is the road yellow?” Dai asked scanning ahead.

“It must be easier to see yellow from the sky,” Jay speculated.

Tane cut the steering wheel to the right taking them off the road.

“Do you think someone is looking for us?” Dai had rolled down the window and was now seated on the window checking the sky.

“If it was daylight and we were overhead, which one of us couldn’t see the road when we were human?” Tane waited before going on. “So why paint the road unless you plan on watching it at night?”

There was a loud noise that drew Dai’s head back up. “Aww shit.” He slid back into the car.

“You’re right. There’s a huge bird flying overhead. When I say bird I mean from the land before time. Looked like a dinosaur to me.”

“Dinosaurs are extinct,” Jay said helpfully.

“And shifters don’t exist.”

Jay rolled his window down sticking his head out for a better look.

“Well, man.”

“Tales of their death have been over exaggerated.” Tane and Dai laughed softly as they raced away from whatever was patrolling the sky.

It took them all night but they finally stopped at the edge of the tree line. Before them was a huge compound looking more like a penal facility.

They turned and looked at Tane

“We spend the day in the tree’s taking shifts sleeping.”

*~*~*~*

Leza tossed and turned unable to get to sleep on the floor of the cage. Finally, having nothing better to do, she sat up to watch Rim and his males.

They were curled up into comfortable looking balls on the hard floor of the cage, looking like they did this every night. Because of course they did do this every night. The room was silent except for their breathing and one soft snore.

“Why did you escape?” Rim asked her, letting her know he wasn’t asleep.