Could she be my mate? The thought excited him and sent a rush of heat into the seat of his pants, but he shook his head, dismissing the thought. He had to be realistic here.
“Even if she was my mate, my animal is a monster. She deserves better than to be tied to me” Archer sighed.
“Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope” Seb said, shaking his head “I ain’t coming to your pity party so no invitation necessary, thanks. Don’t go being one of those ‘boo hoo she doesn’t deserve me’ losers. If your animal is a monster, then fix it. That’s your problem man, not hers”
That threw him. Archer let Seb’s words sink in for a moment. He was smart for a wolf, not that he’d ever trust him, but Seb was right. Archer’s monster of a lion was his own problem, he couldn’t put that on Lara. If Lara was his mate, then he would try to control the monster inside him enough to deserve her. He had never taken care of anyone but himself, he wasn’t sure he was even capable of love but for Lara, he’d try. Archer couldn’t help but laugh inwardly at how premature his thoughts were given the reality of the situation he was in. He didn’t even know if he’d make it out of here alive, let alone plan a future with his mate.
“So how did you end up in here?” Archer asked Seb, trying to change the subject
“Same as you I guess, going about my day to day life and got kidnapped. I put up a good fight though” Seb smiled, and Archer could see a hint of fangs “right before they decided to drug me and put my wolf to sleep. Otherwise I’d be gnawing on their thigh bones right about now”
Archer tried to get that image out of his head before he asked “These guys only target rogues, so I know you’re a rogue but why? Don’t wolves stay in packs?”
“Don’t lions stay in prides?” Seb retorted
“Touché” Archer said with a smile. This wolf may be growing on him…. Still not trustworthy though.
“You don’t seem to be too worried about where we are down here and why” Archer stated.
“Meh” Seb shrugged his shoulders “I’ve known about H.A.S since before I decided to go rogue and leave my pack. I figured it was only a matter of time before they started catching shifters and doing whatever it is they do to us. Never thought I’d be one of those caught, though. Lucky me”
“H.A.S?” Archer’s curiosity peaked. This wolf knew more than he let on.
“Humans against shifters. They’re a big group that don’t hide their hate for us, they’ve got some big organisations backing them and I’d bet this place belongs to one of those organisations” If Seb was concerned or scared, he never let on, his voice was as casual as if he was talking about what he planned to do that day.
“Do you think she’ll be back?” Archer didn’t mean to say that out loud, but he couldn’t keep the thought to himself. His mind kept replaying that moment when he laid eyes on her and how he felt immediately drawn to her.
“She’ll be back” If it wasn’t for Archer’s retained shifter hearing, he may not have heard the soft, feminine, whisper of a voice. It sounded like it came from a cell a few doors down from Seb’s. Who said that?
Archer immediately stepped forward at the same time Seb did, they locked eyes for a moment, both clearly thinking the same thing, before Archer said “Hello?”
“She’ll be back” The voice repeated softly, ignoring Archer’s greeting. Archer could hear the soft repetitive sound of shuffling coming from the direction of the voice, if he didn’t know any better, he would say it sounded like the woman was pacing her cell.
“Ha! She’s batshit crazy!” Seb whisper-yelled from across the room to Archer before he walked back to his bench and sat back down.
“Come into the light so we can see which cell you’re in” Archer persuaded gently, squinting his eyes against the darkness in each cell across from him.
Silence.
“I’m Archer and that’s Seb. What’s your name?” Archer asked softly, he was raking his vision up and down each cell in the corridor trying to see movement and see who this voice belonged to, but it didn’t look like anyone was coming forward.
After a few more moments of silence, the woman replied “Jen”
“How long have you been here?” Archer asked, the back of his mind still racing around thoughts of Lara and what she might be going through right now.
“I… I … I don’t know” The shuffling sound had returned, and Archer imagined whoever the voice belonged to was probably back to pacing the cell.
“Yeeahhh I’d say she’s been here a while” Seb deadpanned to Archer. Seb turned to face the direction that Jen’s voice was coming from “What kind of shifter are you? I can’t smell you. What the hell is going on with my sense of smell!” Seb said, frustration starting to show. Archer was glad to see some sort of emotion coming from him.
“Maybe you can’t smell her because she’s your mate and you’re too busy thinking of ways to bang her” Archer smiled as he threw Seb’s own words back at him. It probably wasn’t the right time to make a joke but, what the hell.
“Fuck. You” Seb said from his seat on the bench as he turned his body to face Archer, lifted both hands up and saluted him with both middle fingers.
A sobbing sound could be heard from down the hallway before Jen’s soft voice said in no more than a whisper “They took her. They took my animal.”
Chapter 9
The woman with the white coat escorted her to the end of the hallway where she used the fingerprint scanner to open the door. As Lara went to pass, the woman grabbed her arm and said, “I don’t want to hurt you but it’s better for everyone if you cooperate.” Was that a hint of remorse in her voice?
“W…where are you taking me?” Lara’s voice shook as she held the woman’s gaze, trying to be brave.
“To meet Dr Seville” The woman went back to sounding professional as she held Lara’s elbow and ushered her through the door. Dr Seville? Who the hell is Dr Seville? Lara’s thoughts were interrupted when she was partially blinded by the sudden bright lights that lit up the hallway she stepped into. The entire area was covered in twin fluorescent lighting strips along the ceiling but instead of the yellow fluorescents that lit up the hallway with the jail cells, this one was blindingly bright white. Lara lifted her hand up to shield her eyes, after a few moments her sight adjusted, and she dropped her arm to her side. It was then that Lara noticed doors lined the hallway, each one numbered under the words “Exam Room”
The woman guided Lara promptly to the second room. As she reached for the handle, she turned to Lara and whispered “Remember what I said, cooperate and this will be easier for everyone” before opening the door.
Lara looked around the room as she stepped inside. The bright lights and the gurney in the middle of the room reminded her of a sterile hospital theatre. But unlike hospitals, this bed had wrist and ankle shackles attached. Lara swallowed down the fear creeping up her throat as she was ushered towards the bed. She noticed a trolley nearby that held all sorts of nightmare inducing instruments that she hoped was not included in the ‘initial testing’, or any other testing for that matter. She heard running water and looked up to see a metal sink against the far wall and there was a man with grey hair wearing a white coat with his back to her, washing his hands. When the man turned around, Lara could see a wicked smile plastered on his face. He was wearing glasses that he shoved up his nose to push them back into place. This must be the man that Archer had warned her about.
“Welcome, Miss Williams. My name is Dr Seville. I trust you found your room satisfactory” He walked towards her with his hands in the pockets of his white jacket. Lara noticed the woman who had escorted her in was now in the process of leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
“My cell, you mean”
“You might be in this facility for a while so it would be better for you to think of it as your room. Now, Miss Williams, I’m going to need you to lie down on the bed as we are about to find out more about you and your animal” He cocked his head towards the gurney, close
enough now that the strong scent of his cologne hit her nose.
“And how are you going to do that?” Lara forced herself to ask. Maybe if she kept him talking long enough she’d find a way to distract him and make a run for it. Before she could search for a distraction, his emotionless voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Easy - Instinct. If we hurt you enough, your animal instinct will come forward to protect you and shift. That’s why we have backup in these rooms.” Dr Seville pressed a button to the side of the gurney and after a few moments, five or six guards filed in and stood against the back wall.
“And….and if I don’t have an animal?” Her attempt at bravery was wavering. Her body started to shake as she sat on the bed. She gripped her stomach as a wave of nausea hit her and she tried her best not to throw up right then and there.
“Well then, it was nice to meet you, Miss Williams. Down” he ordered.
She laid back against the cold metal gurney. Her wrists and ankles were strapped up uncomfortably, closing her eyes tightly she tried to remember Archer’s face to comfort her, and how his hair would feel against her fingers, how his stubble would feel against the palms of her hands and how his lips would feel locked tightly with hers.
Something cold touched both her temples and she abruptly opened her eyes to see Dr Seville with hands on either side of her head, checking the electrodes he had just put on her. “There is more than one way to cause pain, Miss Williams.” He smiled as he turned to a machine that had been wheeled next to him by one of the guards. She watched as the man put the machine in place and took a step back. He looked at her with what could only be described as apologetic eyes before dropping his gaze to the floor and moving to take his place against the back wall with the other guards.
“Thank you, Nathan” Dr Seville said before he pressed a button, instantly sending a shot of severe pain through Lara’s brain. It felt like her head was on fire and the burning turned in to an unbearable stinging sensation. Lara squeezed her eyes against the pain as her ears started ringing with a loud noise, which she soon realised was her own screaming. Her lungs burned for oxygen as she continued to scream. She tried to reach up to pull off the devices that felt like they were turning her brain into scrambled eggs, but her arms were still tied. Lara’s body started to shake, her breath shortening, she was panicking now as the agonising pain moved from her head down to her chest and spread to the rest of her body. She couldn’t breathe. She opened her eyes and mouth, attempting to suck in oxygen, but nothing happened. The last thing she saw before everything went dark was Dr Seville standing over her with his arms crossed over his chest, smiling.
Darkness consumed her. She felt warmth run through her body before it began to increase intensity, getting slightly hotter with each passing second. A few more moments of darkness ensued before suddenly the sweltering heat burned in agony. Her vision turned white and then morphed into an image of her the night her parents died. After the police officer had left the property and she ran outside to escape the oncoming panic attack. It felt like she was having an out of body experience, reliving the moments that she had blocked out of her mind. She recalled running into the forest, further than she had ever gone before and then losing all control of her emotions, crying hysterically until she couldn’t cry anymore.
She suddenly remembered the silhouette of a man in the forest, and he’d known her name. She recalled the way he walked towards her, slowly, with his hands out in a calming gesture before he abruptly began grunting and jerking as if in pain. Fear immediately rushed through her body as the memories came flooding back. The man had disappeared and in his place had stood a panther. She remembered seeing the golden feline eyes that stared back at her before it attacked. She replayed the moments after the gruesome assault, when she saw the panther’s torn, disfigured ear as it turned away, leaving her lying in agony, alone and bleeding. It was then that Lara remembered that she didn’t actually die, she shifted. Shifted?
Everything Archer and Seb had mentioned about shifters was true and she was one of them. Was the man that bit her one of them too? Her memories came flooding back, spitting out image after image of scenes, piecing together the last two months. After turning into a shifter, she wasn’t able to communicate with her animal, so when the panther inside of her took over, she wasn’t able to shift back. She was trapped inside a panther’s body for two long months. It was only when a car almost hit her that her human mind managed to take over and she was able to shift back. Throwing herself to the side of the road to avoid injury before subsequently hitting her head.
The car Lara thought suddenly. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that she was almost hit and woke up in a jail cell for shifters. She recalled the sniggering man who stepped out of the car, he looked suspicious and come to think of it, he had been carrying clothes that looked similar to the outfit she was wearing now. Lara felt repulsed at the thought that this man had seen her naked and dressed her after she had passed out. Had the man been following her? For how long? and Where is my panther now? Dr Seville said this experiment was meant to bring out my animal. When she tried to actively look inside her mind for her panther, she felt a sudden emotion of anger run through her. She was starting to realise that was how her panther communicated with her. An image immediately followed, it was the panther in her mind, her head lowered, ears pinned back, and her lips curled up to reveal sharp canines, hissing. It struck Lara that her panther had disappeared for a short time while her memory was missing but now she realised she hadn’t been tranquilised like the others and her animal was still very present inside her mind. Lara could tell that her panther was fighting against the urge to shift and protect her. The instinct to break out of the human body and become the animal was overwhelming but as Lara started piecing together what was really going on, she realised her panther was protecting them both.
By not shifting, her panther was making sure Dr Seville couldn’t run any experiments on her animal, and hence couldn’t run any experiments on Lara. Smart Panther.
Suddenly, Lara’s mind was met with the image of her panther lifting its head and letting out a ferocious roar. Blackness enveloped her mind as her panther disappeared, but the roar continued. She could feel the intense heat and pain return, only now it was unbearable. The roaring continued for a few more moments in the darkness of her mind before her ears were met with the sound of screaming. Her screaming.
“Turn the damn thing off! It’s clearly not working!” Lara’s eyes flung open to the sound of a male voice. It was the guard who had wheeled the machine in. He was yelling at Dr Seville from the other side of her gurney.
“Tell me what to do again and see what happens!” Dr Seville looked angry flustered as he pointed at Nathan’s face accusingly.
“She’s human! Can’t you see? You’ve cranked those electrodes up as far as they can go and all it’s doing is frying her brain! I came here to help guard a testing facility, not a torture chamber!” Nathan argued.
Dr Seville visibly sighed before pressing a button on the side of the machine, making the pain stop suddenly. Lara let out a breath of relief as her ears rung and her head pounded.
“Take her back to her cell” Dr Seville waved his hand at Nathan and gripped his forehead with his other hand before abruptly turning to leave the room. The other guards that lined the back wall followed him out the door, leaving Nathan and Lara alone.
“I’m sorry” Nathan whispered, his eyes looking down as he released her wrists and legs from her shackles.
“Th…th…thank you” Lara said through her raspy voice. She felt like she had swallowed knives after all that screaming.
“Not everyone in here is evil” he said with a soft voice as he looked up to meet her eyes.
Lara didn’t know what to say so she just got off the bed shakily. Her body felt like it had been put through the grinder. Nathan noticed how unstable she was, so he gripped her elbow and guided her slowly to the door and back out to the corridor with the cells. Lara
heard footsteps and looked up to see the woman with the white coat who had escorted her to the exam room, she was walking towards them with a clipboard in her hand. As she got closer, Lara noticed her eyes were on Nathan and she was smiling at him. Lara kept walking, Nathan’s hand still on her elbow, guiding her gently to the end of the hallway but just before they passed the woman, Lara looked up to see Nathan looking back at the woman, the edge of his mouth lifted up to smile her back. Huh. Not everyone in here is evil. His words ran through her head as she was escorted back to her cell, back to wait for her imminent death.
Chapter 10
The door at the end of the corridor suddenly opened and Archer rushed to stand at his cell door, holding his breath.
He felt a sudden surge of excitement and relief as he saw Lara. She was being escorted by a guard who seemed to be supporting her gently as he held onto her elbow. There was nothing forceful about the way the man held onto Lara and Archer couldn’t help but feel jealous at the level of touch that she was currently getting from this man. She hobbled slightly as she walked with her head down, taking each step with slow caution like she could fall at any time. Archer’s chest vibrated as a low growl escaped, anger shot through him at the thought of what may have happened to her to make her appear so weak. She made her shakily towards her cell, never once lifting her eyes to look at Archer. He was grateful that she was alive but inside, his anger was smouldering that he was helpless to stop her from being hurt in the first place.
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