She thought the man who came to get her was the same one who’d shoved her into the cell just before dawn, but she wasn’t entirely certain.
She didn’t really care until it occurred to her to wonder if there was any chance at all that she might use the only weapon she had with her--her femininity.
She was doomed, she thought a little hysterically, if that was the only weapon she had. The man scarcely glanced at her as he caught her arm and hauled her down the corridor to the great room.
The room was filled with people, or at least what appeared to be people. She knew better now, and she was still relieved that they were once again in human form.
Her heart skipped several beats when she saw that Jesse and the other Lycans were seated among them.
As if he sensed her presence or had heard their entrance, Jesse turned to look at her. His gaze flickered over her torn, bloodied clothing before it met hers. Fury blossomed in his eyes.
She must look like hell. “I’m alright,” she said quickly, fearful at the tension she saw in him--that he would do something rash.
Her outburst drew all eyes and she was almost sorry she’d said anything.
“Thes is your woman, Lycan?”
Erin glanced at the man who’d spoken, alarmed at the tone of his voice more than what he’d said. There was a satisfied purr to it, almost as if he welcomed the opportunity to taunt Jesse and saw in her a pawn he could use to goad Jesse into doing something stupid.
She hoped she was wrong, because they were very badly outnumbered.
Jesse ground his teeth. “She is, and the mother of my son,” he growled, threat evident in his voice.
A satisfied smile curled the man’s lips. It was hard to gauge when he was seated in a chair, but he looked to be close to Jesse in height and build, perhaps a little shorter and a little broader, but of a similar weight. He was swarthy, his hair as black as ink. She thought he must be around Jesse’s age, or perhaps a few years younger.
She didn’t at all care for the assessing glint in his gaze as he studied her thoroughly from head to foot and finally gestured to the guard to bring her closer. “She is human,” he said as she neared him, glancing at Jesse again. “But then I have always believed the Lycan were not very discerning in their breeding habits.”
Obviously, this was intended to be a huge insult, and it seemed to Erin from Jesse’s expression that it had struck home. “It wasn’t by choice,” she interjected quickly. “We …uh … were prisoners and the scientists used us both in their experiments.”
The man grinned at Jesse. “So--you did not choose the Lycan?”
Erin glanced uneasily at Jesse as the guard leading her shoved her into a chair beside the man who’d summoned her. Would it be better to say she had? Or she hadn’t?
She hadn’t had any opportunity to assess the situation she’d found herself in and suddenly regretted saying anything at all.
She drew no clue from Jesse’s expression. He looked murderous by now, but that hardly told her which way to jump.
Without waiting for the response to his question that she had no clear idea of how to answer, the man lifted her limp hand nearest him and examined it. “And yet you bear the marks, I’m told, of the beast who claimed you as his mate. Me, I think that sounds like choice, not force.”
Erin’s head whipped in Jesse’s direction of its own volition, as if her mind had no control over the action. “Marks?” she gasped faintly, her mind too chaotic to form any sort of opinion over the news.
She felt the brush of a hand along her throat.
Jesse’s chair squawked against the floor as he made an abrupt attempt to surge upward. Billy Ray and Tavian, seated on either side of him, grabbed him before he could get to his feet, restraining him. Jesse gave both of them a deadly look, but he subsided. “As you say, mine,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “Take your hand off my mate, Carlos, or I’ll take your head off your shoulders.”
Carlos withdrew his hand, but he chuckled. “You’re in no position to make any demands, señor Lycan. This is my territory,” he continued, his voice becoming deadly cold now. “And I can have your head removed from your shoulders. Your mark means nothing once you are dead. Perhaps I will keep your woman to entertain me.”
Jesse ground his teeth, but he seemed to come to grips with his temper with an effort. “You can challenge me for her, according to the laws of the werefolk, and nothing else, or your own people will think you nothing more than a coward.”
Carlos’ hand tightened on the hand he still held until Erin winced.
Fury glinted in Jesse’s eyes as they flickered over her face and then settled on Carlos again. “You will live to regret it if you simply dismiss what I’ve told you,” he ground out. “If they do not know you are here already, they will, and they will be just as eager to experiment on your people as mine.”
Carlos shrugged, but Erin could feel his tension. He wasn’t as certain the feds wouldn’t target them, or that the entire tale was fabricated, as he was trying to pretend.
“Take them back to their cells until I decide what to do with them.”
Jesse stood. “She comes with us.”
Carlos’ eyes narrowed. “You do not issue orders here,” he growled.
“It’s the law!” Jesse ground out. “And even you are not above that.”
Carlos flicked a glance around at his people. Apparently what he saw there was not the support he’d expected. His full lips tightened with anger, but he forced a shrug. “For now,” he said finally, releasing his grip on her arm at last.
Rubbing her arm, Erin surged to her feet and made good her escape, hurrying toward Jesse. To her surprise, he grabbed her, enfolding her tightly in his arms. Warmth flooded her. Before she could hug him back, the guards separated them, shoving them to get them to move.
Erin contained her impatience. At least she would be with Jesse. The thought was more of a comfort than it should have been under the circumstances.
Chapter Twelve
The cell she’d spent the night in was practically palatial compared to the one she was escorted to with the Lycans. This cell was perhaps twice as big, but contained her and eight men, none of whom were small. There wasn’t so much as a single narrow cot or a stool to sit on.
When they’d all managed to squeeze inside and the door had been barred behind them, the men looked around and settled on the floor with their backs to the wall.
“What now?” Erin asked, looking up at Jesse hopefully.
He was busy examining the floor for a place to sit. Catching her arm, he led her to the corner and sat down, drawing her down on his lap. “We wait.”
More than a little discomfited at being pulled into his lap, Erin resisted as Jesse drew her close, cradling her head against his shoulder. “For what?”
He shrugged. “The big party. You aren’t hurt?”
“I feel like hell and probably look worse, but, no, bruised and a little battered and scratched. What party?”
Jesse lifted a hand and, after rolling something around in his mouth a moment, removed it and tossed it onto the stone floor. “The Fed party. I’m thinking they’ll probably wait for dark to hit this place.”
Erin sat upright and looked down blankly at the metal that had hit the floor. “That’s--”
“Dr. Wagner’s locator chip. I thought it might come in handy.”
“But … it’s dead,” Tavian said sharply. “You said you’d deactivated it after we’d run it around the city a few times to have the Feds chasing their tails.”
“Deactivated, not dead. I activated it when we were captured.”
The Lycans in the room all exchanged worried looks. “You sure that was a good idea?”
Jesse’s lips flattened into a thin line. “No. But I am certain our current situation is really bad.”
“They didn’t kill us,” Billy Ray pointed out.
“Which only means they have something else in mind for us that we probably won’t find an
y more to our liking,” Jesse said dryly.
“How’s it going to help us if the Feds get us?” one of the other men demanded. “I ain’t keen on becoming one of their specimens.”
“How many clan members did you count coming in?” Jesse retorted.
The man shrugged and glanced at his neighbor.
“About thirty,” Tavian supplied.
“They came at us with roughly three to one.”
“Yeah, mon ami, but you stopped fighting as soon as they tole you they had your woman. If we had fought on--”
“They caught us with our pants down, trapped between the jungle and the beach. The end results woulda been the same.”
“I would’ve been willing to fight to the death,” the man groused.
“We came to rescue my son and destroy their research. Dyin’ wouldn’t have helped our clansmen.”
“And this will? They’ll be expecting us now. There won’t be no sneak attack.”
“They will be diminished now,” Jesse growled. “They are too arrogant to resist the temptation of assaulting this compound. They’ll throw everythin’ they’ve got at it. When they do, we’ll use the distraction to escape … and the panther army will become part of our army, whether they agreed to help us or not. While the clansmen and the Feds are busy slugging it out, we’ll take the facility and take care of our business here.”
Tavian grinned abruptly. “Good thinking, mon ami!”
Billy Ray studied Jesse thoughtfully. “What if they’re not interested in rescuing Dr. Wagner?”
Jesse grimaced. “Then we’re up shit creek without a paddle. Anybody else got any suggestions? I’m wide open.”
A man near the back spoke up. “So dey come and dey distract de panther clan. We’re stuck in dis cell. What den?”
Jesse shook his head. “This cell cain’t hold us once we shift.”
Everyone looked the cell over a little doubtfully. “The walls must be two feet thick, solid stone.”
“The door isn’t,” Jesse said dryly. He glanced at Billy Ray. “I suppose it’s too much to hope they didn’t scuddle the yacht?”
“It’s on a sand bar in a little cover maybe six miles north of here. The tide was out when we hit it, though. It shouldn’t be too hard to dislodge it once the tide rises again.”
Jesse frowned in thought. “When we make our break, I want you five,” he said finally, pointing to Tavian, Billy Ray and three other men, “to take Erin back, and get the yacht out into open water again.”
Tavian and Billy Ray immediately began to protest.
“This ain’t a democracy. It’s an order,” Jesse said tightly.
Erin sat up. “What about the baby?”
“We’ll get him.”
“Sneak in, you mean, and then out again?”
“I don’t think we’re going to have to worry too much about stealth--the bulk of the soldiers will be here, unless they don’ take the bait.”
“But all the noise will scare him,” Erin pointed out. “I’m the only one here that has something to keep him occupied and quiet.”
She was almost sorry she’d mentioned it. The comment drew all eyes to her breasts. Suddenly self-conscious, she sank against Jesse’s chest again. When she looked up at Jesse, she saw that he was studying her with amusement. “Point taken. Billy Ray, take two men with you to retrieve the ship. The rest of us will hit the lab together, but you’ll stay out the way. Clear?”
Erin nodded.
“And you’ll follow orders.”
Erin gave him a look. “For the raid, right?”
His lips twitched. “Chère,” he murmured warningly, and then stopped abruptly as if he’d just realized they had an interested audience.
“Let’s not fight about it now. Later you can explain what Carlos meant about the marks,” she added in a whisper.
He nuzzled her ear. “You’re wasting your time whispering,” he said low near her ear. “Lycan hearing is extremely acute … and fighting wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
Erin felt her face catch fire.
Several of the men chuckled.
She tried to convince herself it was because of something someone else had said that she hadn’t overheard, but she had a bad feeling she was wrong.
* * * *
The Feds announced their arrival at dark thirty with a bomb blast that shook the walls around the captives so hard debris rained down all over them. The concussion rattled Erin’s teeth together. She bit her tongue, wincing as the coppery taste of blood filled her mouth. Jesse curled around her until the chips of stone, splinters of wood, and sand had stopped showering them and then set her away from him abruptly and came up on his hands and knees.
Wakened so abruptly from a doze and still disoriented, Erin lolled groggily against the wall, watching in growing horror as the men in the cell began to shift into their beast forms. Within moments, all signs of humanity vanished from them and surrounding her were snarling man-wolves.
Jesse launched himself against the door, battering it with his shoulder. It splintered with the second blow and burst outward with the third, falling into several pieces. The men poured through the opening. Erin had pressed herself against the wall to avoid the stampede. When the men had cleared the door, Jesse reached inside, grabbing her arm and hauling her behind him as he strode down the corridor.
The noise outside the main structure was almost deafening. Explosions and gunfire mingled with the hoarse cries and screams of men and manbeasts. The air was a suffocating soup of dust, smoke, and gunpowder. Blinded by the smoke, Erin stumbled along in Jesse’s wake, trying her best to keep up with him, her heart pounding so hard with fear her lungs labored all the harder to provide her with oxygen, making her dizzy.
Before the group could clear the building, a knot of the panthers burst inside.
Both groups halted abruptly at sight of each other, tensing to battle.
“This way,” the leader of the group bellowed. “There’s a passage beneath the mission that leads to the caves. It exits at the falls about a mile from the coast.”
The Lycan all turned to look at Jesse questioningly. He nodded. Turning, they followed the panthers down the narrow hall that led to the cell where Erin had spent her first hours at the encampment. The door opposite her cell door opened to a narrow flight of stairs that led almost straight down, more like a ladder than stairs. Swinging Erin up into his arms, Jesse held her tightly to his chest as he raced down into the darkness below the mission.
The cool air below soothed Erin’s eyes, but she could see no better in the darkness. One of the panthers lit a torch. “I am Carlos’ second. I can not go with you, but Juan will show you the way. There are caves beneath the island fortress, as well. The gringos thought they had sealed them off, but there is another way inside that he can show you.” He grinned suddenly. “You should hurry and find your son before we send these gringos scurrying for home.”
Jesse motioned for his men to follow Juan. When they’d passed, he held out his hand to the man who’d helped them. “If you ever find yourself in need of a friend, I am your man.”
The beastman took it in a firm clasp. “I will remember … in case of need, señor Lycan.”
“Jesse.”
The man grinned. “Guillume.”
Jesse grinned back at him. “Good hunting, Guillume.”
When Guillume had headed back the way they had just come, Jesse set Erin on her feet. As she stared at him blankly, he knelt on the floor. “We need to move fast, chère. Get on my back and hold tight.”
Disconcerted, Erin nevertheless didn’t argue. The faster they went the better as far as she was concerned and she knew she couldn’t possibly keep up with him on her own. To her stunned amazement, he began to shift once more when she’d climbed onto his back. In the blink of his eye, he was no longer manbeast, but a great wolf that looked like any other save for the fact that he was far larger than most wolves.
She was nearly unseated when he launched
himself into a run. Burying her face against his back, she tightened her arms around him, unable to focus on anything beyond hanging on for all she worth. When Erin finally nerved herself to open her eyes for a look around, she discovered they’d left the smooth artificially formed corridor behind. The walls that closed in far too closely for her peace of mind on either side of them were pock marked, as if they’d been blasted.
The sound of rushing water grew louder and louder as they traveled until it became a deafening roar. She could see no sign of it, though, and finally decided that the water must be following some other channel in the rock.
As the flickering light of the torch the lead man was carrying finally sputtered and went out, the cavern descended briefly into blackness. Erin realized after a few moments that it wasn’t a total absence of light, however. Lifting her head, she saw in the distance a lighter patch. As Jesse raced toward it, the area around them grew brighter and brighter and she realized they were nearing the mouth of the cave.
The narrow stone corridor they were following widened abruptly into a tremendous cavern. Water rushed along channels on either side of them now, splashed and trickled down the walls, gusted from natural spouts here and there. Within moments Erin was soaked to the skin with the fine mist rising from the water, her hair plastered to her skull and dripping rivulets of water along her cheeks and forehead.
She didn’t dare loosen her grip on Jesse even for a moment, though. She was still trying to blink the water from her eyes so that she could see when they emerged from the mouth of the cave. The night sky was like a great, midnight blue bowl above them, sprinkled liberally with winking silver specs of light. Rising just above the trees, the full moon was a huge golden-orange globe of light that lit everything beneath it like dawn.
The water rushing through the cavern burst forth into nothingness and dropped below them to drop some fifteen to twenty feet to form a round pool. The others had vanished when Erin opened her eyes, but she saw them swimming toward the banks.
She had just enough time to utter the words, “Jesse don’t you dar--,” when he leapt from the ledge toward the water below. Her arms and legs tightened around him spasmodically. She sucked in a breath to scream and strangled as they hit the water and plunged beneath the surface. Releasing her grip on him, she pushed off of him and swam frantically upward. By the time her head broke the surface of the water, she could do nothing but cough and splutter, pounding the water around her desperately to stay afloat.
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