The Secret of Site G_A Shifter Paranormal Romance

by Elvira Bathory

  Tara let out a bark of laughter. “Your family’s station makes no difference to us humans, freak. Really, you must have guessed by now that you aren’t going to be returned to your home anyway.”

  Dr. Stevens whirled on her assistant, “Tara! We do not talk to our guests like that. Besides her family may be important enough to make a difference. I do apologize for my assistant’s behavior. She doesn’t usually help with my examinations as she is more of a field agent than a lab rat. So, tell me, Arabella, why is your family so important to the paranormal world?”

  Arabella chuckled. “Like I’m going to tell you that. I’m all for cooperation, Doc, but there are some things I think I will keep to myself for now. If you don’t mind. Now, tell me, are you planning on knocking me out again so you can perform these tests or will I get to remain conscious this time? Because, since we’re being honest with one another and everything, I would really much prefer to be awake when you do what you feel you have to do to me in the name of science.”

  Dr. Stevens smiled sweetly. “If that is your preference. But, I must warn you, some of the tests we will put you through will be very excruciating so when we begin to perform those experiments, oh, excuse me, I mean examinations, you might want to keep that in mind.”

  Arabella was sure there were going to be some unpleasant situations while she tried to find a way out of the military research facility, but she wanted to keep her wits about her. Baiting the doctor and her assistant into a verbal fight wasn’t going to be very beneficial to help her obtain that goal. So, she decided to keep her mouth shut and let the doctor do what she had intended to do when Phillip wheeled her in.

  “Do you know what a pap smear is, Arabella?” Dr. Stevens asked as she moved a stool around to sit in front of her.

  The mermaid just shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it. Is it some sort of alcoholic drink?”

  Tara laughed, “That’s funny. I can see you going into a bar and ordering a pap smear.”

  Dr. Stevens gave her assistant a cross look. “I’m afraid not, dear. A pap smear is a kind of examination that checks your female parts. It checks to be sure you are disease free as well as that all of your reproductive organs are working properly. Of course, that is what we look for in human females, but with you we will be looking at other things as well. We are mostly checking to see how your reproductive organs actually work since we have never seen a half-fish/half-human birth.”

  Arabella tried to sit up so she could see what the doctor was doing but since she was still strapped to the bed she really couldn’t, “What exactly are you looking for then?”

  The doctor chuckled. “You’re going to feel my fingers and some pressure, but I’m going to need you to relax for me as best as you can.”

  The mermaid wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but what she did know was there would be no relaxing.

  She squeaked when she felt something cold and metal touch her inside thigh. “What was that?”

  Dr. Stevens sighed. “That would be the speculum. I really need you to relax as best as you can now, Arabella. If you don’t, it is really going to be unpleasant.”

  Chapter Four

  Arabella was escorted back to her room after the doctor had completed her initial examination. She tried fruitlessly to hold a conversation with the woman who accompanied her but was met with a stony silence. After fifteen minutes of a one-sided conversation, Arabella decided she wasn’t going to get any useful information out of her companion and became silent herself. She made sure to pay attention to the route they were taking, trying to construct a way to escape. That would prove to be much more difficult than Arabella had anticipated, but she still held hope that she would get out of this horrible facility and be reunited with her family sooner rather than later.

  The hallway they were walking in was long and windowless, with blinding white walls that reflected the horrible overhead fluorescent lights. No doors could be seen, causing Arabella to believe that they were hidden like the one in her own cell.

  “Here we are, Arabella. We have added some amenities to your room. Dr. Stevens has insisted that we make your stay as comfortable as possible without knowing what it is you really need,” Tara said as she pushed on the right side of the wall they were standing in front of.

  Arabella watched the woman closely, trying to obtain the trick to opening her cell door. She heard a click as the door swung inward but still couldn’t see how the woman had made it happen. When Arabella hesitated in front of the open door, Tara applied some pressure on the small of Arabella’s back, encouraging her to enter the room. The small amount of pressure made sure that Arabella knew there wasn’t much choice in the matter. As she stepped over the threshold, she heard a sound echoing in the hallway. Arabella wasn’t sure what the noise was, but being curious in nature she stepped back into the hallway to see if she could find out what was making it.

  “Damn it! He has escaped again!” Tara shouted as she pushed another button that was barely visible on the wall and a red light began to flash while a buzzing noise filled the air.

  “Is it Adahy again?” Dr. Stevens’ voice filled the air and Arabella looked around, expecting to see the woman appear in the hallway.

  Tara let out an exasperated sigh, “But of course. He is the only one who has found a way out of his cell. What do you want us to do, doctor?”

  Dr. Stevens growled in frustration. “That guest is becoming more trouble than he is worth. Truly. Capture him and put him on sub-level four. We will have to find out how he is getting out of his cell and find better accommodations for him since he seems so unhappy where he is currently.”

  Tara nodded, “As you wish. All available personnel to sub-level two, please. We are in need of assistance in recapturing captive 319.”

  So we are all just numbers after all. I wonder how many of us paranormals they have in their clutches and secreted away in this Goddess forsaken place, Arabella thought as she watched humans in white scrubs race through the hallway, their clothes blending in with the blinding hallway walls.

  Tara pushed on her back again. “Into your room, please.”

  Arabella stood her ground. “Not until I find out what is making that strange noise.”

  Tara slammed her fist against the wall beside Arabella, “I don’t have the time to argue with you. Either you enter of your own accord or I will have no other choice but to use force.”

  As Arabella decided whether force would be worth the effort, she heard a deep masculine voice say, “Force? Really, Tara? Do you really believe that you can make this young woman enter that room if she has decided against the choice? You don’t appear to have your usual arsenal with you this time around.”

  Tara spun around to face the intruder, forgetting about Arabella for the moment. “I don’t need weapons to take on this freak, Adahy. She is a waif of a woman and I’m positive that I could take her in a heartbeat. Why is your kind always making trouble for humans? I believe it is time that we put a stop to it. Starting with you.”

  But the male was no longer paying attention to the dark-skinned woman standing in front of him but to the fairer woman standing behind her. His eyes were a beautiful shade of bronze and his shoulder length hair was a deep burgundy that Arabella had never seen. His chest was bare and chiseled, showing a well-defined set of six pack abs. As her gaze moved further down his body, Arabella was surprised to see he wasn’t standing on two legs but four!

  His lower half was that of a land animal she had only seen in the books she found during her explorations of the sunken ships in the ocean. Dear Goddess! What have these human barbarians done to him?

  The half-man, half-animal took a small step back and Arabella heard the noise that had caused her to step back into the hallway from her cell in curiosity causing her to glance down at his feet. As he was moving backward she saw that all four of his feet moved.

  “And who is our lovely new guest, Tara? Your manners seem to evade you as we stand in this lonely hallway,�
� the male said as he stepped forward once more.

  Tara stood directly between the two paranormals, placing her human body so that the locked gazes between them were broken. “My manners do not fail me, Adahy. There is no need for you to meet our newest inmate. You will get to know her soon enough. If you would behave and remain in your room until escorted, that is.”

  Adahy laughed. “But where is the fun in that? I told your doctor upon my waking here that I would not be here long.”

  Tara smirked. “Six months ago! And yet, here you still are.”

  Arabella cleared her throat. “Uh, excuse me?’

  Tara whirled to face her. “What?”

  Arabella looked over Tara’s shoulder at the half-man/half-animal. “Didn’t you call for help a little bit ago?”

  Tara looked at the mermaid in confusion, “Help? Oh! Yes, I did.”

  “And yet we remain in this hallway all alone, Tara. What do you think happened to your help?” Adahy asked their captor.

  Arabella moved around Tara, trying to get closer to the strange being whose presence seemed to take up the entire hallway. She was mesmerized by the sheer size of him and how different he was from the humans she had seen since being captured, but she was also terrified that the humans seemed to be doing so much more than gathering information on the paranormal world.

  The strange being held his hand out toward Arabella. “Come, my beautiful creature, let us seek our freedom together and leave this accursed facility. What do you say?”

  Arabella looked from the dark-skinned woman standing between her and what appeared to be her salvage, back to the hand that was held in her direction. She cautiously took the offered hand with a small nod. Arabella wasn’t sure why she trusted this being with saving her, but she was willing to take the risk if it would get her out of the humans’ clutches.

  The male gripped her hand tightly and threw her over his shoulder, waiting until she settled herself on his back. “Hold on tightly, love.”

  Tara seemed to regain her composure as Arabella wrapped her arms around the creature’s neck. “Where do you think you are going, Adahy? There is no way out of here. Even if you did miraculously find a way out of the facility itself, you would never make it back to your home. You have no idea where you are!”

  The creature stepped back before rearing up. “It doesn’t matter if I don’t know where I am or not as I have a great sense of direction. I will always find my way home, Tara. And you can’t stop us from leaving all on your own.”

  Tara searched the hallway, wondering where the security guards were the she had called when Adahy had broken free of his cell. Seeing that they were still standing in the hallway alone, Tara reached for the alarm on the wall once more.

  “Damn it, where the hell is everyone? How many times must I push this blasted button before someone answers?” Tara shouted in frustration as the red light began to flash and the buzzing noise started up once more.

  Adahy laughed. “No one is coming to your aide, Tara darling. How do you think I was able to get so far into this facility and away from my cell?”

  Tara looked at the half-man/half beast in shock. “You took out the whole of security?!”

  The creature laughed again. “Not the entirety of it, I’m sure, but enough for me to leave this Goddess forsaken place.”

  He looked over his shoulder at the human looking woman sitting on his back, “Are you ready to leave, dear?”

  Arabella smiled slowly. “More than ready, good sir.”

  “Then away we go!” Adahy returned her smile, rearing up once more and then galloped away from Tara and down the hallway.

  Arabella held onto his neck tighter, hoping she wouldn’t choke him as they raced down the hallway. She hoped he had a clue as to where he was going, because she didn’t want to see the inside of a cell again in her life.

  Chapter Five

  Arabella was unsure of how they managed to escape the building they were being held in, but once they were outside she took a large deep breath of the fresh air. “My Goddess! Was the air always this sweet?”

  Adahy chuckled. “I have always believed so, but it may seem sweeter now that we are not inside that building having experiments run on us.”

  She dropped off of her companion’s back and looked up at the night sky. “The stars are beautiful, aren’t they?”

  The beast looked up at the same stars with a smile. “They always have been, though not as beautiful as the company I find myself in. So tell me, what is your name?”

  Arabella turned to look at the male who had just rescued her from the clutches of Site G. “Oh goodness, I can’t believe I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Arabella Rossi, and you are?”

  Adahy’s eyes grew large as he looked at the luminescent beauty that seemed to glow in the moonlight standing before him. “As in the Rossi family? The commissioners of the Paranormal Federation?”

  Arabella looked at her companion in confusion. “Uh, yes, but how do you know about that?”

  The half-man/half-beast moved closer to the nearly glowing woman. “Everyone in the paranormal world knows of your family. But, wait a minute, aren’t you their only child?”

  The woman nodded her head. “That’s right.”

  Adahy started pacing, trying to figure out how Site G was able to get their hands on a member of such a high ranking family, much less their child who had always been so sheltered. “But, how did the doctors at the military facility get their grubby little paws on you? No one has ever met you. That I know of, anyway.”

  Arabella laughed. “And that is the problem! I’ve never been allowed out of the castle much less the ocean. So, a few months ago, I decided to take matters into my own hands and started exploring. My best friend, Lachlan, would help me get out, search sunken ships, and talk with the other sea animals without my parents finding out. He was really supportive until I decided I wanted to see what I had been reading about in those books I’d find and started making trips up to the shoreline on Arcadia Beach. Every day he would argue with me about going to land, telling me that I would end up in the clutches of Site G if I wasn’t careful. And I was really careful! Or, at least, I thought I was. Until I woke up with my hands tied behind my back and a raging headache.”

  Adahy stopped pacing and looked at the woman in front of him. “So, you’re saying that for months you have been exploring the ocean and land without your parents knowing? How is that even possible? From what I hear they are very vigilant when it comes to your whereabouts.”

  Arabella started her own pacing. “Trust me, they are, but with places like Site G capturing paranormal creatures left and right they haven’t been home for months so it wasn’t too hard to slip out and explore. Besides, Jewel is mostly busy taking care of royal business while my parents are away so she doesn’t have time to keep an eye on me, though I’m sure Mom and Daddy would be upset to find that little tidbit out.”

  Adahy stomped his front left foot. “But that still doesn’t tell me how you ended up in the facility.”

  The mermaid stopped her ranting long enough to look at her companion sheepishly. “Oh! Yeah, that. Well, it was a simple miscalculation on my part. When I first started going to shore, I met a little girl and the two of us started playing. So, every time she would come to the beach with her family I would make sure to visit the shoreline. It became like a little game between the two of us. I would search for her every morning and, if she was there, we would play silly games. I think she really enjoyed having something that was all hers; a secret that she would never tell anyone. I suppose another human must have seen me because when I went to the shoreline a few days ago I was captured. I just hope Carol didn’t witness the whole ordeal. It might scar her.”

  The beast moved to stand in front of Arabella, slowing her pacing. “So, you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Did they even know who you were when they captured you? Or was that just a happy mistake on their part?”

  Arabella shook
her head. “I’m pretty sure they only saw a mermaid and snatched me up. The only way they would have known who I am was if they knew the meaning of this tattoo on my wrist.”

  She held out her hand palm up, showing her wrist to her would-be hero. Adahy saw a shimmering trident sitting in the center of her wrist. Everyone in the paranormal world knew that as the mark of the Rossi family, the mermaids and merman who kept the peace within the community. Arabella moved her hand, rubbing subconsciously at the tattoo she had just showed Adahy when she saw that he was still staring at the glowing blue lines of the trident.

  Her companion shook his head. “Well then, we should probably return you to your home shouldn’t we?”

  She nodded her head. “There is still the matter of your name, though, kind sir. I would have the name of my rescuer, if only to let my parents know who saved me while I was in captivity.”

  The beast had started to move north when she had spoken. “My name is Adahy, and I can tell you that regardless of your upbringing or the importance of your family in the paranormal world, those barbarians would still have conducted unnecessary experiments on you.”

  His tone was so dejected that Arabella found herself moving in his direction, if only to give him a small amount of comfort. “I never told them who my family was, only that they were very important in the paranormal world. Thank you for getting me out of there before they started experimenting on me. As far as I could tell, Dr. Stevens was trying to figure out how mermaids could look just like humans. At least, while on land.”

  Adahy looked over his shoulder at the beautiful mermaid standing with her hand on his shoulder. “Then I am glad to have been of service. Now, we must flee this place before the guards regain their wits and give chase. Are you ready for another ride?”

  She gave him a shy smile. “I am, but I have a question that I would like to have answered before I climb back onto your back. If it isn’t too much to ask, that is.”