The Animal Within

by Jisa Dean

  Instead, I listen in on my brother's conversation and pick up what I might have missed while I was seeing to my little human's needs. A bolt of lightning goes through my body when I pick up the information that Raven really isn't dead. This woman that calls herself our mother, our creator, couldn't kill him. Damn it I wish I had the mental ability of Raven right now. He was so good at this kind of communication that he could read people who were not mated to him. Just one of the reasons the higher-ups wanted him put down. Another was the fact that when Raven changed into his animal form he could fly and that made a lot of people jumpy.

  Questions about what would happen if he escaped or didn't come back were asked about right there in front of us like we didn't have sense enough to understand what was being said. This was the time we all revolted and stayed in our animal forms but, damn, wouldn't it be smarter to think that if we have ears we might hear something we're not supposed to? That's exactly what happened too. The fat, overfed General thought if we were in animal form we couldn't comprehend what was being said with our animal brains, but he was wrong. Every secret in the lab was laid before us.

  Including the plan for all of us to be force mated as a way to control us after we refused to do any more stupid tests and simulations after Raven was killed, or supposedly killed I guess I should say. Not that you can actually force mate one of us. That would be a big mistake but Bruce and Declan didn't think we should stick around to be sure we couldn't. They wanted out and the twins had an ‘in’ that could help us out.

  I had no way of knowing it was actually the Doc that helped us. I thought it was her assistant, who’s name I can never remember. She was always hanging around our cages 'taking notes' for the doctor. Some of us thought she might have been one of our mates. It made it dangerous when the General started noticing. He was wondering the same thing. I'm betting one of the first subjects of the so-called forced mating project would have been the doctor's very own assistant.

  God help her too. If she had to mate with someone like Declan, our bear brother, or Bruce, our gorilla brother they would have split her in two. She's tinier than my mate and I worried about her when I first saw her from the shadows of the kitchen.

  "Why are you thinking of another woman?" My mate's head snaps up and the look she shoots me tells me she wouldn't be interested in sharing her mate at all. Not that I want to be shared. This little one is almost more than I can handle.

  "I was just thinking about some of our last days in the lab and what lead to us escaping. It turns out it was not just any one thing that made us want to try." She sits up straddling my hips and I can tell by her facial features she doesn't believe me. She turns her head to the side and won't meet my gaze pushing her button nose into the air with such a haughty look, "Look if you don't believe my words. My mind can't lie."

  She loses her jealous look and becomes more guarded. "I don't...like to do that. It feels like an invasion of your privacy."

  Bless her; how the hell am I so lucky to have a mate like her? After years of being stared at twenty-four hours a day, day in and day out, her gift of allowing me privacy is almost enough to move me to tears.

  "Mate, I...," I am at a loss is what I am but I go on, "You don't realize how much that means to me or how happy it makes my heart that you trust me enough not to look but on this, I want you too. I want you to understand what happened to me and how I came to be with you. I would never think of another sexually and if it bothers you that I am thinking of anyone in any way, all you have to do is tell me and I will stop."

  She gasps and turns her eyes back to me. "I...no, I don't want to tell you what to do or try to control you. If you are thinking of someone else then it's not true and me and you aren't really mates. You said only mates feel about each other the way..."

  "You feel about me and I about you. Yes, I said that and it's true. For me, there will never be another. I was simply thinking about the mate for one of my brothers. At least I think she is a mate to one of them."

  She softly prods at my mind and I let her in by thinking louder thoughts. When she sees the assistant she gasps again. She watches the weeks right before we escape, her eyes going big and her mouth falling open when she learns about the forced mating. She goes deeper looking for all the dark, nasty shit they did to us in the name of science and peace. The experiments, the surgeries, the punishments for something not done right or quick enough. She looks like she is about to be sick and I shut my mind to her. She doesn't need to see any of that shit.

  "Oh," she looks like she is about to cry for me.

  "Don't." I growl deeper than I mean to, "I have you and I wouldn't change a thing if it led me to you." I don't want her to think I'm mad at her but I don't want her sympathy either.

  Her face goes from worry and concern for someone she loves to soft smiles and shy blushes. I see the girl she still is when she uses her teeth to catch her thick bottom lip, and she gives me those shy eyes. She likes the fact that I say things like this to her. My little tigress likes when I woo her with words that are soft and sweet, but she loves when I'm dirty and demanding with them too.

  I can't help but move her until my cock is back inside of her, and she's slowly sliding back and forth on it. This time there is no urgency to our lovemaking. It's slow and lazy like we are bonding on a deeper level. When her lips pop open on a soft sigh and her eyes lose focus I can tell she is feeling it too, how deeply connected we are.

  Damn I love it when her eyes start to glow, and she has something of me deeper inside of her than I ever thought I could get. It doesn't take long for her to tighten up all over. I sit up and clasp her body to my own. This time when I go off in her I want us biting each other, at the same time. She leans her head to the side, opening her neck up to me. I kiss her and breathe her in until I feel her getting close. Then I sink my teeth into the soft skin and wait for her to do the same to me. It sends our orgasms to a higher level, making them more intense and last longer.

  I let us stay like this for as long as I can, but we have to go back. We dress quickly, and she stops by Misty's room to borrow some leggings that she can put on under my shirt. When we come back and my mate asks Misty what she missed the smart ass sums it up like one of the fucking twins would have. They get a kick out of how sarcastic she is. Even my mate is laughing and the sound is like music to my ears.

  I look at the doctor. "I don't know how 'safe' it is to have any of the research survive."

  I was one of the few that she allowed around the secret texts. Something in my genetic memory just knew how to read the words. Of course at the time I thought I was being sneaky and did it in my tiger form. I realize now she knew all along and took pride in the fact I wanted to read my native language and that I shared an interest with her. Just like a mother would.

  "I had to save what I did." She goes on to tell me she did it not just for me and my brothers but also for the women we mate. I don't know how she thinks anything in her ancient texts is going to have anything to do with my mate.

  "Congratulations on the babies by the way." Now I am just pissed. I growl at the woman, hating her a little bit again. It's very hard for tigers to conceive and it takes days of constant sex before our mate is even ready to start accepting our seed into their wombs. I've not been at Keira longer than a fucking night. No way is she expecting our child.

  Before I can say anything Keira is crumpling and sliding off my lap. Or trying to, I grab her up in my arms and take her to a lounge chair that's been pushed up against the wall. Misty comes around me so that she can check on Keira.

  "Keke? Keke, honey, can you hear me?" She sends frightened eyes up to mine and Lucian moves to stand beside me. I feel my temper start to flare.

  "Damien, I know the same thing you know but I am telling you, she is pregnant. Stop getting mad at me and use your nose if you don't believe me." The doctor huffs out.

  I'm still shooting her side-eyed go to hell looks but I bring my face closer to Keira's stomach. I nuzzle my face into
the material of her shirt that still smells like me but now smells more like her. The farther down I go, closer to where her womb is, I catch the scent of something new. Something that is not her and it is not me either, something new.

  "I knew when you came back in that both of you were less intense and seemed calmer than before you left. It must have something to do with her human DNA or maybe the combination of the human DNA in you mixing with the DNA in her." Now the doctor was muttering to herself and I could tell she was retreating inside herself trying to make lists of things to start researching about.

  "You knew?" Misty's voice comes out high and tight and her eyes say Lucian betrayed her. "You knew you..." She waves her hand up and down in front of her stomach. Tears slide down her face. My brother has her up in his arms before they can make it all the way down her cheeks.

  "I did. I knew the first moment I took you as soon as I kno...." My brother's mate's eyes widen, and she covers his mouth with her fingers. My brother's body is not a secret to me, I know when he mates he has a knot just like he knows of my spikes. I ask my brother why she is bothered by us knowing she has been knotted to him silently with our mental link. What I get surprises me.

  He's not going to tell you that. Why the hell do you think it bothers me? Everyone in the room doesn't have to know what happens when we...

  I pull back and look at my brother. I am not supposed to hear what his mate is thinking. He looks from me to her just as shocked.

  "What is happening? Something definitely happened. Tell me what it is?"

  The doc had slipped away to speak with her assistant who has a notepad out. When she saw the look passing between me and Lucian she became aware of the disturbance.

  "I...can hear my brother's mate when I search his mind."

  The doctor raises an eyebrow in a high dignified arch. "Yes?"

  "That's not normal. Is it? I thought only mates could read each other's minds."

  "Nonsense, there is a deep bond between you and Misty now." Lucian growls but the doctor keeps right on explaining. "Not only is she your brother's mate but she is sister to your mate as well. That makes her as good as a sister to you as well. You don't find it odd when you hear your brothers' thoughts. I imagine it is a way to keep all the women connected to one another in case something bad happened to one of them they could get in contact with their mates. After all, they didn't have cell phones back in your ancestors' times."

  She leans over me, "This is the exact reason I couldn't let everything just burn to nothing. There are things we need to understand and things we need to be prepared for. Not to mention it isn't like you can take your mate to a human hospital when she goes into labor. What then? Huh, big boy?"

  The twins have the nerve to chuckle at me getting reprimanded. I growl at them. Mountain lions are such dicks. I hear a gasp of breath and look down into the raised eyes of my mate. She isn't looking at me but at the doctor. Her eyes seem to dart back and forth between Misty and the doctor but never mine.

  It's her home life. Her mother had her when she was too young to take care of Kiki. The last thing she wants is to be like her mother.

  I stare at my brother's mate. She has given me valuable information but has broken a confidence as well. I see how much it hurts her to do so. And how deeply she cares for my mate.

  Thank you, sister. I won't let this information go without putting it to good use, for the better of my mate.

  "You will not be doing this alone, love. I will be there every step of the way. Not just me but my brothers and the doctor who is like a mother to us. We will all be with you."

  She looks to Misty to confirm what I say. She gives an enthusiastic nod.

  "Besides if we're knocked up together we'll have our babies together, so they'll be close too." Bless the girl for trying to find a positive spin on it. I tell my brother how lucky he is to have her and that if he should ever forget I would be duty-bound to kick his ass. He's been a mental shadow the entire time, standing back so that Misty and I could talk. He knows what was said but he won't repeat any of it.

  "What about our parents?" Keira looks at Misty who takes in a deep breath at the reminder of her mom and dad. "What about school? What about our friends?"

  "Keke's right we can't just disappear. Too many people would try to find us and it would cause the men looking for our mates to find them. What do we do?"

  "I can help." Everyone turns to look at the doctor. "You must take the girls to the farmhouse in the mountains where Raven is staying. No one knows of its existence and it will be close enough to the girls' families that visiting won't be a problem as long as it's done with safety in mind."

  The mention of my brother whom I thought dead to me makes my heart beat a little harder. Being able to see him again is something I never thought I would be able to do.

  "That's not going to help us with school or with Misty's parents. They'll never let her just leave while she's in school."

  "We'll tell them you have an opportunity to study with a highly ranked scientist but that the material you will be helping me with will be sensitive. You'll have to stay at the 'lab' sometimes but other students are doing the same thing so it's not weird. It leads to scholarships and a guaranteed spot with one of the top universities in the nation. Also, a job will be lined up for you when you graduate college if you are still interested. You do, however, have to leave immediately and you'll have to do school by satellite if you are going to take the job. I will clean that up a little bit before we tell them, and Tia and I will talk to them with you. It won't be such a stretch from the truth either I suspect. With your mind and your natural curiosity for history, I imagine you and I will have lots to discuss."

  "Until then I imagine you 'finding' a lost dog and keeping it close until you find the owner won't raise too many eyebrows. And when you move into the 'program' we've set up, you can meet a nice young scientist who caught your eye and seems like a good young man to have a crush on until both of you take it to the next level."

  My God the woman is a genius. That story is so convoluted it might actually work.

  "And now for your family, dear." The doctor looks to Keira.

  "My mother won't know I'm gone. She won't be a problem." A heavy silence falls over the whole room and I see the look of pain cross the doctor's face. She aches for my mate.

  "Well, someone will always care where you are from now on. You have a family who needs you and who will be with you during all the ups and downs of life." Her eyes burn with a passion that takes me back to the lab when she would translate new passages and figure out ways to implement what she learned.

  The sun is starting to peek up over the trees and spread its long tendrils into the living room.

  "Now, I think sleep will do your ladies some good." The doctor hustles off.

  "What are you going to do?" I doubt very seriously if she is planning on sleeping.

  "Start to work on calling and making plans with the school and writing all the letters that have to be written for this little subterfuge to work." Her voice is laced with a sound of derision like I should have known what she was going to have to do. "And to keep looking, two of my children haven't been found yet. I can't stop until I'm sure they are free and haven't been captured." Her eyes get a far off look in them and I imagine this is one of her biggest worries. It is mine too.

  But I have my mate and my brother isn't dead after all. All I can do is enjoy the time I have to rest and love my mate and prepare for the time I will have to fight to protect her and the life we have built. But in the end is that not what everyone does, live one day at a time because the next is not promised?

  Ann

  I have finished with the last letter, made my calls, and pulled in favors owed to me so that my children's mates will be safely with them in no time. I've contacted Raven, so he will be ready for our arrival and know what to expect when we get there. The farmhouse is set back away from roads and woods come up to the back so the men will be able to run if nee
d be.

  I have been working on this little plan of mine for a long time. Nearly all the things I will need for future study and medical needs of the women, and men, are already there, waiting on me in a little barn under a hidden door in the floor buried deep beneath the ground. I glance over to the bed where Tia is sleeping and the twins are propped against it on the floor.

  I knew this day was coming. I couldn't allow my children to be used the way the General wanted to use them. I couldn't allow my trusted assistant to be harmed in the violent sick ways these morons had planned. Forced mating my ass. I would never stand for something like that.

  I knew as soon as I saw the General taking more of an interest in Tia that the only way she and my children would be safe was to do the same thing with them I had done with Raven. Hide. Hideaway in plain sight and prepare for the final battle between my creatures and the corrupt men who thought they owned them.

  One of the twins opens his eyes to look at me, but I know the other one is awake if his brother is. Golden eyes sparkle at me in the low light of the room and I can feel the push of one or both of them in my head trying to figure out why I am looking at Tia. God help me I hope I have done the right thing by allowing these men freedom from the cages they've been trapped in. For all the talk of them being my children and looking human, I know better than anybody that inside lies the animal within.

  The End (for now)

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