by Lacey Thor
The word doctor was a sneer.
“Did you know he once chopped body parts off his captives to see if they could grow replacements? Hands. Feet. Breasts. Anything that took his fancy.”
Talbot laughed. “Can’t grow a penis back. No, no, no. Not a foot or a leg or an arm. Not a head. No, no, no.”
“He stays in the fucking cage,” Tony snarled.
Mitch had witnessed many things during the rescues they’d helped facilitate. He’d seen his fair share of seriously injured shifters. In some cases, dead shifters. He’d even seen humans subjected to the same. Either because they’d been suspected of being a shifter, had been mated to a shifter, or tried to help a shifter in one way or another. Hunters were cruel bastards. Hell, they’d brutally killed Mitch’s sister, Misty, and left her as a warning while they took her mate, Walt, and vivisected him just to see how much he could take before his body gave out. Then they’d thrown his body out with the trash. Just thinking about it had Mitch in a killing mood.
He and Misty had been close. Mitch hadn’t known everything about Walt when his sister had met the other man and fallen in love. He’d known there was something different about Walt but never suspected he’d been a wolf as well as a man. His sister had loved her mate deeply. Mated.
He hadn’t understood the scope of the word in the beginning. Now, after years of living and working among shifters, Mitch understood what it meant to them to find a mate. He envied them that in some ways. To know beyond the shadow of a doubt they were meant for one another? To form a bond nothing could break? He wanted that. Quinn came to his mind. He wanted to be her mate. Stupid for a human male, but in his head anyway, he considered it. Thinking of her reminded him of what Jonah had shared on their walk in.
“What’s this about Quinn?” Mitch asked and wasn’t surprised when Talbot began again.
“She’ll come for me. You won’t stop her.”
“Why’s that?” Mitched asked, crossing to squat in front of the cage.
Tony didn’t say a word, but Mitch doubted his gaze missed anything. Tony probably saw and noted things the rest of them wouldn’t even catch on to. That was Tony. His gaze soaked in every nuance and never let it go. He could recall things with perfect clarity long after others would have forgotten. Mitch had heard others refer to it as Tony having eidetic memory. The man forgot nothing.
“What makes you think she’s going to come for you?” Mitch asked when Talbot didn’t reply.
“I’m Frankenstein.” He cackled.
“You’re definitely a monster,” Mitch agreed.
“Quinn’s the monster,” Tony said softly.
Mitch stood and faced Tony with a snarl, but the other man was staring at Talbot.
“Tony’s right,” Jensen Holloway, one of the two bear shifters currently in residence, offered with a shrug. “Frankenstein was the doctor. He created the monster, the ‘Adam of his labors’,” Jensen quoted.
“Careful, Victor, or you’ll end up as your namesake. Killed by your own creation,” Tony warned.
“She’ll come for me. You won’t stop her.”
A whisper this time, repeated over and over until Mitch wanted to reach through the bars and choke off the words. Was Talbot seriously calling Quinn a monster? And what was Tony up to?
“His first name’s Victor?” Adam, the second bear shifter staying with them, asked as if that were the most important question.
“Named after a true monster, weren’t you?” Tony replied, speaking to the doctor. “What will I find if I take a look at Quinn? What secrets are hiding there?”
Talbot grew silent for a moment then took up repeating his favored words again. Hell, it was driving Mitch a little mad listening to it.
“What would I find if I cut her open?” Tony asked softly.
It took all Mitch had to bite back the desire to challenge Tony over his statement, but he knew what Tony was doing. Talbot didn’t disappoint.
“You won’t touch her,” he screamed through the bars, spittle flying. “She won’t let you touch her or the baby. Too late. It’s too late. I started it. You finished it.” His pupils were blown when he looked up at them. “She’ll come for me. You won’t stop her.”
“I hope she does come for you,” Tony agreed. “Worst case scenario, I get to watch her gut you the way she did one of your little solider boys, who came to rescue you. Best case scenario, I get to gut her while you watch from your little cage, helpless to protect your greatest accomplishment.”
Mitch feared he’d break his jaw with how tightly his teeth clenched together. His hands shook with the need to do bodily harm to Tony.
Talbot watched Tony, almost mirroring the calculation in his gaze. The two appeared eerily similar in that moment. Talbot looked ready to say something. Ready to share whatever it was Tony tried to drag out of him, and the whole room went still and silent as they waited. Instead, Talbot repeated the words that were starting to drive Mitch a little crazy himself.
“She’ll come for me. You won’t stop her.”
Tony jerked away from the wall and left the room without a backward glance. Mitch followed on his heels. When they were in the hallway, away from Talbot’s gaze, Mitch caught Tony on the chin with a hard punch that knocked the other man back into the hall. Tony’s gaze flashed fire. Mitch held his arms wide.
“Take your shot if you want. You deserved that, and you know it.”
“I’m trying to pull his chain. Not yours.”
“Well, you managed both,” Mitch snapped. “She deserves better than that. Hell, I was ready to ask for your help with her, but damned if I want you anywhere near her at the moment.”
“Bullshit,” Tony snapped. “You know I won’t actually hurt her. I merely want to see why she means so much to him. He had her for years. Years to do whatever he wanted.”
“Do you really need to know?” Mitch wasn’t sure he did.
“She does. She needs to know what he did to her, so he can stop controlling her.”
“What makes you think he’s controlling her?”
“Her silence. Why keep all that inside?”
Tony answered before Mitch could voice his thought.
“Fear. Talbot’s made her afraid. Of what, I’m not sure, but if I had to venture a guess, I’d say it has something to do with the baby’s she’s carrying.”
“She’s very protective of her baby,” Mitch agreed. She was always holding her abdomen, guarding it. “If I can talk her into it, will you take a look at her?”
Tony lifted one brow. “I’ve been told none too nicely to keep my hands off. By her father. Something about her already being put through enough by one madman. She doesn’t need another.”
“He loves her. He’s trying to protect her.”
“And you understand that.” Tony’s voice was soft, keeping the words between the two of them as Jonah stepped out to join them.
“Still chattering away like a magpie,” Jonah told them as his gaze went back and forth between the two of them. “Might want some ice for that jaw, Sandman. Mitch packs a hell of a punch.”
“Bring her to me,” Tony ordered, gaze never wavering from Mitch’s.
He nodded, clenching his jaw as he tried and failed to hold his tongue. “If you hurt her in any way, I’ll end you.”
“That’s how it is?” Tony asked.
“That’s how it is,” Mitch agreed, knowing what he’d just admitted.
“Are you going to tell her?” Tony asked softly.
“When the time is right. I won’t keep secrets from her. She deserves complete honesty. I won’t give her any less than that.”
“Well, fuck,” Jonah said. “We’re all screwed then.”
“Telling her doesn’t mean everyone will know,” Mitch assured his friend. “I’d say she’s as good at keeping secrets as any of us are.”
“Maybe, it’s time Tah and the others do know,” Tony countered.
“Can’t imagine the alpha of this pride liking the fact you’ve
made your own fucking super solider serum that keeps us human while giving us a punch of shifter abilities,” Jonah replied, obviously unhappy at the thought of things being brought to light.
“That super serum saved one of their shifters,” Tony reminded them, referring to Daniel Erikson and the shot Tony had given the other man to counter the drugs hunters had shot into Daniel during a fight in Illinois. At the time, the shifters had asked Tony if he’d ever used it, and he’d told them no. Truth and lie. He’d never used it on a shifter. He’d used it on humans. It had done something unexpected in the shifter.
“Turned him primal, too,” Mitch reminded.
“But he’s alive,” Tony reiterated with a shrug.
“Are you sure your name’s not Victor, too?” Jonah asked, and Mitch barked a laugh.
“Don’t ever compare me to him,” Tony warned Jonah before turning to lead them through the hidden corridor and back toward the main floor of the house. “Bring her to me. I’ll find the answers she needs.”
“I’ll do my best,” Mitch promised.
He thought about the growl again. He’d been protecting Quinn since the moment he’d seen her shaking in fear while staring at the helicopter that would carry her back to her home. She’d broken his heart while she’d sat in his lap and silently cried while he’d held her. Then she’d amazed him that first night when she’d asked him to stay with her. She continued to amaze him with her strength. And as much as it galled him, Tony was right. Quinn deserved answers to the questions she wasn’t asking. Or at least, wasn’t asking aloud.
Why did Talbot call her his greatest creation? What had he started, and how did they finish it? What the hell was going on?
The alarm sounded as he left the passageway and stepped into the hallway. He hit the front door at a full run, Jonah and Tony both hot on his heels. Someone had breached one of the perimeters and triggered the alarms again.
Despite the threat to the pride as a whole, Mitch’s only thought was of Quinn and the danger she was in. He had to get to her before whatever trouble was on their doorstep found her first this time.
Chapter Three
Quinn wasn’t sure how long she sat there before she heard the door open and footsteps heading toward her.
“Thought I saw you head in here.” Ariel, the tiger shifter who’d found her and called the pride for help in getting Quinn to safety, sat beside her. She glanced around, never once looking at Quinn’s face, which Quinn imagined was ravaged from her quiet crying jag. “Of all the places on this ranch, this is where you picked to unbottle?”
Quinn laughed. Ariel bumped her shoulder.
“You know, I’m a pretty good friend.”
“And risk angering your best friend, the bear shifter? You think I have a death wish?”
Quinn had met Ariel’s best friend, Rissa, when two of the Holloways, Slade and Jensen, had arrived to try to get information on some missing female bear shifters from their den. Rissa was mated to Slade Holloway. Slade had been injured in one of the attacks that continued to plague the pride, and once he’d healed up, he and Rissa had headed back to the den in Wyoming. Jensen Holloway had stuck around to work with Tony. Quinn knew he was hoping Talbot would mention something about the missing females from his den. She didn’t share that hope.
Ariel laughed. “Rissa wouldn’t hurt you. She’s a pretty amazing friend also. Unfortunately, she’s back in Wyoming with her mate so you’re stuck with me. My ears are pretty incredible, and my shoulders are strong. In case you need one to lean on.”
“Thank you. Looks like things have gotten uncomplicated between you and your mate.”
When they’d first met, Ariel had denied Daniel as her mate, saying things were complicated. By the time the two shifters had returned to Oklahoma and the pride, Quinn had noted they were very much a couple. The two had obviously found their way together, and the love between them was easy to see.
“Oh, I promise you, my man is completely complicated.”
“But you love him,” Quinn prompted.
“I love him,” Ariel agreed then turned to completely face Quinn. “Talk to me. Let me be here for you.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’ve said that phrase a time or a million myself, and more often than not, I was lying the same as you are. You’re not fine. That’s easy to see. You’re not going to be until you open up and let someone help you. Me. Mitch. Laura. Hell, anybody here. Any one of us would be there for you. You just need to let us in.”
Quinn pressed her lips tighter together. She couldn’t. Not until she knew for sure what was happening to her. She didn’t think Mitch would turn away from her, but then her judgement was questionable. She liked Ariel, and despite their initial meeting, they weren’t friends. Laura, the pregnant mate of another shifter in the pride, was nice but not someone Quinn would consider unburdening to. She wasn’t sure any of them were ready for her story, but she knew if she ever opened her mouth, it would all come tumbling out until she’d completely purged it. When the time was right. When she had more answers and less questions. Not yet.
“I’m fine, Ariel. I promise.”
Ariel didn’t believe her but didn’t call her on it either. Quinn was grateful.
“Diane said you needed another transfusion. Daniel’s giving blood now. I told him we’d meet him there.”
“I’m sorry.”
Quinn hated the fact she needed shifter blood to protect her son. Hated that Talbot had kept it from her in order to keep her weak, to keep her child weak. Hated that the pride alpha and Ariel’s mate were stepping up and offering her theirs. Without question. Without reserve.
Ariel shook her head as she came to her feet and offered her hand to Quinn. “We’re glad to help. You’re one of us. Don’t you get that? We were looking for you before I ever came across you outside the trading post. We protect our own. That’s you and the little Leo you’re carrying.”
Quinn took the hand offered but kept her lips pressed tight. She wasn’t one of them. Hell, she wasn’t sure what she was. What Talbot had turned her into. Not knowing was driving her insane. She needed one person she could trust. One person who wouldn’t toss her out on her ass if her worst fears were confirmed and she turned out to be some monstrosity even shifters didn’t want around. A little voice in her head reminded her that she did have one person. Mitch. He’d stand with her, but at what personal cost?
“We’ll head back to the lab, then Daniel and I are dragging you to eat dinner with the rest of us. You can’t keep holing up in that room in the medical building. I know you need to stay there while you’re pregnant, but as soon as you’re able, we need to start looking for a cabin for you or even a room at the main house. All this alienation and repressed anger isn’t good for you or the baby.”
“I’m not angry,” Quinn denied, surprised at the other woman’s comment.
“Aren’t you?” Ariel challenged. “You’ve barely said two words to anyone not named Mitch since you’ve been here. Including your father.”
“I’ve spoken to him.”
“Passing pleasantries don’t count, Quinn. He’s your father. One who’s afraid of saying or doing anything that might send you running away from him again. And your silence is hurting him.”
Quinn paused midstride. She knew her actions hurt her father as much as her leaving in the first place probably had. She’d been young and hot tempered then, an easy mark for Isaac Erikson to twist into his pawn in a game she’d been unprepared to play. Now, she kept the distance, so her father wouldn’t be caught in the middle of whatever hell was going on with her. He deserved better.
“I—”
Her words were cut short by the screech of the perimeter alarms going off. It was happening too often. Groups of hunters creeping onto the pride land in hopes of getting to Talbot. They couldn’t lose their prize doctor.
“We need to run!”
Ariel’s voice snapped Quinn into action. They moved toward the med center as quickly as they co
uld. They hadn’t gone far when the crack of a rifle filled the air. Quinn’s blood froze as she waited to feel the crush of a bullet. Instead, Ariel fell at her side, a snarl ripping up her throat as she reached for the dart sticking out of her shoulder.
“Run,” Ariel panted out to her as whatever drug they’d used on the dart began to move through Ariel’s system.
Quinn ignored the command, jerking the dart out of Ariel’s skin and dropping it before crouching over her, trying to protect both her baby and the woman who’d just offered her friendship. She wasn’t leaving Ariel. Where the hell was everyone?
“Go,” Ariel urged, but Quinn could tell she was in no condition to protect herself. She wouldn’t leave the other woman vulnerable.
“Not leaving you, so be quiet and let me think.”
Her gaze took in the area again. It wasn’t dark yet, but it would be in the next hour. The alarm should have brought others heading toward them. Daniel would know where Ariel had been. No way he wouldn’t head right for her. Unless whoever had attacked had managed to get to the medical building. Since it was pretty much in the center of things, that made no sense.
“Can you move at all?” Quinn whispered. “We’re closer to the barn than anywhere else.”
“Leave me. Get to the main house. Think of your baby.”
“I always do,” Quinn vowed then flipped Ariel onto her back, hooked her arms under Ariel’s arm pits and began dragging her back toward the barn. “Daniel will find us.”
Ariel didn’t say anything, but Quinn didn’t need the other woman’s confirmation. She’d been around enough shifters to know the bond they shared with their mates was awe inspiring. They shared a link humans could never fathom. One Quinn wished she’d been able to experience even once in her life.