He’d been waiting for what seemed like hours for someone else to check on him and give him the chance to shift and escape, but so far, no one had come. Each second that ticked by squeezed his heart. Was Lauren okay? Had she already been placed into Purity’s rehabilitation program? Would he ever see her again? And most importantly, would she want to see him again?
After all, she had every right to blame him for not thinking of her safety. Shifters were supposed to protect their prospective mates. Somehow, because of living in the human world for so many years now, he’d forgotten the most basic of rules in shifter life—to always remember that humans feared what was different, which meant each and every human could be your enemy.
Once he got out of this mess, he wouldn’t be forgetting that detail again. If Lauren would still have him, it was time to move back to DarkStalker’s lands in the mountains.
His cougar chirped at that. I miss the mountains.
Truth be told, so did he. He only hoped Lauren would be open to the idea. It would mean seeing her family less and adjusting to the shifter way of life.
Flexing his fingers behind his back, Sean focused back on his present situation. He could tell that his wounds on his palms had closed up and even healed a little. Thank fuck for fast shifter healing. Without it, his plan would probably fail.
The lock in the door clicked and he nearly jumped at the loudness of the sound after sitting so long in silence. This was it, his one and only chance at escape so he could find Lauren.
His inner cougar growled. We’re ready. Shift and let me take care of them.
Once the first human stepped inside the door, Sean swung his arms forward and let them become his front legs, his tail extended from his back, and his face shifted into a cougar’s muzzle as his teeth elongated into fangs.
The whole process took less than five seconds, which was just enough time for surprise to knock up the heart rates of the three humans at the door.
Not wasting time, Sean let his inner animal take control and they bounded toward the humans. His cat wanted to kill, but Sean told him, No. If we kill, we will lose Lauren. Knock them unconscious and then we go find her.
With a reluctant growl, his cougar jumped on the first human at the door and the impact of the human’s head smashing against the hard floor knocked the man unconscious.
One down, two to go.
He jumped to the next human and pinned her down with his paw against her neck to try to make her black out. In the wild, he would use his jaw around her neck to do the job, but a human’s neck was a lot more delicate than a full grown stag deer.
Just as the woman stopped struggling, he finally noticed that the third human had run.
His cat growled out loud. Good. I like the chase.
Sean bounded down the hallway in his cougar-form, barely registering the cold, wet tiles under his paws. Unlike when he was in human-form, his paws prevented him from slipping on the slick surface.
As he ran full throttle, he kept his ears and nose open for sounds or scents of Lauren, but detected neither. Then he rounded the bend and came across the remaining human trying to punch in a code at a door. Sean slowed his run to stalk up behind the man who didn’t seem to notice his approach.
Finding the last human so easily made him suspicious, but he pushed the feeling aside. Human Purity wasn’t comprised of trained soldiers. It made sense that in small numbers they were easy to take down.
While a cougar in its prime could jump eighteen feet, city life had made him a little soft and Sean wasn’t going to risk it. He waited until he was about six feet away before he jumped at the male human. Just as the force of his body smacked the human into the wall, sprinklers went off overhead.
Both cougar and human smashed to the floor. Ignoring the water raining down on him, Sean rolled the human male over, but he was relieved to see that the force had knocked him out cold. His inner cat wanted to teach at least one of the humans a lesson, but he told his cat no. We need to find Lauren.
With a reluctant hiss, his cougar allowed Sean to take control of their mind and he backed away from the human. Sean then imagined his paws turning into hands, his ears shrinking to human ones, and his tail merging back into his spine. Now a naked male, he crouched down, ripped the black mask off the male’s face, and flipped him back over to tie his hands together.
All he wanted to do was rush to search each and every room in this place, but in the event Lauren had been moved, he needed the humans to stay put so he could interrogate them.
Satisfied the bindings would hold, Sean walked through the water pouring down on him and ran back to the other end of the building so he could tie up the remaining two humans. The water was pooling on the floor and he had to be careful not to slip. While letting his cougar out again would be easiest, he didn’t want to waste precious time shifting. Who knew how long the other two humans would remain unconscious.
The two humans were still on the floor, now soaked from the sprinklers. He went to work removing their masks and tying their hands before moving them into his former room. Once the door clicked shut, Sean eyed the corridor of doors. Lauren could be behind any one of them.
He moved to the one directly across from his, but as he fiddled with the lock, his vision swam. He closed his eyes and opened them again, but that only made his vision blur worse.
What the fuck? What is happening to me?
His left leg went numb, and he knew something was wrong, but what? They hadn’t injected him with anything in hours, nor had he eaten or drank anything. Then the sound of the water pelting his skin made it all click together. These weren’t ordinary sprinklers. No wonder the human male had been so keen to enter the code into that keypad. They had to be laced with some kind of drug.
Fuck. He needed a phone to call someone from his clan before he blacked out. No doubt one of the humans would have a cell phone.
As he turned and forced his heavy legs to move, he made it back inside the other room. But not two steps inside, all of a sudden, the room pitched beneath his feet, and Sean fell to his hands and knees.
He took a second to breathe in and out before trying to stand up again, but he experienced the same pitching sensation. On his third attempt, he said fuck it, and made his way over to the human female on the floor on his hands and knees. He quickly patted down her pockets, but he came up with nothing.
Shit. As his head started to pound in addition to the blurred vision and weird sense of balance, he pushed his body to move toward the other human. If he couldn’t reach out to his clan, he wouldn’t be able to help Lauren. She’d been drawn into this mess because of him. He wasn’t about to abandon her.
Even if it took his last breath to find a way to save her, he’d do it.
He made it to the other human, but his balance went even more off-kilter, and he fell onto his stomach. Before he lost complete use of his arms, he reached out and felt the man’s right pocket. Nothing. Please let there be a phone in the other pocket.
His strength was waning, but he inched over the man to feel the other side. His vision spotted as he felt around, but there was no rectangular object in the pocket. Fuck. He had no phone. There was no way to reach out to his clan, let alone Lauren. She would think he had abandoned her.
That thought made his heart squeeze. Even if he were dying right now, and he very well might be, that paled in comparison to the shame of failing his female. He’d been too cocky. Sean should’ve warned her and asked for his clan’s help before this.
As his consciousness faded, all he could think about was how he’d fucked up for the sake of his pride instead of doing what was best for his female. Maybe it would be a good thing if he were dying because then she’d be free to find someone worthy of her.
He conjured up an image of her beautiful, deep brown face and warm brown eyes before he finally succumbed to the darkness.
Chapter Six
Tapping her fingers against her leg, Lauren wondered what was taking so long. Their first l
ocation had been nothing more than an empty, abandoned warehouse. If Human Purity had once used it as a base, it’d been at least a few months since they’d stepped foot inside it.
Even with their first location a bust, Sy and his team were fairly confident about Sean being in the single-story building right outside the van. She hoped so. Her heart squeezed at the thought of spending weeks, months, or even years wondering if Sean were alive or dead. How would she move on without him?
Stop with the negativity, Lauren. Sean may still be alive.
She didn’t like relying on strangers for help, especially since everyone seemed to think Sylas Murray was like a superhero and had zero doubts that he’d find Sean. All of that self-confidence made Lauren uneasy. After all, it was best to always prepare for the worst. Which, in her case, could mean raising a baby without a father.
She stared down at her stomach and tears prickled her eyes. If Sean were dead, the baby would be all she would have left of him. As much as she would love the little him or her, she had no idea how to raise a half-shifter child. Hell, she didn’t even know if the child would be able to shift into a cougar.
When it came to shifters, all of Lauren’s education meant nothing. She felt like a child on her first day of school.
The voice of Dr. Lisa, who had asked her to just call her Lisa, interrupted her thoughts. “Sylas Murray saved our entire clan a few months ago. He’s got this, Lauren. If Sean is alive, he will find him.”
Lauren glanced over at the shifter woman. “I want to believe in him, but surely you’ve seen the videos Purity released in the past. They’ve refined their torture to make it last.”
“It’s sick, I agree. But while Sean is an engineer and spends most of his days inside an office, he had self-defense and combat training as a teenager. All shifters do, both male and female.”
“Even you?”
Lisa smiled. “Yes, even me. Although it’s been over a decade since I’ve used any of it. I spend most of my time in the lab. Of course, after this, I might have to get back into practice.”
In a normal situation, Lauren would be curious and ask more about what Lisa did for research. Or, ask about the shifter training and see if she could complete it too. Yet right now, she felt about as social as a worm. All she could think about was Sean.
The female shifter’s phone vibrated, and Lauren’s heart skipped a beat. “Is it Sy? What did he say?”
Rather than waste time answering her, Lisa stared at her phone and then typed something before looking back to Lauren. “They found him. Sean’s alive, but unconscious.”
A small thrill of joy rushed through her body, but as Lisa reached behind her for her doctor’s bag, Lauren had a feeling she hadn’t heard the whole truth. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Sy isn’t sure, but one of the wolves with him is a trained biological scientist, and he thinks they’ve drugged him with something.”
“Is it life threatening?”
“We don’t know. Whatever it was, it was absorbed through the skin.”
While part of Lauren appreciated the shifter’s honesty, her words made her stomach drop. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Not yet. First, we’ll have to transport him separately to make sure he’s not infected with anything airborne. If he’s cleared from airborne transmission, then until we get him somewhere safe and wash him off, you’re not to touch him without gloves, do you understand?”
She put out her hands. “Then give me some gloves.”
Lisa gave a half smile. “No whining and protesting. I like you more and more, human.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “There’s a lot about your kind I don’t know, and I’m not about to presume otherwise. My whining and weeping won’t help my man.”
“Just prepare yourself. As much as I admire your fortitude, it may slip when you see him.”
Lisa crawled between the seats to sit in the driver’s seat and a sense of panic built in Lauren’s stomach. “We’re leaving him?”
“My job is to get you to safety. Sy has things in hand and will move Sean to a secure location for testing.”
Curses were on the tip of her tongue, but Lauren resisted the urge. This shifter female was just trying to help her.
When she was sure she could talk normally, she said, “How long until I can see him?”
The doctor started the car. “I’m taking you to the same facility, albeit in a different wing. GreyFire Industries has a research facility we lease nearby. As soon as every test imaginable is run on your male, I’ll take you to him myself. While waiting, we can confirm your pregnancy as well.”
As Lisa pulled out onto the road, Lauren closed her eyes and sent good thoughts toward her shifter. At least she now knew he was alive. It was only a matter of time before she discovered for how long.
***
Five hours later, Lauren watched as yet another doctor entered the room on the other side of the observation window. Her fiancée lay on a table, unconscious in his cat form. His tan fur was matted, and his body was limp in a way that seemed “off”; he was far too still. Even when he slept in cat form, he’d move every once in a while, not unlike how domestic cats would make soft noises or twitch a paw in response to their dreams.
Yet for the last four or so hours she’d been allowed to watch, he hadn’t twitched once.
Clenching a fist in front of her heart, she tried not to cry. She’d been strong up until now, but her exhaustion from the ordeal and the now-confirmed pregnancy was pushing her closer and closer to her breaking point.
“Sean,” she whispered, “I need you.”
She knew it was selfish, but even just being in the same room as him would ease the fears that had been building minute by minute.
The door behind her opened and she turned to see Lisa carrying a clipboard. Lauren didn’t miss a beat. “Well? Did they find anything?”
“No.”
“Does that mean I can go see him?”
For a second, Lisa stared at her and Lauren braced herself for another denial, but then the shifter female smiled, and hope bubbled in her chest. Lisa said, “You really do love him, don’t you?”
Giving her a look of irritation, she answered, “Of course I do. Now tell me if I can see Sean or not.”
“All right, all right. I do have good news and bad. The good news is that he doesn’t have anything that is airborne, which means you can see him.”
Lauren clapped her hands together. “Then let’s go.”
The doctor put up a hand. “Not just yet. You need to know that we’re still trying to pinpoint what’s wrong. So you’re wearing gloves until I give the all clear.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll wear a pink tutu if it means I get to be in the same room as Sean.”
Lisa gave her a long look before she nodded. “Okay, follow me.”
They walked down a utilitarian hallway with white walls and black and white tiles on the floor. After making three turns and entering through a door Lisa opened with a code, they stood in a small room with another observation window.
Sean was on the other side, much closer than from her previous vantage point, and was not more than fifteen feet away.
Blinking back tears, Lauren took the gloves offered her, put them on, and looked to Lisa. The other woman nodded, punched a code, and the door opened. She gestured with a hand. “Go talk to your future mate and convince him to wake up.”
Not needing any encouragement, Lauren rushed past the doctor and went straight to Sean’s side.
She reached out a hand and brushed the top of his head until she could scratch behind his ears as she said, “Sean, babe, it’s me. Christmas is almost over. Wake up, so I can tell you about your other present.”
Yet the cougar under her fingers remained both still and silent.
As she continued to stroke his head, his back, and his legs, she told him about waking up from the accident, calling his clan leader, and meeting the other shifters. Then she said, “So in case you
haven’t noticed by now, I can handle your clan. Wake up for me, babe, and I’ll say yes to being your mate and move to DarkStalker’s land if you want. I think our children will do best there, surrounded by love.”
Beyond the rise and fall of his chest for breathing, Sean didn’t move. She wanted to kiss his cute pink and black nose since that had always been a surefire way to wake him up in the past, but she wouldn’t ignore Lisa’s warning about touching him. Instead, she bopped his nose with a gloved finger before pulling the nearby chair close and sitting down. She took Sean’s giant paw in her hands, and braced herself to wait.
***
Lauren had been dozing, but she was awake enough to register Lisa’s voice over the intercom. “Stay still, Lauren, and keep your eyes shut. Sean’s waking up and we don’t know what kind of state he’ll be in.”
It took everything she had to not open her eyes. If Sean’s animal half was in charge and wild like the others had warned her about, then making eye contact could be fatal. No, it was best to remain still and control her breathing until her next set of instructions.
Yet as the seconds ticked by, she grew nervous. If Sean were awake and conscious, he would’ve made some sort of noise to get her attention.
Come on, babe, say something.
But it wasn’t Sean’s meow she heard but rather Lisa’s voice again. “He’s staring at you and sniffing the air. Open your eyes slowly. If you see recognition in his eyes, let me know. Otherwise, talk to him in a soothing voice to try to get his human-half to recognize you and come to the forefront of his mind.”
Lisa hadn’t given her a reason not to trust her, so with a slow inhalation, Lauren opened her eyes. A pair of light-blue cougar eyes stared at her. Searching his eyes, there was no recognition there, just curiosity and confusion.
Remembering what Lisa had told her when confirming her pregnancy, Lauren had an idea as to why, so she said in a soothing voice, “Right now, you don’t know who I am, but my scent is confusing you because you can smell your own scent mixed with mine.” The cougar merely stared. Lauren forced aside her sadness at the love of her life not recognizing her and decided to push a little further. “Your scent is part of me because, Sean Fisher, I’m carrying your child.”
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