by Marie Harte
“Oh, Charlie. I’m so sorry. But I only left because—”
“You’re a selfish bitch who thinks more about herself than her cousin?”
Kennedy stared, stunned. Charlie had never spoken to her so viciously. Ever.
“I thought you’d bring help. I thought you’d come back to save me. But you found true love and left me behind.” Her cousin gave an angry laugh. “I suppose I should have expected that. When you came to live with us, everyone was like, ‘Oh, poor Kennedy. Let’s help your cousin, because she’s been through so much.’ No matter that my dad was sick. Or that my life was turned upside down just like yours. When my parents were alive, it was as if I ceased to exist when you were in the room.”
“That’s not true.” Kennedy stared, stunned.
“Yeah, it is. And you know it. I saw your future, you know. I’m nowhere in it.”
“But you never see yourself—”
“Happy?” Charlie cut her off. “I know. I’m always sad or broken or alone.”
Her cousin was acting contrary to the person Kennedy knew and loved. Was she playing for the camera? Perhaps. But why not tell Kennedy the truth telepathically? Kennedy had never known Charlie to predict her own future. She saw Kennedy’s, her parents’, and the futures of those she concentrated on, but never her own.
Something didn’t make sense.
Time to change the subject, for now. “Help me find Alex, please.”
“Sure thing. Go down the hall. First door on your right. Oh, and feel free to take Yates with you. Hell, we’ll all go, shall we?” Charlie limped to the doorway, once again shrugging off Kennedy’s attempts to help.
At the doorway stood Yates and Sheer.
Kennedy didn’t make eye contact with either, though she could feel them staring at her.
“Good work, Charlie.” Sheer sounded happy. Not a good sign.
“Yeah, ‘cause I live to please.” Her cousin shot him a dark look then led their merry party to a door down the hallway.
Sheer whistled a merry tune in the stark white corridor empty of everything, including color. “I’m so pleased we have a couple of new friends to play with, aren’t you, Robert?”
Yates frowned. “Call me Yates, I told you. And she’s mine.”
“Well, so long as I still get you to myself.” Sheer ran a clawed finger along Yates’s shoulder.
Though Sheer and Yates stood at the same height, Yates had more muscle while Sheer had a leaner built. His eyes continued to show flame at their centers, but other than that, he looked average to Kennedy, if tall. A man she wouldn’t look twice at if she passed him on the street. Light-brown, shaggy hair accented an unremarkable face. Except for those eyes. In the light gray depths, a fire burned. A cruel need to amuse himself at the expense of others.
She knew he scared Dr. Lang, though Smith found Sheer fascinating. Like calling to like, she’d imagine.
“And what are you thinking about, pretty lady?” Sheer asked, amused. “I can almost feel you thinking so hard. Almost. But you can’t get into my brain, can you? Just like you can’t touch Charlie anymore.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Not me, sweetness. Dr. Lang. He found a way to control her, only she doesn’t know it yet.”
Charlie shot him a sharp glance. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s see, shall we?” Sheer opened the door ahead of them and disappeared inside. The scent of blood, urine, and other less pleasant odors filled the space, the most powerful among them—fear.
Kennedy followed, caught in Yates’s hard grip.
And stepped into a nightmare.
Chapter Sixteen
ALEX DIDN’T THINK he’d be able to take much more. Not because he couldn’t handle the pain, but his beast didn’t like not knowing what had happened to Kennedy.
I was so stupid to bring her with me. Should have come alone.
His beast agreed. Despite being warned she’d go anyway, he’d known it was a bad idea. He could have had Eli sit on her while he looked things over with Gideon and Carter. But no. Alex just had to get a shot at Myers and Yates. Nothing could come before that. Not even Kennedy’s life.
I’m a poor excuse for a mate.
Yes, you are. His beast growled at him, letting him feel the pain of Smith’s torturous scalpel instead of toughening his skin to repel the cut.
“My, you were substantially weakened by your altercation with Myers, weren’t you?” Smith shook his head. “You’d have been better off if you’d stayed, Alex. The B series has been improving by leaps and bounds.”
“Yeah, I noticed how improved Myers was there at the end. Loved how his spine was nearly bent in half, making walking a chore. And his brain seemed to shut down altogether. Yep. Awesome strides in science you made, Doctor—Oh, that’s right. You’re not a doctor, are you?”
Smith shoved the blade deeper into his forearm, slicing along his median nerve. Shit, that hurts.
Stop it, you idiot. You’re going to get yourself killed.
He looked up, shocked. Kennedy wiped her eyes and gave him a tremulous smile. His beast wanted to purr, the man sagged with relief.
When she would have moved to him, Yates stopped her.
“Kennedy.” His beast forced the scalpel out of his skin and repaired his recent injuries. The ones in his sides he’d been working on healing since taking them from Myers, then Lang and now Smith, were slower to knit.
“Interesting.” Lang’s voice from the intercom overhead blasted through the room. “You see how quickly he heals from her presence? Let’s see how he fares with a new choice.”
Smith nodded at Charlie, who sighed and limped over to Alex.
Damn. Kennedy’s cousin looked awful. Already a slight woman with a petite frame, left in Lang’s care, she appeared underweight. Her skin looked washed out, though she was still pretty. Delicate features, a button nose and bow-shaped lips were overshadowed by large eyes slightly tilted at the corners, a beautiful gray-green in color that would make her stand out from the crowd. She didn’t have Kennedy’s curves, but she was appealing in her own right.
She was also family.
Distant pack, his beast thought.
He didn’t know what he might have said or done, but strapped to the table as he was, he could do little but watch her approach. Smith pressed a button, and the table shifted. Alex gradually moved from lying down to a vertical position.
Better able to see everything, he took note of the two Circ guards at the door, both men armed. Sheer stood against the wall, smirking, needing to be killed. Yates held onto Kennedy as if he owned her.
Alex would have been more bothered about that, but except for a few light scratches on her skin, she looked as good as he could hope in this place.
He wondered if Eli and the guys had arrived yet. Had they found him?
Charlie touched his face, bringing his attention to focus keenly on her. “You did this,” she whispered. She glanced over her shoulder at her cousin. He couldn’t see what she did, but Kennedy looked furious.
Kennedy? He sent her. She didn’t respond.
Charlie looked back at him, took a deep breath, then let it out, feathered over his mouth.
He smelled sweetness and felt a sense of calm, as if they stood in the eye of this particular storm. Then her lips followed, settled over his, and drew forth a response he didn’t want to make but couldn’t help. Arousal felt heavy between his legs.
His beast liked her and thought about taking two mates.
No, damn it. We love Kennedy, not this one.
It seemed to consider that, wondered what Gideon would think of this slight female trying to steal Alex for her own, then backed quickly away, tucking into Alex’s subconscious.
Alex let his body go, not into the kiss as anything more than a physical stimulant.
Charlie left his mouth to trail kisses to his ear. Pleasant, but not Kennedy. “Work with me,” she hissed in growl too low to be caught by human ears.
Oh hell. She was Circ too? He tuned in to her, his beast awake once more, and caught the faint scent of her inner wildness. New yet powerful all the same, and hidden. Different.
She drew back to look into his eyes, and she looked completely normal. Yet…
“Cut it out.” Kennedy struggled with Yates and yelled at Charlie, “He’s not yours.”
“Well he’s not yours,” Charlie said. “I didn’t see a future with you two in it. Well, not one where you’re living.” She winked down at Alex. “But you and I might have some fun together later.”
She left him, and the bitter taste of her amusement on his tongue soured him on ever having wanted to be with her. Not that he had. His beast was all kinds of fucked up right now, with Lang’s drugs disrupting his system and the need for his mate pushing him in odd directions.
He still considered Charlie a packmate when she’d obviously tried to harm her cousin by kissing him. Which didn’t make a lick of sense.
Kennedy was crying. Yates held her back, now by her hair, as she fought him. Sheer looked bored by it all, glanced at the guards, then gave a frightening smile.
Duane Smith watched everything from a position along the wall, no doubt making mental notes to tally later. Alex tried to focus on him, because the need to kill Yates, for not only his sister, but for harming Kennedy, was stirring the beast he tried to keep contained. Nothing good could come from fighting Yates right now either. He was too weak to win, and he needed to stay alive to keep Kennedy safe.
Yeah, that’s working real well for me as it is. I’m alive, and she’s getting felt up and tugged this way and that by some pervert with sadism on the brain. He glared at Yates.
“I’m sensing rising testosterone levels,” Smith reported.
Lang’s voice echoed from above. “Excellent. Continue.”
Sheer set the guards on fire with a laugh, and they screamed as they tried to beat out the flames.
“Damn it, Sheer.” Smith glared. “Not now.”
“Oh, sorry.” He brought his hands together, and the flames went out slowly. The fire left the rogue Circs burned and raw. But as Alex watched, they healed.
Smith shook his head, disappointed in Sheer yet Alex thought he scented arousal from the man. He wondered how many times this had played out. Sheer losing it and setting people on fire, then being frowned at as punishment while secretly Smith beat off to the smell of burned flesh. Christ, he needed to kill Sheer pronto. Before the murderer set him on fire for shits and grins while Smith watched.
“Now, Yates.” Smith nodded to the table next to Alex.
Yates smiled. “Perfect.”
“Do I have to stay for this?” Charlie asked.
“Yes, let’s go.” Sheer started for her, and Charlie stared at him with intensity. He paused with a frown, looking unsure for the first time ever, that Alex could recall.
She laughed suddenly, and everyone watched with trepidation. “Sure thing, handsome. Let’s you and me go somewhere and get to know each other better.”
Sheer’s tension vanished, and he beamed.
“Charlie, what’s gotten into you? You can’t really be with them,” Kennedy cried out, struggling against an incredibly strong Yates as he muscled her toward a long exam table. “I was coming back for you. You’re my cousin, my only family. I love you!”
“Whatever.” Charlie gave her a dismissive wave. She glanced at Alex over her shoulder, then looked at his right wrist, where he’d been subtly working to loosen his restraint, and back at him. As if she knew he was close to escaping.
But she said nothing. She blew him a kiss and laughed. “Enjoy the show. And welcome to the family. Good luck getting it up, Yates. See you soon.” Then she and Sheer left.
“Bitch,” Yates muttered as he fumbled with his trousers.
Alex’s blood pounded as he understood what he was supposed to witness. Yates taking Kennedy—Alex’s mate—in front of him. Debasing her, hurting her. Oh hell, no.
Kennedy wasn’t having it either. Her beast grew stronger; he could sense it.
Yates tried to yank Kennedy’s clothes off. Alex struggled against his bonds and concentrated on the right one, ignoring the way he broke open his wounds again and caused more harm to a body needing desperately to heal. His only thought was to help Kennedy, to get to her before Yates did to her what he’d done to Alex’s sister.
As if he could read Alex’s mind, Yates glanced at him and grinned, showing lengthening fangs. “Oh yeah. I can’t wait. Your women are so damn sweet, Palmer. I wonder if Kennedy will fuck as good as your sister did. Because she was hot for it.”
Alex’s beast took over.
He broke through the band holding his right arm down. Then the left. Smith yelled for backup. But the guards that had been healing suddenly burst into flame once more.
For once Sheer had done the world some good.
Unfortunately, Yates was on Kennedy before Alex could get fully free. The rogue had her bent over the exam table, clawing at her trousers…
Alex saw his sister screaming, heard her sobs as someone hurt her. Over and over again. Then Yates finished, and Myers took his turn while Sheer watched. Time passed. They came for her again, and Myers held her down, a knife at her throat…
“No. Please.” Katie sobbed, disheveled, obviously abused. Tears tracked down her bruised cheeks and bloodied lips.
Around her, Myers, Yates, and Sheer stared down at her as if fascinated.
“Come on, pretty lady. You’ve been spilling secrets. We all know about it. How about you tell us the truth? Who knows about our facility and what we really do at U-Ground?”
Katie sobbed, then spat in Myers’s face. “Fuck you.”
“We’re gonna get back to that, precious,” Yates said with a chuckle. “But how about you tell us the truth? Who are you working with? Who else is on the inside, because it isn’t just you. I can smell it on you. Something familiar…”
Katie screamed and grabbed at the knife in Myers’s hand, then dragged him down on top of her, plunging the blade through her heart. As her eyes closed, she whispered, “I always knew this was coming, but it’s okay. You needed to see this. You need to find the others. Save Bailey. Love…you.”
“Katie,” he moaned, feeling his heart break all over again. No. Not Katie. Kennedy fought her attacker. He had to help her. He broke through the rest of his restraints, his body larger than it normally was, rage and adrenaline fueling his will to fight.
But Kennedy was battling Yates on her own while Smith watched, alarmed yet fascinated by the battle. Yates seemed to be toying with her, slapping her down each time she got free of him. Enjoying her desperation, her fear. The sick fuck.
Alex roared, and just as Smith moved to intervene, he threw the man so hard he shattered the giant mirror on the other side of the room. Alex swore he heard bones crack, but he needed more. To see his enemy in agony, to feel the blood of his opponents as he tore their lives apart.
Smith looked broken, unmoving, his back twisted at an angle no human would get up and walk away from.
Alex stepped past him, ignoring the pain radiating throughout his body. Yates saw him coming, slapped Kennedy across the face and punched her hard enough to bruise her spleen.
She sagged, but not before swiping out with her claws, raking him across the face hard enough to make him howl. She drew blood, then screamed at him, enraged, her beast fully engaged.
Alex was taken aback by her fury, his beast enchanted. No wilting flower, his mate intended to annihilate her enemy, and he wanted to watch her bathe in his blood. Love her so much, his beast growled.
Seeing that not only was Kennedy not cowed, but she’d grown angrier, Yates looked from her to Alex and tore out of the room.
“Clean up in lab 207,” came a dry voice from the intercom.
Alex moved to follow Yates, needing to end his life. But Kennedy fell to the floor. He paused, looking to see if she could manage.
“Go, I’m fine.” She sounde
d…not fine.
The urge to finally finish his enemy pulled at him. His beast needed to taste Yates’s defeat. At his hands, no one else’s. Finally so close to ending the fucker. Yet...
“Go,” she growled, her voice too breathy.
He clamped down on his beast and turned to Kennedy, knowing it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived. As he took a step, pain shattered his world.
He fell, clutching his head, wishing for anything to dislodge the spike of chaos invading his mind.
“No, focus on me, Alex. It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ve got you. I love you, Alex. You’re mine. Be mine. Stay with me.” Kennedy’s voice soothed, but another, darker voice echoed inside him, ordering him to find Yates and kill him. To bring him to his knees, savage him in front of his mate, to show her he was worthy.
Kennedy whispered his name, her hands on his face, and he felt tears fall down his cheeks.
“I’m sorry. So sorry.” He tried to grab her hand in his but didn’t have the strength. “I should never have let you come here. I should have stopped you before you joined them. It’s my fault.” He saw a shadow beyond her, one growing as it approached.
“Oh Alex. It’s me. Not Katie, sweetheart. I’m fine. It’s Kennedy, and I’m all right.”
Alex yanked her to him and turned, so that his back was to the threat, protecting her from the looming oppression wearing on his mind. A blade pierced his shoulder and glanced off the bone. It hurt like a bitch, and the bleeding didn’t help.
“Oh, you asshole.” Kennedy shrugged out of his arms and roared.
And he knew no more.
******
Kennedy pushed to her feet and concentrated on Duane Smith harder than she’d ever focused in her life. He had some kind of mental wall protecting him. An odd psychic layer obscuring his thoughts. And something else. A power, dark and corrupt and telepathic in nature.