by Kit Tunstall
Guillermo surprised her by laughing. “You have cojones, señorita. Lead the way.”
She spun on her heel and returned to the shifters in the enclosure, standing back so Guillermo could open the first cage. She grimaced when she saw he had made a stop somewhere to procure a long cattle prod. “That won’t be necessary.”
He shrugged. “We’ll see.”
Deciding there was no point in arguing with him, she grasped the first-aid kit and stepped into the cage, bending down to fit through the doorway. It was an ominous feeling when Guillermo closed the cage door behind her, and the lock clicked into place a moment later. She was locked in with the bear-shifter, but rather than feeling fear, all she felt was an overwhelmingly sense of sympathy when she saw the marks on his body, and the way he barely even turned his head when she spoke to him.
She kept up a steady stream of soothing talk as she cleaned his wounds, but he never really roused enough to be aware of what was happening. He had a gash deep enough on his thigh to require stitches, but that was beyond the capacity of the first-aid kit. “Do you have a needle and thread, medical-grade, of course?” she asked the guard.
Guillermo snorted. “Make do with what you have.”
She muttered under her breath while she took a handful of Steri-Strips, using them to carefully close the wound as best she could. When she was finished, she looked up at the guard again. “You can let me out now.”
He flashed her a wicked grin, holding up the keys in a teasing fashion. “Perhaps I could just leave you in there until the next fight, and they change him. That could get interesting.”
She kept her gaze impassive and hid any response to his taunting. “I have others to see too,” she said in a low, even tone.
With a sigh of displeasure, as though she had disappointed him by her lack of response, he unlocked the cage, allowing her to exit before locking it again.
She deliberately saved the shifter with the dark hair for last, because he was the most aware and the most likely to resist any help. He was lying still when Guillermo unlocked his cage, and she took a deep breath before stepping inside, waiting for the click of the lock before kneeling down beside him.
The urge to touch him in a nonmedical way washed over her, and she clenched her fists to avoid running her fingers down the hard, sculpted planes of his body. It was a strange reaction, and she hadn’t experienced anything like it with the other three male shifters, though they all had impressive physiques. There was just something about this man that made her want to caress him, so she cleared her throat, attempting to get his permission before she did anything, especially something so violating as to fondle him while he was unconscious. “I’m here to help you.”
His eyes snapped open, and there was more awareness than there had been. She suspected he’d been playing possum for Guillermo’s benefit, and she half-expected him to lunge at her and pin her to the bars. She held her breath as she waited to see what he would do.
“I don’t want your help.”
“That wound on your stomach looks terrible. At least let me clean it. Please?”
He glared at her. “No help.”
He bared his teeth at her in an aggressive fashion as he sat up with more speed than she would have expected in his current stupor. He lifted a hand, and she was certain it was simply to ward her off, but Guillermo must have taken it as a more threatening gesture, or perhaps he was just looking for an excuse to use the cattle prod. Whatever it was, he touched it to the shifter’s thigh, laughing when the man in front of her twitched under the force of the voltage.
“Stop it. You’re going to kill him.”
With a small sigh of regret, Guillermo removed the cattle prod from the cage, shaking his head. “A little shock won’t kill him, not with those shifter genes.” He turned his attention to the bear shifter, his voice getting firmer. “Let her help you, Rampage.”
At the sound of that name, she realized he was definitely one of the bears who had been fighting the previous night. She was certain he was the gray-black bear, and that confirmed it.
It also explained why his wounds were fresher than some of the others. She touched him carefully, checking for a pulse, and relieved to find it beating steadily and strong underneath her fingertips. The shock hadn’t appeared to do permanent damage, though she had been concerned since he was already in a weakened state. She kept her touch and her voice gentle when she spoke to him. “I really do want to help you. Please let me.”
He glared at Guillermo, but didn’t reply. He simply lay still as she examined him, ostensibly for broken bones, though she couldn’t deny to herself there was certainly an element of curiosity that had nothing to do with treatment in her exploration. After determining he had no broken bones, she set to cleaning the wound on his stomach. He endured it stoically, never looking at her. After bandaging it, she asked him onto turn to his stomach, and he glared at her as he did so with clear reluctance.
She let out a harsh gasp when she saw his back, which was bruised and bloodied, with several long gashes that had probably been inflicted by his opponent. “I think you needs need stitches, but I don’t have the supplies to do that.”
He just grunted, either in too much pain to speak, or simply uninterested in conversation with her.
She bit her lip as she opened the bottle of antiseptic, uncertain if it would hurt. It wasn’t supposed to, but these were deep wounds. She spread it over the gashes, and the way he stiffened and twitched suggested it was hurting him. She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. “I’ll try to be gentle, but it’s going to hurt.”
It was the gentle touch of her hand and voice that seemed to trigger him, rather than the pain from his wound. He shrugged her off forcefully, sending her colliding with the bars. She let out a small moan as she hit the metal, realizing simultaneously that Guillermo was bringing up the cattle prod again. Acting on instinct rather than common sense, she pushed herself between the cattle prod and the shifter, not wanting him to be shocked again. “No,” she said just as the prongs touched her skin. A fiery pain like she’d never known radiated through her, and she twitched under the force of it.
Fortunately, Guillermo pulled it back almost as soon as it touched her, but it was still a strong jolt of electricity, and she collapsed to the floor of the cage. She was unaware of events transpiring for a moment, and when she came back to herself, she realized the bear-shifter was holding her, though he seemed unhappy about the idea. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, her voice sounding raspy.
He frowned down at her. “Why are you sorry? Are you sorry for being a fool and getting in the path of the cattle prod? It could have killed you.”
She bit her lip. “I didn’t want you to be shocked again. There was no reason for it.”
“Foolish.” The word was cruel, but there was a surprising hint of tenderness underlying it. “Can you move now, human?”
She stretched and slowly sat up, feeling an occasional spasm jerk through her muscles, but otherwise unscathed. “I’ll be fine. Let me finish your back.”
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Very well.”
She hurried through cleaning it, suddenly anxious to escape the man before her. She didn’t think he would hurt her, but she needed space to deal with how she was feeling and process what had happened. She was a confusing jumble of emotions, and combined with the shock from the cattle prod, it was no wonder she needed some time to herself to regain composure and perspective.
It was a relief to exit the cage, and she didn’t look at the shifter before she left. She didn’t even take the first-aid kit. As soon as her feet touched the cement, she rushed from the enclosure and out into the open air, struggling to hide how shaken she was, and she wasn’t even entirely sure why she was such a mess. It had surprisingly little to do with being shocked by the cattle prod, and was almost exclusively because of the man she had just taken care of, despite his reluctance.
***
The next morning, Maya was
mildly surprised to find all of the bears more aware, and they were also surprisingly compliant when she checked their wounds. Once again, she saved Rampage for last, feeling a bout of nerves as Guillermo unlocked cage for her that she hadn’t experienced when entering the others’ enclosures. She took a deep breath and stepped inside, meeting his gaze.
He seemed to have most of his faculties today, and she wondered if it was because there hadn’t been fight last night, or if someone had missed a dose on their drugs. It was a disconcerting thought, because she doubted they would be that careless. More likely, if someone had skipped dosing the shifters, it had been Stone, and he wanted to observe their interactions with her when they weren’t quite so incapacitated. He was probably watching them, or at least recording the treatment to study later.
She tried to push aside the thought and focus on the man in front of her. “Good morning, Rampage.”
He stiffened and growled at her. “That isn’t my name. That’s the name these fuckers gave me. Don’t use it.”
She held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “I’m sorry. I thought that was your name. What should I call you?”
“Hale,” he said eventually, seeming reluctant to part with his name.
“Good morning, Hale,” she said trying again. “I need to look at your wounds.”
He glared at her. “I don’t know why you bother, since they’re just going to get opened again in the ring.”
She nodded, not bothering to refute his words. “Maybe I can take away some of the pain in the interim.” She worked in silence for a few minutes, until she had him turn to reveal his back. When she removed the bandages, she let out a small breath of surprise. “You’ve really healed. Not completely, but this looks much better than it did yesterday.”
He nodded abruptly. “Shifters heal rapidly. If I could transform naturally, it would heal during the transformation process. Whatever crap they put in us interferes with the healing mechanism though, so we’re left with slowly healing wounds, though I guess it’s still faster than the average Homo sapiens.”
“Are we a different species then?” She carefully dabbed at the wounds with antiseptic and fresh gauze as she spoke.
He nodded. “We’re Ursa sapiens, and you’re Homo sapiens.”
A surge of excitement filled her, and it had nothing to do with being this close to him. It was sparked purely by her thirst for knowledge in her chosen field. “I’m a veterinarian student. I’m not a vet yet, but I will be in a couple of years. I’m hoping to work with wildlife, especially bears. I’d like to see as many remain in the wild as possible.”
“Why bears?”
She didn’t speak for a moment as she finished fastening the bandages and taping them down. “When I was five, my parents took me to a zoo, and I was an idiot. I climbed on top of the bars to get a better look at the baby bear cubs in the enclosure below. Before my dad could catch me, I slipped forward and fell in. I don’t remember much about the experience, because I had head trauma. I just remember the mother bear holding me in her lap, and I felt safe.
“I know from my parents telling me the details that she found me right after I fell and rather than hurt me, she seemed to realize I was just a little one like her babies, so she picked me up and rocked me on her lap. The officials at the zoo had to sedate her so they could get me, since she was determined not to let them rescue me. I imagine she thought they would hurt me. Whatever her thought processes, she took care of me, and I’ve been fascinated with bears ever since.”
He turned onto his side to look at her. “Working for these bloodthirsty bastards must be a dream come true then.”
She stiffened at the condemnation in his tone. “I’m not here voluntarily either, Hale.” Lowering her voice, in case they were being recorded, she bent over him, ostensibly to look at his shoulder, but really so she could bring her mouth closer to his ear. “I’m a member of Hand & Paw, which is an animal rights organization. I was here undercover to investigate the bear fights when I discovered there was something even worse going on. They caught me, and it’s either work with them while taking care of the fighters or end up dead. I’m as much a prisoner here as you are.”
His gaze locked with hers. There was a flash of heat that quickly dissipated, and his expression cooled. “Yet I’m the one in the cage.”
With a small sigh, she leaned back from him and sat her bottom on her calves, regarding him solemnly. “I’ll probably end up dying here, but if there’s any way at all to escape, I’m going to try to rescue all of you.” She kept her voice soft, hoping he might have exceptional hearing to go with his other amazing abilities. She raised her voice a little bit more after speaking to him. “You seem to be doing well and healing rapidly. The wounds probably be gone by tomorrow.”
He snorted. “Only replaced by new ones, little vet.”
“I have a name too,” she said. “It’s Maya Cole.” She forced herself to truncate the last part of her name. “You can call me Maya.”
“Well, Maya, all your hard work will be undone tonight.”
She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
His lips compressed into a grim line. “It’s fight night.”
A chill ran through her at the words, and she wanted to protest that surely he wouldn’t be forced to fight again already, but he knew far more about this horrible situation than she did. All she could do was place a comforting hand on his thigh, trying to communicate without words how concerned she was for him. She was concerned for all of them, but she couldn’t deny she had a deeper connection with Hale than she did with any of the others. She couldn’t explain it either.
Chapter Four
Maya was dismayed when Elgin cornered her in the kitchen just after she had finished eating with the other staff. She forced herself not to betray her disgust when he put a hand on her arm. “Hello,” she said in a cold tone, unable to pretend any warmth.
He appeared oblivious. “Apparently, I’m not just the scientist around here. I’m also a delivery boy.” He looked like he wanted to pout for a minute.
She frowned her confusion. “What does that mean?”
“Señor Calderon has invited you to share his box for tonight’s fight.”
She grimaced, unable to hide her disgust that time. “No, thank you. I have no interest in witnessing that spectacle again.”
His hand tightened around her forearm, and he tugged her forward. “One doesn’t refuse Señor Calderon’s invitations. Not if you want to see tomorrow.”
With a sigh, she stopped resisting and fell into line beside Elgin. He tried holding her arm despite her cooperation, and she jerked it away forcefully. “I can walk on my own, thanks.”
He scowled at her. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t still be alive. A little gratitude wouldn’t be out of bounds, Maya.”
“But unrequested touching is. Thank you for speaking up on my behalf, but I hope it wasn’t because you expect something more tangible in return than help with the shifters.”
He laughed softly. “I expect all kinds of things, and I’ll collect as opportunities arise.”
She trembled, but struggled to suppress the reaction. It would only encourage him and swell his ego if he realized she was afraid of him. She deliberately looked away from him and kept her expression as impassive as possible. She was certain her feet slowed the closer they got to the fighting arena, but she didn’t let herself fall behind. She didn’t want Stone to put an encouraging hand on her and drag her along again.
They entered from a set of stairs behind the building, and when she emerged through the door, she found herself a level above where she’d been last time, with a clear view of the fighting ring below. It was a much better view than she’d ever wanted.
Stone herded her to the seats, where there were two empty ones. She tried to hide her displeasure when she was seated between Calderon and Stone, making herself nod a greeting to the man responsible for financing this horror show. “Good evening, señor.”
He smiled at her, and it should have been a charming display, but his cold, dead eyes robbed any warmth from the practiced expression. “How lovely of you to join us. I’m pleased you accepted my invitation.”
She almost let out a mocking snort, but held back the urge. “Thank you for inviting me.”
Señor shifted slightly in his seat. “Dr. Stone seemed to think you would decline. He says you don’t have the stomach for the fights, which makes me wonder why you came to one to start with.”
She clenched her hands together in an effort to obscure her attention. “I was simply curious. I honestly didn’t believe James McCoy when he told me someone was staging illegal bear fights out here.”
He made a sound low in his throat, one that was difficult to interpret. “I see. It’s quite a process and an expense to come this far just to satisfy your curiosity.”
She shrugged, trying to channel a carefree façade. “My parents are rich, which means I have an unlimited bank account. I can afford to indulge my curiosity.”
He still looked unconvinced, but the arrival of the crowd interrupted anything he might have said as they entered noisily. She watched the people below her jostle and shove their way into position, all vying for the best spots to view the atrocities about to take place. There was a general mood of jubilance from the audience, and they were all clearly excited to be here. They turned her stomach as much as Calderon and Stone, because even with all the money in the world, Calderon couldn’t have made this work without a bloodthirsty audience demanding that form of entertainment.
A few moments later, the bears came in, and she gasped when she recognized Hale. She turned to the señor, sounding more accusatory than she had planned. “He shouldn’t be fighting again already. He was in the last fights.”
Señor arched a brow. “Rampage remains unbroken, so he has to fight.”