Anger rose in her, and she felt the change taking over.
“Uh uh uh. Five four eight two one.” He smiled at her. “You are mine.”
The shift stopped. Her whole body froze. “What’d you do to me?” she whimpered as she tried to move, but her body wouldn’t budge from its position.
“I just stopped you for a moment.” He frowned. “Unfortunately, as my first of three test subjects, you didn’t get the whole arsenal. It will only last for thirty seconds unless I apply a bit of extra help. He jabbed the needle into her arm, and she winced. Bossman cranked the music on his phone, and she swayed as the crazy music from the white room played through the speakers. She knew this song. Oh no. What was he doing to her?
“See, I haven’t figured out how to get you under for longer than forty-eight hours, but it will have to do for now. Once you get me my next test subjects, I’ll be able to try some newer stuff on them.”
A weird feeling passed over her, and she remembered turning into a wolf and killing Malcolm. She had savagely ripped the man apart. But Caleb hadn’t told her, to protect her from the pain. Her head pounded, and her vision swam. She fell to her knees with a groan. “Don’t do this.”
“Too late. You brought this on yourself by escaping, you little bitch. I am the bossman.” He smiled evilly. “Now here’s what you’re going to do for me…”
~.~
Caleb shook his head and gazed at the beauty in front of him, her eyes wide and hopeful as she searched the stars. Izzy’d called him from a mile outside of town, asking him to pick her up, apologizing for leaving so suddenly. He had dropped everything and raced to get her. When his headlights shone on her, his bear let out a whoop of triumph. Their mate had called for them. She needed him. I love you, I want you. I’m an idiot. I want you to be my mate and stay here with me in Bear Paw. No, he couldn’t do that to her. Isabella had been through too much and already explained her need to be free. She would never agree to settling down, being his mate. Having his cubs. His bear chuffed at the thought of her belly rounded and full of his cubs. Or would they be pups? Visions of a dark-haired, brown-eyed male cub playfully romping with a blonde blue-eyed female pup made him smile. Or the female would be a cub—maybe she’d have soft brown fur that would poof when wet. He laughed at the thought of having a feisty little bear cub picking on her brothers and showing them who was boss. He wanted that future, and he wanted it with Isabella. Hell, she really seemed to like him, too. And it wasn’t because he had rescued her. No, the spark in her eyes and the way she softened into his embrace…
Maybe she felt the same way. But, if she wasn’t ready to settle down yet? It was okay—he’d wait for her. Give her all the time in the world. She was falling for him. He knew it in his gut. And if she wasn’t ready to say yes to mating him, he’d wait—as patiently as a bear awaiting the biggest honey score of the century.
Yeah, cliché. But he liked honey. A lot. The sweet texture and amber richness sliding down his throat made him happy, at peace, like nothing else mattered in the world. Isabella was his honey. And he’d wait for her as long as it took.
She hung up her cell phone and put it in her back pocket. “Thanks for coming. Come on. I want to show you something.” Isabella took his hand and led him into the woods, a seductive grin on her face.
“You running again, Princess?”
“No. I’m right where I need to be.”
“Then why can’t we stay here?”
“Because it involves you taking off all your clothes. And I don’t want anyone but me to see you.” She winked and led him farther down the path.
As they entered the small clearing, he wrinkled his nose at the scents surrounding them. The smell of the honeysuckle, wild lilacs, and her sweetness were overshadowed by something musky. Darker. Almost like an absence of scent. Like the scents disappeared into pitch-black. “Do you smell that?”
She cocked her head and took a long sniff, frowning. “What is it?”
“I don’t know, but I think we should—”
Loud footsteps crashed along the leaves and branches, and his bear went on full alert. The smell of “nothing” had surrounded them, and everything in the forest went silent. His bear rose to the front, prepared to take over if need be. “Isabella, get out of here!”
But she wasn’t moving. She was standing completely still.
Five men, dressed in camouflage surrounded them, their rifles all pointed at Caleb. He reached for Isabella as the pinprick of pain erupted into his neck. What the hell? He pulled out the dart and stared at it. His body became heavy. Shit. “Iz...” His tongue felt like it had grown ten times bigger. He tried to shift, but his grizzly wouldn’t come. What the hell? Staggering to get his arms around her, he woozily turned them in slow circles, assessing the possible hole he would force his way through. His brain was muddled, and his body wasn’t cooperating. “I’ll hold them off. You make a run for it,” he whispered. Growling with all the energy he could muster, he dove for the three men in front of him.
They drove the butts of their rifles into his head, sending him sprawling to the ground, flat on his face. Groaning, he rolled to his side. Isabella still stood there, watching him, no emotion on her face. Nothing. “Princess,” he croaked and reached a ten-ton hand and arm toward her.
His mate, strode forward and knelt by his side. She ran soft fingers down his cheek, rubbing some of the blood off his eye. Then she stabbed him. The tranq dart went straight into his heart.
Please let him die. His mate had betrayed him. She’d played him from the very beginning. As the high-pitched whirs meshed with white noise, he closed his eyes. He couldn’t bear to see the cold gaze as she hovered above him. And then there were two of her. Everything went fuzzy and black, and he knew it would be only moments before his soul would leave this existence; the pain would end.
“Get the grizzly into the truck before he wakes up, and make sure to shackle him. He’s going to be pissed off when he wakes up.” Isabella’s voice sounded tinny and far away.
“Good job.” Another voice, this one male and evil. Bossman. The human who’d taken so much pleasure in torturing Isabella and the others.
Caleb grunted, willing himself to rise, to grip the man by the throat and kill him. But nothing came. Nothing but more darkness. As he slipped deeper into the black sea, he overheard Bossman still giving orders.
“You know what to do. Find a female and get her back here as soon as possible. But don’t tranq her too much. I don’t want her to die before we get a chance to test her.”
“I’ve got the perfect one in mind, sir.” Her voice came through almost cheerfully.
“Tell me.”
“Black hair, piercings, tough as nails. Cousin to the alpha,” she replied. “She’ll be the perfect addition.”
Shit. Sam?
How’d the bastard find them? That was an easy one. His fucking mate had been in on it from the beginning, had led the bastards right to a town of unknowing bear shifters. Shit.
Why had Isabella betrayed him? And how was he going to save his cousin? His heart gave one more aching lurch before he finally succumbed to the darkness. He felt nothing.
~.~
Izzy burst through the door of Ida’s house and crumpled to the floor. “Help!” She still wasn’t in full control of her body. It was like she was playing some whacked-out video game, going back and forth between first person and third person—both vying for control of the joystick. She crawled along the floor and fell face first on the older woman’s rug. Her wolf still clamored to get out, as the world around her spun.
“What the hell?” Ida’s surprised shout was drowned out by the noise in Isabella’s head as she shook and tried to fight the chemicals in her body.
“They’ve got Caleb.” Izzy peered up at Nissa and Ida. “Please help me so I can save him.”
Nissa’s eyes went round, and she yanked out her phone and rushed into the other room.
“Come on, Bella Button. Let’s get you on t
he couch and resting, and you can tell us everything.”
“I’m fighting the effects, but I don’t know how long before I succumb to his orders again.” She took the glass of water from Nissa with a shaky hand. “We call him Bossman—nobody knows his name. He gave us some special drug and…” She winced at the memories and curled her knees up to her chest. “He hurt us so we’d more easily follow him. I didn’t know he had any control over me. But when he came and told me to lure Caleb into the woods and take him down…” She broke down and cried as Ida wrapped her arms around her. “I followed his orders, and it was like being in my body but not in control. I saw, heard, felt everything, but all I could do was scream from behind whatever had taken over. I wasn’t Izzy anymore. I hurt him, and now they have him.”
“Where’d they take him, and how do we know you’re not still working for them.” Sam’s furious gaze loomed over them both. “I knew we couldn’t trust you,” she spat.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Izzy said, groaning as she tried to get up again. “You can’t trust me. I can’t fight this. I’m only a few minutes away from hurting you guys. Bossman wants me…” She dug her nails into her palms so she could think clearly. “He knows I am still under his control, and he wants me to bring him back a new prisoner. A female.”
“Shit.” Sam’s eyes darkened. “How can we help?”
“Please. There’s a tracker in me; in all the escaped prisoners. Get it out now. And tie me up, kill me, whatever you have to do to keep me from hurting you and following his orders anymore.”
Sam and Ida turned to each other, mirror images of calculation. “I don’t know. They want a female, right? And they still think you’re under the fucktard’s control, right?” Sam asked.
“I am.” She yelped when another flash of pain seared into her skull. “Stop me. Now!”
“Call Bo and get him and Stone up-to-date on this new situation,” Ida directed. “Did they go back to the same facility in Kentucky?”
Izzy groaned and pressed her hands to her head. “Ugh, yeah.”
“Get them over here asap. Then get my bag from the kitchen.” Ida took charge efficiently, barking orders at Sam and Nissa.
Izzy flexed and unflexed her fists, taking deep breaths as the sounds of footsteps came from the kitchen.
“This might hurt a bit, Bella Button,” Ida said with a grimace.
“What?”
The needle went into the side of her neck before she could react. The world tilted, and she became woozy. “Whatdyoujustgiveme?” she slurred up at the older woman.
“It’s something to help you rest while I go get some herbs. We’re going to get you away from that bastard’s clutches. But it’s going not going to be easy. Open yourself up to our help.”
“Thhhhaaaank yoooooou.” Izzy fell over onto the woman’s lap. She felt her head being carefully placed on the pillow and her feet on the couch. Someone threw a blanket over her and tucked her in snug as a bug. With her eyes closed, she listened as the sounds faded in and out. It was like that one trip to the dentist when they’d given her three times the normal nitrous amount. It felt wonderful, like she could fly.
“Keep an eye on her while I get the herbs and call me if she wakes up.”
She heard Ida’s voice as if from down a long tunnel, and she finally gave up and succumbed to the nice, sleepy feeling. A nice little wolf nap sounded good about now. As her breaths slowed in her chest, she thought once more about Caleb and her betrayal. Her heart shattered into a million pieces at what she had done. Then she knew nothing.
Chapter Nine
Caleb groaned and tried to pry his heavy lids open. What the hell had they hit him with, a sledgehammer dipped in elephant tranquilizers? Rubbing the residual ache from his chest, he remembered who had given him the final stab. Right into his fucking heart—literally and figuratively shattering him to pieces. Why, Isabella?
Fury tried to build within him—the way she’d played him from the beginning, pretending to fall for him. Had it all been an act to get an alpha bear into their little facility? He hadn’t seen any bears on file, and up to the point he’d rescued Isabella, no alphas. It would have been so much easier to tell which shifters were there if he could have scented them, but that’s not how it worked. He could smell the different overtones and nuances making up a bear shifters’ unique chemistry, but that was it. The rest was all speculation. Only a royal, like Zach or Isabella, could scent each kind of shifter. But the flash drive had been the motherload. And once they decrypted the files he’d stolen, they’d know all about the agency committing these atrocities to his kind—all shifter-kind.
But Caleb wouldn’t be around to help the shifter community. If he escaped this hellhole with his brain still intact, he was finding the nearest cliff. And if that didn’t work, a silver round straight into the head. No way he could live after this, the betrayal of his mate. His bear chuffed in agreement for once. Usually, it tried to talk him out of the reckless shit, or the things that could get him killed. But not this time. His bear was as broken as him.
If Isabella hadn’t wanted him, he could have let her go. Yeah, it would have broken his heart, and he would have mourned her like the loss of his father and mother. Caleb’s heart would have healed eventually. But now? Shit, he wasn’t broken. He was shattered into a million pieces. And you couldn’t fix shattered.
Loud footsteps echoed from down the hall, and the door to his cell swung open. He sighed and squinted his bleary eyes at the man in the doorway. Human, and he trained a specialized tranq gun at Caleb’s chest. Dark hair, hazel eyes, a menacing and almost-maniacal grin on his face as he strode in, unafraid.
Go figure. Three more guards entered the room and surrounded Caleb. Guess they weren’t expecting him to go quietly.
Caleb didn’t move, didn’t show any fang as Baldy shackled his wrists together. He didn’t groan when Red yanked him to his feet. And he most definitely did not show any fear when the new guard—the crazy dude with the mismatched eyes—slammed his face into the corner of the door before shoving him out into the hall. Yep, white room, coming up. He’d heard the howls of pain and pleas for mercy from the other prisoners who had gone into the room. Caleb hadn’t had a chance to see much of what went on in the room, but he knew enough. Torture, needles, blood work, experiments, drugs. Well, he was down with that. Whatever they did to his body could never exceed the pain in his mind and heart. Bring on the inquisition.
Maybe he’d get lucky, and they’d go too far and accidentally kill him. His feet shuffled in their chains as he clunked down the long hallway. He needed to keep his wits, though. They already knew about Bear Paw River, but how much? There was no way he could tell them any more information about his clan or home. His family was pushed back to the recesses of his mind. His best bet was to piss them off and hope they accidentally killed him—like in The Princess Bride. They seated him in the wide chair and strapped his arms down securely.
“What’s your full name?” Bossman asked him.
“Westley, the rightful mate of Buttercup, which makes you Humperdinck, asshole.”
The large fist came out of nowhere, crashing into his nose, sending him and his chair toppling to the floor. His former co-workers took great pleasure punching and kicking him. His nose shattered, and his jaw broke as blood poured down his cheek. Hell, they weren’t holding back. A couple of swift kicks to his torso yielded at least one broken rib, and Caleb fell back to the floor with a harsh laugh. Operation Get the Hell Beaten Out of You was officially a success. He didn’t cry out when they lugged him up into the chair and slammed his dislocated shoulder into its socket. He laughed at the bastards. “Hell, boys, I can do this all day.”
Emo dude, the doctor whose name he still hadn’t gotten, appraised him for a moment. “Take a few vials of blood then administer the first dose.”
“You’re not taking my blood fuck…er…s.” The next dart of knockout juice shot straight into his jugular. Shi…i…t.
“S
tart the music,” Emo said, before walking away in a haze of gold and black. “If we can’t break him, we’ll try our next approach. The female bear was just brought in. Get our wolf in here asap for another round. We want to make sure she stays under for a few more hours.”
“If she doesn’t stay under?”
“Kill her. We’ll make more soldiers.”
Shit. Izzy had mentioned going after Sam. So hard to think. Whoever it was, she was in danger. He was angry with his princess. But he had to save them. And there was nothing...he could...do about...it.
Lights out, Buttercup.
~.~
Isabella walked right up to the front gate, head held high. She didn’t even take out the knife sheathed along the inside of her left calf. Isabella wouldn’t need it for this part of her adventure. She just needed her wits, the backup of the five shifters preparing to infiltrate the compound, and her man. She was coming for Caleb. Goddess help anyone who stood in her way.
Ida had really come through with her herbs and the weird music she played on her old flute. Nobody would know she had had the effects taken away, and they would assume she was still under Bossman’s control. She winced at an achy spot on her tummy where Ida had cut her. Yeah, the crazy old broad had slashed her with a knife, drawn her blood, and chanted while dancing around a campfire. Or maybe she’d given her a few well-placed shots, and Isabella’s imagination had done the rest. It was hard to tell. Ida was kind of out there.
But now Isabella was back, in better form than ever. No trickles of Bossman’s voice rang through her mind—she’d thought it was nightmares returning. It turned out, it was the hypnosis. She had to remember to play it cool. Let the bastard think she was still playing for their side. She’d driven up to the other side and “let” the guards take her unconscious but still quite pissed-off bear partner into the back. Sam was taking one for the team by playing prisoner. Izzy was holding onto Sam’s favorite katana with the promise that as soon as the battle started, Sam would have her baby back in her hands.
Bearly Rescued_A Howls Romance Page 9