by Kit Tunstall
Apparently not full control though, because one of his hands grabbed a handful of her hair, and he started pulling her down the corridor to her room. The pain was awful, sending sparks of pure agony into her scalp, and she did her best to get to her feet so she could walk along beside him, but he wouldn’t allow it. He moved too quickly and had her in the wrong position to allow her to do anything but be dragged behind him. The only other alternative was to shift to the coyote, and she couldn’t do that if she wanted to protect Aidan.
It was less than a minute, but it felt like an eternity before they reached her room. He slapped his palm onto the scanner with more force than necessary, and the door opened. He dragged her across the threshold before finally releasing his hold on her hair. He shoved her away from him in the open doorway long enough to slam his hand on the panel and close the door, leaving her locked in with him.
She was glad to have his attention diverted from Aidan, but it was daunting to have it all focused on her instead. Watching him warily, she got to her feet and tried to maintain the distance between them. With each step he took forward, she took another backward. Nerves made her stomach twinge, and she licked her lips in order to speak, because her mouth was suddenly as dry as the desert. “It really was my idea. I just wanted to get out of this room for a while.”
He continued to glare at her, though he took slow, measured steps forward that matched her retreat. He must have known she would run out of space to flee at any moment, and he was toying with her. “You know how to get out of here. You just have to accept your role.”
She shook her head. “I won’t.” She stifled a whimper when her back collided with the wall, indicating she had run out of space to withdraw.
He closed the distance between them quickly, grasping her chin in his hand as he leaned forward to sniff her. His eyes narrowed, and there was a definite growl in his voice when he spoke. “I can smell your arousal, which makes me want to kill him.”
It humbled her, and she wouldn’t have pleaded for her own life, but it was different for Aidan. He was fully human and had been no match for Caswell or any of his super soldiers. “Please don’t hurt him. It was just a walk.”
His hand moved from her chin to her throat, and he suddenly lifted her off her feet, pressing her hard against the wall. “Don’t lie to me. Did you convince him to show you all our secrets?” He shook her for emphasis.
She clawed at the hand around her throat, desperate for oxygen. He tightened for another moment before releasing enough where she could breathe. “Yes,” she said in a raspy voice. “But I manipulated him into it. It was all my idea. He’s just a human.” She struggled to sound dismissive of his perceived impairment with a marked lack of oxygen making it difficult to speak, much less project a certain intonation.
Caswell surprised her by nodding, and his hold around her throat loosened slightly, though she still dangled in the air, and her flow of oxygen continued to be restricted. “I’d already figured that out for myself. As a human, he would be easy to manipulate. I’m sure you were trying to find a way out, and I’m satisfied you know now that isn’t happening.”
“Yes.” Agreeing with him cost her dearly, but she had to try to placate him for the moment.
“Did you see your friends?” His tone was gloating, and he wore a smug expression.
She glared at him, renewing her struggles, though she couldn’t draw in enough oxygen to achieve much.
“You’re going to start cooperating, or people you care about will die. I’ll simply shut down the life-support system to your remaining teammates. That’s the end of them.”
“You’d be doing them a kindness,” she rasped.
He shrugged the shoulder of the arm not holding her pinned to the wall. “Would I be doing your precious Aidan a favor if I ripped him apart? I would have torn him to pieces if I had detected his scent on your skin.”
She glared at him, struggling again as relief that they hadn’t kissed swept through her. She was surprised when he abruptly released her, causing her to fall to the floor and land solidly on her buttocks. She hated the way he loomed over her and swallowed all her space. Lex stayed where she had fallen, despite hating the way he crowded her. Her reason was simple. If she tried to wriggle forward or stand up, she was likely to plant her face in or near his crotch, and she didn’t want him to get any ideas. “I don’t even know how you found out. You never come to see me during the daytime.”
“And you decided to be like a naughty child and take advantage of that.” His tone was almost indulgent, giving her emotional whiplash from the sudden change in his mood. “I can’t stay long. I have important…visitors, but I wanted to steal away to check on you. It’s a good thing I did.”
He looked regretful. “Unfortunately, they’ll be consuming much of my time today and tomorrow, so I won’t have a chance to see you again. I expect you to behave, and you need to use this time for reflection. Decide how you want things to progress, Alexandria. My patience is wearing thin, and I will make you my mate the next time I come to you. How that occurs is entirely up to you.” He turned and walked away, not looking back at her as he left the room. The door closed behind him a millisecond later, and she was left alone in the small space.
She started trembling as reaction overtook her, making her body almost rattle from the force of her trembling. She gritted her teeth and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them before burying her face against her legs. Deep breathing helped, and she slowly calmed the panic trying to rise inside her.
She had a brief reprieve, and she had to use it. She needed a strategy to escape, because if she didn’t find a way before he returned to her as soon as tomorrow night, he would claim her as his mate with or without her consent. And it would most certainly be without, because she couldn’t bring herself to accept his touch willingly, or even pretend to do so.
Aidan had been her best chance of escaping, but she didn’t know if that was still true. After the beating he had endured, he might not even survive. A pang of loss shot through her at that thought, and her coyote howled in her head. It was an enlightening moment, one revealing just how much he meant to her. Coyotes didn’t immediately know their mates the way bear-shifters did, but shifters in general were more in touch with instincts and more likely to fall fast and hard when they met their ideal mate. Was that him? Was her mate even now lying in the hallway, dying from the beating Caswell had inflicted?
If he didn’t die, he would most likely heed Caswell’s warning to stay away from her, which was the smart thing to do. She couldn’t be angry if he chose to go that route, reminding herself he didn’t feel any mating instincts the way a shifter would. She should be hoping he would follow the sensible path that would keep him safe—or safer, for a short time, until his contract expired, and he was either “recruited” or eliminated.
Selfish or not, she was definitely devastated by the idea of not seeing him again, and it wasn’t because he was her best chance of escaping. The thought of losing Aidan filled her with despair, and she was glad to have her face buried against her legs, hiding the tears that trickled from her eyes. In case Caswell somehow watched her at that moment, he wouldn’t see the full extent of her desolation. She wouldn’t give him that.
Chapter Nine
No one came back to her room that night even to bring her dinner, and the person who brought breakfast the next morning was a slack-eyed soldier hybrid. It was practically an automaton, and the one time she accidentally met its gaze when it dropped the tray before her, she shivered at the lack of awareness in those eyes. The only sign of awareness flickered when she reached out for its badge, more to see if she could than because she planned to try to steal it and make a break for it. The thing growled at her and flinched away, but still never looked at her with any true awareness.
She ate what passed for food, unsurprised when the super soldier placed a white cup before her that held the suppressors. That explained why he had leaned against the door
while she ate. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to take them on an empty stomach. Perhaps Caswell had instructed his thing to watch over her as a reminder of what she was up against.
Either way, and with no choice, she reluctantly took the capsules and put them in her mouth. She did her best to catch them with her tongue and not swallow any as she drank some water. She could feel them starting to dissolve, but she forced herself to hold them in her mouth until the hybrid turned away from her to open the door. He left the room a moment later, and as soon as the door hissed closed behind him, she went to the bathroom.
Lex lifted the lid of the toilet and spat the pills into the water before flushing. Then she turned to the sink and drew a glass of water, which she used to rinse her mouth. She feared she had digested enough of the suppressors to be unable to call forth the coyote if needed.
To reassure herself, she slipped off the scrubs and laid them carefully over the sink before looking in the mirror as she took a deep breath and willed herself to change. It was more difficult than usual to coax forth the shift, but she was soon in her coyote form. Relief swept through her as she shifted back to human, quickly donning the scrubs again before leaving the bathroom. At least she still had that part of herself, and she wouldn’t hesitate to shift if it kept her from being claimed as Caswell’s mate.
***
She woke fully alert, her internal clock telling her it was sometime after midnight. A shuffling sound in the dark made her bare her teeth and issue a growl that sounded more coyote than human. A second later, she fell silent when she recognized the pheromones as belonging to Aidan.
There was an unfamiliar element though, and she wrinkled her nose as she realized he smelled wrong. There was a shifter element now too, and her stomach clenched as she prepared herself to face a version of Aidan that had been modified to become a super soldier. She didn’t know what game Caswell played by sending Aidan into her room as a hybrid, but if she got the opportunity, she would end Aidan’s suffering and remove him from Project Enhanced.
She sat up slowly, hand automatically going to the lamp on her nightstand. When she clicked it, nothing happened.
“There’s no power,” said Aidan, and he sounded lucid and fully aware of himself and his surroundings. “We have to hurry.”
She frowned. “What are you? Are you Aidan?” He smelled like Aidan, except for the hybrid component, but if he had been subjected to experiments, he shouldn’t be able to talk to her. She couldn’t imagine a scenario where Caswell allowed him to undergo genetic manipulation without inflicting the artificial intelligence on him as well.
“It’s me. Caswell just left me in the hallway, probably certain I would die. My stomach was hurting, and I felt lightheaded. I think I was close to death. I’m pretty sure he lacerated my liver with one of his kicks.”
“How are you here then?” As she asked the question, Lex got out of bed and slipped her feet into the slippers no one had bothered to take away from her—a fact for which she was now grateful.
“I crawled my way back to the room where they start manipulating the genetics. I didn’t know enough about the science behind it to use the tubes, and I wasn’t certain if they were even an integral part of the process, or simply provided some kind of supportive therapy to keep the subjects alive. All I could manage to do in the state I was in was take an injection of the modification agent. I didn’t know if it would work, and I didn’t know how much to take.”
Her coyote’s vision allowed her to see well in the dark, and she could tell Aidan was slightly ill from his pallor and the occasional tremble that shook his body. “Do you think you took too much?”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know. All I know is I’m able to fully shift.” After saying the words, his naked form melted and elongated, showing a lion where he had stood a moment before.
Her eyes widened in shock. “None of the rest of them can fully transform. What makes you different?”
The tawny-colored lion disappeared, reverting to Aidan again. She hadn’t noticed his lack of dress when he first entered the room, but she was suddenly noticing it now. Despite the circumstances, she couldn’t help casting an admiring glance at his cock, which was long and thick, even though it wasn’t hard at the moment.
“Maybe it’s the Jenny Protein. She’s my sister, so odds are I have it too. I never manifested any symptoms of having a metabolic disorder, so my folks never had me tested, but perhaps it’s a dormant gene, and the process of modification switched it on.”
Whatever the reason, she was grateful he wouldn’t be one of those half-human, half-animal hybrids that were so wrong. His pheromones still smelled a bit off to her, but she was certain she could adapt to it—if they lived long enough. “What’s the plan? I assume you’re here to break me out?”
His teeth flashed in the dark as he gave her a quick smile. “We don’t have much time. I’ve infected their mainframe with a virus, and it’s shutting down all their systems. We have to move quickly, and we need to avoid confrontation, if possible.”
By mutual, unspoken agreement, they both shifted into their animal forms. It would be easier to navigate the hallways and try to stay low. The hybrids would have the advantage of night vision as well, but maybe they wouldn’t expect to see a lion and a coyote darting through the hallways.
As they reached the door, Aidan shifted back to his human form, slamming his hand onto the panel. “I was a little afraid Caswell had managed to remove all my permissions, but I think he expected me to die. He probably didn’t even think about me again.” As he offered the explanation, he stuck his head out the doorway, looking down both sides of the corridor as he shifted back to the lion. With a nod in her direction, he stepped out into the darkened space.
It really was pitch black, and if she’d had only human eyesight to rely on, she wouldn’t have been able to find her way at all. They were in the underground part of the base, and without artificial lighting, the true darkness showed. She only hoped it would be enough to camouflage them, and coupled with their shifter shapes, they could ease past anyone who might try to stop their escape.
She tensed when feet ran past her, and then let out the breath she’d been holding when she realized whoever was running—and it smelled like a super soldier—hadn’t spared a glance in their direction.
Their luck held until they reached the antechamber where they needed to take the hallway on the right to escape. She recognized the route from the night she had been there with the rest of her team, but froze when one of the super soldier stepped in front of her. Apparently, its handler had recognized she and Aidan didn’t belong.
The thing tried to reach down to pick her up, but she slipped out of its arms and between its legs before darting around and jumping as high she could. Lex collided with its back, sending it toppling forward, and Aidan surged forward, teeth clamped around the back of its neck. With a ferocious growl, he shook his head, and when he lifted it a moment later, the soldier was twitching beneath him, and his muzzle was stained with blood. He spat in a very human-like way before they continued onward.
They dealt with two more super soldiers and one seemingly fully human soldier before reaching the area where she and her friends had stolen a truck before. There were still plenty to choose from, and she shifted to her human form as Aidan did the same. Someone had replaced the keys she and her teammates had stolen, so she took them all again, which required two handfuls, because there were more trucks now than there had been.
She slipped into the cab of the one Aidan had chosen, extending the keys to him. It took six tries before he found the right one, and the truck roared to life. She was certain she heard shouting behind them, but it could have been her own imagination responding to the fear gripping her tightly.
The truck plowed through the automatic bay door, since neither one of them had the required authorization to open it. The vehicle was sturdy and recovered with little more than a shudder of its frame.
Her sensitive vis
ion detected multiple changes on the base from what she had seen last time. It still had the look of being rundown, but there were now machine guns bolted to the top of several roofs, and the guardhouse had been expanded, probably to accommodate a larger force for guarding the entrance.
Aidan didn’t bother going that way though. He turned a sharp right, pressing down hard on the accelerator. The truck shuddered a bit at the increase in speed, but it made it through the fence, whose electric voltage had been disabled when he shut down the power to the base.
The vehicle looked worse for wear, but it was still running, which was all that mattered. She winced in sympathy when Aidan turned the wheel to collide with one of the super soldiers who was running in their direction. The truck jolted again, but it kept running as smoothly as it had, and it absorbed the impact of rolling over the body with barely a glitch.
“Do you have a destination?” she asked him.
“No, not really. I figured we could sort that out together once we got off the base. That was my main goal.”
“I know where there’s a safe house a couple of hours away. We would have stayed there last time we came through this way, but there were too many of us in the group. Malcolm made the call to go to a larger safe house farther away, and I guess Caswell found that location via the bite he left on me.”
“You’ll have to give me directions.”
She nodded, curling up into the seat as much as possible as a wave of exhaustion swept over her. She hadn’t slept well since Caswell had taken her prisoner, and even now, she couldn’t quiet her mind enough to even try. They weren’t out of danger yet. With Caswell able to track her, he could find her wherever she went.
“You should leave me somewhere and go on without me, Aidan. Caswell marked me, and he could follow my trail through that link.”
He barely glanced away from the road, but he shook his head in a decisive manner. “I’m not leaving you behind.”