There wasn’t much discussion, the tension was high, and the men’s only thought was to get to Amara and get her to safety. She hadn’t answered their calls since she’d cut off mid-sentence with Maya. Wilder and Ethan were getting the same transmissions as Finn and Paxton. Wilder was much further away and relied on the others to find their girl.
Zeroing in on her wasn’t difficult. Finn caught a glimpse of her as she was dragged into an old abandoned building. He couldn’t see who it was that had her, but he knew without verification that it was Massey. He and Pax, both having had considerable training in tactical and strategic attacks, quickly set the straightforward game plan into action. Finn heard a scream as he entered the building full of discarded equipment. One more scream and then silence.
The men looked frantically for a long time, but there was no trace of them. They knew what had happened. Massey was the man who Amara feared he was. Her memory was still washed of the incident with him. Her memories of what happened to her on the island, in her time, were sketchy, at best. She was gone, kidnapped back to her time. She was as vulnerable as she could be without her full memory intact, and she had no protectors.
Epilogue
It had been over a month and there was no sign of Massey or Amara. Ambrose had tried to find leads but there didn’t seem to be a way out of the warehouse. Because there was obviously some kind of portal on that property, Ambrose had bought the warehouse under one of their many nested companies. They put in security, but made sure that if Amara returned, her identifying information was entered into the system sending a signal as it allowed her out, but she never accessed it.
Restoration House was closed indefinitely as the men tried to research ways they could get to Amara. Maya and Sterling tried to dream walk with Amara but so far, there had been no success. Maya continued to reach out to her friend. She was determined that if she found her once, she would find her again. This time, Amara would also be reaching out to Maya, if she could.
The Ambrose Society stepped carefully in their implementation of the project. Wilder refused to resign but his heart wasn’t in it. It seemed to be the one thing he could do for her and he would see it through. Finn sat in his office, surrounded by his computers and re-watched every piece of footage they had of their girl. Nothing else seemed to interest the Viking but hearing her voice and seeing her smile.
Ethan spent hours going over the memories they blocked and his guilt at how that could have made her more vulnerable. He remembered their first lovemaking. How he’d touched her beautiful body and made it sing. He relived claiming her. Nothing seemed more important than connecting with her on every level he could devise. He even approached Finn about creating a hologram in her likeness and with her personality.
“No, when she comes back, she’ll be hurt that we replaced her.”
Ethan disagreed, but he still held out hope that she would return as well, so he said nothing more.
On week five, Finn answered a video call. “Dr. Berg?”
“Yes.”
“This is the Immigrant Intake Center. I have a woman here, pretty badly hurt, but she says she lives with you.”
Finn didn’t want to deal with any abused women right now with his heart in tatters. He knew his partners felt the same. But he didn’t want the woman to come to any further harm.
“Restoration House is closed at the moment. Take her to the Women’s Center.”
“Sir, I tried, but she insists that she lives with you and she needs to be picked up.”
His hand went to his beard, smoothing it. “I tell you there isn’t—”
“She says her name is Amara, and she misses your lap, Wilder’s teasing, and Ethan’s bossiness. She misses Charlotte, too.”
Finn almost crawled through the monitor. He spoke urgently. “Show me. Show me this woman.”
The camera swung around to a woman in baggy clothing, filthy hair lying in clumps with what looked like blood, sweat, and dirt mixed in. She had a face so swollen it was nearly unrecognizable but beneath the dirt, and bruises was her lovely skin tone. The eyes full of pain and hope looked into the monitor. He knew it was her. She was lying on the office sofa.
“Where did you find her?” he asked as he called the other two into the office.
“In the parking garage.”
“Take her to Mercy Hospital. Admit her under the name of Amara Finau Berg. We are on our way.”
The men were out the door in five minutes leaving things like locking up to Charlotte.
Once the men had called the Compound and let them know what they prayed was true, Paxton called Ambrose who had a bodyguard placed inside her room. They didn’t allow anyone but hospital personnel inside.
When three men came barreling in to see their girl, the bodyguard demanded ID and credentials. Once that was established, he allowed the three desperate men inside where they sat and watched Amara sleep. Wilder had immediately lifted her hair and found the implant right where it had been placed by Sterling. After speaking to her physician, and receiving a catalog of her injuries, the trio spoke quietly.
“I can only imagine what she has endured at the hands of that maniac. Where is he anyway?” Wilder stood to check her vitals for the tenth time in the last hour.
“I’d love to know where he is, so I could tear him apart.” Finn made no apologies for his vehemence.
“And how did she escape and get back?” wondered Ethan.
Amara moaned, and her voice was barely audible. “I took care of him for good.”
“Hush, baby, you’re badly hurt but we’re all here to take care of you. You’re safe,” said Finn.
“Hold me, please.”
Finn seemed frustrated that he couldn’t do what she asked.
“Fuck it.” He got on the bed and gingerly wrapped his arms around her.
“Mmm, you smell so good. I missed that smell. Ethan? Wilder?”
“Yes, love, we’re here,” said Ethan.
“Good. Touch me.”
Both men grabbed a hand, wincing at her cuts and bruises and torn nails.
“Wilder, I want to go home.”
“Your injuries are extensive,” he pointed out.
“But you and Ethan are doctors. I need to go home.” Her tears were real.
He chuckled. “We are. Your ribs are bruised and you’ve a few fractures. You have a bruised liver and kidney along with lacerations all over your body. I think you would be more comfortable here.”
“Please?” She didn’t care if they thought she was trying to manipulate them; she was.
His two colleagues looked at him with hopeful expressions on their faces. “I’ll see what I can do but no promises.”
Ambrose’s regional board came, desperate to talk with Amara. Even the addition of another, more powerful member promising favors, did not gain them access to Amara. Her three men were fierce in their protection of their girl.
“When we find out what you want to know, we will share the information,” Finn said coolly.
“Amara needs to recover from her devastating injuries.” Wilder took on his physician persona. “We have not done more than give her complete rest and we will continue to do that until she heals enough to leave her bed.”
“What we are concerned with,” said Mr. Smith, “is that there are many such portals and we need to take control of every one we discover. Time is of the essence.” Ethan was calm in his explanation, but his tone brooked no argument and the men heeded the underlying implications of trying to push the point. “I would recommend you begin looking for these time walkers. It would appear there is a common thread in their appearances.”
“And what would that be?” Mr. Jones asked.
“Our time needs some assistance or is the key to future or past events. Find the noise makers,” said Wilder.
Finn added. “And I would try to find the entrance in the parking lot of the intake facility, but you will go through us for all communication with our wife.” They hadn’t actually complete
d the process of multiple marriage yet, but it was next on the men’s agenda. Internet court was soon.
Paxton was silent until now. “I’m afraid I warned you, gentlemen. When men of this caliber take on a woman with Amara’s talents and fall in love, there is never going to be an argument that they will accept as valid enough, if it endangers their girl. I thought our experiences would have done a better job of informing you of how it worked. You men need to find a woman. You’d understand, then.”
“We understand the hopes of the society, but Amara’s safety and wellbeing will always come before anything else,” said Wilder.
Without further conversation, the men left. Paxton offered the Compound’s help if they needed it before following the others out.
Finally, after the initial week, Amara was ready to move from the bed to the chair and to the family room soon afterwards. It was there, during week two that she explained the whole sordid adventure, leaving the gory details to their imaginations. During the telling, and the emotional breaks between when her men would touch her, hold her, love her gently, Amara relaxed. She had thought never to feel them again and their presence took precedence over anything else, to include her telling of her weeks of captivity that could so easily have ended her life instead of fulfilling her heart’s desires.
“So, when I was stolen, he took me through a crease in the center block. They wanted to do the implant right away, but I already had one, so they skipped that, thinking they had put it in.”
“That was a lucky break,” said Wilder. “Good thinking.”
“Yes. Then I practiced the emotion control techniques Ethan taught me to flatten my affect. It worked. But the two clits made them schedule me for the removal of one.”
The room was silent, letting her tell the bad news—if there were any. She continued.
“That’s when I snuck into Robert Massey’s office and while he was having sex with one of the girls, I bludgeoned him to death with a bronze statute. I thought she was going to turn me in, but all she said was, thank Venus. We both snuck out and went our own ways. By this time, I was pretty battered and really felt I’d used my last bit of energy. I might have died if Massey had me beaten again.”
“Take a rest, honey. You don’t have to tell it all now,” Finn said, his whole body tensed in anger. Amara had no doubt that if she had not killed Massey, Finn would have found a way to do so.
“No, I want to tell it once and then you can retell it if you have to. I made it to the cave and practically dragged myself all the way to the back. I thought I’d lost my way but suddenly I was in the crazy atmosphere and found myself in the parking lot of the intake facility. They called you and the rest is history.”
Wilder kissed her temple. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”
“Oh, and I have even more good news. I sneaked into the computer room and looked up my genetic ancestry and found that all my family for as far back as they can go, hundreds of years, has come from the island. No one there had ever manipulated gender. That’s one reason why they chose that island for the women.”
Four months later, life was back to their new normal. The women’s wing had reopened, Amara was helping her men in that work, creating a new program for Ambrose and experimenting on technology from her time. They’d all married Amara by the end of the second week of her return, but they hadn’t been able to consummate for another few weeks. It was worth the wait.
She had allowed Ethan to erase parts of her recent memory, the part that gave her nightmares. In fact, she had asked Ethan to erase everything that happened from the time she was kidnapped to when she was with them again. He agreed after they created holograms of her cousins, parents, even her grandfather. It helped her feel closer to them. Although Ambrose was actively working on the warehouse portal, it was under wraps for now. Especially now that she had just discovered from Maya that Amara would soon be pregnant.
She was mating for mankind after all, but her way and with forever as part of the bargain. Life couldn’t be sweeter.
Maya was having her dreams again. Amara wasn’t sure if she was ready for what they revealed but ready or not, she had no doubt it would happen if Maya said it would.
Tasha Winters
Tasha Winters lives in the Piney Woods of Texas with her husband and daughter. She’s a homeschooling mom, a clinical social worker, the wife of a retired veteran and a voracious reader. In her youth, she was a great activist for just about any cause that made sense to her. There is no limit to the material from which to create.
Today, while still wearing all those hats and more, she writes love stories that bring capable, sassy, gifted women together with intelligent men sporting a few rough edges that excite the women they claim as their own. Romantic Science Fiction is new for Tasha. The experience is a complete surprise to her. She hopes you enjoy reading her stories as much as she did writing them.
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Don’t miss these exciting titles by Tasha Winters and Eclipse Press!
Captured Series:
Captured Obedience
Captured Desire
Captured Desire Page 23
