Valiant

by Laurann Dohner

  Valiant threw back his head and roared in rage.

  “We’ll find her,” Tiger swore. “Everyone is on this.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Tammy had fallen asleep at some point but awoke when the thugs released her from the bed. They’d dragged her on barely working legs, her entire body sluggish, to push her into a bathroom. To her humiliation, they’d refused to give her any privacy, leering as she used the facilities. She’d had no choice. One of them had threatened to hit her if she didn’t comply.

  They’d gripped her arms at that point and dragged her back outside to a white van. The sun had gone down, assuring her she’d been unconscious for hours, and she wasn’t given the opportunity to escape. Both men kept a tight hold on her wrists. They threatened to beat her if she put up any resistance. One glance at their faces made her a believer. They had cold eyes and cruel demeanors.

  They’d put a metal collar around her throat and locked her inside a large cage at the back of the van. The collar was chunky and had a two-foot chain they connected to the bars of her tiny cell. She’d peered at that large cage with terror. Even the fact that they contained her in one was terrifying. Why would they need a cage like that and what did they usually transport inside it? She touched the wide metal bars, guessing, whatever its purpose, it would hold almost anything.

  One of the men climbed out while one remained inside the back of the van with her. He turned on an overhead light to watch her with a smirk. The departing guy slid the side door closed and then opened the driver’s door, got in and started the engine. Tears filled her eyes from fear and not feeling well from whatever drug they’d given her. She had a headache, her tongue was a little swollen-feeling, and her limbs still moved sluggishly.

  “Don’t bother putting on the waterworks,” the man in the back snickered. “Nobody gives a shit if you cry.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Tammy hated the way her voice shook. “Who are you people?”

  “Why? Because you like to fuck them. Because one of them fucked you and didn’t kill you. That’s why. The doctor we work for is really interested to see if 927 will breed with you. You better hope he likes you. It will be fun to watch, either way.”

  The man in the front laughed. “I doubt she’ll think it’s fun.”

  The man in back laughed. “Yeah. True.” His eyes sparkled with glee. “Do you want to know what happens if that beast doesn’t tear you apart with his claws and toss your body parts outside the cage? The doctor is going to strap you down to a table and flood your system with hormones and drugs to try to get you to conceive with that beast. Afterward, we get to toss you back inside with him so he can fuck you again. The doctor has all kinds of formulas he’s thought up to try to get you pregnant by the beast. It could take months before he figures out how to get the results he wants.”

  The driver laughed again. “That will be a lot of fun to watch if he accepts her. I’m not getting my hopes up though. He killed the other two women we locked up with him. That last one was the one who got to me. She was one fine piece of ass. I almost cried when he snapped her neck and threw her at the door. Maybe we should toss in men to the beast.”

  “She was hot.” The man in the back scowled at Tammy. “This one is cute but nothing even close to the other one. She’s definitely not playmate-of-the-month material. I think the doctor is excited for nothing. I think the beast will kill this one just as fast as the last one.”

  “Who knows?” The driver sighed. “Maybe the doctor’s theory is right and he’ll accept her because she’s doing one of them and she’ll smell like him. They never killed their own women. He’s also sure it’s got something to do with their sense of smell and body chemistry. Whatever drew that one, might draw another. We’ll find out soon.”

  “Please,” Tammy begged. “Let me go. I have a lot of it if this is about money.” She didn’t have a single qualm about lying. “My grandmother died and left me two million dollars. You can have it all if you just take me to a bank.”

  The guy in the back studied her. Tammy nodded, giving him her I’m-totally-serious-trust-me look. She’d gotten that expression down pat as a teenager dealing with her grandmother.

  “I’ll give you every penny of it, sign it all over to the both of you, if you let me go. I know that you can’t be getting paid that much money. It’s enough for you both to retire.”

  “Don’t even think about it, Mike,” the driver warned. “You know you can’t spend money if you’re dead. The doctor would put a bounty on your head and there isn’t a corner on Earth you would be safe.”

  Mike sighed, his gaze leaving hers. “Shut the fuck up, bitch. Don’t say another word. You can’t bribe us because Pete is right. We can’t spend money from a coffin. If you want to beg and cry then forget that too. We didn’t get this job because of our warm fuzzy hearts.” He snorted. “Right, Pete?”

  “Right.” Pete, the driver, laughed. “Warm and fuzzies. You’re too funny.”

  “How long until we get there?”

  “About ten minutes. I wish we were still in Colorado. It’s too hot here. I don’t know why the doctor had us move 927. We should have just brought her there instead.”

  “He wanted to move here. Don’t ask me why. Maybe he gets his jollies knowing how close they are and how oblivious they are to him being so near them.” Mike shrugged. “Maybe he wants to be closer to spy on them while he works and doesn’t want to fly back and forth. It may be because he’s afraid her scent would change if we had to take her that far. We sure can’t load her on a plane. We’d have to drive there. I am just going to hate it next month when we have to transfer ten more of them down here.”

  “Fuck. Don’t remind me. Transporting 927 was bad enough. That son of a bitch fought the drugs the entire drive. He bent one of the corners of the cage before you were able to shoot him again. I about shit my pants when I heard him moving. I hit him with enough dope to knock him out for a full day but he woke in less than five hours. I thought we were going to run out of drugs.”

  Tammy turned her head and examined the cage she’d been tethered to. Sure enough she saw one of the top corners of the cage had been bent a little. The cage could have easily house a large bear. The vehicle was a full-sized commercial van. She knew that because she drove one for work. The cage took up half the back of the van. She guessed the cage was at least six feet long by five feet high and wide. The bars were fist thick and she guessed 927 was a New Species who’d been strong enough to damage them.

  Confusion clouded her mind, the drug still in her system didn’t help, but the picture forming made her horrified and scared. New Species had been given names when they were freed. Only one still imprisoned would have a number. That would mean— Oh my God!

  “927 was never freed, was he? He’s still property of Mercile? You work for them, don’t you?”

  The thug grinned at her but said nothing.

  She had a sick feeling her suspicions were correct. A testing facility had been missed. She had read the papers not too far back about how more New Species had been discovered. The doctor they worked for had to be a Mercile employee and that meant these men worked for that horrible company too. They’d mercilessly experimented on human beings for decades, had done horrible things to them, and now they’d kidnapped her.

  “You won’t get away with this.” Her voice shook.

  “Hear that, Pete?” Mike grinned coldly. “Bitch, we’ve never been caught because we’re the best.”

  Pete turned his head to glance back. “Instead of making threats, you should be saying your prayers. You better hope 927 likes you. He’s killed two other women we gave him to fuck.”

  They planned to toss her to the mercy of the New Species who’d bent those bars. The doctor believed she wouldn’t be killed because she carried Valiant’s scent. The horrific clues just kept coming together inside her mind. The doctor thought that since Valiant was attracted to her that another New Species would be too. She didn’t buy into that th
eory one bit. Valiant had only been drawn to her at first because she’d been ovulating. It wasn’t until after he’d spent time with her that he’d said he wanted to keep her. They’d fallen in love but, then again, he’d been freed from Mercile, had learned that not all humans were vicious jerks who thought New Species were nothing but animals to use and hurt. The one they were taking her to had probably never known kindness from a human being. It made her close her eyes to fight tears.

  She needed to remember facts if she was to survive. They’d said they wanted to transport ten more New Species and they’d come from Colorado, where the hidden testing facility had to be. She calmed slightly, forcing her mind to concentrate on that information.

  Valiant would try to find her, he wouldn’t give up, and they’d have to figure out that jerk of an attorney had taken her. She hadn’t seen him so maybe he’d try to flee the state. Maybe the police would catch him and make him tell where she’d been taken. She clung to that bit of hope.

  “Don’t fall asleep,” Mike ordered her. “We’re almost there.”

  She opened her eyes and glared at him. “I hope you roast in hell.”

  He sat forward and made a fist. “You want to know what a little hell feels like?”

  “Don’t,” Pete ordered from front. “You heard what the doctor told us before he left. We aren’t to hurt or touch her unless we absolutely have to. I bet she’s scared shitless and is baiting you to kill her. Can you blame her?” He laughed. “I’d want someone to kill me.”

  Mike dropped his fist and leaned back. “Yeah. I’d want to die before one of them got their hands on me too. Fucking beasts. Want to bet on if he kills her or not? Twenty bucks says she’s toast.”

  The driver hesitated. “Sure. I’ll take that bet. The doctor is pretty smart and he’s sure the beast will want to fuck her once he gets a load of how she smells. We’re here.”

  “Great.” Mike smirked at Tammy. “We’re under instructions to take you right to 927. The doctor is already here, waiting.”

  The van stopped a few minutes later. Pete climbed out and opened the side door. Mike crawled over to a side cabinet and opened it. He pulled out a pair of shackles with a length of chain that was about six feet long. He glared at Tammy as he unlocked the cage and jerked the door open.

  “Stick your hands out now.”

  “Go to hell.” She hugged her waist, refusing to give him her wrists.

  Mike glared at her. “Do it or I swear, you’re going to suffer.”

  She hesitated, knew he’d get in trouble if he hit her, but held out her wrists in the end. She could fight but she’d lose. Either way, they were going to take her wherever they wanted so she could go on her own steam or be bleeding when she arrived.

  Mike shackled her wrists and tossed the chain toward Pete, who grabbed it and wrapped it around his fist. Mike didn’t touch Tammy, careful not to, as he unlocked the chain securing her collar to the cage.

  “Move,” Pete ordered her.

  She had to scoot on her butt to the opening of the door. She breathed in fresh air and climbed outside. The collar was heavy around her throat. She glanced around but only saw a white industrial-looking, two-story building. The parking lot was small and overhead lights glared down from above as though it were daylight. All she could spot were trees, assuring her the unfamiliar building was remote.

  “Let’s go, you stupid bitch.” Pete pulled on her chain.

  The metal double doors were locked with a key pad. Pete punched in five numbers, blocking her view with his body to make certain she couldn’t see. The door beeped and both men led her inside the well-lit, large room that appeared to be an old reception room of some sort.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the building had been abandoned when she spotted broken windows at the back of the room high on the walls or the layers of cobwebs and dust covering a few outdated desks that had been left behind. She tried to spot any clues to tell her what company used to own the place but no logos or names were painted on the walls. They led her down a dark hallway with a lot of pitch-black openings and the smell of mold assaulted her nose. They kept her between them, holding the chains that assured she couldn’t run.

  A scary snarl, though faint, came from somewhere ahead. She jerked to a halt and wanted to spin around to flee. The men holding the chains pulled them taut between them, trapping her in place.

  Mike laughed. “She’s a little spooked.”

  “Who the fuck wouldn’t be if they had a brain? Pull on her and I’ll follow. I’m sure the doctor is tired of waiting.”

  Tammy’s gaze adjusted to the bright lights as they entered another large section of the warehouse. Concrete floors and walls with at least a fifty-foot ceiling greeted her. A wall had been constructed at some point to cut the room in half but it didn’t reach the ceiling, which she could view beyond it. Long, fifteen-foot lights had been strung at intervals above her from one side of the room to the other. They’d all been turned on until their bright strength nearly hurt her eyes.

  “You’re finally here,” the older man in glasses stated, walking around the wall that divided the room.

  It was the man Tammy had seen when she’d been sprung from the trunk. She now had a face with the title. His icy-green eyes swept over Tammy, then back to the two thugs who worked for him.

  “It’s about time. He’s awake, has been fed, and I tossed him in an extra five pounds of meat to make certain he wouldn’t be hungry. He didn’t finish it all but I assume he’s full. I’ve made certain he’s got nothing to feel cranky about. Now we’ll get to see if he’ll breed with her.”

  “Should we strip her down before throwing her in? It might motivate him to want to fuck her more.”

  “No.” The doctor frowned at Mike. “She was living with one of them and I’ll assume her clothes will hold his scent. We need to retain as much of that as possible in hopes he’ll accept her. Just toss her inside the way we discussed. Immediately join me inside the monitoring room. I don’t want him killing her just because he wants the satisfaction of having an audience to perform a grisly task for.”

  “Please,” Tammy begged frantically. “Don’t do this.”

  All three men ignored her.

  “Here we go,” Pete said, tugging on her chains to pull her toward the opening where the room had been separated. “You better hope he smells something on you he likes.”

  Mike chuckled. “We’ll find out real soon.”

  They passed an archway and Tammy dug her heels into the floor, stopping. Someone had placed a large cage in front of the concrete walls in the back corner. The thick bars lined all four sides and the ceiling of the cage. A solid metal floor rested on the existing concrete.

  A single twin bed, just a frame and mattress, adorned the cell and a toilet sat in a corner of it. That didn’t hold her attention. The male inside sent terror straight to her heart. He was big, had wild black hair that fell midway down his naked back, and they had him wearing off-white pants that had thick seams down the sides of the legs. They hugged his waist low and fell loosely to just under his knees. Bare, muscular calves and big feet were planted a foot apart where he stood. He turned his entire body to snarl at them, revealing sharp teeth, a flattened nose, and those strong, wide cheekbones that New Species all seemed to have.

  Pete yanked hard on the chain attached to her wrists to make her stumble forward. Tammy whimpered. Her gaze refused to look away as the large New Species furiously stormed closer to the bars. His hands gripped them, which made her glance at his muscular arms and chest before he made loud sniffing noises. Dark, nearly black eyes met hers.

  “We brought you a friend,” Mike laughed.

  “Play nice,” Pete taunted. “She’s someone you might like. She enjoys spending time with beasts a hell of a lot. She’s screwing one of your kind. We caught her just for you, 927.”

  They stopped by the cage door about seven feet from the enraged New Species who sniffed loudly again. The weight around her ne
ck dropped away, the collar gone, and she barely took notice as the shackles were removed from her wrists. She remained terrified and focused on the New Species. They planned to push her into his cage.

  He was almost as tall as Valiant. Maybe an inch or two shorter at about six-feet-four, if she were to guess. His shoulders, thick chest, and muscular arms were very similar in size to Valiant. It was his face that terrified her the most.

  A vicious, low growl of warning rumbled deep from within his throat as sharp teeth flashed. Like Valiant, this one had more dominant animal features than most of the New Species. That probably accounted for how terrifying he looked as he snarled at her, flashing teeth that looked as if they could easily tear her apart without effort. Fear sizzled along Tammy’s spine like lightning and ran down the length of her body.

  Tammy realized something as a hand shoved her forward, past an opening into the cage. A thick glass wall partition stood between the man growling at her two captors and the door they’d just opened. The man behind the glass suddenly lunged and his body slammed into the clear barrier. A loud crack came from the action and parts of the glass spider-webbed.

  “Son of a bitch,” Mike hissed. “Hurry up. That isn’t going to hold for long. He’s really being aggressive today.”

  Pete pushed Tammy hard, knocked her off balance, and she stumbled farther into the cage but managed not to fall face first on the metal floor. The door slammed closed behind her and she turned, lunging for the bars that now locked her inside. She jerked hard but the door didn’t move. She stared at Mike and Pete, pleading with them silently. They refused to even glance her way as they spun and disappeared into the other half of the warehouse at a hurried pace, seeming not to be able to flee fast enough. The hair at the back of her neck rose.

  She knew why. Her breathing increased and her fingers clung so hard to the cold metal that she knew they were turning white. You can’t get out. You’re going to have to face him. Maybe he can be reasoned with. She drew in a deep breath and blew it out. You have no choice. Just talk. You have nothing to lose.