Valiant

by Laurann Dohner

  Tiger laughed. “You think because he won’t breed her that he is physically attracted to men?” He shook his head. “Did you ever think he might not be into forcing women?” His smile died and he growled. “That is your sickness to want to rape them, not ours.”

  “Well, I never grabbed a woman and snapped her neck but he did it,” Pete ground out. “Two of them and trust me, they were smoking hot. I would have done them in a heartbeat if someone had tossed them at me. He didn’t even talk before he killed them.” Pete snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”

  Justice frowned, his gaze pausing on each man inside the room.

  Tiger softly cursed. “He’s either gone over the edge or he had a good reason for killing helpless females. We will find out.”

  Justice nodded grimly. He turned his full attention to the prisoner. “Pete? We are going on a road trip. You will lead us to where you took Tammy.”

  “I’ll do it. I have no choice. Just back off.”

  Justice motioned his men back with a wave of his hand. Pete crawled to his feet on shaky legs. He glanced at Justice, who obviously was in charge.

  “I want immunity against being prosecuted in a court of law for kidnapping and anything else the cops want to tack on. You promise me that and I will drive you there myself and take you right to 927.”

  Justice blinked a few times before a slow smile spread across his face. “I swear I will give you immunity from your law. It is a deal. Take us to the woman and the New Species now.”

  The man stared at Justice. “You can do that, right? Give me immunity?”

  Justice’s smile died and his eyes narrowed. “I am New Species law. I am Justice. I can give you anything I wish. This is a Species matter that does not involve your law unless I say it does. I give you my word as Justice North that your cops will not send you to prison if you help us. Now let’s go.”

  The man nodded. “Sure. I don’t want to go to prison. It’s just a good-paying job. I’m going to need some money too, just to get me a started. I want a hundred grand.”

  Justice was grim. He jerked his head in a nod. “You got it. You will get the money after we get the woman back, verify that the testing facility in Colorado is where you say it is and our people are there.”

  Pete smiled, looking less frightened. “I understand. Let’s go. It’s not too far from here.”

  * * * * *

  Tammy laughed. “No. I’m not defective. There are a lot of women my size.”

  927 nodded. “I did not mean to offend you if I implied you have physical imperfections.”

  “None taken. I’ve seen a few of your women and they are really tall. I understand how you could think that way. I am short for the average woman. I—”

  927 suddenly moved, cutting off her words. He lifted to his feet in a heartbeat and reached for Tammy. She gasped as his hands gripped her arms and she was yanked to her feet. She ended up behind the large man. He tensed and growled toward the cell door.

  The older man and Mike walked up to the cell door. Tammy got a glimpse of them before 927 shoved her back and used one hand to keep her in place behind him. He was too wide to see around and far too tall. Another deep and vicious growl tore from his throat.

  “I see you like her.” The older man chuckled. “You need to breed her, 927.” The man’s voice hardened. “I’m going to have Mike pull out his gun and kill her if you don’t.”

  Fear tore through Tammy. Why would they do that?

  “Yeah,” Mike laughed. “See this gun? Boom! The doctor is tired of waiting while you court the bitch. Just bend her over and find the right hole. It shouldn’t be too hard. I know you like men but just pretend.”

  “Enough!” The older man sighed. “I keep telling you boys that he’s not a homosexual. He’s bred with his females in the past. It is unaltered females he has issues with.”

  “Maybe he realized he’s attracted to men. It happens. I had a cousin who came out of the closet in his thirties. He married someone and they had four kids before he told his wife.”

  The older man sighed louder. “927? Either breed her or step out of the way and allow Mike to put her down. It’s that simple. You seem to like her and I’m sure you’ll breed her. You are doing this just to piss me off. I understand that but my patience is at an end. I have wasted enough time.”

  “You will have to shoot through me,” 927 warned, his voice dropping to a scary growl.

  There was silence. The older man finally spoke. “I’ll gas your cell and when you are out, we will get her. I’d hate to do that because I’d have to order the gas but I can get it by the end of the day. Breed her or move out of the way.”

  “Gas us,” 927 growled.

  Tammy’s terror was instant. “Gas us?” She gasped.

  927 turned his head and stared at her. “Do you want to breed with me? They will take you from me afterward and you will be alive until he decides he has learned what he wants. They will strap you down and hurt you. They did this to our females. They cried and screamed. Sometimes they would take our females to other males to breed with and it would start again. Is this the life you wish?”

  She shook her head. Definitely not.

  He nodded. “Do you want me to move to allow him to shoot you? Is all of your hope gone now?”

  She shook her head again. “I’m not ready to die.”

  “They will have to gas us. It will take time,” he whispered.

  Tammy stared into his eyes and nodded. “Gas us.”

  927 flashed her a smile and turned. His smile gone, he said, “Order your gas. It is the only way you will get her from me.”

  “Fuck,” Mike growled. “Let me shoot through him, Doc. I’m pretty sure I can miss all the vital organs. He’ll recover.”

  “It was just a ruse to get him to breed with her. We’ll drug his food. He’ll have to eat or drink at some point. Turn off the water to his cell. Once he takes the drugs he’ll be forced to breed her. I didn’t want to cloud this experiment but he’s too stubborn. We’ll have to use the breeding drugs. Perhaps if it doesn’t take the first time we can get him to breed her without the drugs after he’s had her once.”

  “Why don’t we just gas their asses, force him to give up his goodies, and inject them into the bitch if you want to see if she can get a doggy in her oven?”

  “I tried to explain this to you already.” The older man sighed. “We’ve been testing them for years. Their sperm is different than ours. We discovered that during intercourse their sperm load is high but only if they are aroused. When it is manipulated manually, if we force their sperm, their count is substantially lower. It also has a very short lifespan. It dies quickly, almost within a minute, and until we can figure out if it’s because of being exposed to oxygen or if it’s a temperature issue, we can’t effectively resolve the problem. We lost a lot of our equipment when we abandoned our facility. I need him to breed her naturally for there to even be a chance of success.”

  “Why didn’t it work with the animal bitches?”

  “The females aren’t producing any viable eggs. It is only the males who have the ability to reproduce. I need to make a few calls to order the drugs I need and see where we are on the transfers. The men are coming tomorrow to enclose more space and add in four more cells. If this one won’t breed her, maybe the other males will.”

  Mike laughed. “Wow, you are going to have her doing five of them? Think she’ll survive that?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on if the other four kill her or not. This is important work.”

  “Who gives a shit if they can breed?”

  The older man hesitated. “We lost the ability to make more of them a long time ago. We haven’t been able to replicate what the doctor who created them did. Every attempt has failed. It is faster to deal with their reproductive issues than to start from scratch to try to replicate how they were created. We tried that for years and couldn’t do it. If you enjoy getting paid we have to figure this out. When Mercile got bus
ted, all their assets were frozen. We’ve nearly run out of the money we transferred out before that happened. We’ve had to turn to more creative ways to make money off them and figuring this out is a priority.”

  “Wouldn’t they be weaker if you breed them with regular bitches?”

  “No. They have very aggressive and dominant, engineered genes. They will come out fully engineered just the way we made them to be if we can breed them with humans.”

  “Cool.”

  “Cool is if we can work out the problem and get this one to impregnate her. We’ll be able to breed our remaining males to regular woman and have hundreds of products within the first year. Think of the profit margin and how quickly we can replace the ones lost. We’ve learned a lot over the years and won’t make the same mistakes with the younger ones. The newborns will be trained from birth to take orders.”

  “Way cool.”

  “It’s more about survival. We’re probably all wanted by the police and unless you want to flee to some third-world country to sell trinkets to tourists, you better get on board fast to make this work. This is going to keep a paycheck coming your way.”

  “Damn.” Mike looked grim. “I didn’t know things were that desperate.”

  “Let’s leave them while I make those phone calls. Maybe he’ll breed her soon. He hasn’t had use of a female in a long time. It was another reason I wanted him. His resistance has to be down.”

  Tammy listened but she didn’t hear them anymore. She watched 927 carefully. His body finally relaxed and he released her arm, turning to look down at her.

  “You are frightened.” He inhaled. “I would not allow them to take you.”

  “It is because of what they were saying.” She stared up at him in horror. “They want us to have children they can train to obey them? And what does product mean?” She knew the answer, but it was so horrible to contemplate, she just needed it confirmed.

  “We are products. I have heard this before. First we were to help them create drugs that they tested on our bodies. Now they always talk about needing money and wanted to force us to fight for them and I’ve even overheard them say they want to sell us. I listen often and heard their plot to create more of us, younger ones, who do not know of their cruel ways. The think they can fool the young ones into becoming what we refused to be.”

  “That’s horrible.” And evil. Vile. Sick. Heartless. She stopped before she started cussing.

  “That’s why I had no choice in what I did to the women. I saw what they did to our women for years, trying to force their bodies to breed. You could not survive inside your mind and your weaker body would break. Our females are stronger.”

  “That part was true? That you killed the other women they brought? I thought they were trying to scare me.”

  He hesitated. “They were screaming when they saw me and terrified. They were crying and weeping. They fell apart at the sight of me. I knew they would not last through breeding or be strong enough to face the testing. They would be passed from cell to cell the way our women have been during their breeding tests. It got worse recently and they focused on breeding tests. They would make our females breed with eight or nine of us. We refused, if they refused. Most of our women grew very sad but we tried to keep them strong. It was at least contact, and we treated each other well. Our females have very difficult lives. It was a mercy I killed the humans painlessly. Their suffering would have been greater by far, every moment they lived. Our women have shared what was done to them during the testing the doctors did to their bodies away from us.” He shivered. “They would have killed the women anyway, if they had managed to survive the breeding and tests. I would prefer to die. It was fast and painless. It was kinder to kill them before they were tortured to the point of insanity.”

  “That’s what is in store for me?”

  He nodded grimly. “You are stronger. You didn’t scream and cry loudly when they brought you. You put yourself into a corner and talked to me. You said things that made me know you might be strong enough to survive and I realized you were honest. You must survive and give your Valiant time to find you. I will not harm you and will treat you as well as my own females if they make us breed. You must survive the testing when they torture you. You must do what you have done with me if they take you to other males. You need to talk to them and do not scream. They will scent me on you. You must keep your mind strong. Our females survive it because we comfort them. I will comfort you, Tammy.”

  Tammy wanted to cry but fought tears. The man was so calm about telling her what kind of hell she might have to endure. 927 slowly moved closer. Tammy didn’t protest when he lifted her into his arms, walked to the bed, and sat with her on his lap. His arms hugged her tightly to his warm body.

  “I will protect you in weakness. You cry, little one with pretty eyes. You have been very brave. I will hold you and you know I am here.”

  “Thank you.” Tammy let go of the small bit of control she had left. She clung to the man holding her and cried softly against his chest.

  They were going to make him breed her and planned to bring more New Species and toss her at them too. They’d take her baby away as if it were a puppy or a kitten if they succeeded. They would probably keep breeding her until she wasn’t of any use anymore before they killed her. How many babies will they steal from my arms before it ends?

  Tammy made a decision while she cried. She’d be strong, she’d do whatever it took, but she’d fight to live. Valiant would find her. Maybe not soon but eventually. She just needed to pray she didn’t get pregnant if the worst happened. She didn’t want to give those assholes a helpless baby to torment.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The building was an old warehouse. There was one car in the parking area, no other businesses or homes nearby, and two metal doors seemed to be the only way in unless they climbed high to windows near the roof. On the back side of the building an old docking ramp sat against a thick metal garage door. Their team had parked a mile back and made the human walk with them. Pete had complained every step of the way. Valiant was ready to kill him but Justice wouldn’t allow him the pleasure.

  “There are only two ways in or out and they have alarms,” the human explained softly. “There aren’t any outside cameras. I told you that. I don’t know why you sneaked up on the place.”

  Justice shot him a glare. “Be quiet unless we tell you to open your mouth.”

  “Fine,” the human said. “Be that way. I’m helping you.”

  Tiger motioned to the team and they surged forward to the front of the warehouse while a few broke off to approach from the back. They didn’t want to be seen until they breached the building. Valiant feared the two men inside would kill Tammy and the Species male they held captive if given the chance.

  Justice glanced at the human. “We will move quickly. You are in front. You get those doors open fast and stay silent. If you try anything, I will kill you or allow him to do it.” He pointed to Valiant. “I’d be kinder.”

  A soft growl instantly tore from Valiant’s throat. He wanted to hurt the human badly for touching Tammy and helping to bring her to this place in the woods. Not even Justice or the entire team of males would save Pete if she was dead. He’d go through them to kill him.

  “I understand.” Pete reeked of fear. “I want that money you promised and you don’t have to keep threatening me. I’m doing what you want. Immunity, right? And I get the hundred grand?”

  “Yes,” Justice nodded. “Get us inside. Let’s go.”

  They moved as one. The team crept up to the front doors. Pete punched in the code, the alarm beeped, and he swung open one of the metal doors. Eight heavily armed New Species and the human inched inside. He’d given Justice, Valiant, and Tiger the inside layout and they knew what to expect. One of the New Species grabbed Pete the second they entered the building and put a knife to his throat.

  “Do not move or make a sound,” the man growled softly at him.

  Pete blinked and f
roze. He kept his mouth firmly closed.

  Valiant had to refrain from rushing forward to a dividing wall that blocked his view of where Tammy should be. He sniffed the air and Justice suddenly grabbed his arm, flashing him a warning look. He nodded, understood they needed to proceed cautiously.

  Tiger waved his fingers in the air, dividing the men to spread out to find the humans. Valiant could pick up two scents, both of which seemed to be coming from a room near them. As soon as the team with Tiger closed in, Valiant moved. Tammy!

  Valiant’s heart rate increased when he inhaled a faint trace of her scent. The sweet smell of her fear nearly drove him insane. It tore at him that he hadn’t been there to protect her. As he and Justice silently moved through the warehouse the scent grew stronger. They passed the dividing wall and Valiant got his first glimpse of the bars and the front of the cell. Justice suddenly reached out and grabbed him.

  “Do not spook him. Go slow and remain calm. We do not know what condition he is in. We do not want him to harm her.”

  Valiant forced his instincts back, knew how unstable a captured Species could be, and had to keep it together for Tammy’s sake. “I know.”

  The body against Tammy tensed. 927’s hand froze on her back and suddenly he lifted her up. The man was strong. He went from sitting position to standing with her held inside his arms in an instant. She sniffed and wiped at her tears. Her gaze flew to his.

  “What is it?”

  He inhaled. She saw shock in his eyes. He looked at her. “I smell them.”

  “Who?”

  His gaze jerked to the cell doors. “Valiant and another of my kind.”

  Tammy’s head twisted to stare through the bars toward the divider where they’d have to enter. Her heart pounded and she wiggled inside his arms.

  “Put me down! You smell Valiant? Are you sure?”

  He nodded as he bent, placing her on her feet. Tammy saw movement and Valiant stepped into her sight. Justice was to his immediate right, gripping his arm, and both men were dressed in all black outfits. Their hair had been pulled back from their faces. Justice held a gun in his hand while Valiant gripped a deadly-looking knife in his. Tammy lunged toward the wall of the cage.