Dropping the magazine, she strode briskly from the main cabin, glancing at the clock almost absently as she moved past it. Three O’clock. Three hours. A prickle of uneasiness went through her. She didn’t realize why, or what errant thought had caused the wash of anxiety until she’d reached the stairs and started up.
They’d only been gone three hours and it had taken them a good twenty minutes even to reach the shoreline from the ship. Could they possibly have gone, stayed long enough to see what they needed to, and come back in no more time than that?
Abruptly, the door at the top of the gangway was flung open. Erin stared upward at the beast that leapt through the opening and uttered a scream of pure terror.
Chapter Eleven
Jesse’s face was grim as they emerged at last on the beach nearest the island that was their objective. It had taken nearly two hours to reach this point, far longer than he’d expected. The island itself where the facility lay was a good six miles from the mainland, no great distance if they could have crossed it openly in the dingy they’d lugged through the jungle, but to cross with stealth would take more time. The moon was high now. They would have to settle and wait until it was nearing the trees on the western horizon before they could chance a crossing.
The uneasiness that had been plaguing him since he’d left the ship deepened, making his flesh creep. He’d struggled with the undefined anxiety that something was wrong ever since. No matter how much he assured himself, he was certain that it was nothing more than reluctance to leave Erin.
The seed she’d planted in his mind had been sown in fertile soil. From the moment he’d left her he hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind that she was vulnerable. Ordinarily, he would never have doubted that the three men he’d left to guard her and the yacht were perfectly capable of handling most any situation. He was certain the only reason he doubted it now was the fear Erin had planted in his mind that someone would harm her or take her from him.
He was almost certain.
Irritated, he left the men resting near the forest edge and followed the tree line a little further down the beach, sniffing at the wind and trying to catch the scents of the jungle. It was an exercise in futility. The wind blew almost constantly off the water, carrying scents inland.
If there was anything there….
The hackles along the ridge of his spine rose abruptly as a faint scent teased at his nostrils. Whirling abruptly, he raced back toward the others, uttering a warning call. Almost before the sound had ceased to vibrate from his vocal chords, a chorus of feline snarls answered.
From every direction if seemed save the beach that trapped them at the water’s edge, dark shapes sprang forth, leaping from brush and the overhead limbs of the trees. Something heavy impacted into his back so hard the weight and momentum of it slammed him into the ground. Claws tore at his back. Snarling, he twisted beneath the beast’s weight, clubbing it on the side of its head with his fist.
Any doubt he’d nurtured that the beast that had attacked him was no more than an animal vanished in that moment. The blow would have taken the head off of a man, crushed the skull of any jungle cat.
Blood shot from the creature’s nose and mouth, spattering him, the smell driving his beast mad with bloodlust. The adrenaline that surged through him in response magnified his strength. He bucked, breaking the creature’s grip on him and launching it into the brush.
Coming up onto all fours, he bellowed a challenge. Even as he struggled to get his feet beneath him and rise, three more creatures sailed from the tree limbs above him, driving him into the dirt once more, pinning him.
“Yield,” the creature on his chest bellowed. “We have your woman!”
It took several seconds for that to penetrate Jesse’s maddened mind. When it did, he uttered a roar of pure rage and fought harder, but defeat was already seeping into his mind. His ears told him the battle was already lost for the rest of his men. They were outnumbered perhaps three to one. Strength would avail him nothing at this point.
They had Erin. He could not save her if he allowed the madness to push him to a fight to the death. Abruptly, with a tremendous effort, he began to struggle against his beast, to find control.
“Release us,” he snarled. “We have no quarrel with your clan. We are here to kill the humans on yonder island and take back my son.”
“You have encroached on the territory of the panthers without leave,” the one who had threatened Erin snarled. “We do not take trespass lightly.”
“Our quarrel is not with the clan of the panthers,” Jesse growled as they hauled him to his feet. “And neither should yours be with us. Those humans there have taken the Lycan to build their armies. No shifter is safe if we do not destroy them, not even your people.”
“We leave them alone and they do not bother us,” the panther responded, but he turned to study the distant island through narrowed eyes. “You can tell your strange tale to Carlos. But I will warn you now he is in no benign mood and unlikely to listen to anything you might think to say now. You know the protocol. You should have gone to him at once and negotiated a treaty between our peoples. Then, perhaps, he would have given you permission to bring your war to our doorstep--and maybe not. But it is less likely now.”
Jesse lurched against the two panthers that held his arms. “There is no time!” he snarled. “If you have my woman then you know she has only just given birth to our son! They hold him there to experiment on him. They are breeding more!”
The panther’s eyes narrowed. “Si! I have seen your woman. She bears your marks. If it is as you say, why would she bear your mark? You chose her as your mate! Carlos is not likely to believe your lies, señor Lycan!”
Jesse ground his teeth, but he resisted the urge to argue further. It was useless to even speak to the leader’s lieutenant. Besides, if they had Erin he would have to go with them to get her back. “Take me to Carlos, then. If he is intelligent enough to lead your clan, then he will not be so stupid as to ignore a threat to us all.”
* * * *
Erin knew she was in a state of shock. As balmy as the night was, she was shivering uncontrollably. Clamping her teeth more tightly together, she drew her knees more tightly against her chest, shifting her buttocks on the deck to ease some of her discomfort from sitting on the hard surface.
To her surprise, the Lycans on either side of her shifted closer to share the warmth of their bodies with her. She glanced up at Billy Ray in gratitude.
At least, she thought it was Billy Ray. He had shifted into beast form and she had trouble distinguishing between the Lycan when they morphed.
“What do you think they intend to do with us?” she whispered.
His yellow eyes examined her piercingly for a moment. “They would have killed us already if they had been ordered to do so.”
It was some reassurance but not quite what she’d had in mind. She peered through the gloom at the creature that was guiding the yacht through the shallow waters of what looked like a cove. She hadn’t noticed it before.
She wondered if Jesse had, if he would find them, or return to discover the ship gone and believe they had abandoned him and others.
The screaming demons that had descended upon them were not Lycan. It had been hard enough for her to come to accept that the werewolves actually existed. To discover that there were others, werecats, was a jolt and at least partly the reason for her shock.
The assault had been enough to thoroughly terrorize her, though. Her own animal instincts had taken over from the moment she had looked up to see the great, black beast crouching above her, ready to spring. Mindless with terror, she’d whirled and raced back to the main cabin--the only avenue of escape open to her at all and that would’ve proven to be no more than a trap even if she’d succeeded in barricading herself in before the thing was upon her.
She’d fought it, too mindless to realize that her efforts were useless. She was bleeding from dozens of claw marks and the thing hadn’t even t
ried to savage her with them or its teeth. She wondered if she had any cracked ribs from the thing pouncing upon her and slamming her into the deck. She felt bruised. Every breath pained her and every muscle in her body protested to the slightest movement.
Maybe that was why they hadn’t bothered to bind her as they had the others? They knew that, as a human, she was so frail next to them that she was already too battered just from being captured to present any sort of flight risk.
She held on to that thought. The hope that her weakness might be turned to an advantage was all she had.
The ship lurched abruptly as its prow dug into soft sand.
They’d grounded it.
Erin shot Billy Ray a panicked glance. Unless the incoming tide released it, they were thoroughly trapped now with no way to flee but on foot.
As soon as the ship stopped moving, the panther people who’d captured them swarmed upon them, dragging them to their feet. She screamed as she was tossed over the side. The sound was cut off abruptly as the air was forced from her lungs when she landed in the waiting arms of a man-panther standing in the water below. She was still struggling to drag air into her lungs again when the creature tossed her over his shoulder and began to jog up the beach with her. The impact of her ribcage against the beast’s shoulder forced the air from her lungs again and internal darkness swarmed up to swallow her.
A profound blackness like a cave greeted her when Erin finally roused. For many moments, she couldn’t focus beyond the pain spreading through her ribcage and pounding in her skull, but when she’d managed to shift slightly and relieve some of the pressure, the pain receded sufficiently enough for her to assimilate the fact that she was still moving and that the heat radiating into her came from the body of the creature that was carrying her.
They were moving quickly. Around her, she could hear sounds that indicated many others.
How could they see where they were going?
From the foliage brushing along her arm and tangling occasionally in her hair to snatch painful strands loose, she knew they must be deep within the jungle.
Where were they being taken and what did these creatures intend to do with them when they got there?
She shied away from that thought, unwilling to deal with it until she had to.
The slim hope she’d nurtured that she might be able to escape since they hadn’t bound her like they had the others died though. Even if the thing wasn’t carrying her, she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. They obviously could see quite well. She wouldn’t have a chance in hell of outrunning them or hiding from them.
After what seemed an eternity of suffering, Erin began to notice that she could pick out darker shapes within the blackness. At first, she thought she was only imagining it. Then she wondered if it was dawn. She realized shortly that it was neither. The trees were thinning, allowing some light from the night sky to penetrate to the floor of the forest.
Abruptly, the creature carrying her stepped from the trees and into a clearing. The contrast was sharp. She reared upward again, bracing her palms on the creature’s back to look around.
They were moving through a field of some kind. Around her, she saw others emerge from the trees, her fellow captives among them.
She didn’t see the stone fortress until the creature carrying her passed beneath the outer wall. Vegetation gave way to dusty, bare dirt and then to stones set into the dirt in a swirling pattern. Twisting her head, Erin saw a collection of shabby huts leaning against the outer wall of the fortress.
It looked ancient. She wondered if it had once been just that. Or, perhaps, it had been a mission? The style, from what she could see, was Spanish, but then she’d heard the were-creatures speaking Spanish. She didn’t understand one word in ten, but she knew Spanish when she heard it.
She wobbled when the beast carrying her set her abruptly on her feet. Her feet and legs had long since lost circulation. Her knees buckled. She would’ve collapsed on the stones except that he grasped her upper arm. It wasn’t enough support. She sank anyway. Hauling her upright again, he wrapped an arm around her waist and half carried her while she struggled to put one foot in front of the other.
Stout wooden doors, looking as ancient as the building itself, lay before her across a wide verandah. Glancing around and upward as she was shoved toward the doors, Erin noted details that seemed to bear up her suspicion that this had once been a mission, dating back, no doubt, to the Spanish conquest and colonization in the Americas. It was too far inland, she thought, to have been a fort, but she supposed she could be wrong. Maybe it had originally been built as both?
The interior, she saw once they’d entered the main structure, was lit with lamps. Exposed electrical wiring and bare bulbs testified to an attempt to modernize at some point, but she supposed so far into the jungle electricity wasn’t easy to come by. It would take generators, and that meant a lot of fuel would have to be hauled in unless they only used the electricity sparingly.
Brightly colored rugs and dark, heavy furniture littered the great room, which looked to be a gathering point for a large household.
Without pausing, the creature carrying her crossed the main room and stepped through an arch. A wide corridor lay before them.
Erin’s first taste of panic since she’d come hit her when she glanced back and discovered the Lycan were being led off in a different direction. She burst into motion so fast, she very nearly managed to break free. “No! Put me with them! What are you doing?”
The creature snarled. “Be still, gringa.”
She ignored the command, fighting him every step of the way as he dragged her down the corridor and finally shoved her into a tiny room. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or more worried when he simply stepped out again, slamming a heavy door and bolting it from the outside.
Shuddering in reaction, Erin lay where she’d fallen when he’d pushed her inside, struggling to calm her pounding heart and catch her breath. After several moments passed and the beast did not reappear, she pushed herself up slowly to a sitting position and looked around.
The room was dark except for a little light spilling through a small, barred window high in one wall. She could see that the room contained nothing more than a narrow cot barely wide enough for one and wooden stool. Aching all over, she got up from the floor with an effort and moved to the cot. The springs squawked in protest as she planted her butt on the lumpy mattress, and both dust and less pleasant smells rose from the fabric. She found she was too weary to care.
Struggling up again, she ripped the thin coverlet off and beat the surface haphazardly to make certain nothing creepy was lying in wait for her and finally sprawled on the miserable cot and wrapped the cover around herself.
The tiny cell was bright when she awoke. She lay still for some time, staring up at the exposed beams in the ceiling above her, listening to the sounds of movement around her and trying to identify something familiar while memory slowly returned and her mind sharpened.
They’d been taken prisoner and she had no idea why.
Hearing a flurry of new activity outside, Erin sat up abruptly, trying to determine the direction the sound was coming from. She realized after several moments that the noise was outside the building and glanced up at the window. From the floor, she doubted she could reach it, from the bed, maybe.
Scrambling up, she stretched upward until she could grasp the edge of the sill and then curled her fingers around two of the bars set into the stone, pulling herself up until she could rest her chin on the sill and look out. Below, she saw a large group of manbeasts coming through the gate of the outer wall. A group of Lycans formed the center of the group that had just entered.
Grunting with the effort, Erin dug her toes against the wall, trying to get a better view. A sense of recognition, faint at first, grew in her as she studied the Lycan at the forefront of the group. “Jesse,” she murmured, torn between despair at the realization that he, too, had been captured and relief that h
e seemed unharmed.
Almost as if he’d heard her, he lifted his head and his amber gaze met hers across the distance. She saw him tense, as if to bolt into action and for several moments fear gripped her.
Evidently it gripped the panthers, as well. The men she’d seen loitering in the courtyard, that she’d assumed were as human as she was, fell to their knees. Their bodies began to contort. Within moments, they rose up onto two legs as manbeasts similar in form to the catlike people who’d captured her.
“Oh god! Don’t Jesse! Please don’t! You can’t hope to win against them all!”
Again, it was almost as if he’d heard her whispered plea. After several nerve wracking moments he seemed to force the tension from his body. As he relaxed his threatening stance, she saw the tension leave the other Lycans.
Reluctantly, Erin gave in to her protesting muscles and lowered herself until she could touch the bed again. Settling on it, she blew on her burning palms absently, trying to think calmly about the situation--trying not to think what their capture would mean to her poor baby.
She wouldn’t give in to despair. Jesse still had a chance to escape. He was smart, and strong and capable. He would find a way, and when he did, he would go after Joshua. She knew he would.
Boredom had dulled most of Erin’s fear by the time a guard came to collect her late in the afternoon. She was almost more relieved to think something would be settled than afraid anyway.
A female had brought her food and water around mid day and, revoltingly, a bucket to take care of her needs. The flat bread had been tasteless, though, and the meat and peppers stuffed into it hot enough to make her breathe fire. She’d finally dumped the contents into the slop bucket and tried to assuage her hunger with the tortilla and water alone.
She thought she might kill herself if she had to endure much time as their prisoner, if she didn’t starve to death first.
Her milk was going to dry up very quickly with no more food than bread and water.
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