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 he 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 w
as 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.
She thought the man who came to get her was the same one who’d shoved her into the cell just before dawn, but she wasn’t entirely certain.
She didn’t really care until it occurred to her to wonder if there was any chance at all that she might use the only weapon she had with her--her femininity.
She was doomed, she thought a little hysterically, if that was the only weapon she had. The man scarcely glanced at her as he caught her arm and hauled her down the corridor to the great room.
The room was filled with people, or at least what appeared to be people. She knew better now, and she was still relieved that they were once again in human form.
Her heart skipped several beats when she saw that Jesse and the other Lycans were seated among them.
As if he sensed her presence or had heard their entrance, Jesse turned to look at her. His gaze flickered over her torn, bloodied clothing before it met hers. Fury blossomed in his eyes.
She must look like hell. “I’m alright,” she said quickly, fearful at the tension she saw in him--that he would do something rash.
Her outburst drew all eyes and she was almost sorry she’d said anything.
“This is your woman, Lycan?”
Erin glanced at the man who’d spoken, alarmed at the tone of his voice more than what he’d said. There was a satisfied purr to it, almost as if he welcomed the opportunity to taunt Jesse and saw in her a pawn he could use to goad Jesse into doing something stupid.
She hoped she was wrong, because they were very badly outnumbered.
Jesse ground his teeth. “She is, and the mother of my son,” he growled, threat evident in his voice.
A satisfied smile curled the man’s lips. It was hard to gauge when he was seated in a chair, but he looked to be close to Jesse in height and build, perhaps a little shorter and a little broader, but of a similar weight. He was swarthy, his hair as black as ink. She thought he must be around Jesse’s age, or perhaps a few years younger.
She didn’t at all care for the assessing glint in his gaze as he studied her thoroughly from head to foot and finally gestured to the guard to bring her closer. “She is human,” he said as she neared him, glancing at Jesse again. “But then I have always believed the Lycan were not very discerning in their breeding habits.”
Obviously, this was intended to be a huge insult, and it seemed to Erin from Jesse’s expression that it had struck home. “It wasn’t by choice,” she interjected quickly. “We …uh … were prisoners and the scientists used us both in their experiments.”
The man grinned at Jesse. “So--you did not choose the Lycan?”
Erin glanced uneasily at Jesse as the guard leading her shoved her into a chair beside the man who’d summoned her. Would it be better to say she had? Or she hadn’t?
She hadn’t had any opportunity to assess the situation she’d found herself in and suddenly regretted saying anything at all.
She drew no clue from Jesse’s expression. He looked murderous by now, but that hardly told her which way to jump.
Without waiting for the response to his question that she had no clear idea of how to answer, the man lifted her limp hand nearest him and examined it. “And yet you bear the marks, I’m told, of the beast who claimed you as his mate. Me, I think that sounds like choice, not force.”
Erin’s head whipped in Jesse’s direction of its own volition, as if her mind had no control over the action. “Marks?” she gasped faintly, her mind too chaotic to form any sort of opinion over the news.
She felt the brush of a hand along her throat.
Jesse’s chair squawked against the floor as he made an abrupt attempt to surge upward. Billy Ray and Tavian, seated on either side of him, grabbed him before he could get to his feet, restraining him. Jesse gave both of them a deadly look, but he subsided. “As you say, mine,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “Take your hand off my mate, Carlos, or I’ll take your head off your shoulders.”
Carlos withdrew his hand, but he chuckled. “You’re in no position to make any demands, señor Lycan. This is my territory,” he continued, his voice becoming deadly cold now. “And I can have your head removed from your shoulders. Your mark means nothing once you are dead. Perhaps I will keep your woman to entertain me.”
Jesse ground his teeth, but he seemed to come to grips with his temper with an effort. “You can challenge me for her, according to the laws of the werefolk, and nothing else, or your own people will think you nothing more than a coward.”
Carlos’ hand tightened on the hand he still held until Erin winced.
Fury glinted in Jesse’s eyes as they flickered over her face and then settled on Carlos again. “You will live to regret it if you simply dismiss what I’ve told you,” he ground out. “If they do not know you are here already, they will, and they will be just as eager to experiment on your people as mine.”
Carlos shrugged, but Erin could feel his tension. He wasn’t as certain the feds wouldn’t target them, or that the entire tale was fabricated, as he was trying to pretend.
“Take them back to their cells until I decide what to do with them.”
Jesse stood. “She comes with us.”
Carlos’ eyes narrowed. “You do not issue orders here,” he growled.
“It’s the law!” Jesse ground out. “And even you are not above that.”
Carlos flicked a glance around at his people. Apparently what he saw there was not the support he’d expected. His full lips tightened with anger, but he forced a shrug. “For now,” he said finally, releasing his grip on her arm at last.
Rubbing her arm, Erin surged to her feet and made good her escape, hurrying toward Jesse. To her surprise, he grabbed her, enfolding her tightly in his arms. Warmth flooded her. Before she could hug him back, the guards separated them, shoving them to get them to move.
Erin contained her impatience. At least she would be with Jesse. The thought was more of a comfort than it should have been under the circumstances.
Chapter Twelve
The cell she’d spent the night in was practically palatial compared to the one she was escorted to with the Lycans. This cell was perhaps twice as big, but contained her and eight men, none of whom were small. There wasn’t so much as a single narrow cot or a stool to sit on.
When they’d all managed to squeeze inside and the door had been barred behind them, the men looked around and settled on the floor with their backs to the wall.
“What now?” Erin asked, looking up at Jesse hopefully.
He was busy examining the floor for a place to sit. Catching her arm, he led her to the corner and sat down, drawing her down on his lap. “We wait.”
More than a little discomfited at being pulled into his lap, Erin resisted as Jesse drew her close, cradling her head against his shoulder. “For what?”
He shrugged. “The big party. You aren’t hurt?”
“I feel like hell and probably look worse, but, no, bruised and a little battered and scratched. What party?”
Jesse lifted a hand and, after rolling something around in his mouth a moment, removed it and tossed it onto the stone floor. “The Fed party. I’m thinking they’ll probably wait for dark to hit this place.”
Erin sat upright and looked down blankly at the metal that had hit the floor. “That’s--”
“Dr. Wagner’s locator chip. I thought it might come in handy.�
��
“But … it’s dead,” Tavian said sharply. “You said you’d deactivated it after we’d run it around the city a few times to have the Feds chasing their tails.”
“Deactivated, not dead. I activated it when we were captured.”
The Lycans in the room all exchanged worried looks. “You sure that was a good idea?”
Jesse’s lips flattened into a thin line. “No. But I am certain our current situation is really bad.”
“They didn’t kill us,” Billy Ray pointed out.
“Which only means they have something else in mind for us that we probably won’t find any more to our liking,” Jesse said dryly.
“How’s it going to help us if the Feds get us?” one of the other men demanded. “I ain’t keen on becoming one of their specimens.”
“How many clan members did you count coming in?” Jesse retorted.
The man shrugged and glanced at his neighbor.
“About thirty,” Tavian supplied.
“They came at us with roughly three to one.”
“Yeah, mon ami, but you stopped fighting as soon as they tole you they had your woman. If we had fought on--”
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