Mate Claimed

“Long story,” Eric said. “Time to go.”

“I can’t take you all at once,” Reid said. “One at a time, maybe two with the kid.”

“Start with Cassidy and Amanda, then. Make sure they’re okay and get back here.”

Reid went to Cassidy and put his slender arms around her, touching Amanda as well. “This place gives me the creeps.”

Eric grunted a laugh. “This from a man who can make iron bars turn to raining bullets.”

“That’s natural. Area Fifty-one is just weird.”

He flashed a look around, then light flared, and Reid, Cassidy, and Amanda were gone.

“I hope he hurries,” Graham said, while Iona and the tiger stared at the empty space in amazement.

“Before he does,” Eric said, “I want to find out everything I can about this place and exactly what they’re doing here. You.” Eric walked to the tiger, feeling his strength return, the pain nearly gone. “You are going to tell me everything you know, starting from the moment you first were aware of being here, and leaving nothing out.”

Iona dressed herself while Tiger Man leaned against the table Cassidy had vacated and told his story.

There wasn’t much to it, but Iona listened in dismay and sympathy. Tiger Man had lived in his cage most of his life, let out only when humans wanted to watch him shift or run around, or when they carried him off to other rooms to put needles and probes in him. They’d lock him into glass-windowed rooms sometimes to watch what he’d do.

Tiger remembered only bits and pieces of his life, which, if Iona judged aright, was about forty years. He remembered his Transition, the pain of it, during which time they’d given him a female they’d made for him to mate with.

He remembered only flashes of that, then they showed him the cub she’d brought forth, but the female had died having it, they’d said. The tiger had touched the cub only once before it was taken away from him. Later, when he’d asked, a human had told him that the cub had died.

There had been more Shifters here, Tiger said. When he’d been young, the facility had been full of people working—the place had teemed with them. What they’d meant to accomplish, he didn’t know. He’d stopped wondering the why of things a long time ago.

For the last about ten years, the place had been quiet. Most of the humans had gone away, the bodies of the dead Shifters gone, and the tiger had been left alone. Fed and watered, and that was it.

Then, about six months ago, some humans had come back and started poking at him again. Tiger hadn’t seen any other Shifters, but he’d been taken from time to time to the top floor and put through different scanners, tranqed, scanned, and probed again.

When Tiger finished his story, Iona folded her arms, shivering. Even Graham was quiet, his usual bluster replaced by angry sympathy. Eric watched Tiger with a stillness Iona had come to know masked deep rage.

“If he’s about forty,” Iona said, “then that means humans were doing the experiments before the existence of Shifters was revealed. The Shifters were outed only a little over twenty years ago.”

“I thought of that,” Eric said grimly. “The experiments they did on me weren’t here, but in a similar place. The humans that studied me knew nothing about us, were trying to figure out what Shifters could do.”

“So a different set of scientists?” Graham asked. “Doing Goddess knows what?”

“The people here were trying to make their own Shifters,” Iona said. “But they didn’t work. I bet when the Shifters started dying, not being viable, the program got its funding cut.”

“And started back up again?” Eric looked around at the old room. “This doesn’t look like a refurbished facility.”

Iona shrugged. “Maybe whoever started it again wasn’t forthcoming about exactly what he was doing in here. Told the government it was for weapons or something and then went back to trying to create Shifters.”

“Kellerman,” Eric said.

“I was just thinking that,” Graham said. “He’s up to something, that’s for certain. I’m betting even if he didn’t do this himself, he knows who did. He damn well knew my wolves had gone missing and why.”

“How about if we ask him?” Eric said, rage making his eyes hard green. “We have phones.”

Iona broke in. “If you tell him you’ve found this place, won’t he just call more guards out here to raid the building?”

“Possibly,” Graham said. “I was thinking about using a sneakier method. Make him need to come out here and see for himself.”

“How are you going to do that?” Iona asked in puzzlement.

“Give me the sat phone, and I’ll show you.”

Eric handed over the big phone. Graham took it and started punching in numbers. After a few seconds of ringing, Iona heard a sleepy human female voice on the other end say, “Hello?”

“Misty. Sweetheart. This is Graham. I need you to do something for me. Call Kellerman—no, I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night—and tell him you heard me saying something about checking out his place in Area Fifty-one. Yep, I said Area Fifty-one. Tell him you’re not sure, but I seemed excited about something. Got it? Thank you, sweetie. Drinks are on me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Graham said good-bye and hung up to find Iona and Eric, and even the tiger, staring at him. “She’s a friend,” Graham said. He might actually be blushing.