Mate Claimed (Shifters Unbound #4)(45)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

He pulled Iona closer, letting the warmth of her body comfort him. “When Shifters were rounded up, some of us were experimented on. The humans wanted to know how we did what we did, how much physical stress we could stand, things like that.” He shuddered, involuntarily, remembering. “They wanted to use Jace. He was young enough to stand the experiments, they said, but old enough to be a good test subject. I refused to let them take him, so they took me in his place.”

Iona rubbed his chest again, her instinct to comfort. “That’s awful. What did they do to you?”

“A lot of things. Pumped me full of adrenaline, tortured me to see how much pain I could take, filled me with tranqs to see how many I could stand. They provoked my fighting instinct so it set off my Collar—again and again and again. They did that, they said, so they could adjust the Collars. I spent a year in a cage, mostly in pain, until a Shifter rights group got the experiments declared inhumane, and we were released.”

Iona leaned into him and closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“I got through it. This pain now is like some I suffered in the experiments, but I don’t know what’s triggering it, or why.”

“Your Collar?”

“Don’t know. Which is why I’m talking to some Shifters who might.”

Iona kissed his chest. “You were suffering like that all those years ago, while I was hiding in my mother’s house, pretending to be human. That makes me feel bad…weak and scared.”

He rubbed her cheek. “You were a cub, a half Shifter. I don’t like to think what they would have done to you if they’d found you. I’m glad you were safe.”

He truly was. Iona might feel guilty, but Eric had no anger at all that she’d escaped the attention of the humans too curious about Shifters.

Eric kissed her again, enjoying the hint of afterglow. As he pulled back from the kiss, savoring her taste, he reached over and shut off the water.

“Let’s go to bed,” he said. “We’ve used all the hot water, and Cassidy’s going to kill us.”

Iona woke when sun came pouring through Eric’s high window. Eric slept next to her, spooned into her side. His face was relaxed, his sleep, peaceful.

As Iona lay back, trying not to think about what she’d have to face today and the decisions she’d have to make, she wondered why Eric, the big, bad Shiftertown leader, had what must be the smallest bedroom in Shiftertown.

The room was wide enough for Eric’s bed and a nightstand, and that was about it. A corner closet had been built into the wall, not a very big one. The rest of the walls were blank, long and narrow.

Iona thought about the way Eric wanted her to alter the plans for the new houses, and she studied the walls around her with interest.

Eric stirred beside her, coming awake. His body was warm, his c**k plenty stiff against her thigh. For a night not filled with sex, it certainly had been sensual.

“Morning, love,” Eric murmured. He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder.

What would it be like to have him say that to her every morning for the rest of her life? Heady.

“Your room doesn’t match the house,” she said, to distract herself.

“Mmm?”

“Your room doesn’t fit. There’s too much space between it and the bathroom. It doesn’t match the footage in the hall.”

“That’s true.”

“Why squeeze yourself in here like this?”

Eric shrugged, his body moving in a good way. “Diego and Cass need the biggest room, especially with a cub on the way. I like Jace in the front room, where he can come and go as he pleases. He’s restless. I don’t need much space.”

“And these are false walls, aren’t they? You sleep in here to guard whatever’s behind them.”

“I knew you were smart the moment I met you.” Eric drew a fingertip between her br**sts, but Iona refused to let him divert her attention.

“It’s not too hard to figure out,” she said. “What’s back there?”

Eric swung himself out of bed. The sunlight fell on his naked body, bronzed from the strong Nevada sun.

Regrettably, he pulled on jeans before he turned to the closet in the corner. He opened the door, revealing hanging shirts, pants, and a couple of jackets, then he reached up for a catch and pulled the whole closet away from the wall.

Iona stared in astonishment as the closet moved aside to reveal a solidly beamed doorframe in whitewashed brick. The brick passage led to shadows, but Eric reached around the corner and flicked on a light switch.

“Come on,” he said.

Iona scrambled out of bed, pulled on her jeans and a shirt—one of Eric’s—and followed him.

The lit passage ran five steps beyond the opening and ended in a stair going down. Eric flicked on another light, which illuminated the staircase and a door at the bottom. Everything was dry, dust-free, and very, very clean.

“Careful,” Eric said, leading the way.

Iona followed him on bare feet, the stone steps cool. The lights in the ceiling were nice canister spots, not bare bulbs, the walls finished and painted.

At the bottom, Eric punched a code into an electronic pad on the wall, and the door—which had no knob—clicked open.

“In the old days, we used elaborate locks that needed three keys in the right sequence,” Eric said. “Modern technology is so much faster.”

He pushed the door all the way open and ushered her inside.

Lights came on, flooding the large room Iona found inside. Correction—rooms.

The floor opened out into an area as big as, or maybe bigger than, the house upstairs. A small kitchen had been tucked into a corner, and other doors led to more rooms. Most of the doors were ordinary hardwood six-panel doors, but one was a slab of steel with no lock or handle that she could see.

The main area was a living room with comfortable furniture, a big flat-screen television, a computer workstation, and beyond a room divider, a pool table. A soft rug covered the ceramic tile floor.

Iona looked around in astonishment. “But…where did all this come from?”

Eric shrugged. “We pick it up here and there, over the years. Cassidy likes to remodel from time to time, and Jace likes gadgets.”

“Without anyone knowing?”

“We’re discreet.”

Iona walked slowly through the main room, noting that the oversized couch and matching chair were made of finest leather, the rug cashmere, the television a high-end model that cost thousands. “What?” she asked, marveling. “No wet bar?”