Page 9 of Act of Command

A lone tear trickled down her cheek, and Brad offered a sympathetic look. There was the slightest of clicking from above, and then Brad spoke once more, “The food is laced with drugs that keep us somewhat sedated and sometimes with things that make us want to have sex. I’m guessing something to help make sure you end up with child too.”

“What?” she gasped. “Why? Where are we? Who is holding us? What do they want?”

He exhaled, looking tired. The dark circles under his eyes said he didn’t sleep much. She wondered if she had matching ones. “I don’t really know who has us. I get moved around a lot. One of the places I was at got raided. I thought, at first, it was the good guys coming to save the day. It wasn’t. I’ve been with this group now for a few weeks. I don’t know for certain, but I may have been with the others for months—possibly a year now. I honestly couldn’t tell you. I’ve sort of lost track of time.”

She shook her head. He’d been held for months?

“They got me on a trip to South America. You?” he asked.

“Leaving the Student Union on my campus,” she confessed. Mae had been at the Union waiting for Corbin, who never showed. After giving him an hour, she’d prepared to call Alice when she realized she’d done as Alice had feared, she’d left her cell phone back in the dorm room. Mae had set it down with the intent to apply the lipstick Alice insisted on. She’d remembered the lipstick but not the phone.

Mae forgot a lot of things. Her adoptive father said she lived her life with her head in the clouds, and he thought that was wonderful, always encouraging her to continue to see beauty in all things. And she did—at least until she’d been grabbed leaving the Union.

Had her blind date not stood her up, she would have been out with him and not even near the Union. Nowhere near the creeps who had snatched her shortly after leaving the building. Their grip had been unlike anything she’d experienced before.

She rubbed her upper arms, staying close to the window and Brad. The bruises from her abductors’ fingertips were still visible, even in the poor lighting of the cell. The cold of the floor seeped through her feet. She’d lost her shoes in the struggle with her abductors, and the dress she’d been so worried about wearing had been ripped during it all as well. Plus, it wasn’t made for warmth, and with as long as she’d been in it, it wasn’t faring well.

Cold, hungry, battered and bruised, she wanted to curl up into a ball and let the tears flow freely. Her mother and father wouldn’t realize she was missing until they were back from their extended trip. Her only hope was Alice. Alice would send out the troops. She’d make sure someone was looking for Mae.

“Help will come,” she said, more for her own well-being than anything else.

Brad didn’t comment, but from his expression, he didn’t think so. Believing no one would arrive to end this wasn’t an option.

“What do they want with us?” she asked, unsure she wanted to hear the answer. The not knowing scared her more than anything.

Brad glanced downwards. “When they first took me, they had me strapped down and hooked up to all kinds of machines and medical stuff. They took every sample you can think of and more. From what I could overhear, they were doing something to me, manipulating my genetic makeup.”

“That’s not possible, is it?”

He looked up. “Anything is possible with these people.”

“So you didn’t start out as a shifter?” she questioned, easing forward. “You were human, and they made you one? Like from a bite?”

She’d heard of some people living through a vicious attack and being weres. She didn’t know anyone personally who had. The shifters she knew were natural born.

“I was born with the ability to shift into a wolf,” he said, narrowing his gaze on her. “But I don’t trust my wolf anymore. Something is wrong with it. You?”

“I can’t do anything special,” she confessed.

“Funny, talking to you…hearing your voice and you humming calmed me right away. I think that is pretty special.”

“Don’t get too excited. Normally, when I dare to hum or sing men go batshit crazy. You’re one of the first it soothed.” She sniffled, holding back more tears. “They mentioned breeding.”

Brad glanced away and nodded. “At some point, they’ll dope one or both of us with this stuff they use. It makes you feel like you’ll burn alive if you don’t find sexual release.” The way he spoke said he had firsthand experience with it and that it wasn’t pleasant. “You think you’re strong enough to resist it, but it’s impossible.”

“You said you resisted,” she offered, looking for hope.

When he looked back at her, his expression was haunted. “I only managed to resist because the women they’d paired me with died during it all. They’d given them so much of the drugs that their systems’ overloaded. Two died in my arms. And, Mae, you need to know that during that drugged up state, Istillnearly fucked them.”

She felt sick. She bent over, putting her hands on her knees and took several long breaths. This couldn’t be happening. Things like this weren’t real. Evil like this didn’t exist. Did it?

“Something tells me you won’t die from the drugs,” said Brad, drawing her attention back to him. “Mae, I don’t want to hurt you. And I really do not want to touch you like that. I can’t explain it, but it seems really fucking wrong. Like more than it should.”

She stood tall, pushing her glasses up the end of her nose. “I know.”

The sound of footfalls just outside the door reached her, and she stiffened, backing away from the window. She took a few steps back as the door to the room opened. An exceptionally pale man was there, long black hair hanging to his waist. The first thing she noticed was his fingernails. They were long, filed to points and painted black. The next thing she observed was the copious amounts of eyeliner lining his eyes. His entire get-up was very Bram-fabulous. He glanced at the window and grinned.

“Getting to know one another?” he asked, and she realized he was the voice from the intercom system.

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