Page 4 of Their Shared Mate
His eyes narrowed and his sensual lips pressed into a disapproving line. “You’re proud to be an employee of Nuevo Biotech?”
Claire sighed and looked away from the handsome hybrid. “That’s not what I meant. I knew nothing about the experiments. Zion wouldn’t allow anyone who had actively participated to be part of the alliance.” The skimmer vibrated then lunged forward. Not the smoothest takeoff, but they were airborne at last.
“How can you participate in an alliance?” The slightly mocking challenge returned to his tone. “I thought the cats ‘owned’ you?”
He was intentionally provoking her, and the wisest course of action was to ignore him. Claire, however, had never been good at biting her tongue or walking away. She’d been raised by an uninvolved single mom, so Claire grew up quickly. She learned early to stand her ground and fight for the things she believed in.
“The cats wanted to own us,” Claire responded. “I don’t know how it is in the eagle village, but the lions expect women to kneel before them and submit. Females are only good for one thing. Well, two. Giving their mates pleasure and providing them with offspring.”
“Who instigated the alliance?” The gleam in his amber gaze warned that he knew the answer.
Claire glared at him. “We did,” she admitted.
“Why?”
“You know the answer. Why ask the question.”
His features tensed as he rid his face of emotion. “I know what I was told by the cats. I want to hear your side of the story.”
“Bianca got pneumonia,” Heather told him, ignoring Claire’s annoyed look. “Not only was she likely to die, we were terrified the infection would sweep through the entire camp and kill everyone.”
“So, one of my good friends offered herself up as a sacrifice to save us all.” Claire allowed sarcasm to creep into her voice. Everything Heather said was true, but the cats took advantage of their desperation. And unless her instincts were way off base, the birds were about to do the same damn thing.
“Rydaria is not Earth. The focus here is not building wealth. It is survival.”
Claire had heard the excuse so many times that it was all she could do not to roll her eyes. “That gives you the right to treat females like slaves?”
“Unless everyone I spoke with at the feline village is lying to me, no one is being forced into slavery. Zion offered you a choice. Choose a mate and join the feline village or survive on your own beyond the village walls.”
“We’re not safe beyond the walls and Zion knows it. When you guys were sent here, the leaders of Earth set you up for success. We were set up for failure.”
“True,” Victor acknowledged. “You were employees of the corporation that created us. We were the unwilling result of the Griffin Project. Was your punishment completely unwarranted? How long did you work for Nuevo Biotech?”
“I had nothing to do with the experiments,” she stressed.
“If that were true, you wouldn’t be here,” Victor insisted and averted his face.
His cold dismissal forced Claire’s reflection inward. She hadn’t known about the hybrids, had never participated directly in any of the experiments. Still, she was a geneticist, a damn good one. And now that she knew what had been going on in the top-secret labs, she had no doubt that her research led to developments within the Griffin Project. But did that make her guilty of the atrocities that had been done to Victor and the other hybrids? She honestly didn’t think so.
She drew her gaze back to Victor. He had lapsed into brooding silence, his face still turned away. With short dark hair and a swarthy complexion, he looked European, Italian, or maybe Greek. But his accent had been American, Midwestern if shewasn’t mistaken. “Are you from the States?” she asked, hoping to ease the tension triggered by her big mouth. “You don’t have much of an accent.” She forced herself to smile. “Which is to say your accent sounds more or less like mine.”
“I’ve lived lots of places, but most of them were west of the Mississippi. Where are you from?”
“St. Louis. Midwestern girl all the way.” It took less effort to produce her smile the second time. Victor had only become defensive when she challenged him. Before that, he’d been pleasant, friendly even.
The skimmer shuddered and made a groaning sound that drew Victor’s attention toward the front of the small ship. “Is everything all right, Patrick?”
“The skimmer doesn’t like the extra weight, but we’re almost there. Everybody think light thoughts.”
They clipped the top of a couple of trees, but the ship arrived a few minutes later. The pilot set down in the middle of the village and triggered the hatch. The back wall of the skimmer parted. The top half rolled up into the roof while the bottom half became a ramp extending to the ground.
Being nearest the door was an advantage this time. Claire, Heather, and Kylie offloaded and looked around. Eagle Village had been built in a narrow valley, so tree-covered mountains surrounded them on three sides. A tall wooden wall had been built, enclosing the village completely and making it nearly impossible for anyone to enter undetected. The encampment was about half the size of the feline village, but it appeared even more orderly and well maintained.
The second skimmer landed, and the occupants hurried off the overcrowded ship. Everyone congregated in the clearing for a moment, unsure what came next.
After a tense pause, Raphael exited the second skimmer and called out, “Follow me.”
An oversized cabin perched on a hill to his right. With a steeply pitched roof and thick logs, it reminded Claire of the Lodge in the feline village. In fact everything about Eagle Village reminded her of the larger settlement. The cabins were similar, though they were arranged in neat rows rather than U-shaped clusters.
