Page 25 of Feral Mate

“What do you think she’s doing to him?”

“I know better than to ask, and she doesn’t tell.”

Most likely, Mason thought, she was trying some kind of gene therapy to weaken him. Before she tried to make him into some kind of mindless killer, she’d want to know she could control him.

As they came closer, Mason opened his eyes and growled. Both men jumped back.

“What the fuck is he? The way his eyes are glowing isn’t normal.”

“I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it sure as hell isn’t human.”

“Good thing the IV line isn’t within reach. I’m not sure those restraints are enough to hold him.”

“Maybe not,” said the second man, reaching behind his back and pulling out a gun. “You go ahead and inject that shit into his IV. If he makes a move, I’ll put him down. I don’t care what Dr. Perkins wants.”

The man with the gun got a shocked look on his face as a feminine hand from behind shoved a syringe in one of the veins of his neck and depressed the plunger, dispensing whatever had been in it. The man who was about to dose Mason with whatever he’d been planning to use whirled around as his companion crumpled to the ground.

“Perhaps you care more about following my orders than your friend,” said Perkins in a low, breathy voice.

“Yes, ma’am,” the man said, both his voice and hands trembling. He quickly injected two different solutions into the IV line.

Mason felt them as they entered his bloodstream—both he had felt before: a sedative and the liquid mixture from the day before. Both affected him far less than they had in the past. Emery’s assumption that her cave lion DNA would dominate both was proving to be correct. He could feel his body fighting off the effects of what had been dispensed. Whatever it was, his cave lion-enhanced DNA was proving to be a deterrent.

“Out,” Perkins snarled at the orderly. “And take this,” she said kicking the dead man with her toe, “with you.” The orderly did as he was told. She peered at Mason. “Hmm. You seem better than you did before. Dr. Smoak left me a note that she wanted you switched to solid food and your sedative reduced. She also said she’d given you a small dose of her gene therapy. I think she may be right. My superiors will be pleased.”

She was braver than the two orderlies or knew the restraints would hold. She trailed her fingers down his chest and abdomen, coming to rest on his groin.

“I’m hopeful we can get you under control.” She gave his cock a gentle squeeze. “I rather think it might be very pleasurable to have you service me.” Perkins gave an evil laugh. “But then, they might have you too busy breeding slaves.”

“Never,” he managed to say hoarsely.

“Never say never, Carson. I think any future I have planned for you would be far more pleasurable and probably last a lot longer than they have planned. Dear, sweet, naïve Emery will be down to see you later today. Do try and be a good boy. I’d hate to have to hurt her. I think her research and theories could prove most valuable to the League.”

Perkins spun on her stiletto and left him alone. Emery needed to find them a way out. It seemed to him that some kind of countdown had begun, and they needed to be gone before it hit zero.

CHAPTER 13

EMERY

Emery woke with a renewed sense of purpose. Not only had she felt his strength and comfort all night, but they’d been able to communicate outside of what they said when they made love. And he’d told her he loved her and had understood why she had initiated his transition from snow leopard to cave lion. He even appeared to be looking forward to it.

There was a part of her that had been relieved that he believed they had what they needed to take back to the Resistance. Now it was on her to find a means of escape. Emery was well aware that saying it and doing it were two different things. Doing so with NLGP watching her closely was going to be difficult at best, but she was up to the challenge, and she was damned if the Shadow League would be successful.

The Shadow League. She had never believed they were real. She knew that some parents had used them as boogeymen to keep their children in line.

She grabbed a quick shower, got dressed for work, and headed to the NLGP campus. She left early enough to drive around the perimeter and was surprised to find that there were only three sides to the property accessible by land vehicles. The fourth side was water—the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay to be precise. That gave them two possible escape methods—land or sea. But getting Mason out of that bed and away from NLGP was only part of the problem. She would need to be able to rendezvous with someone who could get them to safety. Or maybe not. Maybe Mason knew how to do that kind of thing. She had theories based on the books and movies she enjoyed, but this would be her first real life adventure.

Once in her office, she began doing mindless work so she could appear busy doing one thing while actually planning something else. She was creating notes and documentation for one of her experiments that would sound good, but if anyone tried to replicate what she was doing, the false path would send them down a meandering trail to nowhere.

There was a knock on her door, and Terry popped his head in. “Hey, Doc.” He’d never quite become comfortable with using her first name so had finally settled on ‘Doc.’

“What’s up, Terry?”

“Not much. We don’t see you around upstairs much anymore.”

“They keep me pretty busy down here. Is the team still together?”

“Far as I know. Why?”

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