Mate Claimed
Page 83

“Come over here,” Eric told the tiger, who still looked at Amanda. “Stay sane, or Graham gives you two shots. Easier on me if you’re asleep.”
The tiger man nodded. He came forward slowly, moving like a Shifter trying not to startle anyone. His golden-eyed gaze remained on Amanda, the sorrow on his face heartbreaking.
Cassidy watched him come, expression guarded, but she was letting him. Iona followed, her fingertips on her lips, the compassion in her warring with her protectiveness. Eric knew that as much as Iona felt sorry for the tiger, if Tiger made one wrong move toward Amanda or Cass, Iona would be on him, probably even faster than Eric was.
Tiger Man reached the table, stretched out one blunt finger, and touched Amanda’s downy hair. He swallowed, his eyes softening.
“Can you break these?” Eric asked, touching a cuff.
The tiger studied them, then he hooked his fingers under the metal and tore upward. Cassidy cried out in pain, then the cuff broke from its bolts and clanked to the floor. Cassidy snatched her hand away and shook it hard.
“Thank you,” she breathed.
She clenched her teeth while the tiger broke the other cuff, then the ones on her ankles. Cassidy sat up, cradling Amanda, anger making her strong.
Eric put his arms around Cassidy again, lending whatever strength he could, then he kissed her, took up the equipment Xavier had given him, and started taking photos of the room.
Both Iona and the tiger watched, mystified, as Eric hooked the camera to the sat phone the way Xavier had shown him and dialed the number.
“Xav,” he said when the man answered. “Send these to Reid and tell him to get his dokk alfar ass out here.”
“Xavier’s there?” Cassidy asked, leaping down from the table. “Where’s Diego?”
Iona picked up one of the phones she must have stolen from the researchers, smiled when she got a signal, and handed it to her. Cassidy punched in a number with one thumb and eagerly lifted the phone to her ear.
Eric heard Diego’s voice loud and clear. “Who is this?”
“Diego?” Cassidy said.
“Cassidy.” His voice flooded with relief. “Fuck.” He flowed into a long string of Spanish, while Cassidy laughed, tears in her eyes.
Then air displaced with a little bang, and Stuart Reid stood in the room. Iona let out a startled scream, and the tiger snarled.
Iona blew out her breath, hand on her heart. “I didn’t know he could do that. How did he do that?”
“Diego?” Cassidy yelled into the phone. “I’m coming home. With Amanda. You’ll be there, right?”
“I’m on my way, amorcita,” Diego said and clicked off.
Reid studied the roomful of Shifters, all naked except Cassidy in her hospital gown. His dark Fae eyes narrowed at the sight of the tiger. “Is that a Shifter?”
“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.”