Ben nodded at his younger brother, wondering when the goofball had become so grown up and responsible. It was easier to think about that than what a deserted building meant. Ben waited for his brothers to finish stripping, though it was hard to stop himself from hurrying them.
The angle of the truck prevented anyone from directly observing them. Naked, Kylo pointed in the direction away from the airport. “We need to head that way, keep to the forest, then we’ll need to cross the 09 to head to Macharetti.”
“Lead the way.” Ben hardly got the words out before his panther was surging forward for control. No longer happy to wait or see any reason for delaying further. The shift was fast, and Ben’s panther took off. His nose wrinkling as it inhaled scents searching for danger, and he kept close to his brothers and the tree line they aimed for.
Known for speed and strength, Ben had no problem keeping up. His panther had one focus, and he wasn’t going to be deterred from it.
The miles disappeared as the sun climbed higher in the sky and the heat built. They stopped briefly to drink water from places Kylo said were safe, then continued on.
Deep in the forest, Kylo slowed. His cat nudged Ben’s side, and he followed suit, slinking lower to the ground. Ben scented the air, his panther hissed at the faint smell of death. Although he couldn’t see anything other than trees surrounding them. They’d lost some of the light because of the density of the forest. It was muggy under the foliage, but it was better than the unrelenting sun.
Nori came up to Ben, his head raised, and looked to the left. Nori’s body then lowered, and he slowly crept in the direction he’d been looking. The forest, which had been alive with noise, became silent as they headed deeper into the trees. The eeriness was unnatural. What had they been doing here to cause the animals to flee?
Down low, initially, Ben didn’t notice the wooden structure. It blended well with its surroundings. It appeared exactly as Nori had described, only his panther wasn’t interested in that.
His head lifted, and it was then that Ben scented his mates’. There was none of the joy that came from finding a mate. What came was a bone crushing reality. Death, it was there along with his mates’ scents. Heady and pungent, it struck his heart.
Large body shuddering, his panther’s rage came in an unstoppable force. He didn’t stop to consider what they were heading into; he leaped towards the building, striking the door with so much force it buckled and burst open. His brothers were following him. Ben knew they’d have his back. His panther was ready to rip anyone who dared to step in his way apart.
At the back of the large open plan lodge type room, a door led to a staircase heading down. The smell of death increased, and his panther was growling continually as he eyed the metal door.The pad at the side,strike it.
One swish of his enormous paw, claws out, and the sensor pad lay on the floor. The door swung inward with a silent swoosh.
His body convulsed at the overpowering scents hanging on the hot, stagnant air. Decay and death, the most powerful. Lights flickered on as his panther surged down the next flight of stairs uncaring of any potential danger.
At the bottom, Ben was glad he was in animal form; he wasn’t sure he’d be able to remain standing. The large space held twenty cages. Everywhere he looked shifters lay dead inside the impossibly small cages. Some had maggots crawling over the flesh showing how long they’d been dead. Flies buzzed everywhere.
His head flicked from side to side, searching for his panthers, his mates. His panther screamed their anguish at a motionless panther in the far cage, tucked in the corner. Their gaze never moved from the lifeless body.
Rage—it consumed him as his panther continued to scream fiercely, warning everyone they needed to stay clear or suffer the consequences.
Chapter Four
Teilo
No. Don’t. Gods, not again.Not even imminent death could stop the dreams. Caught in the nightmare of his past, Teilo twisted, his teeth flashing, his growl loud and ominous. White-coated figures. Gods, he hated white coats with everything in his animal soul. White clothing of any kind. He smashed his paw against the bars, as if it would stop the needle coming towards him. But it never did.
In the cage beside him, Nico was banging his whole body against the bars that separated them, his anger at their treatment clear for anyone with half a brain cell. Teilo wished, as he did every time that he found himself drowning in what they’d become, that Nico at least could be free—that he wouldn’t draw attention to himself.
The cougars across from them knew the score. Stay silent. Pretend to be asleep. When the white coats came, someone was going to be in pain, and Teilo couldn’t blame any of his fellow captives for hoping it wasn’t them.
Nico wouldn’t be quiet. Teilo was torn between admiration and resignation. His pain wouldn’t be any less because of what Nico was doing. He could see the malicious evil in the curly dark-haired behemoth who approached—his white coat immaculate, his hand that was holding a giant syringe with a needle on the end of it steady.
“Your little friend is all worried about you. Awww…” The mocking voice grated on every one of Teilo’s nerves. “Maybe we should take his balls and experiment on them. Might make him a little quieter, more docile. What do you think?”
He slapped his empty hand against Nico’s cage, causing the big cat to snap and snarl against the bars. The scientists, experimenters, god only knows what their job description was, but they built the cages to ensure the dangerous animals kept inside had a whiff of being able to hurt their captors, just not enough room between the bars to do it.
Nico, predictably, smashed his face against the bars closest to the hand. The curly-haired asshole knew what his scent did to Nico, and yet he taunted him, anyway. And the reprieve for Teilo was short-lived. The man never lost sight of his major objective—in this case, more drugs for Teilo.
“I’m very interested in seeing how this will impact you, my furry friend.” Moving away from mocking Nico, the man grabbed hold of the long thin pipe that dangled outside of the cage. They attached it to a permanent implant in Teilo’s back. Nico had one, too. So did all the cats currently caged. It made the administering of drugs easier for the men in white coats. They didn’t have to get their clothes dirty or risk getting their hands chewed off.
Because I’d do that, by the gods, I would do that in a heartbeat.Teilo longed to close his eyes, but he fixed his gaze on Nico’s snarling form instead. His friend, brother, his rock, and reason for living, was magnificent when he was angry and seeing Teilo receiving the injection…
“ARGHHH!!!!!!!!!” Teilo couldn’t help it. Pain erupted from his vocal cords, pushed by a pressure that suddenly hit his chest and then circulated in pulses with his blood as it pumped around his body. It ached. It burned. It was as if someone had lit a match to Teilo’s nerve endings and trailed them over his entire body. His muscles froze. Teilo was standing, but only because his legs wouldn’t bend. If he’d been capable, he’d have collapsed on the bars that made up the floor of his cage…
Only he couldn’t. Hearing his distress, Nico went wilder still. Blood and saliva sprayed out from his cage as he tried desperately to get free. The asshole who’d given him the injection stepped back, just out of spray range, lightly brushing off a stray drop of Nico’s blood from his coat as Nico’s long teeth tore against his bars.
“Such a shame,” the man said, as though he was discussing something as mundane as the weather. “It’s such a shame when two animals form an attachment, don’t you think? If it wasn’t so much fun to watch, we’d separate you, but honestly, you two are so predictable. Scream for me, little cat. Scream until your vocal cords burst. I want to hear it, and so does your loving companion.”
