Finding Course

14

Zane.

The morning following my attempted attack, I woke alone in our room. Initially seeing the vacant spot in bed next to me I assumed Katherine was in the bathroom. When I didn't hear her, the panic immediately set it. How did I not wake if she was taken from the room? Were they slipping drugs in our food or water supply? Wouldn't surprise me. 'Katherine,' I tried to link her.

'Hey. Here in the white room.' She sounded...unsteady.

'Are you okay? What are they asking?'

'Zane...there's another shifter here.'

'What? Where?' My pulse quickened. Against my will my claws started to push through the tips of my fingers. Did they capture more of us? Is it Jack? Charlie? I tried linking anyone I could, but no answer.

'Here in the room with me. He's not pack,' her voice explained in my head. The territorial Alpha in me sparked to life.

'He?' I knew she could feel my anger through the electric current between us. He? Who was he? I could feel my wolf straining beneath the surface of my control. My mate, with another male shifter, in a room full of torturous drugs. No. Not happening. Even though we were forced together, my wolf still recognized her as my mate. A new, budding relationship had a lot of growing to do, but shifter instincts ran deep.

'Yes, he. I don't know who he is. He's sitting across from me. They're asking him questions about what he can sense of you. I think they're trying to learn about mate bonds at a distance. Or, maybe from what other shifters can sense or recognize. I don't know.'

'Kat,' my voice sounded irritated and worried through our link. Frantically, I searched the room for a way out. I'd already spent hours searching since we'd been trapped, but nonetheless I tried anyway.

'You need to calm down. They're watching you, waiting to see how you'll react. If what you suspected last night is true, you need to stay in control.' Her voice rang through my head and gave the slightest comfort, but my brain couldn't deviate from the fact that another male was in a room alone with her as part of a sick experiment.

'Talk to me then, what's happening." It wasn't a question, it was a demand.

'They gave him something? I'm not sure what. He was clearly drugged before I was brought back here. He's wincing and seems like he's fighting against it.'  It had to be the truth drugs.  'They're asking him about...' she trailed off, hesitating.

'What? About what?'

'How I smell? Oh my god, Zane this is so awkward. For what it's worth he looks like he's going to throw up.'

'Jesus Christ.' Pacing. That's all I could do - steadily pace. My eyes started changing, I could feel it.

'He's...I think he's trying to tell me something.'

Before I get the chance to ask her more, I heard a thump outside our room. My head snapped in attention to the door, waiting for the opening to place my arm in for transport drugs. They were going to let me join. I walk over to the door, waiting for the familiar click of the metal moving. Instead, another soft thump sounded against the big door. A hissing sound came from the top vent of the wall above our bed. What is that? The main door slowly creaked open, and a body slid against it. Paul, the drug guy in scrubs, slumped against the door. I wasted no time in checking to see if he was alive or not. Leaping over him I was met with a thick cloud of some sort of gas. It must have been what knocked out, or killed, Paul.

Keeping low, I covered my nose and mouth with my shirt and moved as fast as I could towards the white room. A woman approached me, half staggering, with some sort of electric taser or weapon. Not giving her the chance to use it, I elongated my claws and sliced open her abdomen. She fell to the tiled floor in a puddle of red, and I pushed forward without a second glance.