Be nice to the kidnapper and maybe the kidnapper will be nice to me.
Wrath was furious as he carried the female down the hallway to his room. He was glad he’d decided to check on her and heard her screams. He’d felt very guilty while watching Shadow use her assumptions about them against her. Fear made humans talk more easily but it had been hard to see her tremble at times.
His blood boiled over Vengeance’s behavior. The male couldn’t just force a female to be his. Why didn’t he know that? Perhaps he shouldn’t have been assigned to the team. The fact that Vengeance had caused her to bleed, had stripped her of her clothes, made him want to beat the male. No one should harm a female physically.
He inhaled and bit back a growl. She was so soft, smelled so good, and the feel of her in his arms turned him on. She rested her cheek against his chest, her silky hair tickled slightly, and his fangs dug into the inside of his lower lip. The last thing she needed was to fear him more and she would if she realized how she affected him. It confused him that he felt attracted to her.
The door was difficult to get open with her in his arms but he managed, kicked it open, and turned to get them inside. He pushed it closed with his foot and glanced around his barren room. It was a square room with dull bricks for walls and concrete floors. He only had a bed with one nightstand and the bathroom to call his own. He gently placed her on the mattress, wished the blanket was softer, and released her.
“Stay.”
Big blue eyes stared at him with trepidation. Guilt ate at him. She was a little thing compared to the females he was used to, softer, and obviously not accustomed to stress. Her hands trembled when she tugged at his shirt, trying to hide her blue panties and the tops of her creamy thighs. She looked as if she worried he’d attack. It wasn’t a stretch of her imagination after what Vengeance had pulled.
“Easy,” he crooned and tried to express that he wasn’t threatening as he backed away. “Do not run. There is nowhere to go and Vengeance is out there.” He hated to use that threat but figured it would be effective. The terror that widened her eyes assured him he’d been correct. “I’m getting the first-aid kit to take care of your injuries.”
He spun quickly to stalk into the bathroom and flipped on the light. The kit was a white box with a red cross on it and was hooked on a peg inside the door. The female didn’t attempt to flee in his absence. She sat huddled on his bed with her arms wrapped tightly around her waist.
She started when he crouched before her. His heart hammered as strongly at them being so close but she needed medical attention. Tim’s team wouldn’t return until morning and that left just him to tend her. Brass was above, using the telephone to speak to Justice while Shadow had gone to eat. He sure wouldn’t allow Vengeance near her again.
He placed the kit down, opened it, and tried to ignore his body’s response to the female. Memories surfaced of what humans looked like naked. A stream of images from the movies he’d been forced to watch played through his mind—images of them touching their own bodies. Another growl rose inside his throat that he barely swallowed down. Fear quickly followed. He’d been conditioned to react to human females and he wasn’t sure if he could trust himself, alone in a room with one.
“Let me see your wrists.” He winced when his voice came out deeper than he’d intended.
She cautiously stopped hugging her middle to show him her arm. The cuts weren’t deep, just scratches, and relief swept through him. She wouldn’t need more medical attention than he could give. Wrath took his time to unpack the kit and get what he needed, while he battled with the desire that rose within him.
“You live here?” She glanced around.
“Yes.”
Her teeth bit down on her lower lip and drew his attention. Memories hit him of other females doing that while they moaned. Their hands had traveled over their breasts and stroked their spread pussies. Blood rushed to his cock, made his heart pound, and the air froze inside his lungs. Her voice forced him to concentrate on something besides his body’s responses to the flashbacks he suffered.
“Why? I mean, we’re underground, right?”
He refused to answer, opened the alcohol, and dampened one of the cotton balls. “This may sting.”
A small sound came from her. She gasped when he applied the wet cotton to one of the deeper scratches. He remembered something he’d seen on television when he’d tried to get used to the outside world. A mother had blown on her child’s injury to alleviate the burning sensation. He leaned in and fanned his breath over it.
“Does that help?”
“Thank you. Yes.”
Wrath quickly cleaned and bandaged both her wrists. He packed away the medical supplies, closed the lid, and rose to his feet. He just wanted to put some space between him and her scent, which drove him a little insane.
The female stared at him as he paused by the bathroom door when he turned to peer at her. Her heart-shaped face was attractive, her nose strange but not unappealing, and she seemed to have a tendency to chew on her full bottom lip.
“I won’t identify you to the police. I want to put that right out there. I don’t care what you do with what’s-his-name, that’s none of my business, but I do want to survive this. Tell me what that’s going to take. Do you want me to sign a sworn statement or something that I won’t go to the cops? I’ll do that.”
“I’m not concerned with you going to the police.”
It shocked him when tears welled inside her eyes and slid down her cheeks. She didn’t bother to wipe them away. He took a hesitant step forward, alarmed that cleaning her wounds might be causing her pain. Her next words halted him quickly.
“I’ll do whatever you want but please don’t kill me. I have a whole list of stuff I want to do before I die and I haven’t done any of it yet.”
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Right. That’s why you’re hiding your face.” She pointed up at him. “You’re making sure I can’t see your eyes. Is that supposed to terrorize me more, because it’s working? This might be some kind of sick sort of amusement for you but not for me. I’m hungry, tired, and scared. Don’t you have a heart at all?” Her hand lifted to wipe at her tears.
“I am not wearing them to frighten you. My intention is the exact opposite. I wear the glasses to keep you at ease with me.”
“Big fail.”
He hesitated. “Do not be alarmed. I swear I won’t hurt you. Humans are afraid of us.”
Her eyes widened. “Humans? What are you? An alien?” She frowned. “Crap. You’re nuts too? Really? Shit.”
Wrath reached up and slowly removed his glasses. He stared at her calmly while she paled. Her mouth opened, closed, but nothing came out. He figured it was a good sign when she didn’t scream.
Chapter Three
Lauren knew she was gawking at Wrath. His eyes were strange. She was adding up facts and it all slammed together in her brain on why his features looked so masculine.
“Oh God.”
“Do not be frightened.”
Is he kidding? Relief swept through her and her fear eased. “You’re not some ex-con who works for the mob. You’re a New Species, aren’t you?”
He gave a sharp nod of his head.
“You don’t just have weird nicknames. They are actually your names!”
“Yes.” His lips twitched. “And I don’t think our names are weird.”
“Most men have names like Joe or Ralph but I shouldn’t have used the term weird. I know that New Species have names like Justice and Fury. I have seen both of them on television and I heard or read somewhere that you all pick names that have meaning for you. So you really are New Species. I’ve never met one of you in person.”
“I am New Species.”
“I didn’t know any of you kept your hair short. I should have realized when I saw your cheekbones and that nose…damn. I feel stupid for not putting it together. It’s just that the bald man’s eyes are really weird and he doesn’t exactl
y look like you.”
His eyes widened and he appeared confused.
“I can’t believe I’m in a room with a New Species.” She blushed a little and knew she probably sounded a bit nuts but she was a huge supporter of them. “My best friend and I, well, we’ve followed the news closely since that first facility was raided.”
She rose to her feet and took a few hesitant steps toward him. It dawned on her that it might not be a good idea and she paused. That’s when she remembered they could be dangerous to their enemies. Her eyes widened.
“Brent worked for Mercile? Is that why you’re after him?”
His lips pressed firmly together then he said, “Yes.”
“Son of a bitch!”
Eyebrows arched.
“Sorry.” She tried to tone it down a little. “I really didn’t like him. He’s a dick, treats women like crap, and is a ten on the eeew scale.” She was nervous suddenly. She was alone in a room with a real New Species.
They’d suffered so much. New Species had been created by a pharmaceutical company, using various combinations of human and animal DNA. The company, Mercile Industries, had used them as test subjects, imprisoned them, tortured them, and treated them like animals.
She tried to get a handle on her emotions as everything snapped into place. They were hunting Brent because he was a douche bag who helped suppress them. Vengeance’s words finally made some sense and she paled. “Brent helped kill that bald man’s girlfriend? One of your women?”
He hesitated. “Bill worked for Mercile Industries and isn’t worthy of you protecting him. You are aware that Mercile Industries used our kind to experiment upon. You know they created us to do illegal testing on our bodies. Bill worked for them and he tortured many of my people. He enjoyed causing us pain. Vengeance is so enraged because he was joined to one of our females for a long-term breeding test. He mated her and when they ended the test, they tried to take her away. A fight broke out and she was murdered by the technicians as punishment to him for attacking them. Vengeance was only trying to protect her. Bill didn’t kill the female but he killed another male’s female out of revenge. Bill reminds him of all he lost.”
Horror and shock tore through Lauren. She had heard Mercile Industries had done some horrible things to New Species but she hadn’t heard that they had murdered their victims.
“Brent killed someone?” She shook her head, taken aback. “Are you sure you have the right guy? I mean…” She kept shaking her head. “He’s an asshole and creep but I never would have thought he was pure evil.”
“We have the right male, Lauren. I am telling you the truth. He tortured my kind in the facility where he worked. He brutally raped a female and slit her throat in front of a male as punishment for his refusal to do as he was ordered in a breeding test. The male whose female was murdered, along with other victims from that facility, have all identified Bill by photographs we were able to obtain. She wasn’t the only female he raped and he enjoyed hitting males while they were helplessly chained.” His voice deepened into a snarl. “He deserves to be punished for his crimes and he is one of the humans we want most.”
It was beyond appalling to hear that the guy she worked with was capable of such monstrous atrocities but she believed Wrath. A shiver ran down her spine. She backed up to the bed and sat hard. Her legs shook a little at the thought of all the times she’d spoken to Brent, totally unaware of what a vile person she dealt with. She’d even filed complaints with their boss over his rude behavior. He could have killed her in retaliation.
“I am sorry for Vengeance’s behavior toward you. He thinks you are Bill’s female. The pain of what he witnessed with his own female and the rage at her loss has driven him a bit crazy. We haven’t found or identified the male who killed his female but Bill is so similar to that human that he’s taken this mission to his heart. I apologize. It will never happen again. You weren’t supposed to really be harmed. You assumed we were similar to those males we watch in criminal movies and we allowed you to believe it. We don’t hit or torture females but we thought your fear of us would make you talk. We played the part you expected.”
Lauren still reeled from finding out she’d worked with a rapist and murderer. “I understand. I feel so bad for Vengeance now that I know why he was so awful to me. I don’t condone it but I get it.” Her arms hugged her waist and she peered up at the New Species. “I had no idea who Brent really was but I’ll do anything you need to help you track down that piece of shit. I mean that. I know you guys think I’m dating him or sleeping with him but I have better taste than that. He’s a creep.”
“How well do you know Bill?”
“I know him as Brent. Everything I’ve said is true about just knowing him from work. I started there three months ago and I didn’t like him from the get-go. Vengeance said I smell like perfume that Brent likes, that it’s rare, but I got this at a Christmas gift exchange at work. It must have been the gift he brought. I took men’s cologne in for the exchange. It’s a common thing to buy for those things.”
“We’ve talked to many females who Bill has dated and shared sex with. You carry the scent he buys them and prefers they wear. Perfume confuses our sense of smell. We aren’t picking up any trace of sex from you or even the scent of a male but we can’t read you accurately. I can faintly scent another female. Did you hug or brush up against one?”
“Wow. You really do have an enhanced sense of smell, don’t you? I read about that. I hugged my friend, Amanda, when I met her for dinner. You won’t smell sex on me.” She blushed at the thought that he could smell her that well and hoped her deodorant was really as good as it boasted.
Wrath’s intense gaze studied her body. “You are his type. Has he ever approached you with an interest in sharing sex?”
She hesitated. “The first week I worked there we had an incident.”
“Explain what an incident is to you.”
She sighed. “I was bent over a desk reaching for the phone. He walked by and smacked my ass. He made a sexual comment, he hit me hard enough that it hurt, and I was mad. I threatened to bring him up on sexual harassment charges and raised hell. We deal with each other in the office but it’s tense at best. Now he’s taken to bringing his cell phone to work and showing off pictures of naked women’s body parts. It’s disgusting.”
“He wanted you but you weren’t interested.” Wrath nodded. “Does he go out of his way to annoy you?”
“Sometimes I swear he does but I can’t prove it. Otherwise I’d have gotten him fired. Mel, our boss, says we’re just different people and I need to try to get along with him. I just can’t.”
Wrath stepped closer. “Vengeance didn’t believe you because of how you look and smell. You lied to him about not having sex in a long time so he refused to believe you about anything.”
“I didn’t lie about that.”
Wrath frowned and his gaze narrowed. His eyes were rounded but slanted slightly at the corners, giving them an exotic appearance. The irises were a dark brown, almost black. His slightly flattened nose twitched.
“Even I don’t believe that. You are attractive with a body that draws attention. Males would want to touch you and they would approach you often for shared sex.”
“Well, I don’t want to be touched.” She frowned at him. “I was in a really bad relationship. Do you know what a stalker is?”
He hesitated. “No.”
“I dated a guy for about six months and I thought he was someone nice. We moved in together but he got weird. He wasn’t abusive. He didn’t hit me but he got really creepy and it turned so bad that I moved out. He started stalking me. That’s following me around and leaving threatening notes on my door. I finally had to get a restraining order. I had to have the police make him leave me alone. It was a bad experience and I haven’t dated since. I thought he was normal but I obviously have bad taste in men. I haven’t met anyone since then that I’m interested in enough to take another chance.”
“H
ow was he creepy and weird?”
She hesitated. “As an example, I came home and he was wearing my panties.” She made a face. “Just my panties. He picked up his belt and told me he wanted to spank me. I moved out after that. Creepy, weird, and kind of scary. I’m not into guys who wear women’s panties and I’m sure not into being spanked.”
Wrath nodded. “Human males are freaks.”
Lauren smiled. “Some of them are and I found one who turned me off men. Then I found out he’d been sleeping with another woman while we lived together. He told me, trying to hurt my feelings, but I think he really thought I’d be jealous enough to want him back. I just felt sorry for her and glad I wasn’t with him anymore.”
Wrath appeared a little surprised. “What do you know of Bill?”
“Just what I said. I know he goes to a lot of bars and brags at work about how he can pick up women easily. He’s good-looking until he opens his mouth.”
Wrath grinned. “Do you know what bars?”
She shrugged but a memory surfaced. “I don’t know where he lives but he did mention that there was one around the corner from his place and he goes there often. He was telling someone he never had to worry about getting popped for a DUI because he just walks there and back.”
“What is a DUI?”
“Driving while under the influence of alcohol. I guess he gets pretty drunk. It’s illegal to drive after drinking.”
“I have his address and I’ll have it checked out. Thank you.”
“May I ask you something?”
He didn’t say anything. She figured that wasn’t a “no”.
“Everything I’ve ever heard or read about New Species says all of you live at the NSO Homeland or the NSO Reservation but you are here. Why?”
He took a breath. “Some of us want to find the humans who harmed us, though it is risky for us to leave the safely of the NSO. Bill is at the top of our list of people to find. We’re going to bring them in to be punished for their crimes or…kill them. Whether they live or die depends on their willingness to be taken in. We have formed a small team to hunt and locate them. We also work with a team of humans who work for the NSO but they aren’t here right now. This is their task force headquarters. They have homes elsewhere. It is not safe for us to live with them so we stay here in the basement where it’s secure. It’s a joint venture between the New Species Organization and the government.”