Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Lion’s Arranged Marriage Chapter 2

Gwendolyn

Dark, muddy, cold-that was all I could sense in such a dark room. Any memories of my arrival had been zapped from my system. Magic hadn't erased them. Something more sinister swirled through my blood with serpentine intent. It nestled right into my heart and spread its snakelike tendrils throughout my body, strikingly venomous. Heavy. My eyelids fluttered. How long had I been under this time?

The back of my throat was drier than sun-bleached sand on a beach. Salt pecked my throat, carried by every inhalation. A twinge of copper touched the back of my nose-or maybe that was in my throat too. It was difficult to tell. My senses had been dulled, revived, and dulled again, a perpetual cycle that confused my animalistic side.

Even now, she fought to harness her awareness. She was tethered to me as much as any other shifter's animal side was tethered to them. And she yearned to be free.

Closing my eyes provided no rest. It only brought the sensational pains warping my body. Dozens of miniature needles penetrated my skin. The way it prompted suffering forced me to isolate myself from reality. What else could I do to escape such magnificent pain? Drugs circulated my system, mostly opiates. Their heaviness was familiar to me as an experienced RN. Though I hadn't spent much time in the medical field, I had learned plenty enough about pain medication to recognize its effects. These were triple the usual strength. They were probably using it more as a sedative than anything else.

Yet pain radiated right through the muggy fog, invading my mind and forcing me to ground back into my body over and over again. The cycle was awful, turning me around like a wheel, hitting the finer points of opiates-nausea, confusion, and ultimately a temporary suspension of reality.

Bliss suddenly settled into my bones. It was the first I had tasted it since my arrival. They had put something else in the IV drip this time around. Who knew what they had done to me when I was under? Partial awareness returned, just enough for me to search my arms for injuries, scars, the works.

All I felt was a weighted chain. I followed the massive links to my throat, shocked to discover a metal collar hanging around my neck. With how much they had pumped into my system, why were they bothering to chain me up? It wasn't like I could shift and fly off. The cage in which I sat was barely big enough for me to stand. Just big enough for me to stretch out my legs.

Pure agony swept through me like a tidal wave. Tears burned my eyes. I faintly felt the hot streams trickling down my face. They pooled beneath the metal collar, going cold after several seconds of sitting there.

Ah, the room was cold again. Was I beneath a window? Or a vent? It was hard to tell. All I could sense now was the pain, the moist earth beneath me, and the sound of footsteps approaching the cage.

My vision warbled temporarily. I looked up at the figure, trying to focus, but barely being able to cling to consciousness. He spoke. He stepped to the right. He peered into the cage.

Then, the door was wide open and he was beckoning me to crawl toward him. "That's it...that's a good girl..."

Gross. There wasn't a situation in my mind that I could think of when that would ever be appropriate. Even my parents didn't bother with such odd phrases.

My parents-were they worried about my absence? What about my alpha? Was anyone searching for me?

"That's it..."

The figure bent toward me. His lab coat hung open to reveal a brown button-down shirt with a teal vest, a gold pocket watch, a brown belt with darker brown slacks...

Part of the blanketed haze peeled back. I blinked a few times, daring to reach up to wipe my eyes, trying to rid myself of the tears. I didn't want this malevolent doctor to see my pain. He had probably seen it all at this point. Things I didn't want to consider surfaced. I watched. I waited. I knew what would come next.

And then it hit me. The scent of burnt rolling papers. A dash of earthy tobacco and then the sharpness of something else, a chemical smell. The scent coalesced and rolled into my nostrils, smacking me right in the sinuses.

I cradled my aching head. With parched lips, I attempted speech-though I knew better than to even try. The drugs they had me on impaired everything from thoughts to actions.

It was impossible to do anything.

This is hopeless, I managed to think cohesively. Tears once again stung my eyes. I don't think I'm ever going to see my family again. Not without some kind of miracle.

"You've withstood quite the barrage of tests, Miss Jennings," the dreadful doctor spoke carefully with a heavy Southern twang. "The experiments are nearly complete. Perhaps you'll be as strong as Samuel one of these days." Samuel. That was a name that had been thrown around plenty in the time I'd been here. It seemed to be seated on everyone's lips. And now it was fully burned into my mind's eye, the spelling and sound and everything. I'd seen it in a file. But where?

The doctor knelt in front of me. "Maybe you'll be good enough to mate with him. He needs a bride if he's going to grow his army. The Gilberts need so much more for their army these days."

Bitterness stung my tongue. Among the things most disgusting about this situation was being considered as some kind of breeding cow. This doctor-whose name slipped my mind as it often did-saw me as special. I could remember being separated from the others and being tossed into this cage.

Awareness slowly returned. The drugs must have been wearing off at last. I blinked to clear my vision again, daring to gaze at the face of my captor. He was a middle-aged man with deep lines in his leathery clay-brown skin and white hair curling through every other black curl. The rings hung messily around his face. What little light was available illuminated these details enough for me to grasp them all over again.

They would leave again soon. But at least I knew the face of my torturer for the moment.

He stroked my chin. The sensation of his grubby fingers on my skin made me recoil-and that just made him laugh. While kicking back to my corner which was only a mere five inches from the cage door, I caught a glimpse of the rest of the room. It was so easy to forget how odd it was down here without any natural light.

A medical table sat in the center of the room with a huge floodlight over it. Wires scattered in every direction, coiling over each other like they would in a pit of snakes. Crates of unknown items were stacked against the walls and crowded whatever windows might have been there-if there were windows at all. I thought I saw a sill or a piece of a pane or something.

Above, cement cracked in various patches, threatening to come down on our heads. But the doctor didn't seem bothered by all that. I was his only focus at this point. When had I not been his only focus?

Again, those thoughts weren't for me to currently entertain. Such dark thoughts weren't what I wanted to break through my drug-induced haze. I needed moonlight. I needed the cool night air. I needed sturdy branches, purposeful gliding, creatures of the night to provide the backdrop for my flight...

An alarm broke through the silence.

Time warped as the doctor dashed away. The alarm continued, a steady and aggravating blamp that worsened my headache. I covered my ears. I bowed my head. I curled into as tight of a ball as I possibly could.

My eyes snapped open.

Wait a second.

Through the agony of the alarm, I lifted my head.

The cage door was wide open. I could make a run for it. I just had to get the metal collar from around my neck and-

A crash echoed through the room. Following it was the roar of a creature, perhaps a lion, perhaps a couple of other roars, too, maybe from a wolf or a bear. They were all certainly beasts, massive and capable of taking down just about anything or anyone. Instruments clattered to the ground. Metal scraped the floor. Growls of warning and barks tangled up together, joining the messy alarm that rattled my skull.

I was seeing red at this point. Anger wasn't the problem.

It was frustration.

My freedom was right there. Inches away from me. The only thing that prevented my escape was this stupid chain around my neck. With such useless and weak fingers, it would be impossible to pick the lock even as I regained my faculties. Another roar shattered the sound barrier. That was most certainly a lion I was hearing just now-and the pained whine it released told me it wasn't winning its fight.

Shouts climbed over the alarm and then the lion released a wheeze, a signal that the fight had finally left him. My heart sank as I did, bowing to the ground like a lost child. Granted, I was lost. To the threads of fate. To the awful tests that would surely continue until success-or death.

I was a lost cause. I had to resolve myself to that.

I saw him then, the impressive creature, the lion as he was dragged toward me. The sinister doctor had help from three other characters, all of them nude. They must have stripped down and shifted to handle the lion.

Though he didn't look familiar to me. Was he a recent test subject? Had he broken in? What were the other roars and growls that I heard?

My eyes went wide.

Did Alpha send pack members to rescue me?

That might have been a good thought if I hadn't been fighting for space while the doctor and his minions shoved the gargantuan creature into the small cage. The doctor stood back with a wide grin as the cage door was locked in place. More defeat joined the festering wound of regret in my core.

Instinct took over. I wrapped my arms around the neck of the beast, noticing the surface cuts and the labored breathing. He was alright-but they had definitely hit him with something strong by the look of that gaping puncture mark in his neck. I applied firm pressure to the wound.

"Gee, I wonder what a hungry lion would do with a bird," the doctor teased. As the minions moved in, each with their own sticks carrying tranquilizer darts, the doctor waved them off. "No, no, leave her awake." "But, Dr. Myrtle-"

The doctor growled at the man who spoke. "Leave her awake, you fucking idiot. She's not going anywhere. She's chained up." He turned to me, smiling eerily. "Her friend will wake eventually. He'll be hungry. Then we can hit her with the shifting formula." I glared at him.

He must have taken my meaning from my eyes for he continued, "It's a special derivative of certain native plants in the area-and it can force you to shift. For a brief period, but it's a success I've been dying to share with Raymond and his crew."

My mouth dried up. An injection that can force the shift? What would even be the purpose of such a thing?

"Defiance will be a thing of the past with this formula," the doctor explained. I didn't like his tone. Not one bit. "Without human faculties, I can freely experiment on shifter creatures. No talking back. No screaming. No interruptions."

It was sickening to think he had used that formula on me at some point.

Would I have ever remembered?

"Don't worry. He has a while to recover," Dr. Myrtle assured. "But when he does wake up, be a good girl and give us a shout. The Gilberts are paying us top dollar for our research."

He waved as though we were old friends, taking his equally sick minions with him. When all four men had vacated the area, I adjusted my position and tore off part of my shirt, just the lower bits. A few strips of that made it easy to patch up the lion. With my head tilted back, I peered up at the ceiling, searching for the dripping pipe that I had used previously for fresh water.

It was weird how my memories were suddenly coming back. Though maybe it wasn't too weird at all considering this was my first lucid moment in...how long had I been here?

My arrival here, the tests, the injections, and the bare scraps of food between cups of rotten juice were slipping back into my awareness. This dripping pipe had been my saving grace. Now that I could remember that, I could catch some of the water in my mouth. As soon as I had a decent amount, I bowed toward the lion, parting his gigantic maw to deliver the water. A weakened and gravelly mewl met my ears. The poor thing was exhausted. How many darts had he taken? I had to assume three.

Though if each of those men had been ready to stab me in the cage, then maybe it was only one dart. Dr. Myrtle seemed confident about him sleeping it off in time for me to be eaten. But if this lion had been sent from my pack, then he wouldn't dare risk such a thing, no matter how strong his hunger was.

Well, not at first, anyway.

But that was the whole goal, wasn't it? Dr. Myrtle wanted this lion to murder me in cold blood. For whatever reason, he didn't seem too concerned about keeping me around for additional tests despite what he had said about this Samuel character needing a mate. And apparently, he needed an army.

But if he was working with the Gilberts, then why in the world would he need more shifters?

My focus fell on the sleeping creature's fur. It was disappearing in patches and waves. He was shifting back to human form.

Unless he's trying to test my strength, I thought. Dr. Myrtle's motives aren't entirely clear. But I know one thing.

The fur completely dissipated, leaving the athletic build of a man with alabaster skin covered in tattoos in my lap.

My eyebrows knotted up. I know I don't have much time before those evil bastards come back.