She knew MacRieve would come for her, but that was the other half of the problem. She didn't want to be a sitting duck tonight.
When they reached a camouflaged outpost, the three hauled her from the truck though she fought them. After dragging her inside, they forced her down deep into a bunker, leading her into tunnels in the earth. Cold and dark. Fancy that.
One tunnel had a line of cells, all with solid steel doors, as if bomb-proofed. In fact, everything in this place seemed to be so. One of the men punched a code into a keypad, and an adjoining door slid open. The other soldier shoved her into a barren cell, with only a cot and a toilet within. She inanely remembered Carrow calling jail two hots and a cot.
"You have to untie me."
"You're in no position to make demands," the leader said. "Best accept your lot and prepare yourself for tonight."
"What's my lot?"
"It's very simple. We were out provisioning," he explained, raking her with his gaze, "and you are a provision." He turned to the doorway.
"Then there's nothing I can do for you," she murmured. "I vow you won't survive past midnight. And your last sight before you die will make you relieved to go."
One soldier laughed nervously. The second lackey scowled. The leader turned in a flash and backhanded her, his heavy ring catching her temple when she tried to duck. The force sent her spinning to the ground. Hands still bound behind her, she landed on her face.
Struggling to her knees, she wiped her temple on her shoulder. When she saw the blood, she cast him an evil smile. "You're going to die extra bad for that."
At dusk, Bowe couldn't resist the pull of his female any longer. Her scent was still in the jungle - she hadn't made it to the city and a flight out. Though he fought with everything he was, he felt himself changing direction, retracing his earlier footfalls to her.
He'd never run so fast... no, there'd been one other time...
He shook off that memory. Mariketa's tantalizing scent called to him and nothing else mattered. Acres of treacherous terrain passed effortlessly beneath his feet. Just a mile or so more till he found her. Closer. He could tell she was near... yards away now, directly up the stream bank.
He jerked to a stop when he reached her scent.
She wasn't here.
He'd locked onto her bag, her clothes. So where in the hell was she? Her canteen lay off to the side - she'd never leave her boiled water. Other odors came to him - human males laden with aggression, gun oil, cigarettes. He sighted boot prints in the mud. Over the next rise were tire tracks. Soldiers had abducted her.
And Bowe knew why. His claws sank into his palms.
He barely detected another scent. Her fear.
- Punish them. -
They'd taken his female, frightened his vulnerable mate. Turning... already.
He would slaughter them, every one.
With a roar of fury, he let the beast free.
39
He'd come.
Mari knew when gunfire began to echo in the tunnels of the bunker. Men barked orders with authority, and machine guns popped in concentrated waves.
Yet soon the organized defense became erratic. The commands devolved into... screams.
These humans - along with herself - were trapped down in the earth with a monster. He'd begun to kill, and she could do nothing but wait with dread. With her hands still bound behind her, she rocked forward and back on the cot.
His onslaught of violence seemed to keep beat with the heavy drum of her heart. She heard hardened men yell out in terror before the sound gurgled from their slashed throats.
Had MacRieve used his teeth or claws?
Would she scream at the sight of him?
"Dios mío!" one soldier gritted out. Chills coursed through her when she heard another weeping - before being instantly silenced.
A split second after a wild clap of machine gun fire, an explosion sounded and the electricity flared. When the overhead light sparked and burst into fragments, she shrieked in the sudden blackness.
From somewhere out in the tunnels came his answering bellow of rage.
She swallowed with fear. Moments later red emergency lights hummed on. When she saw that chunks of glass had fallen out of the light cage above, she backed to the biggest piece, crouching down to collect it with her bound hands. Then she began clumsily sawing at the tie.
Just as she thought she was close to slicing free, she heard the keypad at her cell entrance. She didn't breathe as the door whirred open.
The leader slipped in, softly closing and locking it behind him. In a low voice, he hissed, "You'll tell me who's behind this incursion! Who's - "
He abruptly whirled around and jerked his gun up.
Harsh breaths sounded just outside her door.
MacRieve was here. And she couldn't imagine what he would do once he got past that barrier. Would he butcher the soldier, then shove her face into the cot? Take you in the dirt like an animal, he'd said.
Why was he hesitating? She heard the tips of his claws meet the steel of the cell door. He'd raised his palms to the door?
Yes, and then he rested his forehead against it, his claws beginning to sink in, in frustration. Her heart twisted.
Bowen didn't want her to see him like this.
Because sometimes monsters know what they are. She felt her eyes water with sympathy for him, experienced a sudden ache to comfort him -
With a deafening grinding sound, he wrenched the door from its groove.
The soldier turned his attention from her long enough for her to finish cutting through the ties at her wrists. When she glanced up, she could distinguish only MacRieve's outline in the shadows. His breathing was so loud it sounded more like snarls. His massive shoulders rose and fell with the heaving exhalations.
The man weakly raised his rifle and fired. Claws shot out from the dark to slice through the gun barrel as though it were paper.