As if she sensed him watching, or maybe it was the fluorescents, her eyes opened. After a moment, her lips curved into a calm, knowing smile that displayed her incredible strength. She would need it.
They spoke only a little as the morning wore on, honoring her decision that any connection shown between the two of them would lead to an impossible situation for her. But Hiss kept a close eye on her. Even more so when the guards arrived with breakfast. Seated with his back against the brick wall, he painted his entire demeanor in shades of timidity and surrender. But he was ready to spring in case she was taken first.
“A little treat today, kitty cats,” Peter called, working his way down the aisle. “Some fruit came in. It’s a little rotten, but I know you’ll be grateful for it.” He gave Hiss a look of disdain as he slipped the bowl under the bars. “You’d better be grateful. Eat up, Ca16,” he said, using Hiss’s lab name. “Soon as we’re done here, Dax and I are taking you upstairs.”
He knew Gia was looking at him, but he didn’t dare slide his eyes her way. He grabbed the bowl and ate like a madman. Not only did he want to seem compliant, but he also needed the food for strength.
He was nearly done by the time they returned. They hadn’t said a word to Gia, hadn’t even looked her way. Facts that filled him with an almost desperate relief. It was all on him now. And he wouldn’t fail her.
Both Dax and Peter sidled up to his cage, one pulling out his loop of keys while the other unsheathed the dart gun he kept strapped to his thigh. Without being asked, Hiss turned around and put his hands to his sides. Granted, he wasn’t known for his cooperation, so he fully expected them to be suspicious.
“Lookie here, Dax,” Peter drawled. “It’s trying to be docile. What do you make of it?”
Dax snorted. “It saw Br42 come in yesterday. Maybe it got scared. It should be.”
Br42. Hiss’s gut rolled. Gia was in the breeding program now. Fuck, he had to pull this off. Had to get her out of here. His cat scratched beneath the surface of his skin. I’m with you, it seemed to be saying. Use me. My senses. My strength.
“Don’t you move, Ca16,” Peter warned. “Or I swear to god, we’ll knock you out. Maybe permanently.”
Hiss snarled softly at the bluff. If there was one thing he knew, it was his value. Someone wanted his blood pretty goddamned badly. Same person who’d wanted Reny, no doubt. But to continue with the ruse he put his hands behind his back and dropped his chin to his chest.
“Wise choice,” Dax said, though his tone was laced with unease. Always was. The guards in the Sub were chock-full of bravado, but without weapons and bars, they would be torn to bits. And they knew it. “We reward our tame beasts. Maybe an extra plate of food. Or access to a female…”
Hiss not only sensed the dart gun inches away from his neck, but he felt Gia’s eyes on him. He wanted to glance her way, reassure her. But he didn’t dare. If the idiot behind him pulled the trigger on that gun, the drugs soaked into the dart would take him down in three seconds. And for hours. Maybe days. He didn’t have either to waste. So, he waited. He waited until the metal of one cuff brushed his wrist.
Then he struck.
***
At first, Gia thought she was dreaming. That she’d fallen back to sleep after breakfast—or, hell, dreamt that bit too—and was watching Hiss perform what she believed to be an impossible feat. Taking down two human guards with the speed and agility and silence of a shifted cat.
But she still tasted overripe banana on her tongue, and Hiss had grabbed the two dart guns, the keys, and was locking the unconscious and bloody males in his cage and heading over to hers.
She ran to the door, watched him search for the key, then unlock her cage and yank it back.
“Come on,” he commanded.
“Hiss! Wait!” It was Blade.
Gia saw the momentary back and forth behind Hiss’s eyes. He didn’t want to leave her. Even for a moment. But he wasn’t going to abandon the other shifters either. Many stood at the doors of their cages, desperately hoping for release. With one quick glance at the guards, Hiss made a break for Blade’s cage. But just as he reached it, the elevator started to descend.
“Shit,” he growled, working his way through the keys.
“Go,” Blade said. “Just go.”
Hiss kept at it, faster, faster.
“Goddammit, Hiss,” Blade argued. “Go. Take her.”
Finally, Hiss shoved the entire set at him. “Hide them. Wait for night, then unlock your cages. I’m coming back with the Pantera. I swear it.”
Blade nodded. “We’ll be waiting.”
Hiss rushed back to Gia, grabbed her hand, and they made a break for the stairs. Hiss tossed her a dart gun as they started to climb. “I don’t know what we’ll encounter. How many. Just shoot whatever gets in your way.”
She nodded, kept sprinting up, one floor, then the next. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Roof.”
The word was barely out of his mouth before a door burst open and two human men dressed in lab coats spilled into the stairwell. Hiss shot one in the thigh, and the man went down in an instant. The other looked terrified and tried to run back the way he came. But Gia rushed forward and shot him in the neck.
“He’s not going to warn the others,” she said, turning to Hiss who was already stripping the larger of the two males.
He dressed quickly, then motioned for Gia to go first. Dart guns ready, they took off up the stairs. Though her wrists stung like bees were attacking them, she could feel the possibility of freedom ahead, and nothing was going to get in her way.
When they finally broke out onto the roof, sunlight assaulted their vision, making them blind for a moment. Gia felt Hiss’s hand on hers, squeezing it, leading her forward. She blinked rapidly, trying to acclimate herself to the light. But there wasn’t time. Behind them, the door to the roof slammed open.
“Jump, Gia,” Hiss commanded. “Now!”
Her vision barely adjusted, Gia did as he asked, trusting him to know that the roof of the adjacent building was truly within their reach.
Something whizzed past her head as she leapt. Once, twice. A gasp escaped her throat as she landed with a painful thud, then rolled to the hot tiles. In seconds, Hiss had her back on her feet and they were running to the ledge—then jumping one last time to the rooftop of the building next door.
Once again, she landed with a jarring thud. Her entire body was shaking, humming, and she was pretty sure if she looked down she’d see her wrists were bleeding again. But fuck—they were outside. In fresh air. Free. Free? As Hiss pulled her to her feet, she glanced back, over her shoulder. She’d expected to see figures on the roof of the lab building. But there was no one.
Confused, exhausted, she let Hiss pull her toward the door marked Roof Access, then inside.
“Holy shit,” Hiss breathed, pressing back against the metal.
She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. “What?”
“We’re in Baton Rouge. This is the Chancey Hotel.”
He sounded both relieved and pained. “So we’re close to your home?”
He didn’t answer. His eyes were pinned to her arms, her wrists. She looked down, not surprised to see that her bandages were stained with blood.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, standing up, ready to go.
“You need a doctor,” he said, taking her hand gently and guiding to the stairwell. “And I need to speak with Raphael.”
“Who’s he?”
“The leader of the Pantera. And one of many who would love to see me return to the Wildlands. Only so he can see the light go out of my eyes when he kills me.”
CHAPTER 4
The land beneath Hiss’s feet hummed with energy and magic, and the air was scented of autumn on the bayou—a season that had to beg and plead with summer for emancipation. But Goddess, when it did come on, and those browns and oranges, reds and yellows emerged, nothing in the whole world could rival i
ts beauty.
Hiss ventured a glance in Gia’s direction as they walked. It was good to see her in nature, his nature, the late afternoon sun shining on her long yellow hair, her skin still very pale, but with a hint of color on her cheeks. It had taken them a good two hours to get picked up by a trucker after slinking out of Baton Rouge via several back alleys, but the ride had given him time to tend to her wounds. He’d managed to stop the bleeding, and the decent male trucker had given her a spare jacket and a pair of his wife’s sneakers to keep.
“Are you happy to be going home?” she asked him as they followed the curve of the bayou.
“I’m happy to be with you,” he said. “To be free.” For as long as that lasts.
“Well that’s sweet and evasive.” She gave a curious smile.
Answers and explanations. His recent history with the males and females on the other side of the bayou. He exhaled thickly. All those nights when Gia had needed him, when she’d bared her soul, talked of her former life, and he’d given back so little. Not because he didn’t want to share himself with her, but because he was afraid if he did, she’d despise him. She was Pantera, though her sect called themselves Cadejo. And to their race, loyalty was everything. How would she react when she realized he lacked the one trait she valued above all others?
His gaze kicked up, took in all the colors of home, the scents, where he’d run and played and guarded. They were about to cross over into that world. It was a world that despised him now. His lip curled. He didn’t want her to hear about his crimes from anyone else but him.
“I am happy to be home,” he began tentatively. “But my Pantera family won’t be as happy to see me.”
“I gathered,” she said. “You’ve dropped a few clues over the past few days. Can you tell me why?”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and took her with him as he maneuvered over a fallen log. “I made a mistake, Gia. A grave mistake. I allowed my anger and bitterness against three to bring danger and shame to the rest. I was blind to everything else. Pantera were hurt because of me. I betrayed my clan. Worked with the enemy against my clan.”
She stopped, her eyes searching his as the light filtered through a stand of moss-covered cypress. “There must’ve been a reason.”
“Maybe so, but that’s no excuse, is it?”
“Not an excuse, but an explanation.” Her hand came up and she brushed his jaw. “I know you,” she said with passion. “I know your heart. Your goodness.”
I was good for you. Only you.
“Understand,” he said, avoiding the backstory she wanted so much to hear. “They will take me into custody the moment I step foot on Wildlands soil.”
Her fingers froze on his cheek and her eyes narrowed. “Then why are we going here?”
He turned into her hand and kissed her palm. He’d never known anyone like her. “I promised Blade, and the rest. I can’t leave them there. I won’t.”
Her eyes softened. “See? Goodness. Heart.”
All he saw was her, and how amazing she was. He didn’t deserve her. But he hoped, one day, he would. He took her hand in his and urged her onward through the marsh, crossing over the bayou on the secret footpath he and his Hunter peers had used a thousand times. They were so close. He felt it. His cat certainly felt it.
As they drew deeper into the cover of the trees, the need to shift was a living thing, powerful, like a sweet drug. But Hiss knew if wanted any chance of explaining his presence to whoever was patrolling the borders, he needed to remain in his male form.
He would save his cat in case one of the Pantera attempted to touch, intimidate or harm the female beside him.
Gia stopped then and inhaled sharply.
“What is it?” Hiss demanded, scanning her. “Your wrists? Are you in pain?”
She shook her head. “I feel it. It’s…incredible.” A smile breaking on her beautiful face, she lifted her eyes to meet his.
Hiss’s insides flared with heat. Predatory heat. Yes, they were inside the Wildlands now. Normally a deep, dark brown, Gia’s eyes now glowed with the color of an amber stone. His cat rumbled in his chest. It wanted out. It wanted to nuzzle and sniff and lick. First Gia.
Then her cat.
“Come,” he growled, forcing back the desire flickering inside him, and leading her deeper into the bayou, until they reached the ancient ginkgo.
There Hiss paused, looked up at the tree, its many leaves turned a bright, welcoming yellow. As the scent snaked into his nostrils, he tightened his grip on Gia’s hand.
“You have some serious balls coming back here, Hiss.”
Hiss didn’t even need to turn around to know who was addressing him. After all, they’d worked side by side for decades. But he gave the leader of the Hunters his respect, and faced him.
Fierce gold eyes slammed into his.
Hiss acknowledged the look with a grim smile. “Hello, Parish.”
***
“Where is he?” Gia demanded fiercely as she paced back and forth in front of the leader of the Pantera.
They were in his office, and the stunning blond male with sharp, assessing eyes the color of gold-flecked jade remained seated, watching her. After the one called Parish had brought them to the Suits’ Headquarters, a virtual army of Pantera had descended on Hiss. With his grim consent and a nod of acceptance flashed her way, they’d taken him, and Raphael had “escorted” her here.
She didn’t know these Pantera. Didn’t know how they worked. Whether they were in any way a merciful sect. But the second Hiss was out of her sight, she couldn’t quell the anxiety in her blood. If they hurt him…
“He’s meeting with our Hunters,” Raphael told her. And as if reading her mind, added, “No harm will come to him.” He raised his brow and said very pointedly, “Yet.”
Her lips curled up.
Raphael interlocked his fingers and let his chin rest on his knuckles. “I want to know about you, Gia. About where you come from…where you were before the lab. Have you been living among humans?”
For a moment, she thought about holding back. Why did this male deserve her truth? Maybe she would bargain with him for it. Truth for Hiss. But the leader of the Pantera didn’t seem the bargaining kind. And she didn’t want her tenacity to cost Hiss in the end.
“My family come from a sect in the Everglades. As you are Pantera, we are Cadejo.”
Raphael nodded, but didn’t seem surprised by the information. Or the name. Her brows knit together.
“And did you know of the Pantera before you met Hiss?” he asked.
“No.”
“How were you taken? Was it from your home?”
Gia wanted to tell him she didn’t remember, but she wasn’t sure she could lie that well. The day would live in her memory, in her nightmares, for eternity. “I was in Miami selling alligator hide. I go once a month.” She shrugged. “We eat a lot of alligator in the Wetlands. I was loading the hide into the buyer’s van when I was struck with a needle. I woke up in the Sub.”
“And you were a blood donor?”
“So to speak,” she answered tightly.
His eyes flickered to her hands, her wrists. “How are you healing, by the way?”
Without even a hint of embarrassment or shame, Gia held out her arms. “Very well. The magic is incredibly strong and pure here. As it is at home.”
A flash of interest lit his eyes, but again, he didn’t probe the subject of the Cadejo. She wondered at it. Learning of a new group of puma shifters had to birth all sorts of questions. Unless it wasn’t his first time hearing of it.
“Have you been able to shift here?” he asked
“I haven’t had a chance to try,” she told him with a lift to her chin. “With the swift capture and now the interrogation. Who knows what lies ahead.”
His lips twitched. “You are suspicious of me.”
“Of course I am. I don’t know you.”
“But you know Hiss,” he countered.
“Yes.”
<
br /> He sniffed with derision.
“Is that so impossible to believe?” she pushed.
“You don’t have a clue who that male really is, Gia. If you did—”
“A traitor, right?” she interrupted. She crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him. “Is that what he is? All that he is?”
Raphael blanched. “He told you.”
“Of course he told me.”
“And that doesn’t…concern you?” he asked, his voice a low growl on the last two words.
“What concerns me is his well-being.” She arched a brow at him. “I want to see him.”
“He’s busy.”
“Being tortured? I promised, I won’t interrupt.”
“I’m sorry, Gia, but you don’t understand—”
“No, you don’t understand,” she countered blackly. “He is my mate.”
That pronouncement brought with it a full minute of silence, and Raphael’s stunned expression. Or was it a horrified glare? Frankly, Gia didn’t care. She’d said what was true in her heart. What she wanted. Maybe it hadn’t been spoken between them. But she and Hiss had bonds and ties that went far beyond spoken words or declarations.
“In my sect,” she continued, “mate status comes with certain rights and privileges.”
“In ours as well,” Raphael acknowledged. “But your male,” he said on a sneer, “is our prisoner. And prisoners don’t have rights. They have cages.”
A shudder went through her and she had to fight to keep herself steady and in control. “Hiss and I know a good deal about living in cages.”
The male’s jaw tightened. “You, of course, will be treated as a welcome and honored guest. There are plenty of places to stay in the Wildlands. You have only to choose—”