Chapter 15
Thea stumbled back from the behemoth who towered in front of her.
“Thea Kinsey?”
She didn’t answer, just backed up another step as she lifted a hand and held it up in front of her as if to ward off the stranger. “Who…who wants to know?”
The snap of a twig behind her had her whirling around. Two more men stepped out of the darkness and Thea inhaled to scream, but it was too late. The man behind her clamped his hand over her mouth and growled, “Gag.”
One of the other men handed him something, and he tied a length of cloth through her mouth and around her head before declaring, “It’s her. Let’s go.”
She was hauled off her feet and carried unceremoniously like a sack of potatoes as the group of men closed in around the guy carrying her, and they took off at a run into the night.
She didn’t know who these guys were or where they were taking her, and she couldn’t ask because she’d been gagged.
Even though there were clothes between them, the places where the man’s arm and body came into contact with hers by the way he was carrying her started to buzz with what felt like an electric shock that intensified the longer he held her.
“Get the vee,” one guy barked and another bounded off ahead of them.
She was seriously losing her ability to pay attention though because that tell-tale ache was starting to throb in her lower belly. Shit! She needed Marko! This was supposed to be over! Why had Jenny let her leave the infirmary if it wasn’t over?
SNAP! Oh, dear God no! No, no, no, no, nooooooo!
She screamed against the gag in her mouth because she’d just gone past her plane of ability to handle this guy touching her.
“Easy, love,” he crooned with a chuckle. “You’ll be alright. Just getting you where you need to be.”
***
The entire flight to Raynesford, Marko couldn’t stop worrying about if Thea was carrying a tracker. Right this second, she could be in the clutches of the Megalya, and with that damn drug still in her system, his mind was dragging up the worst possible thoughts. Thea had been out of her head with lust. She’d needed someone to sate her sexual craving, and the thought of someone else filling that need had Marko dropping from the air as he inadvertently shifted from his white falcon form back to human before he caught himself and forced his focus where it needed to be.
His wings beat to drag his body back up, and he screeched out a shriek of rage because he hated this. Thea needed him, and he wasn’t there now and hadn’t been there when she’d woken, and that wasn’t him. All his life, he’d made a conscious effort to be the guy that showed up on time. He was the guy that was always there when needed, always volunteered for battle, always carried his weight and then some. Yet, when Thea—a mere human woman—needed him the most, he was at his cabin packing underwear and socks. Fucking hell!
He didn’t want Thea thinking badly of him, and more importantly, he didn’t want Thea thinking she wasn’t significant enough to warrant having someone there when she woke. Because yeah, he knew what she had to have felt waking up in that damn suite all alone. She probably felt dumped off like she was too insignificant to even warrant a full stay in the infirmary. Fuck, he wanted to rip every single strand of silky hair from Jenny’s thick head! Worse, he was just as angry with himself. The anger faded though when warm light from a large farmhouse spilled across the snow up in the distance.
Now, he just had to figure out how to explain to her parents how he’d gotten all the way out there without pulling up in a vehicle.
Flying over the ranch, he spotted Thea’s truck, and relief was so swift that he nearly lost focus and shifted again. Damnit!
He’d been captured by the Megalya once and tortured for years. It’s why he lost his concentration sometimes and lost his shift. Damn Megalya.
They’d called what they’d done to him experimentation, but that wasn’t what it was. He’d been cut up, and he’d been burned. He’d been damn near frozen to death only to be thawed back out. He’d also been drowned, resuscitated, and drowned again. The worst part was the forced sperm donations. At first, they’d performed surgery for retrieval, but when that didn’t work, they’d drugged him until he was so damn hard he thought his dick would snap off with one good whack. Strapped down, a nurse would be sent in to milk him like a damn cow until he’d given up his seed. Apparently, those samples weren’t what the scientists were after either because things quickly escalated to women—who came from God knows where—climbing up on top of him in his drugged and hardened state and riding him until his dick felt raw and his insides felt sick. He didn’t like those women, didn’t even know them, and yet they’d hopped right on him while he was strapped down and had ridden him to ejaculation without ever once questioning why he was there or why he was immobilized.
Once, just once, he’d begged one of the women to stop. He’d asked her to call the authorities, and she’d climbed off him. He’d been so confident she’d do as he asked, but when she took a step back from the table he was strapped to, a gunshot sounded, and the women’s body hit the floor, blood pouring from a hole in the middle of her forehead. He’d done that. He’d asked for help and had cost that woman her life. The image of her face still haunted him and honestly, he’d thought it would forever. He thought what had been done to him would ruin him for all his days because since his rescue by Remy and his team, Marko hadn’t been with another woman since…not until Thea.
Part of him had been terrified that day she’d gotten shot. Once he figured out what was happening to her and what she needed, he was sick thinking he wouldn’t be able to help her. Honestly, he’d half expected himself to freak out and lose his shit sometime during the act, but it hadn’t happened. In fact, being with Thea was the only time he’d ever found enjoyment in the act of sex because before the Megalya had captured him, he’d never been with a woman before. But, being with Thea had been different than all the other times. For once, he’d been the one in charge, the one setting the pace. He’d been the one easing another’s sexual hunger, and because of all he’d experienced, he knew how important it was to be tender and considerate.
He’d been as careful with Thea as he knew how to be. The situation hadn’t been ideal or anywhere near perfect, but she was. In his eyes, Thea was absolutely fucking perfect. She was as soft as…no, fuck that, she was softer than he’d ever imagined. Curves in all the right places, satiny hair that smelled like lilacs, wet hot mouth, and slick tight cunt… And her taste. By the Grandfathers, she tasted like everything he’d ever wanted. Damn, it was a good thing he was in bird form, or he’d be sporting a boner.
Swooping low, he dropped behind a stand of pine trees near the road and shifted out of sight. His clothes regenerated and for the sake of not looking like Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe, he’d chosen worn jeans, heavy boots, a plaid shirt, and a Carhartt coat with wool liner for effect. He wasn’t a mountain man, far from it, but Thea’s family wouldn’t let her leave with just anyone, so he had to play the part.
Striding down the last quarter mile of road to the ranch, Marko went over his story in his head. He’d tell them he was Thea’s friend, come to pick her up. He’d say his truck broke down and when her family offered to go help fix it, he’d declare that the tow truck was already there replacing his battery and they’d said it would be fixed by the time he got back. Bam! How’s that for the perfect line of bullshit?
His feet crunched over snow, and as he stepped onto the gravel drive leading to the farmhouse, he heard a woman holler in a panicked tone, “THEA! THEEEEEEA!” Her tone was still shrill when she cried, “She’s not out here, Dick! Something’s wrong!”
Awww, fuck!