“Come.” His voice came out gruff, deep, but it wasn’t a growl or a snarl.
He backed up, pulling on her to make her follow. She moved on wobbly legs, not sure what would happen next. He backed up more, pulling her another few feet, and turned his head to stare at the gap he’d created in the partition. He inched through it, careful not to touch his skin against any of the rough edges, and left her no choice but to step through it as well. She meekly followed him, too grateful he wasn’t killing her, until she realized where he’d led her to.
Fear made her try to pull out of his grasp when she spotted the cot just feet away. “No.”
His dark gaze narrowed in a threatening way. “Lie down now.”
“I belong to Valiant.” She couldn’t help the rush of tears that blinded her until she blinked them back.
“Please don’t do this.”
His mouth moved, twitched, but that was the only show of emotion on his face. “Rest. I won’t mount you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Some of Tammy’s panic and fear eased as she decided the New Species probably wouldn’t lie to her. He was big enough to force the issue if he wanted to rape her. He could have killed her by now. The fact that she still drew breath had to be a great sign that he wasn’t as vicious as her kidnappers believed or that he’d smelled Valiant on her and it meant something to him. She let him direct her to the bed where she carefully sat on the edge.
The New Species crouched in front of her, knees wide open, putting her legs between his thighs. He seemed to enjoying pinning her in by doing that, she noticed, and didn’t like how he also had a preference for invading her personal space. He was too close for her comfort.
His gaze searched hers. “How many?”
“I don’t understand.”
“How many New Species freed?”
“I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but hundreds.”
He took a few deep breaths but seemed to get angry again. “How many hundreds?”
Tammy hesitated. “I don’t know. New Species don’t really want that known to the general public, um, humans. I would guess at least three hundred of them live at Reservation. There’s also Homeland, a big converted military base they were given, and it’s another big piece of land where more New Species live. There have to have a few hundred there too. Probably more.”
“Tell me some numbers you know.”
“I don’t understand. I just said I’m not sure of how many of them there are in total.”
He lightly growled. He pointed to himself. “927. What are the numbers you know? What is Valiant’s number from before?”
She understood. “I don’t know any. They don’t ever use their testing-facility numbers. They all picked names when they were freed. I never wanted to ask Valiant what his was when he was still imprisoned. I didn’t want to make him sad by making him remember his life from before.”
He blinked. “They chose their own names?”
She nodded. “Yes. Most of your kind have names like Justice and Breeze.” She paused before listing off the other names she’d heard. “Tiger. Flame. Brass. Rider.
Smiley.” She paused. “I was told they picked names of things they loved or something that had some meaning to them.” She stared into his gaze. “They would have come to break you out if they’d known about you.” She whispered. “They don’t know about the testing facility in Colorado. They thought they found them all and had set everyone free.”
He suddenly lifted up and spun away from her. It made Tammy flinch as he snarled loudly and began to pace the cell. She scooted until her back rested against the bars of the cage wall. She hugged her chest and pulled her knees up, just watching him silently. He appeared agitated and really angry. She’d answered his questions but regretted saying that last part. Perhaps he was so angry that others had been found when he hadn’t been.
“Valiant will never stop searching for me. That means he’ll find us. Me and you. They’ll free you.” She said it softly, hoping her voice didn’t carry to wherever the doctor and his two thugs had gone. “We really do love each other and he won’t give up.”
The New Species stopped pacing to regard her. He slowly approached and crouched next to the bed. “The technicians will take you away from me if I don’t mount you soon.” He whispered the words.
Tammy shook her head frantically, afraid, and knew exactly what that meant. Sex. “No.”
“I will scent you and it will buy time.”
“What does that mean?”
He suddenly reached out and grabbed Tammy by her calf, gave a hard jerk, and his other hand gripped her arm to turn her on the bed where she fell flat. She gasped but had a few hundred pounds of muscled New Species pin her down when his body dropped over hers.
Tammy stared up at him and whimpered, thinking she’d been safe, sure he wasn’t going to hurt her after they’d talked. His face remained inches from hers and he looked grim. He lowered his face and buried it against her neck.
“Relax. I won’t hurt you,” he breathed very softly against her ear. “They listen always. This close and soft they cannot hear. I won’t mount you but I need to make them believe I am interested. They will take you from my cell otherwise and they could kill you if they think the experiment is a failure. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she got out softly, struggled with her fear, but forced her tense muscles to relax. “They have microphones listening to what we say?” She kept her voice just as soft as he had.
“They watch with cameras too but do not search for them with your eyes. They will become suspicious.”
He shifted over her, pinned her closer to him, completely covering her with his body. He was careful not to crush her. Tammy experienced raw fear at how tiny she felt, how helpless, and had no choice but to trust that he wouldn’t hurt her. The man was big, smelled of a strong soap and sweat. It wasn’t unpleasant, but foreign.
She was used to the way Valiant smelled. She put her hands on his chest. His skin felt as hot as Valiant’s, almost as if they ran a fever, but they just had a hotter temperature than humans. She resisted the urge to attempt to push him off, already knowing it would be a useless effort.
He buried his face against her neck again, sniffed really loudly, probably for the microphones, before he spoke softly to her again. “Will Valiant really come looking for you and not stop?”
“Yes.” Tammy had no doubt. “They all will. The New Species, I mean.”
A soft growl tore from his mouth. “I will do my best to keep you here. They will kill you if they believe I won’t do as they wish by mounting you. You’ll have no value to them otherwise. They’ll take me from here, back to where I came from, and consider the test of breeding me to another human a failure.”
Tammy closed her eyes and fought more tears. The man dropped his face against her neck and adjusted until he’d wiggled his hips until he’d wedged between her thighs. Fear and mental exhaustion finally caught up to her. She wanted to cry, admitted to a little self-pity that this had happened to her, and she gripped his skin just to find some comfort.
“Lie here with me and rest. You are safe from me, little one with pretty eyes.”
“My name is Tammy.”
He inhaled her skin at her neck. “It is good to smell another of my kind on you.”
“They don’t let you see others?”
“No.”
He was alone. She shifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck. He didn’t protest the hug-like hold she had on him. He had her totally trapped under his big body but she didn’t feel threatened.