I?” she asked. “It’s the truth.”
“No. You were a volunteer, not a prisoner.”
Karen flinched as if she’d been slapped. Just for a moment she suspected he was cruelly taunting her. Did he take pleasure in pretending she hadn’t been kidnapped, abused, and tortured for over ten years?
“I’m not sure who told you that, but I was kidnapped at the age of seventeen when I was walking home from school,” she said, forcing her voice to remain calm despite the ugly emotions twisting her gut into a knot. “They snatched me off the streets and threw me in a cage.”
There was more shuffling, almost as if the man was battling against his urge to storm into the lab.
“I’ve read your file,” he said, his voice vibrating with a hint of a growl. Was he Pantera? Or maybe a hybrid? “It says that you arrived at Benson Enterprises and pleaded to be taken in as a volunteer. It said your mother was abusive—”
“My mother would never have hurt me,” she angrily interrupted. She wouldn’t allow anyone to spread nasty stories about her beloved mother.
Even if it meant putting herself in danger.
Clearly frustrated by her refusal to play his game, the man slammed his fist loudly against the open door. “Stop it,” he snarled. “Why do you lie?”
Karen frowned. He truly believed what he was saying. The mystery man thought she’d happily agreed to become a brood mare and could have waltzed away whenever she wanted.
Sucking in a deep breath, she shoved her arm through the steel bars, stretching her hand out in a pleading motion.
“I’m telling the truth, Ward,” she swore. “Whoever wrote the file you were reading was spreading lies.”
“I don’t believe you,” he hissed between clenched teeth. “You volunteered, but after you had children you grew tired of being in the lab. You took your favorite child and walked away.”
“Never,” she rasped. “Never, never, never.”
“You did,” he insisted, sounding like a petulant kid.
Karen swayed, her eyes squeezing shut.
“Listen to me. I would never leave my children,” she insisted, her voice thick with pain. How dare he imply that she’d ever abandon her babies? There wasn’t a night that passed that she didn’t cry out in agony, the hole in the center of her heart never healing. “After I gave birth, my sons were taken from me. I wasn’t even allowed to hold them. It broke my heart, but thankfully Indy arrived to release me from my cage,” she said. She’d been so close to giving up on all hope when young Indy had boldly crept into the lab and released her. “I found Caleb strapped to a gurney, being treated like a…” Her voice broke at the heart-wrenching memory of Caleb bound by leather bands, his scrawny body barely more than skin and bones and his hair matted with filth. Even more astonishing had been the rapid rate of his growth. Until she’d finally gotten him to the Wildlands he’d been maturing almost twice as fast as a normal human. No doubt a reaction to his Pantera DNA. “I searched for my other sons, but I couldn’t find them. So we released all the prisoners we could find and torched the lab.”
“And now you’ve started a new life,” he drawled, obviously not impressed with her story.
“I’ve done my best to start over,” she hesitantly agreed. What did he want from her?
Again he slammed his fist into the door. “Forgetting those you left behind.”
She shook her head. “I would never forget my sons. They’re my heart.”
“Easy to say,” he rasped.
Karen abruptly stiffened. Dear god. Was it possible…?
Grabbing the bars of the cage, she gave the door a frustrated shake. “Do you know where I can find them?” she demanded. “Do you know my sons?”
There was a long, excruciating silence before he at last answered. “Yes.”
“Oh, dear god.” Her knees threatened to buckle at the intense relief that seared through her. “Tell me what you know. Please. I’ll do anything you ask. Anything.”
As if her desperate pleas had at last stirred the mystery man into action, there was a ripple of movement and he stepped into the lab.
Karen had a confused second when she accepted the male was a stranger.
He looked to be in his early twenties, with the lean, muscular body of many Pantera, covered by an expensive gray suit. Then the fluorescent lights caught the red highlights in his closely trimmed hair and shimmered in the green eyes.
Her heart refused to beat as she took in the pale, elegant features