you think best, but bear in mind, we’ll see all of it. They don’t turn the lights off, they don’t allow for privacy ever, except for one reason.”
“Thinking it’ll put us in the mood,” Zane snickered. “They shut off the audio too.”
“Keeps us divided,” the lion shifter said. “Creates a feeling of competition for a mate. Making us focus on beating the others rather than them. They know what they’re doing.” He dropped his head for a moment. “You’ll need to work out between the two of you how you want to proceed.”
Jai didn’t react to that, just grabbed my hand, rubbing his thumb across the back of it before pulling me after him as he zeroed towards the bed. He pulled me up beside him.
“We just have to wait, Shan,” he whispered. “The pack, they’ll come.”
“How? They got the drop on us from my house. We didn’t leave a note or instructions.”
“They’ll find Buster and Max, read their minds, see what they saw.”
“If they’re still alive,” I said, my eyes dropping down. I remembered Buster barrelling towards me, full of confusion and delight that I was lying down for him to lick and cuddle, moving in close to me and licking before—
My memory stopped abruptly.
“Can you…could you reach them from here?”
I shook my head. “I have to be reasonably close to have an effect. I couldn’t even touch the other shifters here from where we are.”
“But could you?” The many details he left out of that question hung between us. What this might mean. How the pack would respond if I was able to. How the other shifters would. How he would.
“I…I’ve never done it. Never learned. Never even tried. Nan, she said—”
“Shan, you know I love you, that I want you as my mate. If you want to explore things with any of them, with all of them, I’ll step aside. But fuck, to have you forced into their cages, smelling all receptive… Maybe if I behave, they’ll let me come with you.”
“You’re starting to think the way they want you to,” I hissed back.
“I’ll think anyway I have to, to keep you safe. Shannon, you don’t know what it’s like. Humans get turned on and want to have sex, but for us, it's a burning, throbbing need. Conscious thought, judgement, it all goes out the window. Your scent tells us you want it, and we…”
“Want to give me your dick.” I swallowed. “Let’s stop talking about this and start thinking of how the hell we’re going to get out of here.”
Chapter 24
We got nowhere, of course. The other shifters were obviously big, strong, smart, but it's human nature to need to attack the problem yourself before you’ll believe it. We sat on the bed, a gap between us that was uncomfortable to maintain. My hand played with the fucking poxy gown I’d been given, Stuart’s words, the ‘vaginal examination’ they’d hit me with like a one-two punch to the ribs, but if I had any doubts about shifter pheromones and instincts, they were gone now. I’d been digitally raped. That’s what an examination without consent was. My breath came in shudders as I fought to get my head around it, but I was stopped from spiralling down too far by him.
Jai watched me closely, his hand creeping towards mine, his gaze unwavering. He knew something was wrong, but he waited, just like his animal, waiting for the right time to ask.
I couldn’t tell him, I realised. I saw him thrashing on the floor, the sensor in his neck… Nope, I needed to hold that back, put it to one side, to be dealt with when we got out of here. We would, I just needed to stay clear headed, analytical, focussed. But as I breathed in, I tasted his scent on my tongue, the close air in the room facilitating that. I watched his pupils dilate as he inhaled mine, his little finger grazing the side of my hand. His gaze dropped down when my lips fell open.
“C’mere,” he said huskily, holding out an arm for me to duck under.
What had or hadn’t been done fell away, and there was only him, my mouth turning upwards, blindly seeking, only to find his lips on mine moments later. He was trying to keep it slow, sweet, but the press grew longer, softer, our lips parting and letting the other in deeper before I heard the whistle of his breath when he pulled himself away.