Page 101 of Bear Facts

Freya didn’t want to know what he meant by It won’t take much. Much what? Drugs? Torture? Electric shocks? All three?

She was uncertain how to answer. Should she resist? Or go along with it and try to break him out when he trusted her more?

While she debated, not liking either solution, Shane cleared his throat.

“I hate to intrude on this touching family reunion, but can you tell me where the head is? I seriously need to pee.”

Shane pasted on an inane expression as Rolf turned to stare at him in annoyance.

Shane continued. “Please don’t tell me to embrace my animal nature and piss in a bucket. That’s just gross. This place must have a bathroom.”

Rolf closed his eyes briefly then pointed abruptly to two of the Shifters guards, the Feline and the Lupine who’d brought Shane inside in the first place. “You and you—take him to the latrine.”

“Latrine,” Shane repeated with a grin. “So military of you.”

“Just go,” Rolf snapped.

Freya said nothing at all. She kept her gaze on Rolf, pulling his attention back to her and away from Shane.

Stay here, Shane sent to Matt, who might decide he needed to go to the bathroom too. Keep her safe.

Not going anywhere, Matt assured him.

Good lad.

Shane allowed the two Shifters, their tranq rifles ready, to lead him out. The human guard who’d told him how to get to the radio room quietly followed.

The guards herded him down the long hall to a bend at the end. Shane remained in his half-beast form, which meant he had to duck his head under the low ceiling. The place hadn’t been designed for eight-foot-tall half-bear, half-man Shifters.

They passed the radio room, which wasn’t much more than a small closet. It contained a stack of transceivers next to a desktop computer, and shelves piled with electronics supplies behind all that. Shane made sure not to turn his head when he glanced into it.

“I always knew my mate was special,” he said conversationally to the other Shifters. “Now I find out she’s sister to the leader. How cool is that?”

He grinned at the Lupine and the Feline, who strove to not appear nervous about escorting him. They must believe that with Freya and Matt more or less hostages in the main room, Shane wouldn’t try anything, but they were still edgy.

“Yeah, you got lucky,” the Feline said, his arrogance undimmed. “She’s pretty hot. You know, for a Lupine.”

“Nothing wrong with Lupines,” the Lupine returned. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

The Feline chortled. “Hey, if one like her was interested in me, I wouldn’t mind trying it.”

They rounded the corner, and Shane saw that the bathroom—the latrine, as Rolf called it—lay at the very end of a short corridor. There was no door in the wide opening, which showed how much Heaney had trusted his soldiers.

Shane stepped inside to find the bathroom surprisingly neat and clean. A line of urinals occupied one wall, with sinks on another, and stalls in the very back. White subway tile gleamed around the room, and the taps and spigots were fairly new, nothing rusty.

Shane swung to the Feline as soon as the two Shifters were in the doorway behind him. “Were you looking at my mate when she shifted?” he demanded. “You were supposed to keep your eyes to yourself.”

The Feline shrugged. “No, but could you blame me if I was?”

Shane let his affability fall away. “Seriously, are you talking about my mate?”

“Shut up, dickhead,” the Lupine said quickly to the Feline.

“Too late.” Shane made a lightning grab for the Feline and slammed him face-first into a urinal before either could react.

The Lupine belatedly raised his rifle but fell like a stone when the human guard fired a tranq into him.

The Feline, with his cat reflexes, bounced from the urinal and came at Shane, claws out. Shane, who’d had plenty of practice battling Felines at the fight club, knew how to duck. He got under the Feline’s reach, seized him by the throat, and threw him into the wall.

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