Page 31 of Feral Mates
She climbed off my lap, folding her arms across her chest and moving away. Obviously embarrassed or perhaps ashamed, her face was flushed. She headed toward her discarded clothes, dressing quickly. While shoving her feet into her boots, she stayed as far away from us in the room as possible.
We said nothing, but I knew what the other two were thinking.
How would we keep her with us when we knew she’d never allow that to happen? Could we keep her by force? Yes, but there were unanswered questions she was determined to discover.
In truth, we all wanted to know what had happened and she was the only one who could possibly provide answers.
After finishing, she stood with her back to us, rubbing her face and her body remained tense.
When she turned to face us, I sensed regret. “I’m a scientist. I don’t know if you understand what that means.”
“You work for Blackwell Industries,” Apollo answered while moving toward the small kitchen. While we could stay in thewild, it was actually more dangerous for us to do so given the close proximity of the refuge we’d escaped from. Being human provided us with a unique cover.
“That’s right. How do you know that?”
The three of us looked at each other. What we were aware of and what we knew for certain were two entirely different things. It was best to listen and learn instead of making assumptions.
“We know of a certain scientist,” Roman offered.
“Who?” She allowed herself to come closer.
“James Wheeler is his name.” Apollo remained hesitant to allow her to learn what little we knew. I couldn’t blame him and while she’d managed to read certain thoughts, including our names, the connection shared wasn’t strong enough for her to understand every thought.
“Dr. James Wheeler.” She looked away, now hugging her body with her arms, shivering more than she’d done before. “Upper tier.”
“Meaning?” I pressed.
She waved her hand. “I need to find out what’s going on. It’s complicated. There are some things that I’m not allowed to talk about, a project that stands to change the face of all we know about life beyond our own. I know that’s vague, but until I can ascertain a few answers, I’m hesitant to speculate any further. I’m going to my office tomorrow. With any luck, I’ll be able to discover at least something that explains this… interesting situation.”
She was having even more difficulty accepting her new reality.
“You’re not safe.” Roman was saying what we were all thinking.
The tremble in her lower lip brought an array of emotions that I wasn’t used to. Yes, I’d always known I’d be protective of a mate, but this was something else entirely.
“I’ll be fine. I’m not going to drop everything for… what? I don’t know what this is, but I need to be able to explain things rationally. Something is off with this project. What had happened here with the three of you wasn’t projected even by me. And I believed what we’d discovered were intelligent lifeforms. I don’t think anyone knew this would happen, but I will find out.”
When she suddenly walked away from us, heading up the stairs, I narrowed my eyes. “Should we allow her to leave?”
Apollo shook his head. “My instinct is to say no, but she’s not our prisoner.”
“But she is our mate,” Roman added.
“However the hell that’s possible.” I laughed.
The way Apollo threw out his arms allowed me to sense aggression. He wasn’t happy he’d been forced into a human’s body. Even after finding our mate. “How is this shit possible? Answer me that.”
There was no logical answer. We’d escaped into the woods and had found a building, our instincts telling us it was occupied. Before we could make our away deeper into the trees, something had occurred.
I remembered light and pain.
Little else for at least several hours. When I’d awakened, I’d been human. The same for the other two.
“Agreed. We can’t keep her as our prisoner. We’ve yet to determine what we can do to stop this atrocity.” Roman was angrier than I’d seen before. He was almost more talkative.
Before we could continue, she trotted down the stairs with clothes in her hands. “I don’t have the answers we all need, but I do know you’ll need supplies. I’ll bring a few things by tomorrow night, but in case you go out as… in your human form, you’ll need to blend in.”
She knew more than she was telling. I could see calculations in her mind, formulas and tests she’d run. One thought ran continuously. There was something else: lifeforms not of this world.
