Stefan went from icy to dead inside.
“Apparently in your sessions you discuss a delusion of yours that you imagined you were a tiger. The change was triggered by catnip of all things.”
“You stole my medical file. Are there any lengths you won’t go?” A rhetorical question.
“If you’re trying to appeal to my empathic side, be advised I don’t have one. The only reason you remained loose was because, at your age, you’re of less use to us. We prefer our subjects younger. They’re more malleable.”
“What are your plans for me then since I’m old?” He wasn’t dumb enough to think he’d just be released.
“I’m sure we can think of something. I know the scientists are eager to get samples from you both. And I am now very curious about your ability to father babies. We’ve had setbacks with other subjects.”
That didn’t bode well. “Fuck you. I have rights.”
“Humans have rights. You”—a pregnant pause for effect—“you’re nothing more than a lab rat.”
The ominous statement had him pacing, looking for a way out of the walls closing in. The more he strode back and forth, the smaller the room got.
“You can’t do this,” he growled, clenching his fists.
“I have, so best you resign yourself, or you’ll discover what happens to those who disobey. Your collar is being tested as we speak.”
“Collar?” Stefan’s fingers went to this throat, and he swallowed hard.
“All pets should have one. It makes them less likely to wander off. Today’s technology has made it so we never lose our subjects anymore.”
The sly taunt had his nails digging into his palms. “I’ll kill you.”
“Actually, once that collar goes on, one wrong move by you, and zap, you’ll be dead.” The words sounded extra cold due to their faceless nature.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I can.”
The speaker went dead, the channel turned off, leaving him alone to pace and rage. To wonder where his brother was. To wish he’d had a chance to say good-bye. To say I love you to his mom and his siblings.
His wife.
If only they’d had a chance to explore the passion between them. To bask in that domestic bliss that he scoffed in public but craved in private. To wake up with her by his side. For him to perhaps convince her to show him what her idea of being a shifter meant, because she appeared to embrace her other nature. Used it as a tool. She didn’t fear it.
He flexed his hands. Stared at them. Remembering the videos he’d shot of himself back when the high was everything and he wanted to understand.
What he’d learned was morphing appeared impossible, even when he watched his home videos in slow motion. One minute a man, and the next, shit blurred, and a tiger appeared. A mindless beast with no thought about being seen and putting itself in danger. It liked to hunt. That was all he knew. And that if he wasn’t careful, his catnip highs would kill him.
Was it any wonder he avoided it?
Yet, if there ever was a time when he needed to be strong and a fighter, it was now. He eyed the catnip in the wall.
Could he afford to lose his head? He needed to save Tyson.
The lid over the catnip slid shut just he noticed movement outside his window.
Too late.
The door to his cell slid open. A technician entered, pushing a trolley, shadowed by a guard who held a baton that Stefan would wager would give a shock. On the trolley was a collar.
Stefan retreated. “Stay away from me.”
“Turn around. Hands above your head, palms against the wall,” the guard ordered.
“Bite me, asshole. I am not letting you put that collar on.” If it went around his neck, all chance at escape was done.
“You don’t have a choice. We need to dope him,” the guard said to the technician, who appeared bored as he pulled out a syringe and vial. As if for effect, Stefan got to watch him filling it and felt the fear trying to creep.
The door out of the cell remained open at their backs. Freedom if he could reach it. Doubtful, yet he had to try.
The technician squirted the needle, and as the guard smirked in reply, Stefan rushed them. The guard reacted quickly and swung, but his aim was off. The baton hit Stefan in the arm with a jolt that vibrated his teeth. He swung his fist, an upper cut to the guard’s jaw that sent the guy flying hard onto his ass.
The technician gaped. Just for good measure, Stefan punched him, too.
An alarm went off, and the door whirred as it began to slide shut. He dove through the narrowing gap and heard the frightened exclamation of the tech locked inside before it sealed shut.
An alarm whooped, agitating those in the other cells. The ages of the occupants ranged, as did their sex. Hands pressed to the glass, haunted expressions, they eyed him with resignation. The collars at their throats were a reminder of what awaited him if he didn’t escape.
Could he leave without even trying to help? What of Tyson? Was he in a glass cage, too?
Stefan felt exposed and dumb running down the hall of cells, his dick and balls swinging. It helped those in the boxes were naked, too. Most eyed him with dull gazes, but a few cheered him on.
Little did they know he had no plan. Nothing. Nada. He wasn’t a hacker like Raymond or a trained fighter like Dominick. Just Stefan, which meant, when he hit the end of the hall and when the guard emerged through the previously locked door, he hesitated.
The guard didn’t. He lifted his gun, but before he could fire, Stefan jumped, a mighty spring into the air, possible because of the adrenaline coursing in his body. He flipped and landed in front of the surprised guard. Stefan snarled and batted his weapon aside.
Then he growled again as the guard dared to confront him. “Get out of my way.”
The guard, with his broken nose and cropped dark hair, smirked. “You think you can take me, let’s go. I heard about you. You need drugs to change. Ain’t no catnip here, tigerman.” A taunt that burned.
At the same time, it also reminded him of what Nimway had said. That he didn’t need an herb; the ability was within him. He just needed to tap it. To flex that inner muscle that was his hybrid self.
How? Fuck, he should have learned to do this before. Confronting a guy who was stalling so backup could arrive wasn’t the time to realize it would be useful to sometimes have claws.
The guard might have lost his gun, but he had a baton as backup. Stefan learned of it when it whacked him on the side and gave him a shock.
Ow. That hurt.
Fucker! He roared. The guy went to hit him again, and at the second blow, a different kind of pain and ecstasy took hold. He stretched and grew and changed and felt and…
Landed on the guard, who wasn’t laughing anymore.
“Oh, fuck,” the prey whispered. It then made the fatal mistake of trying to hit him.
A hard bite showed his prey the error of his ways.
A strident noise bothered. Time to leave this place. He butted the door in his way.
Turn the handle, idiot.
He put a paw on the lever and pushed. Locked. Of course. He eyed the electronic keypad. Even if he knew the code, how would he enter it? His paws weren’t exactly fingers. Beside it was a black square with a red dot in the middle.
He glanced at the guard and noticed the keycard attached to his belt. He grabbed the clip with his teeth and snapped it free, eyed the pad, and stood to swing the card on it.