A Lion’s Mate by Eve Langlais
Chapter Five
Zach fully wakened when the door to his room opened. Someone thought to sneak in.
He sprang out of bed, but Fluffy was quicker. She jumped in front of the intruder and turned furry while wearing his Shaving is for dogs shirt.
The maid’s eyes widened in surprise. She tossed her armful of fresh towels at Fluffy’s face. The yeti roared, the kind of sound that promised someone would die.
He bellowed, “Don’t eat her.” Which, in retrospect, he would have changed.
The maid bolted, and when Fluffy would have chased, he growled. “Don’t.”
What a start of his day, and before he’d even had a cleansing smoothie. He got out of bed and headed for the statue-like yeti. He could hear the maid in the hall on her walkie-talkie, talking in rapid-fire Russian.
He grabbed Fluffy by the hands, the palms of them softer than he expected. “You can’t be a yeti here. Change back. Now.”
She stared at him.
“Fuck.” Zach scrubbed his face. “We need to leave before she comes back with security.” A good thing he was already mostly packed. He threw on a shirt and shoes and glanced at her. Given all the fur, his pants might fit? And he had a hat.
He wasted precious time getting her to put it on. She refused to wear anything but the stretched shirt.
The hall was quiet, still enough to not notice a big, shaggy yeti following him? How much would it cost the Pride to discredit if he was caught on camera?
Hayder would be pissed. He’d told Zach to stay low-key. In his defense. It wasn’t even eight a.m. Since when did room service show so early?
Weird. As was the fact that there was no cart in the hall. Perhaps the maid had delivered the towels to the wrong room. Or…someone was looking to flush him.
He stopped a few paces from the stairwell door, and Fluffy bumped into him.
He rocked on his soles. Something didn’t feel right. If he were to hypothesize, the maid was a feint to make sure they were there and to draw them out. Inside the room, anyone attacking would have had to come in, one at a time, which he could have handled.
“We need to go back to the room,” he said, hearing a creak on the other side of the stairwell door. “Now,” he yelled, as it began to open, and gun barrels poked through.
He grabbed Fluffy and bolted, which was when she chose to turn human, long legs flashing as they ran.
“What’s happening?” she gasped, her English much improved since last night. A little bit of civilization, and she was starting to remember stuff.
“The maid was a decoy to draw us out.”
The elevator dinged and opened on their floor.
More guns. Shit. He dragged her down as they fired. He was less than reassured by the fact that they were darts and not bullets.
Darts meant capture. Death would be better.
Rather than aim for their door, he kicked in the nearest one, not caring if it was occupied. It bounced open, and in one motion, he also pulled his shoe from his foot and whipped it. Clunk.
A shooter went down, his aim totally off, hitting his partner, who forgot about them.
A short reprieve as the farther stair guys got close enough.
Zach shoved Fluffy into the room. “We have to climb.” She understood his intent and headed for the balcony, ignoring the people in bed, sitting up and yelling.
“Sorry. Just passing through,” he explained as he joined Fluffy outside the sliding glass door.
Third floor. He’d better not fall.
“Hold on to me. I’ll get us down.” He slipped off his other shoe and flexed.
She eyed him and snorted. The fur emerged, and she clambered down, agile and sure-footed.
He joined her, still as a man, making it to the first floor when he felt the sting.
One dart. No big deal. It was the other five that made him lose his grip and fall.
He awoke…
…in a lap.
A partially naked lap.
He knew that because his cheek rested on a bare thigh. As to who the lap belonged to… The silver hair framing him could only belong to Fluffy. What he didn’t know was where they were. He felt a chill, a distinct one. Could hear a rather rumbly hum—of an engine.
Had those guys hunting with tranqs caught them?
He shifted but didn’t go far as the curtain of hair parted, and bright eyes peered at him.
“Awake.” Fluffy smiled.
“How long was I asleep?” he said, trying to sit up, ignoring the plaint of his inner feline that wanted to snuggle the bare skin a little longer.
“Long,” she replied. “Bad.”
They were in the dark, so it took him a moment to adjust and realize their situation.
Look at them, stuck in a cage, the kind with very thick, metal bars. While she wore his T-shirt still, if worse for wear, he appeared to be quite naked. It took only a second to connect the dots. They were in the cargo hold of a plane.
“What the fuck happened?” he exploded.
