Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Shay snapped her legs together as soon as the guards released her ankles from the straps on the exam table.
It wasn’t anything new; Murgen’s medical aids had examined her a few times during her last stay.
But that didn’t make it any less degrading, any less violating.
She took comfort only in the fact that they treated her like an animal.
Their hands—and eyes—were always cold and clinical.
There’d been no sense in fighting during the process—her captors had made clear they wouldn’t hesitate to use the shock collar to incapacitate her.
And she needed to remain clearheaded for Leah.
As soon as her arms were free of the table’s restraints—though the manacles were still locked around her wrists—Shay sat up, covered her chest, and sought Leah.
Her daughter was on an exam table on the other side of the room, unconscious and surrounded by four examiners who were conversing and taking notes as they touched her like she was nothing more than a test subject.
The fury roiling within Shay burned hotter.
Murgen was standing with the examiners, nodding and grinning that stupid fucking grin of his.
“We’re done here,” said the pink-skinned female volturian beside Shay’s table without looking up from her tablet.
Her voice caught Murgen’s attention. He walked over, stroking a finger thoughtfully over one of his yellowed tusks. “And?”
“Healthy, Master Foltham,” the female volturian said, “apart from some contusions and a cut. She should be healed within a couple weeks, even without treatment. As requested, we’ve removed and destroyed her ID chip.”
“Excellent. I want that custom tracker implanted in her the moment it arrives. Is she ready to breed?” Murgen asked, running his eyes over Shay’s naked body.
Shay glared at him, bit her tongue, and pressed her lips into a tight line. It was the only way to hold in the harsh words welling in her throat. She longed for Drakkal, for his steady, strong presence, to be away from this place and these people. She longed to be with her mate and daughter.
“This terran is in even better shape than she was before escaping, sir. No damage to her reproductive organs…though she did have a birth control compound present in her system. Now that we’ve neutralized the compound, she will be ready to breed and is more than healthy enough to carry offspring to term. ”
Murgen frowned and let out a huff. “Unfortunate. I was hoping she’d been impregnated by that azhera. That would be a child I’d like to see. Can you imagine?”
Shay would’ve liked that, too—but not now, and not for Murgen’s benefit.
“There are traces of semen inside the terran,” the volturian said. “There’s a chance it will take. Or, if you’d like, we can extract some of the samples and artificially inseminate her when she’s ovulating.”
Throat swelling with a thoughtful hum, Murgen folded his hands over his gut. “Take the samples and store them. I’ll have to decide how I want to proceed…there are so many possibilities, after all, and I’ve had little opportunity over these last few months to consider them all accordingly.”
“Of course, sir.”
The guards stepped forward at Murgen’s instruction and forced Shay to lie back down as the volturian woman took her samples. Shay stared up at the ceiling, trying to turn her mind away as the volturian worked, but the cold, hard, invasive instruments were difficult to ignore.
“All finished, sir,” the volturian finally said.
“Nostrus, have the terran escorted to her cell,” Murgen said. “There’s still much to be learned through her offspring, and I’m eager to participate.”
Shay’s eyes widened, and she jerked upright. “No! I need to be with her. She needs me.”
The guards came forward again, grasping her arms to hold her still.
Nostrus approached slowly, his eyes, burning with hatred, fixed on Shay. “Your old room is waiting, terran. Don’t make this difficult.”
She’d remained calm for Leah’s sake, had been so sure they’d keep her and her daughter together. But she’d been wrong.
Shay looked at Murgen. “Please. I’ll behave, I swear, just please let me keep her. She’ll need to feed. She’ll need warmth, need her mother.” The words felt like acid in her throat, but it was desperation that drove her to beg. She didn’t know what they’d do to Leah.
Murgen snorted. “Perhaps, but that will be determined by my medical professionals—not by an animal.”
“Let’s go,” Nostrus said. He lifted his right hand, which had a small device in it—the remote he’d synched with her collar and manacles. When he pressed a button on it, Shay’s wrist bindings swung together in front of her as though drawn by powerful magnetic force.
The guards lifted Shay off the table and set her on her feet.
She wrenched out of their grasps, bumped back into the exam table, and turned, ready to jump over the table and race across the room to reach her daughter. “No! You can’t take her away from me!”
Grunting, the guards reached for her, fingers biting into her bare skin. Shay barely felt the pain. She threw an elbow back and struck one in his diaphragm, making him double over and breaking his hold.
A burst of electricity from Shay’s collar seized her muscles and nearly made her bite her tongue.
The pain was immense, but she didn’t take her eyes off Leah, even as fresh tears welled in them.
The shock lasted for a second, two, three; it lasted forever, but Shay refused to let pain overwhelm her only goal. She needed to be with her baby.
Her body seemed to disagree. When the shock finally ended, she sagged forward, limbs limp.
The guards shoved their arms beneath her armpits to hold her up.
Her legs, partially dangling, refused to accept any of her weight, and her lungs were ablaze.
For several moments, the pounding throb of her pulse at her temples was the only sound she was aware of.
Nostrus stepped closer. Shay couldn’t lift her head to look him in the eyes; she was stuck staring down at his boots. But she still had a voice.
“Fuck you, you cold-hearted fuck,” she rasped.
He slowly lifted his right hand and pressed a button on the little remote. Another shock—this one briefer but no less painful—blasted through her. This time, her eyes squeezed shut. Her limbs trembled when the shock subsided.
There was a soft chiming sound—like the call tone of a holocom.
“Yes?” Nostrus said. There was a pause. “Get one of the techs on it immediately and notify all the security staff.”
“What’s the problem, Nostrus?” Murgen asked.
“Surveillance system is down, sir,” Nostrus said tightly. “It’s probably just a glitch, but I would like you to head to the safe room until we receive word that it’s corrected.”
“Nonsense, my boy. I’ve too much work to do here. I’ve waited months for this, and I’ll not be delayed another moment.”
Nostrus sighed heavily and leaned close enough that Shay could feel his breath against her ear when he whispered, “You don’t have that baby in you anymore, terran. I’m not allowed to kill you, but I have many ways to hurt you. Behave yourself.”
“I will kill you,” she vowed, forcing the whispered words out of her constricted throat.
Her body jolted as another wave of lightning swept through her.
The fiery pain was followed by sudden, frightening numbness.
Though her eyelids were closed, her vision turned white for an instant.
She was vaguely aware of Murgen speaking before utter darkness chased away that terrible white, snuffing out her awareness.
Shay awoke to a gentle swaying motion, just like one would experience while riding a boat over calm, deep waters. It was soothing, but it was also wrong. She wasn’t near the ocean, or a lake, or even a pond. She wasn’t even on Earth.
She took in a slow, deep breath. The twinge of hurt it caused rippled through her and triggered a chain reaction during which every one of her aches and pains made itself known.
Every tiny bit of her body was sore, even parts she had never realized existed.
That agony was more than enough to remind her of what had happened and where she was.
Leah.
Shay stopped herself from sitting up, but only barely.
She needed to act, yes, needed to get to her baby and get out of this place, but she knew from experience that acting rashly here would not accomplish her goals.
She was too disadvantaged in her current state to act purely on rage.
Her father had taught her long ago that you had to assess a situation before you reacted to it—whenever possible, at least. That meant remaining calm. That meant thinking.
Either she’d find an opportunity, or she’d make one.
She was lying on her back atop a hard, flat, swaying surface, and could feel the hum of antigrav engines beneath her.
Gentle whooshes from around and above suggested she was moving past recesses in a tunnel or passageway.
The simplest and most likely explanation was that Shay was on one of the small, open transport carts they’d used to bring her and Leah to the examination room.
Her wrists were still bound together by the heavy cuffs, but they were at her front, and they weren’t anchored to the floor of the transport. That was better than she could’ve hoped for—Nostrus was usually more cautious than that.
“You think they were exaggerating?” someone asked from beyond her feet; the voice had come from the front of the vehicle, or at least the front-facing portion.
“Who knows?” someone closer responded—someone right near her feet, by the sound of it. The first speaker had likely been the driver. Both had deep, masculine voices, neither of which belonged to Nostrus.
Is Nostrus not here?
“She’s pretty scrawny,” the nearest male continued. “They probably just say she’s so dangerous to save face. I bet she got the drop on them a couple times and they’re embarrassed about it, so they play her up.”