He told her about the long days he’d been left alone in his cage, then taken out only to be shot full of chemicals or given electric shocks or other things, then observed to see how he reacted. His reaction had usually been screaming agony. Tiger told her about the days they’d chain him to a treadmill and make him run for forty-eight hours without a break. They’d alternately starve him and force-feed him to see what he could take, then they’d enact an interrogation scenario, torturing him when he couldn’t answer their questions.
Carly watched him with her beautiful green eyes as Tiger revealed the horrors in his flat voice. They’d let him see his cub once, he related, before they took it away. When Tiger had asked to see his boy again, begged them, they’d told Tiger the cub had died. The grief of that had been worse than any torture they could ever manufacture.
Tiger had talked until his voice grew hoarse, he who rarely said many sentences together. “Walker said that when Eric destroyed the building in Area 51, it was investigated, and the investigators found files and notes that didn’t get burned. At first they thought I’d died either in the experiments or in the explosion, but Walker kept an eye out. When he found out there was a Shifter in Austin who came from nowhere, he started watching me. Today he told me that the Shifter Bureau wants to start the research again, officially. The Area 51 people were trying to create Shifter soldiers, off-book. Shifter Bureau now wants to see if the project is still viable, if they can make Shifters who will be controlled soldiers, using me as the prototype.”
Carly had gone very still, her gaze fixed on him in shock as he’d told the tale. Now rage flared in her eyes. “Dear God. I’m guessing they aren’t asking you to volunteer.”
Tiger shrugged. “Officially, I don’t exist. I’m not a registered, Collared Shifter. Feral Shifters, un-Collared, can legally be hunted and killed.”
She planted her fists on the counter. “This is all bullshit.”
“As a research subject, I’m perfect, because it doesn’t matter if I die.”
“It damn well does matter,” Carly snapped. “And Walker told you all this? Why, because you were nice and let him go?”
“He doesn’t like what the idea has been turned into. The Shifter Bureau sent a soldier out to wreck the car and shoot me as part of the experiment. The mission risked civilians, and Walker doesn’t like that.”
“How sweet of him. Well, consider me risked. Along with Ellison. And they had you shot in cold blood. Why didn’t they scoop you up and take you with them right then, if they wanted to watch what would happen to you?”
“They thought they could scoop me up anytime they wanted, and they didn’t want to pay for the medical care.”
“Let the Shifters foot the bill and spend the time taking care of you while the Shifter Bureau sits back and watches?”
“But now they’re ready to take me in. I’m pretty sure Liam will let them—and he won’t be given a choice.”
“Why would Liam let them take you?” Carly asked. “He seems pretty protective of the Shifters, at least from what I’ve seen.”
“The other Shifter leaders want him to put a real Collar on me. Or kill me. Liam’s choice. Except he told me to make the choice. He might see handing me to the Shifter Bureau and their special team as a way out of the problem.”
Carly blinked. “Liam told you to choose between putting on a Collar or letting him kill you? What the hell?”
“Liam’s job as Shiftertown leader is to protect all Shifters. I’m a threat, a danger to the Shifters in his Shiftertown. He has to contain the danger any way he can.”
“Tiger.” Carly pointed a polished fingernail at his face. “Don’t you even sit there and tell me that he’s right. If Liam’s supposed to protect all Shifters, that means all Shifters. Individually. You as well as all the others. None of this needs of the many crap.”
She was so beautiful, her eyes flashing, her face pink with anger and indignation. Carly was angry for him, at Liam and the Bureau, not at Tiger.
When Walker had called him and told him the Shifter Bureau wanted to start experimenting on him again, Tiger’s instincts had told him to run and never stop running. He could have simply disappeared, using his incredible ability to survive to see him through.
But Tiger had a mate now. He couldn’t go and never see Carly again. He knew he risked exposure and capture by calling her and coming here with her, but Tiger needed her. He needed to breathe in Carly’s scent, and touch her skin, if only one last time.
Carly came around the counter and leaned on it beside him. The stance pushed her br**sts toward him through her thin dress and washed him in her scent.
“So, what are we going to do?” she asked. “You can’t go back to Shiftertown, obviously—that’s why you had me give Spike and Connor the slip. I’m betting the guy who shot you before will be after you too.”
“The Bureau doesn’t realize I’m gone yet. Walker met me on the edge of Shiftertown and gave me a ride halfway to where I met you and told me to disappear. I didn’t tell him I was going to call you.”
“I’m glad you did.” Carly leaned to him and slid her arms around Tiger’s shoulders, her warmth soothing the shaking deep inside him. “We should be safe here for a while, but eventually they’ll start checking with my friends and relatives. I’ll have to pull some cash if we’re going on the road, because credit cards are too easily tracked. And we have to get a different car. That one won’t hold up fifty miles. I bet the guy left his keys in it hoping it would be stolen.”
She wanted to come with him. Tiger sat in stunned silence as he realized that Carly was calmly planning how they could get away from Austin and anyone after him.
But the cruel fact was that Tiger could move faster and farther without her, could cover his tracks in ways she couldn’t imagine. He’d survive, but he’d have to do it alone.
Alone. Without his mate. Or his cub.
Tiger touched Carly’s lips. “You are my mate. You always will be and no other. But you will stay here and be safe, and I will go. Once I am gone, and they know you don’t know where I am, they will leave you alone.”
“No.” Carly jerked away from him, rising and taking away her warmth. “You’re not running out on me.”
“Keeping you safe,” Tiger said catching her wrist in his big hand. “I can run for days without stopping, I can live for days without food and sleep. You can’t.”