Cougar Bait Read online

  Thinking of that, her eyes slid back to the strange harness with its glass collection cups and tangle of hoses. What exactly did Lounds think he was going to suck out of her? It wasn’t like she was lactating or anything—was she?

  Looking down at one of her newly perky breasts, which was firmer than it had been since she was nineteen or twenty, Samantha pinched one nipple experimentally between her finger and thumb. The tight peak, which had darkened from pale pink to a dark rose that was almost maroon, seemed to have grown larger and much more sensitive in response to the chemicals Lounds had injected her with.

  Though she pinched very gently, a bolt of pain still went through her. Samantha gasped and let go at once.

  God, that hurt!

  Looking down, she saw that in response to the light pressure, a drop of clear golden fluid had formed on the tip of her nipple. As she watched, it slid sluggishly down the underside of her full breast, leaving a sticky trail, almost like honey, in its wake.

  “What the hell?” Samantha muttered. This couldn’t be normal, could it? After all, Sadie had just gone through the Rejuvenation process, and she had never said anything about her breasts leaking honey-type stuff. Were the chemicals that had forced her into this accelerated Rejuvenation to blame? Samantha didn’t know—she only knew it was frightening to see something coming out of her body and have no idea what it was.

  Looking at her other breast, she saw that it had begun leaking too. Before she knew it, droplets of pale gold liquid were forming on both her nipples and dripping to the tile floor of her cell.

  Then she felt something between her legs. Something warm and wet, almost like she was starting her period.

  She groaned inwardly. Oh no! Not there too!

  But when she spread her thighs and looked down, she saw that sure enough, her inner thighs were coated with the same sticky, pale-gold liquid that was leaking from her breasts. God, what was happening to her?

  “Ah—I see you’re ready for harvesting now.”

  The voice behind her made Samantha whip her head around and close her thighs tightly. Lounds was standing by the bars of the cage, smirking in that hateful, smug way of his. Samantha thought she had never hated anyone more in her life.

  “I . . . don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, giving him her coldest look. “What exactly do you think you’re going to be harvesting?”

  “Don’t play stupid, Samantha—it doesn’t become you. You’re actually quite intelligent for one of your sex.”

  “Yes, I somehow managed to get through med school and a trauma fellowship despite the whole ‘being a woman’ thing,” Samantha said dryly. “What a shock. Until you realized that the brain and vagina aren’t mutually exclusive organs, that is.”

  “Very funny,” Lounds growled. “I’m talking about harvesting your nectar.” He nodded at the droplets that had fallen at her feet. They were so viscous that they didn’t spread out like blobs of water but held together, looking like small golden beads on the white tile floor.

  “Nectar?” Samantha stared at the stuff which was now flowing freely from her nipples and pussy. “What the hell is ‘nectar,’ and what did you give me to make me produce it?”

  “It’s actually a normal byproduct of Rejuvenation, but most Juvies produce it only in tiny amounts—they don’t even notice it.”

  “Well, I’m sure as hell noticing it right now,” Samantha snapped. She still had her back to him, crouching over the pan of soap and water. She wondered if she could somehow use the pink razor to slash his throat, but no—it would snap in a second. There was no way she could kill a man with a flimsy plastic razor, let alone the huge ravening wolf-type thing she knew he could become.

  “You’re noticing it because your Rejuvenation process has been greatly accelerated.” Lounds’s voice had taken on a lecturing tone again. “You’re producing as much in a couple of hours as most Juvies produce over the entire weeks-or months-long course of their Rejuvenation.”

  “And I’m guessing you wanted it that way,” Samantha said flatly. She was playing for time, keeping him talking. Trying desperately to think of a way to escape once he opened her cell door to “harvest” her.

  “Of course I wanted it that way. Nectar is loaded with hormones—it’s an antiaging chemical cocktail—the essence that rolls back the hands of time and reverses the aging process, taking a woman who is already entering middle age back to her early twenties to start again. It increases fertility exponentially.” Lounds sounded really excited now. “Just think—with the chemical compounds your body is secreting right now, I can produce medications for both the antiaging and the infertility markets. My name will go down in history as one of the greatest scientists of all time. I’ll be famous . . . not to mention rich beyond my wildest dreams.”

  Samantha stared fixedly at the small pan of water with the thin white sliver of hotel soap floating in it. What was she going to do? How could she escape?

  “All right. Get up now—it’s time to get you hooked up to the harvester. You’re wasting nectar—every drop you make is worth its weight in gold,” Lounds said. It sounded like the lecture was over, and Samantha still wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

  What do I have to work with? she asked herself. Not a hell of a lot. Not even a sheet to wrap herself in to stop her shivering. Just the pan if ice cold water, the razor, and the soap.

  Soap!

  She turned her head again and looked past Lounds who was standing there impatiently. She stared at the metal frame and its handcuff-type restraints at all four corners.

  If he cuffs my feet first, I won’t have a chance. But if he starts with my hands . . .

  Surreptitiously, she reached for the thin bar of soap.

  “What are you doing? I said come on!” Lounds demanded.

  “Hang on a minute,” Samantha snapped, looking over her shoulder. “This nectar stuff is sticky and I got it all over my hands.”

  “Get out here now if you don’t want me to either shoot or Shift,” he growled. “My Hyena would love the taste of your nectar—it’s one of the things that draws a male Shifter to a Juvie, along with her scent.”

  Just the thought of him licking her in his beast form made Samantha feel sick and shaky. It didn’t help that her head was pounding and her temples were throbbing.

  “All right, all right.” Quickly she finished with the soap and dropped it back in the water. Standing, she turned to face him, her fists clenched and her chin held defiantly high.

  “I see you finished shaving.” Lounds’s small, weasely eyes roamed over her naked body hungrily. Having him look at her that way made Samantha’s skin crawl and yet, horrifyingly, she also felt a pull toward him.

  He’s an Alpha, she thought, sick with disgust as she watched him unlock the door to her cell. And my body is going to need an Alpha very soon.

  Well, to hell with what her body needed—she’d rather be dead than let Lounds touch her. She had to get out of there while she still could. No matter what the risk, she had to take it.

  “Come on.” He had the gun in his hand again and was waving her out of the cell with it.

  Samantha stepped outside the cell, edging around him, keeping the gun in her sights at all times. There was no point in trying anything while he still had it pointed directly at her. But he would have to put it down to hook her up to that damn collection system with its glass suction cups and tubing. That would be her chance—the only one she would get.

  “Get over there.” Lounds motioned at the metal frame, which was shaped like a capital X. “Stand against the frame with your back to it and put your hands over your head.”

  “Fine.” Samantha walked over and did as he ordered, standing with her back pressed against the metal X. She hissed as her bare skin connected with the dull silver metal—it was so cold it burned.

  “Hold still!” Lounds demanded. “Slip your right hand into the cuff so I can tighten it. Do it!” He waved the gun right in her face, and Samantha