She understood. “I don’t know any. They don’t ever use their testing-facility numbers. They all picked names when they were freed. I never wanted to ask Valiant what his was when he was still imprisoned. I didn’t want to make him sad by making him remember his life from before.”

He blinked. “They chose their own names?”

She nodded. “Yes. Most of your kind have names like Justice and Breeze.” She paused before listing off the other names she’d heard. “Tiger. Flame. Brass. Rider. Smiley.” She paused. “I was told they picked names of things they loved or something that had some meaning to them.” She stared into his gaze. “They would have come to break you out if they’d known about you.” She whispered. “They don’t know about the testing facility in Colorado. They thought they found them all and had set everyone free.”

He suddenly lifted up and spun away from her. It made Tammy flinch as he snarled loudly and began to pace the cell. She scooted until her back rested against the bars of the cage wall. She hugged her chest and pulled her knees up, just watching him silently. He appeared agitated and really angry. She’d answered his questions but regretted saying that last part. Perhaps he was so angry that others had been found when he hadn’t been.

“Valiant will never stop searching for me. That means he’ll find us. Me and you. They’ll free you.” She said it softly, hoping her voice didn’t carry to wherever the doctor and his two thugs had gone. “We really do love each other and he won’t give up.”

The New Species stopped pacing to regard her. He slowly approached and crouched next to the bed. “The technicians will take you away from me if I don’t mount you soon.” He whispered the words.

Tammy shook her head frantically, afraid, and knew exactly what that meant. Sex. “No.”

“I will scent you and it will buy time.”

“What does that mean?”

He suddenly reached out and grabbed Tammy by her calf, gave a hard jerk, and his other hand gripped her arm to turn her on the bed where she fell flat. She gasped but had a few hundred pounds of muscled New Species pin her down when his body dropped over hers.

Tammy stared up at him and whimpered, thinking she’d been safe, sure he wasn’t going to hurt her after they’d talked. His face remained inches from hers and he looked grim. He lowered his face and buried it against her neck.

“Relax. I won’t hurt you,” he breathed very softly against her ear. “They listen always. This close and soft they cannot hear. I won’t mount you but I need to make them believe I am interested. They will take you from my cell otherwise and they could kill you if they think the experiment is a failure. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she got out softly, struggled with her fear, but forced her tense muscles to relax. “They have microphones listening to what we say?” She kept her voice just as soft as he had.

“They watch with cameras too but do not search for them with your eyes. They will become suspicious.”

He shifted over her, pinned her closer to him, completely covering her with his body. He was careful not to crush her. Tammy experienced raw fear at how tiny she felt, how helpless, and had no choice but to trust that he wouldn’t hurt her. The man was big, smelled of a strong soap and sweat. It wasn’t unpleasant, but foreign. She was used to the way Valiant smelled. She put her hands on his chest. His skin felt as hot as Valiant’s, almost as if they ran a fever, but they just had a hotter temperature than humans. She resisted the urge to attempt to push him off, already knowing it would be a useless effort.

He buried his face against her neck again, sniffed really loudly, probably for the microphones, before he spoke softly to her again. “Will Valiant really come looking for you and not stop?”

“Yes.” Tammy had no doubt. “They all will. The New Species, I mean.”

A soft growl tore from his mouth. “I will do my best to keep you here. They will kill you if they believe I won’t do as they wish by mounting you. You’ll have no value to them otherwise. They’ll take me from here, back to where I came from, and consider the test of breeding me to another human a failure.”

Tammy closed her eyes and fought more tears. The man dropped his face against her neck and adjusted until he’d wiggled his h*ps until he’d wedged between her thighs. Fear and mental exhaustion finally caught up to her. She wanted to cry, admitted to a little self-pity that this had happened to her, and she gripped his skin just to find some comfort.

“Lie here with me and rest. You are safe from me, little one with pretty eyes.”

“My name is Tammy.”

He inhaled her skin at her neck. “It is good to smell another of my kind on you.”

“They don’t let you see others?”

“No.”

He was alone. She shifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck. He didn’t protest the hug-like hold she had on him. He had her totally trapped under his big body but she didn’t feel threatened.

Deep down she understood one thing. He was alone and he needed to hold her too, probably longed for the comfort just as much as she did. She closed her eyes and relaxed. Her mind instantly drifted to Valiant. He’d find her somehow. He had to. A yawn surprised her and all the adrenaline started to drain from her body.

* * * * *

Tiger glared at Charlie Artzola. The man had been found tied up inside his car near Reservation. He’d pleaded innocent to willingly stealing Tammy but Tiger wasn’t buying it. The human was ignorant of their sense of smell or he just thought they were really stupid.