The Mating Project Read Free

couldn't breathe. The world went black as her tormentor’s
heavy boots appeared in the corner of her vision.
     

Chapter Two
     
    Maria came to on
a dirty, cold stone floor. The scent of humans and wolves was everywhere, and
she swallowed the bile back down. She wasn't alone in the room, or maybe she
was, but she sensed a presence watching her. Anger poured off that presence,
irritation, and lust aimed at her. It made her cougar want to curl in on
itself. Maria tried to summon her animal forth. Being this exposed would be
easier to deal with in her cat form, but it was useless. Try as she might, she
couldn’t shift. Instead she lay trapped in her human form, naked and shivering,
and chained to the filthy floor. Others’ screams echoed in her ears, and she
winced and curled tighter into herself, partly to keep warm, partly to shield
herself from the evil stare she sensed.
    There was
movement, the heavy step of boots and an animalistic growl that sent slivers of
ice cold fear across her skin. She was no match for any man without her cougar,
and the animal just borrowed deeper inside her body. What the hell was wrong
with her, and where in God's name was she?
    If only she
could shift she could be out of these chains and do some serious damage to
whoever stood watching her.   She raised
her head slightly to sniff the air, to get the scent, but all she could smell
was the stench of fear, urine, feces, and sex. Surely those should never be
used in the same sentence, but here in this dismal cell, and she was in a cell,
a furtive glance around told her that. Here, in this abhorrent place, those
smells were all around her. The ground she lay on was stained with blood, not
hers, but some unfortunate female’s . In her befuddled
state she couldn't make out which species, though if she had to guess, she
would have said cat. There was something familiar about that smell, stained
though it was with the fear and pain of whoever had been chained in this place
before.
    "She is due
her next dose, boss. We don't want her shifting, do we?"
    The nasally
twang brought with it the smell of hyena, and Maria's stomach churned anew, as
a horrible suspicion dawned on her. It would explain her predicament, at least,
but how fucking dare they? Did they not know who she was?
    "She's
definitely waking up, and getting mighty antsy. Not often we get the likes of
her in here. I wouldn't mind experimenting on her myself. It would be fun to
send Councilor Anderson a piece of his high and mighty daughter. That'll teach
them to think more of themselves."
    His manic
laughter was joined by a deeper, almost growly chuckle that sounded familiar to
Maria. Again that stare that made every cell in her body want to vomit, and she
knew with frightening clarity where she was. One of the many underground cells
associated with the Mating Project. Here, experiments took place that had no
place in shifter society. It was the whispered stuff of nightmares, where
females were forced to mate against their will, in an effort to increase
fertility rates, and all sorts of mutations occurred.
    The council
largely turned a blind eye to them, desperate as they were to help cure the
failing birth rate, but to her certain knowledge they had never stooped as low
as to capture a pure blood such as she . She hastily
blinked the tears away. Now was not the time for them. She had to think and
think fast. They knew who she was, so that could only mean one thing. Whoever
was in charge of this cell had to sit on the council.
    Unbidden a
vision of Anton de Souza swam into her mind. He had the connections for sure,
and he was in charge of the Mating Project, the official one, at least, but why
would he do this? Sure enough she had snubbed him completely the last time he
had visited with her father, but he had her father's agreement to mate with
her. Why would he risk that by kidnapping her now, unless he'd known that she
would run?
    Maria groaned as
a fresh wave of pain surged through her