The Mating Project Read Free Page A

body. Too late she realized that she'd
been darted again. Her cougar whined and withdrew even further, and Maria
screamed as her mind tried to fight the effects of the poison, but it was
useless. She lost consciousness again.
    When she came
round, she had no idea how much time had passed. The walls of her prison held
no natural light, only the harsh fluorescent glare of the overhead lighting
strip. Gingerly Maria sat up, as far as the chains would allow her to. The
heavy metal door to her cell gleamed, and there were bars across the window.
She couldn't see through it, but no doubt they could see in. She yanked on her
chains, frustrated beyond belief at her predicament. Apart from the places she
had been darted, which still hurt like crazy, she seemed unharmed—for now. At
least the cloying presence she'd sensed wasn't there anymore.
    No screams
echoed through the air either, and Maria closed her eyes and tried to summon
her mother by concentrating on her face. The mind connection was a lost art
reserved for mated pairs and those sharing a common bloodline, but she had
managed it a few times in the past, mostly without wanting to. It seemed her
mother sensed her distress. Last time had been years ago, when a six year old
Maria had fallen down a well. Mum and Dad had been there in record time, but
she didn't seem able to summon them this time.
    With a groan of
disgust Maria stopped trying and scowled against the wall. Judging by the
quietness of the place it was night time. A perfect time to
escape, if only she could shift. Surely she would be missed by now. Her
father and brothers would no doubt be tracing her whereabouts by following her
scent. At least she hoped so.
    ****
    Malachi
flattened himself against the wall, and waited for the guard to walk past him.
His stomach churned at the stink coating him. As satisfying as it had been to
rip the hyena's throat out—after all the bastard had reeked of his cougar—it
had been less enthralling to roll in his entrails and to don the other man's
clothes, including the long technician's coat that granted him entry to the
complex.
    His wolf scent
suitably masked, it had been surprisingly easy to enter the cave that housed
this underground cell hidden deep in the Thetford Forest. On any other occasion
Malachi would have found the fact that shifters had reclaimed a part of the
forest usually overrun by human tourists amusing, but the events of the night
had robbed him of his sense of humor.
    The battle on
Anderson's land had been short and brutal. Half of his pack lay slaughtered,
his father among them, and whilst Malachi had felt no emotion standing over his
father's remains, he'd known that there was more at stake here. He'd followed
the humans at a safe distance. They had dragged the councilor's daughter off
her father's land and had brought her here. His gut had churned witnessing the
rough handling of his mate, and it had taken all of his willpower to hold his
wolf back. He wouldn't be much good to her dead.
    He'd overheard
enough of the conversation to know that this attack would be blamed on his
father's pack. They thought Malachi himself dead in the melee, and he knew this
gave him the advantage. He would be able to just blend into the background, and
get on with his life, far away from the council and their politics, but first
he had to rescue his mate.
    Malachi didn't
question the absolute certainty behind his wolf's insistence. It was just his
damn luck that not only did he turn out to be one of the rare shifters to
actually meet his mate, but she had to belong to the high council.
    A pure blood
cougar such as she would fetch a high price on the open market, if they didn't
choose to experiment on her. A red mist descended upon him at the mere thought,
and he forced himself to breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth
to calm his agitated wolf.
    His beast didn't
know yet that he had no intention of claiming his mate, but he sure as fuck
couldn't leave her in