Merrick's Maiden (3 page)

In addition a mating mark, a series of intricate circles denoting the unbreakable bond between mates, appeared on the palm of the male and the matching female when they came into contact with each other. Each mark was as individual as the bonded pair. It would not appear until the male and female reached the age of mating.

Procreation was impossible without such a connection. Their scientists discovered the chemical reaction was an evolution of their genetic makeup. As far as he knew, they had not found a solution to the problem. If a resolution wasn’t found soon, the Prime species was destined for extinction.

A reluctant smile curved Merrick’s lips as he thought of the unusual answer that suddenly appeared before his species in the form of a tiny human female. Jasmine ‘Tinker’ Bell had unexpectedly appeared on J’Ka
r
‘Tag Krell Manok’
s
warship through a Gateway connecting their two worlds. The Gateway, created by Cosmos Raines, had given his world and the men living on it hope for a future.

Merrick looked at his palms. Nothing showed on them and probably never would. It didn’t matter. He had not come to this world for himself, but for the men under his command. As the leader of the Eastern Mountain clan, it was his duty to guide them and do whatever he could to ensure their survival.

He and his cousin, Core, had journeyed to the capital of Prime after they captured a human male. The male had lied to them. It was the first taste of deceit from the humans that Merrick had experienced. His fingers rose to touch his ear as he thought of J’kar’s tiny mate. A small chuckle escaped him. She had been the first taste he had of a human female’s ferocious ability to protect those that she loved.

Tink had attacked him when he struck out at her mate. She had jumped on his back, covered his eyes, and bitten his ear with her smooth teeth. Her mother had kicked him in his groin while her sister had knocked him out with a planter. He shook his head as the memories flooded him.

No, not all humans are traitorous
.
Including the males,
he reluctantly admitted as he thought of Cosmos and those working with him.
There are those that can be trusted here just as there are on my world, and those that cannot.

His eyes flickered up as the door opened and Weston and three other men stepped into the room. Weston eyed him with a combination of consternation and hatred. Merrick returned the human’s stare.

“Knock him out,” Weston ordered. “Doctor Rockman wants another sample.”

Merrick surged up to his feet at the name of the female doctor. The roar he emitted loudly echoed in the room as Weston raised the syringe in his hand. It took three men pulling on the chains to get him close enough to the bars for Weston to inject him. It would have been impossible if he wasn’t still weak from his earlier fight.

Merrick slid down his hands and knees on the floor as the drug rushed through him. His arms trembled violently as he fought against it, but it was impossible. He slowly collapsed down to the cold floor again. For a moment, his heart stuttered and paused as the excessive amount of the drug they used flowed through his bloodstream.

Perhaps this will be the last time,
he thought as darkness descended around him.

Addie waved her badge at Ted and smiled. He smiled and waved back before pressing the button to lift the security gate. She lifted her foot off the brake and let her small dark blue Kia Sonata roll over the speed bump before depressing the accelerator. Turning right into the parking lot, she headed for the employee entrance.

She grimaced as she glanced at the clock on the dash. She was running a few minutes late. A silent chuckle escaped her and she rolled her eyes.

Who would give a rat’s ass that I’m not there to mop the floor or empty a trash can on time?
She thought with a grin at the deserted parking lot.

It was almost ten o’clock on a Friday night. Everyone who worked at Keiser Research was gone for the weekend except the poor suckers like her, Ted and a few other security guards. A sigh escaped Addie as she pulled into a parking space up close to the back entrance and turned the engine off.

Grabbing her thick, long blonde hair in one hand, she wound a hair band around it and pulled it into a ponytail to keep it out of her way. She glanced around to make sure she had her badge to get in the building. She had only been working there a few days.

Opening the driver’s door, she checked that she had her car keys and small, leather wallet before locking it. Her eyes ran over the outside of the building. She hadn’t worked in this section yet. The email she received today instructed her to come to this building instead of the main office complex on the south side of the parking lot.

Swiping her badge in the security lock, she waited as the light turned green before she pulled the door open. At least this one had a light! The main complex didn’t and since she couldn’t hear the sound of the lock disengaging, she had to try to time when it would unlock. If she tried too soon, it didn’t work. If she tried too late, it didn’t work.

Addie sighed as the door closed behind her. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the map of the building. She would need to check in with the guard in the front lobby first. Ted was supposed to have talked to the guy for her and explained that she was deaf.

Walking down the main corridor, she thought of Ted and Pam. It was hard to believe that Miss High and Mighty, ‘he-is-going-to-ruin-your-reputation Pam’, had fallen in love with Ted during the last half of their senior year! Ted was one of the few kids that had remained in contact with her after she moved to St. Augustine to attend the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. After she graduated, she moved back to Portland and began taking classes while working a wide variety of jobs.

When she had casually ‘mentioned’ a couple of weeks ago that she needed to get a second job to help cover the cost of her last class, he had helped her get the position on the housekeeping staff at Keiser where he worked nights as the gate security guard. Addie was trying everything she could to remain independent from her parents.

It had taken her the last two years to earn enough to move out into her own place while she attended college. A shudder went through her as she thought of her mom’s insistence that she remain at home where they could take care of her. While her parents had been the driving force of her going to St. Augustine to finish her schooling, they had been adamant about her returning home as soon as she graduated.

It had taken the combined forces of her five older siblings to get her parents to agree to her attending college. She had agreed to live at home for the first two years. What she hadn’t told her parents was that she had spent a lot of that time working several part-time jobs to save up enough money to move out. She loved her parents to death, but their over-protectiveness, especially her mom’s need to know everything she was doing, was driving her crazy!

No, if it meant mopping floors to help supplement my income while I finish the last class I am taking to get my certification as a licensed massage therapist, then, I’ll mop a hundred of them,
she thought as she stepped up to the guard station.

Addie had one more test the following afternoon before she finished her degree. Once she got her license, she could quit working here and work as a Masseuse while she continued to work on her Master’s degree in Physical Therapy. Each step was leading to her dream of opening her own clinic one day. With a degree in both Massage and Physical Therapy, she knew she could make it without ever having to depend on anyone else ever again!

Addie drew in a deep breath and gave a brief, polite smile to the guard sitting in the chair with his feet propped up on the desk. A shiver of distaste washed through her when he ran his gaze over her. Ignoring the appreciative look in his eyes, she waited for the guard closest to her to respond to her presence. He seemed to have difficulty pulling his eyes from one of the monitors. Holding up her badge, she handed it to him so he could scan it when he finally looked at her.

“She’s a hot one,” the guard sitting behind the one scanning her badge said with a smooth smile. “Maybe she would be interested in a little nighttime organization of the supply closet.”

“Shut up, Josh,” Bradley muttered.

“Why? Ted said she’s deaf. She can’t hear what the fuck I’m saying,” Josh chuckled. “You can’t hear me saying I want to bend you over and fuck that sweet ass of yours, can you, sweetheart?”

Addie composed her face to have that ‘I’m blonde and clueless’ look on it. She had met too many assholes over the years to let him get to her. The one good thing about being deaf was that she had learned really quick who to avoid. One of the first things she had learned was to read lips and expressions.

Being aware of what was going on had actually saved her life on two previous occasions. Both times, she had read the intention of the guys. The first time had been when she had gone to the beach on a date during high school. The guy had slipped a drug into her can of soda. She would have drank it if he hadn’t bragged about it to his friend as he was handing it to her.

The second time was as she was leaving the bar shortly after her twenty-first birthday. There had been a guy in the bar watching her all night long. It wasn’t so much what he said, but the way he was looking at her that sent a shaft of warning through her. She had made sure that she was never alone. Three days later, she saw the guy on the news. He had attacked another girl after following her from the same nightclub.

“Just shut up,” Bradley muttered in annoyance. “Clean these areas.”

Addie looked down at the map the guard had printed out for her. He circled several sections and wrote the word ‘Clean thoroughly’ up at the top of the paper before handing it to her. Addie nodded her head and took the map.

“Hey, don’t go down to the third level,” Bradley called out to her as the phone rang.

“Asshole, she can’t hear you,” Josh chuckled as he watched Addie’s ass as she walked down the hallway. “Damn, I wouldn’t mind having a piece of that.”

*.*.*

Merrick jerked awake and rolled. He barely made it to the toilet before the contents of his stomach emptied. He didn’t know what they had pumped into him this time, but he could feel his body rejecting it. Heaving, he gripped the bars until the nausea passed.

Several minutes later, he slowly straightened. With a softly muttered curse, he released the bars and stepped over to the sink. He twisted the knob for the cold water. Bending, he washed his mouth out before washing his face. It took several minutes before he felt slightly better.

Standing back straight, he rolled his shoulders. The chains around his wrists rattled as he pushed his hair back from his face. The faint memories of hands on his body sent a ripple of distaste and rage through him. His stomach churned again, but this time for a different reason. He turned back to the bed and stripped the thin cover off of the mattress. Tearing a strip from it, he dampened it and quickly wiped his body down to get rid of the feel of Dr. Rockman’s hands on it.

He closed his eyes as his hands slipped under the waistband of the thin, cotton pants he wore. He cleaned himself as thoroughly as he could before tossing the cloth against the bars in fury. Throwing his head back, he bit back the loud roar that threatened to escape him. He would not give the guards the satisfaction of knowing how violated he felt.

His eyes moved to the door when he heard the sound of footsteps outside it. The lights were off in the room, but the darkness did not bother his vision. Moving to the side of the cage so the thick corner sections of it partially concealed him, he waited as the sound of the lock disengaging echoed in the cold room. Perhaps he would get the chance to kill another one of the guards.

A cold smile curved his lips as the door opened and the light came on. His eyes narrowed when the door opened wider and he saw a slender figure backing into it. Long blonde hair, piled into a messy ponytail, hung down the back of what had to be a female. He couldn’t see her face, yet. She appeared to be trying to pull a large cart into the room.

Amusement and curiosity reluctantly tugged at his lips when a low, muttered curse escaped her when the cart became stuck in the opening. He watched as the figured straightened and groaned as her gloved hands moved to her lower back. She rubbed it as if she was in pain.

A tired sigh escaped her this time and she leaned forward to grab something off the cart. He stiffened until he realized that she had turned to the counter. His eyes followed her as she sprayed foam on the countertop before wiping it down. She did the same to the cabinets and sink.

A soft growl escaped him when she bent over and opened the trash can to pull the bag out. The movement pulled the black cloth trousers she was wearing tight over her ass. Merrick frowned in annoyance. First, because he didn’t understand why his body was reacting to the female with such an unexpected intensity. The second reason was because he knew she must have heard the sound that escaped him, but she continued to clean the room as if he wasn’t there.

He watched as she pulled a long stick out of a yellow bucket. She pressed the strings until most of the water was removed before she started cleaning the floor. A frown creased his brow when he noticed she still hadn’t turned around to look at the cage. The need to see what her face looked like was beginning to grow to an irritating, but persistent ache.

The frown darkened as she tiredly brushed her cheek against her shoulder. It was obvious from her demeanor that she either had no idea he was there, or she was pretending. He rattled the chain on his arm against the metal bar to draw her attention. His brow furrowed suspiciously when she still didn’t turn around.

It must be another test,
he thought as the murderous rage he had felt earlier swept through him.

Dr. Rockman had tried to ‘research’ his mating habits once before. She had a drugged-up woman brought in two months ago at the previous place they kept him. The foul smelling female had taken one look at him, licked her lips, and run her eyes over him as if she had been given something sweet to eat.

The look of desire on her face hadn’t lasted long once he proved he wasn’t interested. Her screams and wretched cries for help had echoed once she came close enough for him to wrap his hands around her neck. He would never mate with such a female, no matter how desperate he might become.

He continued to follow the movements of the woman as she ran the mop from side to side. He tugged on the chains holding him. Frustration burned through him when he realized that he couldn’t reach through the bars far enough to grab her. She would have to actually be against them before he would be able to touch her.

All thoughts flew from his mind when she suddenly turned until she was facing him. A soft squeak escaped her and her eyes widened in shock when she saw that she wasn’t alone. Dark green eyes stared back at him in surprise before it was replaced with confusion as she noted the bars and the shackles around his wrists.

A low, menacing snarl escaped him when her eyes returned to his. His own glittering gaze captured and held hers for several long seconds as they both assessed the other. It took him half that time to realize that the feeling of rage had been replaced with another emotion. An emotion that he wasn’t quite sure how to describe.

He impatiently waited for her to speak. The frown marring his brow deepened when the silence dragged on as they continued to stare at each other. He finally released a frustrated grunt when she blinked in slow motion, as if she wasn’t sure if he was real or not.

Merrick watched the female’s face as a multitude of emotions swept over it. Surprise, confusion, uncertainty, and finally, curiosity glittered in the expressive green depths. Another jolt of unease ran through him as he felt himself being pulled into their brilliant depths. He tightly clenched the bars in aggravation knowing that he would never be able to reach the woman from this distance. His lip curled in warning as a figure suddenly appeared in the hallway behind her.

“Hey! What are you doing in here?” A voice demanded angrily behind her.

Merrick’s eyes flickered from her to the guard called Crawford before moving back to her. He watched as she turned to look at the man in confusion. Her eyes flickered back and forth between him and the guard. A low growl of warning escaped him when Crawford pulled the cart out of the doorway and caught the door before it could close.

The female stumbled backwards away from the guard when he pushed the door hard enough that it banged against the wall. Her foot caught in the tangled strands of the mop and she lost her balance, falling against the bars of his cage.