Claiming His Mate(22)

That chemical scent, then someone shooting her with a dart. She didn’t remember much after that other than her hard shift to her jaguar form. Her animal had taken over, wanting to protect her. She wasn’t in pain and it didn’t feel as if anything was broken, but she couldn’t be sure until she moved.

Slowly, Lauren glanced around and realized she was in a shack or house of some sort. Ocean waves crashed nearby so she was close to the beach. Pushing up on all fours, she turned in a circle. She was in a room with a dingy old mattress and two boarded up windows. The door was shut though she didn’t hear any sounds of life on the other side.

Since her choice was to bash the door down with her large frame or shift back to human and open it up, she underwent the change.

Biting back a cry of discomfort, she let the shift flow through her. Her bones altered, broke and realigned as skin replaced fur. Crouching low, it took a moment for her surroundings to come in to focus again. She tried to keep her breathing as steady as possible in case anyone was nearby, but couldn’t stop taking deep breaths. The oxygen invading her lungs helped clear her head, though she was still feeling unsteady and had a pounding headache.

She was much stronger and more resilient than humans but she had no clue who had taken her or what they wanted from her. It was obvious they’d drugged her and she needed to find out the purpose. She also needed to find out how much time had passed.

After listening for another full minute and hearing only silence, Lauren pulled the door open. It emptied into a quiet hallway. More wood floors, more sand and graffiti on the walls. She scented old food…pizza maybe, somewhere in the house. She stepped over empty beer and soda cans as she headed down the hallway of what she now guessed was an abandoned house.

The hallway emptied out into a living room with even more beer cans and half a dozen crates that created a circle. There were ashtrays next to the crates and the lingering scent of weed filled the air. She might be wrong, but something told her that this was where teenagers or college kids hung out. Earlier last week when she’d done reconnaissance of Gulf Shores she’d seen a few abandoned homes along the beach and she wondered if she’d been taken to one of them. Hell, she wondered if she was still even in Gulf Shores.

The tang of salt in the air and sound of waves was stronger now. Light filtered through two boarded up windows so she knew it was day time, but she didn’t bother with the boards. Even though she was naked, she had to get out of here and figure out where she was. She strode right for the door. When she didn’t hear any human sounds or anything else out of the ordinary, she pulled it open a fraction.

A back porch led right to a sandy incline that connected to a long deck. Though she couldn’t see the ocean because of sand dunes, she could hear it more clearly now. Along with very faint voices and laughter nearby. The sun was bright and high in the sky with no clouds in sight, which told her she’d been taken at least a few hours ago. Unless this was the next day. Taking a chance, she stepped outside. A gust of wind rolled over her naked body, but she ignored the discomfort.

Right now she needed to find clothes, then find a phone to contact Max. Two easy goals.

Then she was going to find whoever had drugged her and dumped her here—wherever here was. And she was going to get some answers.

To her right was a boarded up two-story home. Maybe they’d been hit with hurricane damage and never repaired. She didn’t really care, she just needed some clothes before a human saw her and freaked out.

To the left of the house was a motel about fifty yards away that looked as if it hadn’t been updated since the 80s. She could faintly hear people on the beach, but decided to head to the motel instead. For cover, she used the overgrown grass and weeds in the lot separating the home and the chain link fence around the motel pool.

Feeling incredibly vulnerable and exposed in her naked state, she drew on her supernatural speed and raced along the length of the fence and only stopped when she was able to hide behind the end of the motel wall. She stood on the side that faced the beach. The actual ocean was blocked by a huge sand dune and overgrown bushes. She heard a creaking sound and peered around the corner to see a maid pushing a noisy cart down the sidewalk in Lauren’s direction.

The dark-haired woman stopped at one of the doors and knocked. When no one answered, she used a master keycard to enter.

Upon seeing they used keycards instead of actual keys, Lauren’s heart pounded in anticipation as a plan formed in her mind. After scanning the pool and surrounding area around the motel, she decided to take a risk.

Even though she was weakened from her earlier burst of speed, she sprinted down the walkway and snagged a white towel from the cart. She quickly wrapped it around herself then stumbled into the room, forcing herself to trip over her feet as she walked.