Kenzie had no intention of shifting, but she felt her fur receding, her limbs changing shape against her wishes. That scared her more than anything.
Kenzie came to her feet, naked and breathing hard. She had enough strength of will to snatch up Brigid’s cloak from the ground and wrap it around her. She never minded being nude after shifting in front of male Shifters, but the way Turner gazed at her with frank interest made her skin crawl. Kenzie pulled the cloak around her, finding it surprisingly warm for fabric so thin.
“You have no need to be afraid of me, Kenzie,” Turner said, his blue eyes innocent behind his glasses. “My work can benefit you. Can benefit everyone, really. The Fae were trying to make a race of skilled fighters to conquer their enemies, and it worked. It cut their casualty rates in half. Think what a contribution you can make to national security.”
Kenzie struggled to speak. Her Collar had calmed down, but the pain remained. “Fae casualties were cut in half, you mean. Shifters still died. Now you want Shifters for national security? Like joining the military and so forth? We tried. They won’t let us.”
Turner shook his head. “Not Shifters necessarily. Beasts stronger than Shifters, which the military can control. I am very close to making a breakthrough.”
“You mean that poor thing you let loose near the roadhouse? It was strong, sure, but didn’t last very long.”
Turner roved his cold gaze over her. “That ‘poor thing’ nearly killed you all. I was conducting an experiment that night, admittedly, to see how well my creation stood up to the fighting prowess of Shifters. You handled yourself very well, I was pleased to see.”
“You were there?” Kenzie adjusted the cloak. She and Bowman had been climbing each other just before the thing attacked. The thought that he’d been watching was repulsive. “I thought you hired a lackey to drive the truck.”
“I did. I can’t drive a rig. But I rode along, and yes, I watched.” His smile made her know he’d seen everything she and Bowman had done. “I wanted to see how my baby performed. Doesn’t a mother wish to watch her child’s first steps?”
Brigid threw him a look of haughty disgust. “You do not know the first thing about being a mother.”
“Yes, women can be so superior about children,” Turner said. “My mother never was—if she had been, maybe my father would have been nicer to her. Not that I knew anything about that until after he died. My father was a complete bastard.”
Kenzie had little interest in Turner’s family and problems at the moment. “Why the hell am I here?” she asked.
“You being here is not my doing. I have found a way to stabilize this gate, yes, but you blundered into it all on your own, chasing that cop. The mists opened to you, so they must have wanted you here, for whatever reason. The gates can be very powerful. But I am glad to see you. Brigid I trapped on purpose. She has the equivalent of what we would call a doctorate in genetics. She’s amazing. You are a strong Shifter, an alpha female. Your DNA will be of great use to me.”
Turner’s words indicated he knew nothing about Gil not being a human cop. Interesting. “If you already have my blood and fur, you have my DNA,” Kenzie said. “I’d like to know how to get out of this place, whatever it is.”
“It’s a world out of time,” Turner said. “Or something like that. I’m not sure. It’s a different plane of existence anyway. I haven’t explored it much—I only know how to access it. A good place to keep you and Brigid—much better than a cage or a locked room, and much harder for anyone but me to find.”
“I found it,” Kenzie said. “That means my mate or my friends could find it too.”
“No, you chanced upon it. That cop is very interested in you, Kenzie, in a sexual way, I’d say. You know, it was once thought that Shifters and humans couldn’t produce viable offspring, but that idea has been proved wrong many times in the last twenty years. A professor from Chicago presented a paper on it at the last symposium I attended.”
“Shifters don’t exist for your entertainment,” Kenzie said irritably.
“Ah, but you know, entertainment was another reason they were first created. To fight and hunt, yes, but also to perform tricks—Fae would boast to each other how clever their Shifters were. Fae also used them as sex partners, sometimes in their animal forms, if they had such a fetish.”