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“I’m so sorry, Dev. This is for your own good,” Ashley muttered as the unknown assailant carried Devin to a waiting van that idled in the drive. Ash continued her apologies as they clambered into the back of the van, a cloth pressed over Devin’s mouth and nose. Lungs clogged with an almost sweet-smelling substance that burned with every inhalation, Devin tried to scream as her vision began graying at the edges.
Moaning as everything faded to black, she heard an unfamiliar male voice demanding answers to questions that smeared through her consciousness. They made no sense, the subject so outlandish Devin would have laughed if she hadn’t been so afraid.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was pregnant?”
* * *
Devin groaned, holding her head as she came awake. She was lying on something soft, but the whole world thumped and jostled with the growling hum of wheels on asphalt. There was the sensation of movement, speeding through space, that made her stomach roil.
“She’s awake again,” Ashley said, clambering into the back to crouch beside Devin. Smoothing a palm over disheveled curls, Ashley offered a calming purr. “Just take it easy, Dev. You’re okay.”
“Gonna be sick,” Devin whimpered, falling back into the mattress packed into the back of the van. Fear skittered up her spine, but whatever they’d done to her kept her sluggish, limbs refusing to move as she commanded them as her blood moved molasses thick.
“You’re going to be fine.” Ashley curled up around Devin’s back, purring all the louder as she stroked Devin’s hair in even, slow passes. She didn’t scrub at Devin’s scalp the way she liked, didn’t smell of espresso and strawberries as she’d come to depend on.
“Do I need to pull over again,” that male voice from before asked, the van beginning to slow and shift sideways.
“No, she’s fine.”
“I’m anything but fine, Ash. What are you doing?”
“We’re going to make this right, like I should have done when you first came to me.”
“Ashley! You can’t do this. You have to take me back right now. Gods, he’s going to be so scared—”
“He doesn’t care about you, Dev,” Ashley hissed, strangling Devin in her too tight embrace. “He’s just using you.”
“No, no he’s not. He loves me, Ashley. You just don’t understand.” Devin sniffled, unable to hold back the tears slipping hot and thick down her cheeks despite the strength of the purr ricocheting around the steel box.
“That’s the bond talking, hon. Don’t worry, we’re going to make it better.”
Devin wouldn’t be consoled. Her weeping bled into hysterical sobbing with every mile they took her further away from her mate. No matter how hard Ashley tried to console her, Devin wouldn’t be calmed. Even after she’d cried herself into exhaustion, she slipped into an uneasy rest. Nervous shifting giving away to violent dreams that woke her screaming into the stuttering lights filling the van as they passed streetlamps on some unknown highway.
When they stopped, Ash tried to remain with her. The man, Max, convinced her to go and stretch her legs, taking up even more space on the small mattress than Ashley had as he sat and watched over Devin as she sobbed weakly into the thin covering.
“How far along are you, hon,” Max asked through a quiet purr, not trying to force her into a sense of lassitude so much as to keep Devin from puking. Again, from the sounds of it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re the one driving me away from him.” Hiccupping, Devin curled into a tighter ball over the miserable knowledge.
“The baby. How far along?”
“What baby?”
“Gods above, you don’t… How can you not…? When was your last heat?”
“No! Gods, please, please don’t do that,” Devin screamed, finding a surge of adrenaline to scramble to far side of the van. Hands scratching over the cold metal, she struggled to find the latch to get away from the oppressive threat of another forced heat.
“What did you do, Max,” Ashley shouted as she wrenched the back door open, tumbling Devin back inside when she fought to escape.
“I asked how far along she is and when she had no idea what I was talking about, I asked when her last heat was. Was he injecting her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Just great.” Max heaved a sigh, and his callused hand carded through Devin’s hair, ripping free several strands before he began scrubbing at her scalp in a bid to calm her some. “So you’re telling me your friend here doesn’t know she’s pregnant or how long ago that happened. Just dandy.”
“Dev, hon, you have to remember when your last heat was.” Ashley scooted closer, rubbing at Devin’s calves.
“The bad guy,” Devin slurred, exhaustion and whatever they’d done catching up to her again as the adrenaline began to fade away. “Drugs.”
