Page 59 of Jared

“I'm not here alone,” Jared blurted.

“What the hell? You look like you're pregnant. Don't he?”

Jared crossed his arms protectively over his belly.

The two men met each others gazes in the mirror. “Well, Ray, it sure does look that way, but then this place has been pretty fucked up so far,” the second one said.

“That's the truth, Bob,” the first one agreed.

Bob? Ray? Were those their real names?

Ray lunged forward suddenly, clamping a hand over Jared's mouth and a strong arm around his chest. “There was a back door at the end of the hall, Bob. We can leave that way.”

Jared was seized with blind panic. He jerked himself forward, shaking his head side to side.

“Stop that. Don't make me hurt you,” Ray hissed into his ear. Memories of what the pair had done before assailed Jared's mind. He froze. Surely someone would see the two men dragging him away.

He kept telling himself that as they made their way out of the restroom, then out a service door at the end of the short hallway. They found themselves in the parking lot, shielded from view by the VW camper van. Bob jerked his head to one side, urging Ray to follow him along the side and around back. Panic once more took hold and Jared struggled.

“I told you not to make me hurt you.” Ray spun him around to face the building, suddenly releasing his hand from Jared's mouth and seizing his hair. He gave Jared's head a quick shove so that it connected with the side of the building and Jared saw stars, then nothing.

Back at their table, Danilo and Tim looked at each other uneasily. Danilo stood. “I'll go see if he found the restroom okay,” he said.

Tim gave a curt nod.

“Oh, he's probably okay. I remember when I was pregnant with Steve, it took me forever to finish going,” Alice said. “Pee a bit, think you're done, stand up, then find you have to pee some more.” She sipped her tea absently, the scone long gone.

Danilo hastened in the direction Jared had gone. Spying the service door, he frowned. It was ajar. He ducked his head into the restroom. “Jared?” No answer. He entered quickly, quickly observing no feet showed under the stall doors. He hurried back out and peered out of the service door. The gravel showed signs of someone being dragged.

“Oh, fuck.” He mentally cursed himself for allowing Jared to go off alone, even to the restroom. Now it appeared someone had him and the Alpha Heir's unborn child. He need to find Jared, and fast, before anything happened to either of him or his child. Danilo allowed the shift to flow across him, sniffing the ground. It was Jared all right. Jared and two other male scents, also human. He growled, and loped off in the direction the scents indicated. They were going to be very, very sorry they'd ever laid hands on his charge.

23

Jared stumbled dizzily as he was pulled along. The back of the store faced an alley, and it was devoid of any possible witnesses. A cart and horse sat tied outside a neighboring building and Ray shoved him into the back of it, clouting him once more across the head., causing more dark spots to dance cross his already wavery vision. Moments later, he felt the cart move. He felt his tea and cake threaten to make a reappearance and he swallowed reflexively to try to keep it all down. He closed his eyes, hoping the dizziness would pass and he would regain his wits long enough to make a break from the cart without hurting himself.

He must have passed out instead as he he came to while being manhandled into some kind of outbuilding.

A barn? Where?

“He don't look so good,” he heard Bob say.

“His hole will still work and I'm sure we can get that delicious mouth of his to do its thing.”

God, no.

He struggled to make his mouth move even as he felt hands tugging at his jeans and underwear.

“Flip him over and lift his head. I don't want to see that freakish belly,” Bob said.

“Yeah, easier to reach his ass that way too.”

“Please,” Jared managed to croak.

“See, he's begging for it. What a slut,” came Ray's voice from somewhere far away.

“Pl-please,” Jared managed to get out again. Cruel hands gripped his jaw, forcing it open while another pulled his head up by his hair. A smell of strong musk mingled with the scent of sweat and grime from an unwashed body as something tapped his lower lip.

“Open up,” Bob commanded.