“I’m fine.” Ellie swallowed hard. “Thank you for your concern.”
The four women stared at her silently. The elevator dinged as it reached the third floor. Ellie tried to inch around them but the women continued to block her way. She bit her lip hard and glanced at each of them.
“I’d like to go to my room now.”
They parted to allow her out of the small space. Ellie squeezed between the women, careful not to touch them, and fled down the hallway. They’d frightened her. She didn’t know their sense of smell was strong enough to pick up so much or that they could smell emotions. She jogged the last few steps to her room and pulled out her key card. The light changed to green and she yanked hard at the door handle, shoving it open. She stepped inside and closed the door. Someone shoved against it instead and the four women entered Ellie’s apartment. Fear welled up inside Ellie at their grim expressions. She backed up slowly, alarmed at this turn of events. The door closed firmly behind them.
“Kit, please go run a bath.” The tallest, dark-haired woman took charge.
Kit moved toward the bathroom without a word.
“I’m Breeze,” the tallest one informed her softly. “There are a lot of us and I don’t know if you know our names. Kit is in the bathroom.” She then nodded toward the redhead. “This is Rusty and the silent one is Sunshine. Sunshine, go find her something comfortable to wear after her bath.”
Sunshine went to Ellie’s closet. Ellie stared up at Breeze in shock while the woman frowned back at her.
“I scent blood, sex, and your wrists are red from being restrained. We were forced many times to be with males in our years of captivity.” Her eyes darkened. “The human males enjoyed hurting us occasionally. Our males were always careful to never harm us when we were forced to breed with them.” She paused. “We were punished or forced to watch them penalize another if we didn’t comply when they wanted us to have sex. Our men are incapable of forcing a woman with pain but one of them restrained and hurt you. Why?”
Mute, Ellie stared up at Breeze, feeling horrified over the description of what had been done to them. She silently cursed the ones who’d done it to a very painful hell.
“I’m fine,” she swore. “No one forced me.”
Breeze growled, her canine traits showing. “Don’t lie. Who did this to you? We’ll see they suffer greatly for it. There is no reason for a male to force a breeding with a woman. We are free now. Whoever did this to you should pay. He hurt you and that is unforgivable.”
Sunshine placed clothes on the bed and moved behind Ellie. Ellie swiveled her head in time to watch the woman bend to sniff at her back. Sunshine suddenly grabbed Ellie’s shirt and yanked it up. Ellie remained frozen in stunned silence as the woman’s nose brushed along her bare back while she inhaled deeply. The shirt dropped as the woman straightened to her full height, over six feet.
“I don’t recognize the scent of him. It’s faint enough that I don’t believe he took her by mounting. He must have taken her the human way.”
Ellie tried to inch out from between the two women, felt trapped between them, but Breeze suddenly grabbed her by the front of her shirt. She crouched down on her knees and yanked Ellie’s shirt up to just under her breasts. Breeze pushed her face against Ellie’s stomach to sniff before she could protest. The other woman raised her head with a grim expression.
“Like a human, he sweated on her during the attack. I don’t know this scent either.” She frowned at Ellie as she rose to her feet. “Why are you protecting him? Do you know his name? Describe him to us, we’ll find him and make him pay. You are ours and he should have known not to touch you.”
Ellie’s mouth dropped open. She forced her mind to work. The last minute had been one big stunner after another between the sniffing and their words. They could smell Fury’s sweat on her just from his stomach touching hers? She closed her mouth and clenched her thighs. She didn’t know what they’d do if they smelled his semen. Then the last sentence sank in.
“I’m yours? I thought you hated me.”
Kit stepped out of the bathroom. “We don’t hate you. You’re our pet.”
“Kit!” Rusty shook her head. “Don’t say that. You’ll offend her.”
Kit shrugged. “She is. She’s so little and cute. She yaps around trying to please us like…what are they called? A Yorkie?”
Rusty sighed. “We decided she’s more similar to a cute little poodle with her long blonde hair.” She flashed a smile at Ellie. “Don’t take it offensively please. We enjoy having you around and you amuse us to no end. We know you care about us by the way you try to please us.”
“I need to sit down,” Ellie muttered, dazed, and tried to wrap her head around the idea they thought of her as a pet. She moved over and plopped down on the edge of her bed. She gasped when she sat down too roughly, a reminder of being tender from sex. “Damn.” She closed her eyes.
“You made her sadder,” Breeze growled. “Apologize now.”
“I’m sorry,” Kit said instantly. “It’s an endearment. We like you. I mentioned that, didn’t I? Is being a pet a bad thing? People love them. We’re very fond of you.”
Ellie opened her eyes and forced a smiled. “Well, it takes some getting used to but thanks. I’m glad you like me. That’s the important part.”
“We do,” Rusty assured her. “Now tell us which one of our males hurt you and we’ll go beat the shit out of him. We can identify the difference between male and female with our noses, even if they are primate, feline, or canine, but telling the difference between individuals is more difficult to determine. You need to tell us everything you can about the male who hurt you so we can figure out who it was.”
Breeze cracked her knuckles. “We’ll allow you to watch. It will make you feel better to see him bleed.” She glanced at the others. “We can’t kill him though. We’ll just beat him up severely to make sure he is in pain for a good week.”
Ellie glanced at each of the women. She wasn’t sure if she should be grateful they’d do that to get justice for her or deeply disturbed for the same reason. “I so appreciate the concern. You have no idea how much this means
