Disclaimer: I only own Sam, all else belongs to Rachel Vincent

Note: Sam's Flashback Dream

Sam was stumbling back to camp, her chest heaving from trying to breathe. Shifting twice so close together had been really hard on her. Parker heard her struggling and went to help her. He gently lifted her off the ground and cradled her to his chest. She felt even lighter than when he had carried her the day before. Sam tucked her chin underneath his and closed her eyes. Owen thought she had passed out, and gravely looked at Parker.

"We need to get her some food, sooner rather than later. Let's hurry to my truck. It's not far from here at all." The men started walking back down a deer trail in the direction towards the road. "Hey man," Owen said, "Can I ask you a question?" Parker nodded. "She smells like you marked her."

"I did. She..." he stopped. "Look, Owen, I know that the whole situation is already complicated, but when she kissed me... I haven't had another woman make me feel like that in a long time. Even when you look at her, I feel this overwhelming desire to protect her, to chase you away from her. You're like a brother to me!" Parker looked frustrated for sure, but Owen thought his old friend might be a little scared too. It wasn't a good idea for him to be in love with the tabby. She didn't have any territory, and Owen was sure that there would be lots of other cats that wanted to meet her and "study" her. Calvin Malone immediately popped into mind because of his reaction to the Southeastern Pride currently having 3 tabbies. Owen chuckled to himself and hoped he could see the bastard's face when he found out they now had four. In afterthought, it might be better that he never learns about how they got Sam. He might get his men to create stray tabbies, and it made him think about when Faythe had been captured by a tabby trafficking ring. Malone wasn't above cheating to gain power, and forcing girls like Sam into producing more cats wouldn't be the worst thing he'd done. Owen shuddered. Parker raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

Sam twitched in Parker's arms in the midst of a memory haunting her with bad dreams.

~~~Sam's Dream~~~

Sam was walking back from class. She was having a tough week in Chemistry. The lab for that week was so confusing, and she was irritated at the idea of trying to find time to go to the tutoring center across campus. She did cheer up when she thought about the cute new lab assistant. He had just been setting up when Sam showed up for class that afternoon. He had golden blond hair and ice blue eyes. All the girls in her group giggled when he talked to them. He had a funny accent that Sam had trouble placing. It was reminiscent of Russian but also of French. Regardless, the guy was hot, and Sam wouldn't complain one bit about having some eye-candy in her least favorite class.

The lab let out at 6pm, and she was walking back to her dorm. There were footsteps on the pavement behind her, but that was normal. On a campus with almost 30 thousand people, there was rarely a time when she was alone on the sidewalk or anywhere else. The air was crisp, and Sam took a deep breath. The smell of wet leaf litter on the ground and the leftover humidity from the rain that afternoon mixed well. Fall was her favorite season. Bright red and golden yellow leaves were haphazardly strewn across the sidewalk.

She felt an arm go around her body and a large gloved hand covered her mouth. She struggled to breathe, and a sharp chemical smell her like a ton of bricks. Her knees felt weak, and she saw her new chem lab assistant's face right before she closed her eyes and lost consciousness.

Sam woke up with a fright. She was in a van and could smell two toms with her. At first her panic overran her nose, but she breathed in again. Parker's scent registered in her mind. Parker had taken the time to lay her out in the backseat and put a pillow underneath her head. There was a waded blanket near her feet. Sam had kicked it off in the throws of her nightmare.

"Parker?" she called.

"Yeah?" he answered. He turned to look at her from the front seat. He looked worried, and Sam felt terrible for putting that look back on his face yet again.

"Can I sit with you?"

"Sure thing, Kitten. Let's move to the middle row."

Parker unbuckled his seat belt and climbed over the arm rest gracefully. He then helped Sam move to the seat next to him before he pulled on the back of the row, transforming the two seats into three. Sam covered up with the blanket and laid back down on Parker's thigh. She hoped that keeping him close to her would keep away the nightmares. Frederick had stolen enough of her life already. His memory didn't need to steal her sleep too.

Slowly Sam relaxed again getting used to the momentum of the van. Parker ran his fingers through her long hair in a slow, steady manner.

"You know," Sam said,"I liked being petted before I became a cat. Maybe it was destiny." She giggled, and succumbed to the lullaby of the moving van and Parker's soft touch.

~~~ Sam's 2nd Dream~~~

Blinking her eyes, Sam tried to look around, but her vision failed her. There were spots floating and jerking around in her field of vision. She attempted to sit up, but immediately reconsidered caused by a fierce wave of nausea. The room started to spin, so she put her head back on solid ground and closed her eyes.

As luck would have it, her back was to the only door in the dark room, so when two men's voices entered the room, she stayed very still and very quiet. They never did notice she was awake, and the things they talked about scared Sam, shaking her very soul.

"So when are you going to deal with this one? She's been here for a couple days." The first voice was male and had an Northeastern accent, similar to one of Sam's cousins from Michigan. The other voice grunted.

"No use in infecting her if she can't survive a little Chloroform." The second voice was much harder to understand. It almost sounded French. "You will be punished for almost killing her. I just haven't had the time to bother with you yet. I can't believe you would fuck up something so important! She is our best shot at proving human women can become infected and survive transformations. I am tired of feeding these wastes down here that serve no other purpose but to please you and your men. There are plenty of other human women out there. Those males hardly flinch when one is taken."

Whimpers came from around the room. Sam didn't think they would be allowed to live for long once the French guy got a hold of them. She was scared for what she assumed must have been other women in similar cages to her own and wished she had been able to get a good look around before those goons came in, but even the idea of moving made her a little more queasy.

Eventually, boot heels clicked against the concrete floors, and the two men left. She rolled to her side and took in the room. Against the opposite wall was a young woman. She was dirty and naked. Bones jutted out all over her body including her ribs and cheeks. She looked starved and broken. She didn't react to Sam or the cold or anything else.

Sam saw three other cages around her, each one had another broken girl in it. She couldn't tell how old...

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