She shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She pressed a button on the cuff at her wrist. Pain shot through him instantly.

But he wasn’t human. Instead of weakening him, it sent a charge of adrenaline through his body. Furious, he kicked at the door again, hard enough to bend part of it.

Both women backed up.

“What the hell?” Pheara breathed.

“He’s an Andarion.”

Hauk cut his glare to another woman who joined the first two. Tiny and petite, with short blond hair, she was dressed in animal skins.

“I thought he was human when we stunned him. No wonder it took so many darts to take him down.”

“Yeah,” the blond snorted. “You’re lucky you got him down at all. They are a savage breed and don’t react to stimuli the same way we do.” She hit the cage with a prod that sent electricity through it.

The men whined and screamed as they tried to avoid touching the metal. Bastien came awake with a foul curse.

Hauk didn’t flinch as he curled his lip at her and defied her to keep doing it.

“See.” She balanced the pole on her shoulder and swept her gaze over the other two women. “And we have a problem. Andarions eat humans. Raw. Leave him in that cage and he’ll devour the others.”

The men behind him began begging for release while Bastien laughed.

Hauk ignored them. “Let me go and I’ll leave here without any drama.”

The blond tsked at him. “It doesn’t work that way, cutie. You have too big a bounty on your head. Eat the others if you must. You’re worth a lot more than they are.”

Great. They were slavers as well as assassins. Just what he needed.

Hauk glared at the women. “I will get out of here, and when I do —”

“Don’t make me kill you, Andarion. While you have one hell of a bounty on your head, I’m thinking there are a lot of people who’d pay a fortune to have an Andarion slave.” She raked his body with a hungry smirk. “Now be a really good boy and I might send you off with a smile on your face.”

He exposed his fangs to her. “You’re really going to let me eat your heart?”

She scoffed.

Hauk grabbed the bars over his head and used his entire body weight to kick at the door again.

The other two women took three more steps back.

Eyes wide, Pheara gulped. “I don’t think that’s going to hold him, Telise.”

“If he kicks it open, blast the shit out of him. Price-wise, given the scars and wounds already on him, it won’t matter if he’s banged up a bit more.”