Page 44 of Calico Descending

“Can’t you …. Can’t you inject her with … sperm?”

“Very good deduction, my dear. Yes, we could absolutely inject her with sperm, and perhaps she’d find some relief. Perhaps even true pregnancy. Unfortunately for her, science is the nature of this facility. We’re using this as an opportunity to observe estrus cycles in our female subjects. So that we may modify our procedures in the future. Perhaps I didn’t mention … Doctor Tims is the lead researcher for this project.”

Sickness mingles with the ache in my belly, and I bend forward, resting my hand on Neela’s bed to keep from collapsing. He lied to me. The bastard lied to me so he’d have another guineapig to study.

The bed shakes, snapping my attention to Neela, who seems to be caught up in a seizure. Her eyelids shoot open, wide as if in terror. Muffled screams fail to break the barrier at her mouth, and she lifts her head slightly up off the pillow, brows turned up in pleading. Her stomach gurgles and shifts beneath the gown, her fingers splayed and flexing into fists.

I’m bearing witness to what must be her hell.

“Help her. Please help her!”

Tipping his head, Doctor Ericsson continues to watch her, seemingly unaffected by her agony. “It’ll pass soon. It always does.”

I reach for her hand, the sight of her bringing me to tears, and when she tips her head back, the veins in her neck pop out like the lines on a map. The barrier at her mouth balloons with her scream, but doesn’t break.

“We’ve found these episodes to be both disruptive and upsetting to the staff.”

Staring down at her, I grind my teeth, wishing I had the balls to grab something in the room and stab him right here. To give Neela the satisfaction of watching him bleed all over her. Another few seconds of her writhing, and the bed settles. On a rush of air through her nose, she seems to deflate into stillness again, and her grip of my hand slackens.

“The pain is unbearable. It inevitably causes her to black out afterward, but in thirty minutes, it’ll be more of the same,” he says, jotting something down on the clipboard. “Now, what was it you said? A few more days, and you should be ready for another visit with Valdys?”

I glance down at Neela, whose belly has grown even bigger from just minutes ago. In thirty minutes, she’ll suffer the hell of another episode, and it’ll grow some more. Through a blur of tears, I lower my gaze to the floor. “I’m feeling better, Doctor.”

Chapter 22

A nervous tickle quivers in my chest, as Medusa leads me down the dark corridor. The pounding of the iron doors, as we pass, is far more fervent than before, and the muffled growls are a sure bet every Alpha on this floor knows I’m in estrus.

“Like wild dogs.” Medusa shakes her head, as we head toward the cell at the end. “This is a terrible idea.”

Her comment would be somewhat touching, maybe even cause to back out, if I hadn’t witnessed the consequences laid out in agony every thirty minutes.

“Valdys won’t hurt me.” I’m certain of it. He had every opportunity to watch me die at the hands of that creature, but he didn’t.

“Perhaps not as a general rule. But there are primitive characteristics in play where these Alphas are concerned. Things we haven’t even begun to understand about them. Bear in mind that, while they may be human, they also carry the same pathogen as the Ragers, and we can all appreciate the desire to avoid one of their nests.”

“If you’re …. If you’re trying to make me feel better about this, it’s not working. I don’t have a choice, unless I want to end up like Neela.”

At the mention of her name, Medusa flinches and huffs a sigh. “I honestly don’t know which is the lesser of two evils.”

Perhaps there’s a small bit of humanity left in Medusa, after all. With a smile, I pat her on the shoulder, a gesture that seems to startle her. “I guess there’s only one way to find out. That’s why I’m here, right? The guineapig.”

“Be careful. I suspect the rules aren’t going to be much use at this point. Just … try not to agitate him into something violent.” She turns to face the wall, and sets her hand on the outline.

A clang from behind clenches my muscles, and I turn to see a slight dent in Cadmus’s door. Another clang, another dent. He growls in frustration, and Medusa gives a light nudge. “In you go. The sooner this is over, the better.”

With a nod, I enter Valdys’s room, and the door clicks shut behind me, narrowing the light to a single beam.

Nerves flaring through my body, I step deeper into his cell, approaching the dark shadow in the corner. “Valdys?”

Slapping a hand over my mouth, I recall the video, when Neela called out to Cadmus during estrus. A trigger.

“Well, well. What have we here?” The voice doesn’t belong to Valdys, and when Cadmus steps into the light, my body turns ice cold. “Seems a mouse has fallen into the snakepit.”

“Where’s Valdys?”

“Doctor Ericsson thought it might be interesting to switch things up a bit.” He lifts his chin into the air, drawing my eyes to the silver band, like Valdys’s, around his throat. He sniffs, closing his eyes with a smile. “My, you smell good enough to eat, little one. And I intend to feast. All. Night. Long.”

He lurches toward me, and I jump back a step.

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