Page 14 of Despair

He frowned. “…Yes. I… some.” It dawned on him that the fog didn’t seem nearly as thick. It was still there, lingering, cutting him off from the parts of his mind he could barely remember any longer. But… “The strain. My body…”

Her eyes widened. “All the exercise and torture—they burned the drugs out of your system much faster than normal, didn’t they?” Her voice was a low whisper—clearly, she didn’t want to draw attention, either.

He nodded. “I think… yes. What’s… Who’s in there?”

“They’re bringing a woman to him. She thinks they want him to mate her without the heat-drugs, but I think… I think they’re trying to establish some form of connection. Like… like us.” Her gaze dipped, avoiding his eyes.

351 touched his fingers to the back of her hand, pleased when she didn’t jerk away, and focused on what was going on on the other side of the concrete wall.

“Please, don’t leave me in here!”

The woman’s voice was filled with terror, trailing off into a plaintive wail when the cell door slammed shut. “H-He’ll tear me apart!”

“If he shows sexual interest and you can’t avoid it, use the oil.” It was the beta doctor’s voice. Clinical—detached. But 351 knew there was so much hatred under the surface of the man. Had smelled his sense of inferiority and twisted desires on him from the first time he’d brought a female to watch her mounted.

“The purpose of this evening’s session is not mating. Try to talk to him. Pet him.”

“P-Pethim?” The woman sounded incredulous.

“We want you to establish a connection with him. A friendship, if you will. And, to ensure that your goals align with ours, if he does take a liking to you, there will be no more matings with other alphas.”

“But there will be with him?” she asked.

“Naturally.” Just the slightest sliver of smugness was audible in the beta’s voice. “But I’m sure it beats being mounted thrice daily by whichever alpha is pushed into the breeding room. Subject 195 has been selected for you based on your bio-chemistry. There’s every chance you two willhit it off,if you will.”

There was a slight pause. “Okay,” she relented quietly. No doubt she had experienced the kinds of punishment the doctors arranged if they were met with anything but complete obedience. A female wouldn’t have the stamina to withstand them.

“Splendid. We will fetch you at dinner time.” Footsteps retreated from the cell, leaving the prisoners in silence save the general sounds from the lab.

“H-Hey, big guy,” the woman whispered. “M-Mind if I touch you?”

An angry growl was followed by a screech and the thud of a body hitting metal.

“Are you okay?” 351’s mate called out. To the other female, he realized, frowning.

“Y-Yeah.” The other woman sounded like she was trying not to cry.

“Sit down, make yourself as small as possible. He won’t hurt you if he doesn’t think you’re a threat,” his mate said.

351 narrowed his eyes when her words brought back how she’d hunched and cowered in his cell since she got here. Was that what she’d been doing? Trying to make herself small so he wouldn’thurther? Flinching when he touched her because she thought he would?

There was silence from the other cell for a bit. Then the woman squeaked again, but it wasn’t followed by the sound of her body being thrown. Judging from the low grunting making its way through the wall, 195 was scenting her.

“Don’t hurt me, okay?”

The woman’s plea was followed by another growl, but there was more curiosity than aggression in it.

351 understood. He didn’t know how long he’d been in this cell, but beforeher,it had been unbearably lonely. Even if he’d wanted to, he wasn’t able to communicate with the other alphas in the lab, not after they’d taken his ability to speak. Even the rough matings were lonely—the females nothing but mindless, warm bodies, lost in their own drugged hell.

The woman in there with 195 now was the first contact the alpha had had with another human being that wasn’t marred by pain and violence.

His mate flashed him a nervous look. “Will she be all right?”

351 grunted, unwilling to make promises he couldn’t keep, and she didn’t press him.

But the cell was quiet, save for the alpha’s grunts and growls as he investigated the new presence in his cell, and 351 lost interest.

It was the first time he had some control over his own mind, and the sight of his little female curled up by his side as she stared at the concrete wall reminded him of his duties.

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