Page 4 of Feral

“Key!”The snarled word hardly sounded human.

“I-I don’t have any keys!” I whimpered. “Please, you’re hurting me!”

The alpha growled and pulled me closer, slamming the full length of my body up against the bars in the process. I whimpered as pain lanced through me at the impact, and the errant thought,“I’m going to die,”flashed through my brain with merciless clarity.

But when Subject 351 grabbed at me through the bars with his free hand, it wasn’t to tear me in half. He held me firmly in place, stopping me from squirming, and then pushed his hand into my lab coat’s nearest pocket. The material slid across my body at his violent rummaging, and I bit back an undignified gasp when his large hand basically rubbed right across my private parts.

The alpha didn’t give two shits about what was underneath my clothes, though. Another growl, triumphant this time, vibrated from his chest when he pulled out what he’d been after—my pass.

So that’s what he meant by “key.”

“I don’t have access to the cells,” I said, hoping with everything I had that I was right. There was no reason for me to have clearance to unlock the cages, but the entire lab might be under the same security level. “Please, just let me go.”

He didn’t. He kept his grip on me as he shifted behind the bars, moving so he could push his arm out of the cage and slap my keycard against the card reader attached to the door. It beeped, flashing a red light, and relief flooded through me all the way from my toes. A relief that was instantly squashed when the alpha roared, clearly furious, and clenched his hand so hard around my arm the bones creaked.

“Ow,stop!”

My pained cry died on a wheeze when he slammed me back against the bars and snarled,“Open!”

“I-I can’t. Please, I’m telling you the truth. I don’t have clearance.” I twisted a little to try and look at him, and hopefully plead with whatever humanity was left within him. However, actuallylookingat him this close did nothing to calm my own racing heart. He was so big, his bulging muscles tensed with unleashed fury, and there was hatred painted all over his carved features. Under different circumstances—mainly not being trapped and reasonably certain I was about to lose an arm to his anger—I might have found him very handsome, even if he was very clearly allalpha.He had even features with high cheekbones and full lips that were currently pulled into a snarl, dark, buzz-cut hair, and the most startling pale, blue-green eyes. However, right then, all I could feel for the man was fear. Sick, gut-wrenchingfear.

“Please. Don’t hurt me. I haven’t done anything to you.”

He growled low in his throat in response and tugged hard at my white lab coat.“Always hurt.”

I wasn’t sure if he meant I was like the other people in lab coats, and therefore he wanted to hurt me, or if they hurt him. Regardless, I knew distinguishing myself from the people he undoubtedly blamed for locking him up in here was my only shot at getting out of this mess in one piece.

“I’m not them. I only run the data through a computer. You’ve never seen me down here because I don’t… I’m not part of the hands-on research. I just do my job,” I babbled, twisting further to catch his gaze.

“Once. Withhim.”The way he spat the last word out, there was no mistaking the loathing.

“Dr. Axell?” I blinked, remembering my first day—surprised my brief visit had even registered with him.

The alpha snarled furiously in response, and I whimpered and braced for being slammed against the bars again. But the impact never came.

I raised my gaze to plead with him once more, finally managing to catch those piercing eyes of his—and felt the words die on my lips. An odd buzz at the base of my spine made me shiver as I stared into what looked like two perfect flecks of ice.

His growl cut off like someone had flicked a switch, and I vaguely noticed the small gasp that escaped his lips before his pupils blew wide, and something entirely primal welled up from deep within my core in immediate and entirely involuntary response.

It felt like electricity snapped through my veins instead of blood, hardening my nipples into painful peaks within the confines of my sensible cotton bra—and down low, an unmistakable heat began to radiate up through my abdomen.

What… the hell?

There was nothing sexual about being threatened with dismemberment from a feral alpha—a fact I’d been completely on board with not two seconds ago. So why was my body suddenly responding to the huge man as if… as if I wanted to…?

The deepest blush of my entire life flooded up from the tips of my toes and covered my body when I realized exactly what kind of ideas my body seemed to have gotten just from looking into his now darkened eyes. Atest subject!How entirely inappropriate!

I flinched, trying to distance myself from the source of my perverted urges. To my surprise, he let go this time, letting me slip out of his grip as he continued to stare at me with a mix of confusion and… something else I couldn’t put my finger on.

I scrambled a few steps back, breathing hard as if I’d just run a mile. I felt like it, too. Shaking like a leaf, I turned to leave—to put as much distance between us as I could.

“Key.”

I looked back up at him at the sound of his now much softer voice. He was reaching through the bars for me, my pass in his upturned palm.Fuck.I couldn’t very well leave the lab without it.

Hesitantly, I took a step back toward him, keeping my eyes on him to make sure he wouldn’t snatch me again.

The difference on his sharp features was like night and day. Before, he’d been a mountain of unleashed fury. Now, he looked like he was trying to appear smaller, as if he was… trying not to scare me? There wasn’t an ounce of the previous anger on his face, just that intense stare of his as he looked at me unblinkingly.

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