Page 9 of Feral

“How do you think I’m doing?” she spat. “How would you feel after being locked up and forced into heat for five days with no release? Or after having some feral beast of a man mate you like a bitch? You people are monsters.”

“I thought you volunteered for this study,” I said. Even to my own ears, it sounded like the worst attempt at excusing what was inexcusable.

Gloria muttered something in Spanish and didn’t answer.

“We do,” her neighbor said. “We were told we can knock up to ten years off our sentence if we participate in this study. Let an alpha fuck us now and then—maybe even meet a nice one who’ll provide for us once we’re released. They never said what they’d be like. They never said what they did to them.” She visibly shuddered and pulled her legs up so she could curl in on herself. “They treat us like we’re nothing more than lab rats.Youtreat us like lab rats.”

I couldn’t blame her. I was pretty sure if I’d been tied up at that breeding post and at the mercy of one of the feral alphas, I’d want to curl up and hide, too.

“I didn’t know,” I said, hating myself for sounding like such a sad apologist. “Today was… it was the first time I saw what… what happens here.”

“You’re new,” Gloria said dully. “You’ll get used to it, or you’ll disappear.”

“I won’t.” I shook my head, determination welling up in my chest. “I’ll go to the press, if I have to.”

The neighbor woman snorted. “The press? You think anyone gives a shit about criminals being treated like breeding stock? This isn’t Mattenburg. No one cares.”

“I care,” I said, wrapping my fingers around the bars separating me from the two women inside. “I’ll help you. This isn’t right.”

Gloria shook her head. “Don’t. No one here will take your help. The alternative is being sent back to prison, and believe me—it’s not better than here.”

“Really?” I blinked. It wasn’t that the prison system had the best reputation, but I’d kind of assumed it would beat being hauled in to mate with feral alphas whenever the doctors saw fit.

Gloria’s neighbor shrugged. “At least there’s always enough food. And for ten years, I’ll take a lot of knots. Even if it’s in front of Dr. Pervert and his team. If anyone would take your help, it’d be the alphas.”

“They have even more to lose,” I said, dropping my gaze when 351’s haunting eyes flickered before my mind’s eye. “If I intervene, they’ll go back on death row.”

The woman shrugged before returning her attention to Gloria. “Seems to me they’re already dead. Nothing human left in them, anyway. If it were me, I’d rather the needle.”

SIX

LILLIAN

Some of the alphas were sleeping when I entered the lab, but my footfalls as I passed their cages woke them. The sound of shifting bodies followed me as they raised their heads to follow, a wariness in their eyes that spoke of broken humanity.

From what the women had seen of them, I could understand why they’d think there was nothing remotely human left in these men. They were little more than savages during the day, when the drugs they were given were at their most potent. But later…

I remembered 351’s gravelly voice as he rasped out the wordkey.

They were still human, behind the serum. And though they belonged on death row, it didn’t mean they should be treated like animals. The women might see this facility as the lesser of two evils, as much as they hated it, but the alphas might not. Even if death was their only alternative, maybe some of them would still rather die with dignity than be forced to act like mindless beasts.

That was the mantra I kept repeating in my head over and over as I walked to the very last cage. As much as being around these men set every instinct in my body on edge, I still had a professional duty to ensure their humane treatment.

351 didn’t move when I stopped in front of his cell, but I could feel his eyes on me from the shadows by the far wall.

“Hey,” I whispered. “It’s… it’s me.” I don’t know why I thought adding that in would do any good, but I didn’t know what else to say. Howdidyou break the ice with a feral alpha you’d so far only met under less than ideal circumstances?

Movement from within made me bite my lip, but the knot of tension in my stomach turned to icy horror when the alpha came to the front of the cage and I could finally see his face.

His lip was split and there was a gash of dried blood across one prominent cheekbone. Bruises marred his strong body, visible even in the low light, and when he wrapped his hands around the bars, I could see scrapes along his knuckles.

“What happened to you?” I gasped, too horrified to remember to keep a safe amount of space between myself and the bars. I closed the distance to the cell to gently trace the wounds on his hands. They looked defensive.

The alpha didn’t respond, but when I reached up to inspect the damage to his face, he closed his eyes and pressed his head against the bars, giving me easier access.

Someone had beaten him. I didn’t know if they’d let another test subject at him or if the guards had hurt him, but the truth was too obvious to ignore. They’d done this to punish him for his unwillingness to cooperate in the breeding room.

“They’re monsters.”

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