Page 14 of Feral

Dr. Urwin scoffed at my obvious horror. “Don’t give me that look. They’re to keep you from hurting yourself once the drugs set in. We’re not barbarians.”

I arched an eyebrow at him, but if he even saw the irony, he ignored it. Apparently, in his mind, violating a tied-down woman yourself versus letting a feral alpha do it was entirely different.

He sat down by a small desk I hadn’t even noticed, seeing how the bench and restraints took up my whole focus, and rummaged through a drawer for some paperwork. “Please take off your lab coat and roll up your right sleeve before you lie down,” he said as he began making notes on the form he’d procured. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

I took a deep breath, steadying my thudding heartbeat before I walked over to the bench and shrugged out of my lab coat. There was something poetically final about seeing the white fabric pooling on the floor—almost like a metaphor for how I’d thrown away my life to help the alpha who’d made my conscience resurface. I wasn’t a scientist anymore. I was a test subject.

But at least I’d done everything I could to help. No matter what happened to me during the next year, I knew I could live with myself once they finally released me. If I hadn’t tried to save him, I would never have been able to look myself in the mirror again.

Even if he was a war criminal.

At least I knew there was no chance he or any other alpha they’d make me mate with would claim me. It was just one year, and then I’d be free. And who knew, maybe if I was smart enough, I’d somehow be able to gather enough evidence during my time as a test subject to take them down once I was out.

Once I was lying stiffly on the bench, Dr. Urwin rolled on his chair across the concrete floor to my head. In his now gloved hand was a syringe containing a yellow liquid.

“I’m going to inject you with a heat trigger now. Depending on how your body reacts, in one to four hours you will begin to sweat and you will experience vaginal and uterine cramping, as your body begins to prepare for mounting. Most females will continue on to the next stage on their own at this point, but some require further stimulation. If that is the case for you, I will provide you with alpha-scented cloth. The next stage is marked by a flush of slickness from your vaginal opening, and often aggressive behavior if a mounting isn’t imminent.

“This is also the stage when I will restrain you, to keep you from causing harm to yourself or others. You may or may not feel the need to start nesting, but since this is a clinical procedure, we unfortunately cannot allow our subjects to engage in such urges. Needless to say, you will be very aggressively searching for an appropriate mate at this point. Because 351 will be incapacitated for at least the next six to eight hours, regrettably this stage will be prolonged.

“Once he is deemed ready to complete a mating, I will lead you to the breeding room and the trial will commence.” Dr. Urwin reached for my upper arm, quickly wiping it with rubbing alcohol, and then jabbed the needle into my skin.

I gritted my teeth to not flinch away, but he clearly had a lot of practice. He’d pressed the plunger down and removed the needle before I’d even fully processed everything he’d explained.

“Nesting?” I asked. It was the only part of a woman’s biological response to her chosen alpha I wasn’t at least somewhat familiar with. It wasn’t a subject I’d studied in great depth, but there had been a class or two back in my early days of college about what happened if a woman Presented to an alpha. Of course, I certainly hadn’t had any classes aboutforcinga woman into heat. It wasn’t exactly something polite people discussed.

“Some women get the urge to prepare a space for the offspring her body assumes will be produced after tying with her alpha during a heat. Some don’t. We haven’t seen it much here—the circumstances aren’t exactly ideal, you might say. Mostly it happens for a Presenting woman if she is already in the comfort of her own home, with an alpha she has established an intimate relationship with beforehand.” Dr. Urwin rolled his chair back over to his desk, his gaze already on the papers there. “May I suggest you try to relax until the drugs kick in? You won’t get the opportunity again for a while.”

* * *

I layon the padded bench for the better part of two hours, staring at the ceiling with nothing to do but worry about what was in store for me once 351 regained consciousness. All-too-vivid images of the brutal mating I’d seen take place between Gloria and 287 played on repeat before my mind’s eye. The longer I lay there, the more impossible it became to shut them out. Flashes of the thick pole of flesh I’d seen between 351’s thighs in that same room, and his bulging muscle as he pounded on the window separating us, made me shiver. He was so much stronger than me… so much bigger… And that primal fury in his gaze as he’d stared down the other alpha by my side… I shivered again and fidgeted when heat seemed to pour through my veins in thick, languid pulses.

“Ah, I see you’re beginning to take.” Dr. Urwin looked up from his papers, undoubtedly having been alerted by my fidgeting. He rolled his chair over by my bench once more, his expression calm and clinical as he pulled a small penlight from his pocket and shone it into my eyes.

“Pupils are dilating nicely,” he said as I squinted. “And your temperature is rising,” he continued after testing my forehead with the back of his hand. “Once you start to get too hot, do feel free to strip down. You will be much more comfortable.”

“I’m not taking off my clothes!” I protested as I clasped my arms across my chest.

“Suit yourself,” he said, not even bothering to look at me as he rolled back to his desk. “I’ve yet to see a female last through the second stage while still dressed.”

Forty-five minutes later, I was starting to see his point.

It was so goddamn hot. I was sweating buckets as I paced around the small room, trying to fan air down my drenched shirt. It didn’t help matters at all that my abdomen would infrequently make me curl in on myself with deep spasms, and despite the very un-sexy situation, a distinct throbbing from down below was making it harder and harder not to press a hand between my thighs to ease the tension.

I shot an angry glare at the back of Dr. Urwin’s head as I passed him on my sixth-hundredth round. He was still working away as if he didn’t have a care in the world, completely disregarding my mounting levels of discomfort.

“How much longer?” I growled without stopping. I knew if I didn’t keep pacing, it wouldn’t be long before I was forced to acknowledge the insistent throbbing between my thighs. As if on cue, a cramp made me groan and lean forward, supporting my hands on my knees to ride out the tremor.

Dr. Urwin turned then, giving me a long, evaluating look. “It shouldn’t be much longer. Any slick yet?”

If I hadn’t already been so hot, I might have flushed from the intimate question—but right then, I didn’t care about what was proper. All I cared about was that I was so damnhot,and my clothes felt too constrictive as they stuck to my sweat-covered body—and that I wanted this to be over already!

“No,” I said, shooting him an accusatory glare from my bent-over position. “Just buckets and buckets of sweat. This can’t be fucking natural! Are you sure you haven’t messed up the formula of whatever was in that injection? I feel terrible!”

“I did warn you,” he mumbled as he reached for my forehead. I swatted his hand away—just the thought of him touching me made my skin crawl. I frowned when that realization set in—along with the sudden dawning that I wasn’t worried about their plans anymore. I was just really, really…irritated.

“Mhm,” Dr. Urwin hummed. “I think it’s time we move on to the next stage. Last chance if you want to strip before we have to put the restraints on.”

I shot him another glare, but the thought of being tied down and wrapped up in my restricting clothes finally made me give up the last remnants of dignity.

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