Page 69 of Feral

Zach caught my eye above the head of the assistant taking his waist measurement, and I managed a brief nod. Since he’d first spoken, he’d been more cognizant, almost human at times, but it was infrequent. I never knew how much he understood, how much of him was there—but right then, I saw the flash of presence in his eyes. He was there with me. Even if he was chained to the wall of the small lab they’d taken us to.

“Where’s Kenneth?” I asked Dr. Urwin, trying to ignore the goosebumps crawling up my skin when he raised his gaze to mine. “Did he… make it through the riot?”

The beta doctor’s lips pinched to a flat line. “He survived, but quit on the spot when we found him. PTSD, I suspect. I hope you’re proud—more than sixty feral alphas lost their lives because of you, along with all our guards and more than a dozen soldiers. There is blood on your hands,Miss Dorne.I hope you didn’t think showing up here and begging for mercy means I won’t personally ensure you pay for everything you’ve done.”

I swallowed at the menace in his voice and forced back a shudder when he let his gaze trail over my body. There was no doubt what sort of penance he had in mind.

“Ah, getting Miss Dorne up to date on everything she’s missed, I hear?” Dr. Axell strolled up to us, clipboard in hand. He smiled at me with all the warmth of a glacier. “You’ll be happy to know that I’ll grant your request—we won’t need to inflict any more unnecessary pain on Subject 351. Tomorrow, we’ll run a few tests to see if any of his cognitive functions have been restored by the drugs you stole. The fact that you managed to bring him here suggests he, even without any remaining humanity, will be usable as some form of weapon.

“And as for you...” The false smile slid off his face, replaced by contempt. “You, Lillian, will make sure he follows every single order he’s given. 351 paid for his mistakes after his first escape attempt. You have yet to do the same. I know you saw where we kept him. What he endured. Do not make the mistake of thinking that I won’t do exactly the same to you, should your usefulness run out. Your only value is in what’s between your legs and how you use it to control my test subject. Tell me you understand.”

“I… I understand,” I whispered.

“Good. Bring them to their old cell—give them the night to become acclimated. Tomorrow, the testing starts.” He gave me one final, burning look before he turned and walked out the door.

* * *

There wasan eerie familiarity in the metallic slide of the cell door closing behind us. Even the mattress looked the same—I recognized the tears I’d ripped in it the first time Zach had taken me. But something in the lab was different from our last stay. Much different.

Where there’d been maybe a hundred alphas locked in cages, less than forty remained. And some of them were paired with females—none of whom would look our way as we passed their cells.

And the woman in the cell next to ours… I remembered her desperation when we freed Zach only two weeks ago. Now, all she did was lay on the mattress and stare blankly ahead.

“Hey—are you okay?” I called through the wall separating our cells while Zach paced the perimeter of our cage. He was checking our surroundings like an alpha would. They hadn’t injected him with any more of the blasted serum, and I prayed they wouldn’t get a chance to before we could enact our plan. But it was a risk we had to take.

No one answered from the other cell, and I placed a hand on the concrete wall. Guilt gnawed at my gut for how I’d deceived the woman stuck in there, but I hadn’t had a choice. We hadn’t been able to take them with us then.

I hoped with everything I was that she wasn’t beyond saving.

* * *

Shoutsand the sound of boots against concrete floors jarred me awake in the early morning hours.

I blinked sleep out of my eyes and sat up as far as Zach’s embrace would allow, looking to see what had caused the commotion.

“Stay,”my mate growled before he got up and went to the bars.

I turned around, kneeling up on the mattress to try to see past his massive bulk. What I spotted made my heart slam into overdrive.

“Well, well, well,” Dr. Urwin said as he strolled up to our cell, ignoring Zach’s bared teeth and warning growl. “It seems you weren’t quite honest when you said you were ready to surrender, huh?”

“What did you do?” I whispered, eyes locked on the four naked alphas held at gunpoint by several soldiers in the middle of the lab, their hands tied behind their backs.

“Did you really think we would buy your ridiculous explanation for why you just happened to show up at our doorstep? That we wouldn’t wonder where the men who helped you break 351 out were?” Dr. Urwin tutted at me, but the smugness was clear in his voice as he stared us down. “Your friends fell right into our trap when they snuck up to the compound—and you know what? We’re going to keep them. We’ve been running short on alphas since you cost us so many.”

“No!” I scrambled to my feet. Zach blocked my attempt at getting to the bars, unwilling to have me too close to the beta doctor, but I could still see the faces of the alphas they’d brought in.

“Jerome!” I cried, trying to capture the attention of the men who’d risked everything for us.

“It’s no use,” Dr. Urwin practically purred. “We’ve given them their first two doses of Hexatrepodamine. The may remember their names for a little while yet—but soon enough they’ll be no more than dumb animals.”

“What are you gonna do to them?” I spat. “Torture them?Testthem?”

“Oh, we’ll test them,” Dr. Urwin said, and his smirk turned to a full, cold smile. “Make sure they’re strong and virile. And then, Little Miss Analyst—then they are going to make you regret whatever plan you thought you had. Dr. Axell hoped we could have used you to salvage at least some of 351’s functionality as a weapon for the state—and who knows, you might still… if you survive what’s coming your way just as soon as we’ve ensured our new test subjects are nice and compliant.”

Zach foughtthe guards who came for us. He lunged at them, forcing his body up from the many electric jolts they sent through him to stop his assault, and did everything he could to stop them from grabbing me. It was useless—of course it was. Everything about this setup was designed to leave their test subject powerless, and in the end, they dragged both of us out of the cell like we’d both known from the beginning they would.

Zach howled in rage as they forced him through the lab by the poles attached to the metal collars around his neck, arms, and waist. I followed with much less fuss, keeping my head down as I pattered across the cold floor on naked feet. There was no reason to fight them, not now, but I knew Zach was unable to suppress the violent instincts urging him to defend his mate. I’d begged him not to while we waited for the doctors to dole out their punishment, told him all he’d accomplish was hurting himself, but he’d just looked at me with that grim expression of his. He didn’t have many words, but he hadn’t needed them—because I felt the overwhelming protectiveness he had for me in our bond. The only thing I could do to protect him now was stay calm myself.

---