Page 13 of The Beast's Baby
He glanced at the camera. He didn’t have the earpiece in. He’d been convinced that he wouldn’t need it. There would be no response from his superiors. He would have to make the call himself.
“Ms. Krushnik,” he said. “I’m not a part of this trial. I’m an employee. I’m not a choice you can make.”
“Too bad,” she shrugged. “I just made it. If you won’t do me then you’re going to have to choose one of these wolves to do me for you. And let’s call it what it is—rape. Are you ready to choose my rapist?”
He stared at her, eyes growing wide.
It was the word he hadn’t wanted to even think to himself, though deep down, when the suggestion for Phase Two was first presented to him, that was all he had been able to think. Even with the money on the table and the subjects choosing to participate, it had all felt like a gross violation. To have it stated was like an electric current running through him.
But he couldn’t fuck her on camera.
That was out of the question.
“Yes, too bad,” he murmured. “I’ll take those folders and come back with the chosen mate in the afternoon so you can have a chat with him.”
She glared at him then, the hatred still very much present, no matter how she tried to hide it. She didn’t want him to fuck her. She was still playing her little game, trying to see when she might find the right buttons to push. He must have done a good job of hiding how the word affected him because she wasn’t screaming rape repeatedly at the top of her lungs. The whole situation was beginning to leave a bitter taste on his tongue when the door behind him opened.
Into the room stepped a woman, sleek and effortlessly put together. She wore her hair in a short bob, its present color was a flaming red, and the skin-tight dress she’d chosen left very little to the imagination. He sometimes felt she dressed inappropriately for work, but he would never even think to comment.
She stepped into the room the way water rounded a rock, all swiftness and grace.
“My dear,” she greeted Isobel as though they’d been friends for years. “I have to confess that I’ve been listening in. My name is Cora, and I’m the overseer at this facility. I can tell that you’re distressed. How can we make it better?”
Isobel stared at her, then turned her eyes to Jay’s as if to ask whether this was a joke of some sort. Cora, with her bright, brown eyes, took a seat next to Isobel on the couch, giving Isobel her full attention. But there was something missing in her study of Isobel’s reaction to her, as well as in her expectant wait for Isobel’s reply. A vacancy where some level of compassion should have been, and Jay knew instantly that Isobel wouldn’t be fooled out of noticing it by simple choice words.
“By letting me out of here, maybe?” Isobel replied to Cora, who smiled.
“Ah, yes,” Cora said. “Of course, that would be preferable to you, but you see, I know something that you don’t. I know that you have, within you, the power to make this an okay experience for you, or a traumatic one. Because whether it happens in here or out there, it will happen to you. And a controlled environment might be preferable.”
Isobel looked to him again. He was her one constant in the place, the only person she had been in contact with. So, it made sense that she would feel compelled to look to him for some sort of council, but he mustn’t forget that she hated his guts. That she’d probably let her wolf tear those guts out of him if given the chance. That she’d attempted to get in his good graces or seduce him, or whatever, only to escape. It was so obvious that was the reason. The only reason. No other reason and that included suggesting they sleep together. So, he didn’t need to feel any level of responsibility for her.
Only, he had no idea what Cora was talking about so, even if he had been allowed to give any sort of council, he wouldn’t have been able to.
“What do you mean ‘when it happens’?” Isobel asked, those large, blue eyes of hers filled with honest inquiry. “What’s ‘it’?” she added.
“You’re a wolf now,” Cora said. “That changes things. Changes you. Female wolves go into heat and once it takes you… Well, let’s just say you’re as lost to it as your wolf is. You’ll fuck anything and anyone. Isn’t it better that you’re in here, in bed with a mate of your choice? Fair enough, the choices are limited but rather than having the expanse of a dirty, cruel city to contend with, you get someone who is clean and vetted and who is just like you.”
Isobel looked as though she wasn’t sure whether to shift and bite Cora’s head off or whether she should let the tears rising spill over and leave it there.
She’s a subject, Jay reminded himself sternly.
But the look on her face was horrendous. And the realization that there were things he hadn’t been informed of hit him between the eyes like a fist. Because suddenly there was a snaking worry that all was not what it seemed. What if Isobel was right? What if he had been brought onto the project without being told everything? What if the end goal wasn’t what he thought?
What if it wasn’t about saving anyone?
A colleague of his had disappeared inexplicably a few weeks back. Olive had been a friend and it seemed unlike her to vanish without so much as a goodbye note, and yet he’d been informed that she’d handed in her letter of resignation for a better opportunity. It had all sounded fishy, but he hadn’t had time to worry. Phase One had just properly kicked off and now that the basic trials were over and done with, it felt exciting to actually get to work with wolves rather than human subjects.
There had been a lot of errors with the human subjects and none of the fetuses had stuck, according to the data. He hadn’t been involved in that stage of the trial. He only knew that they had decided to do tests on female wolves next. To see if the medicine affected them differently than the human women. To see if it would boost them conceiving pups naturally, since most wolves were created through a bite.
The naturally born wolves blood was more powerful, would help create more potent medication for the future and were an important component to MRM’s overall objectives. At least that was what he had been told.
He just hadn’t known that a female wolf would have such an animalistic sexual drive in them.
Was that what he had been feeling?
“When will I go into heat?” Isobel asked as though reading his mind.
“You already have,” Cora replied.
