Текст книги "Obsession"
Автор книги: Nora Ash
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Obsession Feral 1
Nora Ash
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Copyright © 2018 by Nora Ash
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any and all likeness to trademarks, corporations or persons, dead or alive, is purely coincidental.
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Contents
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Also by Nora Ash
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Summary
I never wanted a mate.
Until I was put in chains.
Strapped down.
And claimed.
I always believed I could analyze any situation until I found a solution. Solve any problem if I just applied my brain.
I went to university, studied science and told myself my academic cocoon would protect me from the alphas dominating our society.
I was wrong.
No textbook prepared me for my meeting with test subject 351.
The biggest, scariest alpha on death row, hauled into my lab to uncover how to control the beast of a man. How to make him submit.
Mold him into a weapon.
But there is no controlling the feral alpha, and no logic strong enough to save my mind once he unleashes his fury on my body.
Once he claims me.
Obsession is the first book in Nora Ash’s second suspense-filled Omegaverse serial, Feral.
Please note: This series gets dark, and it gets dirty. If you don’t enjoy your romance scorching and your alphas rough & dominant, give this book a pass.
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1
“Welcome, Miss Dorne. I am Dr. Simon Axell, and I will be your mentor these first few weeks.”
I couldn’t contain my beaming smile at the approaching alpha as I got to my feet. He was broad like his biology dictated, but for an alpha, he didn’t make too intimidating a figure. The lab coat also helped.
“Thank you, Dr. Axell. It’s such an honor to join your team. I’ve been following your work since I was a grad student.”
It was true. I’d been quietly and nerdily fangirling over Dr. Axell’s work in bio-research for years. When my old advisor had notified me of a position on his team, I’d leapt at the chance. He might be working with “biological defense” these days, rather than disease control as I’d majored in, but for Dr. Axell, I’d work in sewage disposal if I had to.
He returned my smile, albeit a bit more measured, and clasped my hand in a brief shake. “You come highly recommended—Professor Remmer is an old acquaintance of mine. He promised me you were one of the best bioanalysts in the country.”
I did my best not to blush bright red at the praise—an unfortunate flaw of mine. Judging from the heat in my cheeks, I didn’t luck out. Damn it. Not the most professional image to portray on my very first day.
At least if Dr Axell noticed, he graciously pretended he didn’t.
“Professor Remmer has been very kind.”
“I trust you’ve been granted a temporary access pass?” he asked, brushing off my bashfulness.
I nodded and held up the pass I’d been given by the receptionist upon arrival.
“Good. HR should have a permanent badge made out for you before the end of the week.” Dr. Axell led me through the sliding doors behind reception, swiping his own badge to unlock them. “I’ll get you introduced to a couple of key members of the team, and then we can go over the project itself. We are only two lead researchers with three support staffers, not counting the guards.”
I nodded enthusiastically at him as we walked down long, white-painted corridors lined with metal on all surfaces and a strip of fluorescent lights guiding the way. I hadn’t been informed of what exactly I’d be working on, except that it was “biodefense,” highly classified and sanctioned by the Ministry of Defense, even if it was run by a private corporation—SilverCorp.
I’d done as much research as I could on my new employer, but nowhere had there been any records of what exactly they worked with, so I was more than a little curious. Especially after I’d been sworn in by government agents in black suits and stern faces to keep a strict non-disclosure agreement. Suffice it to say, I was pretty much expecting to walk into a Men in Black situation when I arrived at the heavily guarded compound earlier this morning.
The long hallway we were following didn’t do much to dissuade my overactive imagination, with the way our shoes made the metal flooring echo ominously and the smell of disinfectants in the air, but when Dr. Axell finally opened a door and ushered me into a small staff room, I was utterly disappointed.
It smelled like coffee and looked exactly like any break room you’d see in millions of companies across the country. No extraterrestrials in sight—only a lone beta male in a lab coat eating a sandwich by the large, white table in the middle of the room. A newspaper lay sprawled next to his sandwich wrapper, opened to an article about the stock market, as far as I could tell.
“Dr. Urwin,” Dr. Axell began, “I want you to meet our new bioanalyst, Miss Lillian Dorne. Miss Dorne, this is Dr. Dave Urwin. You will mainly be running tests on my data, but occasionally you’ll also need to help Dr. Urwin—he’s responsible for the female subjects.”
The beta got to his feet and extended a hand toward me. “A pleasure, Miss Dorne.”
“Likewise.” I smiled and shook it as I looked around the small break room, doing my best not to pinch myself. This high spec research facility, so important it was under government protection and unsearchable on the web—was now my actual workplace. I wasn’t even thirty yet and I’d already reached the pinnacle of my dreams.
Since I’d left high school with a 4.0 GPA, I’d dreamt of working in a place like this, under a man like Simon Axell, and here I was.
The only thing that could have made today any better was if this did in fact turn out to be a secret government department for intergalactic diplomacy.
“Female test subjects?” I asked, turning from Dr. Urwin to my mentor. “Am I to understand that the research is in human trials, at this stage?”
“Very observant, Lillian.” Dr. Axell smiled as he handed me my coffee. “That will do you well here. And yes, indeed it does. Are you keen to learn about the project?”
So no aliens, then. I nodded nevertheless. “Very.”
“Well, since it looks like our support staff are working through lunch today, why don’t I take you down to my department and I’ll give you an introduction to the project as a whole and what I’m working with right now? Bring a cup of coffee—there are no biohazards.” Another smile as he nodded toward the coffee machine in the corner of the room. “I know you come from disease control.”
I grimaced at the thought of what bringing a cup of coffee into the lab could have done at my previous job and quickly poured myself a mug. As much as I’d loved my former field, being able to keep caffeinated while working would be a nice and unexpected bonus.
Dr. Axell poured himself a cup as well, and then led me out the door with a nod to the beta doctor by the table.
“We’ve been working on developing a way for our most specialized troops to gain an edge in combat,” Dr. Axell explained as we walked further down the corridor. When he came to a thick door, he swiped it with his card and pressed in a code before it opened with a heavy clonk. On the other side, a spiral staircase led underground.
“It’s undeniable that our very best troops are alphas, which has given us a unique angle from which to approach the problem of improvement. My team and I are working on using the biological imperative that separates alpha males from the rest of society to enhance our subjects’ combat skills. Bluntly put, we found a way to purify the alpha instincts within the males. The results have been very promising so far, but not without their drawbacks.”
I frowned as I followed the doctor down the stairs and through another set of password protected doors. I’d been quite shielded in my academic cocoon—most alphas who advanced in academia had learned to control their more animalistic impulses early on, to be able to excel within a dynamic that cherished mind over physique.
That didn’t mean I hadn’t seen the other side of them. No woman could live in ignorance of the latent aggression within the part of the male species we knew as alphas. These large men, whose biology had marked them as the leaders of society, the warriors and protectors, were known for their dominance and ruthless aggression toward anyone who didn’t bend to their will. It was a predicament largely ignored by polite society—something no one spoke of, but quietly accepted. We craved their leadership at an instinctive level, but many alphas abused their superior strength and the benefits it got them.
I may have been shielded from the worst of them—the ones who terrorized the city streets at night and took whatever and whoever they pleased—but that certainly didn’t mean the idea of enhancing their alpha instincts didn’t fill me with dread.
“Forgive me—what do you mean by purifying their instincts?” I asked as I stepped through the final door after Dr. Axell. I was going to elaborate, but just as the door slid closed behind me with an audible click, my eyes adjusted to the bright light in the room spread out below us and I stopped cold.
“It was a quite simple process, once we perfected the formula,” Dr. Axell said, that easy smile still on his face as he turned to look at me. “In its essence, we’ve created a serum that will turn any alpha injected with enough of it feral.”
I stared mutely into the room below. We were up a few steps from the main room, which gave me a perfect view of the lab and every person in it.
Two young men in white lab coats were walking from one subject to another, noting down numbers on charts.
And all along both walls and curved around a big, glass-paned room in the center, was cage after cage of imprisoned alphas.
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2
“They’re… they’re all in cages?” I asked, not quite believing my own eyes.
“Well, cells. Trust me, things would go south rather quickly if they weren’t safely detained. Have you ever seen a feral alpha?”
I shook my head, mutely watching the nearest caged and buck naked man pace restlessly behind the bars of his prison, his muscles flexing as he stared at the nearby lab-coated staff member scribbling notes on his chart. He looked like a wild animal searching for a way to get at his captor.
“And they agreed to this… this arrangement?”
Dr. Axell glanced at me, for a moment appearing startled. Then his trademark smile spread across his face once more. “Oh, of course. Forgive me, I didn’t consider how this would look to a newcomer. These test subjects were all imprisoned on death row—their lives were forfeit. Instead of getting the needle, they come here and help the society they turned their backs on learn how to better defend our borders. I’m sure you agree that this is far the better option for these wretched souls?”
Hesitantly, I nodded. If the only other option for these men was death, there wasn’t much of a choice.
“Come, I want to show you our most promising subject.” Dr. Axell walked down the few steps to the concrete floor below, leaving me to follow. “He was a Navy SEAL before he came here, and his physical tests are off the charts. They all become superior fighters once they’re feral, but Subject 351 is something else entirely. We’ve shown his results to the Minister of Defense, and they are very hopeful he will be the key to improving the armed forces.”
We walked to the far end of the large room, past cell after cell of naked and pacing alphas. Each and every one of them snarled when Dr. Axell passed, the sound and overwhelming scent of them making every hair on my body stand on end as I fought back my own primal instincts to show my throat in submission.
It was a ridiculous urge, of course, a leftover defense from before civilization made us all rein in our animal instincts and substitute them with rules and manners. I’d felt the brush of those instincts before—of course I had. Every man, woman, and child who’d ever been around an alpha had, but I’d never experienced anything as strong as this. The sheer density of testosterone in the air made my heart pick up speed, preparing my body to flee.
“It’s a bit overwhelming in the beginning,” Dr. Axell said, undoubtedly when he picked up on my scent of fear. “Every beta male on the team has been through it. It gets easier. Just remember they’re behind bars—there’s nothing they can do to you. You’re the one in charge.”
I gave him a grateful, but fleeting smile in acknowledgement, yet didn’t manage to keep my eyes off the predators we passed. That’s what they were, I realized. Predators. No longer fully human.
“What have you done to them to… to turn them feral?” I asked, aware my voice was squeaky with pent-up anxiety. Dr. Axell was polite enough to ignore it.
“Once a day, we give them a serum we’ve developed specifically for this purpose. It increases the activity in the medulla oblongata, forcing their primal instincts to the forefront. It doesn’t fully erase their humanity—they’re still capable of using tools, and to some degree, solving puzzles and performing simple tasks like showering and opening doors. We’ve yet to have anyone speak while the serum is still strong in their veins, but toward nighttime when it begins to wear off, most are capable of expressing basic needs and wants using some language.” He stopped in front of the last cell on the left side of the room, smiling broadly at its occupant. “Ah, and here he is. Our most prized specimen. Miss Dorne, this is Subject 351. He’s twenty-six, and a former Navy SEAL at six foot ten and two-hundred ninety-one pounds.”
I peeked in the cell from my hiding-spot behind Dr. Axell’s shoulder, and bit my lip at the sight of the man inside. All alphas were larger than beta males, but it was quite obvious even from a quick glance that the nearly three hundred pounds on this one was pure muscle. His body looked like it’d been carved from granite, with bulging muscles from his shoulders down his arms and pecs leading down to two hard rows of stacked abs and a prominent “V.” I quickly averted my gaze when my eyes caught sight of what hung below his hips, forcing back my immediate blush.
Instead of pacing like the other alphas, he was sitting at the far concrete wall of his cell, his head leaned back and his eyes closed. When I looked closer, I could see several scars crisscrossing his skin. A few of them looked fresh.
“What’s happened to him?” I asked, indicating the scars.
The moment I spoke, the alpha’s eyes snapped open. His icy, blue-green eyes swept from me to Dr. Axell, and his lip curled up in a snarl that had me retreating a step before I caught myself.
“We have to test their fighting prowess on a regular basis,” Dr. Axell explained. “Sometimes they sustain injuries, but they are of course treated instantly.”
“Oh.” That sounded plausible enough. I forced my eyes away from the scars and pressed down the sense of discomfort churning in my gut. He wasn’t a good man, I reminded myself. And a few scars were a far better option than getting the needle, even for a former soldier of his obvious ability.
“You said the serum has drawbacks?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the alpha as he slowly got to his feet. His gaze was locked on Dr. Axell, and his stance was obviously defensive. How the alpha researcher reined in his own instincts was a mystery to me, but apart from a slight scent of aggression emanating from the man by my side, he didn’t seem to be fazed in the slightest.
“Yes. As much as it purifies their alpha nature, it obviously also enhances their dominance and disregard for following orders. Not exactly prized qualities in what we hope will be the nation’s most elite soldiers.” Dr. Axell took a step closer to the cage and the alpha within reacted instantly. His snarl grew to a roar as he launched himself at the bars, barging against them with his shoulder so hard they shook. When unsuccessful, he started pacing instead, as close to the bars as he could without touching them, a look of absolute murder in his eyes as he stared Dr. Axell down.
“W-what are you working on to pacify them?” I asked, doing my best not to let on how hard my heart was pounding after the feral alpha’s display of aggression.
“It’s more about control than pacification,” Dr. Axell said. He cocked his head while he watched the alpha pace, still seemingly unfazed by the threat of violence emanating from the man. “We’ve worked on a lot of solutions, but when it comes right down to it, there is only one thing that can be used to control any alpha on the planet. Even a feral one. A mate.”
I blinked and finally wrested my gaze from the feral alpha to stare dumbfounded at Dr. Axell. “W-what? He has a mate? There are rules for mated pairings, even in cases of violent crime.” Only in the most extreme cases was a criminal sentenced to death row if he’d taken a mate, because it was deemed too cruel a punishment for the—often innocent—surviving spouse to lose her mate before his time. There’d only been three cases in the past decade where a mated alpha had been sentenced to death, as far as I could recall, and that’d made waves across the country because in all three cases, their mates had been accomplices.
“No, he does not. None of them do.” Dr. Axell returned my gaze with a calming smile. “Not yet. But it is our working theory that if we can get them to claim a mate while in this state, they will be much easier to control. We keep the woman with us, safe and sound, and her alpha will obey every command given.”
“But…” About a thousand questions tumbled through my brain, but I found it hard to word any of them. An esteemed researcher like Dr. Simon Axell would never break the strict codes of conduct every person employed within the sciences swore an oath to uphold, and I didn’t want him to think I was accusing him of doing anything of the sort. Yet this…
“How will you find the women to bond with these men?” I finally asked.
“We already have.” Dr. Axell nodded toward where the central, glass-paned room curved around. When we’d entered, I’d noticed a door leading out of the room on that side. “Inmates at several women’s prisons across the country were given the option of shortening their sentences by taking part in this research. Those who accepted were given a physical before they arrived. Every one was deemed in a fitting physical state to participate. Don’t worry, Miss Dorne. Everything is above board. I would never ask fellow researchers to partake in anything that could harm their careers.”
“I wasn’t implying that—“
He put a hand on my shoulder. “I know, my dear. And I want you to feel safe in confiding any concerns that may arise during your employment here. We take the welfare of our employees, as well as our test subjects, seriously.”
I offered him a brief smile of gratitude that he responded to with a quick squeeze before he removed his hand and turned away from the caged alpha still pacing in his cell. “Now, if you will come with me. I’ll show you your work station. You won’t often have need to come down to the lab, but on occasion, someone will forget to jot down the relevant numbers in the reports you’ll be given. If that’s the case, you can always come down and read them off the cells. Just be careful not to come within reach of the bars.”
I nodded shakily, my gut clenching at the thought of being close enough to one of the feral alphas that they might reach through the bars and grab me. One final look at the still-pacing 351 made it very obvious I wouldn’t like the outcome of an encounter like that.
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3
I settled into a rhythm at my new job quickly enough. My colleagues were friendly, if a bit aloof, like most researchers tended to be. I was the most junior member of the team, and a newcomer, so I didn’t mind too much that I spent most of my time alone by my computer. I was determined to prove myself the best analyst Dr. Axell had ever employed, hopeful that I’d improve my standing with the accomplished alpha enough that he’d eventually consider me part of his core team.
So I worked overtime hours from my second week, staying later than anyone else to catch up on the pile of work that’d been accumulating while they didn’t have an analyst employed. Spreadsheets and bio measures haunted my dreams.
It was a full month into my employment before I had to return to the lab.
It was past 8 PM Friday night, and I was the last employee left in the whole compound, save the guards patrolling the upper layers and surrounding grounds. I’d decided to run the last few numbers on the latest test results from Subject 351. But as I sat yawning in front of the computer screen, staring at numbers that slowly began to look like ants to my tired eyes, I realized Dr. Axell had forgotten to fill in the alpha’s daily calorie intake for this past week. Either I had to wait until Monday to get the numbers, or… I had to go read them off his chart myself.
A small jolt of nerves made me grimace. I’d been in plenty of labs before—that this one contained several aggressive alphas really shouldn’t make me flinch like an intern. They were safely locked up. It didn’t matter that I’d be the only staff member down there—not if I wanted to get this report done for Dr. Axell to hand over first thing Monday morning.
After only a moment’s hesitation, I snatched pen and paper off my desk and made my way to the lab. Impressing my new boss was far more important than the dumb animal instincts nagging at my spine at the prospect of being all alone in a room full of alphas.
The lab was only half-lit when I stepped in through the sliding door after having swiped my card on the scanner. I briefly considered flicking the bright fluorescent lights on to make it easier to see the numbers on 351’s chart, but a quick glance at the nearest cages made me decide against it.
In contrast to when last I’d been here, the alphas within view weren’t pacing restlessly. Instead, they all seemed to be in some state of rest, and I didn’t want to disturb them.
I walked as quietly as I could down the left row of cells, but even though I didn’t go unnoticed, no one growled at my presence. A few got to their feet to watch me as I passed their cage, alert but unaggressive. I scented the air and blushed at my own lapse into primitive instincts. I was usually much better at ignoring the small, primal urge to smell for pheromones that always jabbed at the base part of my brain when around alphas—but then again, it wasn’t often I found myself surrounded by this many of them.
Despite the heavy smell of disinfectant in the air and the relative calmness of the lab’s inhabitants, the bitter note of alpha aggression still hung above it all, a silent reminder of the much different atmosphere the other staff members saw during regular working hours. Faint as it was, it still wreaked havoc on my nerves, and I sped up on my way to 351’s cell. The sooner I got this over with, the sooner I’d be able to get out of here.
Subject 351 sat against the near wall when I got to his cage. His eyes snapped open when I stopped in front of the door where Dr. Axell’s notes were attached to the concrete separating his cell from the next.
“Hey,” I said, feeling halfway stupid talking to a feral alpha who’d likely rip me apart if he got the chance—but also too uncomfortable under his dark stare to pretend like I didn’t notice him. Besides, the sound of my own voice calmed my frayed nerves, if only a little. “I just need to get your stats for the week—Dr. Axell forgot to complete them.”
He didn’t respond, obviously, but he didn’t move closer to the bars either. I relaxed a little and pulled out my notepad, intent on getting the task done.
Dr. Axell’s writing wasn’t the most legible at the best of times, and in the dim lab, I had to squint and lean in to decipher the numbers and notes he’d scrawled on the alpha’s file for the week. I was so absorbed in my efforts that I didn’t realize I’d taken a step closer to the bars—nor did I notice the alpha getting to his feet. Only when I took another step and my shoulder brushed against the metal did I notice what I’d done—and by then, it was too late.
A large hand, with strength to rival a freight train, closed around my upper arm. Hard.
I shrieked and flailed, dropping my notepad and pen. My heart pounded in my throat so hard I thought I might throw it up, and I pushed at the bars in a vain attempt at getting free. I might as well have tried to dislodge a boulder.
“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, actually looking at 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 all alpha. 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-wrenching fear.
“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. With him.” 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. A test 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.
