Текст книги "Obsession"
Автор книги: Nora Ash
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6
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 word key.
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. How did you 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.”
It was only when he opened those piercing blue-green eyes to look at me I realized I’d spoken out loud.
“I’m so sorry.”
351 unwrapped his hand from the bars and reached out toward me. I flinched on instinct, but he only stroked his abused fingers clumsily over my arm. Trying to comfort me.
I set my jaw as I looked at him, grim determination settling in deep in my gut. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
The good thing about working in a lab as well-stocked as this was that finding rubbing alcohol and ointments was a breeze. I was back at 351’s cell within five minutes, arms full of medical supplies, and saw him waiting for me by the bars.
“Sit with me,” I said as I sank down to the floor in front of his cell, scooting close enough to reach him with ease.
He obeyed slowly, eying the bottles I’d brought with caution.
“It’s to clean your wounds,” I explained, trying to ignore the twinge in my chest when I realized why he was so wary of a woman in a lab coat bringing medical supplies to his cage. “Rubbing alcohol and some ointment for your bruises, nothing else.” I held up the two containers for him to see.
He still didn’t look entirely trusting of the bottles, but when I poured some of the alcohol on a piece of cotton, he let me dab it on his skin. It had to have hurt, but he didn’t so much as flinch as I cleaned every laceration I could see. When I was done with his face and the scrapes on his knuckles, I placed the used piece of cotton in the discarded pile next to the ointment. “Do you have any more cuts or scrapes? Or can we continue with the bruises?”
He was still for a moment, staring at me with obvious hesitance. But after a few moments, he twisted around, turning his back to me. His heavy muscles flexed and bulged, tensed and ready for violence, but he still turned. For a short moment I didn’t know if I was more shocked or awed that he trusted me enough to have his back turned to me… but then I saw them.
Several long, red gashes of broken skin marred the middle of his back. Tell-tale wounds from a lash. He’d been whipped. Brutally.
“Who did this?” The anger in my voice manifested in my hands as well. I had to take several deep breaths before I could steady them enough to apply the rubbing alcohol to the deep lacerations.
He still didn’t move under my careful touches, but I could feel the tension in his hard muscles as I gently brushed my free hand against his unbroken skin. I didn’t think about it—it was an instinctual urge to soothe the pain laid bare in front of me, despite his silent endurance. His skin was warm and surprisingly soft underneath my fingers. I kept them there while I dabbed cleaning solution in his deep lash marks, mumbling soothingly when his muscles twinged with the pain. It took far too long to clean them all, shaking as my hands were, but he sat patiently through it until I finally put the bottle of rubbing alcohol down.
“If you turn back around, I’ll take care of the bruises,” I said, my voice hoarse with barely restrained emotion. The tears that had been threatening to escape ever since I saw his damaged back stung in my eyes. I wasn’t sure why seeing the alpha like this hurt so much. The shock of realizing exactly how ruthless Dr. Axell truly was was a shock, but this… it felt so… personal, somehow. Like I was the one he’d had beaten, not a criminal alpha on death row.
351 turned around to face me once more, and the look in his eyes made me lower mine as something warm and confusing pressed against the inside of my chest. There was so much tenderness in his blue-green gaze. It felt… so intimate, like he… knew me somehow.
Fumbling, I reached for the lotion meant for bruises. It was ridiculous, of course. I may have empathy for what had happened to him, perhaps even on a personal level and not just professional, but there was no reason to start reading anything more into it. And this man… He was deep in his instincts. Of course he would see a young woman caring for his wounds as an intimate gesture and react appropriately. It didn’t mean I had any excuse to lose my damn mind. I had a job to do.
Biting the inside of my cheek to steel myself, I looked back up at him, focusing on his bruises instead of the look in his eyes as I poured lotion on a fresh piece of cotton and reached in through the bars to dab it on his discolored skin.
It was a quicker job than caring for his scrapes and cuts, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief when I could finally put the used bit of cotton in the discarded pile with the others and screw the lid back on the bottle of lotion. But before I could stand up, the feral alpha reached a hand through the bars—slowly, as to not startle me—and brushed his warm, scraped fingers against my cheek.
“Thank you.” His voice was rough, and the hesitant way his soft lips formed around the words spoke of how infrequently he used it.
I couldn’t help the rush of warmth and pity and anger that coursed through my veins as I felt his gentle caress and looked back up at him. I could see him—the man behind the feral beast, struggling to break through the haze from the chemicals they’d given him. His lips parted, to say more I realized, but he couldn’t find the words. Frustrated, he growled and pulled his hand from my face, clenching it around one of the bars.
That’s when I knew, with unequivocal certainty, that I had to save him, no matter the cost.
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7
It was four days before the handheld RFID copier I’d ordered off eBay was delivered to my home address, but it gave me enough time to prepare my plan.
It was simple, in the end. I’d bought clothes and a lab coat in a size I thought would fit a man of 351’s stature and kept them in my locker at work. The security team was used to me leaving late and didn’t give me any second glances. As long as the feral alpha could pass for just another researcher who happened to leave at the same time as me, he could be swiped out on my card and hopefully shouldn’t draw any attention.
The only pinch point was in getting him out of his cell. That’s where the RFID copier came in play.
I spent the day after my eBay delivery trailing after Dr. Urwin and Dr. Axell—the only two people on our team I was sure had access to the cells. Just before lunch I saw Dr. Urwin put down his card by the coffeemaker while he had his lunch at the break room table along with Dr. Axell, Dr. Miller, and Kenneth, the main lab assistant.
My heart rate spiked at the sight of the unguarded card, and I covertly glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking this way. Thankfully, they were all deeply engrossed in conversation about what sounded like the potential to control the alpha who’d mounted the woman in front of me earlier in the week if she conceived his child.
I suppressed a shudder at the thought of using an innocent baby like that and turned my attention back to the card.
Careful to keep my body between the men at the table and the coffee counter, I slipped my card copier out of my handbag and snatched the card up under the guise of grabbing a mug.
The process took less than two seconds. Very anti-climactic. Which didn’t stop me from elbowing the coffeepot and sending it flying to the floor with a loud bang when Dr. Urwin said, “Miss Dorne?”
“Oh, goddammit!” I groaned. Thankfully the pot didn’t shatter. “Sorry! Having a clumsy day here.” I shot the table my best “frazzled female” smile and bent for the pot.
“Happens to us all,” Dr. Urwin chuckled. “You all right?”
“Uh-huh.” I picked up the coffee pot and gave it a little shake. “And so’s our friend here. Can’t have a research team with no caffeine supply.”
“True,” Dr. Urwin said, a wide grin on his lips. “Once you’ve gotten your food and coffee, come over. We’re discussing a potential new plan for our alpha problem and would love your input. I reckon a naturally produced child will bind an alpha almost as tightly as a mate, but Dr. Axell says otherwise.”
The only thing the discussion about whether or not using a child against one of the imprisoned alphas did was strengthen my resolve to get 351 out as soon as possible. It was my hope that, once he was out, I would be able to somehow use his testimony to uncover what horrors SilverCorp committed in the government’s name. If he ever regained his full humanity again.
I knew he was able to speak a few words at night, when the drug they used on the alphas wore off a little, but I had no way of knowing the long-term effects. It seemed Dr. Axell and his team hadn’t been too bothered, seeing as all their male test subjects were on death row anyway.
Hopefully 351 would be able to find enough words to help me convince one of the big news networks to spread the word of the abuse going on in this lab.
It seemed like forever before the clock on my computer finally showed five o'clock, marking the time where most of the team went home. I waited two hours longer before I grabbed my clipboard and a pen and started down the hallway. Under the guise of needing to check up on numbers, I walked through the entire ground floor of the facility, ensuring no one was there except me, the locked up women, and the alphas.
Thankfully, it seemed no one else had decided to work overtime today. If I wanted to break 351 out, now was the time.
With my heart pounding in my throat, I hurried to my locker and got the bag of men's clothing out. I double checked my newly made copy of David’s swipe card was safe in my handbag, took a deep breath—and made my way back to the lab.
The alphas looked up at my arrival, a couple of them getting to their feet to pace, but most of them ignored me after they saw who I was. Clearly, after I’d been down here enough times that they’d gotten used to my scent, they’d all written me off as a non-threat.
351, however, got to his feet and walked to the front of his cell when he saw me, a pleased look on his handsome face.
“Hey,” I said as I stopped in front of his cage.
He didn’t answer, but he did reach one hand out between the bars, palm up. A clear encouragement for me to put my hand in his.
I bit my lip, fighting back the flush of heat in my cheeks at the gesture. I wasn’t entirely sure if he was just being friendly, or if me tending to him earlier in the week had given him some unfortunate ideas about my intentions.
It took everything I had not to glance down his naked body as I placed the bag of clothes in his outstretched hand rather than my own palm. “Here. Put this on.”
He didn’t move, staring at me rather than the bag in his hand.
“It’s clothes,” I explained, trying to fight back the adrenaline threatening to take over my nervous system. “Please, put it on. Quickly. You remember how, right?”
Those piercing green-blue eyes flickered from me to the bag. Slowly, he pulled it in through the bars and opened it.
“We have to hurry,” I said, even though no one would be down here until morning. But I wanted to get out of there as quickly as humanly possible, before my heart exploded from stress. The sooner I had SilverCorp’s facility in my rearview mirror, the sooner I could breathe again.
“Lab coat last,” I said as 351 pulled out the contents of the bag. “Pants first.” I hadn’t bothered with underwear or socks, deeming them unnecessary hindrances to a quick escape. If 351 cared or even noticed, he didn’t show it. Fumbling a bit, he managed to pull the gray pants on, even doing up the zipper and the button, though the shirt seemed to cause him more problems.
“Come here,” I said when it became obvious he had very little care for which button was meant to go in which button hole.
The alpha obeyed, and I reached through the bars to undo the crooked buttons and then slip them through the right holes. My fingers skimmed over his warm chest as I worked, and he made a humming noise deep in his throat in response that had my cheeks flushing again. I was suddenly aware of how near he was, despite the bars separating us. Close enough that I could smell his alpha scent. It wasn’t unpleasant, somewhat to my surprise. I’d always found the smell of alpha unsettling, my biology reacting to the primal notes of dominance without my consent.
But on 351, it was oddly comforting to my frayed nerves. I inhaled a little deeper, breathing in the calming scent of him to steady my racing heart.
The feral alpha’s humming noise turned deeper as he leaned his head closer to the bars until it was right above mine, and then he drew in a deep breath through his nose.
Scenting me.
I flew back from the bars, eyes wide. “Don’t you even think about it!”
He gave me a puzzled look, and I bit the inside of my cheek to force my focus back on what was important. He couldn’t help it—he was a feral alpha, and from his point of view, I was just a female trying to get close to him. It wasn’t odd that he would… scent me.
Even if such behavior was appallingly crude in civilized society.
Scenting a female was basically how alphas used to check if she was ready to mate. No civilized alpha would be so obvious about his instincts these days, though. We were all supposed to respect privacy and verbal consent, but as I looked at the feral alpha who’d only followed his basic instincts, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the supposed civilized alphas just pretended they didn’t do the same. How good was their control over their instincts, when it came down to it?
With an effort of will, I pushed the thoughts from my mind. Right now was really not the time to contemplate such issues.
“Put your shoes on,” I snapped at the alpha, and got a warning growl in return. Right. He didn’t like getting bossed around. “Please.”
His eyes narrowed as he watched me, without making any attempt at the shoes. Some of the softness in his gaze had disappeared, replaced by caution.
“I’m breaking you out of here,” I said, unable to control the urgency I felt from penetrating my voice. I fumbled in my bag for the key card and held it up. “I got a key that works. But we have to hurry.”
The change that came over him made my breath hitch in my throat. The same alpha who’d pulled me against the bars of his cell hard enough to leave bruises in order to get at my key card was back, and it wasn’t until I saw the cold, hard calculation in his icy gaze that I fully realized how different he’d been around me since that day. All of a sudden, the thought of actually letting this three-hundred-pound feral man out seemed a lot less appealing.
But I’d already committed to this.
Taking a deep breath, I motioned at the shoes once more before I reached out and swiped my new card over the lock.
It beeped, flashing green, and a mechanic clink rung through the air between us.
He pushed the door open in the blink of an eye, and I only barely managed to stumble back and out of harm's way from his huge bulk of muscle as he stepped out of the cell and into the lab, eyes glued to the far exit. Clearly locked on his target, he started toward it.
“Wait!” I grabbed his arm.
The alpha stopped abruptly, and I could feel every muscle in his body tense underneath my palm in response to my touch. He whipped around, and I staggered back and quickly removed my hand from him again, sure I was about to feel the impact of those bulging muscles straining against the cheap shirt I’d bought for him. But he only stared at me.
“Y-you can’t just storm up there. There are guards. Armed guards. Please, put on the shoes and lab coat and just follow me. Quietly.” I pointed back at the discarded shoes and white clothes in his cell, doing my best not to show him the burst of anxiety his nearness caused me. Having solid steel bars between us had been a pretty good safety net. “I’ll help you, but you have to trust me. Okay?”
351 made a low growling noise, but to my relief he returned to his cell, shoved his large feet into the shoes, and pulled the lab coat on.
The transformation from wild alpha to smoking-hot doctor look-alike was pretty damn convincing.
The errant thought made me blink, my cheeks heating slightly, but I forced it away as quickly as it’d reared its disturbing head. Now was definitely not the time for inappropriate fantasies about the man I was trying to save.
“Come. Stay by my side—and keep quiet,” I said, squaring my shoulders as I started toward the exit.
The alpha followed me—or rather, he walked beside me, but just a half-step ahead. Typical alpha—incapable of letting someone else take the lead. I shot his shoulder an annoyed glare, but at least he wasn’t storming ahead like I’d halfway feared.
The other alphas were much more alert this time—they all got to their feet and stared after us, hands wrapped around the bars to their cells, but didn’t make a sound. Instead they formed a silent guard, as if they knew their own fates depended on the outcome of our escape.
They might have been murderers, locked away on death row for their crimes before they were shipped to this facility, but my heart still twanged uncomfortably at leaving them behind. No one, not even the most dangerous of prisoners, deserved to have their voice taken away and their bodies beaten bloody if they stood up to their abusers. And these men… whatever they’d been before, they weren’t that anymore. Dr. Axell and his team had made sure there was nothing left of what had made them human.
But 351’s compliance only lasted until we reached the stairs. With a low grunt, he put a large hand on my shoulder, stopping me from ascending the steps. Then, without a care for my startled protests, he took them two at a time and smacked his hand against the door’s release button.
“No, wait!” I called, flashes of his hulking form leaping through the hallways and bursting out into the reception area like a wild beast playing through my mind in rapid-fire bursts. “You have to wait f—“
My voiced died when the door swung open—and the alpha immediately sunk into a defensive crouch, his lips pulling back in a furious snarl. But before he could leap forward, three thuck thuck thucks whistled through the air. I stared, wide-eyed at the three black-feathered darts sticking out from his chest. My heart pounded in my throat, realization setting in even as my conscious mind tried to deny it. No, no, no!
351 roared in absolute fury and staggered forward, intent on taking down whoever had shot him, but whatever they’d injected him with was obviously fast-working. He only managed two steps before he sunk to the ground in a heap.
"No!" I cried out. The Goliath of a man twitched once before he went still, his eyelids sliding shut. I sprinted up the stairs, not thinking about the danger, and threw myself down by his side. I frantically pulled the darts from his chest. Oh, God, what did they inject him with?
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice sneered from the doorway. “I can’t say I’m surprised, but it is still a disappointment.”
I looked up from the unmoving alpha to the doorway. Dr. Axell stood in the middle of it, flanked by armed guards, and behind them I could just make out Dr. Urwin’s features.
“You had such potential,” he continued before he turned to the guards with a dramatic sigh. “Take him away.”
“What did you do to him?” I spat.
“Relax, sweetheart. He’s just knocked out. He’s much too valuable to kill, even though he’s sorely testing my patience these days.” His cool eyes narrowed as they returned to me. “You, however… I can’t say I’m not disappointed I’ll lose such a fine data analyst, but you are replaceable.”
I swallowed thickly and steeled myself as the guards came forward to hoist the passed-out alpha up. He was so big, it took all three of them to carry him off.
As much as my heart ached for the feral alpha and the fate that awaited him, I had to focus on my own situation now. I’d known there was a very real risk involved in trying to break one of Dr. Axell’s test subjects free—and now I had to face it.
“Are you going to kill me, then?” I asked with far more bravery than I felt. On the inside, my heart felt like it was trying to escape through my throat and my stomach was a hollow pit.
Dr. Urwin scoffed. “Hardly. We’ll hand you over to the authorities. You tried to sabotage a project funded by the Ministry of Defense.”
“Of course, death might be preferable to being tried for treason,” Dr. Axell mused. “But maybe they’ll go easier on a dumb female who thinks with her ovaries.”
I blanched. Somehow, while I’d prepared my plan, I’d never thought of what would happen to me if they handed me over to the authorities. I’d thought they might kill me, or—best-case scenario—I’d get turned over to the police and I’d end up with a petty charge and a ruined career. But in between those two extremes, I’d not considered the ties to the Ministry of Defense.
Yes, they would undoubtedly try me for treason.
“Please. Don’t. J-just kill me if you have to. But don’t… They’ll send me to Ezban.” It wasn’t that I wanted to die—not by a long shot. But… there were worse fates than death. Being labeled a traitor to your country was definitely one of them.
“If you didn’t want to go to Ezban, you shouldn’t have let your bleeding heart get in the way of a fucking government-stamped research project, should you?” Dr. Axell snarled. “Fucking women. We let you into the sciences, and this is the reward we get. It’s going to take us weeks to get 351 back in line now, all because of what? He makes your pussy tingle, is that it?”
“You torture them!” I snapped. “He disobeyed you, and you beat him bloody. You’ve taken their voices, their humanity! It’s not right, and you know it.”
“Their humanity,” he sneered. “They were hardly human to begin with. Do you know what 351 did? He murdered his commanding officer while out on assignment in the desert. He’s a war criminal, and you tried to release him into the public. That one?” He pointed at the nearest caged alpha, who bared his teeth at the doctor. “Raped and killed five children below the age of twelve before they caught him. Trust me, they deserve every damn thing coming their way. And so do you. Now get up.”
The world seemed to twist below me, centering on the black pit in my stomach as my indignant anger at what they’d done to these men faded to the background. Imminent fear for my own life set in instead. The few stories that ever made it out of Ezban made it very obvious that any other fate was better than being sent there. The nation had no concern for the wellbeing of traitors and war criminals. Anyone with even a shred of sanity would choose death over what awaited them there. “Please, don’t turn me in. There has to be another way.”
“I don’t think so. You tried to ruin my research after I let you onto my team—I have no pity for you.” Dr. Axell said, disdain clear in his voice. But when he stepped forward to grab me, Dr. Urwin raised his hand.
“Hang on a moment.”
Dr. Axell turned to his colleague, eyebrows raised in question.
“You saw how 351 acted around her on the video surveillance,” the beta male said as he gave me a coldly calculating look. “He seems interested in her. Perhaps, if Miss Dorne is certain she would rather find another solution to this predicament she’s put us in, she would be willing to test out the theory she suggested during the mating trial she overlooked.”
I blinked, my brain taking a few moments to zero in on what he was referring to. Then I remembered my thoughts on them trying to force a mating bond. “You’re kidding? You think he’d claim me?”
Dr. Urwin shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. I’d be curious enough to test it out to perhaps overlook your transgressions, seeing as no other female has had any non-sexual, positive reaction from 351 yet.”
“Hm, that is a good point,” Dr. Axell conceded. “It would at least be worth a trial, now that the opportunity has presented itself.” He looked down at me. “But of course, if you don’t want to…”
“No, I’ll…” I swallowed thickly and forced the images of Gloria tied to the breeding post out of my mind. Whatever happened in that room, it would be better than going to Ezban. “I’ll do it.”
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