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.
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.