“Walk with me.” The Alpha turned on his heel and limped away.
Clementine followed, Eugene stuck against her side. They shared a confused, worried look as the Alpha started to boast about the compound, telling Eugene that the Blaze Ops’ normal tactics won’t work again since they switched to a completely wireless security system. He stumbled twice and each time he did, a growl ripped from his throat.
“If you betray me, I will see you both gutted like fish,” he snapped and then turned back to an amicable chatter.
A mousy-looking woman came to join them after only a little while. She moved timidly, her head hanging low. She glanced at Clementine and Eugene with a look of mingled curiosity and fear, then addressed the Alpha. “It’s time for your shot.”
“Keep your needles away from me, girl,” the Alpha snarled. “I don’t need them.”
The woman lifted her head. “But Father—”
“DID I SAY YOU COULD ADDRESS ME SO CASUALLY?” the Alpha howled as his hand whipped across the woman’s face.
Clementine jumped, crying out, and Eugene leapt forward. He caught the woman as she fell toward the ground. She pressed her hand to her face, a needle tumbling to the ground. The Alpha snarled but who he was snarling at, Clementine didn’t know. She drew back, her eyes wide. This wasn’t the man that Utopia had talked about. That Alpha was cruel, yes, but always in control. This man…
The Alpha pinched his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths. When he spoke, his voice was barely measured. “Give me the shot, Karey, and then go mother someone else.”
The woman picked up the needle. A bruise was forming on her cheek already as Eugene rejoined Clementine. Karey’s hands trembled so much she was sure to do damage with that needle, so Clementine stepped forward. Not for the Alpha’s sake, no, but for Karey’s. She didn’t want to think about what the Alpha would do to her if she hurt him.
When the shot was administered, Karey took the empty needle and turned to go.
“Stay here.” The Alpha rubbed the injection site. His shoulders were stiff as he turned to Clementine. “I did say that the serum had unexpected side effects. I expect that with your medical background, you’ll be able to figure out what has gone wrong and how to reverse it.”
“I… I can try.” Clementine trembled, knowing that her life and Eugene’s depended on it. “But in the meantime, I am going to have to try to deal with the symptoms. Your physical state—"
“I didn’t ask you to do anything about my physical state except fix it.” The Alpha glared at her. “You will accompany my worthless Omega of a daughter to the lab and start to work immediately. Understood?”
Clementine nodded dryly. She wondered if the Alpha expected her to do actual work or familiarize herself with what information she was given, but she could hardly ask. Not when he was so volatile. There was a reason why splicing genes was such a bad idea—a reason beyond just delaying why Utopia had never gone this far in her own research.
She stepped toward Karey, Eugene following, but the Alpha put a hand on his chest, stopping him.
“Your mate can do her work without you, Dragon,” he said with another smile so charming that it was like he hadn’t lost his temper moments ago. “You and I have other things to discuss. I have always liked dragons. And don’t think I’m such a fool as to think that you’re not harboring some hopes to find proof of your mate’s innocence so you can return to the Magnus Academy a hero.”
Eugene glared at him, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “The thought did occur to me,” he admitted, “but her safety comes first. I’m not sure what sort of evidence I could actually gather. The Academy certainly wouldn’t just take my word for it.”
“No, no, of course, not. But you may take me at my word, my boy.” The Alpha patted him on the shoulder, smiling once more. “Should you attempt to leave, should you attempt to go anywhere I have not already stated you are allowed, then I will have no problem killing your mate.”
Eugene’s teeth flashed as he snarled.
“Not just your mate because I’m sure that you have all sorts of plans how to grab her and leave,” the Alpha continued, “but all of my test subjects. Every man, woman, and child that I snatched from their lives to be part of my little experiments. Not just here. Everywhere. And…” He turned to Karey, patting her cheek. “My beloved daughter. If you let them escape this time, I will rip out your throat myself.”
That was more like the Alpha Clementine had heard about. She stood there, shivering with fright and wishing she had taken her chances with the Academy. What had they gotten themselves into?
Karey flinched but she nodded. Clementine gave Eugene one last panicked look before she followed the girl away.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be allowed to see her regularly,” the Alpha said to Eugene as they walked away. “I have to make sure you both know that you could die at any time, after all.”
The lab was terribly underequipped, but Clementine didn’t let herself despair too much. If she gave up now, then it was all over. She sat in an office chair, closing her eyes and taking deep, steadying breaths. So far, it was working. Whether the Alpha thought they were lying or not, he was at least willing to use them. Even if he was explosive and terrifying.
Karey handed Clementine a bottle of water. “I’m sorry. It’s the serum. I don’t know what it’s done, but it’s addled with his brain somehow. I have all our information in these file folders and on this.” She drew a USB drive from her pocket. “There is a laptop in the top drawer. But don’t let the Alpha catch you using it. He’s convinced himself that the Academy has been able to get one step ahead of him due to technology. He even thinks they did something to the serum with drones or something.”
Clementine shuddered. “Add paranoia to his symptoms, then. How long has he been that jaundiced?”
“The last time I was able to give him an examination was four months ago,” Karey replied, looking miserable as her shoulders hunched. “I don’t have my notes from then, though. He went into a rage shortly after and destroyed half of the information we had. Today’s the first time he threatened me, though. Please, you have to help him. Since my mother died, he’s all I have.”
“I’ll do my best,” Clementine murmured. “But I can’t promise anything.”
Karey nodded. “I’ll stand watch so you can check the information on that USB drive. Just hurry, okay? His paranoia is growing worse.”
Clementine gave one final shudder before she pulled in a deep breath. There would be time for cowering in fear later. Right now, she needed to get to work.
Chapter Sixteen
Apparently where the Alpha was allowing Eugene to go was an eight-by-eight cell. When he’d put him in the blank little room, he’d smiled.
“As you are an honored guest, you can have one of our more comfortable accommodations,” he’d said, then reminded him that Clementine’s life depended on him behaving and left him locked in.
There was hardly enough room to pace but Eugene couldn’t just sit still and so walked from one end of the room to the other, puffing out breaths of smoke as his agitation levels rose. Had it been a mistake to come here? He didn’t know. Right now, separated from Clementine, all he could think was yes, it was. Seeing how crazy the Alpha was, he thought, yes, it was. Would he really kill so many people if Eugene left? It seemed counter-intuitive, to kill his research subjects when he needed them in order to cure his obvious ills.
But then, he’d threatened to kill his own daughter. Eugene wasn’t going to put anything past him.
So now the question was, how could he get out of this cell? He was pretty useless here, and he wouldn’t be able to figure out how to make their eventual escape if he was locked up all the time. So... He had to get out, without seeming like he was fishing for information.
Well, the first thing he could do was make sure Clementine was alright. They’d already established themselves as mates, so it wouldn’t be so suspicious for him to be worried about her.
He moved to the door and pounded on it, suspecting that the Alpha had left guards on the other side. His suspicions were proved correct when the little window was opened. The wolf peering in had an expression of mingled awe and fear.
“I want to speak with the Alpha.”
The window shut and Eugene assumed that was it—until, several minutes later, when the door opened, and the Alpha strode in. Eugene held his breath, the smell even worse in this confined space.
“I was told that you wanted to see me,” the Alpha said, looking at him greedily, the way a wolf would look at a particularly fat rabbit. “And of course, for my guest, I will take time out of my schedule to oblige. I’ve always admired dragons. I was so disappointed when I turned out to be a wolf. My father was, too. He used to say that if he’d just been tougher on me, I’d have the strength to have been a dragon instead of a wolf. You can imagine my disappointment when my only daughter turned out to be a weakling as well.”
“I… never thought strength had anything to do with it,” Eugene said slowly. “I mean, shifters usually inherit their family form from parents, don’t they? It’s genetic. My dad is a dragon. Most felines have feline children, canids have canid children…”
“If that was true, there would be a lot more dragons.”
Eugene wasn’t going to argue that point. He wasn’t here to argue at all, after all. It was his understanding that the genes that created a dragon were recessive and that was why they were so rare. It didn’t hardly matter, though. The Alpha clearly wasn’t in his right mind. If it had nothing to do with genetics, why was he so interested in gene splicing?
“I know that you have your reasons for keeping me in here,” he said instead. “But I need to see Clementine. Make sure she’s alright.”
The Alpha’s expression dropped. He squinted suspiciously at Eugene. “You haven’t decided that it was a mistake to come here, have you? Not thinking of grabbing your mate and flying away?”
Eugene ground his teeth, not sure how to respond to that. There was a cunning light in the Alpha’s eyes. In his state, Eugene didn’t know what was in his head, but he had to assume that he was still clever enough when faced with something like this not to be taken for a ride.
“I don’t want to do anything stupid,” Eugene finally said. “But stuck in here, not knowing where Clementine is, I’m afraid I’m not thinking very clearly. Even if we could have a video feed so I could see her, even if you don’t want me out of this cell—”
“So you can use it to summon your Blaze Ops?” The Alpha snarled as his hand lashed out, closing around Eugene’s throat. Despite his physical state, he was still strong and shoved Eugene against the wall. “You better not try anything, Dragon. Or do you want your mate dead?”
It took everything in Eugene not to respond to the threat, both to himself and Clementine, by blasting the Alpha’s head off with a stream of fire. Instead, he forced himself to go smaller, to reduce the threat that he posed.
“No,” he choked out. “And that’s why I want to see her. Because I’ve already proven to be an idiot when it comes to her safety. Right now, this is the safest place for her. The Academy won’t even think about alternatives to her being the traitor. What else am I supposed to do to keep her out of jail? Fly off to Greenland? But you also tried to kill her and being the idiot that I am, I keep wondering if you’ve killed her already.”
The Alpha released him. He studied him hard, then shook his head as though trying to bat away an irritating fly. “Well, I suppose it won’t hurt for you to visit her if you’re that much of an idiot. But that means you’ll have to give me something in return.”
“Such as?”
“The gene splicing has given us several dragon-like traits. I and the men that were given the serum have the ability to grow wings, even breath fire. We’re faster and stronger than we were before. But I would like to test it out against a true dragon.”
Eugene had a sinking feeling in his chest. “Test how?”
“Oh, in games of skill, of course. Pitting you against my strongest warriors, seeing how long you last and what sort of strength you really have.” The Alpha laughed as he slammed his hand into Eugene’s back in some farce of a friendly pat. “Doesn’t that sound fun? After all, when I had that other dragon, I had to keep him under sedation all the time. But you’re going to give your blood and participate in the tests willingly, aren’t you?”
Eugene glowered at him before turning his face away. “Yeah. I will. But you’re going to have to think up some new threats because if you hurt Clementine, I have no reason to stick around.”
The Alpha gestured toward the open door. “Do I now? We can talk about it as we go up to the training field.”
Fuck. Eugene sealed his jaw together as they started walking. Why had he gone and said that? As if there weren’t enough threats, now he had to go and poke the Alpha until he made new ones. What had he been thinking? Was it just because he didn’t want to hear the Alpha threaten to kill her again? Or was it because he was sore about being in this situation and wanted to show the Alpha he wasn’t cowed?
Either way, he’d made a big mistake.
“I got it,” the Alpha said once they were outside, the sunlight making him blink and squint. “How is this for a threat, Dragon? If you don’t do as you’re told and to make things more exciting, you’ll be having a nice little fight with someone new every night. And the winner gets to spend the night with Dr. Brown.”
Eugene was lunging before he even fully understood what the Alpha was saying. A roar echoed from his chest as he grabbed the Alpha by the shirt, one fist swinging toward his face.
He was not prepared for the Alpha’s defense. Flame burned the air between them, smacking him right in the chest. Eugene jumped back, howling as pain lanced through his body. He stumbled and the guards were quickly on him. His feet were kicked out from under him, and he was pinned to the ground. The Alpha crouched over him, shoving a gun into his mouth. The metal was cold, the taste bitter. Eugene choked on it.
“Guest or not, dragon or not, I will not hesitate to put down any threats. Understood?”
Eugene glared hatefully at him but nodded the best he could. His heart slammed in his chest. How was he meant to protect Clementine like this? No. This was it. He couldn’t risk Clementine. He had to get her and get out of here. It didn’t matter if they didn’t have the information they needed. He had to get her out of here before anything could happen to her!
The Alpha narrowed his eyes at him. “I can see it in your eyes that you’re thinking of trying to fight your way out of here. Should I just pull the trigger and put a stop to it? I’m sure I can find other ways to entice Clementine to stay and do the work she promised.”
A frustrated growl burst from Eugene’s throat, but he forced himself to relax. He kept staring into the Alpha’s eyes but forced himself not to think about getting out of here. As long as they played the game, they’d be fine. As for the Alpha’s recent threat… well, he had to see how bad of an idea that was, what with how Eugene had responded.
It felt like forever but eventually, the Alpha removed the gun. He put it back into the holster at his hip and waved at the guards to let Eugene up. He even offered a hand to help. Eugene accepted it only because he had a feeling the Alpha would be angry at him for refusing.
“Sorry about that,” the Alpha said, starting to walk again, “but I needed to see for sure.”
“See what?”
“If Clementine was really your mate. The way you reacted… it’s good enough for me. And don’t worry, she won’t be given to any others, no matter what the two of you do.” The Alpha grinned broadly at him, a smile that was more threatening than reassuring. “I don’t hold with rape. Nobody in the Pack is permitted to take such actions, not with anybody. No, if you don’t do as you’re told, I’d simply have her mutilated.”
Eugene forced himself not to respond. Not to react. It was too risky.
“And as for seeing Clementine and ma
king sure she’s alright, you’ll see her every day. She’s going to be sharing your room with you, just as soon as I swap out that single mattress for a double. And don’t worry about the space, you won’t be spending much time there anyway. Although,” and here the Alpha laughed raucously, “I hope that we will get many, many more little dragons out of the arrangement.”
And just how long did the Alpha expect to have them here? The answer was obvious—forever. He forced aside the burning of his fires, grateful that he and Clementine had only slept together twice. From here on out, they’d have to be careful.
They couldn’t risk Clementine getting pregnant anytime soon.
Chapter Seventeen
Once Karey was called away to do something else, Clementine stuck with the written records. They were half-assed in the best of places, totally illegible in others. Several stacks were partially burned. As she sorted through it, trying to find something that could be of use to her, she had to deliberately not think about what would happen if she couldn’t figure it out.
After several hours, her head was pounding, and her stomach was trying to empty itself of the little water she’d drunk. Knowing she wasn’t going to get anywhere with this, she pushed away from the desk and looked around at the equipment she’d been given.
Compared to what Utopia said she’d had, Clementine had a feeling the records weren’t the only thing that suffered from the Alpha’s wrath. It was all very basic. Maybe there was more somewhere else, but she didn’t even know how she was supposed to do a proper diagnosis with this equipment. At least she had a centrifuge and an ultrasound machine. If she was a little creative, she might just be able to make this work.
The door opened, and Clementine jumped as she turned. Karey slipped back into the room.
“Oh, it’s you.” Clementine sighed in relief. Though she knew she couldn’t trust Karey, not with her being the Alpha’s daughter and firmly entrenched in the Pack, she couldn’t help but feel like she might have a bit of an ally in the mousy-looking girl.
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