“We need to know what’s going on,” Clementine replied. “And who knows if the test subjects that the Blaze Ops have rescued are going to be at risk of combustion, too. Besides that, there is no telling what he’ll do in his mentally unstable state. He’s a hard, cruel man and to let him go unchecked like that…” She let out a shaky breath. “I have to know what’s causing this, and I have to figure out how to stop it.”
Eugene caught her hand and cupped her face in his other hand, making her look at him. He lowered his voice to make sure that the guards outside the door wouldn’t hear, then whispered, “But do we have to do that here? The Alpha walked me around quite a bit before that fight. I think I know how to bust out of here.”
He could see the longing in her eyes. She leaned into his touch, her eyes closing. But she shook her head. “No. I can’t. We have to know exactly what happened. This is beyond what Utopia worked on, and I need access to the medical records here.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
“I’m sorry.”
Eugene kissed her. “Don’t be sorry.”
Clementine pressed herself to him. Her hand sought out the injury on his stomach, putting more pressure on it as she kissed him deeply. Even with the pain, his fires flamed. Sex was always good for healing. He moaned into her mouth as she started to work at his belt with one hand. Eugene caught her hand again and broke the kiss.
“No, we can’t.” He reluctantly put space between them because if he didn’t, he’d be overcome with his desires. “We can’t risk it right now, Clementine.”
“Risk what?” A ghost of a smile crossed her face. “Being walked in on?”
Eugene shook his head. “We can’t risk you getting pregnant. Who knows what the Alpha would do to you then, what he’d do to the baby.”
Clementine visibly shuddered. She opened her mouth but was too frightened to speak. Eugene pulled her back into his arms, comforting her this time. He didn’t speak, but he tried to put across in his arms the promise he was making. He was never going to let her go through that. He had no doubt the Alpha would want to experiment on their unborn child if she got pregnant. So they just had to make sure that wasn’t a possibility.
Chapter Nineteen
After a strong course of antibiotics, the Alpha’s infection lessened a great deal, although it didn’t fade entirely. The terrible colors in his skin also faded, growing more normal-toned. Clementine was glad that there was at least that much progress. Though he hadn’t shown any pain, he had to have been in agony. As his physical symptoms started to clear, his mental state improved as well.
It would be heartbreaking if Clementine still wasn’t so afraid for her life.
“Your lungs sound normal.” Clementine removed the stethoscope from her ears and laid it on the desk to one side of the examination room.
The Alpha rolled his shoulders, looking annoyed. “Is that the only thing you can tell me?”
Clementine bit back on what she wanted to say. That if he wasn’t happy with her methods he might as well just go dig himself a grave right now. She didn’t trust him not to blow up over that, though, so only said, “I need to check your baselines, and normal lung sounds are an improvement from last week.”
“I do feel better,” the Alpha admitted. “But how long before I can stop taking these shots?”
“I don’t know. I still haven’t figured out exactly what is happening here. We’re treating symptoms, not the root cause. You’re feeling better, but that doesn’t mean that you’re getting better, or that you’re anymore physically stable than you were before.” Just that you don’t smell as bad.
The Alpha made a grunting noise as he turned his jaundiced eyes on her. His kidney function, too, had improved but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. With how bad he was, Clementine was surprised that he’d even been able to get out of bed. It was the shifter in him, she was sure, giving him the energy and strength he needed. He still was in bad shape, though.
“How long until you find out what the root cause is?”
Clementine met his gaze. “We know the root cause. It’s the serum. Shifters aren’t meant to have these sorts of combinations. I just don’t know why it’s doing this and what changes are being made yet. I need more time. In the meantime—”
“More time? When you’ve already had three weeks?”
“Three weeks is hardly enough time to look into everything,” Clementine snapped, unable to stop herself. “Especially with incomplete data. I had just started looking at Utopia’s research when I was framed,” she added quickly, knowing if she placed any of the blame on the Alpha, he might fly off the handle. “I don’t know much about this.”
“Utopia,” the Alpha mused. “Clever girl. I was thrilled when I first got her. She was just so single-minded about everything she did. I could feel her slipping away at the end, though. That’s why I enlisted the other doctor to pick up where she was. I knew I was going to have to replace her. The irony,” he continued, a grimacing smile twisting his face as Clementine scribbled down the observations she’d made in this examination, “is if I had listened to her, I wouldn’t be in this position now.”
Clementine looked up, confused. “Listened to her how?”
“She said it wasn’t ready, that she needed to run more tests. That it needed to be taken slow. The problem with that,” the Alpha pulled his shirt back on and buttoned it, “is that she was always delaying. Every day, there were a hundred little things that she did before she could make one more step in the right direction.”
“Maybe she was just being thorough.”
“She didn’t want to be part of my experiments. Some of her delays may have been rational, I’ll grant you that, but for the most part? No.”
Clementine hesitated as she watched the Alpha. For the past three weeks, he’d been putting Eugene through the wringer. Every day he had to fight to the point of exhaustion. At first, Clementine had wondered why that was, but as Eugene told her more about the fighting sessions, it became more and more clear that it wasn’t just testing Eugene’s strength and endurance.
It was training the Pack how to fight dragons. How to fight the Blaze Ops.
If she was going to get what they needed so they could get out of here, she needed to step up her game. She needed answers before the Pack got too good at fighting against dragons. Before Eugene was completely wiped out. Before her pregnancy started to show.
“Is what I was provided all of the notes from Utopia and the other doctor?” She hadn’t asked why he was never given a name—she had a feeling that she wouldn’t like the answer. “Or is there more?”
“You have everything.”
“I know that there were servers that had—”
The Alpha glared at her. “You have everything that you need, Dr. Brown.”
Clementine risked another push. “No, I don’t. If I could have a computer, I’d be able to—”
“Shut up before I rip your head off.”
Clementine shut her mouth and ducked her head. How was she supposed to do anything without a computer? The laptop that she and Karey kept a secret was able to analyze blood samples and run simulations, but it wasn’t strong enough for what she needed.
She swallowed dryly. “It doesn’t have to be connected to the internet.”
The Alpha snarled as he got to his feet. “Did you not hear what I just said?”
“And you already said that if you had listened to Utopia, you wouldn’t be in this situation!” Clementine held her ground, wishing she could bring her mountain lion forward to protect herself. But Karey had been very regular in giving her the blockers. It felt like years since she’d last been able to fully embrace her shifter side. “Right now, I am telling you. I need a computer. The equipment I have doesn’t do me any good if I can’t analyze the results. I can’t do that by hand. I will agree to whatever constrictions you put on its use, but I need one.”
The Alpha glared at her before he snorted. “Fine. You’ll get your prec
ious computer. But you will not be permitted to use it unless I or one of my betas is in the room, watching everything you do on it. Understood?”
Clementine nodded. Relief washed over her. Maybe now they’d be able to make some actual progress.
The next day she got her computer and immediately went about filing the information she needed into it. When she was called to other things, she had Karey do data entry. Two days later, they were all caught up and she was able to take a look at the results of the tests she’d taken.
The Alpha had chosen to keep an eye on her that day, to make sure she couldn’t somehow alert the Academy. It was a good thing he was, too, because it saved her the trouble of having to call him in from something else and risk having him irritated at the interruption.
“Your cells are degenerating,” she said, sagging in the chair as she looked at the results on her screen. “Your immune system recognizes the dragon genes in your body as dangers and is fighting against them. I suspect that they’re right to, as well. If what I’m seeing is right, then there is a war between your DNA and the dragon DNA. I suspect that’s why your man combusted.”
The Alpha stared at the screen, his brow puckered. “What do you mean?”
Clementine sighed. “I mean that dragon bodies have fire running through them. But wolf bodies aren’t designed to hold that fire. So, as the dragon DNA takes over, it spreads the fire but not the defenses against it.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that I need to develop an anti-serum. Something to reverse the effects of the gene splicing, otherwise you’re going to end up in the same boat. Bursting into flames and being reduced to a pile of ash.”
The Alpha glared at her but snorted. “You will find a way to stop this without taking away what the serum has given me.”
“I don’t think I can.” Clementine pressed both her hands to the desk, fighting to remain calm. “But if I make the anti-serum, we can stabilize your condition. That way, you won’t be dying. And I can resume Utopia’s research and create a new serum to have the same benefits without it being a risk to your life. Having wings won’t do any good if you blow up for them.”
The Alpha closed his eyes for a moment before he straightened. “I’ll consider it. Is the effect the same on everyone who received the serum?”
Clementine shook her head. “Not exactly. Everybody is having their DNA overwritten, but it’s worse for some than others.”
“And are you done with the computer?”
“For now,” Clementine sighed. “I do need to look through some of those notes again.”
“Good.”
The Alpha escorted her back to her lab, where Karey was sterilizing equipment. She hunched when she saw the Alpha and didn’t speak until he was gone.
“Well?”
“We need to reverse the serum if they have any chance at survival.”
Karey put the needles into a cleaning solution. “I was afraid of that.”
Clementine nodded as she pulled out the files and sat down. She had asked once what the Alpha had done to punish Karey after she interfered on the field, but Karey had just said she got what she deserved and left it at that. Since then, they didn’t talk about much except the serum. Karey looked exhausted all the time, though, and she always seemed to be having a million things to do at once. She was still the one in charge of taking care of Pack members when they were injured since all of Clementine’s time was devoted to more important matters.
They worked in silence for quite some time before Karey sighed. “You’re never going to be able to convince the Alpha to give up his dragon traits. He’s wanted to be a dragon for too long.”
“He’s going to have to,” Clementine said grimly. “Because I can’t think of another way to fix this.”
“You’ll have to,” the Alpha said from the doorway, and Clementine jumped. She whirled to see the Alpha shove Eugene into the lab. His skin was pale, his breathing ragged. The Alpha glared at her and rose his lip in a silent snarl. “If you can’t fix this, then your mate will die, too, because the procedure was just done to him. And I will not permit you to use anything on him that will kill the new wolf born within him.”
Clementine jumped to her feet, too horrified to even speak. The Alpha laughed at her, then grabbed Karey’s arm. He pulled her out, slamming the door, without so much as an explanation.
“Hey,” Eugene croaked, sinking down on the desk. “It’s okay. We still have a couple of months before I get as bad as him, right?”
He gave her a grin that was clearly meant to be reassuring. Clementine couldn’t feel anything but numb terror. She threw herself into Eugene’s arms, holding him tightly. Her lungs wouldn’t seem to work properly as she clung to him. What was she supposed to do? It was impossible to just fix this. They had to erase it!
“What were we thinking?” she whispered as she clung to him. “We’re both going to end up dead.”
Eugene stroked her hair. “No. No, we’re not. Not at all. You’re strong, smart and brave. You’ve got all those years of medical training for a reason.”
“I’m not at all qualified for something like this. I’m not a specialist. I… I can’t do this, Eugene.” She wanted to say that they had to get out of here, right now, but the words caught in her throat. What if the Alpha was standing on the other side of the door listening?
Eugene pulled her in close and kissed her. “You can do this. I have faith in you. You just have to have faith in yourself.”
Clementine buried her face into his chest, shaking with sobs that wanted to break free. Have faith in herself? If only it was that simple. But it wasn’t. This took knowledge. Expertise. Research. Resources. She didn’t have what she needed in order to fix this. And if she didn’t fix it, then her mate was going to die.
What was she going to do?
Chapter Twenty
Pain rippled down Eugene’s back as he threw the hybrid wolf off him. The sun beat down on him, causing sweat to chafe pretty much everywhere. He panted as he turned, slower than he would have liked, to face his opponent again. They had both been told not to shift during this session, and that was proving to be more difficult than Eugene anticipated.
He wanted to shift. His body was feeling too small for him like there wasn’t room for him inside of it. He wanted to shift to his dragon form. To let his fires flood his body and burn away the distant howls that echoed in his mind.
The man stumbled forward, spitting out foaming blood as he did so. Eugene sidestepped and struck the man across the chest, sending him flying back into the dirt. Pain spiked through his head, and his vision turned dark.
Eugene collapsed to the ground, breathing deeply until the dizziness passed. This was happening more and more often…
As soon as it passed, he felt energized and ready to fight again. As though he hadn’t already been fighting for a good five hours straight already. He bounded back to his feet, slamming his head into the charging wolf’s and bringing him down for good this time. He lay there groaning while Eugene stepped over him and headed for the water at the side of the field.
His fires flared hotter, and it took concentrated effort to keep himself from shifting. A snarl made him whip around, but the other wolves were helping the one he’d just beaten—no, not other wolves. He was a dragon. Not a wolf.
All the same, the hair on the back of his neck rose.
“I just need more time,” the hybrid he’d just defeated insisted, stumbling on the spot. “If I was allowed to shift—”
“Just admit that you’re not a Sigma anymore,” one of the others sneered. “I think you’re about ready to be made into an Omega after that—”
The hybrid howled. He lashed out, sending the wolf that had insulted him flying. Eugene pinched his eyes shut. He didn’t want to have to deal with this! As he was turning his back, though, flames burst into the air. The hybrid sprouted wings and attacked another of his fellows, claws swiping across the man’s chest—and Eugene knew if he didn’t
intervene, the Alpha would blame him.
He raced back, calling his fires forward. The heat that rippled through him silenced the static of growls just behind his understanding. Relief swept across his skin like a wind as scales covered his body. He pounced on the hybrid, bringing him down. He pinned him there, growling a warning.
A gunshot rang out. Blood splattered Eugene’s scales. The hybrid went limp.
He released the corpse, backing away as horror replaced the relief he’d been feeling. His fires nearly went out, growing so cold he could not hold his dragon’s form. He fell to his knees, barely managing to bring his clothes back with him in the shift. He stared at the dead hybrid, a twisted creature with jaws still open.
“What… what did you do that for?” He looked up at the man who had shot him, unable to understand.
The man tucked his gun back into its holster.
“I could have subdued him. I could have gotten him back to… You can’t go around killing your own teammates!”
“He was a Sigma. I’m a Delta. He wasn’t my teammate,” the man sneered at him. “The serum didn’t take hold. He was tainted, impure. He attacked his betters. What purpose does a dog like that have?”
Eugene stared at him, not comprehending. He really just killed someone because of a serum that they were all on? His fires burned hotter, and he wanted more than anything to launch himself forward and attack the man. The Pack, with their strict hierarchy, was terrifying. Just because the hybrid was on the lower end of the society, it meant he could just be murdered?
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Eugene snarled at him. “If you have any chance against the Academy, you—”
“Look, Dragon,” the man snapped, “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you used to do with the Academy. You’re here now, aren’t you? Which only means that the Academy is a bunch of pathetic weaklings that will be easily overrun soon enough. I don’t need you telling me what to do, got it?”
Dragon's Pride (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 3) Page 12
