by Vivian Wood
One word from this woman, and the two men would be reassigned to someone else. Rose would be removed from her position, possibly from the company. Or worse, she thought. They could kill her for what she’d gleaned over the last two weeks.
“Are you feeling confident?” Dr. Hafsteader asked, folding her hands primly in her lap. Rose had the sudden impression of a hungry spider checking its’ web to see if its’ meal had arrived yet.
Rose faltered for a moment, floundering under the other woman’s gaze. Then she had a flash of inspiration, audibly releasing a huge breath before speaking.
“You know, I’m a little nervous,” Rose admitted. The Counselor’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Rose was encouraged.
“I mean, I know that our product is solid. We’ve worked so hard on it, and of course Mr. Piccardly is supporting us. I guess this is kind of like getting cold feet before your wedding, you know?” Rose gushed, wringing her hands in what she hoped was an anguished manner.
A smile spread across Hafsteader’s face, a sly look in her eyes.
“Why Rose, I don’t believe that you’ve ever opened up to me like this before in any of our sessions. You’re always buttoned up so tightly, and I’ve worked so long to gain your confidence,” the Counselor said, practically beaming. The old witch was obviously patting herself on the back for getting into Rose’s head.
“I just knew you’d understand, Counselor,” Rose said.
“I must say, I am pleased to see you focusing on the results of your work. I know in our last session, you were struggling with moving the beta testing to larger subjects.”
“I just did what you said, Dr. Hafsteader. I worried about my part in things and made sure my work was perfect, and the rest just melted away.” Rose waved a hand to dismiss her earlier concerns. “Now I am focused on getting the best results possible. I would hate for my career with this company to take a hit just because someone didn’t triple-check one of the serum doses or something. That’s why I’m here so early.”
Dr. Hafsteader nodded approvingly.
“If you want to come and talk to me after the project is complete, please do. Perhaps if you’re willing to work closely with me, I can help you build a bit of a safety net. It’s all in who you know, of course.”
Rose widened her eyes, not having to feign surprise this time.
“Oh, um. Thank you, Counselor. I will definitely take you up on that,” Rose stammered, taken aback. Everyone knew that Hafsteader had spies planted in every level of UC, people that reported back to her everything their coworkers said and did. This must be one of the ways that the evil woman recruited for her insidious network.
“Well. Until then,” Dr. Hafsteader crooned, rising and patting Rose’s hand. Rose had to force a huge grin onto her face rather than physically recoil from the woman’s touch as she very much wanted to do.
The second the Counselor was out the door, Rose jumped up and bolted for the washroom. Turning on the taps, she splashed water on her face repeatedly until she was sure she wasn’t going to faint. She took several deep, calming breaths and practiced smiling in the mirror.
She’d just survived some seriously shark-infested waters, and somehow come out of it having impressed the most terrifying woman in the whole company. Dr. Hafsteader was the one who ‘counseled’ all the doctors and scientists who disappeared. Rose had just survived some seriously shark-infested waters, and somehow come out of it having impressed the most terrifying woman in the whole company. At least she was pretty sure she had…
No use thinking about it at the moment. Either the security would swoop down on her momentarily, or they wouldn’t. It was as simple as that. Smoothing her hands over her clothes once more, Rose resolved not to fall apart. By now there would be others in her lab, preparing things for today’s project.
She headed back to her desk to watch the clock and wait.
2
Chapter Two
“Could you tone down the lust over there, Pup? It’s becoming sickening,” Ian said, sighing dramatically.
Mason’s head snapped up, a frown appearing on his handsome face. He sat up on his bed, wishing for the thousandth time that he could see his best friend face to face. With Ian, it was really hard to guess his meaning from the tone of his voice. It was all about the accompanying facial expression, which Mason had been lacking for upwards of four months now. Before they’d been in these cells, they’d had a clear Plexiglass wall as the only barrier between their cells. No privacy, but not so lonely, either.
“Not even close, Fang,” Mason growled, spitting Ian’s longtime nickname right back at him. An eye for an eye. Ian was certainly the only one who could call him Pup and escape with all his limbs attached.
“Just pointing out the obvious,” Ian replied, his tone lazy.
Mason started to say something, then went quiet. A few seconds later the uniformed guard passed their cells, heading on his endless circuit around the floor. The two men both had ultrasensitive hearing, so they didn’t have to talk loudly to hear each other. But safe was better than sorry when it came to this place, and they didn’t want the guards to know that they could easily communicate.
As soon as the guard was far enough past, Mason spoke.
“Something’s up with the doctor.”
“You mean besides the fact that she’s got us trapped in these cells, using her cadre of medical diagnostic equipment to bore us to death? Let me guess. Is is that she has nice legs? No, no. Must be the tits,” Ian said.
“Gods, do you ever think of anything else?” Mason snapped, irritated.
“Blood,” Ian offered.
“Or lack thereof,” Mason quipped, frowning. Their captors fed Ian strictly on animal blood, which was the vampire equivalent of iceberg lettuce. Palatable, but not filling or nutritious. Mason couldn’t see his friend, but he could tell my Ian’s voice alone that the other man was weakening over time.
“What I wouldn’t give for a little of the pretty doctor’s blood,” Ian murmured, his voice filled with lust.
Mason frowned, catching himself before he could let out a growl. The image of Ian sinking his fangs into the doctor’s delicate neck, spilling bright red blood against her pale hair and skin… it didn’t sit well. Not that Mason should care whether Ian drained every single human in this place dry, he reminded himself.
“The doctor smells different today, doesn’t she?” Mason wondered aloud.
“I hadn’t noticed. But then again, I’m not pheremone-obsessed like you wolves,” Ian teased.
“I’m serious. She’s excited, and afraid. And kind of…”, Mason trailed off. He had known Ian for almost twenty years, and there was little that the two hadn’t or couldn’t share.
“Horny?” Ian asked hopefully.
“No!” Mason growled, lying without a second thought. The last thing he needed was for Ian to start in about the doctor and her incredible legs again. As if Mason hadn’t already noticed, and didn’t think about them nonstop. Actually, that wasn’t quite right. Mason spent all his emotional energy sternly not thinking about the doctor. It was the only way he could keep from…
Shaking his head, Mason rolled his eyes. He needed to get a grip. The doctor was a distraction, and Mason needed to focus. He and Ian were slowly pulling together a plan to get free, and the lovely Dr. Prentiss was a the weakest link. She was human, physically fragile. She had all the keys and access codes. Somehow or another, Mason and Ian were getting out of here and the doctor was the key.
“Pup?” Ian asked, breaking Mason’s chain of thought before his obsessive need to protect could arise.
“What, Fang?” Mason hissed, rubbing his hands over his face exhaustedly.
“Seriously, is la docteur going to fuck you? Or better yet, me?” Ian asked, sounding interested.
“Fuck off. You’re way off base on this one.”
“Too bad. Anyway, I think you’re imagining things, my friend. The doctor is an odd bird, that’s all. Who knows what she’s up
to. All we can do is hope that it’s something sexy.”
“Something is going to happen with her, Ian,” Mason insisted.
“The last time we followed your Spidey senses, we ended up in this hellhole,” Ian commented. “Come to think of it, wasn’t that over a girl too?”
Mason snorted, disbelieving.
“I think you’re remembering it backwards. I was tracking that girl for you, because you thought she smelled like a tasty snack. Unbeknownst to me, she led us right into her trap.”
“I have to say, this isn’t what I imagined being imprisoned by the Legion would be like. You’d think a psychotically religious, anti-supernatural cult would be a little more harsh. Or at least the mattresses would be hard,” Ian joked.
“Doesn’t that make you nervous?”
“Uh… no. It makes me feel great, actually. I’ll take this little white room over torture and questioning any day, thanks.”
“It makes me think that they’re saving us for something.”
“Thanks for putting that thought in my head.”
“I’m just saying,” Mason said, lying back on his bed.
“Footsteps,” Ian warned. A second later Mason could hear Dr. Prentiss’s distinctive tread coming down the hallway. The doctor paused in front of their cells, looking both ways down the hall and hesitating just as she had earlier in the morning. She glanced toward Ian’s cell briefly, as if trying to decide which cell to enter.
Mason had to admit he was pleased to hear Ian’s sigh when the lovely woman passed the vampire’s cell up. She reached out and pressed her hand against the door lock, which buzzed loudly before the latch clicked open.
Clearing her throat, the doctor stepped inside Mason’s cell and looked around for a brief second before focusing those sea-green eyes on him. Mason sat up, interested. Something really was different about her today, he would swear it.
“Just need to do a quick exam,” Dr. Prentiss said, her voice softer than usual.
She held nothing in her hands but a stethoscope, which was even more odd. Her exams almost always involved drawing blood, administering medications or shots, and using all kinds of complicated equipment in the exam room. Mason stood, expecting her guards to enter and lead him to a testing room.
“Not today. We can stay right here,” she said, giving him the oddest look. Mason blinked. Had she… had she just smiled at him for the briefest second?
“No security guard,” Mason noted, catching her eye. She held his gaze for the longest moment, clearly wanting to say more. She broke the gaze and her eyes traveled up to the security camera for a second, then came right back down to meet his again. She didn’t want today’s exam seen or heard by others, apparently.
“Right,” Mason said. He was a big believer in following his instincts, as were most werewolves. His gut was telling him to go along with whatever the doctor was trying to do. Mason could practically taste the fear and excitement pulsing through her veins, which only confirmed his suspicions. Something was definitely up with the doctor.
“Where do you want me?” he asked. From this vantage he towered over the blonde woman, although she wasn’t particularly small for a human. Dr. Prentiss allowed her head to drop back a little as she looked up at him, her eyes widening a little bit as she took him in.
She brought a hand up to her mouth, clearing her throat again. She gave a distinctive little shudder, the scent of arousal bursting to life around her and adding to the bouquet of her fear and excitement.
“Ah, you know, maybe sitting would be better,” she said.
Mason tried not to grin as he sank back onto the hospital bed. He’d been watching the doctor closely for months, trying to provoke her in small ways. This was the first time that she’d let any kind of attraction show, much less reacted so obviously. Odder and odder.
Dr. Prentiss put the stethoscope around her neck, stepping forward. She dropped her eyes as she reached out to touch the pulse point just below his jaw, biting her lip. Her sweet, soft scent crowded in around him and for a moment he almost reached up to pull her closer.
“They can’t know that I’m talking to you,” the doctor whispered, pulling away.
Mason was startled for a moment, taken aback again.
“Why?” he asked, dropping his searching gaze.
“We’re running out of time. I’m going to get you out of here today, but you have to do what I tell you,” she raid, her words rushed. She reached out and grabbed his wrist, putting two cool fingers against his pulse there and looking at her watch.
“Oh-kay…” he said, bewildered.
“You can talk to the vampire, right?” she asked.
He nodded. No need to mention that Ian could hear everything they were saying anyway.
“Okay. You’ll have to fill him in. In about one hour I’m going to set off all the alarms. When everyone starts to panic, I’m going to come get you. The only way out is through the stairwells, they let out at ground level three floors down,” she whispered.
“Tilt your head to the side,” she said, raising her voice for the cameras. She moved her hands to his shoulders, her fingers shaping the muscles near his neck and collarbone. A lick of heat rose in his groin, making him wonder…
“I’m going to have to come with you,” she whispered. “They’ll kill me otherwise.”
Fear swirled around her small frame, making Mason look up into those big green eyes of hers.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, suddenly feeling a bit concerned for her safety. “Why now, after all these months?”
“They want me to either cure you or execute you by the end of the day,” she said, her expression grave. “Both of you.”
Mason cursed under his breath. He had been right, these wackos had been saving him for something big.
“Thank you, Dr. Prentiss.”
“Rose. Call me Rose, please.”
Mason sucked in a deep breath, releasing it slowly. Of course. His petite savior smelled precisely like a rose in bloom, why wouldn’t she be named as such?
“Now act angry, and push me away. I don’t want anyone suspecting that I’m helping you,” Rose whispered. Reaching out, she grabbed for his arm and squeezed hard. Mason would have laughed if not for her previous instructions, because there was no way in hell that those little hands were going to make a dent in a big brute like him.
He gave a loud growl, both hands reaching out and grasping her waist. Might as well have a little fun with it, right?
“Hey!” Rose protested, smacking a hand against his arm.
Mason pulled her close, almost onto his lap, and leaned in to get a closer sample of her delicious scent. Rose gave him an appalled expression that would have seriously wounded his ego if he couldn’t smell the subtle hormones she was giving off, telling him that her disgust was entirely feigned. She wanted him, liked that he was man-handling her.
Mason shook her once, hard, before pushing her back with another growl. It would be entirely too easy to take things too far right now, and that would ruin everything.
“Get out!” he spat, showing his teeth.
Knowing that he was faking didn’t stop a sweet little burst of fear from escaping Rose as she turned and fled his cell. As the cell door’s lock re-engaged Mason shook his head, trying to clear her scent away. Was this all really happening?
“Well, that was interesting,” came Ian’s smooth comment from next door.
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“Can we trust her?”
“Can we afford not to?” Mason asked, still a little shell-shocked.
“One one hand, what’s to say she doesn’t just tag us with tracking chips and hunt down our packs? On the other hand… I guess we don’t have a whole lot of options. If what she says is true, we’ll be dead by nightfall one way or another. I can’t die for another seventy years, to be on the safe side.”
Mason sighed.
“Is this about that human girl again?”
“Her name is Jea
nne, and she’s not a girl anymore,” Ian said, his tone going icy.
“But we are talking about the human female that you’ve been stalking for twenty years, right? The one you’ve never even managed to introduce yourself to? The one who doesn’t know you exist?”
“Yes, thanks. Same girl.”
“And you can’t die for at least seventy years because… what, you’re actually never planning to speak to her? You’ll just watch from the shadows, an invisible guardian angel,” Mason said, playing it up.
“I don’t see how you can judge. You’ve been breathing heavily over la docteur since day one and you’ve never even touched her. Clearly you should have seduced her months ago. We’d be long gone by now. But no, you won’t even look directly at her,” Ian mocked.
“I touched her today,” Mason snapped.
“Pa-thetic,” Ian said in a singsong voice.
“That doesn’t even compare with stalking a little girl for twenty years.”
“I’m not- Christ on a bike, Mason. You are the only person in the world that makes me this angry,” Ian said, breaking off with a laugh.
“I pride myself on that.”
Mason flopped back down on his mattress, overwhelmed.
“I can’t believe we’ve been hatching schemes to get out of here for months, and now Tits McGee comes along and decides to break us out just because she thinks you’re pretty,” Ian said after a minute.
“Hey, hey. Let’s not shit talk the person about to rescue us.”
“I think you just have a crush on her. You might want to check and see if you’re going to turn into a teenage girl instead of a big-ass wolf this month.”
“I admit she is attractive. Nothing more,” Mason said.
“Suuuuure.”
“Shut the hell up, Fang.”
Ian went quiet, but Mason could feel his smirk through the cinder block wall separating them. Damn the man, he always knew exactly what buttons to push to make Mason insane. It went both ways, obviously.
