Letting my head loll to the side, I found the familiar sight of Peregrine Chandler strapped to a nearby table similar to mine as the same man who had experimented on me earlier spoke in her ear. He seemed to be drawing blood from her arm.
Peregrine looked terrified, her gray eyes open wide as they met mine for a brief moment before rolling wildly up to meet the man’s gaze again.
Her face was oddly flushed and it took me a minute to realize why once my much weaker beta nose picked up the harsh scent of her strawberry perfume.
She was in heat, and judging by the look on the doctor’s face, he had something to do with it.
The man turned away from both of us to work on something at the long desk that was drilled into the far wall.
After what seemed like hours, he faced me with a smile that sent a shudder down my spine.
“I’d explain—” he said to Peregrine, his face tilting away from me so I couldn’t read his lips for the next words as he fiddled with the IV line connected to her body. “Take another nap.”
Peregrine’s expression slackened as she seemed to relax from whatever he’d just administered and her auburn eyelashes started to flutter.
Next the doctor turned to me, his blue eyes sparkling as he approached with a vial that contained a thick yellow liquid firmly grasped in his long, spidery fingers. He began to fiddle with the machine I was connected to, flicking it on as blood began to seep down the clear plastic tube from one of my arms, entering the machine.
My instincts began to scream at me that whatever he was doing today would be so much worse than what he andhis assistants had done before—something about Peregrine’s presence and this strange machine sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
“Now,” the doctor said, turning so I could read his lips. “Are you ready to make history, Luscinia Amante?”
It was the first time he’d ever said my name to me, I realized as he attached the vial to one side of the machine and gave it a twist just in time for blood to start traveling down the tube and back into my other arm.
I didn’t want to make history—not at all—but unfortunately his question was rhetorical. The burning sensation I had been feeling when I first woke up dulled in comparison to the pure fire of whatever he had put into my blood began to blaze through me.
My mouth opened, my throat straining around what could only be a scream as everything went black.
I wasn’t sure how much later it was when I felt firm hands shaking me roughly awake. My eyelids were heavy as I struggled to crack them open in order to see who was grabbing me so hard, the overwhelming scent of fresh kiwi filling my nose in a way it never had before.
Elio, my brain supplied with relief as the tubes in my arms were yanked away and I was lifted up into his arms.
I wanted to sob with relief as I clung to him. They had come for me—just as I had hoped they would. All of my earlier anger with them seemed to evaporate with that simple thought.
I had needed them and they had followed through.
My eyes managed to open just enough to see the concerned flash of Dante’s warm brown eyes as a hand slipped down the back of my head, almost comfortingly his scent of sour green grapes accompanied his presence.
It wasn’t usual that I could pick up on any of their scents as they never usually let me get close enough to smell them, but even this felt far too potent to be normal.
As a beta, I had grown up with the understanding that things like ruts, heats, nests, and even scents were something that I wasn’t privy to. It would never be mine and my father made sure to remind me of that every chance he got.
But now, as Elio pressed my face into his neck in order to shield me from the chaos around us, I could smell his scent and it made my skin feel an itch of need mingled with a sense of possessiveness that felt wholly unlike myself.
Bite, bite, bite,a strange voice chanted in my head and I found myself inwardly frowning as I tried to force myself to go back to sleep.
Maybe if I went back to sleep all of this would disappear and I would wake up in my solarium like it was all some kind of bad dream.
Elio shifted me in his arms, bringing my mouth up against the column of his neck where his pulse was the strongest and I got another whiff of his sweet, fruity scent.
Mine. Bite,that same voice insisted again as I felt a harsh crack in my jaw, like the very teeth in my mouth were shifting around in order to accommodate something.
I wanted to resist the odd urge, nearly pushing back against Elio to get away from the temptation of even a little nip, but before I could even muster a coherent thought I found myself opening my mouth and latching onto his skin.
Normally, my regular beta teeth wouldn’t have done any damage, but now as I bit down I felt the skin give way andsomethingcome out of my saliva glands that made my tongue itch and tingle.
Then I was gone again, feeling a faint heartbeat begin to flutter next to mine before darkness closed in as the relief of being saved by them filled me completely.
Four
