He didn't say the words I desperately wanted to hear, but his emotions through our bond overwhelmed my trauma-addled brain in a good way. I wasn't ready to admit or accept big emotions yet, but my wolf already preened with joy.
Sebastian turned toward the sound of a heavy door opening on the opposite side of the lab. A person in a white lab coat entered with Dr. Bunting and Ivan Paska.
"I'll kill them."Not the three words every guy wanted to hear, but they sounded romantic to me.
Gooey emotions wouldn't free us from our cages. I shifted my gaze from Sebastian to the collar around his neck. It was a shock collar of sorts, with a magnetic clasp to keep us from tearing them off with our hind paws. They had used the tablet to control it on the plane, so it must run on batteries. Whether single use or rechargeable, they would be our chance to escape.
Until then, I would force our captors to discipline me. The collar's shocks couldn't hurt our pups, and they would drain the battery faster than injections.
Now that Sebastian wanted to be with me as much as I wanted him, I would do anything for our safety and freedom. I looked forward to showing Dr. Bunting how much I appreciated his experiments. If they wanted a monster in a cage, they would have one.
CHAPTER 17
SEBASTIAN
Without our wolf link,Gunnar's frequent punishments would have horrified me. I knew what he was doing and why, but it was hard to watch, especially when I felt sympathy pains through our bond.
No human could take that amount of abuse, but my mate reveled in it. They shocked us if we stood too close to the door when they entered, and again if we acted out of line during their visits. For Gunnar, that was all the fucking time.
"I'm fine,"he reassured me after each blast."Babies are fine."
After the first week, even Dr. Bunting sounded concerned when he asked the lab tech, "Are you certain you're not endangering our assets?"
"No, sir. The shock level might burn his skin, but no internal damage."
Already, our children were property of Paskal Enterprises. It shouldn't have surprised me, but surelymy father realized the pups growing inside Gunnar were his grandchildren. How could he be so callous?
I growled at the lab tech, and he shocked me. "We could turn up this one's dose," he said.
"No." Dr. Bunting's gaze flashed to the camera in the corner of the room.
The lab tech's eyes widened, and he became enamored with his tablet screen. A moment later, he walked to the corner I used for a restroom. After taking some samples, he switched the dirty pad for a clean one.
Here I was, trapped in a cell for daily evaluations, unable to switch from my wolf form, peeing and shitting on the corner floor mat in an otherwise sterile environment. If only my haters could see me now.
Instead, the man who was supposed to love me unconditionally watched on video feed while Dr. Bunting and his assistants took their morning, afternoon, and evening test samples. Who needed haters when my father treated me like a lab animal?
"It could be worse,"Gunnar said one night while I squirmed uncomfortably on the hard mattress pad they'd given us for beds. The stand-up cot on the space station had been more comfortable.
"How could anything be worse?"I buried my nose under my tail, careful to keep away from the not-so-pleasant smells.
"They could be milking you for alpha sperm."
I raised my head to glare at him through the thick glass wall."Why?—"
"They're already talking about hooking me up to some kind of milking machine when the babies arrive."
I refused to ponder the possibilities if Gunnardidn't produce enough milk. Could our children eat human formula, or would they starve?
The questions plagued me at night. Then, morning came, and we did it all again. Blood draw. Saliva swab. Urine and fecal samples when available. Once a week, they hosed us down with soapy water and doused us with anti-microbial powder. They laughed when I shook my ass at them, trying to wash away the stench I wasn't willing to lick away with my tongue. I doubted my microbiome was ready to test how similar my digestive and immune systems were to a wolf's.
One thing I knew for certain: I was coming to love my mate as much as my wolf did. Gunnar kept me sane when my thoughts veered toward despair. He was always there with a joke, or to pass along any movement of the pups inside him, or to debate a philosophical question when the inevitable certainty that he would give birth in this facility filled us both with dread.
The days turned into weeks, and soon, months. Gunnar's belly distended, his ribs spread, and his wolf body stretched to contain the growing lives inside him.
One morning, I woke to find him strapped to a table while the lab tech ran an ultrasound wand over his abdomen. Gunnar radiated discomfort throughout the procedure, and they knocked him out with a tranquilizer dart before releasing the restraints.
"What does Dr. Bunting say about the pregnancy?"I asked when his fury burned through the residual brain fog a half-hour later.
