Chapter 2

"Take off all my clothes?" I stared up at that damned speaker in the ceiling, disbelief written all over my face. "In your dreams!"

The only answer was dead silence.

Then all four restraints released at once with a cold mechanical clack.

I didn't even get a chance to breathe. A sharp sting lanced through the back of my neck, right where the seal had been. Something cold and viscous slid through a microscopic needle and straight into my gland.

"Warning. Subject has refused instructions," the mechanical female voice announced, flat and toneless. "Enforcement protocol activated. Administering second dose of deep-induction agent via remote injection."

"No!" I tumbled off the bed, and the instant my feet hit the floor my legs buckled.

Heat. A heat beyond words, detonating deep in my blood like a bomb. And with it, a pheromone so alien even to me, pouring out of my body, completely beyond my control.

Across from me, Kane staggered back a full step, his eyes gone fully bestial. "Rein in that damned scent!" His chest heaved like a bellows. "Get away from me!"

"You can't control your own rut, so don't blame it on me, you out-of-control animal!"

He didn't retreat this time. He came straight at me.

The pheromone of the strongest Alpha alive broke loose, that brooding, ice-cold cedar crashing down over me like an avalanche.

My knees gave, but the Vare pride kept my spine against the wall. Kane slammed both hands into the concrete on either side of my head, close enough that the plaster cracked.

His nose nearly grazed the back of my neck. His breath scorched my bare gland, and it throbbed in answer, flooding the air with a fresh, helpless wave of my scent. His canines lengthened. His mouth hovered an inch from my skin.

"One more trace," he rasped, voice cracked and warped, "and I make no promises about what happens next."

One more second and he would bite. I knew it with perfect clarity.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I stopped fighting the drug and shoved the scent I'd spent twenty years caging straight at him, like pressing a hand flat against a chest.

Kane froze.

The gold in his eyes flickered. His pupils rounded for one stunned heartbeat. The tremor in his arms stopped, and he stumbled back a full step, staring at me. "What did you just do?"

I didn't know. I'd never done it on purpose before. Something warm slid over my upper lip. Blood, from my nose.

My head swam, and I could already feel the drug dragging me back under. Ten seconds, maybe. But ten seconds was a step of distance, and a clear head to use it.

A small metal viewing slot slid open in the sealed security door.

A lab worker in a full white hazmat suit appeared behind the glass. He didn't speak. He simply passed each of us a slip of paper through the delivery slot.

Mine held a single line, printed in bold: "Cooperate to complete this experiment and you will receive ten million dollars."

Ten million dollars.

My pupils contracted violently. That money could save a life.

An image flashed through my mind—my sister, bedridden, her face drained white by the disease ravaging her.

My father might be an Alpha, but our pack had long since fallen into ruin, barely scraping by to survive. To save my sister's life, I needed the help of a powerful witch on the black market, and I couldn't begin to cover her astronomical fee.

I crushed the slip in my fist and instinctively turned to look at Kane.

He'd just finished reading his own slip. But to my surprise, the expression on the Blackwood heir's face had gone strange beyond description.

While I hesitated and struggled, the lab worker's cold voice came through the speaker again, "The experiment will cause no harm to your bodies. Do you both consent to participate?"

How was I supposed to choose? My dignity, or my sister's life? I drew a deep breath and opened my mouth to speak.

"I agree."

A hoarse but startlingly certain male voice exploded through the cramped space with no warning at all.

My head whipped around and I stared at him, stunned.