I lay on the padded bench for the better part of two hours, staring at the ceiling with nothing to do but worry about what was in store for me once 351 regained consciousness. All-too-vivid images of the brutal mating I’d seen take place between Gloria and 287 played on repeat before my mind’s eye. The longer I lay there, the more impossible it became to shut them out. Flashes of the thick pole of flesh I’d seen between 351’s thighs in that same room, and his bulging muscle as he pounded on the window separating us, made me shiver. He was so much stronger than me… so much bigger… And that primal fury in his gaze as he’d stared down the other alpha by my side… I shivered again and fidgeted when heat seemed to pour through my veins in thick, languid pulses.

“Ah, I see you’re beginning to take.” Dr. Urwin looked up from his papers, undoubtedly having been alerted by my fidgeting. He rolled his chair over by my bench once more, his expression calm and clinical as he pulled a small penlight from his pocket and shone it into my eyes.

“Pupils are dilating nicely,” he said as I squinted. “And your temperature is rising,” he continued after testing my forehead with the back of his hand. “Once you start to get too hot, do feel free to strip down. You will be much more comfortable.”

“I’m not taking off my clothes!” I protested as I clasped my arms across my chest.

“Suit yourself,” he said, not even bothering to look at me as he rolled back to his desk. “I’ve yet to see a female last through the second stage while still dressed.”

Forty-five minutes later, I was starting to see his point.

It was so goddamn hot. I was sweating buckets as I paced around the small room, trying to fan air down my drenched shirt. It didn’t help matters at all that my abdomen would infrequently make me curl in on myself with deep spasms, and despite the very un-sexy situation, a distinct throbbing from down below was making it harder and harder not to press a hand between my thighs to ease the tension.

I shot an angry glare at the back of Dr. Urwin’s head as I passed him on my sixth-hundredth round. He was still working away as if he didn’t have a care in the world, completely disregarding my mounting levels of discomfort.

“How much longer?” I growled without stopping. I knew if I didn’t keep pacing, it wouldn’t be long before I was forced to acknowledge the insistent throbbing between my thighs. As if on cue, a cramp made me groan and lean forward, supporting my hands on my knees to ride out the tremor.

Dr. Urwin turned then, giving me a long, evaluating look. “It shouldn’t be much longer. Any slick yet?”

If I hadn’t already been so hot, I might have flushed from the intimate question—but right then, I didn’t care about what was proper. All I cared about was that I was so damn hot, and my clothes felt too constrictive as they stuck to my sweat-covered body—and that I wanted this to be over already!

“No,” I said, shooting him an accusatory glare from my bent-over position. “Just buckets and buckets of sweat. This can’t be fucking natural! Are you sure you haven’t messed up the formula of whatever was in that injection? I feel terrible!”

“I did warn you,” he mumbled as he reached for my forehead. I swatted his hand away—just the thought of him touching me made my skin crawl. I frowned when that realization set in—along with the sudden dawning that I wasn’t worried about their plans anymore. I was just really, really… irritated.

“Mhm,” Dr. Urwin hummed. “I think it’s time we move on to the next stage. Last chance if you want to strip before we have to put the restraints on.”

I shot him another glare, but the thought of being tied down and wrapped up in my restricting clothes finally made me give up the last remnants of dignity.

With a demonstrative huff, I turned my back to my—former—colleague and shrugged out of my soaked shirt. It was such an immediate relief to get the clingy fabric off my overheated body, the last of my self-consciousness faded to nothing. Eager to cool down as much as possible, I unclasped my bra and made quick work of my pants zipper and button, kicking off shoes and socks before I could shed them and my panties.

There was a moment’s relief as I stood naked on the cold floor next to the pile of discarded clothes. It felt glorious to no longer have the soaked garments clinging to my hypersensitive skin, and even though I was still much too hot, at least I wasn’t also wrapped up.

“Please lay back on the bench.”

I turned my head toward Dr. Urwin, my upper lip curling in a snarl at him. He wasn’t who I needed, so why the fuck was he here?

Dr. Urwin’s eyebrows shot up in amusement, and I blinked when I realized what I’d done. I’d… snarled? Like an animal. And what the hell was up with the errant thoughts about… about needing someone?

As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew exactly where those thoughts came from. Images of that alpha mounting Gloria played before my mind’s eye and resonated deep in my core. My abdomen twinged with longing.

Fuck.

Without a word, I walked over to the bench and lay down. I didn’t resist when Dr. Urwin placed the leather cuffs around my wrists and ankles, securing me to the padded surface.

I lay there for what felt like forever, sweating and waiting for the mounting pressure in my abdomen to finally break, but no matter how much I writhed on the bench and squeezed my thighs together to alleviate the need to be touched between them, nothing happened. It soon got to a point where, as much as I had dreaded their plans to force me into mating heat, I was desperate for it to finally sweep me away, because this… this was agony.

“How much longer?” I finally whined at Dr. Urwin, who at least hadn’t gone back to his stupid desk this time. He was watching over me as I squirmed in my restraints, eyebrows furrowed.

“It should have broken now,” he said.  “I think it’s time we give you some stimulants to push you over the edge. I’ll be back in a moment.”

I whimpered pitifully when he left the room, not wanting to be left alone. As frustrated and irritated as I was, the moment he closed the door behind him and I was all alone, all I wanted was for him to return.

The flickering fluorescent light reflected off the white walls, somehow enhancing the sterile scent of disinfectant and the rattle of the chains tying my leather cuffs to the bed every time I fidgeted. While Dr. Urwin had been there, it’d been easier to pretend this was just a normal research project—that I was participating for the sake of scientific progress. Not tied up and waiting for a huge alpha murderer to penetrate me like a feral beast.

I breathed in deeply, doing my best to ignore the twinges from my abdomen as I focused on that look in 351’s eyes that’d made me risk all to save him in the first place. That sense of humanity behind his primitive instincts I’d seen when he touched my cheek to thank me for caring for his injuries.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get his wild eyes and huge cock when he was locked in the breeding room out of my thoughts. He was an alpha through and through, and unless his humanity managed to surface, nothing was going to save me from the monstrous girth between his legs.

Thankfully Dr. Urwin was back within a few minutes, a piece of cloth in his hand, and my increasing panic instantly eased some just from his presence. As much as he’d irritated me earlier, and as much as I should probably have despised him for what he was about to do to me, I only felt relief. At least I wouldn’t be alone in the medical-scented room with only my own anxious thoughts for company. And besides, as much as I was dreading what he was going to let happen to me, at least he’d stopped me from being sent to Ezban.

“All right,” he said, placing the cloth over my nose. “Take a few deep breaths of this. It’s laced with 351’s scent from his last rut—it should push you over the edge.”