Page 38 of Midnight Bond (Wolves of Midnight #5)

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It was the worst feeling in the world being this close to Jagger but unable to reach him.

He was slumped in the chair beside mine, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with tubes and wires attached all over his body.

Shortly after the tranquilizer darts had forced him under, Miss Tindale had been dismissed.

Dr. Sloane was clearly disappointed with her assistant and had replaced her with another.

The new assistant was coldly methodical as she pulled the darts from Jagger’s chest and hooked him up to an IV pole.

She’d done this before, that much was certain, and her detached demeanor snuffed out any hope I had of gaining her sympathy.

A new chest strap was brought in, along with a strap for Jagger’s neck.

While two of the armored guards secured Jagger’s upper half to the chair once more, three humans in white lab coats joined Dr. Sloane—her colleagues, by the looks of them.

Her tone changed when she spoke to them, more formal and less demanding.

After a few moments of listening to them converse, it became clear she was their superior, and my hope dwindled once more.

If Dr. Sloane was in charge of this operation, we had little chance of convincing any of these humans to set us free.

She might be confined to a wheelchair, but every word she uttered dripped with authority.

“You saw the way he started to shift. He’s the one we’ve been looking for,” she was saying to the woman and two men standing around her.

Ever since Jagger had partially shifted, Dr. Sloane’s face had been a mask of excitement.

The more excited she became, the more panicked I felt.

A scientist faced with an anomaly was like a kid in a candy store.

I was the same with a particularly challenging math problem.

The need to solve it took over, and I wouldn’t stop until I had the answer.

“What about the female?” one of the men asked, briefly glancing at me. Up until now, none of the doctors had seemed to notice me. All eyes had been on Jagger’s unconscious form.

At his question, Dr. Sloane finally looked at me and said, “She’s his mate, that much is certain. There have been no signs of her being a hybrid, though.”

“Unfortunate,” the other female doctor replied.

“Yes, it is, but she could still be useful. The male is highly responsive to her and will probably cooperate best with our tests if she’s near.”

“But what if she’s pregnant?” the other male doctor asked.

“They were mating in the barn when the men found them, and then again in their containment chamber, so chances of that are high. Once we test her estrogen levels, we’ll probably find them heightened.

As we’ve learned, female werewolves in heat are very fertile.

It drives the males wild, which would explain why he’s been so aggressive.

If she’s pregnant, his protective instincts will become even more unmanageable, so we’ll have to terminate it immediately. ”

“No!” I tried to scream, but all that came out was a pathetic garbling sound, the steel ball in my mouth keeping my words at bay.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, but the doctors barely noticed them.

They continued their conversation as if I wasn’t intelligent enough to understand it, as if I was merely an animal to be experimented on.

“I want to begin testing right away,” Dr. Sloane went on, her gaze lifting to her colleagues once more. “We’ve been at this too long to waste any more time. Focus all your efforts on the male. He’s the key to perfecting our formula.”

Tears continued to drip down my face as the meeting ended, the doctors scattering in different directions.

The two guards left the chamber and even the assistant bustled out, leaving me alone with Dr. Sloane.

She pulled a tablet from a bag strapped to the back of her wheelchair, the same bag that had contained her tranquilizer gun.

The woman might be physically impaired, but she didn’t let that get in her way.

If I didn’t hate her so much, I might actually admire her. She was pursuing her dreams unapologetically, refusing to give up despite her limitations. But she was trying to take my dreams away, and I wanted nothing more than to stop her by any means necessary.

I’d underestimated myself for so long, but now that someone I loved needed me, now that my mate needed me, I felt stronger.

Maybe not physically, but I was determined to get us out of here.

All eyes were on Jagger, and maybe that was to my advantage.

They’d dismissed me. Underestimated me. And I needed it to stay that way.

“I should thank you,” Dr. Sloane suddenly said.

Her gaze was glued to the tablet in her hands, but the remark was directed at me—or so I assumed, since I was the only other conscious being in the room.

“We’ve been testing on werewolves for almost a decade and never once stumbled across a hybrid.

We only just learned about them last year through our source in the Supernatural Containment Agency.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the organization? ”

She flicked her eyes up to mine but looked down again as if she didn’t expect me to answer.

Tapping on her tablet for a moment, she went on, “The SCA used to partner with us in our research efforts, but that all changed when they instated a warlock as one of their leaders. He thought our tests weren’t humane and encouraged the agency to dissolve our partnership.

My team fell apart, discouraged by the lack of funding and resources.

If it wasn’t for my one faithful source still working in the SCA, I might have lost all hope. ”

She paused in her typing to rest her gaze on Jagger’s unconscious form before continuing, “Once I knew of the hybrids’ existence, everything changed.

I immediately started campaigning, gathering investors and reinstating my team.

Once we’d secured a building that suited our needs, I hired mercenaries to begin the hunt for hybrids.

We already knew that New England was a hotspot for supernaturals, but our SCA source didn’t have information on where exactly the hybrids lived.

We were working in the dark, tapping into multiple sources that might provide leads.

Mental institutions were surprisingly helpful.

We picked up a few werewolves that way before intercepting the call about you. ”

She swung her gaze back to me. “The problem is that without further testing, we can’t confirm if the werewolves are hybrids or not, so we have to collect them all.

But my hired men weren’t prepared to face an actual hybrid the night they were sent to retrieve you.

After what happened, we almost lost hope of finding you again.

Your current place of residence is sealed to the public, and even my SCA source couldn’t locate you.

I thought for sure the little trap my men rigged up at your childhood home wouldn’t work, but thank goodness it did.

You helped us secure our first hybrid, and I’m ever so grateful. ”

My throat sealed shut. She was thanking me. Thanking me for helping them capture Jagger. Not only that, it was becoming more and more clear that she didn’t need me. I’d simply been a means to an end, a way to get what she really wanted.

A werewolf hybrid.

“Why?” I tried to ask around the steel ball.

She lifted an eyebrow. “Why werewolf hybrids?”

I nodded.

She studied me thoughtfully before answering, “My mother was a brilliant scientist and at the height of her career when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She was the strongest woman I knew, but the MS destroyed her body and mind, and she was forced into a care facility. When I was diagnosed with MS at the age of twenty, I swore to myself I wouldn’t become her.

I dedicated my life to science and finding a cure, even when my legs gave out on me.

“I kept searching until, as luck would have it, I discovered the existence of supernaturals,” she went on, excitement sparking in her eyes once more.

“The discovery opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me, and I put everything into finding out what makes them tick, especially werewolves. They’re strong, fast healing, and immune to human disease.

If I could isolate those traits and splice them with human genes, then perhaps I could find a cure not only for MS but for all diseases. ”

Some of that excitement abruptly faded, replaced with frustration.

“But when the human trials began, each and every subject reacted the same way to my serum and were transformed into werewolves. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t remove the toxin that forces werewolves into animal form during the full moon.

I tried for years to no avail and had all but given up, but then I heard about hybrids and their ability to shift at will. ”

At the mention of hybrids, her excitement returned in full force.

“Even if I can’t remove the toxin that turns them into an animal, their ability to control the transformation process changes everything.

Humans with incurable diseases would jump at the chance to have the kind of power a werewolf hybrid has, even if that means living with the toxin’s effects.

They could walk again, talk again, think again.

Their strength would return, and they would be free to live their lives as fully as possible.

This cure could save thousands, millions, and your mate could be a part of that.

You said you were human once, so you know how groundbreaking a discovery like this would be to the human race.

Certainly you understand why I have to do this. ”