Vivianna
Rik didn’t wait for anyone else to volunteer before he started down the ladder, Koit right on his heels.
Would now be a good time to tell you that you have really good night vision?
Wait, what?. I do?
Like I keep telling you, you’re not human anymore. All you need to do is let your wolf side blend with your human side so I can help you boost your natural abilities. You keep focusing on one part instead of letting all the benefits work together.
I took a moment to think about what she was saying. Each time I pulled my wolf forward to help me, I was only targeting one sense or another, not really blending them together.
“All clear,” Rik called out, pulling me out of my thoughts. “You are not going to believe what’s down here.”
Not liking the tone in Rik’s voice, I frowned and started down the ladder carefully, making sure I had my foot securely placed on each rung before stepping down.
I wasn’t scared of heights, but when you don’t know how deep something is, it makes you cautious.
With all my attention focused on what I was doing, I let out a squeak when hands grabbed my waist, lifting me off the ladder and placing me on the ground.
I was shocked to find that under my feet was concrete, not dirt.
Koit took my hand and led me down a hallway, and I figured this was as good a time as any to try out my night vision.
I pulled on my wolf, letting her take over my eyes.
The hall bloomed into different tones of white and gray, but I could see clearly enough to not worry about crashing or tripping over anything.
It was almost like we had been moved out of the horror movie and into the underground lair of an evil genius.
It looked like at one point there had been lights along the hall, but they were burned out.
At the end of the hall, a large metal door, like what you’d find on a submarine, greeted us.
It was half open, but I couldn’t really see into the room from where we stood.
Koit entered first, still holding my hand, guiding me through and making sure I didn’t trip over the lip of the doorway.
Looking up, I gasped as what I saw registered in my brain.
We were in someone’s secret lab.
The walls were covered in shelves that held bottles and beakers of all kinds.
On a few of the desks were computers that looked well-maintained, even if they were an older style.
The space was organized and free of dust, looking like it was still used to this day.
I heard a clunk and the overhead lights flickered on, giving the room that cold blue glow of fluorescent lighting.
Seeing a desk covered in papers, I headed over, hoping that it would give me a clue as to what the hell was going on in here.
Skimming over all the medical and mathematical data on the sheets, I picked up that the lab was being used for genetic altering, but nothing pinpointed exactly what they were working on.
I turned on one of the computers and waited as it flickered to life.
It had an old operating system, but it was still working…
just a lot slower than what we were used to.
I glanced over the folders that were on the desktop and picked one at random.
There were lots of folders with daily accounts of tests completed and their results.
I moved to a folder that held a video and clicked on it.
Dr. Faulk’s face flickered to life on the grainy film.
“Subject forty-five update. I was able to grow a fetus this time, but once it was in the second trimester, the mutations didn’t develop as I’d hoped.
It started to present with more wolf features than human.
It lived for about three more days until it wasn’t able to survive off of the human amniotic fluid anymore.
” The video moved from him to show the mutated mess of a child with a canine snout and paws instead of feet.
It then returned to Faulk as he continued on with his thoughts about what had gone wrong.
Not feeling the need to listen to it all, I moved on and clicked another folder. From the date, I knew it was the last one that had been uploaded onto the computer. When the video started this time, it was focused on a woman who had a very round belly, but I couldn’t really see her face.
“It has been deduced that the genetically created fetus cannot live outside a host. Subject seventy-three is showing the most progress so far. Most have failed in the first month, but this subject is well into her third trimester,” Dr. Faulk droned on.
The camera panned up as he asked the woman a few questions, but I didn’t hear a word he was saying.
Staring back at the camera was the woman I had called ‘mother’ my whole life.
I don’t know if I said something or made a noise, but all of a sudden, my mates were surrounding me.
Tav directed me to a chair and had me take a seat while Rik knelt in front of me, cupping my face in his big hands.
I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“Vivianna Beck,” Rik bellowed at me, dropping his hands to my shoulders to give me a quick shake. “You need to answer me right now or I’m going to take drastic measures.”
“Dude, what the fuck?” Koit snapped, punching Rik in the shoulder. “You need to calm the fuck down. The last thing she needs is to have her mate freaking the fuck out.”
“Viv, you need to let us know you’re okay,” Tav said, squatting down on Rik’s left.
It’s all true… I have never been human a day in my life. She isn’t my mother, she was just a host to carry the alien embryo that some psycho doctor made right here in this lab.
You need to calm down, Viv. Let me and your mates help you. I know this is a lot to take in, and I get going into shock, but we don’t have to do this alone.
How could they still want me after they see this? I was one of seventy-three tests, the only one to survive. He all but butchered those others with his experiments.
He did that, not you. This is not your sin to repent for. You are as much a victim as those that didn’t survive.
Gently, I was pulled off the chair and wrapped up in warm arms shrouded in the scent of pine, letting me know it was Rik.
Coffee and spice soon followed, along with the soft caress of someone wiping away the tears that were falling down my cheeks.
I opened my eyes to look into Koit’s concerned gaze.
“How can we help you, Viv?” he whispered.
I snuggled into Rik’s large, warm body before I answered. “This is where I was created. That woman in the video is my mother.”
I could feel Rik’s body tense under mine as he gripped me tighter, and Koit leaned back so I could see Tav as he began to speak.
“Viv, I need you to listen to what I’m about to say,” Tav said, his face serious as he reached out and took one of my hands, giving it a squeeze.
I nodded, letting him know he had my full attention.
“I am your mate, and nothing we find out about how you were brought into this world matters to me. I can’t speak for the others, but I fell in love with the woman that you are now.
The strength and grace you have shown through this whole thing is more than I could have ever hoped to find in a mate.
You’re not the only one bringing baggage into this relationship. ”
I gave him a smile, leaning forward as he met me halfway and kissed me deeply.
Told you you didn’t have anything to worry about. These men love the shit out of you.
“I’m not as suave with my words, but yeah, what he said,” Koit said when Tav sat back.
“We knew about the crazy doctor and how he created you, and we still wanted to be your mate. The only thing about this that bothers me is seeing you upset about it. I hate that your so-called parents hurt you and lied to you all your life.”
“Koit’s right. We didn’t go into this blind.
We know firsthand what it means to be at your side, and there is no other place I would rather be than right here holding you close.
All we want to do is support you and figure this whole thing out,” Rik said, rubbing his cheek against the top of my head, comforting me.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled out of Rik’s arms and stood up. “We need to bring Darius here so he can copy everything and see if there are any hidden files. It seems like this place is still being used, but there’s no new information on that computer.”
“Do you think someone is trying to recreate what he did with you?” Koit mused as he looked around the room. “Oh, maybe we should try this computer” he said, pointing to another terminal.
He turned it on, and unlike the one I’d used, this one had a password prompt. Koit frowned at it and searched around the desk, looking for something.
“What are you doing? We should just leave it until Darius can get to it. I’m sure he’ll be able to crack the password in no time,” I said, getting a bad feeling in my gut.
“That’s no fun. There could be a clue hidden in plain sight that tells us what the password is,” Koit said as he opened the drawers to the desk and flipped through papers. “Hmm, nothing super obvious, but what if we tried something simple… like ‘wolf’.”
Koit typed in the word and hit enter.
The whole room erupted into chaos as an alarm sounded, red lights flashed, and the room started to fill with smoke of some kind. My tongue began to tingle like it was going numb, and the smell of the smoke set me on edge.
“Fuck,” Koit yelled. “We gotta go, it’s aerosolized wolfsbane.”
“The door is shutting.” Tav hollered as we bolted in his direction.
Rik got there first, wedging his feet against the bottom lip of the door, his muscles straining as he kept it from locking us in.
Koit grabbed my arm and yanked me ahead of him, shoving me through the narrow space.
Tav dove after me, followed by Koit, having to wiggle his way through the narrow space left.
I turned to see Rik still in the room, his eyes locked on mine, resolved to his fate.
“NO.” I screamed and lunged at the door with outstretched hands.
Koit grabbed me around the waist, holding me back as the door sealed and the lock turned and hissed. I screamed and fought, clawing at Koit’s arms around me, kicking out, trying to free myself by any means necessary.
“Let me the fuck go. We can’t leave him in there, he’ll die,” I sobbed, my fight becoming weaker as my tears fell faster. “No, no, no, this can’t be happening. I can’t lose him, Koit. We can’t let him die.”
Koit pulled me against his chest just like Rik had done moments ago. “He needs us, Koit—we can still save him,” I said, my chest tight and throat raw from screaming.
I turned in Koit’s arms and started punching him in the chest, then slapped him in the face. “What kind of monster are you to let your own brother die without even trying to save him.”
The devastation in Koit’s gaze made me pause as I went to lash out at him again.
Tears streamed down his own cheeks as he silently wept, trying to keep me safe like Rik would’ve wanted.
Sliding out of his hold, I slumped to the ground and curled into a ball, giving myself over to my tears.
My whole body shook as I wailed, gasping for breath, letting all the pain at losing my mate seep out of me.
My wolf let out a mournful howl in my head, feeling the loss as keenly as I did.
There was nothing I could do. He was gone.