“What the f**k are you doing to her?” He fought the other man’s hold, and would have broken free if both Callan and Kane hadn’t lent their strength to holding him still.
“I’ll kill all of you,” he snarled then.
“And you’re welcome to my friend. Later,” Dash snapped back. “But right now, you have a mate determined to do what she needs to, and she needs you. We can’t hold her, Merinus or Elizabeth can’t either. You have to hold her, Kiowa. She can’t do this alone.”
“You’re crazy.” He could hear her now. The screams…
“Goddammit, let me go!”
“Kiowa, listen to me. They’ve found something, inside her.” Dash shook him furiously, his own eyes blazing. “She’s in full ovulation with the sperm attempting to fertilize. This is important, Kiowa. For God’s sake, for all of us, the hormone releasing from her womb now has never been detected before, Kiowa, and in such small amounts that Serena Grace needs the time to collect enough samples of the hormones building in her womb, while Martins follows the ovulation. Listen to me…” Dash was screaming, enraged, his eyes furious, desperate. “For all of us, Kiowa. Your mate is suffering for all of us, help us.”
“Kiowa…” He could hear her screaming his name, her voice a lash of agony as it penetrated the careful construction of the Labs.
“Kiowa. For our species. For all of us. If we could do something, anything to make this easier on our mates, then the world will be accepting when they learn of it. We’re walking a tightrope between life and hunting season. Help us.”
He snarled furiously, throwing his head back against the wall as her cry echoed around him again.
“Let me go to her.”
A surge of fury had him tearing from their grasps as he rushed to the opened steel door at the end of the hallway. He hit the stairs at a run, taking them five and six at a time until he vaulted to the steel floor and rushed into the main lab.
It was like a scene from a nightmare.
Amanda was restrained in a gynecological chair, her legs strapped to the stirrups, her arms and hands restrained at the side. Between her spread thighs, Dr. Grace worked slowly as Dr. Martins kept watch on a monitor attached to the camera that was obviously at the mouth of Amanda’s womb. He snarled, drawing their attention, causing Elizabeth and Merinus to rush between him and Dr. Grace.
“Amanda.” He moved to her, quickly releasing the straps on her arms as he bent to her. “Hold onto me,”
he pleaded at her ear as she cried out his name. “Hold onto me, baby. The minute you say the word it stops. I’ll make them stop.”
She was gasping for breath, her face streaked with tears as her arms wrapped around his shoulders with a desperate grip.
She screamed again, her back trying to bow, the straps across her waist and chest holding her firmly to the chair.
“She’s not in any danger.” Elizabeth was beside him now. “We’re monitoring all her vital signs. The minute her system shows any danger to her, we’ll stop.”
Kiowa shook his head. He didn’t want to hear it.
“The sperm is attempting to fertilize the egg that dropped. There’s a small hormonal barrier or shield blocking it. Protecting it from fertilization. But it’s weak. Other hormones are releasing into her blood, heightening the arousal. That’s what’s causing the pain. It’s not you touching her…” Elizabeth continued.
“It’s the mating heat’s demand for more sperm, a stronger force to break through the shield. Dr. Grace is attempting to get small quantities of the hormone at a time, to keep from weakening the shield too much to handle the stress against it. It weakens the sperm, Kiowa. Keeps it from getting to the egg. Only a minute amount of that sperm is viable anyway, because of the advanced genetics. That’s why the mating heat is demanding intercourse. A greater quantity of sperm to break that barrier. This is a breakthrough we can’t ignore. It was a miracle she came to the labs when she did. Dr. Grace detected the change in her blood immediately, just from the studies she’s done on mine and Merinus’s. This could be what we’ve waited for…”
Her voice droned on over Amanda’s gasps and strangled cries. Amanda was sweating profusely, her skin cold and pale as she shuddered in his grip then tried to arch in agony as a wail echoed around him.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear then, unable to hold the words back, to stem the agony ripping inside his heart. “Let me stop this, Amanda. Let me take you out of here.”
“No.” She gasped, her nails digging into his shoulders as convulsive tremors shook her body. “Have to. Have to. For both of us, Kiowa.”
“We’re almost done, Amanda.” Dr. Grace’s voice was tear-roughened, and Kiowa hated realizing that.
“Just a little bit more.”
“The viable sperm have nearly exhausted themselves,” Dr. Martin reported. “As soon as you’re finished, extract the camera. If the rest break through, then it’s God’s will.”
God’s will. Nature’s curse.
Kiowa clenched his teeth as Amanda screamed out in agony again.
“Kiss me, Kiowa,” she cried out then. “Please I hate this. I hate sounding like this. Make me stop.”