“You’ll do the analysis,” I said. “We’ll make you the primary contributor—”
“Riley…”
“This will be your paper, and we’ll be your subjects. Windsor and Crowe won’t care, as long as they get the data. We’ve still got those samples we took of my blood. We can do an analysis, see if there’s been any shifts with some new samples.”
People incorrectly assumed that genetics were a fixed set of things you were born with, that they were simply a blueprint used to create you. While I wasn’t going to be able to change my eye or hair colour, some genes switched on or off depending on environmental factors. My latency for one. If Valerie or Cheryl hadn’t been born, I might have revealed as an omega. At that thought, my eyes slid to the pack.
“You want to try and understand why a beta is our mate and not an omega?” Fen asked, stepping closer now. “Yeah, I think you’ll find that we’re completely on board with that. Whatever you need, we’ll get it for you.”
“Please say sperm samples,” Haze muttered, putting his hands together in prayer. “Please, please say sperm samples.”
“Better,” Candy said with a cackle. “Our girl here will have to invest in a raincoat or something, because she needs to get up close and personal with your knots.”
“Fuck…” I hissed as the guys erupted in a series of incomprehensible sounds, making clear just how on board they were with that idea. “If this is just some elaborate scheme for you to get me covered in pack spunk, I’m gonna kill you.”
“Who, me?” She fluttered her eyelids furiously. “But seriously, you know how this has to work. Is there any genetic glitch creating that bond? Are you changing? Are they? If any genes are switching on or off, what’s that doing to your bodies?”
Her focus shifted abruptly to the guys.
“We have no idea what’s going on here, and if we’re going to find out, we’ll need to look at everything.”
“I would like to volunteer as tribute,” Haze said, stepping forward and raising his hand.
“Shut up, idiot,” Ryan hissed.
“So I guess while we’re here, we’ll take some more samples. Not semen,” Candy said firmly. “Did you want to do that while I chat to Windsor?”
That ruffled my feathers, I wasn’t gonna lie. Candy was just as smart, had graduated with honours as well, from just as reputable a university, but I tended to naturally assume the leadership role. Probably because someone had to stop her from talking complete shit all the time.
“Sure, I can take care of that,” I replied.
“Good, so you give the lot of them a little prick and something sweet afterwards, and I’ll see you on Monday, because I get the feeling I might be up in their office for some time. Gotta admit, I had hoped if I was ever working late on a Friday night with Gideon Crowe that I’d be wearing a trench coat, some thigh highs, a pair of Manolo Blahniks he’d just bought me, and nothing else.” She sighed dramatically at that, then headed for the door. “The things I do for this job.”
“Is she for real?” Colt asked as Candy sashayed out.
“Who cares about that? I want the pricks and the sweet stuff,” Haze replied.
Which washow I ended up with all of them seated in the pathology lab. I was aware that some people enjoyed a medical kink, sexualising a medical context, sometimes enjoying fantasies in one, getting a thrill from medical procedures. It’d never really resonated with me, but right now, I was beginning to get an inkling of it.
I knew my procedures, the filling out of forms, creating identifying numbers, assigning them to the different blood specimen tubes I’d need, and then dropping them into separate trays for each man, but when I walked over, Haze was already in the chair, muscular forearm lying on the long armrest, ready for me to draw his blood.
“Make a fist for me,” I said as he stared up at me, his lips curling into a smile as he did just that, both of us conscious of the way his muscles popped in response. “I won’t have any problems finding your veins.”
Like most alphas, his body fat level was crazy low, so I saw exactly where they snaked along his body, just under the skin. He smiled at my inspection, then waited as I grabbed the tourniquet and the needle. I briefly felt around his inner elbow area, making sure everything was where I thought it should be, and then leant over. He watched my every move, those pale blue eyes burning into mine, his smile getting wider and wider.
“Just a little prick,” I said as I inserted the needle.
“I’m not gonna be able to tell you the same thing when shit gets real, babe.”
I grimaced, shaking my head as I watched the blood fill the small cannister, repeating the process over and over, until finally, he was done. I used a cotton ball to press down on the injection site after withdrawing the needle.
“Press down for me,” I said, moving to pull away, but his fingers covered mine, the two of us staunching the tiny flow of blood, my heart beating frantically in my ears until I finally pulled my hand away. I put a small bandage over it to keep the site clean and then went to move on to do Blake’s, but an arm wrapped around my waist, tugging me back down and onto a lap.
“I was a very good boy,” Haze told me, gripping me tighter when I squirmed, trying to get free. “Don’t I deserve something sweet?”
“Haze!” He released me then, and I snatched a lollipop out of the jar and handed it to him with a huff. “This is my workplace. We’re not doing” —I waved my hand in the air— “whatever this is here.”
“Really?” Colt asked. “So where will we be conducting the knotting experiments? At your place?”