Chapter Twenty-Two （Specimen Collection）

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (SPECIMEN COLLECTION)

GONZO

This wasn't like any of my other fuckups. I'd only proven my younger self right—I wasn't made for mates. I'd fucked it up. I gloried in my cunning, not ever stopping to question if all my sly behavior was costing me. It had.

I'd destroyed the relationship with my mate before we even were mates. Who does that? This asshole right here. They said tricksters made their own problems—weaved webs they had to live in. Couldn't argue with that.

Mated to my own assassin. I'm not sure fucking her before coming clean helped. I winced.

"Are you going to throw up?" Zero asked. I was lying in half across one of his science tables, my cheek against the cool blacktop.

"Did you have to name drop like that?" I snapped. " La Volpe ," I groaned.

"Have to? No, but I took great pleasure in it."

"I was going to tell her." Was I? I was fighting against other instincts. The ones screaming to finish the mate bond and forget everything else until then. I closed my eyes. I could have bit her and knotted her, gotten rid of the furious ache pounding in my veins. It was hard to think about anything else. But I fought that instinct with everything I had. Yes, I fucked her. That wasn't great. I didn't trap her, though.

Mating wasn't a one-way street. I was the only one feeling it now, but after I completed the bond, she'd feel it. Hazel would be unable to stay away from me the same way I was with her.

Away for a week, my ass. I broke into her room at night and watched her sleep. Then I slunk away with my tail between my legs before she woke up.

I could feel Zero's eyes on me, watching.

"She didn't try to kill you, at least," he said and I laughed.

"Am I so pathetic that even you feel the need to cheer me up?"

"Yes," he said. "I'm worried you're going to cry on my furniture and leave me to clean it up."

"I'm not going to cry," I sighed. "I'm going to maim someone, and then I'm going to make things right with Hazel." There was a drawn-out moment of silence. I looked at polite lines of test tubes racked up in wooden holders.

"You aren't maiming me," Zero said, sounding disappointed.

"Wow, you noticed," I sighed.

"You can't still think I'm your mate." I grimaced while picking myself up off his table. I should leave. Why wasn't I leaving?

"You do think I'm your mate," he said. I shot him the quickest glance. He was pinching his bottom lip as he thought. I looked away fast. If I don't look at it, it doesn't exist.

"We need to get Hazel back," I said.

"We?" He asked. I looked anywhere but at him. My eyes followed designs on an antique wardrobe pushed against the wall.

"She's not happy with you either," I shoved my hands in my pockets. "We'll have more luck working together." It was happening again. Just like when I went to Bree's, wanting to say one thing, but another came out—from kill Hazel to save her. I looked at the door and thought about leaving. But my feet didn't move at all. I sighed. This time, it wasn't Hazel making me act different. It was my other mate, Zero. I tried not to think about it.

"You want to work together?" The tone was judgemental.

"Can you stop with the questions?" I snapped. "Look, maybe we can invent a situation where she'll need us—" I started to pace in front of the table.

"You're trying to use trickery to get what you want. You told her that you'd stopped."

"Shit." I was falling on old habits because I was nervous. I looked at the door again and grimaced, knowing I wasn't leaving yet. I didn't want to.

"What would you do to get her back?" I asked. He threaded his hands in front of his hips, long fingers crisscrossing together. Doctors had hands like musicians'; every movement looked precise.

"I'd trap her here, force orgasms on her until she associates me with pleasure, and then I'd look into her dreams and give her exactly what she desired from me," he said, pulling my attention away from his body.

His words were conniving and honest. I smiled, realizing how similar we might be. Not that I'd go about things the same way he did, we both had our different skills. Mine was charm, his was orgasms, apparently. Don't think about that. I groaned and looked away. When had I started looking at him?

"All I got was needles and sleeping pills," I said.

"Would forced orgasms have made you agreeable?" He asked. I sucked in a sharp breath and changed the subject.

"You said you hated me but you seem less furious today."

"Today I know you can't hurt Hazel. Not anymore."

I glared at him, remembering Hazel's reveal in the middle of sex. Her face had been painted in sweet agony with my face buried between her thighs. And when she said that Zero had been inside her it turned me on.

"You fucked her."

"So did you," Zero responded. He hadn't moved since Hazel left, just stood there watching me fret and pace. He was unsure, I realized, and was observing me closely.

"She's my mate. Of course I fucked her."

"I'm also your mate and you didn't fuck me," he responded. My eyes widened and my mouth went dry. I started coughing.

"I swallowed a fly," I wheezed.

"There are no flies in here." He tipped his head to the side. Zero was testing me, poking and prodding to understand how I was going to treat him now. I wanted to grab him and shake him violently. Why couldn't he give me a break? The tension was pressing on me and he looked as cool and unaffected as ever. The calm mad scientist watching his experiment unfold.

"I thought you said it's impossible you're my mate?" Even if I didn't look at him I could feel him. That was the excuse I used for staring back at him now.

"It's improbable but we can find out," he said. Zero had a presence that could make the biggest man feel small. Behind his glasses were sharp, intelligent eyes. His outfit screamed of some sort of derangement—who the fuck wore black strapped doctor's jackets? It almost looked like a straitjacket that had been remade. All black clothes too, from his high collar at his Adam's Apple to his shiny shoes.

I could sense he was old. And then there were all the questions about what he was. An enigma, drawing me in with curiosity.

"How can we prove it?" I knew he was my mate as well as I knew Hazel was too. But something inside me needed him to know it too.

"Sit down," he commanded, pointing to the examination chair.

"I'm not getting experimented on anymore. Our deal is off, Zero. Things are different…" between us now . I swallowed the same words I'd given to Hazel.

"I'm Zero now?"

Heat crawled up my neck and I turned away, gripping the black countertop. My eyes danced over the empty jars that used to have brains in them. The last time I was here he was doing something with them. He hadn't been eating them, had he?

"Do you eat brains?" I asked in confusion. That couldn't be right… right ? My shoulders tensed as I heard him come closer, too close. I could feel him behind my back.

"Sit down in the chair."

"Really?" I asked over my shoulder.

" Sit ." I turned around, glaring at him for whatever that was worth. He watched me move to the chair and sit down. In his eyes was intrigue and calculation. I ground my teeth as he stepped up and flipped the strap over my wrist.

"Is that really necessary?" I growled. He pulled the strap too tight then moved on to the ankles.

"You always thrash." He leaned over my chest to reach for the far wrist. My heart pounded in my chest as his scent hit me.

"And I like strapping people in," he admitted while tightening the leather in the buckle. I wet my lips. Zero moved with precise, languid movements, savoring strapping me in. This felt different than the other times. I tapped my finger against he armrest, trying to ignore the anticipation I felt.

When he finished up, he pulled out a syringe. I felt nauseous just looking at another one.

"Always with your needles," I groaned. He hesitated and then set the syringe back down on the metal tray.

"We can skip the blood draw."

"You aren't feeling soft for me, are you doc?" I asked, flashing my teeth in a big smile.

"The question right now is whether you're feeling soft for me." My eyebrows crawled up my forehead.

Suddenly, his fingers slid into the band on my pants. I blinked, looking down at where his hands were. I was confused—shocked even. My gaze darted up to him and then back down to my lap. What on Earth was he doing? The anticipation I felt before was growing—an uncomfortable weight low in my body. It was becoming hard to the direction my blood was flowing. He peeled my pants down slowly, dragging it out.

"What are you doing?" I asked. He looked me in the eyes as he wrapped his hand around me. I sucked in a sharp breath as skilled fingers slid around the base of my shaft, where a slight thickening revealed an unswollen knot.

"Did you always have a knot?" He asked then squeezed it. The breath was knocked out of me. What was happening? Knot , he asked about the knot.

"Yes," I said between my teeth.

"Did it swell before getting mates?" Zero squeezed it again and my arms fought with the restraints, trying to break free. "See, you always thrash." There was a hint of humor in his voice that had me staring at his mouth, seeing the small curl at the edge.

"Fuck." So much for ignoring the problem of mating him. Who had two mates? Me apparently. I'd heard Nemo did too but he was a freak and didn't count. Guess that made me a freak too.

"Well?" He prompted.

"Well, what?" I barked. Zero raised an eyebrow and strangled the knot, making me see stars. Shit, that felt good.

"Did it swell—"

"No! Not before," I gasped. He let go of me and I sagged. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of his pen on paper as he wrote down dirty details about me. Is this how Hazel felt with him? It was odd, somewhere between filthy and clinical. My cock didn't mind but my mind felt unsettled.

I needed to keep my head. This wasn't like me. I'd never been into men. Why did I get a male mate? I could keep asking that over and over, but I knew no one really understood why shifters mated. There were half-baked theories about strength or mating. If I had to guess, mine were based on power. Which begged the question, how powerful was Zero if my other mate was the only known immortal creature?

"Were you always so well endowed?" Zero asked. I swallowed thickly.

"The size hasn't changed," I said. Zero wrote it down.

"Are you producing more cum?" He asked.

"I don't know." Yes . My tongue darted over my lips as I looked down at myself, painfully hard. Even if I wasn't into men, maybe one time wouldn't be a big deal.

"When does the knot swell?" Zero asked. I shot a panicked look at him. "Only during sex with Hazel? Or have there been other instances since the change?"

"There's been other instances," tumbled from my mouth.

"With other people?" Zero asked. He had long eyelashes that framed his eyes and full lips. His bone structure was refined and perfectly symmetrical.

"I'd never be with other people."

"Other people than Hazel?" He asked, staring me down.

"You're fucking with me again."

"So, I'm assuming that your knot swole when you masturbated?" The questions were too much. We were headed for dangerous territory, all with the added benefit of the cock in question naked between us.

"Let me out of the chair," I hissed, straining against the straps.

"Let me finish my exam first." He set the pen down and swiveled his chair to face me.

"The blood?" I asked.

"No." He reached out and gripped my cock. My breathing picked up as I stared at his hand wrapped around me. "Shit. You aren't really going to—" His hand slid up my shaft, enveloping the head before coming back down to the base. He squeezed the knot. An uncontrollable grunt left me.

"Let me out," I panted as Zero's hand moved up and down. Despite my words, I wasn't fighting him. I was mesmerized by the way he handled me.

"You're a much better patient now," Zero said. My hips moved slowly, working with his hand.

"That's good. It doesn't need to take long," he said. I watched the way his mouth moved as he talked.

I whispered a curse as I gave in to the feeling. Just this one time would be okay. Right now, I was confused because of the tension. Maybe we could do this regularly—strap me in and jerk me off. Then, the fantasies would stop. The ones where he was undressed, and I took pleasure in making him lose composure.

"You've fucked with my head," I panted. His strokes were unhurried as he tried different grips. He settled his hand on my thigh and watched my face as he twisted me in a tight grip. My thighs tightened, and my eyes lost focus.

"That one's your favorite," he said, doing the same movement over and over. I groaned. No wonder Hazel fucked him. I'd fuck him— no, shit . He squeezed my knot, pulling another groan from me. The straps squealed as I strained against them.

"Will your knot swell for me?" Zero asked. "I'll believe I'm your mate if it does." I was staring at his mouth too much. What if he used that too? Would his tongue be as deft as his hand?

"Bring Hazel back in here." What was I even saying? She wouldn't come back even if I begged. But I wanted her here. I had no problem being attracted to her. I had no problem with my knot swelling for her. I recalled how intense it had been when I'd fucked her. The pleasure was ten times anything I'd experienced before. And that was just with my knot swelling in my fist.

"Hazel isn't coming back right now. Were you interested in men before?" Zero asked. He watched my face with interest as if every flinch of pleasure was important.

"Never," I groaned, fucking his fist while strapped down.

"Be honest," the doctor demanded, strangling the base of my cock. I almost started to swell and I pulled in a ragged breath.

"Once," I rasped.

"Once before me, you mean? A different man?"

"Before you? I'm not… I'm not attracted to you," I groaned as he jerked me off. Bad time for that argument.

Zero grabbed my jaw and forced us eye to eye. His hand slowly worked up and down. I was such a goddamn slut. He hadn't even used any lube but I was leaking so much it was slick anyway. I could feel wetness pooling at the base of my cock—another new feature of getting mates.

"I saw your dreams, Gonzo. Before the mating serum." His fingers tightened on my jaw, his eyes boring into mine. His hand moved faster and I sucked in a breath, unable to think straight.

"You saw my dreams," I murmured back. I felt subdued as I looked into his eyes, liquid. Zero looked at me defenseless beneath him and I could tell he liked it. His fingers slipped into my mouth and rubbed slowly against my gums. I felt my teeth grow and sharpen.

"You dreamed of me and Hazel with you." His words rolled over me like warm water. I'd imagined more than that the last few days. I'd imagined pushing him down across his desk and doing what he was doing to me right now. I imagined grinding against his ass and listening to him unravel. And I imagined him fighting me, bucking underneath me as I worked my cock inside him—only for him to melt into pleasure once I fucked him hard.

"Dreams don't mean anything," I whispered around his fingers. My hips were begging him to move his hand faster. He noticed and gave me what I needed. He noticed everything.

"You said you were attracted to a man before the change. Who did you mean?" I felt like a pinned specimen he was working over. My orgasm was teetering close.

"Did you mean me?" Zero asked.

"You," I admitted. "You shouldn't tease your mate. Not when the bond hasn't been finalized."

"But I get off on teasing you, remember?" Zero said. I closed my eyes, trying to keep myself from coming too fast.

"You've become such a good patient, Gonzo," he said. A shudder rolled over me. I felt used in a way, manipulated. I liked it.

"Show me the knot."

"Make a deal with me," I said, opening my eyes and staring back at him.

"A deal?" He was curious. I'd said no deals but this was different. This was necessary.

"Unstrap me and I'll show you the knot."

"I can make you cum regardless." To prove his point, he squeezed the unswollen knot again.

"Let me out. Let me…" I couldn't say it but it was there on the tip of my tongue.

"Do you want to fuck me?" Zero asked, guessing what I wasn't saying.

"Just once," I bargained.

"No deal." He dropped my jaw.

"Then I won't cum," I responded.

"Yes, Gonzo, you will." As he kept jerking me off, his other hand pressed between my legs, traveling below my balls. A fingertip pressed against my ass. I felt myself tighten as he rubbed against it. I growled in warning.

"This will go easier if you tell me when it feels the best." His finger slid through the precum I'd made as he talked. Then he pressed against my hole again, but this time he went in.

"Shit," I rasped, grinding my teeth as I felt his finger inside me. His hand worked my cock in fast, tight jerks. It kept me playing with the edge I was fighting.

Zero rubbed inside me, watching my face curiously. I ground my teeth, not giving him the satisfaction of pleasuring me. That all went to shit when he found my prostate.

"Oh fuck, oh shit." I melted as my body jerked. My hips fucked up into his fist furiously. There was no stopping the orgasm. A long groan came out.

And then my knot finally swelled. A shameful heat spread over my face. If I wasn't strapped in, I'd have tried to hide the knot. Zero gripped it without hesitation, strangling the life out of it. I saw stars and could barely breathe. My release spilled over me in a mess.

"There it is." There was a zealous look on Zero's face, a swirling mix of mania and need hitting me like sharpened daggers. Zero kept gripping my knot as he unzipped his pants.

"I should fuck you," Zero rasped while I was lost to pleasure. "Make sure you can never get away, just like Hazel. I'm in her head now and then I'll be in yours too." Why did he want to do that? The conniving bastard probably wanted something powerful as a pet now that he believed he was my mate. Despite knowing that, I didn't voice any complaint as he climbed on top of the examination chair, his cock in his fist. He dragged his eyes from my face to my cock, then looked farther south. I shuddered.

"What are you doing?" A voice came from across the room. I looked around Zero and saw an orderly, his hand still on the doorknob.

"It's consensual," I said quickly, still trying to catch my breath. Zero went stiff as a board. I wasn't sure he was even breathing.

" What's consensual?" The orderly asked. "Oh, fuck," he said in dawning understanding. "You… you…" his voice was wavering. He wasn't shocked or merely freaked out. The look on his face was nothing short of pure terror. The only thing keeping him standing was his grip on the door.

"Doctor, how are you feeling?" Zero looked down at me and smiled. It sent shivers over my body. The orderly couldn't see him from behind. A moment later his smile vanished and he discreetly pushed himself back in his pants.

"How are you feeling?" The orderly repeated, grabbing his walkie-talkie. What the fuck was going on here? Zero had warned us that no one could know he was doing sexual things to us. He'd said they wouldn't fire him, though. So what would they do and why would they do it? Why did the staff member look two seconds from shitting himself?

"I'm not feeling, of course. I never am," Zero said, looking at me. He climbed off the examination table and grabbed a test tube, managing to scoop up some of my cum. I watched his face, trying to find answers. "I just needed something from this patient," he told the orderly. "Sometimes I have to get my hands dirty."

The orderly was sweating.

"I saw…"

"What did you see?" Zero asked, turning towards him. He didn't answer. "Why are you here?" He turned back to me and pulled up my pants.

"Someone is here to talk to you."

Zero looked into the distance. For an instant, his teeth ground together and rage filled his eyes. Then it bled away into a blank expression. Zero began unstrapping me.

" Now ," the orderly demanded, finding his confidence again. Zero leaned forward as he unlatched my last wrist strap.

"Find me tonight after dinner," he whispered, looking at a small clock on his desk. Then he followed the orderly out of the room.