Chapter 1

I was wearing nothing but a hospital gown so thin it might as well have been transparent. It was practically the same as being naked.

My limbs were locked down by heavy metal restraints on a steel bed, so tight I couldn't even twitch a finger.

The room was blindingly white, cramped like a public shower stall. And cold. Freezing fucking cold. Cold enough that my nipples stood erect, and I tried to press my thighs together—though on this completely exposed torture table, the gesture was utterly futile.

I didn't even know why I was strapped down here.

Three days ago, my father Victor had gripped my shoulders with what looked like genuine anguish on his face. "Selena, listen to me. You need to get treatment. Your recessive Omega gene defect can't be put off any longer. I've found the best medical facility for you."

I'd believed him. To avoid becoming a bargaining chip in some arranged marriage, I'd hidden my secondary gender and pretended to be a Beta for twenty years. I thought my father was the only person who wanted to protect me.

But he'd lied.

This wasn't a hospital at all.

An emotionless mechanical voice crackled overhead: "Subject V-07 is awake. Heart rate 140. Recessive Omega gland seal removal protocol initiated. Preparing for compatibility testing."

Subject?

As I thrashed desperately, trying to wrench my wrists free from the straps, the security door directly in front of me exploded with a deafening bang.

The door buckled inward, violently kicked from the other side.

I sucked in a sharp breath, the air catching in my throat.

What came through wasn't a nurse, and it sure as hell wasn't a rescue team.

It was the last person I ever wanted to encounter in this confined space.

Kane Blackwood.

Alpha heir to the Blackwood pack. Also the sworn enemy of the Vare Pack.

He was shirtless, his sculpted muscles bulging with veins that stood out from sheer rage. Thick alloy shackles, half-torn from their moorings, still dragged from his wrists and ankles.

His thick black hair was soaked with sweat, plastered messily against his temples and neck. His pupils were an rare dark gold with vertical slits, like amber scorched by wildfire. His bare torso was all coiled muscle, every line drawn so taut it looked ready to snap.

Fuck. I had to admit all those Omegas wanting to marry him had a point. But not me. Never me.

He was breathing hard, like a beast freshly escaped from a fighting pit. He jerked his head up, and those dark gold slitted eyes locked onto me on the bed.

What little oxygen remained in the room was instantly sucked away.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath. "A Vare."

He stalked toward me step by step, the iron chains scraping across the floor with a grating screech. "My lunatic father really outdid himself this time. The lab rat he prepared for me is actually one of my family's mortal enemies."

"Stay away from me, Blackwood!" I bit out, forcing myself not to tremble under that crushing pheromone pressure.

"You think I want to see you? I'd rather carve out my own gland with a knife than be stuck in the same room with you!" I shouted at him.

Kane let out a cold laugh. He lunged forward and slammed both palms down on the metal bed frame on either side of my head. The impact made my ears ring.

"You think I'm enjoying this, Selena?!" he snarled. "Open your damn eyes and look at this hellhole! This is the 'Eclipse Project'! They pumped us full of aphrodisiacs and bonding agents. They want us to rut like mindless animals and force a mate bond between us!"

Mate bond? Forced bonding?!

My whole body went rigid. My blood turned to ice.

My father knew about my unique recessive Omega physiology—how my pheromones could suppress even the most violent Alpha. So he'd tricked me into coming here to serve as a sedative for the Blackwood Alpha heir?

"Despicable..." I whispered.

"Despicable?" Kane grabbed my chin, his grip so brutal I thought he'd shatter my jaw. "What right does anyone from the Vare family have to talk about despicable? You think I don't know what your father did before? And now your father's joined forces with my power-hungry bastard of a father to lock us in a cage like dogs for breeding!"

"Shut up! My father had nothing to do with what happened back then!" I shot back furiously. That was slander the Blackwood family had smeared us with.

"Still lying!" Kane's fingers tightened viciously.

At that moment, the loudspeaker suddenly emitted a piercing high-frequency whine, followed by that cold mechanical voice returning with nauseating clarity:

"Test subjects Kane Blackwood and Selena Vare, comply with instructions immediately and approach the designated point. Compatibility testing will now commence. Both subjects are to remove all clothing."

"WHAT?!"

"FUCK?!"

We spoke in almost perfect unison.