Page 59 of Anders
Dr.Mercer’s expression hardened.You are evolutionary anomalies with dangerous capabilities.The Chimera Program exists to ensure those capabilities serve humanity rather than threaten it.
And I’m not the only one, am I?You’ve placed others like me in different packs.
Group C has proven our most successful integration cohort,he said.Assets deployed in five key territories, all gathering valuable intelligence on pack dynamics and capabilities.
She’d already known it to be true—and yet the horror of it stole Etta’s breath.Five territories.Five shifters like her, their identities stolen, their bodies and minds violated, forced to betray their own kind without even knowing they were doing it.
She strained against her restraints.The packs will figure it out.They’ll find your other assets.
Unlikely,Dr.Mercer said with the confidence of someone who had anticipated every contingency.Your case is an anomaly, E5.The mate bond was an…unforeseen complication.One that will be addressed in the reset protocol.
The wordresetsent fresh terror coursing through her.What are you going to do to me?
Restore you to optimal functionality,he said, his tone suggesting he was discussing a malfunctioning appliance rather than a person.Chemical suppression will be reestablished at maximum dosage.Memory pathways will be reset to baseline.The neural interface will be upgraded to prevent future deterioration.
He made it sound so clinical, so reasonable.But Etta understood the true meaning behind his sterile terminology.
They were going to erase her.Again.Take everything she had reclaimed—her memories, her identity, her connection to Anders—and wipe it away as if it had never existed.
The thought of losing Anders, of forgetting the mate bond that had brought her back to herself, triggered her inner wolf, so recently rediscovered.It surged forward with a ferocity that surprised even Etta.
A growl built in her chest, rumbling outward as her fingernails lengthened into claws, digging into the padding of the examination table.
Fascinating,Dr.Mercer observed, backing away slightly.Partial shift despite neural suppression at sixty percent.He tapped something on his tablet.Increase to seventy-five percent.Prepare sedation protocol if necessary.
The device at her neck pulsed again, sending waves of misery through her skull.
Etta screamed as her wolf was forced back, her claws retracting, the growl dying in her throat.
But something else was happening now—something unexpected.
As the pain crested, the tenuous thread of the mate bond suddenly flared to life, burning bright through the haze of drugs and neural suppression.
Anders.
She could feel him—distant but unmistakable.His rage at her suffering, his absolute refusal to let her go.The connection strengthened with each heartbeat, pushing back against the device’s attempts to subdue her true nature.
Fight it.I’m coming for you.Hold on.
It wasn’t his voice—but she understood the meaning nonetheless as it echoed through her mind.The sensation was so startling that Etta gasped aloud, her eyes widening.
Dr.Mercer’s head snapped up from his tablet.What is it?What are you experiencing?
Etta remained silent, turning inward to focus on the bond, clinging to it like a lifeline in a storm.
I hear you, she thought desperately.They’re going to erase me.Reset me.I can’t—
Yes, you can, came his unspoken response, even more powerful now.You’re stronger than their technology.Your wolf is fighting.Keep fighting.
Neural activity spiking in unusual patterns,the doctor muttered, more to himself than to her.
He moved closer, studying her intently, and then turned to a female assistant in a matching white coat.Prepare the reset chamber.We need to proceed immediately.
Etta’s terror spiked at his words, followed immediately by defiance.
She would not let them erase her again.Would not let them take Anders from her.
Closing her eyes, she reached for her wolf with everything she had, pushing desperately against the neural suppression.
