60

I hugged myself to his body because, for just a few minutes, I didn’t want anything bad to be lingering in our lives to some point or another hurt us or make our lives suck for a little bit. Okay.
He grabbed my hand, guiding me into the building where we were greeted by a receptionist who took us behind the door and to the back rooms where we were greeted by Elder Collins. Good morning, guys.
Morning, Elder, Joey said, shaking his hand as I did too.
We were guided through the maze of hallways, following Collins. Joey gripped my hand as we stood in front of a door and Collins turned towards us.
Who’s room is this ? Joey asked.
This is yours. There are two elders in there waiting for you and they will tell you what will happen and when, Collins said.
Joey turned towards me and I immediately wrapped my arms around him. His hand immediately went to run through my hair as I felt the need to never let go of my beautiful man. I just wanted to go back to the quarter house and live our lives as happily as we can.
You’ll be okay, alright ? He whispers to me as Collins turns away from us so we could have a moment together.
I nodded. Alright.
I love you, Joey tells me before kissing my forehead and going into the room where I can hear him greeting the Elders who were in the room. Collins places his hand on my back and guides me down the hallway to another room where there is a woman wearing a lab coat standing with her hands clasped together behind her back as he reads over something on a computer that’s in front of her.
Hi, Kade, I’m Dr. Olsen, I work with the elders on special cases with wolves around the state. I’ve never had the pleasure to do something with true mates, so it is a real honor to meet you, she says, reaching her hand out to me to shake.
Nice to meet you, I tell her with a small smile as Collins is moving around the room along with a man in a lab coat who was on the other side of the room. The lady points to a metal table that seems to have straps all along the sides of it that immediately heightens my fear.
We will need to strap you to the table because it helps us better our results without any movement coming from either parties. Your head will be strapped to this pillow, she says, holding up a firm looking pad that was nowhere near what a pillow actually is. because we need your head as still as possible.
I nodded, not knowing what to say. I lay down on the table and I start to be strapped in tightly. One goes over my torso and another goes over my knees while my ankles are put in tight restraints along with my hands. My forehead is strapped using a soft material and my head is cushioned by the ‘pillow’.
If at any point, you can’t breathe, feel lightheaded, or dizzy, you need to tell us, okay ? Dr. Olsen tells me.
Okay, I whisper to her. She wheels a machine type thing over that has little sticky things on it and I notice that she’s putting it in my view so I can see everything before she does it to help me calm down.
These tiny things are littler monitors that will go on your chest so we can see your heart activity. With all that we’ll be doing today, we just want to see if everything is linked between you and your mate. Heart activity, brain activity, and pain.
I nod my head. How will you monitor my brain ?
That’s after this, she says, motioning to the monitor that it still in my line of vision. do you mind if I unbutton your shirt ?
That’s fine, I tell her and she leans over me to unbutton my maroon shirt so she can place the sticky things along my chest and the machine lights up to bring up a heart monitor. She then wheels over another machine to my other side so I can see it. It’s the same kind as the other one, but the screen is a little smaller.
These sticky ones go along your forehead so we can monitor your brain, she tells me as she places them on my forehead as she turns the machine on which lights up with different colors and stuff that I can’t understand.
Elder Collins comes over to me and places his hand on my arm, making me jump. It’s okay, I just need to put an oxygen monitor on your finger, okay ?
Yeah, I tell him as the door opens and Elder Gee, the head of the elders, comes in. He gives me a soft smile as he comes into my view. He looks over at the machines to inspect them and make sure everything is in order.
Brody, can you get the chat up on the TV so we can all see it ? He asks the man in the lab coat and he sits down at a desk in front of a computer to type some stuff up. Something is pulled up on a TV hanging on the wall, but the text is so small that I’m not able to see it.
I look up at Dr. Olsen who is writing on a clipboard. Have you ever done something like this ?
She looks down at me and shakes her head. Nothing with this much experimentation. We haven’t seen a pair of true mates in so long that I never thought I would ever get the chance to do this. I know it must seem super scary, Kade, but this is really a good idea because it’s definitely better for the future generations to learn more about true mates so they can be fully prepared when it happens again.
Yeah, that’s what they told us.
Are you comfortable ? Anything I can do to make this better for you ? She asks me as she adjusts my hand restraints to loosen a bit since I couldn’t even move my wrists if I wanted to.
I think I’m as comfortable as I’ll get in this state, I tell her and Raphael walks back over to me to check the monitors before looking down at me.
How’re we doing here, Alpha ? You okay ? He asks.
Yeah, yeah, I think I’m doing okay, I tell him.
Sir, they said that they’re ready in the other room. They just need confirmation to start and we’ll all be ready to go, the guy, Brody, says.
Collins nodded to him. Okay, tell them we’re ready.
We waited for a little bit, then I felt a little pain in my arm. I started to squirm a bit to try to understand what was going on. Something hurts.
Dr. Olsen started to write something down on her clipboard as she looked over at the monitors while everyone else in the room checks to see how everything is looking.
The pain should be gone in a few moments, Collins said to me as I continued to try to move my arm around so the uncomfortable feeling would leave it. After some minutes, the pain subsided and the elders noticed and Brody typed something to the other room.
Okay, now we have to inflict pain on you. We will place a small cut with a scalpel on your leg. It will be a flesh wound and won’t require anything other than some ointment and a band-aid, okay ? Dr. Olsen says.
Okay, I whisper. I watch as she pulls my joggers up to my knee before putting gloves on and picking up a sharp object and leaning over my leg that wasn’t covered in a boot. I feel a sharp pain on the side of my leg and I inhale sharply as my eyes squeeze tight as tears burn my eyes.
Are you okay, Kade ? Collins asks me.
I’m fine, I say as Dr. Olsen places gauze over my cut and puts pressure on the spot to bring some relief to the ache. Raphael is looking up at the TV screen at whatever the people from the other room are saying.