An unhappy rescue

You are only days away from giving birth. All of the other bitches tell you it's so. Your belly is so big, your breasts so swollen and tender. You have to squeeze milk from them into an old dish for other pups just to lessen the pain. You smile, watching the furry little ones lapping your milk. At night the pups keep you awake, squirming inside you, pressing their tiny hands against your insides. Maul is sure it will be a big litter.

Your life is settled and everything makes sense. You are happy. But you hear the aircraft more and more and at night, when all the others are asleep, you let your fears overwhelm your joy. What if you are found out? What if the whole island is being purged by the clean up teams? Will they kill you and your pack?

The questions, unfortunately, are answered.

It is a moonless night when the humans come. They kill the sentry dogs with weapons that barely make a sound, but Maul hears them. He gathers the pack and tells you and the other bitches that he and the males will fight the humans so that you can escape. You tell him you can fight even in your state, but he nuzzles your hands and licks your face.

"Our pups must survive," he says.

But a courageous **** is not Maul's fate. With a pop that rings in the cave the humans launch cannisters of gas into the den. Smoke swirls and in the confusion you see the others, falling over, tongues lolling from their mouths. You feel the smoke overwhelming you as well. You try to find Maul in the darkness that closes in around you, but you are alone.

You awaken in red light. The loud noise of an aircraft surrounding you. You are strapped tightly to a stretcher and your vitals are being monitored by a computer inside the helicopter. All around you are big men and women in suits of body armor. They are talking, their words coming to you as if from a dream.

"Headmistress Swift ordered the males extracted," says one woman. "Should have just killed them all."

"What do you think they're going to do with her?" asks another voice and you know they are talking about you.

"Who cares? She's a wolf-fucker. She'll never be allowed back into the academy."

You are glad when darkness once more swallows up the light and all of the cruel laughter.

"How are you, Heather?" asks a woman's voice.

You open your eyes to light and warmth. You are in a white room with daylight spilling in through a window. Beyond, almost too bright to be seen, are the green trees and the campus of Paisley Academy. Lifting your head you see that your belly is huge and exposed and hooked up to monitors.

"Are you going to stay awake this time?" The woman is Headmistress Swift, dressed in a lab jacket that neatly accentuates her shapely figure and the short red skirt she is wearing.

"I-I...does my family know?" You look at your belly.

"Your sister knows some of it," says Headmistress Swift, sitting beside you on the bed and smoothing your hair back from your face. "Intercourse with monsters is an occupational hazard for our kind. It just...it is usually not so..."

"My mate," you blurt.

She frowns and rises abruptly. As she smooths her skirt she will not look at you.

"I am being familiar and that is inappropriate. Miss Finch, you have two options ahead of you and both of them will seem cruel to you. Unfortunately, you have been tainted by your proximity to monsters."

"What did you do to him?" you moan.

"Nothing," she says. "Yet. Most of the lupins survived intact, including the one that ****...that you were mated to. They have been placed in holding for now."

"Please," you say, but you don't know what to say to follow it.

"This is a most unfortunate situation. The council have permitted me to afford you two options. Choose carefully. They are irrevocable."

"What are they?"

"Option one, you will give birth to your unfortunate litter and they will be taken, raised here and used to repopulate the island. Training will need to resume there eventually after the clean up is completed." Headmistress Swift fixes you with a stern expression. "No harm will come to them. You will be given a decent life and housing as a custodial worker here. You will not be permitted to ever leave the campus."

"My other option?" you ask bitterly.

"You will be allowed to stay with your mate and raise your litter in a habitat here on the provision that you cooperate with various research experiments. You will become a specimen."

The thought that you might be reunited with your pack fills your heart with joy. But you know how monsters are often treated by Paisley and you fear what experiments they might have in mind.

"What sort of experiments?" you demand.

"Professor Frankenstein's sort of science is a thing of the past. You will be regularly harvested for your milk, which will have hybrid properties, you will be used to educate the students and you will be bred with other species when we need other hybrid specimens."

"Those are my options?"

"Yes," she says. "I am sorry, Miss Finch. You must choose now."