Anarchy, p.11
Anarchy, page 11
Her hand drifted absently to his shirt as if to make sure he was there. When he noticed, he shifted closer again, and her fist balled in the fabric, contentment momentarily overtaking her nerves in the bond.
My gaze was locked on the contact long enough that Karma caught me looking. He puffed up, a smug smile on his lips.
Two omegas for one pack was unheard of in here. Both packs and solo alphas alike would kill for an omega to dark bond. Especially omegas like Crescent or Sin.
Crescent was delicate, with moonlight hair and a scent that could drive a sane alpha feral. Sin was pack—I loved him, and so did Karma, but he wasn’t a conventional omega, with energy that was borderline ‘alpha’, and a reputation to match.
They were about as opposite as two omegas could get, and somehow it just… fit.
I felt, for the first time, like this pack was complete.
Unlike many alphas down here, I did have memories from before.
They were faint, often torturous, but so vivid. Images of streets filled with graffiti, gum flattened onto concrete, turned black by thousands of feet, warm breaths from alleys backing onto laundromats, and the faint hisses of a bus as it lowered to accept travellers.
Downtown New Oxford had been alive to me in a way that it wasn’t for most. Living and breathing, impossible to quiet…
I’d always dreamed of escape until that escape had been in the shape of the Cimmerian Vaults.
Now, I didn’t know if my dreams were the same smoke-scented streets that had once been my nightmare, or if I needed to go further now. A future beyond what I believed we could have.
Sin didn’t like to talk about what we would do if we ever got out—I think, perhaps, he wasn’t ready to accept that it might be possible.
Sin and I were the only ones who had talked about getting to the other side of these prison walls.
Karma didn’t talk about it. I knew his fears, but none of them were entangled with Anarchy. I think he was more nervous about the idea of getting out than anything else.
So I’d buried the dreams that seemed out of reach.
Or I had, until I looked at her.
Because it wasn’t fair to bite her into a pack who would settle for destruction. The others weren’t ready for that hope, so I needed to do it for them.
Maybe I needed to want more than just grimy streets and one-off jobs that might leave me worse than before.
I needed to want more. To hold onto more. Maybe some of the moments that hadn’t been so painful, though those were harder to dig up.
Shooting hoops in the small garden, grazing my knees on rugged concrete… losing hours in the school library, reading or making bad trades on Premier League trading cards.
Those had all happened before I’d become an alpha. Before a sickness had made my life a living hell. None of them really helped me build an image of a future—but maybe they were a start.
I glanced at Sin to see he was eating absently, unable to take his gaze from her any more than the rest of us.
What if there was truly a better future just around the corner?
We only had to survive until our appeal, and then we’d be free. Especially now that Vandle was awake. A fully feral alpha had been our biggest obstacle to the appeal process. We had to convince the people on the other side that we could function in society. Sometimes packs had been released with feral alphas, but only if the rest of the pack were stable.
Karma was a complication none of us wanted to voice. He hadn’t been feral, but an alpha who could lose control on a dime was even more of a risk. But if Crescent had stabilized Vandle—with two omegas in the pack, we had a much better shot.
With these idiots, making it to our appeal was easier said than done. Well, I wasn’t actually sure if Vandle was an idiot yet. But he was definitely more of a prick than I’d imagined—bringing up the extreme lengths me and Karma had gone to try and get pack lead off his feral-ass.
“One of us has to stay with Crescent at all times,” I said. “And someone else needs to stay nearby, if not right beside her.”
My gaze snagged on the Redgrave pack cell. It was one that opened up into the square. They were central to everything, which made sense considering the power they wielded.
Dominic Redgrave was leaning against the doorframe, a faint plume of smoke billowing into the air around him, his gaze fixed right on our pack.
My stomach sank as he caught my eyes, even from a distance. A grin spread on his face, and he tapped a non-existent watch on his wrist.
Shit.
I glanced back to Crescent, and the beacon of a bond the whole of Anarchy had just seen my pack make.
Shit.
I caught Sin looking, too.
His stiff expression told me everything I needed to know.
Dreams of better futures had to wait. This timeline was about to cause us some fucking problems.
I got to my feet.
Vandle glanced up at me. “What?”
“Just gotta settle something,” I muttered.
I knew the deal Sin had made. The one that was about to come knocking.
Sin caught up to me as I began walking toward Dominic. “I can deal with them.”
I side-eyed him and my voice was low. “Like you did the last time?”
Usually Sin was the deal maker—and he was damned good at it, but now we had an omega in a bond and we’d made a trade with the most powerful pack in Anarchy, and that deal locked in place the moment Vandle had bitten her.
Now that she was bonded, the countdown had started. We needed to buy some time from the Redgrave pack so we could work out a deal that didn’t involve Sin fucking our scent match in a rut cage in front of countless near-feral alphas.
And she didn’t even know.
Sin looked bitter. “I didn’t think she’d run away, or that Vandle would go and dark bond her—he shouldn’t even be able to.”
I sighed. I still didn’t get that, but we had bigger issues. “Maybe we shouldn’t have made the trade—”
“I thought I’d be able to talk to her before a bond—and it wasn’t just about the underwear. Dominic would block any protection deals we would try to make—”
“We have allies—”
“Enough to protect her?” Sin demanded.
I took a breath but didn’t answer since Dominic Redgrave was in earshot.
He straightened, a grin lighting on his face as we reached him. Behind him the door to his cell remained open, and I could see a few of his packmates watching curiously.
“Congratulations,” Dominic said. “That’s a pretty bite, and I think you have to be the first pack in Anarchy to claim two omegas. I can’t wait for the show.”
Sin stiffened at my side. “We didn’t plan for that,” he said cautiously.
“Is that… my problem?” he asked.
“We need to renegotiate,” I said.
The situation was way worse than I’d initially thought. Not only was Crescent far more fragile than I’d believed, but she’d never even been intimate with anyone at all.
But Sin was right, we needed the Redgrave protection. We wouldn’t survive without it, and we wouldn’t survive until tomorrow if this pack thought we’d slighted them.
Dominic took the cigarette from his mouth, holding it between two fingers as he levelled me with an intense stare. He was a big alpha, even if he was a little older. And even if he wasn’t, he held the power of half a dozen of the most powerful dweller pack alliances in the weight of his words.
I glanced at Sin. He looked stiff.
“Look. The situation has changed. What else can we give you for protection?”
“What else?” he asked. “You want to change the terms?”
“I can’t do that to her,” Sin said.
Dominic cocked his head, glancing between us. Then I saw his gaze drift to the table in the square where the rest of my pack sat.
“Let us trade something else,” Sin pushed.
Dominic snorted. “I was looking forward to the show.”
“It’s not happening,” I put in. Sin was one thing, but Crescent… I forced myself not to look back at her.
“Cages,” Dominic said. “Tomorrow night.”
Tomorrow? “No.” There was no way. She wasn’t ready. “We need more time.”
“Time?” Dominic asked, saying the word slowly. “Time’s money, Phantom. What do I get for being patient? Especially with your pack leaving so soon.”
There was a long silence.
Fuck.
What were we going to do? Sin was right. There would be no better protection than the Redgraves—and no greater enemy.
But I caught Sin’s expression and faltered. He looked like he was deliberating. Finally, he rolled his shoulders, jaw clenched. “Last key to the contraband room,” he said to Dominic. “Did you ever find it?”
I paused, side-eyeing him and caught completely off guard.
What?
The contraband room was where the Redgrave pack picked up their ‘goods’. We were supposed to be provided only what we needed—meds, drugs, clothes, and other supplies, but they had a way of getting a little more out of it. Occasional books, and other things. No one knew how, but it was the most priceless territory in Anarchy.
The issue the Redgrave pack had was that the room had three keys. They held onto two, but the last was missing. Had been for a while now, and no one knew where it was.
Dominic had paused, though, tilting his head, fixated on Sin far too intently all of a sudden.
He looked equal parts impressed and deadly, and I wondered, for a moment, if he might just crack.
I tensed, hackles rising. That key was important enough I wouldn’t put it past him to drag Sin into his cell and torture the truth from him.
After a long pause, he seemed to think better of it.
“If I get you the key, Dominic, she won’t be a show for anyone and you make sure we get to our appeal in one piece,” Sin said.
“Where is it?”
“I’ll prove I have it by tomorrow night, but I won’t give it to you until you walk us into our appeal safe and sound.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “I want it now.”
Sin shrugged. “Tough.”
Dominic ground his teeth together and I tried to keep an impassive expression. The fucking contraband room key? Was Sin insane? I knew he was trying to get us all the way to safety with this one massive piece of leverage, but what was to stop Dominic from just killing us all and tearing our cell (and us) apart until he found it?
“Kill me, and you’ll never get it back,” Sin added. “Do we have a deal?”
Sin held out a hand. Dominic hesitated only a moment before taking it.
Getting Crescent in a cage with Sin was a lucrative endeavour, I knew that, but the key to the contraband room? That would solidify their leverage over the whole of Anarchy.
“I swear, Sin, fuck this up and I’ll lock you both in that cage and show any alpha who wants to watch.” Dominic’s hand shook Sin’s, and he waved us off with that parting threat.
I felt the blood drain from my face as I stepped away, Sin at my side, looking back to the table to where Crescent was still tucked between Karma and Vandle.
“Do you have it?” I hissed as we got out of Dominic’s earshot.
He tilted his head in what I could only presume was an affirmation.
I almost face-palmed. “Did it occur to you it might have been better to trade that in at the start instead of offering her up on a silver platter?” I asked as he headed back to the pack.
“I didn’t know she was going to be so… Crescent,” he said with a shrug. “And I was hoping I didn’t have to use it. I was going to leave it to the Emerald pack. They’ll be exposed once we’re gone, and it’s a few months before their appeal.”
I considered that.
He wasn’t wrong.
“How did you get it?” I demanded.
Sin grinned, tapping his nose.
I rolled my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell us?” That was some insane leverage.
“The less you know, the safer you are.”
I scowled. “It’s not your job to protect us.” The opposite. It should be. But Sin had always been different. I sighed. “How many other bargaining chips do you have up your sleeve that we don’t know about?”
He turned, spreading his arms, a mischievous smile playing on his lips, but of course gave me no answer whatsoever as we reached the table where Crescent, Vandle, and Karma were waiting.
CRESCENT
Right right right, so… I had a pack.
And now I was their second omega, which meant they were going to want me to do omega things. Extra omega things, since Sin didn’t seem all that interested. But he pulled his weight around here, and I definitely wasn’t going to be able to manage that.
I could tell they didn’t understand the Ascendants’ doctrine, though that was to be expected.
But I couldn’t afford to let their doubt creep in.
Karma still wasn’t right. He was, however, much, much more stable than last night.
Was it because Sin was right? Or maybe the dark bond had sorted it all out.
Now, they were my pack—and they’d gone about it all the right way.
I chewed on my bottom lip, pacing back and forth across the room. We’d eaten our food, Vandle finishing off his entire heaping plate with me under his arm. Then my alphas had become a little growly, and I’d followed their attention to see a blurry figure up on the second level of the square.
Their whispers told me it was Holden, and he probably wasn’t happy.
Knowing that his attention must be on me made goosebumps rise on my skin.
So my pack had brought me back to the cell, and we’d spent all day here. But there wasn’t much to do.
It was so small in here. I was used to small, but I was not used to having alpha scents drowning me in my own space.
It made me feel… odd.
I could feel a tightness in my stomach like what happened when I was about to go into heat, but not quite as intense. It became worse whenever one of the pack came too close.
It was because of the drug I’d been injected with—had to be.
I’d barely escaped heat once already, and now being this close to alphas was setting my hormones off. I was confused about what I should and shouldn’t do. I had to get my head on straight.
On top of that, I’d been given drugs to send me into heat—and then more to block it. So I’m sure everything was out of whack.
I was dark bonded, which meant that this pack was mine—rightfully. Or… I was theirs. It had all happened so fast I didn’t know if I was ready for what that meant.
All I knew was that it was too soon for heat.
Way too soon.
Vandle was in the shower, Phantom was out in the hall chatting with the Emerald pack, and Karma was sitting in the corner, using a dull knife to chip a hole into the cement wall at the edge of one of the spray-painted pictures. Spray painting had been described as a sin in the Convent, but looking around the room at the bright colours, I think the Sisters must be mixed up.
Not all of it made sense. Some pictures were of sunsets and trees, or words I couldn’t make out. This room would be so gloomy without it.
Sin sat on one of the bottom bunks, watching me.
I squirmed under his attention, unable to stop pacing. He was okay with this, okay with me… I thought. But I couldn’t be sure. I could feel him in the pack bond, but I didn’t think I could feel all his emotions. Or anyone’s, really.
This pack, they blocked off the bond with thick walls of stone.
Walls I didn’t have. I probably should build some so they were more comfortable, but I didn’t know how—and wasn’t certain I wanted to.
I needed to know how they felt, even more than I already knew.
Then I could know for sure that they all wanted me. That they didn’t… regret it.
“Do you want a nest, gorgeous?” Sin caught my wrist in his hand as I paced by, and I looked down at him in surprise.
“A… nest?”
I’d never had one before. Not really. Nesting was heavily regulated. We couldn’t let our instincts get too wild, of course. There had been incidents in the past, so the Sisters were rightfully strict.
But I’d always wondered what it would be like.
“Yeh. We could gather up the pillows. Put them on one of the bunks?” Sin wrinkled his nose, like he wasn’t sure if that was a good suggestion or not.
I glanced around. There were so few pillows. I couldn’t take them all.
My skin started to itch, though, and I snatched a pillow from the bunk Sin was sitting on. “I—I only need one or two.”
Karma’s knife clattered to the floor and he stood up, brushing cement dust off his sweats. “We have more than one or two.”
“But you need those.”
He didn’t deny it, but still gathered every pillow from the bunks around the room. There were six total. “Which bunk ya want?” He squished the pillows in his arms, glancing around.
Four bunk beds sat in the harshly-lit cement room. My attention caught on the one farthest from the front door. The bottom bunk of that one was the darkest, hidden from the worst of the fluorescent glow.
But that was where Sin slept.
His scent was strongest there.
I couldn’t take that one—wouldn’t that be his nest? Or at least as close as he had to one? He didn’t really seem to nest much.
Would they be okay if I wanted to make one of my own?
I knew the only reason everything had worked out was pure luck—that Vandle was a seer and the dark bond was safe—so I still felt nervous hoping for more.
Sinking my teeth into my lower lip, I picked another one of the bottom bunks—this one with much more aggressive lighting, and far too close for comfort to the front door. Before I could sit down, Sin’s chest rumbled.
I froze. Was that… a growl?
Did that uh… mean I’d chosen wrong? Was his nest not the other bunk in the corner?
“Choose the one you really want,” he demanded.
