Anarchy, p.27
Anarchy, page 27
What with the dead body torn to pieces in the hallway that led to the contraband room.
‘Course it was our allies, too, that started this mess—and of course it was the Wakefields.
Sterling clearly hadn’t been doing his part to stay stable, because one second he’s talking shit with some guy in the square and the next? Gone on a total rampage. This wasn’t even the only body. Just the worst one.
And the one that landed right in our way.
Phantom was wrestling Sterling back to the Wakefield pack’s cell with the help of two of their packmates. They’d toss him in their rut vault until he cooled down.
Sin stood beside me, scrubbing his hand down his face as he looked out over the carnage.
Lots of blood, lots of guts.
It was all in shades of grey to me, but I imagined it would be more gruesome if I could see the blood as smears of red instead of just a darker grey than the walls and floor.
It was a good thing Crescent was with Karma and the Archiva pack. They were insulated from the chaos this brawl started. Once the scent of blood was in the air, the alphas who rode that edge between feral and sane tended to tip over, and I still heard the sounds of fighting from back in the square.
“I wonder who’s going to clean up these bodies.” Sin scowled after Sterling. “They definitely won’t get it all sorted before the doors lock.”
“Isn’t there like… a crew? For the bodies?” Phantom mentioned it once, right after I’d claimed Crescent.
Sin pointed at the lump of human flesh that only vaguely resembled a body. “He’s corpse cleanup.”
I squinted down at the man’s face, covered in dark blood, his head only still attached to his body by the grace of his spine. His throat had been ripped clean out.
“Don’t recognize him.”
“Robert Ferguson. There’s a couple other guys, but he was the main one right now. A punishment, obviously, handed down by the Archiva pack. He’d been doing it awhile. Now they’ll need to find someone new to punish.”
Well, as long as it wasn’t us. We were going to get the fuck out of this place.
Unless… being the one on cleanup duty would mean that we could still rob the Redgraves tonight.
I glanced at Robert’s body—one of several—and wrinkled my nose when my next inhale brought a series of smells I did not want to get any closer to.
Nope.
Not worth it.
And I didn’t want Crescent anywhere near this.
“Let’s make ourselves scarce, yeah? I don’t want to be around when they’re handing out the biohazard suits.”
Did our corpse cleanup crew even get that luxury? Best not to consider it for too long.
They’d spend the night dealing with this, and we would spend another night and day keeping to ourselves, planning out every minute of our robbery—which we now had no choice but to do on the night before our appeal.
Fuck.
40
One day until appeal
KARMA
There were less than twelve hours until we got the fuck out of here.
Less than twelve hours until I could see what the world outside was like now—assuming we got these contacts for Sin so he could hide his crimson eyes.
Crescent clutched her keyring close to her chest, her small body huddled under my arm as we waited around the corner from the entrance to the contraband room. The hallway was dark and cold, and goosebumps prickled her skin.
When a thump sounded from ahead, she jumped.
I itched to turn the corner, but I kept my stiff body right beside Crescent.
There were two guards from the Redgrave pack outside their locker at all times—to prevent people trying to lockpick their way into the room. We didn’t need to lockpick, but we did need to take the guards out of commission.
Without killing them, which is why Phantom and Vandle were doing it.
Sin, with his gun, was their backup, in case killing was necessary, and I was waiting with Crescent.
If it all went bad, I would take her right back to our cell—the door ready to lock us in for the night.
The rest of the pack would follow, and we’d close it when we were all safe inside. Or we’d lock ourselves in without them, if I had to, to keep Crescent safe.
And then we’d go to my appeal in the morning, with or without the rest of the pack. Doubt they’d let us out with only me and my unstable aura, but that worst-case-scenario hopefully ended in Crescent getting out of this place, even though it might be alone.
We hadn’t told her about that possibility.
It wasn’t gonna go that way, anyway.
Our heist would be quick with no bloodshed, and we’d get a full night of sleep before hightailing it the second our appeal call crackled through the overhead speakers.
I ignored the scuffling sounds from up ahead, breathing in and out through my nose.
The pack bond was wide open, each packmate’s stress coming through, all overlaid by Crescent’s incessant worry. But I could tell nothing brutal was happening outside the contraband room, especially because the sounds would be more chaotic and squelchy if it was.
Vandle swung around the corner, a glistening bead of sweat dripping down his temple. “Keys.” He held out his hand for the ring.
She hesitated, and his pinched expression softened. “You’ll get them all back in five minutes, promise.”
Crescent relinquished the keyring when Vandle hooked it on his finger, and he vanished back around the corner.
Fuck, I wanted to look.
Which Redgraves were guarding the door tonight?
There was no scent of blood in the air, so I don’t think any had died.
But my moonlight omega didn’t need to see a bunch of knocked-out alphas splayed out on the hard floor, so I couldn’t take my peek either.
I adjusted my arm over her shoulders and rubbed my chin over her head, bathing her in my scent.
PHANTOM
Simple plan.
In, out.
No killing, no mess.
And it was actually fucking working.
There was one more guard than we’d thought—a newbie to Anarchy, probably trying to get in good with the Redgraves early—but he’d been easy enough to manage.
The alpha Vandle knocked out might have a bit of long-lasting damage to either his brain or trachea, but he’d live.
And he hadn’t lost his shit and gone feral while choking the life out of the alpha, which proved he was about as stable as any once-feral alpha could ever be.
We didn’t have to worry about him. Karma had been working hard to get the instability out of his system, but I was secretly glad he was the one staying back to protect Crescent.
Our only barrier to safety were these damn contacts.
Quietly, not wanting to draw any attention from alphas still wandering the halls after the nightly lockdown, Vandle unlocked the door to the contraband room. The door swung open with a creak.
I reached in to pat the wall beside the entrance, finding a switch that turned on flickering tube lights along the ceiling.
“Damn. This room is stacked,” Sin said. “No wonder they have so much sway.”
Through the metal door there were piles and piles of boxes, the tallest stacks reaching up to the ceiling. They were labelled, but it looked like it was done in code—however they were labelled, I didn’t fucking understand it.
If we have to rifle through every box in this place, well… it’ll take all fucking night, but we’ll do it.
“Tie the guards up so they aren’t a problem if they wake up.” I tossed Vandle the rope we’d brought with us. If the contacts had been easy to find, we wouldn’t need to do that—they’d be out for five minutes, for sure.
Longer? We couldn’t guarantee it.
But as long as they were hog-tied to a pipe, we’d have time to knock them out again before they became a problem.
I ran my fingers along the top of a cardboard box as I stepped into the room. It wasn’t taped shut; none of them were. Waste of tape, really. I flipped open one of the flaps, a pair of silk boxers staring up at me from inside.
Some people are really living it up in here, apparently.
Probably an order for some dweller pack alpha—one who doesn’t like chafing.
My rough cotton boxers seemed to scrape against my skin, and I clenched my hand into a fist to suppress the urge to pocket them.
We weren’t here to steal anything else from the Redgraves. All we needed were the contacts that Dominic had tried to set an astronomical price for.
Sin and Vandle shoved past me, tossing their guesses back and forth on how the organizational system in here worked—though both of them only came up with nonsensical answers.
From the looks of it, a lot of the stock wasn’t glamorous—bedding, pillows, extra clothing, but I occasionally stumbled upon a more interesting item.
As I lifted the box with the underwear up to get to the one underneath, the shiny fabric taunted me again. But it wasn’t until I lifted the flap of the box below only to find more pairs in a deep navy blue, that I caved.
You know what?
Dominic had been a real piece of shit, asking for my omegas to get in a cage the second time?
Fuck him.
I grabbed two pairs of silky boxers, store tags still attached, and shoved them into my pockets.
Even if we did get out of here, it was unlikely we’d have enough money for nice clothing anytime soon.
CRESCENT
More than five minutes passed.
More than ten.
Then twenty.
Karma purred reassuringly, both of us tuned into the bond with unwavering dedication. If they were in trouble, we would know.
He said it a hundred times, but it didn’t feel true.
And I wanted my keys back—my nest back.
Vandle had promised he would bring them back in five minutes.
“Can we go check on them?”
Karma hesitated. “That’s not the plan.”
It wasn’t, but the plan was five minutes. We’d already veered from the plan. A whine slipped from me.
“Please?”
That broke Karma’s resolve. He took one stilted step forward, and I ducked out from under his arm to rush ahead.
As I took a step around the corner, a shout rang off the walls. One step into the hallway on the opposite side stood an alpha—one I didn’t recognize.
His huge aura burst into the air, a frightening threat as he took in the three men hog-tied on the ground in front of the open contraband room door.
I froze, eyes locking with his, the battering weight of the aura terrifying me.
We’ve been caught.
Vandle barrelled out of the room first, zeroing in on the threat and sprinting for him. The alpha snarled and ran for backup. How long until there were more alphas to come and attack us?
My heart skipped a beat as I watched Vandle chase, then Phantom burst from the room a second later, glancing frantically back and forth.
Sin was still inside.
“Get her out of here!” Phantom shouted.
Karma’s arm wrapped around my waist, hauling me backward and spinning me to face the way we’d come.
“Run!” His command spurred me into motion, my feet almost tripping over each other as I darted off.
I knew where to go—back to the cell.
They’d told me that was the plan if this went wrong.
Karma’s footsteps pounded the ground behind me, each sound comfort—proof he hadn’t sent me off on my own. My alpha was with me, just a pace or two behind to keep me safe.
And the others… they would follow close behind us, right?
SIN
My job sounded deceptively simple: find the contacts.
No matter what shouts I heard from outside, or what auras burst to life.
I couldn’t leave until the contacts were secured—we weren’t going to make it this far to get denied on appeal because of my stupid eyes.
They had to be in here—Dominic had said he’d requested them, and he’d wanted the deal.
But there were so many boxes in here.
There were endless piles of the dull white clothes we all wore, but I couldn’t leave those boxes because sometimes they had something tucked in the bottom. And what I was searching for was small.
Occasionally I found something different—like the silk boxers that Phantom stole two pairs of. Paints and coloured pencils. I even found a few board games, and books I knew the Archiva pack would kill for.
Medical supplies and soap.
More sheets.
Cleaning supplies.
Box after box after fucking box of random crap that some alphas in here would fight to the death to get.
I could feel the panic from the others through the bond. Crescent was always the strongest in my connection, and more so since I’d bitten her back in the cage. Right now she was frightened, but not enough that I thought something horrible had happened.
I knew I was running out of time, though, and my searching became more frantic.
When I opened the next box, my heart bottomed out in relief.
A small, white case in a plastic package lay within, nested between two folded towels.
Breathable Contact Lenses.
Shade: Freckled Hazel.
The colour depicted on the package was a dark walnut tone with flecks of light oak, and hopefully opaque enough to hide the crimson of my natural eyes.
“Got ‘em.”
I slipped the string of my sweatpants through the punched-out hole in the top of the package, tying it, and then shoved the package into the waistband of my pants.
Pockets?
I didn’t trust those after the key incident, even though it was Crescent who did the stealing.
Not bothering to close any of the boxes or put the room to rights, I stepped out into the hall. Our backup plan said I should head straight to the cell, but my instincts didn’t care. I took off at a jog, following Karma’s scent of electric ocean storm through the empty halls.
41
KARMA
Keep. Her. Safe.
Protect. Her.
The words rushed in my ears, repeating like a mantra.
Once we were back in the cell, it would be easy. But out here, where any number of feral alphas could be roaming? I glanced down every hallway, searching for danger.
Crescent had drawn ahead, her heavy, panting breaths louder to my ears as I fixated on her, and her safety. We were almost back to the cell with one more corner to turn, when an echoing clang pierced the air.
The door of a cell swung open, hitting the wall.
Four alphas streamed out in front of me, blocking my path to follow Crescent. Thankfully, she didn’t stop running.
They’d been waiting for us—and I barely recognized them but for the fact they were allies of Holden’s.
My vision bled red at the edges, fists tightening at my sides. The ancient, feral fog had settled over my mind, smothering me completely as one backed up, then went after Crescent.
I snapped.
My omega.
CRESCENT
Karma told me to run, so I ran.
I couldn’t look back, not without tripping, and my heartbeat was pounding so hard in my ears that I couldn’t hear.
There was only the hard stone in front of me as I fled.
All I had to do was get to the room.
I’d slip inside with Karma, and he’d watch the hall. If anyone came down who wasn’t the rest of the pack, he’d slam it closed. My only job was to run until I got there.
You can do that. Easy.
There was a loud bang as I ran, but I didn’t stop. They’d told me, before all this started—don’t stop until you get to the cell. Keep running.
But when I careened to a stop in front of our door and tried to push it open, it didn’t budge.
It was… closed.
I whined and tugged at the handle until my fingers ached. The metal barely wiggled.
Locked.
We were locked out until morning.
And I…
I finally spun back around, and stared down the now still hallway.
Where was Karma?
All I could see were the stone walls in the dim night lighting, and a hallway that stretched into a dark blur in my poor eyesight. But there was no figure moving in it, no flash of rich, auburn hair, and deep umber skin that contrasted the light greyish-white outfits we all wore in here.
Instead I was left with what Anarchy called silence. Screams and shouts, distant and near, faint shudders as an aura flared in the distance. Air, cool upon my skin after being trapped beneath this stone for so long.
I shrank back, hand still pressed onto the door.
He was supposed to be following me. How did he fall behind when he was so much stronger and faster than me?
I was completely alone.
I glanced over at the Emerald pack door, but it was shut. We’d told them we were turning in early, not wanting anyone else to know our plans.
Beside me, on the wall, was the mural Karma had painted. The crescent moon that had been defaced with a cage and the words: ‘She’s never getting out’.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
The silence was suddenly oppressive, broken only by my frantic breathing and the ever-present grunts and screams of feral alphas.
I was getting out.
We were getting out.
To see the forest, and find our second chances, and build a whole life together. And I could find out what life might be like outside of the Convent…
I shoved my hand in my pocket, grasping for my keys, but the familiar weight wasn’t there. There was no bite of metal into my palm, no nest.
Vandle still had my keyring.
Whimpering, I glanced up and down the hall. The other doors were closed. No one was in sight.
But an uneasy tingle ran up my spine.
