Anarchy, p.31
Anarchy, page 31
“Okay.” I pulled the door open, leading her in. She followed me without question.
The rut boxes could be locked, but they wouldn’t keep us safe. They were designed to keep the occupant in, not those outside out.
“That’s better.” I could see the agony in her eyes as she looked up at me.
“Can we...?” Her fists closed in my shirt, pulling me closer.
“Not yet, Firefly,” I whispered.
Her lip wobbled, but she nodded.
It wasn’t because I didn’t want to—my hairs were on end, every nerve raw from the war I was waging not to do what she was asking of me. But if I so much as brushed my lips to hers, it would be over. Heat wasn’t something you could just switch on and off.
The pain she was surviving right now was nothing compared to what it would be if I started and then stopped.
We just needed to make it to the morning.
Wait for the others to find us.
Get to the appeal.
But this heat was a beacon to every alpha in Anarchy, and we might all be dead by the end of it.
All of us but her...
“They’re coming back,” I told her. “And we’re going to keep you safe.” I drew her closer, dragging my teeth along her neck instead. Not a full bite, but something...
When I did, though, she let out a whine, and her scent blockers finally broke down. Thank god we were already in the box. It should stop her scent from getting out into the hall.
But as the flood of roses and cacao hit the room, I almost lost myself entirely.
My breath hitched as I caught the full desperation and pain within that scent.
My mind didn’t cave to it, though. Instead, it flashed back to the last look Sterling had given me.
Danger…
Those alarm bells sounded again, and it was easier to remember why I’d brought us in here. Just a feeling, but in Anarchy, I’d come to learn that my instincts were sharper than any calculated thought I could string together.
“I’m...” I drew back. “I’m going to leave a note,” I said. “So they don’t panic if they come in and don’t see us.”
She nodded. “That’s… a good idea.” She was fading. I could see it. Waves of pain becoming her whole world as she fought off the agony of a heat I knew she’d already put off so many times.
It meant she didn’t clock the weakness of the excuse.
When I let her go, she all but collapsed, and I had to help her to the metal floor, where she hugged her knees to her chest, tears finally glittering in eyes that were becoming more blank by the second.
“I’m going to keep you safe, Little Firefly,” I whispered. “That’s my job.”
When I got to my feet, I had to pull my wrist from her rigid grip, but I don’t know if she’d heard those words.
It was better if she didn’t. Better she didn’t hear the shake in them—the doubt at what I was about to do.
When I stepped out of the rut box, I turned back around. Crescent was curled up, shivering.
My perfect omega.
I loved her so fucking much. More than I’d known I was capable of.
So it was the hardest thing I’d ever done, closing my fist around the door handle.
I never should have hesitated. I never should have given her a chance to look up. I’d locked my end of the bond down, but maybe I slipped in the moment.
Piercing, glittering, golden eyes met mine for just a moment, before I knew if I didn’t do it right now, I’d be too late.
Her lips parted in shock, terror hitting her expression like a bolt of lightning. We were suspended for a moment as her sweet roses and cacao scent turned bitter, her pupils shaking back and forth rapidly. Then she let out a whine of fear, scrambling toward me—
Slam!
My heart broke and my breath caught as the huge metal door crashed closed on her. I almost undid it that second, panic crashing into me as she lost control of her end of the bond, too.
Her terror tried to drown me, but I kept the door shut. She was so small, and these rut boxes were designed for huge alphas with auras. It was strangely eerie in the room alone.
I hated this place.
I hated what it forced me to become.
She was mine, and I should be able to take care of her. And instead, this was what I was forced to do.
I shut the window that showed into the rut box. She wasn’t tall enough to look through it, but I couldn’t risk it.
With ears ringing, I searched the room quickly, but Finnian carried his knife around with him, and I had no luck finding spare weapons.
Unsuccessful, I sank down onto the bed we’d been on together and waited.
My hands were shaking, which was good.
I needed to burn through my scent blockers—and so many hours had passed, I might have already. There was only a trace of her scent in this room from opening the rut box for a moment, so mine might drown it out.
I stared numbly at the door as the seconds ticked by.
One day she’d forgive me. I knew she’d hate me if I was wrong—for locking her in alone when our pack was just minutes away.
I wouldn’t risk it, though.
The truth was, my instincts had never been wrong before, even when I doubted them.
And as the door to the cell creaked open, the lock unlatching for our last day in Anarchy, my heart sank.
Today wasn’t the day that streak was broken.
47
KARMA
“We have them.”
Those words were a nightmare, so far beyond the one I was living right now.
It was Sterling, Wakefield pack lead, with his foul necklace and a victorious look in his eyes—more emotion than I think I’d ever seen in them.
“Where?” Holden straightened from the seat he’d been lounging in, knife still in his fist.
Vandle was on the floor at his feet, sticky blood across his torso, breathing short and sharp. There were a few of Holden’s alphas standing near him, but he wasn’t fighting. His skin was far too pale, and I knew he’d lost a lot of blood. They’d taken a break though, seeming unwilling to kill him.
It had been all I could manage, holding onto the last of my sanity, watching him be tortured. I’d held on because I knew, so far, they hadn’t caught our omegas.
That last reason flickered out as Sterling spoke.
“Wouldn’t come. They’re in our cell.”
“Wouldn’t come?” Holden snarled.
“Still has their gun,” Sterling muttered.
Holden rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. “We’ll deal with it.”
“Holden—” Sterling put a hand out before he was brushed off.
“Hm?”
“I don’t want her broken.”
A growl rose in my throat as Holden sneered. “We take whatever we want first, but you’ll get her in one piece.”
“No!” Vandle croaked, finding the strength to sit up, fury and terror shooting through the bond like lightning.
Before he could do more, the alphas grabbed him by the arms and dragged him toward the cage. He snarled, throwing himself against their grip.
It wasn’t enough, and then they were ripping the door open, flanked by more so we couldn’t make a break for it before they tossed him in.
We hauled him up, stepping back.
What was happening?
They didn’t shut the cage.
Instead, members of the Wakefield pack came into the cage with us. I scanned them, holding Vandle up at my side.
There were eight of them here, and I had no weapon…
“We’ll be back,” Holden said, scanning us as he slammed the door shut behind the last alpha. “Don’t think you’ll make it until then, but they’ll get to see your bodies before we clean up.”
I watched as he turned the key and tucked it into his pocket.
I didn’t get a chance to see him and his pack leave for Crescent and Sin, because the first alpha lunged my way.
Sanity fled me as I reacted, catching him with a blow.
Eight?
Could we take eight?
Vandle was barely standing.
We had to.
As I flew toward the first alpha, knowing I needed to get between them and Vandle, I felt the lights begin to flicker in my mind. Signalling a complete shut down of my sanity.
The world moved in a blur, my aura flaring as I inhaled scents, and saw only in flickering shapes. I was nothing but reactions—my teeth meeting flesh, fist closing around a thick, corded neck.
Pain was real, but it was fuel, each breath the next count. The next beat.
I fought like I never had, flung against metal, scoring agony across my back.
My breath shuddered.
Vandle needed me.
My vision spun violently as I tried to get to my knees. Another blow, and I was down.
Shit.
Reality slammed in for a moment.
I couldn’t… I had to… I blinked. I couldn’t go so far there was no way back.
I’d lose her.
Lose him.
Crescent’s golden eyes flashed in my vision, followed by crimson.
I didn’t… want to forget them.
I tried to figure out what was happening.
I had to fight and keep my sanity…
I was on the stone ground.
Too vulnerable. I grabbed the bars, trying to haul myself up enough. I got to my knees before I felt a hand grip my shirt. My elbow flew out, catching something hard, and I heard a grunt.
Then I saw a figure in the lit doorway to the dim room.
He was… familiar, I thought. He came into focus and I found myself locking eyes with my cage-fighting rival.
Ozias?
Was he with the Wakefield pack?
I was wrenched back and had to turn as another alpha lunged at me.
Shit.
But could Ozias get help?
From who, though…?
The Leo pack flashed in my mind. Dead in the gym. Their omega fleeing. Their allies watching on, not willing to take the risk for a pack who would be gone within hours either way.
Not when there was an omega on the line.
“Ozias!” I shouted.
He wasn’t an ally to us, but he wasn’t an ally to Holden, either.
Please. “Fuck!” I threw off the alpha gripping my neck. I landed a punch on another but then backed up, needing my fists free. There were too many, I couldn’t get a kill in.
Just a few feet from the bars of the cage, I could see a metal rod—it looked like it had broken off one of the viewing chairs, but it was out of reach, even if I did have a moment to reach for it.
Phantom and Vandle were together, and I was keeping as many busy as I could.
We wouldn’t make it through.
One of the alphas that had been facing me turned to the others.
No.
I lunged at them, knowing I was losing the small advantage I had in being backed up against the bars.
It didn’t matter; Phantom was trying to protect himself and Vandle, and they couldn’t handle another.
I got my arms around his neck before the others reached me.
They didn’t have weapons, which was the only reason we weren’t dead yet. It just meant if we did die, it wasn’t likely to be fast. I felt teeth sink into my neck from the alpha behind me, ferality creeping into the brawl as it dragged on. I slammed my head back, losing my grip on the one I’d been stopping from reaching Phantom.
A blow came out of nowhere, and I was sprawling on the ground.
Fuck.
I pushed myself up, glancing up to get my bearings. One, two, three alphas were closing in. Maybe more, but there wasn’t—
My thoughts cut off as one of the alphas nearest me jolted oddly back. It took me a split second to realize there was a fist in his hair from through the bars. By the time I did, a flash of silver was crossing his throat and a spill of blood cascaded down his neck.
The alpha collapsed, and I wasn’t the only one taken aback by it, which gave me a second of reprieve.
I was staring up into Ozias’s silver eyes.
Before anyone could move, Ozias placed the blade, and the thick metal pipe on the stone floor of the cage, and slid them to me.
I grabbed them, using the bar to push myself up, and easily slammed it into the eye socket of the first alpha who’d made for me, fresh energy spearing my veins.
“Don’t get me in shit, Karma,” I heard him say, as he backed up. “Better kill them all.”
With the weapons, everything changed. I used the metal rod to smash the brains out of the first alpha who tried to lunge for me, and at some point, I’d managed to pass the knife to Phantom.
It wasn’t long before it was finally over.
I slumped against the stone amidst the dying alphas of the Wakefield pack.
We were still locked in.
The others were alive, and Phantom hauled Vandle over so he was next to me.
But I couldn’t look at him.
“Karma…” His voice was weak, like he knew what was happening.
My side of the bond was open, and I couldn’t hold it down. I couldn’t hold onto… anything.
I shook my head, my breathing picking up. A fog was descending in my mind again, as if, now the fight was over, I was ready to be claimed by that old darkness.
I wanted to stay. Needed to. I didn’t want to be mindless. Useless.
Not when they were still in trouble…
And what if, this time when I left, I never came back?
It had happened before…
I wiped my fingers on my shirt and dug in my pocket, adrenaline still making my hands tremble.
The madness felt heavier than it had done in such a long time.
Was a night of terror, of having my omegas ripped from me, enough to undo all the progress I’d made?
I tugged my hand out of my pocket, holding folded pieces of paper. It took me too long to open them, my mind sometimes drifting like it didn’t know what I was doing, or why.
No. No, I needed this.
Finally… I lifted the unfolded papers, trying to focus, but my fingers shook so much that I couldn’t. A faint rumble of a growl sounded in my chest—I was fading so fast I couldn’t even… even see them.
Then Phantom’s fist closed around my arm, steadying it so I could see the pictures.
Two of them.
Rough sketches, but they managed to capture what was important. The one of Sin was old. I’d drawn it so long ago that the graphite was smudged here and there. Crescent’s was fresh, her beauty radiating from the paper in her shy smile, curious eyes, and cascade of snow-white, wavy hair.
I took a breath.
Desert eclipse and roses and cocoa.
“We’re getting out.” Phantom couldn’t know that, but our pack had always been afraid to speak our dreams, as if it might curse them.
And so the dare he made of fate held weight to me.
I managed to nod, staring at the drawings, begging my mind to settle like it would as if they were here.
They were my reasons to stay.
48
SIN
My own fear wasn't as strong as I had expected as I saw Holden walk through the cell door. Instead, it was washed away by the sharpest stab of relief I'd ever experienced.
I'd been right.
I'd been right, and Crescent was protected.
The rest of my pack, though… They were fighting. Not dead, but I didn’t know how long that would last.
Holden leaned against the bed nearest the door, watching me where I sat. I was on the bed closest to the far corner, not right next to the rut cage, my gun in my lap.
“We were told there were two omegas.” That was Wyatt, another in Holden’s pack. He drew up like Holden had, not getting too close when he caught sight of me.
“We didn't trust Sterling,” I said, clenching my jaw. “Went to get help herself.”
Holden grinned. “Don't get your hopes up. I’m sure she’ll be returned to us. Everyone will know who she’ll belong to by morning.”
The rest of the pack was here. I could see them through the door, filtering in behind Holden, none getting too close.
The whole fucking Ronan pack. Seven alphas left. One was already dead, but it didn’t seem as though they’d examined his body. If they had, they wouldn’t be lingering back, eyes drifting occasionally to the ammo-less gun in my hand and back to their pack lead, as if awaiting instruction.
“You promised the Wakefield pack Crescent?” I asked.
A betrayal like this was a gamble. It meant a full flip in loyalty. Building trust would be difficult in the future if their word meant nothing.
The reward would have to trump all of that.
“Your value was used up the moment your pack bonded her, Sin. If they don't get invites to watch you with those other omegas, they aren't interested anymore. But I told them not to worry. When you're dark bonded to us, they'll get all the shows they want—and a sweet little piece of ass on top.”
I got to my feet, grip white-knuckled on the bed frame as I looked between them.
My heart was racing.
Where were the others?
Alive… I could feel it, but they weren’t good.
And Vandle was almost non-existent in the bond now.
I shoved back the momentary panic that shot through my nervous system.
Holden grinned. “Those alphas of yours are dead.” He pulled a key from his pocket and held it up like a medal before putting it back. “I’ll take you to look at their bodies in the cages after—the Wakefields tore them to pieces, I bet. But first, we're going to get a heat and a dark bond all in one.”
I wasn't nearly out of it enough to truly look like I was in heat, but I think Holden's pack had so much obsession for me that they were seeing what they wanted to.
And if I was right, and my blockers had worn off, my scent should be in this room more than hers. Sterling had obviously mentioned heat, and they thought it was me.
My eyes flickering to the door, I caught Wyatt following my gaze before snapping back to me, a purely feral look in his eyes.
As if he wanted me to run.
