Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Riot
"Not again," I groan, standing from the ground and facing the guards head on. I had another hour or two of trying to figure out my omega neighbor. No, I didn't learn anything, but I'm just trying to be glad that she ate.
She may have been quick to move away from me and the bars separating us, but that's okay. I can't afford to get attached to her. I'm terrified I won't be able to get her out of here, especially at the rate she's going.
Eyeing the redhead, I fight the annoyance building inside of me at the dead look in her gaze. I don't register what the guard is saying to her this time because I'm getting more and more frustrated the longer she ignores him.
I really believe this woman is either socially inept or she has a death wish. Does she not feel the aggression rolling off the alpha who's hurt her once already? Or does she just not care? I want her to fucking care!
I don't mind if she ignores me, but ignoring the asshole barking at her isn't okay. That sounds fucked up in my head but her focus needs to be on self-preservation, not whatever this is. Is she so full of pride that she can't give in to save herself?
I feel like I'm being driven crazy by this infuriating woman. Obviously I don't want her to do what the guard says because none of it's good, but I so badly don't want him to hurt her anymore than he already has. I'm constantly fighting the urge to beg her to just fucking listen.
A bang on the bars makes her jump, drawing a furious growl from my chest. To my surprise, she growls low. Only stopping when I do. Great, she's mad now too.
"What do you want?" I ask the guard instead of focusing on the dread trying to steal the breath from my lungs.
The big, burly guy from the first encounter we had here cocks his head at me and smirks. "I want a lot of things," he drawls.
I see the omega shiver out of the corner of my eye and stiffen. Every move these bastards make scares her even if she does her best to hide it. She's scared and acting out. That must be it.
"Take something of mine. Just leave her alone." I know the second the words are out of my mouth that I have just made the biggest mistake of my life. The enemy now knows my one weakness.
"Oh, interesting. You know, big boss man gave us one task. It's always the same but you, alpha, have made my job a ton of a lot more fun."
The way he says it makes me frown. He sounds like a fucking idiot. Was that even proper grammar?
"Why's that?" I grit out, trying to keep the attention off the firefly.
Rubbing his nasty hands through his greasy hair, he chuckles. "Our one goal is to break the omegas before they're purchased."
A startled intake of breath draws my attention to her.
Her eyes are wide as she digests the reality that we're in an omega trafficking situation.
I knew that, obviously, and now I'm thinking I should have warned her.
Though what he's saying is there's a whole fucking operation going on here that I knew nothing about.
It's not just kidnapping and shipping them off right away.
They're torturing and breaking their captives before selling them.
I feel sick. I should have thought about the very real idea that there was more beyond the money and innocents being passed between monsters. These people are the worst of society...of course they do more than simple transactions.
"Of course there are some parameters on how we do that.
Take away the nice things, beat them down till they have no will to look an alpha in the eye ever again.
Hell, if we manage to kick their will to stand out of them, that's a bigger paycheck.
Every alpha prefers an omega on their knees and eyes on the ground. "
I'm struck silent, unable to find the right thing to say. Because at the end of this conversation, I'm still going to be on this side of the bars and Firefly will still be over there out of my reach.
"But an alpha!" the guard booms with a big laugh that makes me and Firefly snarl.
She needs to calm down before he turns his attention on her. I'm hoping the longer I talk, the more likely it is for his shift to run out and we get a clean slate with a different abusive prick. If I buy us some time, maybe I can convince the omega to stop making shit so hard for herself.
"I don't know who the boss wants to sell you to, but same rules apply. Break the alpha. And what better way to do that than..." he trails off, turning to my neighbor with a gleam in his eye that I don't like.
My stomach bottoms out when I notice her crouched position and canines bared. I've never seen an omega with teeth that look like actual fangs, and I half wonder what else makes this woman different. She embodies a physical representation of feral right now.
The guard tsks and steps toward her cell door. I don't think. I just fucking lunge to the corner and reach between the bars to grab hold of his damp shirt. Unable to actually stop him, all I manage to do is tear the short sleeve from the rest of the material.
A blur of red distracts me from the angry snarl of the alpha as his hand flies toward me. Too much happens all at once.
The fist which was meant for my face slams into something else. Firefly sticks her forearm between us and takes the blow a few inches above her wrist. One of the only times I've heard a whisper of her soft voice and it's a quiet, pained scream.
"Firefly!" I gasp and try to grab her between the bars, but she stumbles away, clutching her already bruising forearm to her chest. "Damn it!" I bellow, gripping the bars and trying to bend them to my will. Why did she do that?! He hurt her again!
"Oh, a nickname..." The guard interrupts my panic with a threatening smirk.
Tears stream down her cheeks, and her red blush extends to the swell of her breasts. The mixture of pain and anger rolling off her scares me shitless. "Firefly, don't!"
For a moment she listens to me. Her head cocks, and she stares me down as if she's thinking. Yes, keep using your brain! Think through this. Please.
Just when I think she'll heed my warning, the bastard who will someday die by my hand comments. "I think I'll take those jeans today."
He's trying to egg her on. To give himself a reason to punish her. "DON'T!"
She does. A feral hiss slips through her trembling lips and seals her fate. All I can do is watch as she puts up the fight of her life against an alpha twice her size.
All I can do is watch, scream, shout, and plead with the universe for her to hear me again. To listen and think.
She doesn't.