36. Chapter Thirty-Six #2
My breath catches as cold dread turns in my stomach.
“We ran into the forest, the darkness so heavy I couldn't see ten steps ahead.
I felt hope for the first time in years.
But it didn't last. They set hunting dogs after us. As the barking got closer, I panicked. I told Mira and Leah we had to split up.”
Guilt tears through me, a fresh wound re-spilling the grief that has never healed.
“It was my fault. My idea. I was sure that splitting up would confuse them, make it harder to find us all.
But now… I don't know if I was right or wrong. And that was the last time I saw my best friends, both of them sprinting away into the shadows.”
Asher’s lips brush against my temple, his arms tightening around me as though he’s trying to absorb my pain. “You’re doing so well, Emma.”
“Ten minutes of freedom. That’s all I had before the dogs caught me.
Hugo and Lars dragged me back and locked me in a room.
That night Pack Carmichael bought me.” My voice lowers.
“When I was there in that cage, with all those alphas leering at me…Hardwick injected me with an accelerant to force my heat.”
I feel sick, thinking of that night again. The terror. The shame. The confusion.
“Water. You need water.” Phoenix gets up and walks into the kitchen.
As he moves to the sink my gaze locks through the doorway onto Soren’s laptop still open on the kitchen table, and the huge silver-haired alpha now sitting on Pack Carmichaels’ luxurious lounge with a frail omega on his hands and knees on the end of a fucking dog leash .
I point to the screen, horror rising in my throat, catching the words I want desperately to speak, but instead the memory I locked down the tightest bursts free.
I'm cold and naked, curled in the middle of a cage, steel pressing into my palms. I jerk backward, panic flooding me as a needle jabs into me and iced liquid stings under my skin. Evelyn Hardwick's souless eyes hold mine, gleaming with satisfaction as she removes the syringe.
“At last you'll be of use now,” she whispers, that horrible smile crawling across her lips.
Heat races through my veins, bitter and wrong. My skin prickles, burning too fast. Nausea swirls in my gut, vision sliding in and out of focus as sweat drips into my eyes.
Movement flutters around me, shadowy shapes crowding closer. My heart slams against my ribs as countless alpha gazes rake over my body. Hands brush their crotches, their intentions clear and threatening as bitter honey rises from me.
A hulking alpha pushes forward from the silhouettes—tall, broad-shouldered, his silver hair gleaming.
He pulls a thin, sickly-looking male omega behind him on a dog lead.
The omega’s fragile bones strain beneath bruised and scarred skin.
His wild eyes dart around, body curling inward, mouth moving in frantic mutters as he rocks on the floor.
He’s so close I hear what he says.
“One, four, six, five. One, four, six, five…” Over and over and over.
Evelyn Hardwick moves to stand next to the alpha. The omega cowers, putting his hands over his head to protect himself. The air is tinted with his muffled words as he shakes from head to toe. “One, oh, three, seven.”
The silver-haired alpha growls, his lips twisting. He yanks the lead, and the poor omega collapses, dazed, pulling into himself.
“Shut up, mongrel.” The alpha tightens the chain hard enough to choke the poor male before turning toward me.
The silver-haired alpha’s eyes rake over me, his expression calculating and excited. “You're going to make me very, very good money tonight, Omega.”
I retch and a bucket is thrust under my mouth as I lose the contents of my stomach.
I heave until I’m drained, sweaty and panting from the force of vomiting.
I blink up into Asher’s eyes, as Phoenix takes the bucket away.
Soren appears with a warm washcloth. He wipes my face before Phoenix hands me a glass of water.
I’m here.
I’m not in that cage.
That night happened years ago.
It can’t happen again.
The memory can’t hurt me anymore.
The memory releases, allowing me back into the safety of the present—shaking and trembling, shuddering in Asher’s strong grip. My prime alpha peers down at me, brows knitted either side of a deep groove in his forehead. “What happened, Moonbeam?”
My lips move but I can’t seem to make a sound.
“Emma?” Phoenix whispers.
“Just breathe, Emma. One breath in. Release slowly out.” Soren gently rubs my back. Both of them murmur soft, grounding words, clearly trying to draw me back from the horror.
I do as Soren says and the vice around my chest eases. “I'm sorry—I should've remembered—I just…”
I never thought I could forget a single moment from that terrible night, but the mind does strange things to survive.
Layer by layer, my subconscious had buried my memories, driving them deeper beneath dense folds of pain and trauma.
No one at that auction had openly called him Alpha1465.
There had been whispers, ragged numbers muttered desperately from the broken omega who knelt, hollow-eyed, at his alpha's feet.
I'd heard them, I realize now. Heard and buried them beneath a haze of terror, the burning agony of heat accelerants stealing clarity from my brain and pushing me past the brink of comprehension. Only when I saw that same omega again—shattered, empty—kneeling beside the silver-haired alpha’s polished shoes, did those whispered numbers resurface, slicing through the layers of my mind with merciless clarity.
Asher tips my chin upward, his gaze trained on me. “It's okay, Emma. You're safe. Just tell us.” His voice is strained. He’s trying to hide his worry. Nausea rises again, but this time I fight it down .
“The big alpha, the one in Pack Carmichaels’ living room right now, is Alpha1465.”
The words fly out of my mouth and do their job.
They swing around to view the screen. Asher freezes, every muscle locking rigid around me.
Phoenix’s breath hisses between his teeth.
Soren stands and stalks over to the laptop, muscles vibrating with tension.
Time suspends for one tight, endless moment before Asher runs a hand through his hair.
“Alpha1465 is the fucking commissioner.”