Chapter 35 West
thirty-five
West
The hideous feeling of helplessness overtakes me as I watch the taller guard sucker punch my omega in the gut. Sam growls, stalking back and forth uselessly, and Hayden shakes the bars, cursing at the assholes.
The thing that makes my blood freeze, though? The sound of the snarl that comes from Kole.
Hayden turns from the bars with a roar, taking his lighter out of his pocket and flipping it nervously. Either the Senator isn’t completely heartless, or he doesn’t view his son as a threat, considering he left him uncuffed.
“My Daddy hit me harder than that when I was ten, Ernie,” Jo chokes out.
“What are we going to do?” Hayden is muttering to himself, the snicking of the lighter growing more furious with each passing moment.
The guard that Jo referred to as Ernie for some reason laughs and points a thumb over his shoulder at us. “Instincts really are a bitch, aren’t they? These poor saps are all up in arms because a bitch like you smells good to them. Pathetic.”
Hayden clicks the lighter again, and my eyes pause on it, wondering why they didn’t take it from him. Oh. His dad thinks it's the lighter that he gave to him. He wouldn’t know that Hayden destroyed it, and I provided him with an actual working replacement.
Kole snarls again, struggling against his cuffs. I want to tell him that he’s going to destroy his wrists if he keeps it up, but based on the black voids of his eyes, he’s pretty much feral at this point and won’t register a word I say.
Jo shrugs, not a glimpse of pain showing on her face. “Better to smell good to them, than to smell like a rotten sewer-rat’s ass like you and Bert do.”
I don’t have time to appreciate the fact that she named the guards Bert and Ernie, because then Ernie is taking another swing, hitting her in the gut again.
Hayden lets out a pained sound, clutching his chest, and Sam snarls, a roar of rage leaving him.
Hayden closes the lighter again.
And then…an idea hits me.
It’s reckless, and it might not work, but it’s the only hope we have of getting out of here.
“Hayden,” I hiss, and the alpha looks at me with tortured eyes. “Come over here. But…don’t act suspicious.”