Chapter 4
Chapter four
Zack
The further we drive, the more the simmering awareness of my pack fades. Not completely, but enough to leave me feeling thin and breathless. I snarl as rage seeps into the vacant space left in my chest.
“Shut up,” snaps the alpha sitting in front of me.
I eye the back of his neck. If only I could fit my hand through the mesh between us.
Without that barrier, I’d simply close my fist around his hairy neck and twist until it gave a satisfying snap.
His eyes would widen in shock, his annoying mouth would gurgle, and then those breaths would stop moving through his lips and nose altogether.
Kill.
No killing.
My stomach drops, and I turn to look out the window.
Usually I love this part of getting in a car.
White Mine points out interesting things on the blurry side, like dogs and statues.
Stoplights, trucks, food stalls. Things that have names now.
Mine—Red—would link our fingers and snuggle into my shoulder while listening to a device that told her what to say for the day. Acting.
A difference exists between the lines she says and the bitterness poisoning my chest. That only occurs when she’s scared or angry. Like now.
She wasn’t acting on the steps.
I tap my fingers on the cold glass and stare at the smear left behind. How can a challenge be transferable? Does Cal-ee know about this? If it weren’t for that biting stick, I could’ve broken down the door to reach him.
“Fuck,” I mutter, wondering if White Mine would scold me in this situation. I miss his sweet cake scent and my ohm’s presence. Always moving, always smiling. She is life.
“Ha!” the familiar alpha scoffs. “To think a bastard like you knows how to swear now.”
I ignore his word babble. “Where’s my ohm?”
“Ohm?” he asks, glancing in the mirror.
I frown. How stupid is he to not understand me? Even if this is a hard word for my mouth, White Mine always understands. “Ohm-ee-ga.”
He likes that even less. “Must’ve been a fun little outing for you, Zazu. Your omega is wherever she is, and you won’t see her for a long time. Probably never.”
The darkness inside me bubbles up, and I punch the car door. It bends satisfyingly under my fist.
“Fucking lunatic!” the alpha roars. “Do that again and I’ll get my Taser out.” To show me what he means, he waves the biting, clicking stick.
I snarl, showing as many teeth as possible. “Zack,” I mutter in defiance, staring at the small mirror in the front reflecting the man’s face. I will see my ohm again, and I will use the name she gave me.
He clicks his tongue harshly. “They let lunatics like you free to walk the streets, and meanwhile my brother gets stuck in the ward . . .” The alpha driving the metal trap wrinkles his nose.
Only word I know is street. The rest is word salad. Like White Mine’s tomatoes, beans, carrots, and the green stuff jumbled together in no order. I lean my hand on the door, and a trail of blood trickles down the black material.
Since I shouldn’t kill him, I need to tell Cal-ee about this stupid man. He’s too dumb to be driving and taking alphas.
“Name?” I ask.
The trap—car—slows and for a moment I think he’s going to stop and get his crackling stick. Instead, he glares at me again in the mirror, and the car whines louder.
“Not that it matters to you, but McKenna.”
Mack-henna.
I snarl and slump back in the seat. Mack. Zack. Why does he get similar sounds in his name to mine? “Change name,” I mutter.
He laughs, though the noise carries a bitter edge, not pure and warm like Red and White Mine’s laughter. My pale, slender alpha has a name everyone else uses too. Ri-ckon. Red and Ri-ckon. And Zack.
I stare out the window, my thin reflection smiling with bared teeth.
Wherever I’m going, Red will find me. Wait patiently; don’t kill. I can do that, right?
The car slows and turns, and the organ in my chest double-beats. High walls capped in sharp bones block our path. My throat collapses in on itself. Not here. Not the stale hall filled with alphas in tiny cells and unbreathable air. An unhappy rumble escapes me.
The alpha in the front smirks, a challenge in his hard gaze as he turns to face me. “Prison’s the only place you should be, mutt.”
I throw myself at the mesh between us, the tiny squares embedding into my palms. It refuses to give. Why am I back here? Pain fizzes behind my eyes, and I hurl myself into the barrier again, headfirst.
Don’t hurt yourself, Zack.
I spin, searching for Ri-ckon, but he’s not here. It’s only a memory planted in my chest from the times I hit my head when ideas swarmed too loudly. I squeeze my bleeding hands shut. He wouldn’t want me to hurt myself, so what else can I do? This is why I have words now. What would my ohm say?
“Fuck off,” I try, rolling the words carefully over my tongue.
The alpha doesn’t like that, which pleases me immensely. But not enough to chase away the dread growing thicker in my belly as we slide through barred gates that open for us like a gaping mouth.
“Welcome to your new home,” Mack-henna says as he opens the door, the biting stick crackling in his hand. I slide out, battling for control of myself. I might be faster than his stick. Could still close my fingers around his unguarded neck.
But as I’m about to launch, a familiar voice cuts through the air. “Zack!”
I spin. “Cal-ee?”
He leans on the outer fence near the gate, hands digging into the wire. “Zack. I’m coming! Just don’t kill anyone.”
A strange relief explodes inside me. “Cal-ee! What do wrong? Where’s Red?”
His face twists with pain. “We took Red home. Rickon’s helping her.”
“Fucking lawyers!” Mack-henna grabs my arm and pulls me away. “Like leeches sucking on society’s blood.”
I wrench myself out of his grip and stumble toward the wall.
“Don’t kill anyone!” Cal-ee yells as the gate between us slides shut, the gap shrinking steadily.
“Cal-ee!” I scream, clinging to the hope that he might get me out. The entrance thumps closed, locking me inside. In prison.
A clicking noise chatters behind my head as Mack-henna’s stick bites into my neck. Heat and light trample my senses, and my muscles spasm out of control.
I fall, hitting the ground with a heavy thump, and froth coats my lips.
“You all saw that, right? He attempted to escape.” A boot connects with my side, sending pain shooting through my ribs. If not for the weakness shivering in my limbs, I’d tear his foot clean off his body.
Another alpha comes to help Mack-henna lift me to my feet. “So this is the feral from Darinian? Let’s get him processed.”
Don’t kill. Don’t kill. The words echo in my brain as they drag me out of the sunlight.
Don’t kill. As they strip me and make me crouch over a shiny mirror.
As they shave my hair off and pass me new, scratchy orange clothes.
Don’t kill, Zack. As they push me into a stinking corridor full of new alpha scents.
As I tramp along, the first familiar chill prickles along my skin. I’d forgotten about the cold. Before I met my ohm, everything was cold. Even the ideas behind my eyes turn icy.
Cal-ee said he’d find me, but Cal-ee’s the alpha I threw out of our pack. Even if he knows Red needs me, he’ll want to keep us apart. If my fate rests on his decision, won’t he use that to ask to join the pack?
My stomach cramps, tight as the walls closing around me.
The guards stop in front of a closed door.
This area feels different from the one I stayed in last time.
Instead of bars, walls and doors with small windows line up in rows on two levels, overlooking an area a bit like our lounge.
Stairs lead up and down, but these are solid metal and cold, not like the shining wooden ones at home.
The couches on the lower floor stand just as bare, flat tables with fixed stool tops.
No cushions, rugs, or moving screens in sight. Cold, gray, ohm-ee-ga-less.
“Here we are, room number twenty.” The guard hammers on the door. “Got your new cellmate, Alhedy.” He swings the door forward and shoves me inside.
The plain white room measures about the same as Mine’s bedroom, but this bed has been cut in half and stacked on top of itself. A man slings himself off the lower bed as we enter, straightening to a height even taller than me. His familiar scent hits my nose. Alpha. Hairless on top. Familiar.
An automatic challenge rumbles through my throat, and his eyes widen at the same moment as I remember who he is. What is he doing here?
“The feral fence climber?” he mutters, alpha scent rising. “Fuck me sideways.” He straightens, lips peeling back to show teeth.
“Have fun, boys,” the guard says before slamming the door shut behind us, locking me in a small room with the alpha who broke my arm.