Chapter 2
Two
Dragging my feet up toward the front door of my apartment, I can’t shake the heaviness that’s settled over me ever since we got busted at the Nocturne club three days ago. After we got hauled into the station and they took our details and fingerprints, the enforcers called our parents and said we were to go home. We were instructed that they would be in contact with us shortly with our punishment. If we went missing or broke the rules, the parents would be held responsible and receive a hefty fine.
It’s been hell waiting over the past three days, not knowing what they’re going to do to us. There’s a knot in my chest I haven’t been able to dislodge since the night.
Then there’s Mom, who’s furious and blew up at me the moment I was brought home by the enforcers. Since then, she’s given me the silent treatment, and the silence is destroying me. She has confiscated my phone, and my bedroom window is getting locked bars to complete the living-in-a-prison vibe I already had going.
The apartment building looms in front of me, and the academy bus that dropped me off is already halfway down the road.
My friends are under house arrest, too, so aside from class, we won’t be heading out anywhere anytime soon. I sigh at the notion.
Moving inside the building, then upstairs, I push open the door to our home, the creak a bit too loud for the afternoon. There in the living room, my mom is sitting on the couch in her Sunday yellow dress, her hair styled in waves around her face, and she’s wearing her best shoes, but her eyes are red like she’s been crying. Sitting next to her feet is a black duffle bag. It’s bulging at the seams, as if it’s trying to contain more than just clothes.
“Mom? What’s going on?” My stomach twists, and that sick feeling rises through me.
“You’ve really done it now, Danica,” she says with a brittle voice, her hands tightening over one another in her lap. “I should have known you couldn’t stay out of trouble and that it would come back to bite you.”
I wince, her words striking me in the solar plexus, and I struggle to breathe, feeling all the blood flush out of my face.
“I’m sorry,” I manage slowly, torn because I’m angry we got caught and pissed at the Nexus facility because of all their rules. I don’t regret going out with my friends… or meeting the mysterious Alpha. I’ve still not come to terms with how I feel about my encounter with him and how things ended. “I made a horrible mistake, and I swear, I’ll make it up to you, Mom.”
“It’s too late for regrets now,” she snaps, her gaze falling on the framed photo of Dad on the mantle. Those unsaid words weigh the world between us. I’ve always known she blamed me for Dad’s death. She never said it outright, but she might as well have with her distance from me, her refusing to talk about my singing ever again, and her vague implication that if things were different, Dad would still be with us.
I swallow hard. I try not to be upset with her because I blame myself, too. Gritting my teeth, that raw, bleeding ache in my heart is still as fresh as the day of the accident. When I close my eyes every night, I see his dead eyes, but I’ve never told her. She never once asked me about the accident, and when I try to talk about it, she cuts me off.
“Every day, I miss Dad,” I whisper. “I wish he was with us, too.”
She stiffens, her gaze lifting to mine. There’s a world of hurt flaring on her face, a lifetime of grief, and that unspoken accusation she holds against me.
I brace for her anger, for her blame.
“I actually thought you might have dodged a bullet and that Nexus would let you off with a warning and a fine,” she explains, fidgeting with her hands in her lap.
I study her carefully, then glance back down at the duffle bag. A horrible sensation washes over me.
“Wh-What do you mean? Have you heard from them?”
Her phone, sitting on the coffee table between us, vibrates and dances across the surface. The screen lights up, and she quickly snatches it before I can read the message. Her face blanches, then she glances up at me.
“I’m sorry,” my mom says softly, her throat sounding like she might choke on the words. “I’m sorry you didn’t follow the rules. But I have your sister to think about. It’s just us now.”
“What are you talking about?” I’m barely holding it together as dread snakes up my spine. I hate that she’s so cold… been so cold since we lost Dad.
“Nexus contacted me this morning, advising me that since you’re a liability as an Omega and can’t be trusted, they’re coming for you,” she explains. “You’ll be taken to their facility, earlier than usual, and stay there until you go into your full heat.”
The room sways with her words, and there she sits, brow furrowed, staring at me with disappointment, while I feel like I’ve had all my insides scooped out.
Blood drains from my face, and I feel myself go cold as trepidation, sharp and icy, stabs into me.
“No,” I whisper the trembling word. “They can’t do that. It could be years until then. What about school? I don’t want to leave you and Ruby. And… the rumors, Mom… the things they say happen to Omegas who break the rules…”
My chest hurts with how hard it’s squeezing, my throat thickening. This can’t be happening. I don’t want to be locked away from the world, then matched… most likely sold to an Alpha, from some of the things I’ve heard.
She shakes her head, a stoic mask slipping over her face.
“I attended the facility, and I’m fine. Don’t overreact. You made a mistake, and now you have to take responsibility.” She picks up the duffle bag, arm trembling as she offers it to me.
“Yeah, but you never broke their rules, Mom, so they didn’t do anything to you. What about me? I doubt they’ll be so kind.” I’m shaking all over.
“The enforcer is waiting outside.” Her voice is hollow, as if she’s fighting her emotions, but that’s not what I need. I want her to cry about losing me, for letting them take me.
“Where’s Ruby?” My breath hitches as I blink to hold back the tears. “I want to see her before I go.” My head’s spinning, and panic is slithering over me, swallowing me. I’m trying not to lose my head, but I’m on the verge of bursting out into ugly crying.
“Your sister is at her friend’s place. It’s better she doesn’t see you in this state, it will just upset her. I’ll tell her you’re going to Nexus because you went into your heat today,” she explains, as though it’s so easy for her to lie.
I feel my chin trembling, my eyes stinging. My life’s crumbling, the last threads of hope unraveling as she utters those words.
“How can you just send me away?” Tears stream down my face.
“You did this to yourself, Danica.” Her expression hardens, lips thin as she wipes away her own wet cheeks. “And if I don’t comply, they’ll take Ruby from me, too.” It’s at that moment that I see the first cracks of her pain, where she actually says something that sounds like love—even if it’s trading one daughter to save another.
Except… I did this to us.
And I got my father killed.
Now, I’m in shit with Nexus, meaning they might treat my sister Ruby just as severely as she approaches the right age. She’s only fourteen now. Deep inside, I know I have to do this…in order to show the facility I’m not a liability, in the hope that they will leave my sister alone when her time comes.
Shoulders back, I push down the emotions ripping me to shreds on the inside, then give my mother a hug. She embraces me back, a tight grasp, and hiccups a cry like she’s about to lose control of the emotions she holds onto so tightly, then pats my back.
“You better hurry. They won’t like being made to wait,” she says, wiping her cheeks, then opening the door for me. “Just follow the rules, and they might be lenient on you, okay?”
I lift my bag, my life’s contents, and take one last glance at the only home I’ve known—at the couch where I’d spend hours watching movies with Ruby, at the photo of my dad—and at my mom, who’s now full-out crying.
“I’ll try.” I pause, hating that I can’t stop the tears, can’t think of anything else to say when I have no idea when I’ll see her next. “See you, Mom,” I whisper in a croaky voice, then I leave my home, not wanting to bring more trouble to her and Ruby.
I want to run in the opposite direction, to escape Nexus, to cling to the last remnants of life I’m about to lose. Instead, I throw the weight of the duffle bag over my shoulder.
Pushing myself, I step out into the afternoon air. The sky is overcast and as dreary as my insides. Parked at the curb is a black minibus, its windows tinted. It’s the kind of vehicle I’ve seen in movies, carting off people to prisons, and the sight sends a shiver curling up my spine.
The uniformed enforcer by the open bus door is a mountain, his frame wide and terrifying. He stands stiff, hands cupped low in front of him in some sort of military stance, legs parted, and his glare is piercing into me.
Neighbors are out, chatting to each other, staring at the bus, and now me. The freak, the troublemaker, the Omega who’s brought the Nexus enforcers to our street. Rumors will now spread like wildfire, along with interrogating my mom. Everyone fears the enforcers and knows that to see one means an Omega is being taken away.
Shaking off the fear, I catch a glimpse of movement through the dark glass windows of the bus. And there are my friends. Jess’ face is pressed against the window, Kayla has a hand pressed flat to the glass, and Casey is in her seat, just staring out at me. They’re smiling at me, yet they look as deflated as I feel on the inside.
Upon my approach, the enforcer takes my bag.
“Get in,” he commands. He tosses it into the open compartment at the rear of the bus with a disregard that stings, so I hurry and climb aboard.
Inside, the gasping sounds of my friends seeing me booms, and I’m running to them down the middle aisle, so glad I have them. Behind them in the back seat are two more enforcers, and I hate that they’re riding with us, watching us, not trusting us.
“Danica,” Casey says my name reassuringly while all three drag me into a clunky embrace in the narrow space we have available between the two rows of seats. We cling to each other as if we’re all we have left in this world.
It’s only us four Omegas on the bus. Plus, the enforcers.
And we’re about to be taken to a place we’ve only heard rumors about.
“I can’t believe they’re doing this to us,” Jess says, then sniffles like she’s been crying.
“It was just a fucking nightclub,” Casey butts in. “They’re assholes.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Kayla adds. “We have each other, at least.”
“Not so bad?” Jess snaps, but we fall silent with the clearing of the enforcer’s voice.
“No shouting or loud talking during the drive. Don’t make me gag you,” he states and takes a seat in the driver’s seat.
We all stare at each other with huge eyes.
“He’s going to gag us?” Kayla mouths silently.
Casey sits beside me, gripping my hand, while Kayla and Jess are across from us, doing the same.
I settle back into my seat, too shocked by us being ripped out of our lives and losing everything to worry about being gagged.
I stare at my home as we start to roll down the street. My mother is in the window, staring at us. She does nothing but watch. I wish she’d at least wave, something to let me know she’ll miss me. Part of me wonders if the grief of losing Dad has numbed her of all feeling.
Then we’re gone, and we’ve left behind everything.
One day, I’ll return, but most likely, it will be when I’m pregnant and with my Alphas… I can’t even comprehend that. It scares the hell out of me.
In truth, today is the second worst day of my life—the day I lost my father still burns fiercely in my memory. But to have my family torn away, to feel my world breaking away from me as I’m carted off like a criminal… it’s a fresh, raw wound I doubt I’ll ever heal from.
The grunt of the engine and the rhythm of the wheels against the wet road are the only sounds inside the bus. Outside, a storm rages, as if the heavens are furious. We’ve been driving for hours, the road stretching out forever. Thunder cracks violently, and I flinch in my seat, my skin coated in goosebumps. Large drops of rain roll down the bus windows.
I’m brought too close to the memory of that other storm that haunts my dreams—the one that took my dad.
I shift in my seat uncomfortably. Rumors say the Nexus facility is days away from our place, in a location so remote, I sometimes wonder if all the things I hear about it are more myth than reality.
As another boom rocks everything, my stomach knots, and guilt gnaws at me. Maybe if I hadn’t insisted we go to the stupid audition, my dad would still be with us. And maybe I wouldn’t have gone out and the enforcers wouldn’t have caught me, and I sure as hell wouldn’t be on this bus.
Groaning internally, I chew on the corner of my lower lip, dropping my gaze to my hands in my lap, twisting my fingers over one another just like Mom.
I feel trapped—in my own skin, in my situation, in this world—feeling as if there’s no way out, and somehow, I have to suffocate in this straitjacket, or I’ll lose my mind.
Casey places her hand over mine and tightens her hold. She knows about the accident, about how rain affects me, but it’s been years, and I hate to bring it up too often. There’s only so much someone can take with talking endlessly about grief.
I glance up at my friend and force a quirk at the corners of my mouth in an attempt to show her I’m fine.
“On the bright side, we don’t have to worry about traffic on our way to our… deluxe accommodation, right?”
Casey gives me a half-smile, her eyes filled with affection. “You don’t need to pretend with me, babe,” she says softly.
I remember all those times I’ve been there for Casey, when her brother, an Alpha, stepping into his prime at twenty-five years old, was on the hunt for his Omega. He was rejected by Nexus as a potential Alpha for their females. His lack of bank funds made him not worthy. He’s been depressed, seeing the majority of Omegas go through the facility. Though there are situations where some Omegas meet up with Alphas during their heat before Nexus claims them, it’s extremely unlikely. I wish him all the luck, though it has put stress on their home life while he juggles jobs to build up his wealth.
Even if Alphas can be with both Betas and Omegas, there’s something primal inside these dominant men that call them to Omegas. It’s a well-known fact that Alphas can only knot inside an Omega but not inside Betas, and that experience provides the ultimate mating bond. Something we’re taught at Omega school, but I suspect reading about it will be very different to experiencing it.
“Thanks.” I lean my head against Casey’s shoulder. “I think I needed to hear that.”
Across from us, Kayla and Jess are deep in conversation, probably not even noticing it’s storming outside.
“We’ll get through this,” Casey whispers.
I nod as we hold on to each other.
The storm hasn’t let up, and if anything, it’s grown fiercer as the day leans into the late afternoon. The sky’s a heavy blanket of dark storm clouds as we drive along a winding road that’s descending, snaking its way through the dense woods.
Cars pass us occasionally, their headlights piercing the gloom before they vanish around the next bend. I grip the seat in front of me in a death hold, and as we go around a sharp curve, I glance back to see how many more cars we’re holding up.
There’s only one. A massive pickup truck, black with tinted windows and too dark to make out the driver, but it”s the kind of truck that should have the antlers of a freshly caught deer strapped to its grill. They’re gaining on us too quickly, and my gut turns that they’ll slide right off the road.
I’m not the only one watching them. So are the two enforcers.
Turning back around, I focus on the road ahead, unease creeping under my skin.
We sway with every turn, and every now and then, our back tires slide across the wet road. I can’t stop the images of my dad’s accident from flashing in my mind, the screech of tires on wet asphalt.
Then, in a split second, there’s a loud, dull thump and the feeling of us being struck by something solid from behind. We all lurch forward, crashing into the seat in front of us, seeing there are no seatbelts on the bus. My heart’s in my throat, and a whimper dances in my throat.
“What the fuck!” Casey mutters.
The bus pitches forward quickly, tires losing their grip as we slide all over the place, fishtailing as we go downhill.
A scream pulses past my throat as the driver yells something at us I don’t hear.
We’re careening sideways as Casey finds my hand.
Her grip is a lifeline, but I’m lost in a whirlwind of adrenaline. My heart is thundering in my chest, vivid images from the accident flashing in my mind.
Spinning out of control.
Me crying out for Dad.
Us flipping onto the roof of his sedan.
And just like then, the bus is losing control fast, the tires not finding purchase on the drenched road.
“We’re going to crash,” I yell, the words tearing from my throat.
I need to get out. I need to escape.
That manic desperation comes over me, and I can’t stop seeing us upside down in the car, Dad dead. And it’s about to happen again to all my friends.
“Calm down,” Casey says over the screeching tires, the grunting and now smoking bus engine.
Kayla and Jess are huddled close, holding onto the seat in front of them as the bus swerves left and right. We’re speeding up now as if the brakes no longer work, hurtling toward the edge of the road. All four of us are thrown against each other in the middle of the bus in the aisle as the driver fights the steering wheel to gain control, shouting at us to hold on.
But it’s no use.
The bus slams into the trunk of a massive tree, and the sickening crunch echoes in my head. The front windshield shatters, and the driver is flung out, as if he’s nothing more than a rag doll.
Jess is screaming.
We’re all thrown forward, tumbling and trying to stop ourselves. Dread swallows me as I feel myself spiraling to my death. My world tilts into chaos as the bus lurches back onto the sloping road, the steering wheel swinging wildly left and right.
“We need to grab the wheel. We gotta control this thing,” Kayla screams, but no one’s moving as we’re barely holding on, bodies flat to the floor between the two rows of seats, and I sure don’t want to be flung out the window.
I stare back at the enforcers at the rear of the bus, and they’re shoving open the escape window at the back, one of them already climbing out.
Hope gathers in my chest that we’ll escape this death trap.
Barely seconds pass when suddenly the whole bus crashes onto its side. We must have slammed into something as we’re all thrown forward, skidding across the floor. We rush up to the front, and I grab hold of a seat, catching myself, then snatch Kayla’s arm to stop her. The other two hit the front of the bus.
Looking back, I see both enforcers behind us have left us in the bus. Assholes.
Casey moans and pushes to get up, her face streaked with tears and terror.
Then the hiss and crackle of smoke bursts out as the engine at the front seems as if it’s going to ignite.
“We can get out the back,” I state, but as I glance back, I discover another flame flicking and growing from the back tire. With the wind, it’s curling around the rear window, meaning we’d have to pass through the fire to escape that way.
Fuck!
Heat burns against my skin as the putrid stench of smoke grows more intense. My panic is in overdrive. Dread slams into me. For those few seconds, fear trumps my anxiety. I scramble to my feet, with Kayla alongside me as though she somehow reads my thoughts.
“The bus is gonna blow,” she cries out.
Jess leaps to her feet and drags Casey up with her. Kayla is rushing to open the escape latch that’s normally on the roof of the bus. With us being on the side, it’s reachable. She wrestles with the latch, but finally gets it open. We lunge for it, squeezing out, one at a time, desperate to escape. As we spill out onto the road, a brutal boom erupts behind us.
I cry out as the force of the explosion of the engine flings us away from the bus.
Landing hard in a shrub on the opposite side of the road, the branches claw at my skin. My head throbs with a sharp ache. For a split moment, I can’t move, the shock of the fall, the explosion, the accident holding me down.
Groaning, I finally shove myself up as a deep pain in my hip protests. My ears are ringing, and the world tilts, but at the sight of the bus, ice fills my veins.
My ears are still ringing as monster flames and smoke curl up from the bus in a thick curtain.
Oh, fuck!
I’m coughing and choking on the smoke from the burning rubber. Farther behind the bus is the black pickup truck, doors open, but there’s no one inside. Are they helping my friends?
“Casey! Kayla! Jess,” I yell, needing to find my friends. I stumble onto the road, now cloaked in smoke. I can barely see the road on either side of the crash site from the smoke, the oncoming night, and the storm still pounding down onto earth.
Glancing around, I hear my friends calling back to me, so I know they survived. The flames cast an eerie glow around the bus, but I force my aching body toward the sounds. Smoke as thick as a blanket is cloying, clawing at my nostrils and the back of my throat. Each breath becomes a struggle. We need to get the hell away from the fire. Hobbling, I push through the pain radiating from my hip.
“Jess,” I call out, moving on instinct and adrenaline. Her earlier response had sounded closest to me.
Suddenly, I can make out Jess’ silhouette in the smog at least twenty feet down the road from the bus scene, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I rush forward until she comes into view. That’s when I notice she’s not alone. A huge figure towers close behind her—an enforcer who escaped the bus.
As if my world falls into slow-mode, I watch the man pull out something from his pocket. Terror slams into me, and the moment I scream out, “Jess, watch out,” he tasers her. The air crackles with electricity, and her body convulses. She crumples to the ground in a heap.
I scream, confusion pounding into me. Why the fuck did they need to taser her?
Wild, frantic fear thumps in my ears just as the enforcer turns toward me, taking calculated steps in my direction. His grin slices through the gloom as he approaches, a ghastly sight on his dirty, streaked face while he’s gripping the taser gun.
“You’re not going anywhere, pretty Omega,” he says loudly, taking a step closer. “You are now the property of Nexus after breaking the rules.”
My heart’s in overdrive against my ribs.
We’ve survived the crash, so why would they use tasers on us?
My pulse hammers in my throat as I step away from the enforcer, his grin chilling.
“Look,” I begin with a raspy voice, the smoke scraping my throat as I break into a cough. “I’ll come with you. Just put the taser away.”
He just smirks like a fucking asshole.
“We’ve been in a goddamn accident.” Rain lashes down on me, rolling down my face and slipping under the collar of my shirt. Its icy fingers rush down my back.
That dark amusement in his gaze tells me he doesn’t care, which leaves me shaking. What else is a man like him capable of?
My gaze darts frantically, seeking an escape and my friends. That’s when Kayla emerges in the distance, darting around the rear of the bus with the other enforcer on her heels. She’s shouting for Casey, telling her to run into the woods, to get away.
I have a decision to make.
As my own enforcer edges closer, my skin creeps at his taser at the ready.
With a surge of adrenaline, I spin on my heels and bolt into the woods at my back. The storm growls overhead, rain coming down in sheets, turning the forest ground into a mudslide.
My feet keep slipping, and I catch myself with the low-hanging branches, but fear pushes me forward. Otherwise, how can I help my friends if I’m caught? The only chance I have to save them is to escape myself, then sneak back to the crash site and rescue them. In this storm, the enforcers getting backup help will take a while. So, that gives me time to get my friends away from them.
But first, I have to shake off this enforcer, then return to my friends and not get caught.
A branch whips me in the face, and I cry out, the pain so sharp it leaves me in tears. I stumble over dead logs and trample on shrubs that tangle around my legs. Glancing back, the enforcer never relents. His shadowy figure charges after me through the woods like the devil himself is chasing me.
Dread comes over me at how in the world I ended up in this situation.
Driving forward, I keep going, frantically checking over my shoulder every few seconds. The distance between me and the enforcer grows, and hope pulses inside me that I’ll actually pull this off.
Another look over my shoulder. I lose sight of him when my foot catches on a root. The ground suddenly disappears.
Before I know it, I’m falling, tumbling down a steep decline, and my stomach’s in my throat with a roller-coaster sensation.
I cry out desperately as my world blurs in and out. My fingers finally grasp onto a root, but it’s ripped out of my grasp from the momentum of my fall. A sharp ache digs into my elbow and up my arm as I use it to lean on, the same arm that had been banged up in the car accident with my dad. It hurts.
Air rushes past me, the rain drenching me. There’s mud everywhere, leaves stuck to me. Hitting a rock with my ass, I cry out, and the branches I slide over aren’t helping.
Then, in a final, savage stop, my head connects with something hard, and stars explode behind my eyes. I have no idea what I hit… It’s dark, and everything is happening too fast.
Whimpering, I lie on my side, knowing I’ve failed, knowing the world around me fades fast. Instead of escaping the enforcer to go back for my friends, I’ve left them alone. With that crushing realization, the shadows and suffocating storm slip over me, and I’m taken by darkness as I pass out.