Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
LAUREL
Casey pulled me aside, worry etched on his face as we walked out of Lars’s sight.
“So, we’ll have a problem soon,” he said.
“There’s supposed to be two guards here at all times.
We lost one, so Lars has had to fill in…
which is good for us because he likes to stay in his office.
But I’ve heard they’re bringing in a new guard soon, and we won’t have the same freedom we do now.
I’ll have to do proper searches of your bag, and there will always be another guard watching us. ”
“I understand,” I replied, my heart sinking. “Thanks for warning me. I guess I better make this visit count. You’ll text me when the new person comes?”
Casey nodded.
I held up my hand and he stared at it.
“Your phone, Casey?” I prompted.
He flushed beet red. “R-right, um,” he said, almost dropping it as he handed it over.
“Okay, let’s go in.”
Casey took me to the first security door, unlocking it. I stepped through it quickly and walked over to Hugo’s cage. He stood and stretched as I approached, reaching his hand out eagerly as I took food out of my purse and handed it to him.
“You okay?” I asked him as he sat down on his cot.
“Am now,” he grunted, tearing into the sausage roll with a groan. I could feel the eyes of the other ferals on me, some emitting low growls as they watched.
“Here,” I said to Casey, pulling the rest of the bag of food out. We had eleven alphas down here right now, and it had been easy enough to grab a treat for each of them. “I don’t know how to give it to them safely, so…”
His eyes lit up. “That’s very kind of you, Miss Laurel.”
I watched as he carefully distributed the food to each of the cages. The noise in here quieted as most of the alphas took the food to the back of their cage to eat safely.
“Hey!” Hugo said. “This food was part of our deal! What did those fuckers do to earn it?”
I tossed him a pastry, and he shook his head.
I looked over, across from him, to where Ocean was sleeping on his cot.
“He’s been out all morning,” Hugo said. “First time takes a lot out of you. He did well, though. He’ll be okay once my training settles in.”
I glanced at the screen by Lars’s office, where the fights played for the guards to view.
“That stunt he pulled wasn’t ideal, though.” Hugo said. “Gonna draw attention.”
“I’m not sure we can do anything about that,” I replied, turning to him.
Hugo shook his head. “No, it was all instinct. Just gotta hope they write it off as a funny gimmick and don’t look too closely.”
I walked to Ocean’s cage, crouching down and resting my hand on the bars. “Ocean?” I asked. He groaned, stirring a bit. “Ocean,” I repeated a bit louder.
He blinked his eyes open. Dried blood covered his face, and there was a swollen gash above his eye. He had scratches and bruises all over his skin, and he winced as he put pressure on his left wrist to lift himself up.
“Laurel,” he said, his eyes soft as he looked at me.
“Casey, can you let him out? I want to take him to the medical bay.”
“I’m fine,” Ocean protested, sitting up and wincing again. “I heal fast.”
Casey was already moving to unlock his cage.
“Don’t be silly,” I told him. “We have to make sure you’re as fit as possible if you want to survive.”
I stepped inside and helped him to his feet. My own leg had healed by now, and I slipped under his arm to support him as we walked over to the medical bay.
“I'll keep an eye on things outside,” Casey told us, leaving us alone in the cold, sterile room.
I collected my supplies while Ocean sat down on the stretcher. There was a freezer, and I pulled out some ice packs for his wrist and ankle. Then I set a chair in front of him and prepared my gauze and saline.
“You look like you know what you’re doing,” Ocean said when I pulled on my gloves and started cleaning the nick above his eye.
“Hold still,” I chided, getting the dried blood off him. We were silent for a minute while I continued to work. “I’ve had a lot of practice,” I told him slowly as I soaked more gauze. “After my brother left, it was up to me to patch myself up every time—”
I cut myself off before I went further.
Ocean grabbed my hand, brow furrowing. “Every time what?” My face started burning as I realized what I’d let slip. “Are you really accident prone or something?”
I opened my mouth to agree, but the prickling started as I tried. Ocean met my eyes as I cleared my throat.
“No,” I said.
“So…?”
I took a breath, looking into Ocean’s bright eyes. His hand was warm as he held mine, and his thumb was stroking gently over my knuckle. Perhaps it would be okay to talk about it with him.
I swallowed. I didn’t even know where to start. Jade knew, and Jule had, but I hadn’t told them.
“My father.” My eyes started prickling as I looked at him. “He’s always had a temper, and he often…takes it out on me.”
I pulled up my sleeve, showing him the fading marks the switch had left on my arm. They weren’t raised anymore, and the red had faded to a faint greenish yellow. Soon, they would fade completely, and there would be no evidence left at all.
Ocean had gone quiet, and I didn’t dare look up at him. I stiffened as his hand brushed my shoulder, and the next thing I knew, he’d wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him. For a moment, I trembled in his arms before I relaxed. A sniff escaped as I rested my cheek against his chest.
“I’m so sorry, Laurel,” he whispered, squeezing me tightly. “No one should ever have to go through that.”
My throat tightened as he held me, my lip trembling as I tried to hold myself together.
“We’re going to destroy him,” Ocean continued. “For this and every other person he’s ever hurt. Then he’ll never touch you again.”
I heard his words but couldn’t quite accept them. I knew, deep in my soul, that my father wasn’t the kind of person who could be stopped.
“Kaos wants to break you out,” I said. “He says we could get you out tomorrow, but it’ll ruin any chance of you being able to take down my father and the Lucas pack. Finch says he can do both but to ask you. He said he’d get you out tomorrow if that’s what you wanted.”
“Both,” Ocean said without hesitating. “I don’t care. We need to take them down.”
“Is it because Kaos was a fighter here?” I asked. “That’s why you’re trying to get revenge?”
“We’re trying to get justice,” Ocean replied. “Finch will give you a long-winded explanation about honour and dignity and responsibility, but really, we’re just trying to help Kaos heal. Move on.”
“He’s lucky to have a pack like you,” I said.
“Lucky to have Finch, really,” he said affectionately.
“We grew up on the same street, and his mom would watch us sometimes when ours was…busy. One day, she was just gone. Finch was a bit older, and he came to check on us. He took one look, then ushered us over to his place and announced we were pack now, and his parents got two more kids, essentially. He’s our big brother in all but blood, and he takes that role very seriously.
Finch took it hardest when Kaos got arrested. ”
I swallowed, wishing I could have seen that side of Finch, that firm devotion Ocean was describing. It sounded perfect.
“Arrested?” I asked, not wanting the conversation to end. I was eager to learn more about them, even if it was like torture.
“Yeah,” Ocean said, with a frown. “We weren’t well-off. Finch would compete in the rut fights to make money. He didn’t want us doing it, though. Kaos never liked being bossed around, so he went to fight, anyway, but in the wrong places. He’s a rogue. Things went too far, and he ended up in prison.”
“Let me guess,” I said bitterly. “He vanished the day he was supposed to be released?”
Ocean cocked his head, looking at me. “Yeah. How did you know?”
“Valentino loves snatching rogues like that,” I said, referring to one of my father’s cousins. “It’s rare anyone bothers to ask about a rogue, especially if they have a criminal record. A lot of our fighters have a similar story.”
OCEAN
I was still fuming after Laurel left. What the fuck? Her father beat her? And now Finch had dark bonded her to us, making us more people who’d added to her suffering.
Something light hit me on the shoulder, and I looked up to see Hugo smirking at me as the wadded-up paper bag rolled across the floor.
“There you are,” he said. “Thought maybe you’d gone deaf. On your feet, boy.”
“What?” I said, looking at him in disbelief.
He stood and waved his hand at me from his cell, beckoning me to my feet. “We’ve got training to do.”
“No way,” I groaned. “I’m exhausted. And I ache all over.”
Hugo threw another crumpled-up paper bag at me. I scanned his cell. Looked like that was the last one he had.
“Up, boy. If you want your body to absorb this training for when you’re rutting, you need to be practicing it constantly. You need proper posture to be as instinctive as breathing. So, on your feet.”
I sighed and stood, testing my weight on my sore ankle. It ached, but I could tolerate it.
“Okay, we’ll start with moving around in a proper fighting stance,” he said.
“You sound way too happy about this torture,” I grumbled as I copied his posture.
He grinned at me. “I haven’t had this much fun in years. Now, start moving.”