Chapter 08
IRIAN
It was terribly cold in here. I suppose I could have shifted to keep myself warm during the night, but I wasn’t certain I’d wake up if anyone entered the shed. I would be vulnerable in my wolf form, though to be fair, I wasn’t much safer in my human form.
I’d slept fitfully, restless with cold and fear, but the waves of reassurance directed to me through my mating bond throughout the night assured me that Talius was awake and working on bringing me home.
I tried not to think that there wasn’t much he could do in the middle of the night.
At least he knew I was alive, and I’d given him a clue about who had taken me.
So, thinking that I’d need to keep my wits about me, I’d tried my best to get some sleep.
I missed him. And I missed my other mate, Isca. I should have been curled up in bed with both of them right now, me wrapped around Isca, and Talius enveloping us both.
I couldn’t even say good night to Isca. His newly formed telepathic bond was still developing, and it wasn’t strong enough to reach over large distances yet…. I couldn’t feel him, which told me I was quite some distance from home. I missed him so much!
Finally, I had slept, but too soon the dim light of early morning was infiltrating the shed as darkness fled the sky.
My spirits sank as I contemplated the oncoming day and wondered what ordeal I might face.
Perhaps the unknown would be more frightening than the reality.
Who could say? Time would tell. I looked up at the window, wistfully staring at the washed-out blue framed there and wishing I were running free in the crisp hours of the newly dawned day.
The sound of voices outside the shed kicked my heart into overdrive.
I recognized the gutteral tones of the betas that had captured me yesterday, arguing with someone with a much softer voice.
The soft voice was insistent. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the soft voice must have won out, because a minute later, I heard the scraping as a bolt was slid and the shed door creaked open.
My breath caught in my throat and my chest pounded with the thumping of my heart as I waited.
An omega entered, a wooden tray in his hands.
The omega looked at me apologetically. He had big, brown eyes, a round face and a mop of brown hair that flopped across his face in an untidy mess.
He was quite tall for an omega, at least a foot taller than me, if I was guessing right, and he was very curvy.
He had a kind face, that looked like it would naturally be smiley, if it wasn’t for the look of concern it held now.
He knelt beside me and set the tray down on the ground.
“Are you alright?” he asked me, sympathetically. “I’ve brought you something to eat.”
“T-Thank you,” I said, teeth chattering. I was so cold, I could barely look at the tray. There were some slabs of bread and cheese, a banana and some grapes. And a plate with something yellow, maybe an omelet.
“Oh, you’re cold. They left you all night without a blanket,” he muttered, sounding angry. “I’ll bring you something to keep you warm.”
“Th-thank you,” I repeated.
“I don’t know why they put you in here. New arrivals usually come into the house with us,” he went on.
“I’m not a new arrival!” I protested. “I’ve been kidnapped.”
The omega’s eyes locked on mine, wide-eyed and shocked. He looked disturbed, confused.
“Hurry up in there!” shouted a harsh voice from outside, and I flinched. Our pack members never spoke to each other like this. But the chubby-faced omega didn’t even startle. Clearly, he was used to being spoken to in this manner.
The omega shuffled closer, his omega scent curling into my nostrils, soothing me with the familiarity of our shared designation. “Where are you from?” he whispered.
“My pack lives at the foot of the mountains. Near Leongatha,” I told him. “Where am I?”
“In the mountains. I don’t really know where, exactly. We moved here several months ago. We move around a lot, but the last place we lived was close to Leongatha too.”
“This is Zarbius’ pack, isn’t it?”
The omega blinked at me, shocked.
“Yes, but how do you know that?”
I thought about what to say. This omega seemed friendly, but I didn’t know if he could be trusted. Anything I told him, he might reveal to the betas or Zarbius, particularly if they threatened him, which, if they didn’t mind a little kidnapping, they surely wouldn’t balk at.
“We used to live nearby. I thought I recognized one of the guys that brought me here.” It was the truth, but not all of it.
I didn’t want to let on that I knew his alpha’s old mate.
That would just stir up trouble for Isca.
He’d been through enough, he didn’t need to get dragged back into his old life.
“Can you help me?” I whispered, dropping my voice even further so the shifters outside wouldn’t hear.
At that moment, someone came into the shed. “I said ‘Hurry up’, you stupid omega,” he snarled disdainfully at the friendly omega, who ignored him.
The omega jumped to his feet. “It’s freezing in here, he needs a blanket,” he told my jailor, “I’m going to fetch one.”
“Ha! I can keep him warm,” the guy said, sniggering dirtily. I shivered. The thought of what they might do to me, this disgusting guy’s hands on me… it made my skin crawl.
“You’d better not touch him,” snapped the omega, surprisingly coming to my defense.
“What the fuck?” demanded the beta. “Dare talk to me like that!”
The omega said nothing more. Obviously trying to avoid any further consequences for his transgression, he kept his head down and stepped towards the door.
As he passed, the larger man grabbed his ass in one meaty hand. “Or maybe you’d like it if I kept you warm instead?”
The omega said nothing, just brushed past him and left.
I was afraid the beta would make good on his threat, and I busied myself eating the breakfast the omega had brought me.
My stomach was all tied up in knots and I could barely swallow, but I must have put on a good enough performance with the food because the beta seemed to lose interest. I heard the sound of feet retreating, but I didn’t look up until I heard the door close.
Then I let out a big sigh and dropped my fork onto the plate. My stomach felt all tight and tangled and the food was threatening to reappear. I was terrified at the prospect of what the beta might do to me.
Would Talius find me before Zarbius or his cronies got to me?
And where was Zarbius? Surely he would know if his pack had captured someone.
Wouldn’t he want to gloat or something? Or – worse still – maybe he planned this.
Could he possibly know that Isca was living in our pack now?
My whole body shook - I wasn’t just afraid for myself now, was Isca at risk?
The creaking protest of the metal door roused me from my disturbing thoughts. It was the omega again, and he’d brought me a blanket. The soft fleecy warmth settled around my shoulders and I sighed gratefully. But there was something I needed more desperately.
“Wait!” I said, urgently, before he could leave. “I need the bathroom!”
The omega looked at me, glanced around the empty shed, and his brown eyes met mine in horrified realization. “Dumb betas!” he muttered.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, though I kept the blanket wrapped tightly around me. The edges fluttered with every shiver running though me.
The omega pulled me across to the open door.
“Hey!” he called crossly to the guard. “He needs to use the bathroom.”
The two betas looked at each other and shrugged. Neither of them moving from where they were lounging against the shed walls.
The omega led me out of the shed, but a cruel hand seized my shoulder in a bruising grip, as one of the betas moved quickly to intercept.
“You’re not taking him anywhere, Owen,” the guard snarled. “Get back to your pen, fat pig!”
“He needs to use the bathroom,” the omega retorted bravely, ignoring the insult. “I’ll take him.”
“No, you won’t. I’m not letting him fucking get away. You’d probably let him run off. I know you fucking omegas stick together.”
He let go of me and gave Owen a rough shove, and despite his size, the omega stumbled.
“Here, I’ll take him,” the other beta pushed off from the wall.
He had a lean face, all harsh angles, bushy eyebrows and cold, calculating eyes.
I would have much rather go with the omega.
I didn’t relish being alone with this guy.
I didn’t think I could trust him. From the expression on Owen’s face, the omega didn’t trust him either.
“No, I…” the beta cut off Owen’s protest with a clip to the head.
“Get back to your fucking work! And I don’t want to see you again today, y’hear?”
With a worried, apologetic look my way, the omega shuffled away.
A yank on my arm drew my attention from the retreating omega to the tall, lean beta standing beside me with a speculative expression on his face. I shivered under my blanket, hoping he didn’t feel the shudder go through me.
He did. I saw it in the pleased half-smile that twisted his cruel lips.
Another frisson of fear raced through me, escaping through my mate-bond before I thought to tamp it down.
There was nothing Talius could do to help my immediate situation, so there was no point in worrying him.
And he was worried. I felt it in the immediate flash of fury and concern that bounced back at me through the bond.
The beta half-dragged me along by the elbow, striding along at a brisk pace that I, with my shorter stature, found hard to keep up with.
We headed across the compound towards a long low building.
All the way across the open space, my mind was turning over, searching for a way to escape.
But I couldn’t come up with anything. I clutched the blanket more tightly around me, the edges flapping as I stumbled along.
When we got there, we didn’t enter the building.
Instead, he took me around the back to a small outhouse.
The building was squat, with no door, and made of bricks which had been mortared together in higgledy-piggledy fashion, the lines crooked and gaping holes where chunks of mortar had fallen out.
Sheets of corrugated iron served as a roof, lifting off the structure in one corner.
It was a forgotten, dilapidated structure, and out of sight of the rest of the compound.
A hard shove in the middle of my back had me staggering towards the building. As I scrabbled to stay on my feet, I fixed my sights on the open doorway, thinking he was pushing me towards that.
“No, you don’t.” This time the hand pushed me hard against the wall.
My face slammed against the cold, hard bricks, the uneven surface digging into my cheeks.
The blanket was ripped from my shoulders, and I was pinned there like an insect pinned to a board.
The stench of the man hovering over me was overpowering, all sweat and grease and something sour.
Just his odor was enough to have the bile rising in my throat.
I struggled, trying to push him off, but he was much stronger than me, and when I tried instead to duck down and under his arm, he just pushed me harder against the wall, crushing my chest until it hurt.
I dragged in short panting breaths, pinned to the hard, uneven surface, struggling to get enough air, even as my face was mashed up against the bricks.
Terror gripped me as his hand reached around, searching for the button of my jeans.
I whimpered, resisting, but unable to move my lower half out of reach.
We were out of sight of the main buildings and no-one could see what was going on.
I wasn’t sure anyone would come and help me even if they could see.
Was this what had happened to Isca? I lashed out with my feet, but I was struggling to draw enough air into my lungs, and a buzzing was ringing in my head.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a calm alpha voice rang out. The tone was confident and commanding, despite its youthfulness. There was something puzzlingly familiar about the voice.
The beta froze with his hand on my zipper and turned towards the trees. The pressure on my back eased slightly and I gasped in some air, my head spinning. I managed to turn my head towards where someone was standing in the shadows outside a run-down cabin, half-hidden amongst the trees.
“What’s it to you?” demanded the beta, pushing me harder against the wall again. I’d stopped struggling, trying to place the familiar voice, my oxygen-starved brain battling with the fog that threatened to close in on it.
“Not to me,” replied the alpha, disdainfully, as if from a distance. “but I don’t think Zarbius will be happy if you damage that one.”
Suddenly the pressure on my back eased off, and I dragged in a full lung of air and life-giving oxygen.
Thank the fucking moon! Awareness returned and…
the shock was like a lightning bolt. I knew this man, but not as the confident, commanding alpha he currently was.
I knew him as meek, unassuming Agelius, the young shifter who had joined our pack several months prior.
The one Talius had trusted. What was he doing here, in this pack?
Here he was a totally different person, self-assured and bold.
The sting of betrayal was intense, distracting me momentarily from my situation. What sort of game was he playing?
“Eh, I don’t think he’ll care,” growled the beta, though he didn’t seem quite so sure of himself now. His hand fell away from my jeans. If nothing else, he’d been planning to do something to me unobserved and he’d been caught out.
“That one won’t be useful if he’s been damaged.” Agelius waved a dismissive hand in my direction. “But if you want to continue, it’s your funeral, not mine. You can explain to your Alpha how you lost him a fuck-ton of money.”
Agelius turned around and walked back inside his cabin, leaving me to my fate.
My jaw dropped. Outraged indignation lodged itself in my throat.
How could he do this to us? He’d taken advantage of Talius’ good nature, pretending to be down and out, and here he was as confident an alpha as any I’d seen, right in the middle of Zarbius’ violent pack!
And he’d left me here in the hands of this beta who’d been attempting to rape me only moments before.
Anger faded. The betrayal hurt, and tears of misery filled my eyes.
I scarcely noticed when the beta released me completely, giving me a shove in the direction of the toilet block. As I stumbled into the amenities block, shocked and dismayed, I sent my feelings of hurt, disbelief and betrayal to Talius.
Agelius is here.