Chapter 1
CRESCENT
My cracked scream rolled like daggers up my parched throat, carving out a plea for mercy.
Booted feet marched unflinchingly against my tide of protest—the cries, the begging, the full weight of my body thrown futilely against the power of an alpha’s aura. My arms were held behind my back in a grip so tight that every thudding step shot pain through my shoulders.
The blinding white of the ancient lights above buzzed and flickered, as if in time to the march of the boots dragging me down the grungy hall. It was alien to me, my eyes more used to stone ceilings and warm Edison bulbs.
I felt small and so stupid. A cursed, touch starved omega who’d been foolish enough to dream she might deserve a pack one day.
One that might cherish her and cuddle her.
But there was nothing to cherish.
The spinning world slowed as we halted, and I looked up at the huge, thick metal doors before me.
“Kill me!” The breathless plea spilled out before I could stop it. I twisted my head to look at the guards, but their faces were concealed behind their helmets. “P-please!” They had guns—it would be so easy to save the alphas down there from me. “Just t-tell them I died in there.”
They wanted me to curse a thousand alphas—to make me more of a sinner than I already was.
Dying now was better.
There was a pause as one helmet turned slightly, as if he were taking me in fully, and a flutter of hope soared in my chest.
But then he elbowed a button on the wall and the thick metal split like a hungry mouth to reveal a small space.
He used his grip on my wrists to push me in.
“NO!”
I frantically yanked my arms free, turning to flee the vile metal box.
He shoved me back, and I hit the wall with such force that I crumpled. My breath caught, but I tried to stand, launching myself toward the doors as they closed.
Too slow.
Another desperate, broken scream tore from my chest as my fingers grappled with the thick metal, as if to somehow stop it from shutting.
It was the splattered red stains upon the metal’s surface that caused me to recoil at the last second before its resounding slam. A promise that the heavy doors held no mercy for flesh or bone. The last things I saw before it shut were the empty masks of the guards beyond.
I was left in silence.
I turned, clutching myself, my aching eyes grateful for the dim light in the tiny, bare room.
The walls on either side of me were made of stone, but the one in front was made of the same thick metal slab that had just shut me in.
I knew what it was—a special metal strong enough to withstand the strongest alpha.
I pressed myself against the doors at my back just as a red light flashed.
My eyes darted to the large digital timer on the wall above, and my heart sank.
Ten…
I stared in shock at the slim, glowing red lines, but even as I watched, it flickered down to nine.
A countdown to my death.
No—worse than death.
I clutched my temples, heart pounding.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
This was all my fault.
Above me, in the devil’s red, eight flicked to seven.
I had almost nothing on.
A hair tie holding up my long ponytail, a slip of a bandeau around my chest, and a pair of underwear—all of which amounted to no protection, not from attackers, nor appraising eyes.
And how many of those were there about to be?
Six…
I shivered, goosebumps rising on my bare skin. Drugs rushed through my veins—were they already doing what they’d promised?
“How fast, do you think?” the High Priest had asked as he pressed the needle into my arm. “Until you go into heat?”
Five…
A pathetic whine slipped from my chest as I tried to force my back straight. Cowering would get me nowhere.
An image popped into my mind—a news story from a short while back.
It had been one of the few times I’d glimpsed a television in a clinic waiting room, since the Convent didn’t allow us anything like that.
An omega had climbed into a rut-fighting cage when her alpha was in trouble.
She’d shielded his body and turned on the other alphas in the cage, golden eyes glowing with a fierceness I hadn’t known we were capable of.
And they had paused.
They’d backed off.
Four…
That omega had changed everything for me. That news story had been quickly shut off, but it never left me—a truth they’d never wanted me to know. And it was the beginning of the end that led me here.
But even now, I didn’t know how to be that omega. I had no one I loved enough to be that strong for…
Three…
Instead, I was alone, with my skin and golden eyes on full display. Not that it mattered—golden eyes were about to become entirely irrelevant.
Because beyond that door was Anarchy—the place beneath the Cimmerian Vaults. It had no surveillance and no guards—only total, utter lawlessness.
Two…
Population: 1036.
1036 of the most notoriously violent, insane alphas—all of whom had chosen anarchy over a cage.
And I was about to be locked in with them.
One…
With a jarring beep and a click, the heavy doors began to open, letting in the first sliver of light from the nightmare beyond.