Chapter 14 #2
Dominic had paused, though, tilting his head, fixated on Sin far too intently all of a sudden.
He looked equal parts impressed and deadly, and I wondered, for a moment, if he might just crack.
I tensed, hackles rising. That key was important enough I wouldn’t put it past him to drag Sin into his cell and torture the truth from him.
After a long pause, he seemed to think better of it.
“If I get you the key, Dominic, she won’t be a show for anyone and you make sure we get to our appeal in one place,” Sin said.
“Where is it?”
“I’ll prove I have it by tomorrow night, but I won’t give it to you until you walk us into our appeal safe and sound.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “I want it now.”
Sin shrugged. “Tough.”
Dominic ground his teeth together and I tried to keep an impassive expression.
The fucking contraband room key? Was Sin insane?
I knew he was trying to get us all the way to safety with this one massive piece of leverage, but what was to stop Dominic from just killing us all and tearing our cell (and us) apart until he found it?
“Kill me, and you’ll never get it back,” Sin added. “Do we have a deal?”
Sin held out a hand. Dominic hesitated only a moment before taking it.
Getting Crescent in a cage with Sin was a lucrative endeavour, I knew that, but the key to the contraband room? That would solidify their leverage over the whole of Anarchy.
“I swear, Sin, fuck this up and I’ll lock you both in that cage and show to any alpha who wants to watch.” Dominic’s hand shook Sin’s, and he waved us off with that parting threat.
I felt the blood drain from my face as I stepped away, Sin at my side, looking back to the table to where Crescent was still tucked between Karma and Vandle.
“Do you have it?” I hissed as we got out of Dominic’s earshot.
He tilted his head in what I could only presume was an affirmation.
I almost face-palmed. “Did it occur to you it might have been better to trade that in at the start instead of offering her up on a silver platter?” I asked as he headed back to the pack.
“I didn’t know she was going to be so… Crescent,” he said with a shrug. “And I was hoping I didn’t have to use it. I was going to leave it to the Emerald pack. They’ll be exposed once we’re gone, and it’s a few months before their appeal.”
I considered that.
He wasn’t wrong.
“How did you get it?” I demanded.
Sin grinned, tapping his nose.
I rolled my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell us?” That was some insane leverage.
“The less you know, the safer you are.”
I scowled. “It’s not your job to protect us.” The opposite. It should be. But Sin had always been different. I sighed. “How many other bargaining chips do you have up your sleeve that we don’t know about?”
He turned, spreading his arms, a mischievous smile playing on his lips, but of course gave me no answer whatsoever as we reached the table where Crescent, Phantom, and Karma were waiting.
CRESCENT
Right right right, so… I had a pack.
And now I was their second omega, which meant they were going to want me to do omega things. Extra omega things, since Sin didn’t seem all that interested. But he pulled his weight around here, and I definitely wasn’t going to be able to manage that.
I could tell they didn’t understand the Ascendants doctrine, though that was to be expected.
But I couldn’t afford to let their doubt creep in.
Karma still wasn’t right. He was, however, much, much more stable than last night.
Was it because Sin was right? Or maybe the dark bond had sorted it all out.
Now, they were my pack—and they’d gone about it all the right way.
I chewed on my bottom lip, pacing back and forth across the room. We’d eaten our food, Vandle finishing off his entire heaping plate with me under his arm. Then my alphas had become a little growly, and I’d looked up to spot Holden watching us from the second level of the square.
He didn’t look very happy, and the way he glared at me made goosebumps rise on my skin.
So my pack had brought me back to the cell, and we’d spent all day here. But there wasn’t much to do.
It was so small in here. I was used to small, but I was not used to having alpha scents drowning me in my own space.
It made me feel… odd.
I could feel a tightness in my stomach like what happened when I was about to go into heat, but not quite as intense. It became worse whenever one of the pack came too close.
It was because of the drug I’d been injected with—had to be.
I’d barely scraped by heat once already, and now being this close to alphas was setting my hormones off. I was confused about what I should and shouldn’t do. I had to get my head on straight.
On top of that I’d been given drugs to send me into heat—and then more to block it. So I’m sure everything was out of whack.
I was dark bonded, which meant that this pack was mine—rightfully. Or… I was theirs. It had all happened so fast I didn’t know if I was ready for what that meant.
All I knew was that it was too soon for heat.
Way too soon.
Vandle was in the shower, Phantom was out in the hall chatting with the Emerald pack, and Karma was sitting in the corner, using a dull knife to chip a hole into the cement wall at the edge of one of the spray-painted pictures.
Spray painting had been described as a sin in the Convent, but looking around the room at the bright colours, I think the Sisters must be mixed up.
Not all of it made sense. Some pictures were of sunsets and trees, or words I couldn’t make out. This room would be so gloomy without it.
Sin sat on one of the bottom bunks, watching me.
I squirmed under his attention, unable to stop pacing. He was okay with this, okay with me… I thought. But I couldn’t be sure. I could feel him in the pack bond, but I didn’t think I could feel all his emotions. Or anyone’s, really.
This pack, they blocked off the bond with thick walls of stone.
Walls I didn’t have. I probably should build some so they were more comfortable, but I didn’t know how—and wasn’t certain I wanted to.
I needed to know how they felt, even more than I already knew.
Then I could know for sure that they all wanted me. That they didn’t… regret it.
“Do you want a nest, gorgeous?” Sin caught my wrist in his hand as I paced by, and I looked down at him in surprise.
“A… nest?”
I’d never had one before. Not really. Nesting was heavily regulated. We couldn’t let our instincts get too wild, of course. There had been incidents in the past, so the Sisters were rightfully strict.
But I’d always wondered what it would be like.
“Yeh. We could gather up the pillows. Put them on one of the bunks?” Sin wrinkled his nose, like he wasn’t sure if that was a good suggestion or not.
I glanced around. There were so few pillows. I couldn’t take them all.
My skin started to itch, though, and I snatched a pillow from the bunk Sin was sitting on. “I—I only need one or two.”
Karma’s knife clattered to the floor and he stood up, brushing cement dust off his sweats. “We have more than one or two.”
“But you need those.”
He didn’t deny it, but still gathered every pillow from the bunks around the room. There were six total. “Which bunk ya want?” He squished the pillows in his arms, glancing around.
Four bunk beds sat in the harshly-lit cement room. My attention caught on the one farthest from the front door. The bottom bunk of that one was the darkest, hidden from the worst of the fluorescent glow.
But that was where Sin slept.
His scent was strongest there.
I couldn’t take that one—wouldn’t that be his nest? Or at least as close as he had to one? He didn’t really seem to nest much.
Would they be okay if I wanted to make one of my own?
I knew the only reason everything had worked out was pure luck—that Vandle was a seer and the dark bond was safe—so I still felt nervous hoping for more.
Sinking my teeth into my lower lip, I picked another one of the bottom bunks—this one with much more aggressive lighting, and far too close for comfort to the front door. Before I could sit down, Sin’s chest rumbled.
I froze. Was that… a growl?
Did that uh… mean I’d chosen wrong? Was his nest not the other bunk in the corner?
“Choose the one you really want,” he demanded.
It may as well have been a dark bond command for how quickly I fled to the back of the cell and flung myself onto the bottom bunk that I’d originally needed wanted.
Maybe that was a bit over-dramatic.
“This is yours though,” I whispered, hiding half my face with the pillow but catching Sin’s gaze.
Karma began to pile the rest around me, marking each one with his salty ocean storm scent.
“If you want it, it’s yours. I’m not attached.”
I’m not sure I believed him, but maybe… maybe we could share. If he was willing, I was too.
I began reorganizing the pillows Karma brought me while he collected the blankets, a pleasant tingling sensation warming my chest.