Chapter 44
SIN
There was only one alpha poking his head into the closet-like, tiny room, but his shout could draw more.
I kept Crescent behind me as Karma wrestled him into the hall. My gun was cool against my palm, and if there was ever a time to use my one precious bullet, it would be tonight.
Our last night in this fucking place.
The package of coloured contacts was still tucked into my waistband, secure even if we had to run.
We had everything we needed to escape.
All we had to do was survive.
And someone was trying to make sure that didn’t happen.
I led my omega toward the door, making sure her hand stayed on the small of my back, shoved under my ripped shirt to touch my bare skin. Karma could handle one; I’d sensed his aura flare and felt his visceral glee in the bond as he choked the man.
But when I peered past the door and into the hall, gun in my grip, there was already more than one.
Holden’s pack mates and allies were everywhere.
Five of them were challenging Karma in one direction, and in the other, I could see Grady—one of the more brutish members of Holden’s pack. Not an alpha I wanted to join the fight against Karma. He was scouring the hallway, but froze as he caught sight of me, a smirk curving his lips.
Shit.
Karma was a force of nature, aura crackling, fists flying, blood dripping from his freshly split lip. But it was five on one.
No one could win that.
I shoved back a burst of fear. I needed to get Crescent the fuck out of here.
In one direction was the fight, the other was open, but for Grady.
One alpha, one bullet.
Even hours away from our appeal, it felt wrong to waste it, but I glanced back, knowing we didn’t have time for indecision.
Fuck.
No choice.
I’d love to blow his brains out, but I had a better shot of hitting him by aiming for the bigger target.
Right in the stomach. At least he’d die nice and slowly.
Painfully.
At this time of night, none of the medic packs in this place would be awake to help—and fishing out bullets from internal organs wasn’t their expertise, anyway.
There was no time to tell Crescent the plan, and I couldn’t give away our next move. She would follow me—she trusted me, and I needed that.
Tensing my body, I swung the gun to point at Grady in a flash.
His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen, but I pulled the trigger in the millisecond before he could react.
The bang made my ears ring. It startled everyone in the echoey hall, a hush falling. A moment of pause.
Blood splattered the wall behind Grady, and he collapsed to his knees. I grabbed Crescent’s hand and yanked her as he clutched his stomach. His howl broke through the ringing, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it.
Time to run.
The other alpha was no longer after us. Karma had used the panic to his advantage, having broken free of the others, and tackled the nearest one to the ground, teeth ripping into his neck.
His eyes met mine for a moment, blood smearing his chin.
He was barely present, but the flicker of sanity I could see was pleading.
Telling us to run.
I turned, Crescent’s hand in mine, and careened down the hallway.
CRESCENT
I wasn’t built for running.
Reading? Yes.
Running? Absolutely not.
My lungs burned and my vision blurred; everything was out of focus around me. I could hardly see where we were going, and Sin’s grip on my hand was my only anchor. His clammy palm clutched mine, leading me forward at a breakneck pace.
The gun was in his other hand.
Maybe that was why my head pounded.
From the sudden pop of the gunshot. The scent of blood clogging my nose and that alpha’s earsplitting screams.
I wanted to ask where we were going, but I didn’t dare. Our footsteps were already loud enough. There didn’t seem to be anyone following—Karma had held them all back—but if there were that many alphas hunting us, there would be more.
We swerved down empty hallways, pausing in silence every once in a while to wait for someone to pass. It was a miracle we made it to the rusty door that Sin pulled open.
It screeched, and I winced.
No one came running.
He ushered me inside and closed it behind us, turning to lean his back against it.
His chest heaved as he looked down at me, dark pupils almost swallowing his crimson irises. He glanced down at the gun in his hand, then he tucked it into his waistband.
I didn’t realize I was crying until his thumb brushed a teardrop from my cheek, the salty droplet sliding down in a little streak along his skin.
With a hiccup, I threw myself against his chest. My sobs were stifled—I was trying to be quiet—but it was still too loud in the empty, pipe-filled room.
I was desperate to ask if Karma would be alright.
But that was a pointless question, because he’d shut down in the bond, and that could only mean one thing.
He wasn’t.
The two of us were here alone, and none of our alphas knew where to look for us—if they were safe at all.
PHANTOM
A year and a half ago
We were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Karma was breathless at my side, having just brawled with one of the new, and completely feral alphas—Vandle, I think his name was, from the fractional moments of lucidity he’d had around us.
The stupid, pointless brawl had gotten us stuck in here.
Trapped behind a massive out-of-commission boiler in the boiler room while a pack feud went on the other side.
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up!” I hissed at Vandle, my hand clamped over his mouth as he growled, as if about to confront the alphas just around the boiler.
He wasn't pack, nor had I known him long, like I’d known Karma, but I knew if this madman went to protect the omega being cornered by a dweller pack—well, he’d be ripped to shreds.
“I know it’s hard to watch,” I hissed. “But get a grip.”
I could hear the omega shouting for help, and Vandle struggled, eyes wild.
“Karma!” I hissed.
He was shaking himself free of a rut just in time. He grabbed Vandle, doing a better job than me as I peered around the boiler.
Shit, shit, shit.
The omega—a pale-skinned, dark-haired man who I knew went by Sin—was being backed against the rear of the room by the West pack. New dwellers, and he was their claim. Their gift.
My heart twisted as I caught sight of his terrified expression through the few pipes, but I backed up.
We shouldn’t be here…
Couldn’t do anything.
I turned to Karma.
“No auras,” I whispered.
He and Vandle might have been brawling, but the feral alphas seemed to grasp the urgency of the situation.
Thank fuck.
I heard the pack lead say something taunting to the omega, but I shut it out. I shook my head, meeting Karma’s eyes.
Three of us. Twelve of them.
A death sentence…
Still, my body tensed as I heard a thump followed by the omega’s whine, as if remaining here went against every instinct I had.
The other two were motionless, Karma’s hand still over Vandle’s mouth.
There was a small, strange silence, then a scuffle. I heard a shout—then a thud and another whine. The omega was hurt—
Vandle growled, losing it. His aura exploded into the space, and Karma matched it to keep him still.
We would have been dead, except that every alpha in the room did the same at that second.
Auras erupted. So powerful, so overwhelming that I almost loosed my own in pure panic.
Twelve alpha auras—is this what it felt like?
It felt too large, even for that many. My eyes were wide as I stared at the other two.
What the fuck?
Then the brawl began. Yelps and screams, the sound of flesh tearing…
Even Vandle was still.
A pack brawl?
It had to be. Another pack had come to challenge their claim on the omega. That was the only explanation for the pressure in the air.
We waited for an age until the sounds died down.
Finally, and almost suddenly, the auras were gone. The silence was ringing. Vandle and Karma had both contained theirs, I noticed, as if even they knew the danger.
I held my hand up to Karma, then I peered back around the boiler.
My hand clamped over my mouth.
Jesus Christ.
There were bodies everywhere. Limbs strewn. I saw a disembodied jaw. Innards spilling from someone’s stomach… I’d never seen anything like it.
And, seated with his back pressed against the wall, the omega had somehow survived. His chest was heaving, blood soaking his body. Even from here, I could see his arms shaking as he looked down at his palms, eyes wide with shock.
The alphas… they’d killed each other, and he’d survived.
My instincts told me to go to him.
To see if he was hurt.
I was about to do it, when the door flung open.
Damn.
That was the West pack allies.
Holden was their pack lead. Not dwellers, but well connected. And we were just three unbonded nobodies.
“A… pack brawl?” I heard him saying to one of the alphas behind him.
I watched as he looked around, muttering something else as he took in the destruction, his eyes finally landing on Sin. The huge pack lead had cruel, dark eyes that were dancing with victory, as if he’d just stumbled in to find an unexpected prize. He barely spared a glance for the bodies.
Fear and fatigue were written all over the omega's face, and for a moment, I wondered if he might pass out. Sin shook his head weakly, still trembling, eyes flickering across the new pack that was entering.
“Looks like we’re in luck,” Holden said. “Next in line, shall we say? We get an omega—and we aren’t even dwellers yet.”
I flinched as Holden kicked Sin, sending him sprawling. “Why don’t you run, omega. Make this fun.”
There was a beat, and then Sin managed to drag himself up, desperation clear in his eyes as he tried to run.
Something in me broke as I locked eyes with Karma, who had moved to see.
He’d survived all of that, only to lose his freedom here…?
Present
I woke with a start in a dim room, my whole body aching.
I blinked, trying to figure out where I was.
My pack… Sin…
The year and a half that had passed since the foggy dream had happened, it all rushed in.
Crescent…
We had even more to protect since the day we’d been reckless enough—three unbonded, half-feral alphas—to challenge Holden’s pack to protect an omega we had no claim over.
We hadn’t even been trying to form a pack, or bite him. And that might be why he’d trusted us after that.
But it was certainly why Holden hated us. He’d been the closest allies to the West pack—and he believed Sin should have been his.
He was behind this—I knew it, as thick iron bars finally came into my vision.
We were in a cage.
Like most structures in Anarchy, the bars were made of Vycron steel. Alpha-proof metal. Unbendable, even with the power of the strongest alpha aura. They’d stood the test of time—years of vicious fights banging against them, rutting alphas trying to rip them apart and get at the crowd.
It was fucking impossible to get out of.
But I tried. And when Vandle woke, he tried too.
We both kept the pack bond locked down tight, which meant we couldn’t feel anything from Crescent—didn’t know if she was fucking okay at all. But it was that, or terrify her and Sin. Force her to feel the bubbling rage and feral instincts threatening to break free of us both.
“Fuck!” Vandle’s latest attempt to pull the bars apart ended in his blistered hands slipping from the rough metal.
We were on display in the middle of a large circular room. This cage was four times as big as the one Sin and Crescent had done their show in—theirs was meant for fucking, but this one wasn’t. This was for fights to the death, and the flakes of blood on the edges of the cage floor proved it.
The rut cages were ruled by the Marshall pack. Our ex-allies, the Wakefield pack, shouldn’t have the keys, but the Marshalls liked a little chaos. It wouldn’t be out of character for them to give up a cage key for the night if they were promised fresh bodies in the morning.
At this rate, the bodies would be us.
I slammed my forearm against the steel bars, teeth grinding when pain echoed up to my shoulder.
My frustration was cut short by a door slamming open, hitting the opposing wall.
Karma. Bloodied and beaten, his lip split, but still thrashing against the two members of Holden’s pack like he was fresh out of the gate. Holden entered behind them, and my hackles rose at the sight of him.
Where were Sin and Crescent?
I heard Karma’s vicious snarls as soon as the echo of the door faded, and for a beat I worried he’d gone feral again. Not that our appeal was our greatest worry right now, but we’d never pass if he’d lost himself this close.
I reached out in the bond; there was a void where Karma usually was, but I couldn’t tell if he'd locked the bond down, or if he was vacant from it.
A couple of the Wakefields trailed in behind and came to the rut cage door, keys jingling. Vandle shifted forward, ready to shove his way out and escape this cursed metal.
With a laugh, Holden strode in before he could get a chance, knife in his hand, pointing it at my packmate. “Fucking try it.”
Karma snarled and lunged, but his attempt to get the weapon only resulted in a fresh cut on his cheek, deep enough it might scar. It only made Vandle more keen to test Holden, his grip rattling the bars of the door.
He ended up cut next, the knife slicing across his hand—and if I hadn’t pulled him back, he might have lost a fucking finger.
Of course, he didn’t thank me. He whirled on me and I shoved him away, but they used the distraction to haul open the door, shove Karma inside, and slam it shut again.
The key clicked in the lock.
We were so screwed.
The Wakefield tossed the key to Holden, who shoved it into his pocket.
“Head back out and find those fucking omegas.” Everyone scattered to obey Holden’s barked order. My firestorm of hatred grew to a thunderous smite, my blood burning at the reminder of what he’d orchestrated this whole thing for: Crescent and Sin.
Out there alone while we were stuck in here.
I threw myself against the bars, shook them, screamed curses, but Holden taunted us from safety before leaving us to breathe our fury into the damp underground air, alone.