Chapter 47
KARMA
“We have them.”
Those words were a nightmare, so far beyond the one I was living right now.
It was Sterling, Wakefield pack lead, with his foul necklace and a victorious look in his eyes—more emotion than I think I’d ever seen in them.
“Where?” Holden straightened from the seat he’d been lounging in, knife still in his fist.
Vandle was on the floor at his feet, sticky blood across his torso, breathing short and sharp. There were a few of Holden’s alphas standing near him, but he wasn’t fighting. His skin was far too pale, and I knew he’d lost a lot of blood. They’d taken a break though, seeming unwilling to kill him.
It had been all I could manage, holding onto the last of my sanity, watching him be tortured. I’d held on because I knew, so far, they hadn’t caught our omegas.
That last reason flickered out as Sterling spoke.
“Wouldn’t come. They’re in our cell.”
“Wouldn’t come?” Holden snarled.
“Still has their gun,” Sterling muttered.
Holden rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. “We’ll deal with it.”
“Holden—” Sterling put a hand out before he was brushed off.
“Hm?”
“I don’t want her broken.”
A growl rose in my throat as Holden sneered. “We take whatever we want first, but you’ll get her in one piece.”
“No!” Vandle croaked, finding the strength to sit up, fury and terror shooting through the bond like lightning.
Before he could do more, the alphas grabbed him by the arms and dragged him toward the cage. He snarled, throwing himself against their grip.
It wasn’t enough, and then they were ripping the door open, flanked by more so we couldn’t make a break for it before they tossed him in.
We hauled him up, stepping back.
What was happening?
They didn’t shut the cage.
Instead, members of the Wakefield pack came into the cage with us. I scanned them, holding Vandle up at my side.
There were eight of them here, and I had no weapon…
“We’ll be back,” Holden said, scanning us as he slammed the door shut behind the last alpha. “Don’t think you’ll make it until then, but they’ll get to see your bodies before we clean up.”
I watched as he turned the key and tucked it into his pocket.
I didn’t get a chance to see him and his pack leave for Crescent and Sin, because the first alpha lunged my way.
Sanity fled me as I reacted, catching him with a blow.
Eight?
Could we take eight?
Vandle was barely standing.
We had to.
As I flew toward the first alpha, knowing I needed to get between them and Vandle, I felt the lights begin to flicker in my mind. Signalling a complete shut down of my sanity.
The world moved in a blur, my aura flaring as I inhaled scents, and saw only in flickering shapes. I was nothing but reactions—my teeth meeting flesh, fist closing around a thick, corded neck.
Pain was real, but it was fuel, each breath the next count. The next beat.
I fought like I never had, flung against metal, scoring agony across my back.
My breath shuddered.
Vandle needed me.
My vision spun violently as I tried to get to my knees. Another blow, and I was down.
Shit.
Reality slammed in for a moment.
I couldn’t… I had to… I blinked. I couldn’t go so far there was no way back.
I’d lose her.
Lose him.
Crescent’s golden eyes flashed in my vision, followed by crimson.
I didn’t… want to forget them.
I tried to figure out what was happening.
I had to fight and keep my sanity…
I was on the stone ground.
Too vulnerable. I grabbed the bars, trying to haul myself up enough. I got to my knees before I felt a hand grip my shirt. My elbow flew out, catching something hard, and I heard a grunt.
Then I saw a figure in the lit doorway to the dim room.
He was… familiar, I thought. He came into focus and I found myself locking eyes with my cage-fighting rival.
Ozias?
Was he with the Wakefield pack?
I was wrenched back and had to turn as another alpha lunged at me.
Shit.
But could Ozias get help?
From who, though…?
The Leo pack flashed in my mind. Dead in the gym. Their omega fleeing. Their allies watching on, not willing to take the risk for a pack who would be gone within hours either way.
Not when there was an omega on the line.
“Ozias!” I shouted.
He wasn’t an ally to us, but he wasn’t an ally to Holden, either.
Please. “Fuck!” I threw off the alpha gripping my neck. I landed a punch on another but then backed up, needing my fists free. There were too many, I couldn’t get a kill in.
Just a few feet from the bars of the cage, I could see a metal rod—it looked like it had broken off one of the viewing chairs, but it was out of reach, even if I did have a moment to reach for it.
Phantom and Vandle were together, and I was keeping as many busy as I could.
We wouldn’t make it through.
One of the alphas that had been facing me turned to the others.
No.
I lunged at them, knowing I was losing the small advantage I had in being backed up against the bars.
It didn’t matter; Phantom was trying to protect himself and Vandle, and they couldn’t handle another.
I got my arms around his neck before the others reached me.
They didn’t have weapons, which was the only reason we weren’t dead yet.
It just meant if we did die, it wasn’t likely to be fast. I felt teeth sink into my neck from the alpha behind me, ferality creeping into the brawl as it dragged on.
I slammed my head back, losing my grip on the one I’d been stopping from reaching Phantom.
A blow came out of nowhere, and I was sprawling on the ground.
Fuck.
I pushed myself up, glancing up to get my bearings. One, two, three alphas were closing in. Maybe more, but there wasn’t—
My thoughts cut off as one of the alphas nearest me jolted oddly back. It took me a split second to realize there was a fist in his hair from through the bars. By the time I did, a flash of silver was crossing his throat and a spill of blood cascaded down his neck.
The alpha collapsed, and I wasn’t the only one taken aback by it, which gave me a second of reprieve.
I was staring up into Ozias’s silver eyes.
Before anyone could move, Ozias placed the blade, and the thick metal pipe on the stone floor of the cage, and slid them to me.
I grabbed them, using the bar to push myself up, and easily slammed it into the eye socket of the first alpha who’d made for me, fresh energy spearing my veins.
“Don’t get me in shit, Karma,” I heard him say, as he backed up. “Better kill them all.”
With the weapons, everything changed. I used the metal rod to smash the brains out of the first alpha who tried to lunge for me, and at some point, I’d managed to pass the knife to Phantom.
It wasn’t long before it was finally over.
I slumped against the stone amidst the dying alphas of the Wakefield pack.
We were still locked in.
The others were alive, and Phantom hauled Vandle over so he was next to me.
But I couldn’t look at him.
“Karma…” His voice was weak, like he knew what was happening.
My side of the bond was open, and I couldn’t hold it down. I couldn’t hold onto… anything.
I shook my head, my breathing picking up. A fog was descending in my mind again, as if, now the fight was over, I was ready to be claimed by that old darkness.
I wanted to stay. Needed to. I didn’t want to be mindless. Useless.
Not when they were still in trouble…
And what if, this time when I left, I never came back?
It had happened before…
I wiped my fingers on my shirt and dug in my pocket, adrenaline still making my hands tremble.
The madness felt heavier than it had done in such a long time.
Was a night of terror, of having my omegas ripped from me, enough to undo all the progress I’d made?
I tugged my hand out of my pocket, holding folded pieces of paper. It took me too long to open them, my mind sometimes drifting like it didn’t know what I was doing, or why.
No. No, I needed this.
Finally… I lifted the unfolded papers, trying to focus, but my fingers shook so much that I couldn’t. A faint rumble of a growl sounded in my chest—I was fading so fast I couldn’t even… even see them.
Then Phantom’s fist closed around my arm, steadying it so I could see the pictures.
Two of them.
Rough sketches, but they managed to capture what was important. The one of Sin was old. I’d drawn it so long ago that the graphite was smudged here and there. Crescent’s was fresh, her beauty radiating from the paper in her shy smile, curious eyes, and cascade of snow-white, wavy hair.
I took a breath.
Desert eclipse and roses and cocoa.
“We’re getting out.” Phantom couldn’t know that, but our pack had always been afraid to speak our dreams, as if it might curse them.
And so the dare he made of fate held weight to me.
I managed to nod, staring at the drawings, begging my mind to settle like it would as if they were here.
They were my reasons to stay.