Chapter 50
Sigma
A lost designation marked by crimson eyes, Sigmas were destroyed by the institute for their aversion to princess bonds—or any manufactured bonds.
Sigmas were the rarest designation. They were more independent than alphas, often never bonding, and sharing similarities with omegas, such as heats and nesting. Many were wise women or men, or community protectors, with acute instincts when it came to right and wrong.
While Sigmas don’t always choose a pack, when they do they are fiercely protective. This presents with an unparalleled aura—one that takes time to control, and that comes out when confronted with extreme injustice.
This reaction is especially powerful when concerning their own pack, resulting in some societies in history banning them from bonding at all.
They are the most dangerous of all the designations for this reason.
SIN
One and a half years ago
I ran into a dead end.
The boiler room was small, and cramped, with not enough space for a brawl. Let alone one against a dozen alphas.
I’d been dropped in Anarchy a day or two ago, and somehow managed to survive by hiding. It had been enough time to work out the politics.
I knew a fresh dweller pack was supposed to claim me, that I’d been a gift for them. An offering to alphas I knew nothing of.
That I owed nothing to.
Before Anarchy, there had been white rooms and blurred memories.
They’d gathered up omegas for tests. Some were gold packs when they arrived—omegas who’d denied the injection. Others had been prevented from receiving them for the sake of tests.
So one day, a year after perfuming—after being denied the injection—I’d stared into the mirror to see my eyes hadn’t turned gold at all.
They’d gone crimson.
After that, a nightmare had followed. One in which I desperately dreamed of the experiments. Of anything that would mark me one of the normal gold packs—like Two, or Three, or the others.
Any experiments would have been better.
I’d spent forever in a dim room, going insane.
Forgotten.
Unwanted, even for the world's most cruel experiments.
I don’t know how much time had passed before they threw me down here like forgotten trash.
I was no one.
I had nothing.
But I wasn’t ready to die, and I wasn’t ready to be some pack’s slave.
Cornered to the back of the boiler room, something had happened. With twelve alphas facing me down—and a dark bond in my future… I’d lost it.
Even as the memory manifested, that part became blurry… Crimson splatter. Screams echoing… I lay panting, shivering, among a pack of bodies… Blood soaked my clothing, seeping across the floor.
I remember pushing back, breath catching in fear…
Then the door opened.
“Edward…” The voice trailed off. It was the first time I’d ever heard Holden.
I knew little of this place, but what I knew was that I was looking at the ally of the pack I’d killed.
Holden stared at me, drenched in blood amongst unidentifiable bodies.
My breathing was ragged and wounds upon my body ached, but if they were scratches, knife wounds, or gunshots… I didn’t know.
“What happened here?” he asked. I could see him calculating. “A… pack brawl?”
I… didn’t know. My eyes scanned the bodies strewn across the floor, my own memories flickering in and out. I’d been here, but I didn’t know…
How could I not know?
Was this two packs?
I thought it was just one.
But then… how had they died? And so horribly?
I was ripped from my delirious thoughts as I heard his footsteps cross the room, squelching into the blood as he stepped over bodies.
They were ripped to pieces…
How…?
But then I was being dragged up by my neck, and I was looking into the cruel eyes of another cruel alpha.
“Looks like we’re in luck,” Holden murmured. “Next in line, shall we say? We get an omega—and we aren’t even dwellers yet.”
I was weak. Barely able to focus.
He…
He was going to dark bond me.
After everything… the experiments… after being too broken for even them—this was how it ended.
I tried to draw up my rage, my fear, my strength, but at last, I was empty.
This was it.
Holden shoved me away, sending me sprawling. “Why don’t you run, omega. Make this fun.”
I knew I shouldn’t. Knew it would only give him the satisfaction.
But I did.
I launched across the room, desperately trying to dodge Wyatt, the first alpha in my way, and I knew I must look like a pathetic, feral animal, as I did.
I didn’t get far before a pain ripped through my scalp and I heard one of them cackle.
This was it.
And I had nothing left in me. I’d fought, but it hadn’t been enough.
Only, before the teeth sank into my neck, the alpha halted.
New auras burst into the room, and it was the first time in my life I’d seen Vandle, Phantom, and Karma.
SIN - PRESENT
They’d chained me to one of the beds in the Wakefield’s pack cell, and I knew they were going to force me to watch them hurt her.
I tore against the cuffs, and the sound of them clanging against the metal bars of the bed was deafening.
The world was fading around me, crimson seeping into my vision as they put their hands on my omega.
I didn’t want this designation—I wanted one that would protect her.
I was all wrong, chewed up by protective instincts with no way to follow through with them. If I was supposed to care this much, why was I an omega?
She was the whole fucking world—she had been since the moment I'd seen her come through those doors.
Not just an omega.
My omega.
I had two pillars where there had once been one.
My pack—the place I was safe. The alphas I was supposed to protect. And her—the most precious creature on the planet.
The universe narrowed around them, two focal points, spears jammed into the centre of my heart.
She was mine. And that meant no alpha should touch her—not unless I allowed it.
“Last chance, you little slut, you get to choose. Are you going to trade places with him?” The words were like poison, seeping through my veins, setting them alight with fury like I’d never felt.
She couldn't breathe through the grip Holden had on her neck, pinning her against the wall, but still, she nodded her head.
He snorted, letting go, and she clutched her throat, taking deep breaths.
Above us, through the haze, I heard the faint buzz of the intercom.
“Karma Thomas. Your appeal has arrived. Proceed to the waiting room with your pack.”
My blood chilled as our time dwindled.
The second call of three.
Holden paused, eyes flickering to me, a grin on his face. “Looks like I get to claim your omega, your bond, and your freedom.”
Crescent’s eyes met mine, fear and sorrow in them, but I felt his aura flare and my hair stood on end.
“HOLDEN!”
His eyes darted toward me, amusement in them as I threw my weight again against the chains. “We’re going to make this bitch beg even while we’re breaking her.”
She’d never looked so small as she did now, beside a huge alpha with his aura out.
He struck her with such force that she crashed to the floor a foot before me, a whimper coming loose from her chest.
My heart missed a beat, then another as the whole ocean roared in my ears, drowning the world and my sanity with it.
Wrong.
A violation of all that was natural.
I shattered into a thousand pieces.
Something snapped in the air. A violent energy that burned through my veins, from flesh to bone. The cuffs were gone, dissolving like sugar in water.
I didn't have time to process that every alpha in the room had gone still. That Holden had turned from Crescent, his eyes wide as he faced a monster.
There was no time to process that I was that monster as the world moved strangely around me, everyone else reacting so slowly it seemed almost impossible.
I finally understood the bone-deep hatred I had for this alpha, even beyond everything he’d done to my pack.
He’d tried to claim me.
Instincts burned, lava seeping through my veins as I stared at him.
My pack is what I claimed.
Never the other way around.
Her frightened golden eyes were like beacons, shining through a haze of crimson rage, and they were beacons to a call like I'd never felt. To balance a force so uncontained that there was no other answer than payment in blood.