Chapter 52
CRESCENT
Two beta men sat behind a desk, staring wide-eyed at the five of us as we filed into the large conference room.
Their desk was on the opposite side of the wall that was clear plexiglass on the top half and solid cement on the bottom.
It had two speakers, and both betas wore headsets with microphones attached, one with a computer before them.
I glanced around, spotting a shiny sphere attached to the ceiling. A camera, I thought. They were watching our every move.
My fingers dug into Vandle’s arm, and he drew me closer.
He was a pillar in the bond, despite the nerves we all had, the strange, echoing fury and emptiness of Sin, he felt strong.
My pack lead.
Vandle dragged me forward, practically holding me up as he led me to the chair. Every muscle was screaming from the heat, and the metal was cold against the blood drying on my skin. But I paused, realizing how strong the scent of iron was…
I looked at him properly, he had no top on, and his torso was wrapped with fabric dark with blood. I froze. He’d been in pain… I remembered that. It’s what had triggered my heat. His hand caught mine though, mismatched eyes holding mine as he pulled his hand away. His skin was devoid of colour.
His fingers were cool, and despite his steady voice, there had been a deep tremor in his grip.
“I’m okay, Princess,” he murmured.
But I didn’t know if he was.
He sat though, drawing me onto his lap without giving me space to argue, arms winding around me, giving me relief as I battled with my own consciousness.
If he was still here, I could hold on.
Karma pulled out a chair for Sin, and I noticed the way he nudged him, as if for comfort.
Sin was like a statue that might crack beneath the slightest breeze. A storm held together by sheer willpower as he lowered himself onto the seat stiffly.
It was strange seeing him without the blood red eyes…
So wrong.
The two men behind the glass weren't speaking as they stared at us and the crimson smears on our faces.
Would they send us back?
I tried to straighten my brain out around another heat pang. They were probably unhappy that we’d made their room smell like a fresh slaughter house.
Phantom cleared his throat. “We’re here for our appeal.”
Good.
He sounded solid. Sure. Not a fraction of the ferality I knew they’d be looking for.
I glanced at Karma. He hadn’t sat, protectively shadowing Sin. Phantom was on his other side, also still on his feet.
The betas exchanged a look, one of them clicking onto the computer, typing something rapidly after an exchange we didn’t hear.
Then the other spoke into the microphone, his words not coming through to our side, and then looked up.
He adjusted the headset, trying again, and his voice crackled to life through the speakers.
“Please uh… list the designations and names of your pack members.” His eyes were fixed on me.
“No…” I heard the other faintly through the speakers as he addressed his colleague, looking up from his computer where he’d been previously typing. “No record of a female alpha…”
“We have two omegas,” Vandle said. “Three alphas.”
“Two?” The colour drained from the faces of the betas, their eyes going wide. Maybe they’d guessed because of my eyes, but Sin’s didn’t give him away. “That’s impossible. Omegas aren’t permitted in Anarchy.”
I frowned, curiosity overtaking my discomfort. “There are lots—” I cut off as I felt Vandle’s hand tighten around my waist—a warning of sorts.
I shut my mouth, looking between the betas and Sin.
Why didn’t they know?
He was tense, jaw clenched, the suppressed Sigma energy making the air around him feel heavy.
“Someone’s been doing it without permission, I would guess,” Vandle murmured in my ear.
I remembered when I’d been sent down by the High Priest, how he’d taken me from the Convent.
Everything had seemed secretive, but at the time, I’d thought it was just because they didn’t want me exposed to any other alphas, lest I destroy them…
But I knew, now, how so much of that had been made of lies.
It was at that moment that another wave of my heat hit and the tenuous strings of thought holding my sanity together snapped completely.
SIN
A wave of Crescent’s heat hit and sent the room into chaos.
I was on my feet as armed guards stepped into the room beyond the screen.
The beta spoke into the comms again. “The two omegas will come to the door. The alphas are to stand against the far wall.”
“She’s in heat!” Vandle snarled, Crescent held firmly against him. “She needs us with her.”
“Against the wall now! We need to confirm what you’re saying.”
My heart was slamming into my ribs as I watched a man in a lab coat step in after the guards. I felt Vandle destabilize in an instant.
He was wounded, on the edge of delirium, and I knew he’d come from a place of lab coats and experiments.
Shit.
If he lost it…
And Karma was on the edge, too.
I met Phantom’s gaze…
Would they send the alphas back down? Keep us apart from them?
It took almost everything left of my strength to shove down my instincts, the aura that had so recently surfaced in protection of her…
I reached Vandle, placing a hand on his arm.
“Let me take her. Let them see we are what we claim to be.”
Stupid fucking idiots. They could see her eyes, sense her heat.
But if we failed her, who knows what would happen?
Or if they looked too hard at me.
Crescent’s eyes were misty, her breathing heavy, but her fist curled at my shirt. “It’s okay, Alpha,” she whispered, just for him. I could almost see the panic in her eyes at the words, though, at the suggestion she might be taken from her alphas while in heat.
“I’ve got you, Firefly,” I told her, carefully prying her from Vandle’s grip and pulling her into my arms. She latched on like a barnacle, holding me close and burying her face in the crook of my neck.
Phantom helped Vandle to his feet, but he brushed it off, hand clutching his side, hormones clearly burning back the pain.
How bad were his wounds?
I was trying not to think about it, knowing if my aura came out, we were fucked.
“Come on.” At Phantom’s prompting, Vandle took one hesitant step back. I met Karma’s eyes, then nodded to the wall.
“We’ll be out soon,” I told him.
All I had to do was survive this fucking appeal with these contact lenses in, making everyone think I was just another omega.
The uncomfortable, too-dry contacts were making it really hard. The red heat was still thumping behind my eyes, a rhythmic demand for more blood that I was struggling to drown out.
I felt like a bomb on a hair-trigger.
I gritted my teeth, pulling myself together for the omega in my arms as I stepped toward the door.
As soon as I reached it, it opened. Armed men crashed in, weapons raised, not at me, but at the tense alphas at my back.
I thought I felt Karma almost crack, then.
The man in the lab coat stepped through. He was younger than I expected. He had white hair, but like Vandle, it was because he was a seer. Mismatched eyes slid between us curiously.
He seemed to be an omega seer, not an alpha, which was good because that might have been the last straw as he examined Crescent, who was still clutching me through shivers.
“Definitely omegas,” he said, perhaps to the betas still behind the glass. “Definitely in heat. What the hell is going on down there?” he muttered, pulling out a suspicious looking vial.
“What is that?” That was Vandle’s snarl.
“We don’t have heat facilities here,” the omega said. “Put it off until we’ve figured out what’s going on.”
“She’s already in the middle of it. That’s not good for her.”
“It’s… okay…” Crescent tugged at my shirt. “I want… I want you all when everything is… is safe.”
It felt like a stone was caught in my throat.
She gripped me closer, voice a whisper. “If they wanted to hurt us, they could just… open fire.” She let out a delirious little giggle.
I did not share her heat-haze humour, though, eyeing the all too close weapons that were pointing at my alphas.
We were, and always had been, at their mercy in this place.
I didn’t trust any of them.
Even the term ‘appeal’ was a stretch. It was a plea, and they could accept or reject us, and who would know any different?
I didn’t get a chance to look over at the others before the seer had removed the cap to the vial and I winced as he slid it into Crescent’s shoulder, injecting the whole thing.
It barely took a few seconds before Crescent went limp in my arms, the waves of her heat dimming in the air, even if her breaths were still rapid.
He looked from Crescent, then up to me, eyes narrowed as he took us in. “There isn’t supposed to be an omega in Anarchy,” he said, voice curious. “Not one… but certainly not two…”
Karma
We were led into an office that smelled like lemon polish and old fear.
It was vile.
My omegas weren’t here with us.
Leverage. To make sure we behaved…
But we would see them again—if I didn’t believe that, I would lose it, and we would be sent back down.
I paced the length of the expensive rug, my boots sinking into the fibres. Every muscle in my body was a coiled spring, vibrating and on the brink of snapping.
They weren't here.
Sin.
Crescent.
My Omegas were locked in a holding cell somewhere in this stone tomb, and I was stuck here, staring at a man in a crisp suit who thought a desk could protect him from me.
“My name is George. I’m one of the facility managers,” he said, though his voice wavered when I turned my head to snarl at him. “Have a seat.”
I didn’t move. Vandle was tense by the door, a massive, silent shadow, eyes darting around the photos on the wall like one might jump out. He looked sickly, but I could feel how alert he was in the bond—pure adrenaline keeping him awake.