Thirty One
C onfusion was the first emotion I felt as I returned to consciousness once again. My surroundings were cold and it seeped into my skin, making my bones ache as I tried to take stock of them.
Had Rhodes left the window in my room open again? The alpha usually overheated amongst all of the materials in my nest, so it wasn’t outside of the realm of ordinary for him to push all of the windows open despite the chilly autumn weather outside.
But when he did that he usually made sure I was snuggled up in between him and Edison, using them both as my own personal heaters.
Had they been pulled away for business again? Edison had been frowning more often as of late and I wondered if whatever was happening behind the scenes was finally coming to a head.
My cold surroundings weren’t the only thing that was different from my usual. The material that I was lying on was also not normal. It was stiff and scratchy, a far cry from the chiffon swathes of fabric and fuzzy soft blankets that made up my nest.
I felt groggy as I tried to parse through the details of my surroundings. Even as I was awake, I could feel the heaviness of sleep trying to pull me back under like a hand pressing my head back into the pillow.
The pillow that smelled almost anesthetic, like the detergent that hospitals used and claimed was scentless.
That was what finally brought me awake enough to realize I wasn’t home anymore.
With a jerk, I forced myself to sit up and open my eyes. The dim room around me spun causing me to nearly flop back down into the cot I was sitting on. But what I saw as I glanced around me made me shake off the feeling as the terrifying reality of where I was began to settle in.
It looked like I was in some kind of plastic room with holes popped into the wall for what I assumed was so that air could get in. Like I was some kind of hamster.
The wall behind me was at least brick and I pressed a hand into it, letting the coolness help me wake up more.
There was a metal toilet to the left of my little cot and a matching sink just past that, but it was what I saw beyond both of those that scared me the most.
My little plastic cubicle wasn’t the only one. There were at least five others, some dark and some with dim blue lights turned on illuminating prone forms curled up on cots just like mine.
“Where the hell am I?” I asked out loud, my voice rough like I’d been screaming for hours instead of just having woken up.
I still couldn’t figure out how I’d even gotten here in the first place. The last thing I remembered was feeling Edison and Rhodes slip out of the nest, talking quietly before urging me to go back to sleep and then the sound of my phone ringing.
Was that right? Something must have been given to me that was making it hard for me to remember.
The sound of knocking next to my ear nearly made me just clear out of my skin and I whirled around to find a familiar face staring back at me.
I knew that face. I’d seen it on the day of my wedding—my first one that is.
Tired blue eyes stared back at me with deep purple bags underneath them.
“ Luscinia ?” I managed to rasp, turning my body so that I was facing her completely.
She looked far worse for wear than the last time I’d seen her. Before she’d been impeccably dressed, not a pale blonde curl out of place as she’d argued with Elio Ricci before I walked down the aisle.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised to be face-to-face with the woman who’d looked like she’d wanted to tear my throat out with her teeth.
Luscinia began signing something, her bruised hands going so fast that I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up even if I did know sign language.
I waved a hand to stop her. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying. Can you read lips?”
Luscinia paused before nodding, her thin shoulders lifting in a sigh.
“Where are we?” I looked to the front of the plastic prison cell, finding a number on the door and a thin brick hallway that led off into the darkness.
Luscinia leaned forward and breathed on the plastic, causing it to fog up thanks to how cold it was, and began to write with a shaky finger.
‘Russians ,’ she wrote before erasing and breathing again. ‘ Took 2 days ago. ’
“Two days ?” I gasped, thinking about how Edison and Rhodes must be losing their minds. “Have I been here two days?”
Luscinia shook her head before writing: ‘ Hours .’
“Why did they take us? What’s their plan?” As I spoke, flashes of memory started to peek through what I now knew was probably some kind of drug they’d given me.
My phone had rung after Edison and Rhodes left. Romey had called me, panicked, telling me that he needed my help and that he was outside.
I’d nearly hung up and gone back to sleep, still angry about him cornering me at that party and trying to get me to leave with him, but there was so much panic in my little brother’s voice that I agreed.
I took Connor, one of the guards stationed outside of the tower with me and hurried to meet him by the pool where he was supposed to be waiting.
But he wasn’t alone. He had one of Edison’s men—I was pretty sure his name was Rory—who looked beat and bruised and an entire group of men I didn’t recognize.
“I’m sorry, Perr, they’ve got Kailey,” he’d said before something sharp was jabbed into my neck and everything went black.
Romey had completely sold me out, I realized with an angry huff.
I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I nearly missed what Luscinia had written on the wall before it faded.
‘War,’ she’d written and I felt myself go even colder than I already was.
The Russians were trying to start another war and they were using us to do it.
Edison had only ever told me very vaguely about what was going on between the five families over the past couple of months. But I knew enough to understand that everything that had been happening had been driving my alpha up the wall trying to avoid another bloodbath like the one that had happened before he was born.
And now I’d been kidnapped. The same way his mother had been.
The night I’d gone to the college party, I’d caught a glimpse of Edison when he thought I had been kidnapped but was actually safe. He’d been practically feral with fear.
What was he like now? I couldn’t feel him at all, it was like his end of the bond was stretched far out away from me, telling me that we weren’t even close to wherever he was.
I opened my mouth to speak again, but the sound of someone softly singing stopped me.
I could hear a voice, singing low about blackbirds. The tune was familiar, but my hazy brain was struggling to pinpoint exactly where I’d heard it before. Even as I listened, I was half-trying to convince myself that my head was making it up.
I frowned and sat up straight, peering off into the line of cells to try and figure out who it was, not seeing anything. The singing eventually petered off into a low humming noise that was almost more haunting.
Luscinia tapped on the glass, her expression questioning.
“Someone is singing,” I explained, realizing there was no way for her to hear it. “Down that way.”
Her blue eyes followed where I was pointing, her lips pulling down into a frown.
“Do you know how many prisoners there are?”
She shook her head before breathing on the glass again. ‘ Only seen them. ’
“Them? Who’s them?”
As if my question had summoned them, the sound of a metal door being opened somewhere far away filled my ears and I watched as the previously prone forms on the bed began to curl up into tighter balls. Someone began to sob softly and was promptly shushed.
Luscinia, seeing them move, was gone from the wall and tugging her scratchy-looking blanket over her head as she copied what the other prisoners were doing.
With my heart in my throat, I did the same. I hated being surrounded by so much uncomfortable fabric and I also hated being blind to what the sound of approaching footsteps would bring… but I was also pretty sure that standing out was even more dangerous.
“You said she was awake?” a man asked in a thick Russian accent.
“Yes, she was sitting up and talking with the deaf one before we came in,” another voice replied, this one a bit of a more nasally pitch. “Are you going to let me do what I want, Vlad?”
There was a pause before the nasally voice spoke again. “You promised I could do it once you brought me an omega again.”
“I have brought you lots of omegas, Andrey. For almost thirty years I have brought whatever you wanted like my father asked me to. Why should I give you this one?” The deeper voice sounded so calm despite the words he was saying.
“Yes but this one is different. Her hormone levels are just what I need to complete my project—the deal with your father still stands, nephew, I let you keep control over the family and you let me have my hobbies.”
“I need this one,” the man replied. There was a pause before he spoke again. “I know you are awake, little omega, you may as well sit up so that we can talk.”
I didn’t want to sit up. I didn’t want to see the two men who were standing on the outside of my plastic cell talking about me like I was some kind of specimen.
Be brave, I whispered silently to myself before finally sitting up and throwing the blanket away from my face.
I knew the first man who was standing stone-faced with his hands behind his back. He was Vladimir Volkov.
My father had tried for as long as I could remember to garner money and support from the stoic man and had always failed. But I’d seen him at events and parties before, and as always when I saw him, a shiver ran down my spine as I met his icy blue eyed gaze.
The other man I didn’t know. He was almost a foot shorter than the head of the Volkov family and was dressed in what I could only describe as a scientist get-up. He was wearing a blue checkered shirt, black pants, and a long white coat that he had both hands buried in the pockets of.
He’d called Volkov his nephew, but I could hardly see any family resemblance in the thinner man aside from the same pale blue eyes that were staring a hole into my face as he looked at me with unrestrained glee.
“Hello there, Madame Keane.” Volkov gave a little bow. “I apologize for our… rough introduction earlier.”
“Where is Romey,” I asked, thinking about my brother. I was so going to kick his ass when I got out of this, but I still didn’t want him to be hurt.
“The younger Chandler took his girlfriend and left some hours ago—I would not be surprised if he was halfway across the world by now.”
I wasn’t sure if I should believe Volkov’s words. It couldn’t have been that easy for him to get Kailey back and run and there was no way that the man would leave such an obvious loose end.
“Thank you for letting him go,” I whispered, choosing to play along with his lie for now.
“Of course, you don’t know me very well but I am nothing if not magnanimous.” Volkov held his hands out like he was as harmless as a fly. If I didn’t already know who he was he’d probably look like an older version of Prince Charming to me with his pale blond hair and straight jawline. But I knew better.
“Why am I here? Where is my husband?”
“You are here because you are a very important key to my plans and as for your husband, I’m sure that, right about now, he’s realizing you are no longer safely asleep in your bed.”
“Your plans?” I prodded, hoping he would let something slip that I could use later.
Volkov’s smile was slow and dangerous, sending a chill down my spine. “I am not some stereotypical supervillain, Mrs. Keane, I am not going to tell you all of my dirty little secrets in some long drawn out monologue. Now, please make yourself at home, you’ll be here for a while.”
Volkov turned and began to head back down the dark hallway, his uncle following behind him at a close clip.
“Vladimir you promised I’d get to use the next omega and she’s so ripe for the material I need and I already have the perfect test subject in the beta—”
“And I have told you no, uncle, I will find you another omega, but this one is off limits.” Volkov cut the man’s whining off decisively as the metal door opened again.
I waited for them to disappear completely before I let myself flop back down into the bed, my limbs shaking as I once again gave in to the drug-induced sleep that had been riding me hard ever since I woke up.
My last thought before sleep took me was that Edison and Rhodes would find me and there was nothing to worry about.
I just hoped they did it soon.
“This is almost perfect,” the same nasally voice from earlier crowed excited.
As I opened my eyes, I was forced to squint at the bright light overhead, confusion filling me as I realized I wasn’t in my little plastic cube anymore but instead lying on a cold metal table with my wrists and ankles strapped down.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my head still swimming as I turned to find Andrey standing right off to the side filling a syringe with some type of clear liquid.
Just past him I caught sight of two more metal tables. On one was Luscinia and her eyes were closed, her blonde hair spilling over the side, and on the other was a taller woman I didn’t recognize.
She had dark hair that was pulled out of her face leaving her brown eyes wide with fear as she rolled her head back and forth, humming under her breath.
I didn’t know the woman, but it was easy enough to place the voice that had been singing earlier.
“You’re…” I began, swallowing down the sudden wash of nausea I was feeling. “You’re supposed to leave me alone.”
While Andrey hadn’t seemed to have heard me the first time, he definitely did the second.
Blue eyes shifted away from the syringe to me as he offered me a smile that wasn’t altogether sane.
“He’ll forgive me. Vladdy always forgives me. I gave him the keys to the kingdom and all he has to do is fund my dreams.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or to himself, but he started to approach me with the full syringe in hand. “You’re already so close to your heat and my what a heat it will be. I’ve never had an omega’s genetic material during her first heat before—the last really good one was so long ago and even she’d gone through it a few times. You are perfect for what I need, my dear.”
The man giggled and it sent shivers down my spine.
“But I’m not in heat though,” I told him, hoping it would buy me a few extra minutes.
Andrey grinned down at me, giving the syringe a squeeze to get any air bubbles out. At some point while I was unconscious he must have run an IV line in my hand because he was reaching for it as I tried to pull my way out of the straps. “This will fix that easily. You should feel honored, finding heat stimulants is no small feat now that they’ve been banned in almost every first world country, my dear. Very, very expensive.”
I gawked at him as he attached the syringe to the IV port and began to depress the plunger. “Apologies in advance as I’m afraid this will hurt a bit.”
As soon as the liquid flowed through the IV and into my hand it was like he’d injected me with fire.
A guttural scream was pulled from my throat as every inch of me was set ablaze followed by the most vicious cramping I’d ever felt.
Need alpha, need alpha, need alpha, my inner omega whimpered piteously as she seemed to reach out and grip my mind in between burning claws.
I was almost mindless with it all, only picking up on bits and pieces of what Andrey was saying as he continued to talk about what he was doing.
“You see, I have been working for over forty years trying to find a way to turn the much less desired betas into an omega with very little success. It’s never been done before, but I’ve gotten quite close.”
A moan slipped free from my mouth, drowning out his words for a moment as my hips bucked upwards and I squeezed my thighs together for any sort of friction to ease the molten ache in between my legs.
“Thirty-eight years ago I met a young woman who was almost as fresh as you.” Andrey sighed almost nostalgically. “Her genetic material was some of the purest, I just didn’t have the right beta specimen to work with—the girl was a late bloomer and all injecting her with omega genetic material did was awaken her already latent designation. Not quite what I was going for, I’ll admit. Then my facility was trashed by those damned Irish after that and I lost her forever.”
Andrey hummed under his breath for a moment as his eyes flicked over to the screens monitoring my heartbeat as they started to beep wildly. He then pulled a different syringe off of the little metal tray next to him along with a long rubber tube.
“But that girl over there is perfect,” he whispered in my ear, nodding to Luscinia. “A beta through and through, even if her father wishes she was anything but different.”
“What are you going to do to her?” I asked through gritted teeth, crying out as another wash of fire flowed through me.
I wanted my alphas more than anything else in the world right now, but they were nowhere to be seen. They didn’t even know where I was. A pitiful sob leaked from between my lips, making the man’s grin widen even more.
“It’s a bit of a roulette this time, I’m afraid. But I can assure it’s all in the name of scientific exploration.”
A stinging prick in my arm slipped in between heat cramps and I glanced down to find him taking some of my blood.
“Over on the other side you’ll see my little bird. She’s been with me for a long time—an alpha of course. I stimulated her hormones with some of your pheromone, bringing on a rut so that I could get the most potent of her genetic material. Only the best for my beta.” Andrey reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of blood, waving it in my face.
I watched in horror as he started to mix my blood with the alpha woman’s realizing that I had no idea what was about to happen to Luscinia.
At least with Vladimir Volkov, I knew his motives had something to do with power and money—motives that I could understand. But Andrey Volkov? The man was insane, pure and simple.
“Why are you doing this?”
Andrey’s head shot up as if he’d forgotten I was still here. “Why? Why not? Science is all about pushing the envelope my dear, ethics be damned!”
He wagged the new, bigger vial in my face before placing it in some kind of machine that began to spin.
I’d never regretted being a photography major more than I did now as I watched with confusion as the machine beeped and he pulled the vial out again, grinning at the layer of yellowy material that had collected towards the top.
“I’d explain how all of this works, but I’m afraid it may be too much for you, my dear. Time for you to take another nap.”
He reached for the IV line and twisted a knob, sending the cool fluids from the hanging bag and something else down the line and into my hand.
My eyes started to grow heavy as the force of my heat was dulled slightly by the medicine.
Andrey turned away from me and back to Luscinia. The last thing I heard as my eyes started to drift shut was a garbled scream—the first noise I’d ever heard from the woman—and then everything went black.
“Luscinia!” A familiar roar woke me up from my medically induced sleep and I opened my heavy eyes just in time to see Andrey Volkov slump to the floor with three bullet holes in his chest and his blue eyes open and unseeing.
Pack Ricci stomped into the little operating room that was now brightly lit, giving me a full view of the space. In the distance I could hear the shriek of an alarm and the sounds of shouting.
The alpha woman’s table had been overturned at some point and I could hear her sobbing and moaning as she tried to free herself from her bonds while the four alphas surrounded the table with the unconscious beta.
Her skin was so pale that I was vaguely worried that she’d died from whatever Andrey had injected her with.
Elio was already fumbling with her bonds and pulling her from the surface. The man looked terrified as he gave Luscinia a shake. “Cini, wake up,” he said out loud even though he knew the woman couldn’t hear him.
“Come on, El, we’ve got to hurry. The FBI is going to swarm this place any minute,” Dante growled nudging the alpha towards the door.
“Wait—” I called, my voice barely more than a rasp. All four men jerked in my direction, their eyes wide as their nostrils flared.
I’d almost forgotten I was in heat.
“We can’t leave her here. Not after those two helped us find this place,” Ranieri said, taking a step towards me but Dante reached forward and snagged his wrist before he could come any closer.
“She’s in heat. You can’t get anywhere near her,” he hissed at his pack mate, dragging him towards the door.
“We’re sorry,” Elio apologized, still looking down at Luscinia. “But we’ve got to get her out of here.”
I understood even if it hurt. We’d never liked each other, but we had almost been married.
“At least help get her out of her bonds.” I nodded to the alpha who was starting to cry as she struggled to get herself free.
Ranieri glanced between the beta in his pack leader’s arms and the woman strapped to the table before growling under his breath and hurrying over to do as I asked. Once the straps were undone, he stumbled backwards as the woman flipped nimbly to her feet and gave him a feral hiss.
She glanced between Pack Ricci and me with wild, dark eyes before skirting around all of us and slipping out of the door at a dead run.
“They should be coming soon,” Elio promised and then they were gone too, leaving me with a dead body and the sound of sirens filling my ears as my eyes closed and I once again gave in to the medicine.