Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
NOA
The rumbling sound of an engine tells me I’m still in a car. I can smell their horrid scents as their scent blockers fade. I keep my eyes closed and my breathing even as they laugh and joke. It takes everything in me not to flinch at Jackson’s hand wrapped around my throat.
“Wakey wakey, omega, we’re here.” Mayfield’s teasing voice makes my skin itch as the car pulls to a stop. I slowly open my eyes, the darkness of night a stark contrast to the daylight I was expecting.
How long have I been out?
Jackson’s harsh blue eyes are already staring into mine as his hand tightens around my neck. Yanking me up by my neck, he sniffs along the side of my face. Dried tears and, honestly, some spit caked my face.
My omega is screaming at me, my heat kicking in full force as a cramp makes me hunch forward, into Jackson’s lap, who laughs, but I can’t process him as a whip of pain lashes my stomach.
“I knew you’d come back, omega,” he says, trailing one of his dirty hands down my face. I recoil, trying to get away, but with his hand on my neck, there isn’t much I can do. Come back? As if I’d ever come back to them.
My brain is getting foggier by the minute, and I dread what’s coming. Omegas typically have a heat begging for a knot, for connection, for everything, and when they don’t get that. When they’ve never gotten it, their bodies change.
Or at least mine did. I was never interested in sharing my heat with anyone, and my body knew it. Instead of pleasure, bonds, and connection, I get pain. I get so much pain I can’t think, I can hardly breathe.
I can’t decide anything, much less whether I should fight now or once I get out of the car. As much as I want to thrash my body around and scream bloody murder, my body is frozen in pain. My limbs are too heavy for me to move, and his stare is like a nail piercing me still.
I focus on breathing, despite their scents coming in with each inhale. I have to live. I have to–
A lightning strike of pain rips across my abdomen, and I try to curl into myself to ease the pain, but Jackson tightens his grip on me, making me freeze again.
“If you’re good, we’ll help you with that little problem,” Jackson whispers along the side of my face. Flinching when his hot breath hits me, he growls and yanks me up by my neck. Jackson’s car door opens, and I’m being pulled out from behind by Derrick. This is my time. My chance to run.
Derrick’s arm is bound around my stomach, so I let my weight go, and I slip into his arms. His arm is closer to my boobs, so I attack his arm.
Scratching and pulling, trying to get them to let me go.
I can’t pay attention to him, the sounds, or my surroundings.
I’m completely focused on getting his arm to let me go.
Just as Derrick’s arm is loose enough for me to slip out from under it, Mayfield snatches my body and throws me over his shoulder.
His shoulder digs into my stomach, and I see the neighborhood they used to live in—all these big houses with the lights off.
No one is around to help—no one would risk their social standing for an omega.
I’ve always been alone here. If anyone heard my screams, my struggle, they didn’t care. They never did because in their eyes, I’m just an omega.
Mayfield drags his nose up along the back of my thigh, and I shiver in disgust as I feel his lips on my skin.
Using my nails, I dig at his back, trying to weaken him, but he just laughs.
Mayfield has always been stronger than Derrick, but that just means I need to try harder.
I shake my head, trying to think, to do something.
My brain won’t work; I can’t think of a plan, a plan I need.
I need to get back to my alphas. My real alphas. I need them.
Havoc plays through my mind. I’d seen him running, trying to remember what happened after that, but I can’t.
What happened to my alpha? My stomach drops, as if it could any further, as realization sets in.
Havoc would not have let them take me. He would fight–a sob breaks through my lips as the thought forms. He would fight to the end to save me.
Panic fills my blood. I thrash around, trying everything. My bond! I focus on that, but the bond with Havoc is weak. No, my alpha, is he okay? I need him to be okay. I can feel that he’s not, and it sends my omega and me into a panic.
“Omega, you smell so fucking good,” he growls and bites the side of my exposed thigh. I’m really regretting wearing a short skirt despite how hot my entire body is. How was I supposed to know they’d kidnap me today? Or ever. I knew my heat would start soon, but today? Of all days?
I should have been prepared.
Still, just because I failed doesn’t mean I can’t try again.
I pound on Mayfield’s back. Which he hardly feels, so I force my knee into his chest so hard he throws me off his shoulder.
My back slams into the ground, and my whole body withers from the pain of that, and another cramp slices my stomach.
I’m drenched in sweat, and I need… I need my alphas.
I whine as the wrong hands are on me again.
“No, please,” I whimper, trying to get away, gripping the dirt. I flip onto my stomach, try to find purchase in the grass, and crawl away. My body increasingly gets harder to control as I perfume so much I can smell myself, the sour scent making me more chillingly scared.
“You should have thought of that before running away,” Jackson says, ripping me from the ground and dragging my body to the door. The door is the same beige color it was before. The same color I’d stare at for hours on end, wishing, hoping, I’d walk out of here and never return.
And here I am. Again. Every memory I have floods back. Shaking my head, trying to rip them, I grip my hair, trying to force myself back to reality.
I got away once. I can do it again, right?
The house smells the same, a mix of the alphas with a musk I can’t place. I can’t focus on anything much more than the pain, my heat and the memories making it hard to breathe normally. Maybe I’ll pass out and sleep through this nightmare of heat.
The stairs come into view, and I nearly faint at the thought of being dragged up them, but then Jackson turns, and takes me to what once was the pantry in the kitchen.
“Since you don’t know how to behave, this is your new nest. Shouldn’t take you too long to get to the kitchen now, huh, omega?
” The acid in my throat threatens to come up as I’m picked up and shoved into the pantry.
My back hits the shelves as my foot stumbles over a single blanket.
The darkness greets me and sends me into a fear-induced frozen state as my hands grip the pantry shelves, trying to keep myself upright.
I hear the lock, and despite the pain and need for a knot, I’m so grateful they aren’t trying to use my heat to satisfy themselves. I have to get out of here before they get the bright idea to do so.
But how? Another cramp slices through me, and I fall to my knees, the wood floor under me gracing my knees once again. The thought makes the sob stuck in my throat burst out. I attempt to look around, feeling my way through the dark space.
They took the bottom shelves out of this pantry and at least put a single pillow and blanket in here.
The blanket is cheap polyester that itches my skin, and the yellow-stained pillow is so flat I might as well lay directly on the wood floor.
The tears that’ve waited so long to break through do flow freely now.
One after another, I sob. Raking my hands through my hair despite the dirt under my nails.
I try the handle, knowing they locked it, and my heart still plummets when the handle doesn’t move.
What do I do now?