Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Cell, ABO Facility
Irip the twentieth tear into the base of the thin rubber mattress with my ragged nail.
One rip for each day that I have been locked in this copper lined cell in the ABO Facility.
Since being brought here, I have only seen the Beta guards, the head Alpha guard, warden, and a Rogue Omega Worker.
Rogue Workers seem to be prisoners who have lived here long enough to be trusted to work alongside the staff.
If I intended to remain here, then it would be a good idea to keep my head down, behave, and become a Rogue Worker.
Then I could take down this fucking place from the inside.
But I am escaping.
I drop the mattress back onto the metallic floor of my cell.
I start each day like this because otherwise there would be no way for me to tell how long I’ve been locked up.
As it is, it’s still a guess.
One of the staff’s tricks is to turn the bright white lights on and off at random intervals. There are no windows.
Only because I was kept in the basement for long stretches growing up have I become so good at judging time internally.
These fuckers are underestimating me.
Their funeral.
They know that I am from a mafia family, trained as a bodyguard.
They don’t know, however, that this isn’t my first time living in a prison.
I grew up in a cage.
I leap to my feet, stretching.
I am dressed in the facility’s Rogue uniform of flimsy white cotton pants and t-shirt with an R stitched in violet on the front.
My feet are bare, and I shiver as I step onto the cold copper floor.
A smart design of the cell is that it is entirely metallic from the bars at the front to the toilet and sink. It makes it easier for the assholes to incapacitate the entire facility with the flick of a switch — electricity can drop anyone, no matter how dangerous they are.
The only safe place is the rubber mattress.
I have been kept in solitary. Yet I can hear the screams and pleas of the other Rogues.
I will find a way to save them too.
I bare my fangs.
The shadows are deep under my eyes from sleep deprivation.
My stomach claws with hunger. My temples throb. I shiver.
At least the warden and his team of scientists know to fear the Rogues who they are hiding here. I’ve been spending the last few weeks studying the staff and their weaknesses, however, as much as they’ve been studying me.
The cell is pumped full of pheromone blockers.
They aren’t taking any chances with me using my Rogue Powers.
They also seem not to be taking any chances with my danger as an assassin.
They want to break me…?
Fiorella and the Adonis pack instructors have been training me for this moment my entire life.
Good fucking luck, assholes.
So far, the guards have tried the trick with the lights, the agony of hunger and thirst, and stress positions.
Child’s play.
I stand up, starting my self-created rigorous daily routine. I have grown up in isolation with frequent solitary confinement punishments in my basement.
I know how to survive them.
First, I pad to the sink, bending over to drink thirstily from the tap, splashing my face as well.
My stomach still clenches with hunger, but I won’t die.
Water is what you need to survive.
Then I drop down with military precision into one arm push-ups, counting under my breath.
“One…” I am going to become stronger and not weaker, while I am locked up. “Twenty…fifty…” I change arms and start at the beginning. “One…twenty…fifty.”
I hop up to my feet, energized.
Keeping mental strength is just as important as physical.
When I was seven years old, I was grounded to my room for a month.
I thought that I was never going to be allowed out or that Fiorella would go through with her threat.
“You little monster.” Fiorella held me dangling in the air by my throat. “How dare you use your power against my daughter?”
I whimpered, gasping for breath.
Gianna lay sobbing on the floor with her hands over her ears. She was shaking from the impact of my Rogue Powers.
“S-s-she was h-h-hurting her b-brother,” I replied, defiantly.
Righteous indignation was still surging through me, despite my fear.
Fiorella’s nails bit into my neck.
Wasn’t it obvious?
Mars’ whole body was covered with bloody scratches. He wasn’t crying, however, unlike my cowardly sister.
I had discovered Gianna playing a sadistic game called Cry Alpha. She had stripped Mars to his underwear and had been pushing him repeatedly into the rosebush in the garden behind the hall.
If he cried Alpha, then he was a weak Alpha.
My brother, who was tiny for an Alpha, was more frightened of being seen as soft than any agony his older sister could inflict on him.
Gianna always relied on that.
I was training to be a bodyguard. I dreamed that my job would be to defend him.
Seeing him being bullied, my Rogue Powers simply burst out.
“Then Mars must learn to stand up for himself. Alphas must be Alphas.” Fiorella hurled me to the floor next to Mars.
“If you ever use your powers again, however, I will hand you over to the government. I’ll let them execute you, understand?
Go to the basement. Don’t you dare come out. I don’t want to see your ugly face.”
When I was finally released from my room, I was never the same.
I was stronger.
I tilt my head, deciding which memory game to start first to keep my mind sharp.
“Hmm, song lyrics or famous Omegas?” Hearing my voice out loud is how I keep myself sane. Well, less crazy. “Wait, card games. Nope, let’s start with a list of one hundred card tricks. Okay, the Rogue Switch, Invisible Deck, Phantom Deck…”
I am smiling by the time I reach one hundred of my magic tricks, running through how to do each one as I count it.
Then I settle in front of the bars cross-legged.
You are only in a cage if you allow yourself to be. We are all free inside our own minds.
I take a deep breath, opening the door and imagining that I am in my brother’s bedroom instead.
I visualize the space like I have trained myself to. I count the posters on the bedroom wall, trace my fingers over the fluffy cushions on my brother’s bed, imagine the red roses through the windows, and smell the sweet milkshake scent.
A deep contentment settles over me, despite the devastation that tore through me on being torn apart from my brother and Nico.
I always knew that Fiorella would betray me at some point.
She warned me that she would, holding the threat over my head to keep me loyal. At least this way, I chose the timing.
What are packs?
Home?
I do know that love is putting someone else’s happiness before your own.
It’s loyalty and duty like giving myself up to save my brother.
But can it be more than that?
As a Rogue, I never had a chance in the Adonis pack. But I have bought that chance for my brother, Nico, and the Omegas in the auctions.
It’s a fair price.
I bite my lip, returning into my mind and the reality of the freezing cell.
When I hear light footsteps down the corridor, I open my eyes.
I stiffen but deliberately keep myself looking relaxed.
“Rogue Seventy,” a cheery voice calls, which is jarringly out of place in this bleak facility. I have been labeled as Seventy. So, there are at least sixty-nine other poor prisoners here, right? Or are there far less? Because of those sixty-nine, how many have survived? “Happy Christmas!”
My head does jerk up at that.
How did I miss that it’s Christmas Day already?
Not that I have much to celebrate.
I still smile, imagining Mars waking up at Adonis Hall and his normal bouncing excitement every Christmas morning. Nico always makes sure that he has a good day.
I know that Nico will insist that Mars still opens his gifts and eats the family Christmas dinner, even though I have been sent away.
I was never allowed to be part of the celebrations anyway. But I know how hard things will be for Mars.
I may not have been broken, but will my brother have been?
I force myself not to think about Mars right now. It’s too hard.
My favorite Rogue Worker, Colette, saunters to the bars and leans on them.
It makes my chest tighten that she is around Mars’ age.
How long has she been locked up here that she has already been able to work herself up to the position of trusted Worker?
Colette is small with honey eyes and blond hair that is pulled back in a smart ponytail. Her face is open and kind. She is dressed the same as I am but with the added authority — perk — of a warm violet jacket.
Except, she is an Omega.
It hits me hard in the guts.
She reminds me of the Omegas who I would see being dragged into the dank rooms along from my own basement room…terrified and weeping…in Adonis Hall.
“Hey, Sev, did you forget that it was Christmas?” Colette kneels in front of the bars. “Do you want me to sing you a carol and make it more festive?”
“Oh, is that today’s torture? Can we skip to the stress positions? How about you just flip that?” I gesture with my chin at the black switch on the outside of the bars that will send an electric current through my cell.
Colette shudders in a way that makes me horrifyingly sure that she also knows what it is like to be electrocuted.
“Don’t even joke about that. The staff are celebrating with their packs today.
Relax and enjoy the break from their attentions.
I wish that I at least had some holly to cheer up this place.
I’m breaking the rules but I’m still going cell to cell to make sure that no one is fully alone, you know? Not today.”
See, kind.
I’ve never had anyone but Mars and Nico who put themselves at risk for me.
Is Colette my friend? I haven’t had one of those before.
This new connection is dangerous. I shouldn’t be making friends.
How has Colette held onto her compassion in a place like this?
“How long have you been here, Col?” I ask.
Her smile falls. “I don’t know. I was tiny when I was brought here. How old do I look? A high schooler?”
I swallow, blanking my expression.
I want to punch something.
“More like college, maybe a year older,” I reply.
Colette’s face falls. “Oh.”