Chapter 20
The Ravage Wolf
“Hey, Alpha,” I call out.
Jarek whirls around, spots me, and, with an anguished look, the blood drains from his face. He presses a hand to his shoulder, holding it like it hurts. He looks like he’s seen a ghost.
I’m on the way to get food for my stomach, which is growling like a hungry alpha. The look on Jarek’s face kills my appetite dead. I take a step towards him, but he whirls and rushes away, almost running from me.
My feet are glued to the spot, despite people walking past me. The pang of hurt is sharp enough that I do not even want to acknowledge it. I refuse to chase him.
It feels like everyone is looking at me, staring, wondering what evil I have committed to make such a strong alpha run. With an annoyed huff, I turn back to the cafeteria. I reach up, tying my hair in a ponytail while I walk, trying to push the image of his face out of my mind.
Cadel is waiting for me when I enter the room. Bless him, he hands me a plate that has some kind of meat and bread.
I don’t want to eat it. My stomach is still churning, but we’re heading out today, and I need to have the sustenance.
“Eat,” Cadel growls as if he can read my mind.
I obey him because I don’t want to cause a scene and because he’s right. It occurs to me that Cadel didn’t use his bark to make me eat. The kind of alpha that he is shines in everything he does. Quiet, attentive, savage, and lethal but to everyone else. Never to me.
Marshall’s standing next to a tall guy that I haven’t seen before. He’s got shoulder-length black dreadlocks and looks deadly.
“Who is that?”
“That is an alpha named Kendric. I believe Marshall and he are friends, though gossip says they are lovers. The woman beside him is Sophie. They are apparently trackers who are taking a handful of people out today to look for this escape,” Cadel says in his slow and measured voice.
“How do you know all this?” I murmur, amused. “You’re turning into a giant gossip.”
Cadel smiles. It’s crooked, but when he does, his eyes brighten up with glimmers of light. “I listen very carefully, Omega. No gossiping.”
I snort, amused by his husky tones.
“I’ve got some more gossip for you. Mordecai and Jarek and going out with Legion. You and I will be going with Sophie and Kendric.”
I jerk my head towards him, startled. “We’re separating?”
Cadel strokes a finger down my chin, and I try to hide my reaction, but I know he sees it.
The heat curls in my belly, and my mouth goes dry; all I want to do is lean into him.
His dark eyes glimmer brown with ruby sparks.
I look down at his lips. What would he taste like?
How would it feel to kiss him? I breathe heavier, lost in his spell.
“Yes, we’re separating,” Cadel almost whispers, leaning closer.
“Why?” I whisper in a breath of sound.
“Because I insisted.”
I scowl at him, the spell broken. I can barely think over the buzzing in my head and the way my skin is tingling. “Why?”
“I want to spend time with you,” he murmurs and drags that finger down and across the plumpness of my bottom lip.
If this is seduction, it’s working. If it’s not, I need help.
He lets out a rumble that vibrates through the air.
A flush of warmth sweeps from my chest out to every part of my body.
There’s barely any space between us, but it’s too much.
He leans even closer, and the whole room fades away.
All there is is him and that sound. I tilt my head back, giving him access to my throat.
He leans in, my pulse gallops; I can feel the heat of his exhale on my throat. Slick pools between my thighs.
“Alpha,” I whine.
He just reaches out and taps his fingernail on the plate, breaking me out of his spell again. I feel like I’ve run a mile. I’m disoriented and aroused, and I just want to crawl into his lap and nuzzle at the spot where his scent is the strongest, making sure I’m covered in it for everyone to see.
“Eat.”
It’s like a cold shower. I draw back, trying to get my head clear.
“Tell me the reason, the real one,” I say, fighting to hold on to the conversation threads.
“Then you’ll eat?”
I nod.
“You look like you need some space after everything you heard. Like it was almost too much.”
I look down at the plate and slowly reach out and pick up the bread wrapped around the meat, and then I eat it mouthful by mouthful. I do not think about his admission, not even a little bit. Or the fact that he’s right. Not at all.
Kendric comes over and holds out his hand. I look at it and back up at him, refusing to reach out and touch him. He chuckles and retracts his arm. He’s a big alpha with bronzed skin, long black dreadlocks with a single feather in it, and a gentleness about the eyes that I like, despite myself.
“I’m Kendric. This is Sophie, Alex, and Willow. You look like shit, Keres.”
I snap my teeth and give him a look that would make lesser alphas run. I stand up, noting Cadel is staying close.
Alex is an alpha with a deep scowl. I immediately like him.
Willow is a huge alpha with no hair; his smile is wide and takes up too much of his face.
Sophie is an intimidating omega with big bones, shrewd eyes, and tanned skin.
She sizes me up, and I’m not sure what she sees, but I think we’ll get along okay.
“We’re to be your escorts for the day.”
“I don’t need escorts!” I hiss.
Cadel just walks past them, towing me with him. Mia lets out a titter and snags the plate out of my hand as I go past.
“I’ll take this for you, love.”
I force a smile, trying to show how much I appreciate her non-judgmental friendliness.
Before I can think, we’re standing at the fence again. On the other side of the bushes are the hostile streets of Foreen.
I can’t look at Jarek and Mordecai. If I do, I might beg them to stay with me. I don’t know what’s wrong with me or why this is so hard.
“It should get easier, but it gets harder,” I murmur.
“It’s always hard going back out there,” Kendric says, misunderstanding me.
Cadel steps through. I stay right on his heels, unwilling to let him out of my sight.
We go in a different direction again, heading out behind the school.
I try really hard not to think about the fact that I’m missing Mordecai and Jarek.
I barely know them, I shouldn’t be so addicted to them.
They are like an extension of me now, having them not around is like the world is wrong. It’s an itch I can’t scratch.
“What’s in this direction?” I ask, forcing myself to ignore the unease.
“Apartments, shopping centres, this area is much more preserved, some of the interiors can actually be walked on and in. It’s fascinating, a snapshot into the lives of our ancestors on the day that the world ended,” Sophie murmurs. Her voice is deep and filled with awe as she looks around.
“It’s a graveyard for omegas and alphas,” I snap.
“Yeah, that, too,” Sophie says with less enthusiasm.
“How did you get involved with the Resistance?” I ask and soften my voice so I don’t come across any worse than I already have.
She looks at me and looks away. “No one has a good story to give you, Keres.”
“I know,” I say as we turn onto a wider street. The husks of large vehicles block the view; the metal looks like it’s been eaten away. It’s almost pretty.
“My parents were an omega and alpha pair. I was a couple of years old when they just didn’t come home.
I would have starved but for my pet dog.
He lasted a few years, and we survived together, but he died.
He got too slow and couldn’t run properly and became food for something stronger.
I survived half-feral, unable to talk, until Mordecai found me.
He brought me to Bear and the Resistance. ”
I don’t offer her platitudes or sympathy. She wouldn’t want that. I wouldn’t.
“My dad sold me.”
I jerk my head toward Willow. He shrugs and laughs a little too loud and a little too happily to be real.
“My dad was starving, and he was a beta. He didn’t want to raise an alpha, so he sold me. My master put me into fight rings until I escaped one day and joined up with this lot.”
“What happened to your master?” I ask him.
“I killed him, of course,” Willow says proudly.
“Of course,” I say, trying not to show how strange I find his pride in killing people.
Alex glances at me and scowls harder. “I’m not the sharing type.”
Kendric growls at him. “Alex was one of the kids who escaped the roundups. He slipped through and ended up with our medic, who taught him everything he now knows.”
I glance at Alex in admiration. “Handy.”
“And I,” Kendric says, “grew up in the village that your boy Mordecai saved. We didn’t know each other well, and I went off and did my own thing, but we ended up back together again. It’s funny how fate works.”
“Isn’t it just,” I murmur, looking at Cadel, who is scanning the surroundings with increasing intensity.
I look up at the grey sky. Since we’re sharing, it’s only fair that I do, too, right? “I lived in Beta City right under their noses with my mum, my aunt, and our whole neighbourhood. We didn’t have much, but we had enough.”
“What happened?” The husky voice startles me. Cadel asks the question that tears the memories away. He’s become my own personal hero at this point, saving me from my own brain.
“A person we trusted betrayed us, and I was revealed. I ended up in the citadel, and I haven’t seen anyone since. I don’t know whether they are alive or dead.”
“The Resistance might be able to help you. We keep track of the names of as many people as we can. They don’t deserve to be forgotten,” Sophie says.
Her kindness surprises me.
“Thank you.”
Maybe it’s because we’re talking about my mother, or maybe I would have seen it, anyway. But I stop dead, afraid to turn my head. I inhale shakily and turn, and there in the window is a scarf. It’s hideously ugly and faded pink, but it’s the only colour in this miserable world.