“Yeah.” I avert my eyes, staring down at the floor. “My dad always wanted me to be an alpha—the designation, not necessarily a capitol ‘A’ Alpha who leads a pack. That’s normally something you can tell right away, so when I never showed any alpha traits, he resigned himself to having a beta son.” I swallow. “But it turns out I’m not even a beta. I’m an omega.”
“And your dad didn’t like that.”
I let out a watery laugh. “No, he did not, and it certainly didn’t help that he was blackout drunk at the time.”
“What happened?” she asks softly.
“He attacked my mom for ‘birthing a useless mongrel’ and she was dead before I could do anything to help.” My voice goes hard. “But my wolf and I made sure he paid for her death.”
She pulls me into a hug and rubs my back. “He deserved it,” she whispers near my ear. “You’re entitled to feel however you want about what happened, but in my eyes, a bad man got a fitting ending.”
“Thanks,” I say, holding her tightly.
“And now that that’s out of the way, how about we try to come up with a way out of this?” She releases me from the hug, grips my chin, and forces me to meet her eyes. “Together.”
Four
Blake
Ajoltofelectricitysnakes through my body, dancing painfully along my muscles and startling me out of a light doze, the closest I’ve gotten to rest in… I don’t know. I can’t remember the last time they let me sleep. Or eat.
Which means another fight is coming up.
Tonight? Tomorrow? I don’t know, butsoon.
Because the starvation and sleep deprivation are purposeful. Lack of sleep and an empty belly help thicken the mental fog, suppressing the human part of my mind, pulling my wolf and his more vicious impulses closer to the surface.
And that’s exactly what they want—the violence that comes when my wolf and his blind rage are in control—because unlessmy more primitive lupine instincts are driving me, I just don’t care anymore.
Whether I win. Whether I lose. Whether I live.
Or whether I die.
I’m so damn tired. Tired of the pain. Tired of the hunger. Tired of the blood.
And tired of living like this.
The years I’ve spent here all run together. The dim artificial lighting in my cell and irregular schedule of meals and fights make it near impossible to track the passage of time.
But there is one memory that stands out, a tiny sliver of light in all this darkness.
A few months ago, I overheard a conversation between Alpha Doyle and one of his lackeys and learned my little brother escaped the hell he stumbled into because of me and is finally free.
Now that I know Ollie is safe, I just want it to be over. Escaping isn’t an option. I’ll never be truly free again, so the only way out of this horrific existence as Doyle’s “champion” is death.
And I’m ready for it.
Tonight will be my last fight.
Because Iwantit to be.
They might control every aspect of the hell that is my life, but this is a choice they cannot take from me.
Giving my head a brisk shake, I shove myself to my feet and pace from one side of my cell to the other, the edges of the metal collar around my neck chafing against my shoulder blades with every step. My gaze moves to the two handlers standing on the other side of the bars, and I pin my ears back, a soft growl rumbling and my claws clicking against the concrete as I move toward them.
One is a human, that cursed remote in his hand, and the other is a beta holding the metal pole they use to transport me from here to the ring. The human smirks and taps the button on the remote, sending a painful zap of electricity through my body.
A flood of rage washes over me and my wolf surges forward. My lips pull away from my teeth and my growl morphs into a vicious snarl as I lunge at the bars with a sudden, desperate hunger for their blood.
