“That's what I thought,” Bane continued, satisfaction oozing through his words. “You always were good at following orders when properly motivated.”
My legs kept moving automatically, carrying me toward whatever fate he had planned. The ballroom was retreating, the golden warmth and celebration becoming something distant and unreachable. My vision tunneled, focusing on my desperate searches for salvation that wasn't coming.
Lucian. Where was Lucian?
I found him near the grand piano, exactly where I'd seen him before. He'd attracted an even larger group now, people clustering around to hear whatever story he was telling.
They were all getting smaller now, my three Alphas becoming distant figures in a ballroom that suddenly felt enormous. Kade gesturing to make a point. Theo throwing his head back in another laugh. Lucian's hands dancing through the air as he told his story. All of them were completely unaware that I was disappearing.
The gun dug deeper into my ribs, and I gasped at the pressure. Bane's grip on my arm had hardened, his fingers finding nerves that sent pain shooting up to my shoulder and down to my fingertips. He was steering me now, not just guiding but controlling completely, and my body had gone limp with learned helplessness.
“Your Alphas aren't paying attention,” Bane observed, and I heard the smile in his voice. “Too busy enjoying their success. Too distracted by their own importance to notice their Omega being taken. What does that tell you about how much they really care?”
The words were designed to hurt, and they did. They burrowed into the vulnerable places in my heart where fear andinsecurity lived, the places that still whispered I didn't deserve good things. But beneath the pain, something else stirred. Anger, maybe. Or the memory of how they'd looked at me in my dressing room, the pride and care in their eyes.
They cared. They did. They just didn't know I needed them yet.
The crowd thinned as Bane pulled me toward the ballroom's edge. We passed a server, who glanced at us with mild curiosity before moving on. Passed a couple slow dancing who didn't even look up. Passed a group discussing business near one of the walls, their voices carried fragments about quarterly earnings and market shares.
No one saw. No one noticed. I was disappearing in plain sight.
The service door came into view, tucked into an alcove I hadn't noticed during the party. It was painted the same cream color as the walls, designed to blend in, marked only by a small sign that read "Staff Only." The hallway leading beyond was darker, less populated, meant for workers moving behind the scenes rather than guests enjoying the celebration.
My heels caught on the tile as I tried instinctively to slow down, to stop this forward momentum that was carrying me toward that door and whatever lay beyond it. But Bane yanked me forward with a brutal strength that reminded me exactly how much larger he was, and how futile resistance had always been.
The roses I'd been clutching fell from my other hand, scattering across the floor in a spray of white petals and green stems. I watched them hit the ground, watched petals crush under our feet as Bane dragged me over them, watched the beautiful gift become ruined in seconds.
Just like everything else he touched.
The door loomed ahead, metal and unforgiving. Through the narrow window set in it, I could see darkness. Beyond, thereseemed to be an alley or loading area, somewhere away from the light and warmth and safety of the ballroom. Somewhere my Alphas wouldn't think to look until it was too late.
I tried one more time, craning my neck to look back at the celebration. The chandeliers cast their golden glow. Music played softly. People laughed and talked and danced, completely unaware of the horror unfolding at the room's edge.
And there, across the impossible distance, I saw Kade turn slightly. Seeing his eyes scanning the room, like maybe some instinct was finally kicking in, finally telling him something was wrong.
But Bane was already pushing through the service door, and the last thing I saw before the ballroom disappeared was Kade's face, still searching, not yet seeing what he'd lost.
Chapter Thirty-four
Jasmine
Then the door swung shut, cutting off the light, warmth, and hope, leaving me alone with the monster who'd already destroyed me once before.
On the other side, the cold hit me like a slap, the night air cutting through the thin silk of my gown and raising goosebumps across my exposed arms and shoulders. The service door slammed shut behind us with a finality that made my stomach drop, cutting off the last traces of warmth.
Something stunk out here, rotten food in skips along the far side, a dead cat beneath it. The stench of the place made me gag as Bane pulled me outside.
The alley stretched before me in shadows, lit only by a distant streetlight that cast everything in sickly yellow tones. And in those shadows, shapes moved.
More of them. More pack members.
My eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, picking out details I didn't want to see. Three men, maybe four, stepped forward from where they'd been waiting against the alley walls. I recognized faces from my time with the pack. The one with the crooked nose I'd seen laugh when Bane hit me. The younger one with the scar across his lip, who'd held me down while otherstook their turns. The older one with graying hair who'd called me worthless so many times I'd believed it.
They were all here. All waiting. This had been planned meticulously.
Bane shoved me forward, and I stumbled immediately. My heel caught on the uneven pavement, my ankle twisted painfully, and I barely caught myself before going down completely. The light green silk that had made me feel beautiful hours ago now felt like a costume, something fragile and inappropriate for what was about to happen.
The pack members closed in, forming a circle around me. Their presence was suffocating, blocking out the distant streetlight, creating a cage of bodies with malicious intent. I turned slowly, searching for any gap I might slip through, any chance of escape, but they'd positioned themselves perfectly. Predators who knew how to trap prey.
