Would Talius find me before Zarbius or his cronies got to me? And wherewasZarbius? Surely he would know if his pack had captured someone. Wouldn’t he want to gloat or something? Or – worse still – maybe he planned this. Could he possibly know that Isca was living in our pack now? My whole body shook - I wasn’t just afraid for myself now, was Isca at risk?
The creaking protest of the metal door roused me from my disturbing thoughts. It was the omega again, and he’d brought me a blanket. The soft fleecy warmth settled around my shoulders and I sighed gratefully. But there was something I needed more desperately.
“Wait!” I said, urgently, before he could leave. “I need the bathroom!”
The omega looked at me, glanced around the empty shed, and his brown eyes met mine in horrified realization. “Dumb betas!” he muttered.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, though I kept the blanket wrapped tightly around me. The edges fluttered with every shiver running though me.
The omega pulled me across to the open door.
“Hey!” he called crossly to the guard. “He needs to use the bathroom.”
The two betas looked at each other and shrugged. Neither of them moving from where they were lounging against the shed walls.
The omega led me out of the shed, but a cruel hand seized my shoulder in a bruising grip, as one of the betas moved quickly to intercept.
“You’re not taking him anywhere, Owen,” the guard snarled. “Get back to your pen, fat pig!”
“He needs to use the bathroom,” the omega retorted bravely, ignoring the insult. “I’ll take him.”
“No, you won’t. I’m not letting him fucking get away. You’d probably let him run off. I know you fucking omegas stick together.”
He let go of me and gave Owen a rough shove, and despite his size, the omega stumbled.
“Here, I’ll take him,” the other beta pushed off from the wall. He had a lean face, all harsh angles, bushy eyebrows and cold, calculating eyes. I would have much rather go with the omega. I didn’t relish being alone with this guy. I didn’t think I could trust him. From the expression on Owen’s face, the omega didn’t trust him either.
“No, I…” the beta cut off Owen’s protest with a clip to the head.
“Get back to your fucking work! And I don’t want to see you again today, y’hear?”
With a worried, apologetic look my way, the omega shuffled away.
A yank on my arm drew my attention from the retreating omega to the tall, lean beta standing beside me with a speculative expression on his face. I shivered under my blanket, hoping he didn’t feel the shudder go through me.
He did. I saw it in the pleased half-smile that twisted his cruel lips. Another frisson of fear raced through me, escaping through my mate-bond before I thought to tamp it down. There was nothing Talius could do to help my immediate situation, so there was no point in worrying him. And hewasworried. I felt it in the immediate flash of fury and concern that bounced back at me through the bond.
The beta half-dragged me along by the elbow, striding along at a brisk pace that I, with my shorter stature, found hard to keep up with. We headed across the compound towards a long low building. All the way across the open space, my mind was turning over, searching for a way to escape. But I couldn’t come up with anything. I clutched the blanket more tightly around me, the edges flapping as I stumbled along.
When we got there, we didn’t enter the building. Instead, he took me around the back to a small outhouse. The building was squat, with no door, and made of bricks which had been mortared together in higgledy-piggledy fashion, the lines crooked and gaping holes where chunks of mortar had fallen out. Sheets of corrugated iron served as a roof, lifting off the structure in one corner. It was a forgotten, dilapidated structure, and out of sight of the rest of the compound.
A hard shove in the middle of my back had me staggering towards the building. As I scrabbled to stay on my feet, I fixed my sights on the open doorway, thinking he was pushing me towards that.
“No, you don’t.” This time the hand pushed me hard against the wall. My face slammed against the cold, hard bricks, the uneven surface digging into my cheeks. The blanket was ripped from my shoulders, and I was pinned there like an insect pinned to a board. The stench of the man hovering over me was overpowering, all sweat and grease and something sour. Just his odor was enough to have the bile rising in my throat.
I struggled, trying to push him off, but he was much stronger than me, and when I tried instead to duck down and under his arm, he just pushed me harder against the wall, crushing my chest until it hurt. I dragged in short panting breaths, pinned to the hard, uneven surface, struggling to get enough air, even as my face was mashed up against the bricks.
Terror gripped me as his hand reached around, searching for the button of my jeans. I whimpered, resisting, but unable to move my lower half out of reach. We were out of sight of the main buildings and no-one could see what was going on. I wasn’t sure anyone would come and help me even if they could see. Was this what had happened to Isca? I lashed out with my feet, but I was struggling to draw enough air into my lungs, and a buzzing was ringing in my head.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a calm alpha voice rang out. The tone was confident and commanding, despite its youthfulness. There was something puzzlingly familiar about the voice.
The beta froze with his hand on my zipper and turned towards the trees. The pressure on my back eased slightly and I gasped in some air, my head spinning. I managed to turn my head towards where someone was standing in the shadows outside a run-down cabin, half-hidden amongst the trees.
“What’s it to you?” demanded the beta, pushing me harder against the wall again. I’d stopped struggling, trying to place the familiar voice, my oxygen-starved brain battling with the fog that threatened to close in on it.
“Not to me,” replied the alpha, disdainfully, as if from a distance. “but I don’t think Zarbius will be happy if you damage that one.”
Suddenly the pressure on my back eased off, and I dragged in a full lung of air and life-giving oxygen. Thank the fucking moon! Awareness returned and… the shock was like a lightning bolt. I knew this man, but not as the confident, commanding alpha he currently was. I knew him as meek, unassuming Agelius, the young shifter who had joined our pack several months prior. The one Talius had trusted. What was he doinghere,in this pack? Here he was a totally different person, self-assured and bold.
