“He’s backing down. Make him bleed, boys.” The harsh command comes from the alpha at the end of the hall. I growl in fury, but he turns and walks away as if we’re beneath his attention.
The blond alpha leans on the wall, gasping, but the others come at me with a flurry of blows. Blood spatters on my shirt. I fend them off with quick, flat hands, the war in my thoughts more difficult than the attacks. The last time I hit anyone, I got sent to the darkroom. If I go back there, it might eat my mind entirely. And I can’t see my ohm-ga or Cal-ee in that black place.
So what options do I have?
An alpha lands his punch in my stomach, and I double over, spewing water and bile across the floor. I wipe my mouth with my arm and more blood smears my skin. I eye the alphas, muttering under my breath to remind myself, “Don’t kill. Don’t kill.” The desire rises, hot and consuming. If I give in, I’ll tear these men limb from limb. They fight with predictable moves, like a play oracting. Not like a man with his life on the line.
Not like a fighting hound.
I laugh. Heavy-handed as these men are, they wouldn’t last half a minute against the alphas I grew up with, like the Death alpha and the Superior One.
“Think you can laugh at us, fucker?” the skinny one hisses, holding one bleeding hand tight to his chest. I might’ve broken it when I wasn’t careful.
All at once, the bond lodged in my heart floods with two lines of concern, and I close my eyes to soak it in. My ohm-ga and Ri-ckon acknowledge my distress with their own cry of alarm, a silent check-in asking what’s wrong. I can’t answer them in words, but I can calm my heart.
I’m okay.
A force connects with the side of my head, knocking me off my feet. I sprawl across the floor, a smile on my lips. I will do whatever it takes to see my ohm-ga again. She’s waiting for me. She hasn’t forgotten me.
Agony lances into me as the alphas kick me. I skid on my side over the slick floors, blood bitter in my mouth and hot on my skin. I cover my head with my arms and curl up, focusing only on the faint but sweet connection to my pack. Something cracks in my side, but I ignore it. The darkness was worse. The loneliness without a pack was unbearable. I’m not a fighting dog anymore.
Don’t kill. Don’t kill.
Dizziness swamps me, mixing with the circling thoughts behind my eyes. Maybe I vomit again, or maybe I imagine it. A fire springs up all around me, weakening my limbs, but I cling to my promise. This time I will obey no matter the cost.
“Zack?” Al’s voice spears through the gluggy mess. “Hey! Get off him, you motherfuckers!”
He sounds furious. I shiver at the icy alpha command in his roar, and the shadows around me flicker. The kicking stops. Everything stops.
“Fuck, Zack! Stay with me.”
I blink up into his familiar face, but it swims eerily. “Stand still,” I mutter.
“I am,” Al shoots back, voice tight. “It’s you who can’t fucking see straight, idiot. Damn, I thought I was too late.” He rolls me onto my back, sparking a burning fire in my side.
I shout and hook my arm across the agonizing area. I can’t tell exactly what hurts, but I hope I haven’t broken my arm again, because that hard cast thing itched something terrible. The memory makes me snarl.
“Easy, Zack. I’m here to help. I’ll get the med team, so don’t move.”
The roof splits and merges back together, then grows taller before shrinking. I can hardly breathe through my swollen nose, and my lips split and bleed. But I can still smell that one alpha, and the missing connection’s pissing me off.
Do I know him? The other alphas obeyed when he ordered them to attack me. He doesn’t strike me as the sort of alpha with enough dominance for others to listen to. Not a pack alpha. So is this one of those mysteries I haven’t learned about yet? Perhaps he has magic powers, like Ri-ckon.
Last I saw him, he sat at the front of the prison-deciding room, opposite Cal-ee.
Does that mean Cal-ee put him here?
The slippery ceiling makes my stomach churn, so I close my eyes. That man must have a name.
Ray.The word filters in through the pain flaring in my side with every breath. His name is Ray and my ohm-ga trembled every time she looked his way.
Why didn’t I put the pieces together? He was in Cal-ee’s court because he did something wrong, broke the law, and the person he hurt was Red.
I growl in fury. He doesn’t know me, but he knows Mine. And now he wants to get to her. I roll to my knees and push up,yelping as pain seizes me, freezing my movements as effectively as the biting fence.
“Calm down, big guy,” Al cries, tearing around the corner, followed by guards. “You just won’t listen to instructions, will ya? Idiot.”
I snarl, turning my head partially to see his approaching shoes. “Didn’t kill.”
