They watch me swinging in the trap.
They’re going to help me; I know they will. Minutes tick by; my head is pounding, and I have long since given up any attempt at dignity. As the night erupts with the sound of drums, I have to bite back a scream.
Bear looks around and then back at me. He puts his index finger and thumb in the sign of the omega on his chest, a sign of respect.
“Kill me,” I beg.
He hesitates, but with a wordless command, the Resistance fades back into the shadows and disappears.
Betrayed again.
My mouth is dry when I twist and look around, finally noticing the silence.
The first thing I see is the black robes. So many of them. But one person steps forward with gold-tipped boots, and my stomach clenches so painfully I almost pass out.
He moves closer and closer, his steps loud and aggressive.
“My snow omega, I knew you would come home to me one day.”
I pant desperately, but it doesn’t help me when the Beta’s Fang, the beta, the monster who made me call him master turns me in his trap and smiles with malicious glee.
“Oh, my dear snow.”
Chills slither up my spine, my breath seizes and then expels in a rush. I’m suddenly cold and so very young again, chained to a wall beneath thousands of tons of dirt and concrete where no one can hear me scream. I can feel the cold walls pressing on me, the stench of excrement and sour fear.
Oh, please, gods, no. Don’t do this to me.
I’m lowered down, landing hard in a ball at his feet.
A boot in the back sends me rolling, and when I land again on my side, I’m facing him.
He looks exactly like I remember him; his robes are perfect, his smile is wide and gleeful. The mask hiding the top of his face, forever hiding his identity, which has only added to my terror. This monster delights in every terrified gasp he could wring from me. The Warden was a mistake that hurt my soul, but the Beta’s Fang is the fear that dogs it. Everything about him looks exactly the same as the last time I saw him, when he left my broken, bleeding body on the floor of the cell, promising he’d return.
My hand crawls up, and I press my palm against the burning scar on my chest.
He’s wearing that hideous smile again as he comes to stand beside me, crouching. He reaches out; I flinch, but he grabs my top and rips the collar down, waiting until, with white spots in front of my eyes, I’m forced to drop my hand, exposing his handiwork.
“It healed well, Omega. You know this is a first for me. I never get to see how the scars heal on their bodies. They die well before I get to that point. But this, it’s so pretty, dark and raised, silver ash rubbed into your skin, and the symbol so clear, like you were born to wear it.”
I pull back, but he drags me close, his foul breath ghosting over my cheek. A malicious smile flickers across his face.
“Do your boyfriends know I had you first? Is that why they left you here? Nobody loves you, snow. Nobody but me.”
I can’t move. Fear has stolen my ability to speak, and all I can do is cringe away and shudder as his fingers graze my collarbone. My fingers twitch, and my stomach jumps violently, but still, I can’t find the will to move. No, I know better than to move. If I flinch now, if I show disgust or revulsion, it will only get worse.
“Omega snow, I have missed you. I have searched for you for a long time. Every day, I have planned a different way to kill you. Every moment since you escaped, I have longed, yearned for our reunion. I knew the beta gods would grant me this reward.”
He’s even more mad than he used to be. I can see it in his eyes, the joy and thrill of killing and torturing. He’s like a poison that has spread through the whole body. I wiggle away from him, but he just drags me closer so I’m almost under him.
“Speak to me, snow. Tell me you missed me.”
It all comes rushing back with his words. The way I’d begged, the way I’d told him I deserved it. How I’d agreed I was bad, corrupt. I begged for my mother. I screamed until my voice gave way. But I’d told him I loved it, all the foul things he ruined me with. I told him I loved it, and I kissed his bloodied fist when he’d broken me to crawling. I’d lay there trying to remember all the details of home when he forced himself in me. He just took and demanded until there was nothing left of me that wasn’t broken.
He’s going to do it again.
I scramble backwards, ripping my shirt free, leaving myself exposed, but not caring at all as my skin pebbles, and my fingers slip on the cold, wet ruin of a road.
He stands up and laughs, looking so much larger than life. He simply lifts his arm and yanks hard on the wire. I let out a shriek as I’m dragged back towards him. My elbow explodes into an ache that has me gasping when it collides with those pavers.
