He doesn’t turn and come back; he doesn’t look back. He just rides like he can’t hear me. A baton slams into the cage right near where my hands are. I jerk back, letting go, and only the quick reflexes of Cadel stop me from falling down.
I grind my teeth in frustration and try not to let the emotion set off the tears again. I’m tired, emotionally and mentally.
“How long have you been looking for your family?” the alpha behind me asks.
I don’t answer him for a long time.
“Five years. We got separated during a raid, and they all disappeared without a trace,” I say, hating the familiar lie.
“Is there any hope?”
I’m quiet for a long moment. “There is always hope. But, sometimes, hope doesn’t look how you expect it to.”
He’s silent for a moment, and then I feel him shift his weight.
“My name is Mordecai.”
Cai? This is one of the rebels? I’m fascinated and disappointed.
“Kaida Keres, but call me Keres.”
“I’m sorry to meet you under these circumstances, but I am glad to meet you,” he rumbles, and then I think I feel him lean down and inhale my scent from my hair. Shivers ripple up and down my spine, but I don’t protest; I don’t move.
“We’re going to be there soon. I hope you’re all as excited as we are,” The pledge shouts and starts giggling maniacally. He’s wearing black robes that billow out around him. He’s got the black mask on, but his lower face is covered in freckles and pimples.
One of the two alphas I don’t know growls and throws himself off the cart, trying to attack him. It’s pointless because the pledge just dances out of the way, laughing even harder. But the alpha ends up half on the cart, half on the ground being dragged over the rocky road.
He grunts.
I twist, trying to see what’s going on. The grunting goes on for ages before it changes to pained moans.
Mordecai whispers a couple of words I don’t understand, but he sounds stunned.
The alpha screams. And then again, but this time it goes on and on. For twenty minutes, he screams until his voice gets weak and finally dies.
They don’t stop the cart; the guards just laugh. But the silence, it’s louder than his screams. My shoulders shake, and I hunch in on myself, hating everything.
“Don’t look back,” Mordecai whispers in my ear.
I don’t know this alpha, but I think I can trust him; in this, I will trust him.
I don’t look back, but I know the alpha’s dead. The rain falls harder, but I don’t blink. I breathe in shallow, puffy breaths, my hands shaking, my gaze fixed on the back of the Warden’s head.
I see money change hands, laughter and amusement, and I feel sick. I feel so sorry for that alpha, the one whose name I didn’t even know. But then…maybe he got lucky.
He never made it to Foreen.
Chapter 6
Foreen
The city is nothing like I expected, in all the worst ways possible. I’ve avoided travelling close to it in the past for fear of being picked up by the Path. The first thing I notice is the massive stone and metal walls that surround it that are impossibly tall. Behind are the empty shells of skyscrapers covered in green and grey. They remind me too much of skeletons so I don’t look too long at them. I don’t know what the name of this city was before the Ravage hit the world, but it’s become something else now, transformed into something synonymous with suffering and torment.
It looks like misery.
I never thought I’d find my death in this city. For some reason, I just assumed I would die elsewhere. But to be here, walking the steps where thousands of my omega sisters and brothers have bled and suffered, is a cold reality check. My fate is written in blood not yet spilled.
I’m going to die here.
