Where are they?
They drag me straight into a cage where the chain links are removed from the heavy circle of metal. Now it’s just me and the collar and the cage. I growl and sink low to my belly, taking note of everyone around me.
I mark them for death.
Jonas sits with Cindel. Their official five-year mating ceremony was last week. I had to fight at their celebrations. They dropped me in with five alphas, and I had to kill them allto survive. It didn’t pass my notice that the five were very similarly marked and coloured to my pack.
They were setting me up for death.
But I didn’t die.
I killed the alpha who tried to kill me. Then I killed the rest.
“Casey.”
I glance to the side and find my dad staring at me intently. I hate him more than I could ever have words to describe. He could have stopped this; he could have saved me, but he’s the worst kind of monster.
“You’re fighting an alpha from a different pack tonight. He owes big money, so he’s going up against you. Kill him, Casey. Kill him or I’ll kill one of the pups,” my dad whispers, and, with a horrifically gleeful laugh, he stalks off.
I close my eyes. The problem with being a prisoner here is they know all my weaknesses. After all, they had my entire life to figure them out.
My dad would kill children. He wouldn’t think twice about it.
The cage gate opens, and I step out. The alpha is massive and black. He looks so much like Riot that, for a moment, I hesitate.
Could I kill Riot to save a child?
No.
I hate that, but I’m that selfish, and it would be easier to kill myself than kill him. But I could kill this alpha.
Riot. My soul screams for him.
Where are they?
I step out of the cage, ignoring the jeers, the fury, and bloodlust of the crowd. The pack. My birth pack. They are the feral ones.
The walls of their makeshift fight arena are twenty feet high. Too high for a wolf to escape from. They can stand and look down into the hole from above. Watching whatever torture they try to lay on whomever they’ve shoved in the dark.
I’ve been here before. Hell, I’ve lived here. For years, the thought of returning had my knees weak. Now I feel nothing except a deep desire to return to the dark. I understand the blood-soaked ground. The crowd’s jeers are as familiar a song as the ones that play on the radio. My old life feels like a dream and is slipping further and further away.
This is what is real now.
The dirt in this place is drenched in my blood, it may as well be hallowed ground. The black wolf shakes his fur, all cocky and proud. He flicks an ear, showing off. He’s young and not very bright.
I don’t bother with that nonsense. No one expects me to be civilised, anyway. I just slink low to the ground, my ears flat, teeth exposed.
They say I’m crazy. Feral.
They aren’t wrong. I don’t think I’m sane anymore.
He focuses on me, and I can see the desire to destroy me in his eyes. He wants the glory of taking out an omega. They all want to hurt me.
Fine.
Give it your best shot.
He lunges. I barely move. I don’t need to. He’s inexperienced. Everything he does is for show. He’s not a fighter; he’s never needed to fight to survive.
