Nothing happened.
He grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
He dropped his grip on my neck, but I barely had a chance to breathe as pain split my head and I was knocked to the ground. I grunted at another burst of agony in my stomach as he kicked me.
The room spun as I blinked, adrenaline keeping me alert. My hands were planted on the stone floor, trying to steady myself, a groan slipping out as the pain worsened.
But I froze as I heard the intercom crackle above me, and a feminine, robotic voice said:“Karma Thomas. Your appeal has arrived. Proceed to the waiting room with your pack.”
I…no.
The thirty-minute timer had started… I…I didn’t even know where my pack was.
I heard Holden laugh. “There it is, Sin. Looks like it’s over for you and your pathetic pack.”
But… It was too soon. When the Leo pack wanted out, their call had been delayed too late. And now ours was the opposite and fucked us over just the same.
Despair made the world spin.
I didn't see Holden, just the shadow crossing the cracks in the floor.
“Sterling thought it was her in heat, you know, but I'm not disappointed,” Holden growled in my ear. “I've dreamed of this for so long. I'm going to break you before I use that body forthe only thing it's good for.” I felt his fist around my neck as he shoved me onto my back, pinning me to the ground. “Welcome to the worst day of your life.”
I hated how weak I was in the face of an alpha’s aura.
This waswrong.
I could hear the sneer in Holden’s voice. “And you'll still be begging for me by the end of it, like the pathetic creature that you—” He cut off, head turning, clearly stalled by something.
My blood was still pounding in my ears, agony trying its best to distract me, but I'd heard what he’d heard.
No...
Fuck.
Thump!
I couldn't see them, but Iknewevery alpha in the room froze. I'd been in Anarchy long enough to be able to parse out different sounds. Distant howls from the nearby ones. Threats or paranoia. And the distinct difference between the fainter sounds of a rutting alpha far away, or the one in the rut box in my own cell.
We could all tell.
So I knew why they froze at the faintestthump... thump...It was irregular. Not as loud as I was used to. But it was unmistakable.
A sound coming not from far away at all, and my blood chilled as Holden's eyes snapped to the rut box.
49
CRESCENT
Sin had locked me in.
Terror and panic collided as I banged on the door with my fists. A sob caught in my chest as agony spiked in my stomach again.
He'd left me...
The pain had just begun, but it would get worse. I knew it intimately. Each stage… the cramps, and the agony were enough to drive me mad.
A small whisper tried to tell me to drag myself back to the corner and hug myself until that door opened. Deep down, I knew what was waiting on the other end. I knew what Sin had done—why he would feel he had to do it.
