Too little, too fucking late.
Knox growls and spits at her feet.
“Please… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have… I didn’t…”
“If you can’t fix it, I think we can find a way to make it even. Don’t you agree, Knox?” Blaze smiles, but it’s twisted, his pale eyes dull and empty. A promise of pain.
Maddie squares her jaw and nods. “Then fucking do it.”
Blaze tilts his head and looks at Knox with false amusement. “You hear that, Boss? She’s begging for death already!”
Knox clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “Mmm. I hear it. Do you think that’s a fair exchange? A life for a life?”
“No. Not fair.” Blaze shakes his head. “Not enough.”
“Our Omega didn’t want to die and she was frightened till the end. But you… you weren’t afraid to die. You wanted it.”
“Why would we give you what you want?”
Knox bares his teeth in a mocking smile, his red eyes flashing with an unhinged quality. “You don’t get to die, not easily anyway. You’re going to pay us back in pain and fear, the sameamount that Halley felt and the same pain you inflicted on her four mates.”
There is no physical pain that they can wring from this woman that will equal the agony I feel inside. They’re going to try anyway.
Knox and Blaze drag her towards a nearby tent with a red cross painted on the side. The inhabitants flee, relinquishing the space to the two Alphas and their captive.
I don't say a word, just avert my eyes.
Let the beasts take what they need to survive this. It won't be enough. It'll never be enough. We all died when Halley did. Now we're just wraiths waiting for our time to be up.
I reach over and brush the back of my fingers over Halley's cooling cheek, her skin as soft as it always is.Was. I stare into her dull but still pretty purple eyes one last time and lower her eyelids.
The weight in my heart sinks and sinks and sinks.
This is the end of everything.
There is no coming back from this.
The killer’s screams tear through the air. Her nightmare, like ours, has only just begun.
Epilogue
Halley
Death, it seems, is rather peaceful.
Floating, drifting, blissfully existing in sweet nothingness.
Instead of crushing grief, my death brings a sense of reflection and blunts my emotions.
How did I live my life? Was I good? Could I have made different choices? Did I love hard enough?
I drift.
And drift.
And...ouch!
Frack, that hurts!
