I watch as Ebert comes forward to shove a gag into Winter’s mouth, my heart pounding as Avery walks around the vomit to approach me.
“Your turn!” she says in that creepy sing-song way of hers. It’s doll-like and childish, and says a lot about her mental stability.
“I hope you rot in hell,” I growl, which makes her shrug.
Avery yanks on my hair to bare my throat, and Jake shoves me forward to help her. God, I fucking hate everyone right now.
Winter is screaming in my mind, unable to protect me as she has a gag shoved into her mouth. I promise her we’ll get our revenge, even though I’m not sure how that’ll happen. Despite the awful things we’ve both experienced, neither of us have become bitter.
As the heat of the bond breaking medication is pushed into my vein, that all changes. I can feel the physical ache as my alphas fall away. They’ve been a reassuring presence in my body that no longer exists.
Hope dies a flaming death as my eyes roll back in my head and my body begins to seize. My head won’t stop hurting, and I can hear Winter beginning to scream as her head explodes in a headache she hasn’t had in awhile.
“What the fuck, Avery?!” Clara yells.
“Shit, that’s never happened before. I’ll be right back!” Avery says, her boots hitting the ground as she runs away.
I’m not sure what she’s planning to do, and I don’t care. The only reason I don’t want to die is because I don’t want to leave Cassidy and Winter alone. When they die, please kill me. I don’t want to be here anymore.
Instead, anger and hatred fills my veins, and I promise to scorch the earth for the things that have happened to me. I’ll learn how to fight, how to kill, how to do the things I’ve never learned before.
I’ve taken a life, tortured a man with my alphas, but learning how to strike first and ask questions later the way my alphas are trained, isn’t something I know how to do.
Despite my smaller size, I’ll learn. I never want to be a victim again.
“Here, shove this into Cassidy’s neck,” Avery says, her eyes wild as she returns with three syringes in her hand. “You need to get them cleaned up for the auction, and we don’t have much time.”
Clara and she split up, going toward opposite ends to Winter’s body to administer what I imagine is a sedative.
“Night, night!” Avery says, stabbing me with the needle.
My whine makes her smile as she pushes the plunger down, nodding as my body begins to relax and my eyelids get very heavy.
“Huh,” she mutters, her fingers pushing my right eyelid up. “One of your eyes is white. I guess whatever your sister has is catching. Hope Clara doesn’t notice.”
Pocketing the used syringe once she puts a cap on the needle, she walks away to give Winter a dose of the sedative she gave me. My eye continues to throb, and I’m pretty sure it’s a result of Avery breaking my bonds. Those are sacred, and she’s broken me along with it.
The world slides away as my knees buckle, and Jake catches me. Picking me up, he sighs as he watches Winter and Cassidy.
“I hope death is very painful for you,” I whisper, my head flopping over his arm. “I’m going to kill you the second I can.”
“I know, kid. I know.”
The world goes black as I pass out, but I hold tight to my promise. If I don’t do it, one of my alphas will.
ANSEL
My arms burn in the heat as I push the fucking machine that reminds me of a type of lawnmower down the grassy property. Shiloh, Abbott, and I each have one, and are spaced out as we walk for miles in one direction before turning around to go in the other way exactly an inch over.
The machine reads that there’s a building underground for the entire area, but it hasn’t told us anything about a door. Sweat drips from my forehead in the muggy Georgia air, and there are dark clouds moving in over my head.
Abbott screams about fifty feet away from me, dropping to his knees before he begins to puke. Shiloh and I abandon our positions, running toward him in panic. Our men are further away, so no one else hears him. It might be dumb to assume no one will come take us out, but if they haven’t yet, I doubt they will.
We aren’t the targets. Cassidy is collateral damage, while Clara has been gunning for Winter and Bellamy.
“What is it?” I ask, looking around for something to kill.
He can’t tell me anything, his body wracked with pain.
