Chapter 101
Elvira
The Omega who reminded me of Eden is gone. They took her, and since she never returned, I know exactly what it means.
She is dead.
I curl in on myself, dead to the world. My mind isn’t my friend. It’s replaying the scene of when they took the Omega girl and then I hear her voice whisper in my ear.
You should have tried harder.
You should have saved me.
I close my eyes, and try to force those intrusive thoughts away. But it doesn’t work. They keep swarming me and I can’t sleep. Can’t focus. I haven’t eaten in days. My skin is clammy with cold sweat, and I feel like it’s trying to peel itself away from me. Like even my body hates me.
Still, I don’t cry.
What would be the point? No one here mourns the ones they break. They just mop up the blood and wait for the next show.
Crying is for the innocent and I’m not innocent.
I deserve this fate for what I’ve done and for what I didn’t.
You should have protected her.
I shut my eyes harder and press my forehead to the wall. I know I don’t deserve mercy, but my intrusive thoughts are killing me slowly. That’s why I press my head to the stone, maybe if I do it hard enough I will be able to forget my sins.
My wolf doesn’t believe it.
She growls inside my chest and I sigh before whispering, “I wish I could change the past.”
There’s no response from my wolf and a sad smile touches my lips.
“I get it now. This place doesn’t bury the dead. It buries the living and I’m right where I deserve.”
I hear him before I smell him.
The humming. That same lilting, broken nursery rhyme rhythm that doesn’t fit this place. It’s off–beat. Cheery. Almost taunting.
Calven.
The sound of his boots gets louder. He is not in a rush. He thinks this is a game, and I’m the piece he forgot to break last week.
The cell door creaks open.
“Well, well,” he drawls. “You’re quieter these days.”
I don’t answer. Not because I’m strong, but because I’m empty. Whatever was left of Elvira died three days ago when the Omega girl was taken away from here.
But Calven doesn’t care if my soul is gone. He steps inside and there’s a new paper bag in his hand. He tosses it toward me. It splats before it lands.
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Chapter 101
“Food,” he says, and then, almost lazily, “Not poisoned this time. Probably.”
I stare at the bag, but look up when I hear him unbuckling his belt.
My wolf growls.
She knows what is coming, and she doesn’t like it. Neither do I. I deserve pain and humiliation, but rape is never okay. My soul might be gone. My pride might be shattered. But my body? It’s still mine. It still belongs to me and I don’t want to be used.
But my voice won’t come out. I don’t know what I would say and Calven is already dropping his pants to make it clear what he wants.
Me.
He leans down, grabs my chin with a meaty hand, and tilts my face up to him. “C’mon, Pretty Rat. Smile for me. Last girl screamed so hard she puked. I’m hoping you will be more fun.”
My skin crawls. I want to bite him, scratch his skin, and scream, but I know no one would hear me. No one would come to my aid and help.
So I just go still.
That’s when a voice cuts through the corridor.
“Tick–tock,” it sings.
Calven’s head snaps toward the sound.
Screamer.
“Ding–dong,” he calls again, louder now. “Lock and key. Calven’s coming after me.”
Calven growls, straightens up, and yanks his pants halfway back up. “Shut it, freak!”
“Shut it?” Screamer parrots. “What does that mean?”
Calven freezes. “Are you… mocking me?”
Screamer doesn’t show any fear. Instead he laughs, and that’s when Calven loses his mind.
“Son of a bitch!”
He storms out of my cell.
I should move. I should run. But my legs aren’t working. My mind is screaming go and my body is frozen in the place where the Omega’s blood dried.
“Calven’s got a filthy itch,” Screamer hums.
“Fucking freak! You dare say that to my face?!”
I hear the slap. Then another…and another until there’s a gurgle. A howl.
But it doesn’t sound like Calven is the one in control.
The fuck?
I crawl to the bars and peer out.
Screamer is on top of Calven. Teeth sunk deep into the guard’s throat. Blood sprays. Not a drip. A fountain, Screamer shakes his head like a dog with a
toy.
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Chapter 101
Calven shrieks. His arm jerks upward, hitting the bars. The key ring falls.
I grab it. I don’t think. I just move.
“RUN, LITTLE RAT!” Screamer bellows, red all over his face.
Of all the people to save me, it’s the guy who once screamed at a spider for six hours and named his teeth. Fantastic. My life’s being rewritten by the lunatic side character.
And still–I run.
I don’t know why. I don’t know who I’m running for. I might not want to survive. I might not want to live. But something drags me forward–something deep and wrong and electric. Like the memory of a name I never said aloud is pulling my legs before my mind can catch up.
And I run.
Out of the cell. Down the corridor. Feet bare. Skin slick. Vision swimming.
The dungeon smells like fire now. Or blood. Or both.
Stone blurs under me. Everything pulses like a dream. Like I’m not really moving, but the world is.
A shadow falls over me and I stop in my tracks.
Logan.
And Paris.
Standing at the end of the hallway like they knew I was coming.
Logan is looking away, but Paris doesn’t look surprised to see me. In fact, it feels like she has been standing there a while, waiting for just this moment. Waiting for me.
How do I know that?
Because the smile on her face isn’t a reaction. It’s a reveal. Like the final step in a plan already set in motion. Like I’ve just stepped onto a stage I didn’t know was built for me.
“Well,” she says, “looks like the rat found a hole.”
My whole body turns to stone.
Did she…want me to escape?
My mind reels. Of course. It all makes sense now. There have been other prisoners before me. A handful, maybe more. They all escaped, or at least tha what I thought. They ran through the halls like I did, desperate, wild–eyed. And no one stopped them. The guards were always just a little too late. Always a step behind. Like they were meant to get out. Like someone wanted them to run.
But they never came back.
Screamer hums about them sometimes, songs with no verses, just names and whimpers. When I pressed him once, really pressed him, he just grinned with red teeth and said, “They want the girls to run so they can be brought to the forest.”
I didn’t believe him.
I do now.
“This makes everything easier,” Paris says and walks toward me. “You see, we were just about to come get you, actually. There’s going to be a pack hunt tonight.”
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Chapter 101
My blood goes cold.
The forest thing was true. Screamer was right.
I take a slow step back. I already know what is going to happen during the pack hunt. But I need to hear how she will say it. “Why… would you need me for that?”
Paris smiles wider. “Oh, darling. The pack’s been so antsy. Bored. Unfocused. We thought… why not spice things up?”
Hér eyes glitter.
“A little chase. A little prey.”
I swallow. “You want me to run.”
“No,” she says sweetly. “We want you to scream.”
Logan still doesn’t speak. But his fists clench–tight, white–knuckled, like he is holding something in. Maybe rage. Maybe guilt. Maybe the last sliver of himself that still knows this is wrong. But he doesn’t move. Doesn’t step forward. Doesn’t stop her.
He just watches me like I’m already dead.
And I realize he isn’t going to stop her.
He never was.
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