Using his fingers as a fishhook, Lucas brought her up and caressed the back of her head. For a few long seconds, her plump, red lips dangled over his as his fingers threaded through her fine hair.
“Testing your luck, Precious?” he asked.
When he kissed her, he choked his tongue into her candied mouth. The sweat perspiring from his forehead ran against her, and she inhaled him with deep, southern comfort. The sweetness of her flower was too great for any alpha, but Vash watched as Lucas restrained his hunger to punish. They needed to find a room first.
She lurched her lips forward for another kiss, but Lucas nudged his chin back before delivering another hammering blow. Wren felt the skin tighten around the freshly swollen lump, and though she felt the urge to cry, she knew she shouldn’t.
“Thank you for reminding me,” she said, bowing her head against the static light of the inside. “Next time, I’ll break the flesh,” Lucas warned.
As they walked through the grounds, Wren couldn’t help but notice how large the place was. The area itself must have been twice the size of the pipes. Small shops lined the back areas. The sleeping quarters were in the center of the building.
I can’t let them take me again. Not here.
The smell of meat and unfamiliar odors wafted into the air around them. Stomach rumbling, Wren remembered that she hadn’t eaten in almost two days.
“Food,” she muttered hungrily.
“Not much food here, but you can be fed if you ask,” Killian said through his wicked smile.
As they rounded the corner, Wren jumped at the sight of a young alpha, mouth open and covered in soaking seed. His eyes swayed into the back of his skull as his ass opened wide with pumping knots. Four shafts ripped into the meaty hole as a crowd waited to take turns unloading into his mouth.
Wren did not ask why. She didn’t have to ask anymore. As horrid as Dagon was, the buildings and large crowds gave it an air of safety. This place, however, was different. It reminded her of the pipes, but worse.
As they walked farther into the massive amphitheater of sex and pain, Wren kept her head down until they reached a small door. Vash slipped a few coins into a nearby slot, and the door opened automatically with a swirling and beeping tone.
Inside the small room was a single stained mattress, a can of an unknown liquid, as well as a piece of leftover meat. Vash tied Wren’s leash to a post and collapsed onto the soiled bedding.
“I don’t miss the beds,” Killian said.
Wren was the first to sit on the mattress, her puppy-dog eyes rising to their level. “Please don’t leave me here alone.”
Vash felt his abdomen and rocked forward as he felt the agony writhe beneath his gut. His navel was bleeding again. The growing wound stared at him, and he thought of his brother.
“This place… I can’t believe we are back here,” he said.
Lucas watched Vash with careful uneasiness. “I told you—we have walked into a trap.”
But Vash shook his head, his dark hair shifting. “He’s not here.”
Lucas placed his hand against his shoulder blade and squeezed. “He could be. You don’t have a fuckin’ clue.”
That was a risk they all had come to learn to accept. Like it or not, they were at war. Gazing at the alphas, Wren saw them as combatants fighting for freedom. Even if they’d outwardly denied it, she had to believe that.
“And we’re outnumbered. Cassian’s men are everywhere,” Lucas added.
“We still have our badges. That gives us access to these areas. As far as they’re concerned, she’s our omega.”
The bounty was out. Their faces were everywhere. And though they dressed in stealth and cloaks from the desert regions of the south, none of that would matter if a high official saw them roaming the rows.
Vash stumbled onto the bed. If Vash didn’t get better, he wasn’t sure how the others would fair against Cassian.
They’d be fucked harder than Wren.
“We’ll find Aidrick,” Lucas said, sharing a glance with Killian.
“Like hell,” Vash argued and tried to stand unsuccessfully.
Killian extended his chubby hand to block him. “Rest.
Wren merely watched the alphas, taking in as much information as she could get.
“Is that an order?” Vash asked with rare sarcasm.
“It’ll give you more time to prep her,” Killian said.
Aidrick was easy to find, but he wasn’t a team player. They couldn’t rely on Vash to save the day anymore.
“Fine. But hurry,” Vash uttered.
The two men nodded and walked into a crowd of alphas. Vash turned to face the shivering and silent omega. He waited for her to say something, anything to keep his mind occupied, but she said nothing.
Finally, the twisting pain stirred him enough to break the silence. “Don’t mind Lucas,” he said.
A faint smirk formed on the innocent omega’s mouth, but she bashfully looked away. “You are worried,” she said. “About losing your strength.”
Vash ran his fingernails against each other, tapping the cracked edges until they caught. She was right, but she was out of line again.
“We won’t be here for more than a night,” he said, studying the ceiling.
Her strands of dark hair stroking her face, she nodded. “You won’t prepare me here?”
Cassian sat still, despite the ache. “No,” he said.
Wren toward him and laid her fingers on the threading of his shirt. When he didn’t squirm, she lifted the moist fabric.
“Does it hurt?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Pain is only relevant to the situation at hand,” he said. “I hurt because I know I could lose everything I worked so hard to gain.”
It was a stark admission that he wasn’t used to giving. It made him feel weak, and he blamed the girl for it.
“You won’t lose me,” Wren said.
Yes, she had been obedient, but Vash felt a level of unease with everyone lately. Sometimes, he wondered if parting with Cassian was worth it. Then, he’d remember the goal and felt the urge to keep fighting.
“I know that,” he lied. “All I care about is bringing down Cassian and his army.”
She pointed at his bag. “Hand me your medical kit. I will clean and wrap you with fresh gauze.”
He handed her the bag and inhaled deeply through his engorged nostrils. This was another level of trust they weren’t used to providing. It wasn’t a violation of the pack’s rules—technically, they could have her whenever they pleased. It just rubbed Vash the wrong way.
Vash furrowed his brows and leaned back against the wall. “They don’t trust me anymore,” he said.
Removing the old bandage, Wren dipped a small cotton swab into the bottle of alcohol and the liquid soaked into the fuzz.
“Once you are healthy, they’ll come around,” Wren said, applying the swab to the wound with haste.
Vash hammered his teeth together, thick beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “That is the hope.”
Wren tossed aside the bloody cotton swab and taped down the fresh gauze. Vash looked down at the wound and nodded. “I know you have hopes, too,” he said.
“I am in heat,” she said reaching for his rising shaft.
“We will snuff it out of you before he can.”
Wren curled her head against his chest, providing him with a view.
“I want autonomy within the pack,” she said. “Once the baby is delivered, of course.”
Vash didn’t know how to take this, but he was too weak to argue. “Consider it done,” he groaned.
Eyes lighting up with childlike excitement, Wren hugged his stiffened neck, hand stroking his dripping shaft. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“You’re our special girl. Remember that the next time you want to act up,” he said.
Vash closed his eyes and let the obedient kitten lap up the milky surplus. She was special. More special than she thought.
Chapter Ten
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“Think he’ll make it?” Lucas asked as they walked through the crowded arena.
Killian’s eyes scanned the bodies for Cassian’s tags, praying to the gods that no one familiar showed up. The truth was he didn’t have anybody else except for the pack. When Vash found him, he was a young soldier without a family. His village had been torched, and Cassian had brutally slaughtered the elders. Vash promised him revenge. For that reason alone he felt indebted to Cassian’s brother.
“I’m… optimistic,” he grumbled.
“We can only keep running for so long before they catch us. You saw him. He can barely move,” Lucas said.
Killian turned the corner and shook his head. “We made an agreement,” he said.
Lucas stepped in front of him. “And you’ll keep to that agreement?”
Sucking in a breath, Killian ran his palm over his close-shaven scalp. “You remember what he told us about the girl. The three of us need each other.”
Lucas seemed to agree with this. Before they reached Aidrick’s bunk, they both paused. “You ready?” Killian asked.
Without answering him, Lucas pushed through a thin curtain of beads. The two met a thin and wavering omega, clearly unfed and on the last threads of her life.
She sat in a medium-sized cage, blonde hair combed behind her ears with luminescent slick. It was clear she had been used to her full abilities and then some. A twisted smile formed on her face before she greeted them.
“A ride is fifty chips, no less. You pay up front, or it’s double and stamped to your thumbprint,” she said.
“Aidrick,” Killian clarified.
“Aidrick is out right now,” the woman said, spreading a leg open. “But I can help you.”
Lucas cuffed his palm around his revolver and aimed the barrel at the woman. “We will wait for him quietly,” he said.
The woman startled back and gagged on her words. Loudly clamoring against the thin metal bars, she alerted Aidrick of the men’s presence with a shrill cry.
Killian pulled out his gun and started for the back of the room. As he pushed through another set of curtains, he saw Aidrick startle out of bed with a custom rifle.
“Killian,” he said, blinking his bloodshot eyes rapidly. He dropped the gun. “You can’t be here. Your pack has been the talk of the sector.”
Killian caressed the trigger and squeezed until the sharp ringing burst through their eardrums. One shot to Aidrick’s kneecap, and he collapsed to the floor like a wounded soldier in the mud.
Aidrick hunched and clung to the exploded thread of muscle and bone. Crying and lashing forward, he screamed, “He will find you, you… fuck!”
Lucas holstered his weapon and pulled out a blade. Taking hold of the alpha’s thick head of hair, he dragged him to the corner wall, placing the blade against his forehead.
“You never learned when to shut your mouth, Aidrick.” Lucas breathed down the side of his neck.
“Cassian will track you down,” he moaned. “You’ll never make it out of here.”
Killian caressed the trigger once more, aiming down at his foot. The bullet shattered Aidrick’s big toe into oblivion.
When his voice gave out from crying, Killian leaned forward. “We need a sample fusion kit, and you’re going to give it to us.”
Aidrick’s eyes swayed open in disbelief. Saliva trickled from his lips to the floor. “You fucks blew my leg off for a fusion kit…”
Both Killian and Lucas inched closer to him, digging their weapons into the skin. A trickle of blood traced his porous face. “Sure did. We need a doctor, too. Know where to find one?”
The alpha shook his head. “A specialist who doesn’t use thumbprint identification retrieval? Are you out of your mind?”
There was no question the men were out of their minds. They were going against the most powerful slave trader in the region, a warmonger tyrant with thousands of slayings under his belt. They were more than crazy, and they were willing to die for this.
“Give us the damn kit.”
“Okay, okay. Fusion kit is behind me. Check the cabinets,” he said, face turning a shade of gray.
“And the doctor?” Killian asked.
Aidrick shut his eyes and sighed. “I can’t help you with that. I only know of one doctor in Dagon, and apparently Cassian has already got to him.”
Killian lowered the gun. “That doctor died in the pipes. Saw it with my own eyes.”
A chuckle fell from Aidrick’s dying throat. “I always knew you’d do me like this.”
“Don’t get sentimental. Our pack’s relationship with you has always been strictly business,” Killian said.
“You found her, didn’t you? The omega…” Aidrick swallowed before smiling, the life fading from his eyes. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”
“We did,” he said.
“So. You will have your family after all. How sweet,” Aidrick said.
“My pack has always been my family. Nobody else,” Killian said.
Lucas swiveled the blade back into the sheath on his thigh. Standing up, he went and seized the fusion kit from the cabinet. “Getting tired of this guy.”
Finally, Killian stood up with a wicked grin. “You should see a doctor. You’re losing a lot of blood.”
“Wait, please. I helped you. Now, you help me,” Aidrick said.
“This isn’t a game,” Lucas said. “There are no rules we have to abide by.”
They left Aidrick with the fusion kit and hurried back to the small room where Wren and Vash were hiding. Killian opened the door and found the two bodies, intertwined and sleeping. Tossing the black box against Vash’s wounds, Vash woke with a painful startle.
“Got your kit,” he said.
Vash analyzed the box’s print. It wasn’t a replica—that was for sure. But he had no fucking clue how to use the newer model. “What about a doctor?”
“Aidrick only knew of the specialist we saw in the pipes,” Lucas said.
“You mean, the doctor Wren snuffed,” Vash said.
But Killian shook his head. “Aidrick claims he survived, that he’s with Cassian now,” he said.
Vash felt an icy current of dread hover in his gut. “Dammit! We can’t stay here.”
“What are we going to do, Vash? Wait for you to bleed to death in some foreign village?” Lucas asked, looking down at the freshly applied gauze, already starting to soak with rosy stains.
As they argued, Wren watched as an emaciated figure of a woman passed by. Lifting her head, she observed the sunken omega watching Killian and Lucas. It was too close for comfort.
“Alphas, stop arguing,” Wren whispered, raising her hand to point.
“We will come across someone,” Vash argued.
“I’m sick of putting my ass on the line for one girl,” Lucas said.
As the alphas ignored Wren’s incessant chattering, the woman took slow steps forward. Finally, she gazed into Wren’s eyes.
“Shh…” The silent omega placed a skeletal finger against her lip. Then, she aimed a rifle at Killian’s head.
Wren jumped forward in a state of panic. Her leash caught against the post, but she choked until her hand eased around the butt of Vash’s revolver.
One shot. Two shots. Three shots. Dead shot and slayed.
The omega fell to the floor as a heap of bones and figure-hugging flesh. Wren turned her head before she could witness the dark red fluid spread out across the floor.
The men reacted the way she expected them to, by raising their fists to smash her into submission. Wren dropped the gun and huddled back against the wall, legs tucked inside her arms. “Please don’t beat me anymore,” she whispered.
Killian seized Wren by the shoulders but did not hit. “You saved our lives.”
The pack could feel the weight of other slave trader alphas staring in their direction. Wren had just killed a woman—one who wasn’t their property. This was a crime, she assumed, that no other alpha in the sector would let go.
The entire section of the arena lit up with flashing red lights and resounding sirens. The alphas turned in a panic.
Innocently, Wren pushed the pistol away with her feet. “What have I done?” she whispered.
“Keep the pistol,” Vash groaned. “We may need you.”
Perhaps Wren had earned their trust.
Turning, the alphas faced the crowd of slave traders. Vash held the insignia up in the air. “My brother is Cassian,” he said. “I am of his blood. Step back, alpha scum.”
The crowd thickened like the sea, but the four parted through with powerful force. “I am of the blood!” Vash screamed once more.
It is the blood that makes atonement.
Without blood, there is no forgiveness.
Wren remembered the doctors telling her this. As she clung to Killian’s back, she closed her eyes and only allowed herself to look when the fear of death forced her eyes back open.
They carefully edged their way through the arena, finally reaching the entrance to the station. Lucas rushed forward and held the door open before it could lock them inside. “Keep moving!”
They scampered through the train station, hopping onto the tracks themselves. “Through the tunnel,” Lucas said. “We can get on a train at the next station.”
“Let’s hope one doesn’t come while we’re on these tracks,” Killian muttered.
Finally opening her eyes again, Wren swallowed and forced a smile. She was no longer an innocent flower, waiting for each petal to be plucked and thrown onto the earth’s floor. She’d saved the alphas. She could be strong like them.
Now, I can be taken seriously.
Before they reached the edge of the tunnel, Wren jumped from Killian’s shoulders, hand still firmly rooted around the pistol. The alphas looked warily at the weapon, but they let her keep it. Even though she could have, she hadn’t and wouldn’t turn on them.
“You know how to reload that thing?” Killian asked.
Wren’s lustrous eyes rolled down to gaze at the mechanisms within the revolver. She had seen the men using their weapons, of course. But she had to admit she wasn’t smart enough to work it all the way.
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