Page 8 of Of Daggers and Deceit

I panicked and portaled. One instance of a crime was unusual for our ring, but two was problematic and almost unheard of. That awful siren meant something entirely different, because it guaranteed a spectacle, a punishment that was both a lesson and an example to the rest of us if we dared to put our toe out of line.

I materialised in the shadows near my house before pumping my arms and legs as hard as I could past our neighbours emerging from their homes. Onwards, I ran, towards where the beaming spotlights were now directed, exposing whoever had dared be defiant. My heart thumped, my gut sinking.

Please don’t be family. It was the same wish I repeated every time this occurred.

A strong arm reached out and gripped my bicep, dragging me closer towards them. I growled in frustration before looking up to Bodhi’s worried eyes as one word I didn’t want to hear fell from his lips. “Don’t.”

I knew then.

There was no other time in this world when he would stop me from viewing who it was.

Dread uncoiled in my gut. My body began to tremble as I looked up at the fear in his eyes. “I’ll protect her, Raya.”

I portaled us closer, this time just to the darkness of a nearby house, not even bothering to ask for his permission, knowing he would never release his grip on my skin if he knew I was going to portal. With his disorientation, I shirked out of his grip, running towards the guards, who were dragging my mum towards two other posts, situated next to the other Alpha serving his sentence in the cage.

“Stop!” I yelled. I didn’t know what I was doing, only that she couldn’t be tied up. Not when the first night of the thinning of our shield was mere days away. She would be a target. An Omega on display, almost as an offering.

My stomach rolled.

“Two weeks at the posts for a sympathiser,” one of the guards yelled as he dragged my emotionless mum to her position at the posts before dumping her on the ground and promptly dragging the chains to each of her wrists.

I moved forward as a guard gripped me and yanked me back, painfully twisting my arm.

I stifled a cry.

“Please,” I begged. “She cannot serve this punishment. She is an Omega, and it is near the thinning. They will take her and condemn her to a lifetime of slavery. This is a lifetime sentence!”

I was desperate, with my face fallen in grief, but the guard just looked at me impassively. “Your mother chose to commit this crime with the knowledge that the shield was thinning. She must serve her sentence.”

“No.” I moved to yank my arm out of his grip as a second guard moved to my other side, dragging me back and throwing me backwards onto the ground. I didn’t even know what crime she had committed.

Someone cried out in the crowd as the breath left my lungs, and I choked, pain ricocheting up my spine. A new guard pinned my body down with his.

“Do you wish to serve alongside her?” the new guard hissed, prompting my body to immediately became limp.

He was right. I couldn’t help her if I served my own sentence.

I clenched my jaw, blinking furiously to hold back the flow of my tears. She wouldn’t survive the breach of our shield out here. She wouldn’t survive beyond as a slave to the Dominants either. I thought of her laugh, her smile, her forgiveness towards me when I lost her most treasured items of my father’s, and I choked. Our enemies would use her.

The clang of chains irritated my ears as Bodhi’s angry but fearful face appeared above me.

“She will not be a problem. I will sort her out,” Bodhi stated, his hands curling beneath my armpits to lift me off the floor. The guard paused in consideration before rolling off me to stand so Bodhi could pull me the rest of the way up.

“See that you do sort her out, Alpha. Otherwise, we will be setting her up right next to her mother.”

Bodhi nodded with gritted teeth as he yanked me back to his chest, against his thundering heart. His earthy scent and his grip on my body comforted me, but only slightly.

Lips caressed the shell of my ear as I watched them chain her up, her knees on the floor. “I can protect her, Raya. I cannot protect you both if you serve your sentence alongside her. Please don’t do that to me.”

His fingers gripped me tighter as my lip trembled. How could I leave her here exposed?

I lifted my own hands to grip his forearms over my chest, allowing my head to fall back against him, my eyes never leaving her. She lifted her head and caught sight of me, no hint of remorse on her face.

It infuriated me. What did she do?

A smile played at the edges of her lips, and in that moment, she looked proud. It was terrifying to watch her like this, as if she knew she wasn’t going to survive it and was prepared to be taken or die defiant.

Bodhi pulled me against him, and I realised how much I valued his support, his friendship, his love. Because right now, I needed it.

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