Page 1 of Bound to the Guard

1

Ihuddle in the corner of the metal cage, my knees drawn up to my chest and my arms wrapped around myself in a futile attempt to ward off the chill that lives in my bones.

The cloying scent of fear and the tang of copper hang heavy in the air from the Omegas who lived in these cages before.

I focus on the rough, concrete floor to block out the sounds in the dimly lit basement, the drip of water from a leaking pipe, and the thud of footsteps overhead. But one noise cuts through the rest, growing louder. The sound of something, or someone, being dragged across the floor.

I tense, shrinking against the bars at my back to make myself small in the hope the guards will ignore me. Heavy footsteps pass my cage, and the rattle of a key comes from the lock on the cage beside mine.

With a rusty screech of hinges, the door opens. The body they shove inside lands in a crumpled heap before the metal bars slam shut again with a reverberating clang.

The men leave, the thud of their boots on the wooden stairs fading.

The newcomer doesn’t move, their white-blond hair with dark roots matted by blood. Are they still alive? Or will I have to smell the stench of a rotting body until they clean out the cage?

With a groan, they lift their head, startling me.

The curtain of hair parts to reveal a young man’s face, all sharp angles and hollow shadows in the faint light. He grits his teeth as he pushes up on shaking arms to prop himself up on the bars, defiance sparking in his deep blue eyes despite the dark bruises blooming across his fair skin.

He spits a glob of blood onto the floor of his cage, then catches me staring. “Hey, my name is Jade. What’s yours?”

I flinch back, fingers gripping the frayed fabric of my tattered pants. I don’t have a name here, just a number. My name was the first thing they took from us, stripping away the very foundation of my humanity and turning me into a product to be used and disposed of.

Something about this boy sets me on edge, more so than any of the other captives who’ve come and gone. Reckless wildness surrounds him, challenge blazing from every fiber of his being, daring the world to try to break him. He reminds me of a cornered wolf, all snarling fury and savage pride, ready to lash out at any threat.

Every instinct screams at me to keep my head down, to avoid drawing his attention and the inevitable trouble boys like him draw. They’ll break him. They break everyone in the end, but not always without fallout for the rest of us.

But a small, stubborn shred of who I used to be before the slave traders stole my freedom wants to reach out to him, to warn him. “You shouldn’t fight them. It will only make things worse.”

The chains around his wrists clank as he scoots closer to the bars of his cage. “What’d you say? Sorry, my ears are still ringing from the beating.”

I take a shaky breath, fighting the urge to shrink back into the shadows. “Fighting them…it’s pointless. They always win in the end.”

A harsh bark of laughter escapes his split lips. “Pointless? Fuck that. I’m not gonna roll over and let these bastards do whatever they want to me.”

He rattles his chains for emphasis, the metal links biting into his bruised skin. “They wanna break me, they better be ready for a goddamn fight.”

A bitter, mirthless smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. “You think I didn’t fight at first? We all did. But look around you.”

I gesture at the cramped confines of our prison. “This is where it gets you. More pain, more suffering. It’s better to…accept it.”

His jaw clenches, a muscle ticking in his cheek as he glares toward the stairs where the men disappeared. “Accept it? Fuck that noise. I’ll die before I let them win.”

Fierce conviction rings in his words, a blazing determination that both terrifies and awes me.

Unable to handle so much passion, I lower my head, my shoulders slumping in defeat. “Then you’ll die. And for what? They’ll keep doing this, keep breaking us until nothing is left. That’s what they do here.”

Silence descends between us. Though his stare bores into me, I don’t dare raise my head. I’ve said my piece and offered what meager warning I can. What he does now is up to him.

“How long have you been here?” The quiet question holds pity, and maybe he’s right to pity me.

I’m pathetic, useful only for experimenting on. I almost envy his defiance, his unbreakable spirit. It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything close to that kind of fire, that unwavering belief in something beyond mere existence.

“You said this is the place where they break Omegas,” he persists when I still refuse to face him. “Is this to prepare us for being auctioned off?”

A shaky breath escapes me, something in Jade’s presence compelling me to open up. “No, we’re not going to auction.”

If we were, we’d have a chance at being bought by a kind Alpha, or at least one who doesn’t hit too hard or too often. I remember standing on the auction block after the last experiment my first owner performed went wrong, and he sold me.

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