Page 108 of The Alpha King's Fate

But she wasn’t ready. She was in too much pain to even think about fighting.

A familiar scent drifted up her nose. She tensed at the same time Faith lifted her head to try to get a better look. The groan from their prisoner sounded familiar, too, but she could not move forward to look.

The Hunters stopped in front of her cage and unlocked the cage above hers. Her heart stopped beating when they hoisted their new prisoner and threw him in. She looked up as the prisoner’s face started sizzling against the silver above her.

Gavin.

Poor Gavin. His eyes were closed, and he was groaning in pain but unable to move. That was her fault. She’d ordered him not to come after her, but he must have been looking for her all this time.

The cage was slammed shut, startling her as the Hunters started to walk back the way they came.

‘Gavin!’ she cried in the mind link. ‘Gavin, move. Please.’

She struggled to her knees and reached above her to touch his face.

‘Please wake up. You need to get off the silver.’

How could she have been so irresponsible? She should have stayed back until there was a plan to rescue Jax. She should never have gone out on her own. Gavin had to be okay. He had a family that relied on him.

A different kind of pain filled her body as she willed Gavin to wake up. His blood was already dripping from the wounds inflicted on him, falling onto her and the cage underneath. He looked worse than the scout they brought in, who’d died only ashort time later. His white gown was already soaked in it; she could only imagine what they did to his body.

‘Please, Gavin...’

Tears fell to her cheeks, but she didn’t have the strength to wipe them off.

‘I found you.’

Her gaze went back up to his face, and she saw a slight smile on his lips.

‘You shouldn’t have! You should have stayed home,’ she cried, running her fingers over every inch of his face she could reach.

‘I must protect my Queen.’

And those words hurt more than anything. How could he lie there, being burnt and poisoned by the silver and still smile like that?

‘Move to the mat before you get worse.’

Gavin hoisted himself up and then shuffled over to the mat. It wasn’t big enough for him to lie on but at least less of his body would be exposed. But it looked like moving that much took too much out of him.

She was about to reach for him again when the sound of another cage opening made her look back.

“No.”

The pleading whimper cracked her heart in two.

Faith shuffled back, ignoring the sting of the silver as she tried to evade the Hunter’s grasp. Her skin sizzled but she still plastered herself to the back of the cage. The little Omega would not survive the doctors. She would come back like the scout and...

“No!” she shouted, rushing forward to put her fingers through the cage. “What are you doing?”

The Hunter stepped back, and as they had done when they tried to take the little girl, another one stepped forward with a catch pole ready.

“Please,” Faith cried.

This couldn’t be happening. She and Faith had a bond she didn’t have with anyone else. They couldn’t take her.

The silver wire on the pole looped around Faith’s neck, and her whimpers cut off.

“Leave her alone!” she shouted, banging on the silver bars.

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