Page 176 of Defiant Beta

Three men sit tied to chairs, thick, dark rope trapping their arms to their sides, and black hoods over their heads. Their sharp, panicked breathing echoes in a room almost devoid of light.

Next to the door, there are two baseball bats. One has nails embedded at the end, while the other does not.

This wasn’t the room where they nearly killed me. It’s identical, but the musty smell and the way the shadows hit the corners aren’t quite right.

“What’s going on?” One of the alpha’s voices is shrill with his fear. “I hope you know what will happen to you when we get out.”

I remember him.

I willneverforget his voice.

The way he sat on top of me as he pressed a taser against my breast. The way he whipped me with a belt until I begged them to stop. The way he shoved my head into a toilet until I passed out.

I stalk toward him, my lips flattening as his scent confirms it. Maple and tobacco.

I rip the hood from his head, and my gaze clashes with Zach, the dark-haired, blue-eyed alpha whose cruelty nearly broke me.

Fear slides off his face as I drop the hood on the floor.

He sneers. “You. When I get free, I’m going to end you.”

“The bat.” I don’t take my eyes off Zach as I hold my hand to the side.

“Which one?” Levi asks.

“Spiked.”

Footsteps sound behind me. The bat with the nails is placed gently in my hand. My fingers curl around the wooden handle, and I test the weight in a two-handed grip.

Not too heavy. Not too light.

Perfect.

Zach’s laugh rings out, his arrogant face disbelieving. “You honestly expect me to believe you’ll use that thing?You?”

A searing wave of fury floods my body, more intense than I’ve ever felt in my life. He’s still smirking, still disbelieving, when I swing the bat at his head.

Chapter 51

Della

We burythe bodies in the woods.

After wiping the blood off our faces and hands, we stopped at a 24-hour diner.

It’s three in the morning, and we’re sharing a sticky booth—the only customers in a diner where the owner softly snores behind the counter after bringing us our drinks.

I keep thinking about three men who sat in a school parking lot, waiting for an omega they could stuff in the trunk of their car. Those men were predators.

Maybe if we’d given them a warning or locked them up, they’d have learned better. I doubt it. The wealthy alphas who belonged to a secret club called Asylum spentdecadesabducting, selling, and raping omegas. Even after they started getting arrested, alphas didn’t stop. They moved their hunting ground from free heat clinics to a school.

They needed to die.

I sip my hot chocolate and sit back in my seat, cupping the mug between my half-frozen fingers. My hands are surprisingly steady for having killed three men hours ago.

Then I remember what they did to me, and it’s not that surprising at all.

Levi, sitting next to me, leans his shoulder against mine. He’s barely touched his hot chocolate. “You okay?” he asks softly.

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