Page 53 of Omega Shattered
Jackson didn't take me to the doors, but to the back of the SUV and popped it open. In the spacious trunk, there was a steel dog cage with a blanket spread on the bottom.
"Get in," he unlatched the door and gave me a shove.
"A cage?"
"You're not fucking me up like you did that pack," he said curtly. "I don't deal with pack breakers."
I looked around the parking lot, but there was no sign of River. Not that he'd do anything for me, but I wanted him to see what he'd done to me.
In the end, I climbed into the cage when Jackson alpha barked at me and I had no choice. The cage door swung closed and locked with a click. It was a keypad lock, so there was no hope of getting out. Jackson shut the SUV back door and got into the driver's seat, then we were pulling away from the hospital and headed back to the Omega Reassignment Center.
In the cage, there was no way to stop myself from tipping over and slamming against the sides when Jackson took a corner or slammed the brakes. After a few hard turns, I curled up on the floor of the cage with the bars biting into my skin. I had only Kade's shirt to protect me, and it was too thin to help much.
By the time Jackson pulled into the enclosed garage of the ORC, I was covered in bruises and was stiff and sore from being crunched up in the small space.
He opened the back door but didn't open the cage until four beta guards arrived, each with their batons. They stood ready as he opened the door, grabbed my arm and pulled me out. the shirt caught on a bit of metal and ripped with a loud sound, making one of the betas snort.
"Come on, we don't have all day!" One of them growled, reaching out to grab my arm. The two men finished dragging me out of the cage and when I scrambled to stand, my legs gave out on me.
"Stop pretending to be weak!" A guard jabbed me in the ribs, right through the tear, and shocked me, sending me crashing to the cold concrete. If there had been any doubt, it was gone. I was back at the Omega Reassignment Center.
Jackson hauled me to my feet again and took off the handcuffs, signing a paper someone brought him. Then I was being shuffled toward the doors, my feet numb from standing on the cold concrete.
Inside, the center was exactly the same as when I'd left. Cold, sterile hallways and scurrying omegas with their heads down, trying to avoid any kind of issue with the many guards wandering the place.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked when they turned down a different hallway from the usual one.
"Shut up!" Another blast of electricity closed my mouth, and I stumbled after them, in pain. "You go where we tell you and you don't ask questions."
Where I was going was apparently down into the basement of the center. I didn't even know it existed, but they shoved me through one of the doors that lined the narrow hallway down there and slammed the door after me. It was a heavy metal door with a small reinforced window in the middle of it, just like I'd seen in prison movies when I was still back home.
Alone, I looked around the narrow space. If I stretched my arms out, I could touch both walls at the same time. There was a concrete ledge on one side that was just wide enough to lie on if you weren't heavyset. In the back corner was a toilet with a sink in the tank. It was metal and the only non-concrete thing in the space.
Worst of all, after all the heat I'd experienced over the past several days, I was cold. Concrete walls, bed, and floor made for an icy surrounding. They hadn't even given me a uniform orpajamas, which would have at least protected my legs and ass from the concrete.
Finally, I took Kade's torn shirt off, laid it on the concrete ledge and sat cross-legged on it with my arms crossed over my chest to try to stay warm.
It was quiet down here. I wondered if anyone else was in this strange section of the center. Once in a while, I could hear a door slam in the distance, but nothing that seemed to be in this hallway. To break the silence, I sang quietly to myself.
After what felt like days, the lights abruptly shut off. I sat in the pitch dark, alone and cold. No one had checked on me or left food, and I wondered if it was a power outage or if night had come. It was impossible to judge time here. When the lights didn't come back on, I decided it must be night after all.
There was no way to fall asleep with nothing to prevent the cold from penetrating my bones, so I just sat there, nodding off and jerking awake every so often. My thoughts roamed, back to the past few days with the pack. It hadn't been the best experience ever, but aside from River, they'd all come around.
I missed Archer's jokes and Orion's stoic, protective personality. But the fact remained, they hadn't stopped me from leaving. First, they'd let River take me and then Jackson. As much as I missed them, it wasn't based on anything real, I told myself. I needed to focus on surviving this cold prison and then whatever came next. Because it probably wasn't a pack if they had me down here. I had to face reality at this point.
"No one is coming to rescue you," I said aloud. "You're on your own now."
Then I put my head down on my knees and for the first time in years, I let my tears flow.
Chapter 29
The Plan
It took everything in me to let Jackson walk out the door with my omega. I wanted to punch the smarmy asshole in the face and take her and run. But that would only result in more problems for all of us. We needed to sort our pack out, get everyone on the same page, and go get our girl.
River had come back when we were ready to leave. He'd been out making arrangements to get his truck towed, but he joined us in the SUV that still smelled faintly of spiced apples for the drive home.
"Pack meeting," I said when we walked through the door.
