Page 4 of Bait Wolf
“Alek, you can’t be serious. Look at him.”
“This is the one,” he insisted. “He’s weak, but there’s fight in him. Lambert likes a fiery damsel. This one wants to survive. Don’t you, little pup?”
“I’m not a pup!” I snapped, my voice a sharp whip that scratched over my throat, leaving it immediately hoarse and in pain.
Alek laughed. The sound was loud and jarring after so long in the near silence of my cell.
He turned to Abram smugly.
“Have him cleaned up for the fight and he’ll be perfect. He’ll definitely have them drawing blood.”
Abram nodded, sparing me only one last dubious glance as they left my cell.
The guard locked the door firmly after their departure, the familiar sound of the chains being fastened from the corridor chilling me even more than the icy cement.
This was it. They’d written my execution.
I was fiery by nature, that was true, but after being here for so long, I had thought the last flames within me had already been put out. I was surprised that man,Alek, had seen it so readily in me. It sickened me to think that my desire to live would be the thing to inevitably end me.
I couldn’t survive another fight. I knew that much. An alpha overcome by an omega’s presence in the middle of a heated situation like a fight… Well, they couldn’t often control themselves. Often the omega ended up shredded up in the process of two alphas trying to win them.
I knew from experience. From the terrifying moments I’d been cornered like a wild animal just before they lost all sense of themselves, I would do anything to escape facing it again.
This was my last chance. By tomorrow evening, I would escape, or I would die.
ChapterThree
Ember
I fell into a fitful sleep sometime later, telling myself that I needed to sleep to collect my strength. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to walk away, let alone run.
When I thought about running, panic filled me. I wanted freedom more than I wanted anything, even life. If I was going to die, I wanted it to be on my own terms,fighting,not at the hands of an organization and a city that had failed me.
How could I escape though? When would I be left unattended? Every other time, I had been escorted to the event in chains that weren’t removed until I wasinthe fight ring. What made me think this time would be any different?
The answer came when I was awakened by the familiar sound of rattling chains and my door being yanked open.
My heart jumped with fear, pounding so hard that I thought I might choke on it.
I didn’t have a plan yet. It couldn’t be time already!
The guard held the door open for me.
“Come on,” the frail man muttered.
It took several tries for me to get to my feet. My body creaked and ached. When I fell for the second time, another man entered with an impatient huff.
He took me roughly by the arms, clearly more concerned with his time than the state of his charge, and hoisted me through the door.
Down the hall I was dragged, feet barely managing to find purchase on the damp floor until eventually, I realized that they were not taking me in the usual direction. I wasn’t being taken to the stadium for the fight.
Instead of asking, I bit my lip, eyes wide, as I was taken this way and that through the corridors and then up a long narrow staircase.
At the top, in a much cleaner, drier corridor, our journey continued. The floors here were carpeted and the air warm. The feeling of my toes scraping over the soft surface was almost pleasurable. Doors that I peeked through with wide eyes offered glimpses of sunlight through the windows.
My breath caught at the beauty of the orange glow of natural light. So beautiful.
I had always taken for granted the lovely warmth of the sun. If I got out of here alive, I would relish it. I could see it now, a spot in the woods, away from these people where I could sit in patches of sun that shone through the leaves of the trees. I could have a cabin maybe, hidden where no one could ever reach me. Especially alphas.
