Page 72 of Frenzy
I tugged on the manacles holding my wrists, and they groaned ominously. Eldridge frowned. “Easy now. Wouldn’t want you escaping.”
I just glared, not giving him the satisfaction of asking why. But his next words were like a lead weight in my gut.
“Wouldn’t want to have to kill the Omega. I mean, we need him for breeding purposes, but I’m pretty sure we can break him in other ways, don’t you think?”
The chill that went down my spine simultaneously froze my blood and set it on fire. I was going to kill this fucker. I was going to tear his intestines out through his mouth. I was going to eat his fucking heart like a Wendigo.
A noise at the top of the stairs was quickly followed by something tumbling down. When Eldridge picked it up, I realized it was Pryce. He looked banged up, his head crusted in blood and bruises littering his body.
“Pryce,” I breathed, drawing his swollen eyes to me. He looked… furious. Not scared, though I could smell the fear on his scent, underneath the coppery smell of blood. No, Pryce had never been weak; a weak person wouldn’t have survived as long as he did in conditions that were made to break even the strongest of supernaturals.
Pryce looked at the Legion General before him and then spat on his shoes. Eldridge backhanded him hard, sending him flying into the bars.
My Beast simmered beneath the surface, the rumbling growl echoing around the stone walls. “I wouldn’t put your hands on him again.”
Eldridge cackled. “Or what?” With more balls than common sense, he opened the doors to the cell, stepping in like these chains attached to a wall could really stop me. “You’re worthless, Alpha. Can’t protect your Pack or this town.”
I yanked on the chains again, and while they groaned, they didn’t snap. Yet.
Eldridge pulled out a gun, waving it lazily in my direction. I sneered at him. “You can’t kill me. Overthrowing me will only bring the Convocation down on your head. We are on their radar now—there's no going back to hiding in the shadows like a coward.”
I’d hit a nerve, given the tensing of his jaw and the furious burning in his gaze. “This is true. You did undo centuries of work building a virtual fortress to keep our people safe. Destroyed it all when you invited fucking vampires onto Packlands.” His voice began to rise, but I could see him sucking in calming breaths like it made him more authoritative. Delusional maybe. “You’re right. I can’t take the Alpha General position from you with your murder.” He dropped the barrel of the gun, then pulled the trigger, blowing out one knee and then the other.
I screamed as white hot pain seared through my body, my body falling hard and yanking my arms against the chains.The agony was unimaginable, making darkness spread through my vision, and only the sound of Pryce yelling my name kept me conscious. I wrapped my hands around the chains above me, pulling myself up to relieve the pressure on my now obliterated joints.
Eldridge’s grinning face appeared in my vision. “Alpha General? I challenge you for control of the Manix. But don’t say I didn’t bring you anything to lay your head on. Here, I’m sure these scents will comfort you.”
He stuffed a sweater behind my head, and I was assailed with the smell of blood. Two different scents, both achingly familiar. Bonnie and Radic. I roared my pain as Eldridge laughed. He swung the butt of the gun at my head and I lost my fight with consciousness.
Iwoke up with sand caked in my mouth like I’d been thrown face first onto a beach. No. Not a beach.
An arena.
I pried my eyes open, and rolled onto my back. My body ached like I’d been kicked around, and my knees were on fire. I realized it was because there was sand in the wounds, each grain feeling like knives in my brutalized flesh. I shifted to Manix, praying that the change would heal some of the broken cartilage, but it was fucking torture. I gritted my teeth because I refused to give an audience a glimpse at my pain.
The shift had healed some of the muscle aches, and rearranged my knees so they weren’t gaping holes, so I guess I should be glad for that. But they were still useless. I couldn’t bend them, or stretch them in any way.
I sat up and looked around. Contrary to when I’d fought for control of the Manix, the stands were empty right now. Only the Legion Generals were here, and by the looks of it, a portion of the Legion Force.
I searched for familiar faces, people I thought of as allies. But I couldn’t see Murphy or Merrick, nor any of the other members I’d promoted to leader positions. Interesting. The fact that I hadn’t been stabbed in the back by people I thought of as friends was subconsciously reassuring. My eyes did stall on Joshua and Doc, but neither of them looked happy. And there seemed to be a disproportionate number of armed men around them, so I was mentally giving them a pass. I had to believe that not everyone in this arena right now wanted me dead.
Eldridge stepped in like he was king fucking shit rather than a cowardly little worm, and strolled over to me. “Are you ready, Alpha General?” he asked mockingly.
“I could use an extra sixty years, thanks.”
No one laughed, and at that moment, I missed Dom. His scent wasn’t on the sweater, and I didn’t smell his blood anywhere. But if he was alive, he’d be here at my back. My brain shied away from the thought of him being dead.
I looked at Doc, seeing the strain around his eyes. Did he know his daughter was dead? That these bastards had killed her?
“Get to your feet,” Eldridge commanded with a smirk, like I was down here supplicating myself rather than the fact he’d blown out my fucking knees.
“Eldridge, I can defeat you from the ground,” I said with complete confidence. “You should have gone for the hands.”
He gave an enraged snarl, leaping toward me, and I rolled out of the way. It was a lie, of course. I could put up a damn good fight, but this guy was still a strong Alpha and I would probably still die in this dirt. He stalked toward me, and I ducked his claws again, swiping out with my own. I managed to get his thigh, but fate wasn’t kind enough to let me puncture a femoral artery and end this quickly.
He spun again with a roar, not learning anything from his wide open attacks, and I thought maybe I could kill him slowly, with a thousand slices. My knees burned like someone had shoved hot pokers into my flesh, but I compartmentalized the pain.
Fighting with rage instead of his head, Eldridge swiped hard and fast, getting my claws as often as he got me. But he was still getting me, and my body was fatiguing fast. I was fighting through pain, as well as physically having to shuffle my body through sand, and it just wasn’t going to work.
