by Cara Wylde
The Omega was in shock, and for good reason. I couldn’t believe my ears, either. The sentence wasn’t just harsh – it was unfair and corrupted. Also, this bullshit couldn’t even pass for a trial.
“No, she does not agree! This isn’t justice!” As if on cue, the two guards grabbed me by the arms and tried to pull me away. I fought them. “Get off!”
Through a side door, two other guards stormed into the room and went straight for the Omega. I saw red. I shifted in seconds, my uniform flying off my muscular wolf form, torn to pieces. For a short moment, I had the upper hand, then the two guards who’d grabbed me earlier shifted too. Two against one, and they were bigger and stronger than me. I lost the battle before it even began.
“Miss Sierra Carmine, I believe it’s in your best interest to come work with our scientists. Choose life.”
The Omega finally snapped out of her trance and tried to get away. The old man nodded at the other two guards, and they grabbed her quickly. She started screaming and kicking.
I was fighting for my life and hers. I scratched the wolf guards, bit them, slammed my body into theirs, but nothing seemed to work. The Council had found these steroid-pumped mercenaries because they knew someone from the prison would come to protect Sierra, and they wanted to be ready. When I realized I had no chance against them, I tried to reach her, save her somehow. The two wolves stopped me and pushed me toward the closest window. They lunged at me at once, and I flew right through the window and onto the pavement, glass all around me. I was cut and bruised, bleeding from multiple wounds. I tried to get up, but more guards appeared as if out of nowhere, and I had to accept that I’d lost. I’d lost my Omega.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Wisteria
When they threw Alaric out the window, shards of glass flying everywhere, I felt rage building inside me, spilling to the surface. The Wolf Spirit was coming out, and I let it. This time, I embraced it, called to it, begged for it to feel my pain and avenge it. Black fur sprouted out of my pores, and my body started twisting and convulsing, my limbs stretching and growing. My head elongated, and long, sharp fangs jutted out of my mouth. My hands and feet turned into huge paws. I felt strong, I felt invincible… I felt a needle penetrate my throat. In seconds, the shift stopped, my body returning to its small, fragile size. My vision blurred. I tried to say something, but I couldn’t move my lips, couldn’t form words. I fell backwards, and two strong hands caught me before I hit the floor. I lost consciousness.
* * *
I woke up with a splitting headache. Harsh white light was pouring from above, so I kept my eyes closed. I could hear voices around me. They sounded muffled, like I was inside a room, and they were outside, behind the door. I tried to move my body, only to discover that my arms and legs were tied to a bed. I was lying on my back, tied up, and there were people talking about me, about the Wolf Spirit, and about some results they’d just gotten back. Anxiety churned in my stomach, rising into my throat in the form of acid. I swallowed heavily, trying to calm myself. My heart was beating wildly, pumping fear into my blood, I started sweating, my skin going from cold to hot and then cold again, and I felt like I needed to use the bathroom. This was too similar to when they’d caught me first and brought me to Dark Moon Prison. I had to open my eyes and see what was really happening, but I was terrified. I was terrified of the truth. Because I knew it was going to crush me.
Fortunately, my memory was intact. I remembered everything – the ride to the mansion, the meeting with the Council of the Elders, the guards throwing Alaric out the window, and then the needle piercing my skin. They had drugged me. They had put me to sleep, tied me to a bed, and now they were talking about me like I was an object, not a human being.
I breathed in and out. In and out. I was going to be fine. I was alive, and they were going to keep me alive because they wanted something from me. They wanted the Wolf Spirit. Yes, I was a captive again, but if that hadn’t broken me the first time, it wouldn’t break me now. And besides, I wasn’t alone. By now, Alaric would have gone back to the prison to bring help. My three Alphas weren’t going to leave me to rot in a research center controlled by the Council. They weren’t going to allow them to experiment on me, treat me like a rat. They were coming to my rescue. I just had to collect myself and hang in there until they came.
With these thoughts in mind, I slowly opened my eyes. It took me a minute to get adjusted to the horrible light. For a while, I stared at the ceiling, then I moved my head to one side, and then the other. I was in a glass cage, and all around me, on the outside, were doctors and nurses dressed in scrubs. They had a table that seemed to be filled with samples they had taken from me while I’d been out. I was groggy beyond belief! I tried to think clearly, to take in the details and understand what was happening, but it was hard. It was like swimming through a sea of lead. I blinked, groaned, pulled at my bindings. My head throbbed with pain, and I felt sick to my stomach. I was still drugged. They were probably administering me the drug every few hours, because they knew the moment they stopped, the Wolf Spirit would take over. Fortunately, I was dressed in a plain white T-shirt and a pair of white, cotton pants. The clothes seemed to be too big for me, but I was grateful. At least I wasn’t naked.
I sighed and tried again, lifting my head as much as I could. I needed to know what was happening, where I was, and who was responsible. A male doctor was talking about what he’d found in my blood, apparently, because he was holding a tube filled with dark red liquid. He was using all kinds of weird scientific terms I didn’t understand. He was talking to an audience, and that was when I realized that we were in some sort of amphitheater. The members of the Council, as well as the two representatives, were sitting in comfortable chairs distributed on ascending levels, all clustered in a circle around the stage, which was where my glass cage was. I squinted to see better. Marcia Frost was writing in a notebook feverishly, while all the old men in the Council were listening to the doctor with focused interest.
“To conclude,” the doctor said, placing the tube back in its holder, “there are no physical clues indicating that the subject acts as a host for another entity. As for the fever that seems to come and go, we can only assume it is caused by the beast that wants to come out and is stopped by the drugs we administered, but we can’t be sure. We cannot make scientific affirmations based on assumptions.”
“You’ve made us wait for over twenty-four hours just to tell us that you have nothing?” one of the members of the council asked, annoyed.
Over twenty-four hours? My heart sank. So much time had already passed… What if my Alphas had abandoned me? Not by choice, of course, but what if the Council of the Elders had threatened them? Greater powers were at work, and Warden Green only had influence over Dark Moon Prison. I struggled against my restraints.
“Let me out! I didn’t agree to this! You’re doing this against my will!”
They didn’t even look at me. It was as if they couldn’t hear me, but I knew they could. I screamed louder. The doctor waited for me to settle down, then cleared his throat before speaking again in a serious, heavy tone.
“If you allowed us to let her shift, we would get something out of her. We need to test the wolf body of the Spirit itself.”
“That is out of the question.” One of the old men stood up, and the others quickly followed. “We’re done here, doctor. You will hand her over to the other team.”
So, there was a competition here. There must have been at least two teams employed by the Council, probably in the hope that healthy competition would push them harder, make them get results.
“We do have something. If you could give us one more minute…”
The man sighed. He was halfway to the exit door but stopped and motioned for everyone to stop as well.
“One minute.”
The doctor scrambled to get everything in place. The glass cage opened, and without looking at me or acknowledging my presence in any way, two nurse
s pushed a machine inside. It had a screen, a keyboard, and a long wire that came out of its side and ended in a probe. My eyes went wide, and I froze when I realized what it was. An ultrasound machine. The doctor stepped inside, too, and connected another cable to the back of the machine. One of the nurses lifted my T-shirt to expose my stomach, and spread a cold, transparent gel all over my belly, down to my pelvis. I shuddered. My eyes were glued to the monitor as it came alive. Concomitantly, a projector sent the image to one of the walls. Everyone watched in amazement how the ultrasound displayed three tiny beans inside me. I was more than amazed. I was overwhelmed and completely terrified, because whatever these people had had in mind for me before, now it was going to be ten times worse.
“As you can see, the subject is pregnant. Three pups. The pregnancy is not very advanced, but after we’ve done all the necessary tests, we concluded that both the subject and the pups are healthy, and there is a ninety-nine percent chance that the pregnancy will develop normally and the pups will be brought to term.”
Of course it wasn’t advanced! I must’ve just gotten pregnant in the past few days since my natural heat started. Werewolf females, and especially Omegas, had very quick pregnancies. It was all because mother nature had intended for us to bring as many pups into the world as we could, so the period of gestation only lasted for four months. This way, we could easily get pregnant and give birth three times a year.
The members of the Council suddenly looked pleased.
“Good work, then. But what does this have to do with the Wolf Spirit?”
The doctor seemed reluctant, but he voiced his opinion anyway. “Again, this is just and assumption, a theory… Alas, nothing about the Wolf Spirit is scientific, is it? It’s a legend, a myth some have turned into a religion. In light of this new discovery, I believe we must seek to answer one question: is it possible for the Spirit to attach itself to one of the babies? And if yes, what does this mean to our cause?”
I stared at the faces around me. The more I saw interest and wonder shine in the Elders’ eyes, the more I shook with fear. I curled my hands into fists and dug my nails into my palms.
“Very well, doctor. That is a valid question, and we shall strive to answer it.”
For the first time since I’d woken up in the glass cage, in the middle of the amphitheater, the Elders looked at me.
“Miss Sierra Carmine, you might be of use to us still. If not you, then the three creatures growing inside you, for sure.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Warden Green
I was restless. Like a wild animal trapped in a cage. Which wasn’t far from the truth, really. After the beast that possessed the Omega had destroyed my office, I’d had to move to another room and improvise something that would serve as an office. I had construction workers repairing the wall, and the sound of their tools had turned into a huge source of stress. I paced the floor, shooting Officer Stone an angry, almost murderous look every two minutes. He was lying on my couch, holding a bag of ice to his jaw. He’d failed me. He’d failed her. He’d allowed those bastards to take Sierra, lock her up in one of their facilities, and experiment on her. Long ago, I had had faith in the Council of the Elders, but not anymore. I knew what they were after. They weren’t concerned with Sierra, nor with the well-being of the community. All they cared about was power. And the Wolf Spirit could give them that power. It was as if they had learned nothing from the demise of the Carmine Pack.
“How could you leave her there?” I growled.
“I did everything I could.” He sounded defeated, and I hated him for it. “They were prepared for me. Officer Bough must have told them she found us together in the woods. She saw everything. I didn’t exactly treat Wisteria like an inmate. Maybe they know we are mated.”
I shook my head. “No. Or they don’t want us to know that they know, because a mate bond is sacred. You should have told them then and there, urge them to release her to you. If you are one of her mates, then you are responsible for her. No one can take a mate away from her Alpha. Not even the Council of the Elders.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” He jumped to his feet and threw the ice pack on my desk. “They took me by surprise! My instinct was to fight, not come up with diplomatic strategies.”
I sighed. “It is what it is. We can’t turn back time. I shouldn’t have let you go alone with her.”
Alaric huffed. “They wouldn’t have allowed another officer in. They barely allowed me.”
“This wasn’t a meeting to check if Sierra’s memory was back, or to find out more about the Wolf Spirit. They already knew about the Wolf Spirit, and they just wanted her.” I ran a hand through my hair. I’d pulled at it so hard in the past hour that it now fell over my shoulders, long and unruly and filled with knots. “I was such a fool! When the representatives were sent to see Sierra the first time, the Council had already caught a whiff of the legend and what Alpha Carmine had attempted. Of course. Michaela Thistle had gone to them, hoping she could help. But the Council is corrupted, so her attempt to absolve Sierra of the crime turned against her. They don’t care that an entire pack of werewolves was slaughtered, they don’t care that the Omega is, in fact, innocent… All they want is the power Alpha Carmine wanted for himself, and they think they are smart enough to get it.”
“What are you saying? How can they even get that power? It resides inside her, and she doesn’t control it, so she can’t give it away. She would, if she could. But the Wolf Spirit decides what it wants to do.”
I groaned. “I know.”
“But do they know?”
“They do.” I nodded, utterly convinced of my reasoning. Now I could see everything clearly. All that was at stake. And I understood what they were capable of to get it. “They believe they can find a way to get the Spirit out of Sierra and into one of them. Or maybe not one of them. Maybe they really are smarter than that.”
“Into one of their goons?”
“Yes. Why not? Into someone they can control.”
“Control.” Alaric huffed. “They’re idiots. There’s no controlling the Spirit. Not now, when it’s inside the Omega, and not ever, if they do manage to move it into another host.”
“That, I hope, will be their undoing. But I don’t give a crap what happens to them or to the Wolf Spirit. All I know is that they’re going to torture Sierra in an attempt to get their way. They’ll even kill her if they think that’ll get the Spirit out. We have to move fast. We have to do something. Now.”
“Fuck!” He punched the wall. Bits of brick fell to the floor. He pulled his fist back, leaving a hole behind. “Do what? Huh? What? It’s the fucking Council of the Elders! They’re more powerful than you and me! Do you think you can march in there with your diplomacy and just tell them she’s our mate and they cannot take an Omega from her Alphas? Do you think they’ll give her to you? They’ll just probably tell you: ‘Oh, oops… We’re sorry. She’s dead already. Our fault.’ And maybe they’d lie, and she wouldn’t be dead. They just wouldn’t release her into our custody!” He paused, breathing heavily. “Or maybe she would be dead… Maybe she’s dead right now, maybe she died an hour ago… And we’re here, talking, planning…” He started hyperventilating.
I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. He looked into my eyes, and I could see how hurt and terrified he was. I was, too, but I had to be strong now. Strong for Sierra, and strong for her two other mates.
“There is someone above the Council of the Elders,” I said. “The Administration.”
He smiled sadly and shook his head. “Unreachable.”
“Not if we talk to the right people.”
“Do you have anyone in the Administration?”
“No, but Garrett does. His father has friends there. I believe Alpha Rivera even worked for the Administration for a short time.”
Alaric’s dark eyes lit up. “How didn’t I know this?!”
I shrugged. “Garrett is very private about his l
ife before he became a priest. He rarely talks about his pack and his family.”
“Where is he?”
“Praying in the chapel. He’s been praying for the Omega since the Council took her.”
“What are we waiting for?”
We rushed out of the office, crossed the yard, and marched into the chapel. We found Father Rivera kneeling in front of the Savior’s cross, in prayer. We walked up to him, but he didn’t flinch. It was as if he was in a trance, head bowed, fingers rolling the beads of his rosary as he repeated his prayer over and over.
“Garrett, we need to talk.” Alaric was impatient. He was an atheist, too, so the fact that the priest had been praying for hours didn’t impress him in the least. “Garrett, now!”
Garrett sighed deeply, raised his face toward the sky, opened his eyes, and crossed himself. Slowly, he stood up and turned to us.
“What happened? Is she back? Have they returned her?”
“No,” I said. “And they will never give her back if we don’t do something. Garrett, we need your help. We need you to talk to Alpha Rivera and convince him to use his contact in the Administration to help Sierra. It’s our only chance.”
The priest shook his head. “I don’t know, Callum. I really don’t want to do this…”
“Didn’t you hear him?” Alaric was losing his patience. Not that he’d had much in the first place. “They will torture her! They will kill her to get that thing out of her! Meanwhile, we’re here, with our hands tied. Believe me, if I thought we stood a chance, I would be the first to build an army and storm that place, save her, and burn the Council to the ground. But I don’t particularly fancy the idea of starting a war I know we can’t win.” He pointed at his own temple. “We have to be smart. Smarter than them. The Administration is the only one that can order the Council of the Elders around.”
