The door to the cell opened and my heart stopped when I saw my mother walk in, Genevieve trailing behind her. I stood up in the corner of the cell—the furthest away I could be from the cage on the opposite wall. The guards unlocked it this morning when they dropped off a single piece of bread for my breakfast.
My mother looked around the room, a frown on her face. For the briefest whisper of a heartbeat, I thought she was here to rescue me. But then she turned to the guard.
“How are we supposed to get her ready here?” she asked in a polite tone that belied the viciousness she unleashed when she didn’t get her way.
Mustache and Mullet just shrugged.
“Well, find out where else we can go,” she snipped. Her eyes seemed to snag on the cage in the corner where I’d spent the night. “We need seating, a mirror, and good lighting.”
When the guards realized she wouldn’t budge, Mustache mumbled something about making a call before he left the room.
An awkward silence fell. I crossed my arms, hating how vulnerable I was in this tiny nightgown. My mother primped her perfectly styled hair, and a faint whiff of burnt chocolate wafted over to me. It was her scent. It had been so long since I’d scented her that it had all but faded from my memory. It was as if the mother who loved me had faded away with her scent. I couldn’t catch the slight chemical edge of de-scenter, and I wondered not for the first time if she was wearing it or if there was another explanation for the loss of her perfume.
“Why are you letting them do this?” I asked, the desperation and agony clear in my voice.
“You brought this on yourself with your petulant behavior. I taught you better than this.” Her voice was cold, but I thought I saw a flash of distress in her eyes. I probably imagined it.
My eyes watered. I didn’t want to cry in front of her, didn’t want to show weakness, but as tears spilled over, I realized it didn’t matter anymore. I was locked away, controlled, the way she had always wanted me. So what if she saw how much her words affected me?
“They made me sleep in that last night. They said that’s my new bed,” I said, pointing to the cage.
My mother’s face was blank as she fiddled with the edges of the dress she was holding. I assumed it was what I was supposed to wear for this farce of a mating ceremony.
“Pack Madden hates me. They’re just using me to further their position. They’re going to rape me, hurt me, keep me locked away. How can you stand by and let this happen? Don’t you love me at all?” Tears streamed steadily down my cheeks and I didn’t bother wiping them away.
Mullet guard shifted his weight, as if uncomfortable. I fixed him with a glare. If he was going to participate in the imprisonment and torture of omegas, he could face the reality of what he was doing head-on.
“It’s always hard to join a pack,” my mother said, her voice robotic. “You have to learn how to please your alphas. Once you do, things will be better for you.”
It was the same thing she’d told me my whole life, but I knew now it wasn’t true. Loving my alphas had been easy. They’d never made me feel like I had to change myself to please them. They had always prioritized my safety, my desires, my pleasure over their own. And now they were gone.
“I had a pack,” I choked out. “I had three alphas who loved me more than anyone ever has. It wasn’t suffering with them. But they were taken from me.” I was on the verge of hyperventilating. “I’m sorry for what’s happened to you to make you this way, sorry that you have alphas who treat you like garbage. Why would you want that for me? Please, mama, please help me.” I hadn’t called her that since I was a small child, but something in me desperately hoped that she would show up for me and be my mom today.
“Love is suffering and pain. Nothing else,” she bit out. “You’re not a child anymore. Let go of these romantic fantasies and accept what life gives you. It’s the only way to survive.”
For the briefest moment, I saw the depth of her suffering in her eyes, and it took my breath away. This might have been the most honest thing she’d ever said to me. She’d always said no pack would want me the way I was. I’d heard it as an insult, a condemnation of being a defective omega. But maybe part of it had been a warning. She was living every omega’s worst nightmare—being bonded to alphas who didn’t want her—and maybe, in her own twisted way, she had been desperately trying to tell me to change myself so I could avoid the same fate.
Mustache guard returned and grunted for us to follow him. He led us to the elevator, and my heart pounded faster. If they were taking us to a room on one of the main floors, I could try to escape.
We exited the elevator and I stumbled, my legs stiff from being confined in the cage all night. Genevieve caught my arm and gripped me tightly, supporting me as we followed the guard’s brisk steps. Part of me wanted to shove her aside—her betrayal had put me on this path—but her touch was gentle and comforting and I couldn’t find it in myself to reject it. As we turned the corner of the hallway, she darted her hand down to grab my own, giving it three quick squeezes.
I kept my expression blank, but I was sure my heart would explode.
It was a signal we had used back in the early DA days. We had joked that three squeezes usually meant, “I love you,” but for us, it meant, “Fuck them all.” I quickly glanced at her, not wanting to draw the guard’s attention. Genevieve’s jaw was set, her face expressionless. But I returned the gesture—squeezing her hand three times—and she gave me an almost imperceptible nod.
Genevieve was still in there.
Glen didn’t have full control over her like he thought.
My mind whirred as I tried to figure out what to do with this information.
Mustache guard led us to a small, plain room on the second floor. My heart sank when I realized this room didn’t have a window. It was clean, with a plush carpet on the floor and a small vanity in the corner.
“You’ve got one hour,” Mullet said. He briefly met my gaze before breaking eye contact with seeming embarrassment. Maybe he had been upset by what I’d said earlier.
“We’ll be right outside,” he added dully, stepping out of the room with Mustache and closing the door behind them.
I quickly took in my surroundings, seeing if I could find anything that would work as a weapon but came up short. Should I try to knock my mother unconscious and make my escape?
“Sit down so I can try to fix your face,” my mother said, pushing me towards the chair in the corner.
I did what she asked without thinking, my brain working so sluggishly between the lack of sleep, food, and my overwhelming fear. My red, splotchy face stared back at me through the mirror.
My mother and Genevieve started working on my makeup. I imagined what my alphas would do if they were here. Cam would barge in, guns blazing, ignoring all of Theo’s careful planning and research. Ben would probably pull out some sort of charcuterie as we were escaping and try to feed me. Theo would hold my hand through it all.
The image was so ridiculous I almost laughed out loud.
I was losing my mind, but I didn’t care if it meant I could hold on to the fantasy of my alphas being alive and coming for me.
My mother brushed my tangled hair, her touch surprisingly gentle as she teased out the knots.
“You always did have pretty hair,” she murmured. “I used to brush it for you when you were young.”
Our eyes met briefly in the mirror before she averted her gaze with a frown. I could have sworn her expression was one of guilt, but I knew better—I’d long stopped looking for redeeming qualities in my mother.
When they were done with my hair and makeup, she held out the dress I was supposed to wear. I looked around, realizing I would have to undress in front of her. I gritted my teeth and took off the tiny sack I’d been given to sleep in and put on a shiny, white satin dress. I waited for my mother to comment on my body—probably something about how I was still too fat. Maybe she’d tsk at the bruises and cuts on my knees, hands, and arms, telling me it was my fault for being so clumsy.
But she said nothing, seemingly lost in thought. I risked looking at Genevieve, who gave me a little shrug as she glanced at my mom.
With a sharp inhale of breath and a small nod to herself, my mother locked eyes with me. “Omegas are resourceful, Josie. We have to take the opportunities we’re given.”
She gave me a final once-over, tucking a curl behind my ear before opening the door and slipping out.
I waited for the sound of the lock clicking into place, but it never came.
“We’re done,” my mother said, her voice imperious as she addressed the guards in the hall. “I already locked the door. I need you to show me how to get back to my pack. This dreadful house always confuses me.”
I looked at the unlocked door and back at Genevieve, who mirrored my disbelief. What would she do? Would she betray me again?
Feeling like I was about to throw up, I squared my shoulders. “Is it still you in there?” My voice was quiet to keep the guards from overhearing, but I was proud of how strong I sounded.
“Some version of me,” Genevieve said, her fierce expression a stark contrast to the meek, defeated one I’d seen on her face this past week. “Think she did it on purpose?” she asked, nodding towards the unlocked door.
“I don’t know. Might be a trap.”
“Could be.”
I looked my former friend in the eyes. “I’m going to escape. Are you going to stop me?”
If I acted quickly, I could probably use my self-defense skills to incapacitate her, lock her in this room, and use the alpha tabs to make my escape. I was pretty sure I could find the hidden exit on my own.
“I’m coming with you,” she said, her eyes blazing. Then she bit her lip, the first sign of uncertainty I’d seen from her. “Please.” The last word came out as a vulnerable whisper.
As I looked at the shadow of the Genevieve I once knew, I realized I couldn’t leave her here to endure more of Glen’s torture. No one deserved that. Goddamn, my soft heart.
“I swapped out your water,” she blurted out. “So you wouldn’t be drugged anymore.”
Shit. That must have been why she spilled the water. The bruise the guard gave her still shadowed the side of her face. There was no way I could leave her now.
I felt like my mind was moving at turtle speed as I tried to figure out what to do next, knowing that every second that passed increased our chances of being trapped here forever.
“They’ve been stealing omegas?” I asked, cutting straight to the point.
“I think it was Jericho’s idea, but Glen’s hoping it can help him regain control over his party. He’s gone a bit…”
“Crazy? No kidding. I can’t leave without getting intel about those omegas.”
My alphas growled at me in my mind, telling me to just get out. I smiled, loving how protective their ghost-selves were. But then I sobered.
They were dead.
I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing through the pain. Without them, I wasn’t sure I wanted to live anymore, but I could at least try to do something useful with my life if I was going to die anyway. The chance to get this intel wouldn’t come again. Who knew how many omegas Glen had in captivity, being used as political pawns?
“The paperwork is in his office. There’s no way we can make it there without getting caught,” Genevieve said.
I shrugged. “I have to try. You don’t have to come.”
“And how are you planning to get there without running into any guards?”
I hesitated, wondering how much I should reveal. Well, if she was going to escape with me, she would have to know.
“You better not betray me,” I said, reaching under my dress and sticking my fingers up my vagina to pull out the bracelet of alpha tabs.
“Umm…” Genevieve said, staring at the soaked piece of silicon in my hand. Bless Theo for making it waterproof.
I used my discarded sleep shirt to wipe them off.
“Well, that was something,” I said. All five tabs were intact, safely ensconced in their beads.
“These are alpha tabs,” I said. “If you bite down on one, it will incapacitate any nearby alphas and make them susceptible to your commands. It’s like a reverse device.”
Genevieve’s eyes widened. “You’ve had those the whole time?”
“Needed the right opportunity to use them,” I said. Then I looked at Genevieve’s arm. She had jagged scars up and down her whole upper arm that suggested they’d implanted way more than one device.
“Are you susceptible to barks?” I asked.
“Yeah. The newest one makes me constantly susceptible,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.
“I had that one, too. Mine’s been neutralized.”
Genevieve’s eyes widened. “You’ve been acting this whole time?”
“Maybe acting is my next career,” I responded as I headed towards the door, breaking one of the tabs out of the silicon bead.
“No kidding,” she responded.
“You know where Glen’s office is?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Okay. We need to get there, grab whatever evidence we can, and then head to the exit. There’s a secret one near the kitchen.”
“Shit, how do you know that?” Genevieve asked, eyes wide.
“Used to come here as a kid,” I said. I bit my lip before handing her two of the tabs. “I’ll use the first one to get whatever guards are outside, and then we’ll go from there.”
I took a deep breath, stealing myself. For a moment, it was as if I could hear Theo’s voice telling me to focus and be careful. I drew on his strength, his steadiness, as I opened the door and bit down on the tab.
