Page 51 of Dance Omega Dance

Another hit landed hard. Zach staggered, slamming into the side of the car. He didn’t go down right away. Not until the second blow hit, vicious and cheap. He hit the car with a sickening thud and dropped.

“Zach!” I screamed, the sound shattering the air, like it was made of glass and blood.

He was trying to rise, still fighting. But they swarmed him.

I saw his face, bloodied, bruised, and it burned itself into me. Two of them held him down while he thrashed against their grip, and I wanted to rip the world apart just to get to him.

“Zach!” I screamed, my voice raw, already breaking.

No. No, no, no.

I could only watch as they beat him, his blood marking the pavement, his gaze locked on mine.

He was still trying to protect me.

But I couldn’t move.

Kage smirked, catching my eye as I stood helpless, and I knew there was nothing I could do. "Looks like we have an Omega to collect," he said, and my world collapsed into terror.

Then they were on me.

Hands like iron clamped around my arms, yanking me backward. I fought, screamed, kicked, bit, but it didn’t matter. I was nothing to them. Just a prize they thought was theirs.

“Let me go!” I howled, jerking violently. But Kage was already in front of me, his hand slamming over my mouth.

His palm smelled like sweat and cruelty.

Zach’s voice reached me through the chaos. “Summer!” It was hoarse. Desperate.

They dragged me, feet scraping asphalt, toward the van that waited with its doors open like a coffin.

Zach didn’t stop fighting. I could see him through the blur of panic... his body straining, twisting against their hold. They hit him again. His eyes rolled, jaw going slack.

The next punch struck with a sickening crack. He folded at the waist and dropped, slowly, endlessly, crashing to the oil-stained asphalt in a puppet-string heap.

Crimson pooled around his face, garish under the sallow lights, and my heart shattered.

A howl built behind my breastbone.

The men turned toward me with feral smiles stretching their split lips. As one, they stepped over Zach's prone form, closing in with all the inexorable dread of wolves to a lamb.

And I knew I was next.

I bit down on my captor’s hand. Hard. He cursed, pulled back and punched me in the face. Stars and darkness faded over my vision.Damn it! Stay awake! Fight! Scream! Kick!

But they kept pulling, dragging me backwards towards their black van idling behind, its rear doors yawning open like a hungry mouth.

I dug in my heels and arched against the hands restraining me, writhing and bucking with every ounce of desperate strength in my body. Someone punched me hard in the stomach and I doubled over, wheezing, spots dancing before my eyes. They used my momentary weakness to yank me closer to the van.

“No!” I fought harder, writhing like a wild thing, but their grip never loosened.

"Zach! Help me!" I screamed. I could still see him through my blurred, tearing vision, a bloody heap on the ground. Two alphas had his arms wrenched up behind him at an excruciating angle. His face was a mask of agony, but his eyes... his eyeslocked onto mine with searing intensity. An apology. A promise. He stretched one trembling hand towards me, fingers brushing his fallen cell phone.

Zach called out, pleading. “Summer!”

And I saw it.

His eyes.

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