Page 36 of Prey for Me

Happiness is sometimes hidden in the unknown.

“Victor Hugo. Can’t remember. Was it a poem? A book…” I drift off as she raises an eyebrow with a playful look. “Look, I was a European princess once. Learned a lot outside of taking care of an alpha, since my mother was an alpha and didn’t want an airhead taking over the throne.”

Now I’m just yapping and need to shut up.

“I knew I wouldn’t find happiness in such an unfair death. So instead, I leaped into the unknown willingly, by joining their pack. It is rare we have a choice between good and bad. Often itis bad and worse. But we always have a choice, Grace. Doesn’t excuse those who take advantage of our trials and tribulations. No matter. I won’t hide from this fate,” she declares solemnly.

“You sound like a philosopher, not a model,” I try to joke to keep myself from choking up.

As I stand, our hands parting, Nadège winks at me. Her pheromones are so intense now, I can even smell them. But just like her, it’ssweet,like a field of spring flowers in full bloom carried on a gentle wind.

“Your mother wasn’t the only one who wished for more than an alpha’s bond for their daughter’s future,” she whispers and then ushers me away.

I don’t look back as her pack descends on the two-bedroom encampment. Nor do I give a second thought to the steadfast look Aiden gives me, as if he worships the ground I stand on. I barely notice, as Nakoa, Raphael, and Leo take me back to the warehouse, as fox-masked man after man lays offerings at my feet.

When we get home, I’m still floating in a haze. We eat, drink, and then my alphas’ gazes trail over me in the moonlight with hooded eyes, breathing heavily. In rut. My heat won’t seem to stop.

Their mating musk is thick and rich and I wonder why their ruts and my heat hasn’t waned yet? Even after Nakoa bit my nape? But I don’t focus on that for long as they descend on me, Nakoa on top, while Leo suckles my breasts and Raphael ravishes my mouth.

“Can I taste you? Nothing more. We just want to taste you tonight,” Nakoa asks and I shudder. I should say no. I’m still injured, for fuck’s sake, if only barely.

But I part my legs and lean back and give in. I’m so hot. In heat.Again.How is still a mystery to me.

Panting, Leo holds my legs wide while Raphael devours me. They can’t seem to get enough. And I don’t want them to stop.

I catch a glimpse of a shooting star arching over the campfire before I’m covered by my alphas. And for a fleeting moment, I wonder if I want them because I’m an omega, or is this ache in my heart from my heat or something else…?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

GRACE

Thenexttwoweeksare as normal as it can get on a prison island, and I’m slowly introduced to the inner circle of pack politics and preparations for this so-called war. And by normal I mean a long sequence of events ripped out of a dystopian novel, minus the zombies. But I can’t shake the feeling that something shifted between Leo, Nakoa, and especially Raphael ever since Pack Delta discovered and bonded with Nadège. Unfortunately, I’m starting to fear the shift between us is for the worse.

“Still not a dream,” I say out loud as a notch another mark into the wall of one of our many base camps, caves and abandoned buildings packs take over as semi-permanent shelters.

I’m not tracking the days since my sense of time is completely fried. No, I track when my heats ebb and flow in each location. They come like clockwork every week, get strongest by the the fifth day, and disappear by the next. The symptoms, anyway, only for it all to restrat on the seventh. It’s madness, and todayfour, which means by tomorrow, I won’t be able to function without…

“Dick,” I grit out, twirling my ankle and clenching my once puffy fist. It’s free from the splint, but I still can’t go anywhere without one of them trialing me.

That time with Nadège was an anomaly, just like a dream. Ever since then, I’ve been held on a tight leash, more or less. I can tag along, listen to war plans, pretend to hunt when I really just rest in the shade, but my pack seems more than okay with me staying trapped in whatever crude castle we lay our head in, and nothing else. I touch the collar still wrapped around my next and grimace. If it really does shock me to death, it would be a hell of a way to go.

Looking up to the gray stormclouds far away on the horizon, I sense a rain storm is coming. It’s not a rainforest, according to one of the books Leo brought back from this mysterious library I’m not allowed to visit, but is sure rains here like it doesn’t. I decide I should get a good swim in before my jailers come back to lock me away.

The air is fresh and warm with an ever present cool breeze, near our cliffside homes. This one is no different, located much closer to the shore than most locations we travel to, with access to a secluded waterfall surrounded by overturned army tanks. I can’t hope to climb up and over them, so the area I can explore, while small, is much large than before to.

I go for a swim in the eclectic blue pool, diving underwater, and rising up behind the waterfall. I don’t truly mediate, but I do sit crisscorssed and let the roar turn my racing thoughts into white noise. When that grows tedious, I swim out to the bludd and alay out on the stone naked to soak up the sun. The conditions are so pristine that I wonder if they’re lying that maybe there are other omegas women here. Not that it wouldmatter if there are. It’s not like they could help me fend off a pack of alphas. I’m in this alone.

We sleep, we eat together in shockingly compainable silence, fish, and visit Nadege, and more often than I care to admit, we fuck to pass the time. Not in ways that will reinjure healed ankle and hand.

The monotony of our day to day almost deceives me into thinking everything is normal. That and the rugged beauty of this open air prison. I’ve seen more variety of flowers than the nature documentary.

For a while, I buried myself in survival and learning more about these strange men keeping me captive. As much as I despise them, they’re the only reason I’m still alive and not torn into pieces after…I can’t even bring myself to think about it, so I sit down with the rest of my stormy emotions and gaze up at the beautiful summer day before me.

Raphael still has a stick up his ass when it comes to me, but even his venomous glare doesn’t pack its usual toxic punch. Leo, as per usual, looks at me like I hung the moon. Or in the case, the sun as the rays create a halo around their heads.

I don’t like it when they get to whispering among themselves, keeping me out of the loop and keeping secrets that most definitely concerned me.

Alone. So alone. And I can’t be alone with my morbid thoughts.

---