Page 13 of Stolen By the Alpha Hunter
Is he helping me?
Is there any chance?—
“Fine,” my father says. “Bring her up the elevator, then. I’m sure the pack is all excited to see tonight’s catch.”
Javi tightens his grip on me and we move from the dock to the lift, a sturdy metal structure that sways slightly with the waves. Since I grew up here, my sea legs come back right away—so the queasiness I feel has to be from anxiety. My hands are bound behind me, my voice stifled by the gag, unable to run or hide. My clothes are drenched, my hair glistening with droplets of saltwater. And my feet are so cold…
“Stop trembling,” Javi says.
I look over at him, my eyes wide. It’s the only way I can communicate—through my expression. I’m certain he can see the fear in the brief moment our gazes lock, those blue-green eyes the same color as a stormy sea.
He looks away.
He doesn’t care.
The elevator shudders to a halt on the main platform, a place I know well. Industrial scaffolding and metal buildings line the edges of the platform, the paint long since worn off of the floor. In its place is a combination of moss and reeds, the seeds blown in from far away. There are just a few people outside, a light rain starting to fall as clouds move in.
I look around and find familiar faces—boys that are now men…dangerous men. Others come out as we stand and wait on the platform, Javi holding me still.
I want to beg for my life—for my freedom—but all I can do is cry.
“Look what the current dragged in, boys!” Ephraim yells, going to some of the other doors and banging on the buildings. Alphas come out one by one, a few with frightened-looking omegas on their arms. No male betas—they’ve always been pushed out, no place for them on the Rig. “Our princess came home.”
The alphas snarl and growl, a few hunkering down. Those without omegas crouch and stare at me with flashing eyes, andI feel Javi tense beside me. I’m responsible for taking the mates of some of these men—for helping them find new alphas to bite them, to claim them, to help them escape…I even sent some of them to their deaths, because they preferred drowning to staying here.
“The traitor!” one of the men in the crowd shouts. “Apologize!”
My father rounds on me, reaching out like he’s going to slap me. I flinch, only for him to yank the gag out of my mouth. My lips and tongue are dry, my throat hurting when I drag in a breath of briny sea air.
“What do you have to say for yourself, girl?” my father says.
I sob. “Daddy, please?—”
“You lost the right to call me that when you betrayed us and stole our omegas,” he says. “Apologize, Esther.”
That’s not my name! I want to scream.
“I’m sorry…Prime,” I say. “I’m so sorry.”
Laughter erupts among the men, howls like they’re deeply entertained. I look down at the deck, swallowing my pride.
“Well, that was easy,” Ephraim says, coming back toward us with a sneer. “What now?”
My father—Gideon—narrows his eyes at me. For a moment, I think he’s going to throw me off the platform, a death sentence—but he shakes his head.
“Lock her up in the citadel,” he says. “We’ll figure it out from there.”
Ephraim makes to grab me, to take me from Javi, but the big alpha’s fingers stay locked around my bicep. He snarls at Ephraim again, his sharp canines bared.
“It’s my job to deliver the package,” Javi says. “Leave it.”
Ephraim looks from Javi to Gideon to Abel…and I think it might come to blows. But Javi is bigger than my father, and I don’t think it would end well for Ephraim or Gideon.
“Fine,” Ephraim says. “This way.”
We turn and follow Ephraim through the metal jungle of the Rig, each step dragging me closer to the worst mistake of my life. The citadel—my father’s house, where I was raised—rises ahead, towering over the decks like the rotting heart of the Rig, its rusted metal walls streaked with brine and oil, salt-eaten and jagged. Inside, the air is thick—musk and seawater and something too sweet, too cloying. Something that shouldn’t be here.
The scent of omegas in heat.
