Page 14 of Banished Mates
He lifted me, bringing me close to his crazed gaze as he hooked his arm under the back of my knees. He was fixated on the vomit coating my body as he dropped me into the steel box and sealed me back into the darkness.
I curled into a ball on my side and hugged my knees.
Was anyone looking for me?
I swallowed audibly. I didn’t want anyone to be in danger, but that wasn’t even a concern. No one would know how I disappeared. There would be no way to track me down, but if someone knew I was an Omega... I didn’t want them to even find me. It was better if no one was after me.
I hugged myself tighter, rubbing my arms. Fear... I’d had a comparable experience after Nola left me at the gas station. The not knowing what would happen next was the worst part.
Willow
When I finally pried myeyes open again, it was dark and my lashes were crusty and stuck together. The cotton feeling in my mouth combined with the aches in my body told me I’d been unconscious for a while.
My hand scraped against cold cement ground as I pushed off my side, my foot smacking into something. A loud clash and clang resonated through the room, and I sucked in a breath, inhaling the nastiest scent I’d ever had the displeasure of smelling. I gagged and quickly swallowed to force the nausea down, but my spinning head wasn’t helping.
Where was I? Obviously, we had arrived somewhere since I was out of the metal crate, but I could be anywhere in the world at this point. As I inhaled, the pressure in my ears expanded and popped.
I couldn’t see a thing but it was incredibly cold. The chill of the stone beneath my hands seeped into my skin.
I groaned at the soreness radiating up my spine as I struggled to push to my feet. Stumbling forward, I caught myself on some rough-feeling vertical bars. The gritty rust scraped my palm, flaking off.
The guy had dragged me onto a plane, drugged me, and now this? I stepped back from the bars and cupped my face, massaging the tips of my fingers into my aching forehead. The metal of the bars scented my hands and I grimaced.
Where the hell was I? My shoe prodded something soft, and I crouched with my hand out. My fingers bumped into a pillowy thing. Wait a second...
I wrapped my hand around the object. Was it a forearm? I dragged my hand up and pressed it into the lean bicep.
Shaking the body was the only way I could try to wake someone, but there was no reaction, so I inched my hand higher. The cheek was full, and hair tangled with my fingers as the tip of my index finger collided with something wet.
My stomach heaved and I tensed. Shit. I slowly withdrew my hand and swallowed hard. Unresponsive body, bloody temple... it wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine what was wrong.
Slowly backing into the rusted bars, I dropped to my ass and shivered as I tucked my knees tighter to my chest.
Someone had to have found out I was an Omega. Nausea churned in my stomach.
I missed Camden so much. Tears spilled down my cheeks and I sniffled as I waited.
* * *
My body waslimp and I was dehydrated. I couldn’t tell how long it had been since I’d seen the sun, and the only other interaction I got was when the nasty asshole keeping me here came to torment me.
My cheek still throbbed from the time he’d smacked me with the bowl of food and beaten me until I’d lost consciousness. He hated that I couldn’t speak, and he was taking my silence as some sort of sick game, as if he could force a nonexistent voice from me.
He was fucking sick.
As if that wasn’t enough, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I was on the verge of freezing to death.
I sucked in a shallow breath since I couldn’t breathe in the icy air too deeply or I’d vomit from the smell coating the room. I’d had to resort to a bathroom bucket, which he didn’t clean out often. How long had it been since I’d had access to a shower? Despite how many air fresheners the freak hung in the cell, it did nothing to block the stench.
The scent of rotting flesh was easily discernible to me now. Putrid, sickening, and rancid. And combined with the state I was in? I shivered. It was not good.
A slam vibrated from a distance, causing the lavender scent to permeate the small cell. Here he came. A light flickered on, blinding me. He only turned it on when he visited me, which wasn’t often. It was both unfortunate and fortunate because it meant I didn’t eat often but on the other hand, I didn’t have to see his creeper ass.
The bars lined the entire half of the bricked-up room and led to ascending stairs. My only method of escape, blocked by bars. I’d tried busting through them, but it was no use, the bars and lock were mighty.
His gaze peeked over the mask that shielded everything except his eyes, and the bright blue orbs were shielded by a plastic face covering.
The ugly fuck jerked at the lock on the first slat of bars with gloved hands and shoved it open. Honestly, by attractive standards, he could be considered handsome, at least from what I could tell from the flash of his face when we were on the plane and he first tried to touch me, but a pretty face could never compensate for a dirty soul.
