But there was the girl to think about. He… felt for her. Whatever that meant, he didn’t know. Would it last?
The hours passed, and Vash struggled to keep his mind intact. When the boat slowed, he was considerably weak from seasickness. Moving to the bow of the cargo ship, he climbed to the top and quickly felt the pouring rain soak his body and face.
Immediately, he was met with searching hands, concentrated blows, and degradation. Surrounded by alphas, he was beaten and taken into the facility.
They bound his wrists, blackened his eyes until they were a mess of risen flesh. They swabbed his cavities clean. Vash didn’t ask questions or even fight back. He took every ounce of torture they had until they brought him into a solitary room.
“In.”
They threw him inside the dark room, cackling as they locked the door.
Blackness.
So, this was his fate. Locked away to die.
Chapter Nineteen
“She’s gone.”
Heart beating against bone, pumping adrenaline and cortisol. Fear.
“She’s fucking gone!”
The shock brought Lucas an absurd amount of rage and vulnerability. Scouring the house, there was no trace of her. The gun was missing.
Killian woke and rolled to the spot where Wren slept. The absence left him cornered and apelike, eyes frantically threading together every possibility.
She’d warned them. Given them all the hints that she would leave. Now, she had, and she would die if they didn’t find her.
“Vash,” Killian hissed.
“Now do you agree? We shouldn’t have come with him,” Lucas said.
“No way to back out now.”
They could hear the whistle of electricity coming from the city. The faint drum of bullets ricocheting off of mortar and flesh sent shivers up their spines. The wars were picking up steam.
“Fucking bitch,” Lucas grunted.
They stood with no leader, no identifiable pack, and no future. “Where do you think she went?”
“Somewhere we’re not welcome,” Killian said.
“Omega Unlimited,” Lucas muttered, shaking his head. “She doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into.”
Killian suited up and grabbed a spare rifle. He threaded the bullets into the magazine. When the tight springs wouldn’t budge, he breathed easier. “We’re going in there,” he said, grimly.
Lucas picked up Wren’s leash and squeezed around the rounded chains. So far, none of what they planned had come to fruition. As far as they were concerned, Cassian had only grown stronger and more aware of their plans, the cunning snake that he was.
“He planned for this,” Lucas said, lost in thought.
“Cassian?” Killian asked.
The light from the sun was now dissolving through the windows of the home, and Lucas felt ready to burn into a ball of flame. His entire life had led to critical moments where he chose to face the barrel of another’s gun. The chance of death electrified him at times. Always, a voice inside of him reminded him of all he went through.
He was a fighter. A soldier. Killian too. Vash, not so much. Vash was a leader—there was a difference.
As soon as Lucas’s parents were ripped from his arms, he became a natural-born killer. Revenge was always around the corner, just barely out of reach.