Chapter 4: Alpha Cain

I squared my shoulders when he noticed I don’t give a shit what he says. “I don’t know about her. I’m not her.”

            Alpha Cain studied me again as if I’m gonna be his dinner. He circled me, like how sharks circle their food. Like how hawks circle their prey.

“Do you know why conquering a pack takes a long time?”

“I don’t know. I’m just an Omega. I don’t know anything about politics or Alpha bullshits whatsoever.”

He released a breathy laugh. “We would wreck an entire pack of land and turn it into a battlefield in just an hour. Using our Omegas, the unfortunate souls as shields, until our forces were nearly all dead.”

My face was drained of color. Pale and lifeless as if I’ve been a living dead. I hissed, “Why are you telling me this?”

Alpha Cain just ignored my question. “Sometimes, especially when Alphas have some protection against other Alphas, we cannot touch them. But once they entered into a single combat with a more powerful Alpha, with an Alpha who conquered more packs than him… it didn’t take long for me to render your Alpha Lucius vulnerable.”

 I shuddered. This Alpha I am talking to is… “How many packs have you conquered so far?”

“Four. With the Iron Woods Pack being my fourth.”

Holy shit. Even Alpha Lucius never managed to conquer other packs. Not even one.

“I collect the Alpha’s eyes and put them in my study—in my personal library in my private residence. You can visit if you like.”

Cold, uninviting words. That’s not an invitation, it’s an act of suicide.

“Not in your office?” I pretended to ask a boring question.

“No.” He said as he licked his lower lip, “Collecting trophies from the Alphas I’ve slain are conquests enough to gloat over through the ages.”

Eyes are the windows of the soul, the rage and despair and horror those Alphas contained them. From their pack’s suffering to their eyes being carved out and displayed for eternity…

Alpha Lucius is cruel on his own. I might say “yes, he deserved it”. Perhaps. But Alpha Cain’s eye collection was worse than anything I could imagine. I shook the thought from me. From my eyes being amongst those eyes.

“Do you also do that at Omegas?” I dare to ask.

“They’re too boring to be displayed and too worthless to boast to other visiting Alphas. In fact, I kept my Omegas in shape by giving them a day every week to rest, to do anything they want.”

Omegas can…rest? Well that’s news to me.

“Should I be thankful for that?”

He winked. This fucking Alpha Cain winked. “Your wicked mouth is my favorite, Omega. You always find a way to insult others even though you know they can kill you without so much as blinking.”

“I guess that makes me brave then.”

His lips curled inward. But then, his mouth formed into a tiny smile. A genuine smile bloomed across that hideous face. “You are brave for an Omega, yes. But still stupid. You’re still nothing nonetheless.”

“If I am nothing, if an Omega is nothing…then does our presence to you mean everything? Considering that we make up half of your possession and assets and proof that you’ve conquered us that you even own our souls.”

Alpha Cain took my hand and placed a kiss on the back of my fingers. His breath was hot against my skin, his lips warmer. I should’ve jerked and pulled my hand away. But it remained an inch away from his mouth. “Remind me what that wicked mouth of yours can do the next time my Betas whipped you.” He released my hand and stalked for the door. The only door where one can get in and get out. 

His grin didn’t so much as falter even when half of his face became veiled by the shadows.

Then the Alpha vanished—just vanished into the dim ocherous light of the torches. 

I swear I might be his favorite in a debate considering he likes my ‘wicked mouth’.

A moment later, a yellowish eye and white furs appeared at the palm-size peephole in the door, glaring at me before continuing onward. 

I should’ve known that Alpha Cain’s guards are in their wolf forms when guarding Omegas. Well at least I know now.

I must have drifted off to sleep at some point, because I awoke to the scrape of my cell door against the stone. Someone slipped into my cell and swiftly shut the door—leaving it just a bit ajar.

I frowned. Why would they leave my door open like that? Unless its—

A test. It was a test to see if we would ever run away.

And with the guards in their wolf forms, no doubt Warriors that have been hewn for ages, capable of tearing my throat the moment I step from this prison-room, I’d be dead even before I could scream.

There’s no other choice than to accept my fate as an Omega of the Blood Dawn Pack and prisoner of Alpha Cain.

Forgetting the growing pain in my face, I scrambled to duck into the shadows of the nearest corner and let sleep lulled me into its embrace once again.