2

Lucy fell asleep on her lap after a while, infact everybody fell asleep but Olivia couldn’t. The silence around her was deafening and she stared at the small ray of moonlight that peeked in through the crack in the ceiling. 

Maybe it was the uneasiness she felt because she didn’t know what these men had planned or it was the fact that her stomach was rumbling from hunger. Of course by now, they would be looking for them. Olivia just didn’t know if they would be found. 

Her thoughts came to a halt when the front door opened and two tall figures filled the doorway. Her heart dropped to her stomach. 

“Everybody get up!” Baldie walked into the room and started waking up all the girls. 

Olivia shook Lucy awake and they stood up and walked outside in a file. The cold breeze was no longer comfortable for Olivia because she didn’t know why they were being transported past midnight but something told her it wasn’t good. 

They walked some more before they stopped in front of a stone altar. They were asked to get on their knees and that’s when Alpha Norman arrived. He smiled when he saw the girls because he knew that by the time he was done with the ritual, he was going to be the strongest Alpha alive. 

The first girl was taken and she was placed on the cold stone. As soon as she saw the sharp knife raised above her head, she began thrashing around and Norman asked his guards to hold her down. He said some incantations and with a clean cut across her neck, sniffed the life out of her. Sharp screams pierced through the night as her blood flowed down the stone and Olivia couldn’t take her eyes off it.

She watched Lucy tremble and she could see the fear in the girl’s eyes but she couldn’t do anything about it. The second girl was taken up and the same thing was done to her, her own killing even messier because just as the knife slit across her throat, she shook violently. 

Olivia could feel herself getting weaker and she didn’t know why. She looked at the line and realized that after the next girl, Lucy was going to be next.

“Lucy, listen to me You’re going to switch places with me when I tell you to, okay?” 

Lucy nodded her head and Olivia watched as Alpha Norman raised his hand down and began cutting across her throat. At that point, everybody's attention was divided and she successfully took Lucy’s place. She did it to buy some time. She knew she could help her friend, she just had hope. 

As the guards laid her on the slab, she faced the moon and took a deep breath. 

“Save us.” She said in her heart. 

She kept her eyes on the knife while Alpha Norman made his incantations. She closed them in anticipation and acceptance of her death when she felt the cold metal pressed against her neck. Images of her parents flashed in her mind, the amazing times she spent with Lucy whose whimpering she could hear. Lucy was going to be safe, she just knew it. 

Lucy’s loud and distinctive scream made her fling her eyes open and sit up on the stone. She looked around and saw everyone crouched on the ground and she could see arrows flying everywhere. She rolled off to the ground and made her way to Lucy who waited for her so they could run to safety. Olivia looked up to see huge white wolves coming in their direction and she knew that it would be a miracle if they got out of here alive. 

They made their way into the house they had been kept in and laid low. She could hear animalistic sounds coming from outside and while she was glad that they had not been killed, she wasn’t so sure about this time. 

She could hear the snapping of bones and she knew that the fight got more serious than it was before. Right outside, Alpha Xander stood above Alpha Norman. 

“Spare me please.” He begged. 

Xander wanted to spare him so he could be an example to other Alphas who wanted to be over ambitious. He needed to remind them that this was his territory and nothing happened without his permission. But then he looked at the three girls whose lifeless bodies lay in the grass. He made up his mind. 

He crouched and smiled at Norman who was scared shitless for his life. 

“Now, if I spare you, that won’t be fair to them, would it?” 

As Xander pointed his knife to the girls, Norman knew that it was a lost battle. Then he heard Xander’s calm but chilly voice in his ear. 

“I’m sure they begged you to spare them, didn’t they?” 

Xander didn’t let him turn his head back. He killed Norman as he knelt before him, looking at those he had killed. 

“Alpha...the girls.” His Beta reminded him.

Xander stepped back.

“Ah yes, the girls. Get them and load them up with the others.”

He wasn’t there when one of the guards hit Lucy for crying. The poor girl was terrified that they were going to face another deadly ordeal and she didn’t know if they were going to survive this one. Olivia was silent. Calm, even. For some reason, she couldn’t find fear in her heart and as they were moved through the thick woods, she kept her face to the ground and followed orders. She was too weak not to. 

Their destination wasn’t very far and she could hear shouts of joy as they entered the new pack. Olivia looked at their faces, they were genuinely happy because they didn’t know how it was, being on those fields.

They stopped moving in the middle of the street and the shouts died down.

“We have gone to war and as usual, we have conquered the enemy!” 

There was something about the voice that spoke but Olivia didn’t bother to look up. Another loud chant broke out.

“We have brought back trophies, slaves from our conquest and they would be ours. Use them to your own free will!” 

They were pushed to continue moving and at the end of the night, when they were finally put in another gut wrenching, disgusting and cold cell, Olivia couldn’t fight the fatigue that took over her causing her to fall asleep.