Ashton's POV:
The concrete floor is always cold, even with all of the bodies in here. It hurts me to see the Omegas all curled up in one corner, trying to stay warm, but I cannot offer anything to them.
They wouldn't want my comfort anyway.
I was one of the wolves who took them away from their homes and some of them from their mates.
There's twelve Omegas here in total, and we had a thirteenth a few days ago, but two of my fellow Alphas were captured and the Omega taken when we fled to avoid being captured as well.
Our leader has already sent out two of his most trusted assistants to track them down and either maim and drag them back or kill them on the spot, and it hurts to have that knowledge. I only have a few friends whom I share a room with, but we're forbidden to speak to each other while on duty so I can't ask the other Alphas how they feel now that we know two others just like us are probably dead.
There's a sickeningly sweet scent in the air, and I whimper and shove my nose into my knees. One of the Omegas has gone into heat and myself and the other two Alphas watching them are forbidden to touch them.
We have to deal with the addictive scent as well as the fear that washes through the air when the initial scent appears, because no Omega wants to be used against their will. Unfortunately, that is what will happen.
One of the leaders will come in to relieve myself and the others of duty in a few hours and will find the Omega in heat and take them away. We all know what will happen, but if any of us tries to do anything, they will be either severely injured or killed.
I've heard of other packs where the Alphas are in control and the Omegas and Betas are oppressed, but here there are Alphas in control and other Alphas are their punching bags. We don't have Omegas of our own raised here so we take them from other packs or find the ones who have been exiled.
The Omega who has gone into heat starts crying, whining in pain. The other Omegas get close to her, as if trying to protect her and comfort her, but it doesn't relax her.
I wouldn't relax either; we're stuck in a concrete building that offers no relaxing environment and it's always cold.
The other two Alphas with me both look pained by the sounds the Omega makes; none of us are bad or evil like our leaders... we have to follow orders or we'll be killed.
No pack is willing to protect or take in adult Alphas because they won't trust us. Especially not after assisting in the heinous acts against the Omegas who we help capture. We have nowhere to go and no protection, so we're stuck here.
It's not a good place to live, but we have no other options. We were all taken from our packs when we were young; I was taken when I was six after a raid. My pack was small from what I remember, and all that was left after the fight was blood and a group of young Alphas and Omegas that were dragged back.
"She's burning up!" one of the Omegas shouts at me, her face contorted in anger. "She's sick because of how cold it is and is now in heat! She needs medical attention!"
I look at the other Alphas, and they have the same lost looks on their faces that I'm sure I have.
"Help her!" the Omega shrieks again, standing up and marching toward the door.
I step in her way. "Go sit down or it will be worse for all of us in here," I scold, using my Alpha tone to get her to falter. "Please go sit down. I will speak with my superior."
It's a lie; I'm not permitted to ask things of my superiors, but I need her to sit down before someone comes in here and hurts her.
She growls and stalks back over to the Omega in heat and tries to help her to calm down, but the poor thing looks in immense pain between sickness and heat.
The Omegas often get sick when they're in here because of how cold it is. They stay here for a couple of weeks until they're weakened (unless they go into heat) and then they're chosen by our superiors and sold or kept as sex slaves by the Alphas who are in charge here.
Some of them have up to four or five Omegas in their homes, chained up and unable to go anywhere.
After an hour or so, the door opens and one of our leaders walks on and his eyes widen when he catches a whiff of the heat scent.
"You three, out," he grumbles as three more Alphas walk in to take our places and he enters the room to grab the Omega in heat.
I don't wait around to see the reactions or listen to any potential conflict; I run to the home where I've been since I got here, which is really just a room in another concrete building that I share with three other wolves.
"Welcome back," Liam, my closest friend and mentor, says when I enter the room and sit down on my mattress. "I'll wake you up for dinner if you want to take a nap."
I sigh and lay down completely naked on my mattress and pull a blanket over myself. "Thank you, Liam. Where are Owen and Ronaldo? I didn't see them on my way back."
"I'm not sure..." Liam looks really anxious. "I'm worried for them. They're usually back before you."
Neither of us can do much of anything if they are missing, but the two are much too smart to try to run. Countless Alphas have been murdered for running; we aren't even allowed to patrol our small area because they think we'll take off if given the chance, which is definitely possible.
We can also only shift on raids, so if they see a wolf running around, they're attacked and ordered to shift back in order to see if it's a leader or someone trying to run.
No one has escaped before and I doubt we will have much of a chance to do so now. They only allow us to do raids after putting tracking collars on us and sending us in small groups.
"Sleep, Ash," Liam whispers, and I obey, closing my eyes and drifting off.
•••
My rest doesn't last long, as I feel Liam shaking me. I'm expecting him to tell me it's time for dinner, but instead he has a bag and throws it at me.
"Get dressed!" he snaps, and I sit up and listen, terrified as to why he's so frantic. "We're being attacked by a pack. This is our chance to run, Ashton! They can't track us if we run now!"
My heart drops. "...what about the Omegas?" I ask, because I feel responsible for their safety and assisting them in their escape.
"Stop worrying about them!" Liam scowls. "Come on, we have to go! The pack is probably here to save them anyway so we need to go before the leaders notice us!"
I put my bag on my back and follow Liam out of the house and toward the edge of the forest. It seems as though we have a similar idea to many others, as there are wolves that I recognize fleeing left and right.
"Run!" Liam shrieks and I turn to see one of the leaders in his wolf form running toward us.
I sprint and outrun Liam, trying to reach the edge of the forest but I stop when I hear the horrible shriek of my best friend. I turn around and see one of our leaders on top of him, and before I get a chance to scream, he rips Liam's throat open and I see blood splatter all over. I don't need to be closer to know that my best friend is now dead.
"No, no, no," I whisper, my voice breaking.
I didn't have much in this world, but I did have a best friend whom I cared about and now he's gone.
He's gone.
The Alpha who murdered him catches sight of me, and he leaves my friend's body behind and runs toward me.
I scramble backward, but I slip on the wet grass and fall on my back. I catch sight of him leaping at me and snarling, and I close my eyes to accept death, but the killing blow that took Liam never hits me.
I open my eyes and see a wolf on top of the Alpha. It's much smaller than my leader, but the little wolf is quick and he cuts up the Alpha's stomach and stands between myself and the other wolf.
Of course, I want to help protect this little wolf because he's not going to win this fight, so I shift, tearing apart my clothes in the process.
As soon as I'm in my wolf form, I make brief eye contact with the wolf, who I can now tell is an Omega based on his scent. Not only that, but he has a horrifyingly addictive scent that's not coming from heat.
He's my mate.
I try to put myself between him and my injured leader, but the Omega snarls at me and I hesitate. I've never heard an Omega sound so aggressive, so I obey his growl and step back, watching the fighting around us and trying to make sure no one will attack my little mate while he fights our leader.
To my shock, he's more skilled than our leader simply based and he's able to continue leaving marks on the Alpha while sustaining very few injuries himself.
The fighting around us is slowing and it's obvious that we are very outnumbered, not that I care.
I don't want to stay here and I want the Omegas saved.
The Omega, my mate, manages to get the Alpha on his back and bites down on his throat. The Alpha shakes and tries to scratch at my mate, and he gets a few deeper cuts in, but he doesn't severely injure him.
Once the Alpha stops shaking, my mate hops off of his dead body and growls, looking around to see if there are any other attackers. The fight is slowly coming to a close and there's no other direct threats that I can sense.
A howl breaks out and I can tell that it's to call my mate and his pack mates back to whoever led them into this fight.
He looks back at me and whimpers, trying to urge me to follow. I hesitantly follow him as he walks away, but I stop by Liam's body first, laying down beside it and whimpering.
My mate sits beside me and grabs my ear with his teeth and tries to get me to follow him. I silently thank Liam for being my friend before I slowly follow my mate and find his pack mates surrounding a group of nearly thirty Omegas. Many of them are injured and limping, none of them in their wolf forms.
One of the pack members snarls at me and I back away, but they stop when my mate growls back.
I'm surprised they just quieted down and listened to him, and I'm even more shocked when the other wolf lowers his head and submits to my Omega mate.
There's a large group of warriors from the pack who attacked surrounding a group of Alphas from my pack. Everyone left from my pack is anxiously looking around at the wolves surrounding them, and thankfully none of our leaders are there.
It's only Alphas who were forced into this life like me.
I slowly walk over to the group and the warriors growl at me but are once again silenced by my mate. I join the group because as much as I like being around my mate, I'm more anxious for the Alphas who are like me and I want to try to offer them my support as much as I need theirs.
My mate joins me in the group, walking by my side. He doesn't cower at the sight of the group of Alphas, which makes me think he must have a lot of experience fighting with and putting up with Alphas because he shows no fear.
I just hope he accepts me after the horrible crimes I helped commit.
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