Chapter 2: Alpha Cain

I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that any amount of time would prepare me for Alpha Cain’s cruelness, nor his Blood Dawn Pack.

Even his assessing gaze sent me scrambling to the corner. With my back flat against the wall, I have nowhere to run, nowhere to escape. Nowhere to look at, except Alpha Cain’s eyes—and his shirtless body.

He’s wearing modern blue jeans, clean and neat like the rest of him. His hair, blue-black and ruffled and still a bit wet, tells me he just had a bath.

I didn’t allow myself to imagine what he had in mind for me. It was enough to know that he expected me to die—that there wouldn’t be enough left of me for him to torture.

I don’t know what new powers Alpha Cain acquired from my previous Alpha, the Alpha of the Iron Woods Pack. But knowing that he has a new set of powers in his arsenal…I gripped my legs harder to keep my hands from shaking. To keep my body from quivering.

Somewhere—not too far off or maybe it was just the cell beside me, I don’t know—screaming began. A high-pitched, pleading voice, accentuated with crescendos of shrieking that made my bile rise up in my throat.

That would be me when the time comes. I might sound like that when faced with Alpha Cain’s new powers if he ever tries those powers on me first-hand.

A whip cracked and the screaming became louder, more hair-raising. I hardly paused for a breath.

“You still whip us even in The City Under?”

“Those are my own Omegas,” he simply replied.

The screaming shattered the brief silence again, and now I can hear sobbing and weeping. My sister had probably cried similarly when they  skinned her alive. I had as good as tortured her myself for leaving her to this ruthless Alpha’s cronies.

“Comfortable, isn’t it?” Those were his first words to me since he ever entered here. Is he blind or being just an actual jerk?!

What would my sister think of this? Yes, I manage to survive the lusting of blood and misery by the Alpha Cain’s Betas and Warriors. And then I am here, still an Omega and a prisoner. I might as well be a Rogue.

But I deserved this—deserved whatever pain and suffering was in store for leaving my sister to die alone. For what she had endured is nothing like this. This is just like chilling in a cave while waiting for your death, while hers…every moment is dying.

“Maybe it is if you were in my place, Alpha,” I sneered at him. I don’t care what he’ll do to me. If he’s gonna burn my skin with that gleaming fire powers he acquired or what, I’ll be facing it with my head high.

Unless he ordered my head to roll down the hills in one swipe of an executioner’s sword.

“You’re one hell of a stubborn bitch, aren’t you?”

“A bitch I might be, but at least I know how to survive without relying on powers or magic.”

His eyes narrowed, but it was immediately replaced by a flash of white teeth grinning. “What’s your name?”

“Bitch is a name itself, isn’t it?”

He laughed without amusement. But he sauntered nearer and nearer, until he’s an arm away from me.

“You’re stepping on my hay,” I spat.

“Oh sorry. I forgot it’s your bed.” His grin still plastered on his face made me want to cleave his skull into two.

 “Anastasia, right? Such a pretty name for a pretty little doll.” I don’t know how he does that but he probably read my mind or something. I tried to stand to meet his eyes, but my legs shook so badly that I couldn’t even move a foot. “Well nice to see you, Anastasia. I’m Cain, your new Alpha—and new master.”

The amusement written all over his face was all I needed as I threw him a punch worthy of my anger and pain and sadness and despair.

He just staggered back a step, wiping his face with the back of his hand. No blood nor broken jaw.

I might really be useless even when throwing punches.

“You, Omegas, are always careless, aren’t you?” he gave me a mocking smile, then a wink. “Well, you do throw a punch like some lovesick girl. No wonder your pack can be easily conquered. Even the women are so fragile like twigs that can easily be snapped with one stomp of my foot.”

            “Why are you so cruel, Alpha Cain?”

            “All Alphas are cruel.”

I was about to interject when he spoke. “Because that is what the world is, Anastasia,” he tilted his head, “And believe me, being cruel is just blending along with most people, werewolves and humans alike.”

            I opened my mouth to protest but he continued. “It’s a good thing I’m in the mood to just let your little punch be forgiven. You should thank the daughter of your dead Alpha that she knew how to ride a man,” he shrugged, “Well considering, she’s an Alpha’s daughter, she might have fucked many men in a week like changing clothes. I suppose that’s where she learned that, even my cock is still slumping beneath here.” He patted his middle twice. My eyes somehow followed his hand’s gesture. 

            Alpha Cain smirked at me. I looked away, and couldn't believe that my own eyes were betraying me.

            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.