Fucking Zarithians

Asher’s POV

The smell of rot hit me first and dragged me back to consciousness.

Damn.

I pressed my hand against the back of my head. Pain pulsed hard, and my heart was beating fast against my ribs. Everything was blurry at first. I tried to wipe my eyes, but my hands wouldn’t move.

I yanked harder, and metal clanked. Cold, rough iron dug into my wrists, locking them tight together. I rattled the chains, panic flooding through me, but the metal didn’t give. What the bloody hell!!

I blinked until the world slowly came into focus. I was inside a tight wooden cage with thick slats. The floor was filthy with mud, vomit, and the sharp stink of urine. I wasn’t alone. Other people sat hunched in the dark. Men and women, chained at the wrists and ankles, staring at nothing with hollow eyes. Their faces were bruised and empty. 

No one spoke.

A man across from me had a collar of black iron around his throat. A woman beside him kept her eyes fixed on the floor, her wrists rubbed raw beneath the chains. In the corner, a boy no older than twelve rocked silently against the wooden wall.

Nobody looked surprised to see me. Nobody asked who I was. They already knew. We were cargo.

A rough breath caught in my throat. My brothers hadn’t just beaten me. They had actually sold me. They had thrown me away like fucking garbage.

Then I heard Kael’s voice outside, cutting through the cold mountain wind.

I scrambled forward on my knees. The chains scraped loud against the wood. I pressed my face to the narrow gaps between the slats.

Through the opening I saw the Zarithian leader standing in the snow. He didn’t look like the monster I’d imagined. He looked almost human. That was what frightened me.

He wore a clean black coat beneath his fur cloak, his silver rings catching the torchlight as he counted the coins. His face was pale and expressionless, with eyes so dark they seemed to swallow the light around them.

He didn’t need to look cruel. He looked like a man who had done cruel things so many times that they no longer mattered.

Across from him stood Kael in his Alpha fur cloak, holding a thick leather pouch. He reached into the scavenger’s iron chest and pulled out a handful of coins, counting the gold slowly. Greed lit up his whole face.

“This isn’t enough for a high-blood Omega, scavenger,” Kael said, tapping a coin against his thumb. “Look at him. Skin’s untouched, face is clean, and he’s from Alpha stock. You double the price right now or I drag his ass back to camp and sell him to the Southern warlords. I know for a fact this slave will bring good gold in the Western markets.”

The Zarithian turned his head slowly toward the cage. He looked straight at me. His eyes were pure black, no whites, no pupils, just darkness. He made a low sound that reminded me of dead leaves dragging over a grave.

Without saying a word, the scavenger pulled a second pouch of gold from his rags and dropped it into Kael’s hand with a solid thud.

Kael’s mouth stretched into a satisfied smile. He weighed the gold in his palm like it was nothing more than a good deal, not his own brother’s life.

“Pleasure doing business with you, rat,” he said. Then he turned and walked toward the others waiting near the trees. They were laughing and passing a flask of cheap liquor between them. My heart broke open. Tears burned in my eyes.

No. No, no, no.

“Kael!” I tried to scream, but my throat was still raw from the rag they had forced into my mouth earlier. All that came out was a cracked, weak sound swallowed by the wind. “Kael! Please!”

I slammed my chained fists against the wooden bars. The iron cut deeper into my wrists and left fresh streaks of blood on the wood.

“LOOK AT ME! KAEL!”

He didn’t even flinch. He didn’t look back. Through the narrow gaps I watched my five brothers walk away into the snow, laughing as they headed back toward the Neno army camp. Tears ran hot down my freezing face and stung the split in my lip. They were leaving me. They were fucking leaving me to be broken by scavengers, and they didn’t care at all.

A heavy footstep crunched in the snow right behind the cage.

Before I could turn, a filthy hand shot through the bars, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and yanked my head back hard. A sharp cry tore from my throat as my neck snapped backward.

“Keep quiet, little bitch,” a rough voice growled in my ear.

Before I could fight, a piece of dark leather was shoved over my face and tied tight behind my head. Blackness swallowed everything. The blindfold pressed hard against my wet eyes, cutting off the cold, the trees, and the last sight of my brothers forever.

I was blind. I was chained. I was completely powerless.

Outside, a whip cracked against the backs of the transport beasts. A guttural shout rose from the front of the line.

“To Athdal Haven!”

The wooden carriage lurched forward hard enough to throw me sideways. Iron wheels ground against frozen rock and deep mud. I hit the floorboards, surrounded by the quiet, hopeless crying of the other captives.

As the cart rattled into the dark territory of the West, the last warm piece of me turned cold and black. My family was dead to me. My home was gone. And as the journey began, I made a silent promise to whatever gods were still listening.

I didn’t know what waited for me in Athdal Haven. I didn’t know if I’d survive the journey. But one thing was certain. If I ever made it back to Neno, my brothers would learn exactly what it meant to throw away a man they thought was worthless.