5. Caught

I watched them turn and run.

For a few seconds, I could still make out their shapes weaving between the trees. Every step they took put more distance between us, and with it, any hope that I'd see them again.

A part of me wanted to call out—to beg them not to leave me—but I swallowed the words. If they came back, we'd all die.

Sam stayed at the back, constantly glancing over her shoulder as if she was trying to memorize where I was. Every time she looked back, it hurt a little more. I didn't want her to go. But I also knew she wasn't giving up on me. She was being forced to.

She looked back one last time and our eyes met. I forced a smile, even though it felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I needed her to believe I was okay. I needed her to keep running instead of turning back for me.

It was the last gift I could give her. A lie. The lie that I'd find a way out of this. That we'd laugh about tonight someday. That this wasn't goodbye.

But deep down, I already knew this was the last time I would ever see her.

A few seconds later, the forest swallowed them whole. The last sound of their footsteps faded into the night. Then there was nothing.

Only the wind whispering through the trees... and the distant pounding of paws closing in from every direction.

If I had even the slimmest chance of surviving this night, I had to move.

I dragged myself backward on my elbows and my good knee, scraping through the dirt and leaves until I reached a thick patch of bushes. There was a small hollow under the gnarled roots of a fallen oak tree just large enough to hide me.

I threw myself into it and frantically pulled handfuls of rotted leaves and damp moss over my body until only the smallest parts of me were visible. My nightgown was already torn and caked with dirt, so it blended in pretty well with the ground.

I lay completely still.

Every instinct screamed at me to follow my friends, but I couldn't afford a single careless movement. The moment I left my hiding place, the hunters would find me.

Here, I had almost no chance of surviving.

Out there, I had none.

I pressed a trembling hand against my chest and forced myself to breathe as slowly as I could, silently counting each breath as I fought to keep the panic from taking over.

One... two... three...

A branch snapped a few yards away, and every muscle in my body locked. Through the gaps in the ferns, I caught a flash of movement. It wasn't a wolf this time.

It was a man.

He was massive. Even from my hiding place, I could see the broad stretch of his shoulders and the way his muscles shifted beneath his clothes with every step. He carried a silver-tipped spear in one hand, letting its point drag lazily across the ground. It carved a shallow line through the leaves with a soft scraping sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

He wasn't running like the other Alphas. He moved with the easy confidence of someone who had done this countless times before.

"My, my..." he drawled in a deep voice. "You can come out now. I know you're here."

My pulse lurched.

He couldn't be talking to me. There had to be someone else hiding nearby. Another girl who hadn't made it out. Someone else whose scent he'd picked up.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my face into the damp earth, willing myself to become part of the forest. After a second, I forced them open again.

I couldn't afford to hide behind closed eyelids.

I needed to watch him.

He inhaled deeply, and a slow, satisfied smile spread across his face.

"There it is," he murmured. "That sweet scent. You can hide from my eyes for a while, little rabbit, but you can't hide from my nose."

I refused to believe he'd found me. There were dozens of girls scattered throughout the forest, and the scent could have belonged to any one of them. There was no reason to think he was talking about me.

He turned his head slowly and scanned the area. Then his eyes locked straight onto the spot where I was hiding. A terrifying smirk spread across his face.

Had he already seen me?

No.

He couldn't have seen me.

I had covered myself. I hadn't made a sound. Maybe he was looking at something behind me. Maybe he was bluffing, waiting for whoever was hiding to panic and reveal themselves.

I wasn't going to move.

My fingers dug into the dirt beneath me as I tried to make myself smaller, willing my body to melt into the earth.

Please don't see me. Please don't see me.

Please don't—

The shadow of his body swallowed the opening of the hollow. Before I could even think to run, a rough hand thrust through the leaves and clamped around my ankle.

I cried out as he jerked me forward.

My body slid out of the hollow, scattering leaves in every direction before I hit the ground hard at his feet.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He exclaimed. "A little rabbit hiding in the brambles. You didn’t run very far, did you?"

His hand closed around my jaw before I could move away forcing my face up until I had no choice but to look at him. I tried to jerk my face away, but the movement only made his grip tighten until I thought my jaw might crack.

"Let go of me, you bastard," I hissed.

His smile widened, showing teeth that were just a little too sharp to be entirely human.

"No. I don’t think I will." His other hand came up and tangled in the hair at the back of my neck, pulling just hard enough to sting. "The bell rang and I caught you. That makes you mine now. My reward."

He tilted his head, studying my face with detached fascination.

"And until I decide otherwise..." A cruel smile spread across his lips. "...you belong exactly where I say you do."

Disgust washed over me. Every place he touched made my skin crawl. I struggled against him, clawing at the hand tangled in my hair, but it didn't budge. His grip was so strong it felt impossible to break free.

"I don't belong to you," I choked out in a trembling voice. "I'll never belong to you."

Pain exploded across my scalp as he forced my head back. I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out.

"I can smell your fear," he whispered as his lips brushed my earlobe. "It’s sweet. But I can smell something else, too. A spark. You’re not completely broken, are you? Most of the omegas I catch are already sobbing and begging by now. You… you have some bite."

He grabbed the front of my already torn nightgown and ripped it open in one hard pull. The thin fabric gave way easily, leaving me completely naked on the cold ground.

I pushed against his chest with both hands, trying to shove him off.

"Get the fuck off me, you disgusting pervert!" I said through gritted teeth, glaring up at him even as tears blurred my vision. "If you touch me I'll kill you."

He just laughed in a deep sound that rolled out of him like he was enjoying every second.

"Kill me?" He let out a low, amused laugh. "Little rabbit, I'm an Alpha. I’m the one who does the killing."

He leaned back slightly and his eyes took in my curves with a slow, sickening appraisal.

"You should count yourself lucky I found you first," he said. "Most of the other alphas use you for an hour and then snap your neck just to keep from having to feed you. But you… you’re exactly my type. I like my women with some meat on them. Something to hold onto while I break them."

For the first time since he'd found me, I stopped trying to pull away. Instead, I stared straight back at him. If these were the last moments of my life, I refused to let the last thing he saw be me begging.

"If you please me, I might even keep you and make you my mistress," He ran a hand over my thigh and his touch felt like a slug crawling over my skin. "You’d have a warm bed and scraps from my table. Better than rotting in a forest, wouldn't you say?"

​The disgust rose in my throat until I couldn't hold it back. I gathered every bit of moisture in my mouth and spat directly into his arrogant face.