tw: mentions of rape and assault
lenora
Not many know there's a basement to the pack house. The door is located in the library behind a moveable shelf, and rarely anyone comes in here these days. Denver pushes it open as I approach. He picks up a gallon jug of water from the floor and then we cross into the unfinished space. I hold my breath as long as I can. It smells like body fluids and body odor. The rest of the pack house is mostly oblivious. Thick, soundproof walls keep the sounds and smells trapped here like lost souls.
We take several stairs down and turn a few corners before reaching the open basement. It is as big as one floor of the house but completely open except for support beams. Fifteen mattresses line the walls. Six of them are occupied by figures shackled to the floors. I pull on the string hanging from the ceiling for the light. It blinks on. All the bodies hiss and twist away from the brightness.
I look over them as I approach. Four males and two females. I don't recognize any of them, which is when I realize I was looking for Ara. I shake off the annoying thought.
"Who is thirsty?" I say.
They all sit up, blinking against the light.
"Tell me something and you'll get a sip."
They are quiet. Who will betray the others first? I smile darkly and cross my arms.
"I'll tell you something," one of the men says. I look at Denver and he walks closer with the jug of water.
"Speak," I command.
The rogue glances between us. His face is dirty and scratches still marr his arms and chest where the wounds aren't cleared enough to heal. Wolves rarely die from infection because of our healing abilities, but if one prolongs a wound from closing for long enough, it can happen.
"Well, I bet you have a big cock under those jeans. Certainly some hot balls in the least. Alpha," he says mockingly.
Some of the others laugh. Until I laugh, slowly and sinisterly. Then they all fall silent. I move to the mattress where he sits and smiles at him. The gesture is empty. A flash of fear crosses his face before he stones the expression.
"How cute," I say. "Yet another misogynistic asshole. Who is the one chained here again?"
And before he can blink, I have whipped my hand across his face. His head snaps to the side and a tooth flies out, bouncing off the wall. He groans. As he faces me again, I slap the other cheek. Rage bubbles inside me but I force myself to hold back. If I think of all the alphas and packs they have already ruined, I will murder every single one of these rogues and not get any answers. We can't have that.
The rogue spits a mouthful of blood onto the mattress. His eyes reach up to glare at me. Turning towards the others, I splay my hands.
"Does anyone else have something unhelpful to share?" I ask. "Because it's been a long time since I've had a punching bag and I am ready to go for hours."
They are all quiet. A woman—well, a girl really—is the first to speak now.
"We won't tell you anything," she says.
I cross over to her. "Why is that? Hmm?"
"Why would we? You're going to die. Every alpha is going to die."
"And who are you working for that is telling you this will happen? Is it one person? A group of people?" I leer down at her, my eyes hot as coals. "You are being dictated just like any other pack wolf. You are just a pawn. You're all sad little wolves who banded together because you left the lifestyle you were made for. You've gone from one pack to another and this one . . ." I laughed. "They don't give a rat's ass about you. You are going to die here. In the darkness. No one is going to know. We'll burn your bodies so all that's left is ash. And all for what? You haven't accomplished anything."
I squat down in front of her hateful gaze. "Packs will always be. It is the strongest form of society. This is how we have survived for millennia. You think you are the first to try to change things? Plenty have tried this before and failed. You will too."
They all want me dead. I can feel it in the poisonous rake of their eyes. Hell, if I were them, I'd want me dead too. I'm a bitch.
"So I will ask again," I said. "Give me information and you'll live a little longer."
"You're going to kill us anyway," says one of the other males.
They're all young, I realize. Teens and early twenties. Kids who don't know better and are just looking for somewhere to be, something to do. I look back at the young girl and realize that I easily could have been her at that age. I was just as desperate for something to believe in.
"Give me a reason not to kill you," I told them. "You could all have full lives ahead of you. You could have a purpose. Instead of following orders to slaughter packs, you could do something meaningful. Have a family. People who care about you and will protect you—"
"That's bullshit!" rails the same man who told me I have a cock. "We're all here because we've been hurt or rejected by a pack. It's bullshit."
I walk back over to him. He cowers a little but glares defiantly at me.
"What happened to you then?" I say. "Tell me your story."
Glancing at the others, he shifts uncomfortably on the ragged mattress. He has long, dark hair that hangs over his brown eyes. He's skinny like the others.
Squatting down before him, I make our eyes level. "Make me understand."
"My Alpha raped me," he spits out. "He raped a lot of the kids. And our parents didn't do shit. The ones who spoke up were forced to become rogues. I left the second I could get away and haven't looked back."
He heaves with the force of honesty and pain. My heart feels heavy. These are kids like I had been.
"Thank you for telling me," I say. Then I turn to the girl beside him. "And you? Why are you here?"
Her lip curls as she looks away. "I'm not telling you anything. It's none of your fucking business."
"You came here to kill me," I said. "I think I deserve to know your motivations. What can it possibly hurt to tell me anyway?"
She says nothing and refuses to look at me.
"I was never in a pack," one of the other males says. "My parents were rogues, so I grew up like that."
I stand up and go to him. "And how does it make you feel to be a part of something bigger than you? Does it feel good to contribute? To have others going through everything with you?"
He wets his lips. "I finally have people who understand me."
"You have people who have been hurt too. That doesn't mean they understand you." My mouth hardens. "I was a rogue once too."
I feel the weight of their full attention now. Very few know this about me. I could care less if people know where I come from. But these kids need to know. They need to know that they have more options than murderous tirades.
Turning back to the first confession, I see the doubt in his eyes. "You want power over your lives. I get that. I get that more than most. My father, a pack wolf, raped my mother, who was a rogue. She got pregnant with me. I grew up torn between the human world and ours. I was powerless in both. So I decided at fifteen that I would not be pushed around anymore. I picked a crowd who would teach me how to fight, how to be tough." I looked around at all of them. "Then I picked a fight with a Delta. And then a Gamma. And then a Beta. I lost more fights than I won, at first. Almost all of them were men. They were bigger than me, stronger than me. But I could be faster and smarter. I came close to death more times than I wish to remember. Until I killed an Alpha and took everything he had."
"You're the same as us!" cries the girl who refused to speak.
"Yes, I am," I tell her. "I am the same as you. The only difference is that I didn't deceive myself into believing a pack of rogues is not a pack. I made myself a pack so that I would be strong enough to become an Alpha worthy of ruling. My wolves are protected. They are cared for. I would die for them and they would—they have—for me." I shake my head and look at my scarred, calloused hands. "You're trying to dismantle the best thing about being a wolf: our community. I can't let you do that."
Their gazes are a little less murderous as I look between them. They no longer see me as just some female anomaly asshole.
"If you want to stop bad people from being in charge or if you want something to belong to," I tell them, "then change things for the better. You aren't going to stop anyone by murdering Alphas. More will rise. Unless that's you, rising to the top, then it might be another bad person." I mull over my next words carefully. "Tell me who is doing this so we can put the unnecessary death to an end."
The man who was raped sits up. He looks more weary now and less defiant than before. "There's a group of them," he said.
"Shut the fuck up!" the girl yells.
Ignoring her, I move back to his side. "Who is this group?"
"I don't know them all. They just come in and out. Sometimes they lead us together, but usually, it's just one of two of them."
I take a breath. "Denver?"
My Beta brings the water jug over. He gently fills the man's mouth.
"Thank you," I say. "Do you know where they are?"
He glances at the others. Then his shoulders slump. "Our rendezvous point is twenty miles north of here."
The girl snarls. "Daniel! How could you?"
He turns to her and says, "Are they any better? We don't even know them! And look at what they've made us do. Kill people. Innocent people."
I look back at Denver and tip my head at him. He places the water jug beside me before leaving. I offer the man more water but he refuses.
"Give it to them," he says, nodding at the others. "They need it. They're just afraid to speak up."
I rock back on my heels with a sigh. "I think we can make a deal. All of us."