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I look around and find familiar faces—boys that are now men…dangerousmen. Others come out as we stand and wait on the platform, Javi holding me still.
I want to beg for my life—for my freedom—but all I can do is cry.
“Look what the current dragged in, boys!” Ephraim yells, going to some of the other doors and banging on the buildings. Alphas come out one by one, a few with frightened-looking omegas on their arms. No male betas—they’ve always been pushed out, no place for them on the Rig. “Our princess came home.”
The alphas snarl and growl, a few hunkering down. Those without omegas crouch and stare at me with flashing eyes, and I feel Javi tense beside me. I’m responsible for taking the mates of some of these men—for helping them find new alphas to bite them, to claim them, to help them escape.
I know none of them will touch me, though; my father stands close by, his arms crossed, and he’s in charge here.
“The traitor!” one of the men in the crowd shouts. “Apologize!”
My father rounds on me, reaching out like he’s going to slap me. I flinch, only for him to yank the gag out of my mouth. My lips and tongue are dry, my throat hurting when I drag in a breath of briny sea air.
“What do you have to say for yourself, girl?” my father says.
I sob. “Father, please—”
“You lost the right to call me that when you betrayed us and stole our omegas,” he says. “Apologize, Esther.”
That’s not my name!I want to scream.
“I’m sorry…Prime,” I say. “I’m so sorry.”
“Well, that was easy,” Ephraim says, coming back toward us with a sneer. “What now?”
My father—Gideon—narrows his eyes at me. For a moment, I think he’s going to throw me off the platform, a death sentence—but he shakes his head.
“Lock her up in the citadel,” he says. “We’ll figure it out from there.”
Ephraim makes to grab me, to take me from Javi, but the pirate alpha’s fingers stay locked around my bicep. He snarls at Ephraim again, his sharp canines bared.
“It’s my job to deliver the package,” Javi says. “Leave it.”
Ephraim looks from Javi to Gideon to Abel…and I think it might come to blows. But Javi is almost as big as my father, and I don’t think it would end well for Ephraim or Gideon.
“Fine,” Ephraim says. “This way.”
We turn around and follow Ephraim toward my old home—the citadel, a towering structure of rusted metal at the center of the Rig. Inside, it’s been outfitted as a palace fit for a pirate king, pieces of treasure discarded in the corners like a dragon’s den. Paintings of biblical scenes line the walls, their paint chipped from exposure to saltwater, some faded over time. We pass a sitting room with a fire crackling in a hearth, and I catch sight of three omegas with their feet chained to the floor.
My father’s new mates.
Chained…because of what I did years ago.
Ephraim leads us up a metal staircase and opens a door at the very top to reveal a barebones space with a cot in one corner and a bucket in the other. Javi walks in with me while Ephraim stays at the door, his arms crossed.
It’s my last chance to ask for help.
My last chance to get someone to save me.
“Please,” I whisper. “Please help me.”
“Esther—” he starts with a glare.
“My name isn’t Esther,” I breathe. “It’s Peaches. I just wanted someone to know.”
Javi scowls.
“It isn’t my job to help you,omega,” he says—and his words are filled with so much disdain that it nearly breaks me.
