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I woke up here sometime later to screams echoing around the large concrete room, my hands instinctively flying up to cover my ears. I was glad to be seemingly alone when I winced and whimpered, the familiar feeling of bruised ribs and cut lips breaking into my post-drug induced fog.
“You’ll get used to it fast,” a small voice whispers from beside me. Crying out, I whip my head to the side. I can’t make out more than a shadow since it’s so dark, but a hand brushes my leg where I’m leaning against the metal bars. Flinching away, the same voice whispers again. “Sorry, sorry. My name is Cove. They brought you down here a few days after they got me.”
Relaxing slightly, I lean against the cage again. “My name is Blake,” I whisper back. “Do you know where we are? Or how long we’ve been down here?”
Her hand brushes mine again, and I subconsciously grip it, desperate for the small amount of comfort it brings. She smells like s’mores and I find myself relaxing further into her sweet Omega scent. Gripping my hand back, she clears her throat.
“We’re in the basement of an auction house. I saw it on our way in when I was pretending to be passed out. As for how long we’ve been down here, my guess is three days based on the number of times they’ve brought me food. There was another girl down here, but they took her away yesterday.”
I shiver as I think about the screams that have since stopped. Something Cove said catches my attention, and I turn to where I’ve been hearing her voice. “What do you mean, an auction house? Like antiques? People auction those off, don’t they?” I ask.
She snorts. “No, a human auction house. Specifically, Omegas.” At my gasp, she grips my hand harder. “Blake, how old are you?” she asks incredulously.
Even in a situation like this, I can feel my face flushing with shame at the things I don’t know. The things I never had a chance to learn living in the basement.
“Eighteen,” I whisper. “But until a month ago, I was locked up most of my life. I was kidnapped at five and my kidnappers kept me locked in an attic room and homeschooled me, and then when I was ten, their house burned down, and I was thrown into foster care. My first set of foster parents had me for a year before the father kidnapped me and kept me locked in a basement.” I grimace, not wanting to face her judgement, even if she is a stranger.
I ramble on, unable to keep my mouth shut in the face of her silence. “I just… there are so many things I don’t know. I escaped a month ago and found my scent matched pack the same day. One of them is actually my foster brother from way back when, and that’s a whole other story. But whenever they say something they think is common knowledge, I get so embarrassed. I know I don’t know you, but I don’t want you to think I’m dumb because I’m really not, I promise! I even graduated high school at fifteen! There are just things I didn’t…”
“Blake?” The sound of Cove’s voice stops my nervous babble. “Please stop apologizing for things that were out of your control,” she says fiercely. “It’s hard enough to be a woman in this country, let alone anOmega woman. The way people trade us like we’re fucking commodities is sickening. The fact that you survived all that bullshitandfound your pack is incredible. So what if you’re a little behind the curve with life experience? You’re gonna get out of this and find your pack and learneverything.”
“What about you?” I whisper. “Can we both get out of this?” I may not know Cove, but there’s something about her that makes my instincts trust her. If I’m going to find a way out of this, it’s going to be because she helps me.
“Aww, don’t you worry about me, Shortcake,” she jokes, but I choke on a sob. Desperately trying to hold back the tears, I cover my mouth.
“What?” Her voice is panicked. “What just happened?”
“I’m sorry,” I cry. “My… my Alpha has been calling me Shortcake since I was ten. I just… what if we don’t make it out?” I’m fully sobbing now, tapping my fingers frantically to ward off the building panic.
“Hey…HEY!” Cove’s voice is nothing more than a stage whisper as footsteps sound upstairs. “None of that, Blake. If we’re going to make it out of here and back to your Alpha, I need you to take a deep breath andstay calm. No matter what you see, what you hear, you keep it together and don’t let them see your fear. You’ve survived worse.”
Taking several deep breaths, her burnt marshmallow scent alerts me to her stress, and I know I can’t make this harder for her by breaking down.
“I’m good. Sorry, Cove.”
She starts to respond when a door opens, shining light into the large space. I’m terrified of whoever is coming down those stairs, but I’m thankful for my first look at Cove. She’s sitting down, but obviously taller than me. She has long, thick black hair and defined features that are contrasted by the sharpness of her dark eyes. Cove is absolutely stunning.
Her eyes widen when they land on me just as a pair of heavy boots comes into view on the stairs. An incredibly large man appears a second later, curling his lip at us on the floor.
“Get up,” he barks at us with a thick accent. I bang my head on the top of the cage and wince at the pain when my body responds to the Alpha bark. Smirking, he walks over to open the cage and slaps a thick metal cuff on my wrist. “Stupid girl,” he sneers. “All you Omegas the same, do anything for an Alpha knot and always listen to bark.” His accent is thick and not one I’ve heard before, and it’s hard to understand what he’s saying.
Keeping my eyes lowered submissively, I let him drag me to a standing position next to Cove.
“You take showers now, da? Then put on robe. Look like pretty whores for new owners.” His hungry gaze is a thousand times worse than the pizza delivery guy’s was. The thought of taking off my clothes in front of him makes me physically ill.
Cove smiles up at the large man, and I was right in thinking she was taller than me. She’s probably close to five foot eight. “Thanks, Nikolai,” she murmurs with a sweet smile. My jaw is on the floor watching the interaction. “You wouldn’t want to upset the bosses, would you? Let us shower alone. I promise we’ll be ready when you come back.”
He narrows his eyes at her suspiciously before nodding. “Da. Be back in minutes,” he growls his words out like a warning.
The second he’s up the stairs again, I whirl on Cove. “What the heck was that?” I hiss.
She looks mildly ashamed. “I learned quickly to stay on his good side by acting like a flirty little submissive Omega. It’s the only reason I wasn’t the one screaming when you woke up,” she whispers, her voice cracking on the last few words.
“Cove?” I ask quietly. When she looks at me with tears brimming her lashes, I grab her hand and repeat her words from earlier. “Don’t be ashamed of doing what you had to do to survive. You’re strong, and I admire you for that.”
Smiling at me softly, she lets one tear fall before visibly locking down her emotions and wiping the tear away. “Alright, enough of the sappy shit. If we’re gonna escape, the auction will be our chance.”
I raise one eyebrow in her direction. “Uhh... how is that gonna work?”
