Alphas of Pandora, page 25
And then he shoved her into darkness.
Thirty
Oppressive darkness surrounded her, potent as if it had its own consciousness and sought to infest her every pore. She was too overwhelmed by fear to fight them because the dark scared her even more than the men holding her captive. Even if she managed to fight their hold and attempt to run, only the enduring black would be there to welcome her.
For their part, her captives navigated the pitch dark with relative ease, likely because of long practice. The arms that cradled her too tightly were her only anchor, and it was easy to imagine that she might drift off into the void if she were left alone.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, voice strong despite the terror that threatened to overwhelm her.
“To the Warrens.”
She swallowed past the painful lump in her throat. “And what is that?”
The man let out a dark chuckle but didn’t bother to reply.
Her answer came as the tunnel slowly brightened, but not with any sort of natural light. They reached a gigantic cavern, lit with industrial lamps and full of metal tubes that ran above their heads and along the walls in every direction.
Aura wouldn’t have known it then, but they had taken her to the pipeworks of the old city, long abandoned by the government and now home to the most degenerate parts of society. But she understood that nothing good would welcome her here.
The stench of fetid water assailed her nostrils, reminding her of the cooling pools on the station. That recollection only forced her to confront just how far she had travelled since being taken from her home, each step bringing her to something worse.
“What about him?” She asked, indicating Adrian’s unconscious form.
“He looks strong enough to make a decent work slave, if someone will pay the right price.” The bandit grinned, revealing crooked and yellowed teeth. “Otherwise, we’ll dump him into one of the steamworks and be done with it.”
She hoped that he survived this, but clearly Adrian wouldn’t be able to help her now.
A shrill whistle went up as soon as they entered the cavern, as if someone had been on the lookout. An instant later, men filled the space, most of them dressed in the same dirt-covered clothes that the ones who had taken her wore. Covetous and lascivious faces surrounded her as the smell of unwashed male body made her gag.
For a moment, Aura was convinced that she would be torn apart in some sort of feeding frenzy, but the men seemed more interested in just having the chance to look at her body.
The illusion of civilization no longer existed for men like this Abandoned by society and left to toil in the Warrens, they did not even attempt to pretend that the rules governing everyone else in Pandora applied here.
Pawing hands ripped at what little of her clothing remained, pinching her skin and pressing too close to sniff at her hair. Aura had never felt more like a piece of meat in her life. Luckily, the bandit who had brought her here seemed interested in keeping her mostly unmolested until he’d been paid.
“Back off unless you’ve got the credits.” He pulled her back and behind him, a momentary reprieve from the assaultive onslaught of groping hands. Although the feel of his bruising grip on her skin wasn’t much of an improvement. “Put out the word, this one goes up for auction tonight.”
The cheer that met this pronouncement deafened her ears. Chaos assailed her senses as she was dragged further into the cavernous space past metal pipes wider than she was tall. The noise of rushing water and male jeers combined with the sight of so many men staring at her with unconcealed want in their eyes overwhelmed her.
She had not understood until this moment how much Castor had concealed the truth of this world from her. In the Forbidden Zone, she had assumed that the crazed Alphas who threatened them had been an anomaly, born of isolation or extreme deprivation. But the men here were indistinguishable from those monsters now that the protection of society had been stripped away.
For now, the weapon that her kidnapper had strapped to his side kept the others at bay. The hand not holding her hovered over it whenever another man crept too close. She did not want to contemplate what would happen once someone paid him and he no longer cared about her physical safety.
Her view of the world had been overtaken by overly large hands and eyes filled with lust as he propelled her through the throng. She looked up to where the sky should be, seeing only more twisted metal that disappeared into darkness. They were far enough underground that her screams would only echo off the walls and never reach the surface.
No one would be coming to save her.
She had called what Castor did to her rape, but that word would take on a new and devastating meaning soon. If she had an opportunity to run before, it was gone now as her captor dragged her to a long row of dirty cages, just tall enough for a girl on her knees.
He shoved her inside and locked the door behind her with a key he then placed in a pocket of his jacket. As he stared down at her, Aura recognized that the desire on his face was born of greed and not any sort of sexual desire. She was merely a valuable commodity.
“It will go better for you if you don’t fight, girl. But I’ll get my piece either way.”
He strode away without so much as a backwards glance.
Adrian was shoved into the other cage with considerably more force, hitting the ground hard enough that it made her wince. She prayed that he would wake and wasn’t moments from expiring, but it seemed less likely with each passing moment. His breathing came in wheezing gasps and he hadn’t yet regained consciousness.
Fear and adrenaline kept her hyper-focused on her current surroundings, keeping thoughts of what was to come at bay. Aura held no illusions about what would transpire after this auction and she was unlikely to survive it with her mind still intact.
She gripped the rusted bars and shook them experimentally, unsurprised when they barely shifted despite their apparent age. Those bandits wouldn’t have stuffed her in here if they’d thought there was any hope of her escaping.
Most of the cages were empty, but she noticed an unmoving figure covered in a ratty blanket in the one next to her, but whoever it was didn’t move as she rattled the bars. For all she knew, whoever lay beneath that blanket was already dead.
Adrian let out a low groan and Aura rushed to the side of her small cage closest to him, pressing herself against the bars that separated them. She called his name, and he shifted to his side, eyes opening wide in shock for a brief moment before he pushed himself to his knees.
“Are you awake?”
He seemed frozen in position for a moment as he took in their dismal surroundings. A different sort of man might have asked her inane questions like what happened or where are we. But Adrian seemed to grasp the situation with alarming ease as his narrow-eyed gaze took in the bay of cages and the pipes running overhead.
“How long have I been out?” he asked, glaring around the space.
“An hour, maybe less.”
“You have to tell them who you really are,” he insisted, no hint of equivocation in his voice. “Otherwise, you’ll be sold to the type of Alpha willing to risk the Warrens for sexual gratification.”
Angry tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “I can’t go back to him.”
“I promise you the alternative is worse.”
“If they even care,” she pointed out, staring at the leering men who were shifting closer to the cages. They were kept from getting too close by her captor and his men who had formed a semi-circle around the cages. “For all you know, discovering that I’m the Omega that Castor has been searching for will just make everything worse.”
“It’s worth the risk.” He crouched in the dust, body taut with restrained tension as he surveyed the surrounding scene. “You have no idea what terrible fate awaits you.”
“They intend to make you a slave,” she informed him as she backed up to the stone wall behind her to put as much space between herself and the leering faces as possible. “Perhaps you should worry about your own fate.”
His lip quirked in what almost resembled a smirk. “I can see four different possible escape routes from here, and I have the strength to attempt at least two of them. I’m only still here out of concern for you, believe me.”
He sounded so assured that it made it difficult to doubt him, even while he was locked in a cage identical to her own. Aura held no illusions about her own abilities to manage an escape, particularly when she seemed to have everyone’s undivided attention.
“Why are all these men down here?” she asked.
“They’re outcasts, criminals mostly. Some of them have escaped the justice centers or simply want to avoid interference from the Guardians while they engage in less than legal activities. The men here are among the worst that this city has to offer and all of them will have a chance at you soon enough.”
Nails dug into her own skin as Aura fought the wave of revulsion and fear threatening to overtake her. “Is it only men here?”
His gaze passed over her as his lips thinned into a line. “Women don’t last long in a place like this.”
Aura gathered the scraps of her dress around her, aware that she had been stripped almost completely nude. Even when she huddled in the back of her cage with her knees drawn together in front of her, significantly more of her flesh was revealed than she cared to contemplate.
She hated this world. No matter what she suffered on the station, it had never come close to this with people locked in cages in preparation of being sold to the highest bidder. This place disgusted her, as did everyone who lived in it.
Her gaze passed over the dirt covered floor, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. In that moment, she wasn’t sure if she planned to use what she found on whatever man came closest first or herself. But there was nothing useful in reach, not even a rock large than the tip of her finger. All she had to protect herself were the tiny hands balled into fists at her sides and that wouldn’t be nearly enough.
“They won’t wait long,” Adrian murmured, gaze intent on her face. “Not for someone as valuable as you. Once you’re sold, there will no longer be hope for you. They may release you to Castor if they understand your value to him. The King would empty the treasury for you.”
She couldn’t go back to him, not willingly, not when he had treated her as if her desires were meaningless compared to his own. Whatever else she faced might be worse, but there was a perverse pleasure in knowing that she had made a choice, even if it was ultimately the wrong one.
But her courage failed her when the bandit leader returned to the cage and unlocked the door. He knelt on the ground so that their gazes were level, a dangerous smile on his face. “Time to go, pretty.”
Aura couldn’t bring herself to move and she pressed further back against the wall, as if an extra inch would provide any additional protection. “Leave me alone.”
The man’s gaze darkened. “If I have to come in there, you won’t like what happens.”
Adrian moved closer, his voice entreating. “This girl is valuable to the crown, you’d get more for her by submitting her to the palace than whatever you have planned here.”
“But that would mean trekking to the upper levels with an Omega slung on my back,” the man pointed out, canny gaze shifting to Adrian. “That’s time and risk for my men just on a promise. Unless you’ve got a credit chit in your pocket, you’re asking me to sacrifice money now in the hope of money later.”
Adrian’s fists clenched on the bars. “Riches later, more than you or your men would otherwise see in a lifetime.”
“I’m a man of simple pleasures, you see. As long as I have enough to keep me in women, weapons and booze, the rest is a matter for the gods.” The man turned back to Aura with a grin full of dark intent. “Now, give me your hands.”
Aura refused to move. The belligerent look on her face said without words she had no intention of cooperating.
“Come now or I’ll box your ears and then you can be auctioned off with bruises on that pretty face.”
Instead of complying, Aura kicked out with her foot, grazing his shoulder with a glancing blow that was more symbolic than anything else. With a malicious smile, the man backhanded her across the face and then grabbed a handful of her hair to drag her out of the small cell.
“I hope you can figure out how to put that stupidity aside, girl. You’re in for a world of hurt otherwise.”
Adrian tried one more time, a hint of desperation in his voice. “The King will destroy any man who touches her, including the one who failed to bring her to him.”
The man gripped the back of Aura’s neck and stripped the remnants of her dress away, despite her attempts to fight him off. His hand moved over the claiming mark on her shoulder and he ignored her shriek of pain. “I’d say if the King cared that much, I wouldn’t have been able to catch her in the first place. Perhaps he’ll learn to take better care with his toys.”
Aura tried to scream as he dragged her away, but the sound caught in her throat like someone had wrapped their hand around her neck and squeezed out all the air. Panic set in as the crowd of men closed in to follow them, although her captor seemed heedless of their audience as he strode toward a makeshift stage. Not only was it impossible to breathe, but her heart beat hard enough to explode from her chest in a burst of blood and bone.
Her hands were bound together and pulled above her head by a length of rope then tied to a nearby pipe. She had to rise on her tiptoes to keep herself from swinging freely in the air. The position forced her breasts forward and arched her back in a way that was frankly lascivious, especially given her nakedness. Aura squeezed her eyes shut as the catcalls and whistles washed over her.
The bandit leader was a natural showman, and he made a point of shifting her into the meager light so that the curves of her body were cast in stark relief. He stood next to her like a farmer with his prize sow at the market, the look of pride on his face as offensive to her as anything else.
“You’ll pay for this,” she murmured through the blooming pain in her jaw where he had struck her.
“I’m getting paid for this, sweetheart. Now, try to put a smile on your face before it swells.”
The bidding came fast and fierce, amounts shouted one after another more quickly than any sane person could keep up with. One bid had already been exceeded by another before her captor had a chance to respond.
She had no conception of what amount of credits equalled a king’s ransom. But it was clear from the frenzy around here and the eager expression of her captor that she would be sold for a substantial sum. Her shoulders ached and her face throbbed, but that was a distant concern as she stared out at the leering faces in the crowd.
The man selling her gripped her hip with one hand and turned her body so that her backside faced the crowd, her limbs quivering with tension as she steadied herself with only her toes touching the ground. He raised his hand in the air and slapped her hard enough on one butt cheek to leave a red imprint of his hand on the fragile skin.
Aura let out a sharp cry to the obvious pleasure of the gathered crowd. A fiery blush burned on her face from the embarrassment, which mattered more to her in that moment than the pain. These men treated her like an object with no will or desires of her own. None of them valued her as a person, cared that she had thoughts and needs independent of the pleasure they hoped to wring from her unwilling body. It was the most degrading thing that she had ever experienced in her entire life, time spent with Castor included.
All she wanted was for this to end.
When the bidding finally ended, her captor left her naked and strung up on the stage while he arranged payment with the winner. Her joints burned as she struggled not to pass out, barely balancing on her toes as her body swayed. Their voices washed over her in a distant way and she wouldn’t have understood what was said even if she had tried to listen. Her implant hadn’t failed, but the capacity for interacting with the world was limited as she faded into herself.
But then the man came to stand directly in front of her, because only a man who would purchase a helpless woman stolen off the street. Her eyes rose to meet the level gaze that stared her down and it was only then that the horror of her situation finally washed over her.
Because she recognized the man who had bought her, a man that she never thought to lay eyes on again.
Faseer smiled at her in a way that sent a chill down her spine. “Hello, pet. I so hoped that I would find you before your precious King. We have so much work to do.”
Thirty-One
The Vigilian ambassador refused to stop talking. Even after he had wrapped her naked form in a dirty blanket and hustled her out of the Warrens to a nearby skycar, an oppressive monologue had accompanied every step.
“Our scientists have been salivating to get ahold of you.” His tone was conversational, as if he wasn’t describing terrible experiences that would likely leave her maimed or dead. “I really thought my chance at you had evaporated, finding you here has been a very pleasant surprise.”
Aura squeezed her eyes shut, as if he were an apparition that could be banished if she ceased to acknowledge its existence. But her lack of response didn’t stop the flow of the conversation he evidenced no issue having with himself.
“Unfortunately, most of the Omegas that we chemically induced did not survive the process. You’re a marvel of science, my girl. And our only hope of replicating the process.”
Icy cold settled over her limbs, like freezing water ran through her veins instead of blood. She should have killed herself when she had the chance or accepted the half-life that Castor had offered her. This was a nightmare made reality, the thought she would be responsible for others suffering this same torment.
“Cat got your tongue?” Faseer inquired as he slid into the seat across from her in the skycar. “This is the longest I’ve witnessed you with nothing to say. Or has the shock overwhelmed your senses? Luckily, it isn’t your mind that we need.”
