ZACHARY
He watched Gabe go down from the shock and not get back up. Troy’s face was pale and washed out. They all knew Gabe was falling into despair. And if he fell, Troy might slip with him. It was dangerous situation for them. Those two, with no will to live or escape, were worse than worthless, they would be actively detrimental.
But Riley had made it. He looked to Brenton and they locked eyes. Andrew was smiling in his cage.
The angry fuck left, and they were silent.
“Go, kitten,” Sheriff growled. “She’s fucking done it. I can die a happy man at that.”
Zachary could, too. She was out there, free.
“Damn right,” Brenton laughed. He actually fucking laughed, which made Zachary follow. His ribs hurt from it. His eyes teary.
“I’m happy for you all,” the Alpha wolf mumbled. “I’m sorry I was an ass. She must be tough to have made it.”
“You know, we haven’t had introductions,” Brenton grinned at him, “And since we’re dead men, we probably don’t need to. But I’m Alpha Brenton Kingson. The tiger is Zachary Woods. The brothers at the end are Troy and Gabe Walker. And this last one, the cougar, is Andrew Hicks.”
“The Kingson pride?” The wolf Alpha laughed. “They fucking brought you crazy SOBs down? Fuck, four years ago, you assholes were unstoppable in the feline world. Every fucking shifter in the country knows who you are.”
“Yup, but our girl showed them up!” Zachary cackled. The foxes were also laughing, damn crazy fucks. “And you guys are?”
“Alpha Chris Marek. South Dakota wolf pack. These two are James Paddock and Antonio Hawman.” The leader wolf pointed to the other two. Zachary finally took the time to look the wolves over.
They were a rugged lot, all sporting scars from fights. Chris, the Alpha, had a nasty one across his cheek that was pronounced. They all had brown hair, but their eyes were different. Chris had that canine yellow, unique among the wolves and only a little similar to Brenton’s gold. James had brown, and Antonio had jade green. They all stood between five ten and six feet even which would make sense for their size in comparison to him and Brenton.
“We had a brother escape three days ago,” James sat in his own cage. “Maybe they’ll run into each other and get fucking gone.”
“We can only hope,” Brenton gave a tight smile.
“Yeah.” Andrew shrugged.
“Look, she’s out,” Sheriff growled. “That’s all that matters.” He was directing it at the pride. Zachary didn’t want his Riley out there with a wolf but… if he kept her safe, maybe it was for the best.
They all nodded, even the wolves and foxes. The wolves might have been pricks but none of them had wanted her to be caught. Zachary looked to the foxes and frowned.
“And you two?”
“Huck and Finn,” one of them offered. No last names, no indication of what pack they belonged to. “Twins.”
“So, how long has everyone been here?” Troy called from his end of their row.
“I was grabbed the same day as you boys,” Sheriff sat down, stretching his long legs out. “I just woke up earlier.”
“We’ve been here five days,” one of the foxes. Zachary didn’t know if it was Finn or Huck, since they hadn’t indicated which was which.
“A month,” Chris looked bitter, filled with regret. “And when they couldn’t sell us since wolves are really common, they decided to start hunting us one by one.”
“How many of you did you start with?” Brenton leaned on his bars and watched the other Alpha. Zachary knew they wouldn’t be fighting anymore. In this place, Alpha didn’t matter. Only survival and keeping one’s sanity.
Zachary had grown up like this. The bars felt like they were closing in. If Riley hadn’t won, he would have lost it already.
He pushed away the memory.
This wasn’t his parents’ home. This wasn’t the same. It wasn’t because he was a child who didn’t look right. It wasn’t because he was an anomaly.
No, he’d earned himself a place here, where he’d never earned what he’d gotten at the hands of his parents. He was here because he was a threat and that made some sort of a difference.
“We started with nine. Me and my entire inner circle,” Chris exhaled. “We think a rival pack sold out our location. Five hunts went their way until our brother made it out. They weren’t as mad when he escaped, since they already had gotten five wolves for themselves.”
“We think a shifter gave over our information,” Brenton nodded in sympathy.
“Yeah, but I couldn’t figure out who that mother fucker was!” Gabe snarled from beyond Troy. He was falling apart. Zachary knew that Gabe was over there thinking that if he could have just done more, done better, none of this would have happened.
The pride didn’t agree with him. They had told him a thousand times over his life that not everything was his fault. Sometimes there’s just nothing one can do. Zachary was supposed to protect them… but the convoy on the highway had been organized and they were unarmed. It was laughably easy for the hunters and Zachary would regret that for the rest of his life. It also made him irrationally angry, but he kept it bottled up. His anger would do nothing for him here.
“I’m sorry,” Zachary groaned “I can’t imagine how it feels to lose so many.”
“We knew when we woke up what our fate would be,” James shifted in the cage to a wolf and curled up. He was a standard gray and white but a bit big for the average wolf.
“Now what?” Sheriff leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Zachary snorted at the thought.
Nothing, that’s what. There was nothing any of them could do except try to survive where they were going to end up.
“Survive,” Brenton whispered. “It’s all we can do. And trust Riley to keep going. To get far and never come back.”
He locked eyes with his Alpha. Sorrow, misery, pain. He hadn’t seen emotions like those in Brenton’s eyes since the Caroline incident. Brenton might be a hard ass on the brothers, but he had been completely wrecked by the accident. He had felt so awful for not being the father the brothers needed to help them mature, even though he was only barely an adult himself.
And now he was wrecked over the fact that Riley was alive and, still, they had lost her.
“So, which one of you was with… Riley?” Chris pointed between them. “I can understand the familial scents of pack or pride between you but…”
“We all were,” Andrew. Desolate. He sounded drier than the Sahara.
“And that’s all you need to know,” Zachary growled from his cage, bringing the wolf Alpha’s attention over to him. “Don’t ask for anymore.” It wasn’t the wolf’s fucking business, and he wasn’t in the mood for the judgment against Riley.
Even gone, she still owned his fucking heart. She would own it until the damn thing stopped beating and long past that into whatever fucking afterlife he was destined for.
Chris nodded and stepped back. He shifted into a wolf and laid down, promptly falling into a sleep.
Zachary knew better than to try for sleep. He would never be able to get any.
The hours ticked by and night fell outside, only black sky filling the few windows they had in the warehouse.
Riley had survived and that’s all that mattered.