But he’d been there, not a flicker of resentment in those eyes as he’d held me against his chest, the faint vibration of his low rumbling purr the only thread stopping my mind from finally dissolving completely.
Then there was Karma and Phantom. With those two, much less painful memories surfaced. Karma flashed through a dozen different moments, and in them his eyes were wild as he launched at me, lips drawn in a snarl.
Exhilarating.
Rut cages and fight pits.
A pressure valve for aggression and madness.
Phantom, sometimes, too in Karma’s place.
But they were more thanjustfights; they were… I felt a smile cross my face as I realized what it had been.
For what… months… years?
I took a sip of my drink, catching Phantom’s eye before I asked, “Why, exactly, did youallowa feral alpha to keep pack lead all this time?”
Karma’s gaze snapped to me and Phantom’s expression soured, food pausing before his lips.
Sin chuckled, catching my smug expression.
“Thought it made you happy,” Phantom muttered. “We needed you tonotbe feral.”
My grin widened. “Uh huh.”
I didn’t say out loud the truth I’d pieced together from those cage fights: they hadn’t beenableto take it off me.
“It looks like it worked,” Phantom added. “And just in time.”
“Just in time?” I asked.
“Appeal coming up,” Sin said.
Appeal…?
It took a moment for that word to form meaning, but then I blinked, surprised.
We might… get out soon—to the normal world outside?
As… a pack?
Phantom nodded. “It’s possible they let us out with one feral alpha, but only if we can prove you’re not a danger. And with Karma’s aura, too…”
I glanced between them. Phantom’s aura was fine, but Karma… his crackled in the air around him, erratic, unstable… I could always see it—it was the gift of my eyes. I could visualize auras, how unstable or sick they were.
Phantom was right. Karma’s wasn’t… well. He was like a bomb that might go off at any time.
Even as I watched, Karma’s aura waned in the air before shimmering around him, something deeply unsteady in it.
“But if it’s just one unstable alpha to manage…” Phantom said. “There’s no way we won't get out.”
He sounded a little less certain than the words let on.
“Assuming…” He exchanged a glance with Sin. “Well, assuming the Leo pack can get out. They’ve got an omega and an appeal a few days before ours. If they can leave, we should be fine.”
“Why does it matter if they get to their appeal?” I asked.
“No omega’s ever escaped this place before.”