Chapter 4

<I trust our Delta.>

I snorted. <That's shocking.>

<And why is that?>

<You don't trust anyone.>

<And neither do you,> Echo said pointedly. <I'm surprised you even heard him out.>

<I wanted to know whether or not he was talking out of his ass,> I replied.

<Ass... another word for 'butt',> Echo defined proudly. She had asked me to teach her some of the insults I knew, and apparently has been studying them the way a kindergartener may have studied their alphabet. It is... interesting, to say the least.

Our light conversation fell away at the sound of approaching footsteps— Damon's footsteps, heavy and menacing. We quieted and I pushed myself into a sitting position, Echo on guard once more. The Alpha's scent could be detected through the door, his pheromones stronger than usual, which meant one thing...

I let myself grin at the thought of him being pissed off at something.

And then Damon was standing in the doorway, his head almost brushing the top of the frame. His scent hit me, thick and overpowering, filling up the tiny room in an instant. I took shallow breaths through my mouth, wanting to get rid of the smell of my Alpha. 

<Why has he come back so soon?> Echo stressed, pacing the length of my mind, her tail swinging with stress. <The plan! Could he have heard of the plan to escape?>

I cursed inwardly. If he had heard of the plan, then there was nothing we could do about it except accept the hollowness that always came with a failed attempt of escape. But, if there's a chance he hasn't heard of it yet, then perhaps we actually had a good shot of keeping it a secret.

"Back so soon?" I managed to get out, nearly choking on his pheromones. 

"Work has been stressful," Damon said, towering over me. "And I've come here to forget about it."

"Why not have sex with your mate instead?" 

Shit. Why did I have to say that? Talking about his mate only made him more angry... but seeing him pissed did make me feel a sense of satisfaction. And knowing that in a few hours I would be out of here made me even more reckless.  

Damon clenched his jaw. "Don't speak of that bitch to me."

Echo snarled softly at his remark, angry at him for mistreating a wolf she didn't even know. While I did sympathize with Damon's mate simply for being mated to him, I had to focus on the problem in front of me. 

<Big ass problem,> Echo corrected, putting an emphasis on the new word she learned. Apparently she was also feeling just as reckless as I. 

"Then I suppose you're here to do the usual?"

"Such a smart pup," Damon purred. "Will you finally submit to me this time?" He  knelt down in front of me, running one hand down my stomach, the other pressed firmly against the wall above my shoulder.

I shivered, but not from pleasure. No, I would never, ever, ever let myself think for one moment that what Damon was doing to me was 'pleasurable.' Echo swished her tail in agreement, her fury raw and cold. However, she stood still, making no moves to try and take over. She had seen how that went down last time, leaving Damon more angry, which in turn made him more cruel. Echo, I realized, was backing off in order to make this less painful. 

As less painful as rape can be, I guess. Still, I applauded her efforts, knowing that if we did have the ability to shift she would have been tearing his flesh to ribbons. 

Bile burned in my throat as Damon's hand curled around my waist, slowly bringing it closer and closer to my backside. I pressed my back against the wall, trapping his hand. Damon growled, leaning closer to whisper in my ear.

"I see we're taking the hard way again, huh, pup?" he crooned.

"I'm not a pup!" I hissed, throwing what little weight I had against his shoulder, knocking the unexpecting Damon backwards. His hands left my skin to catch his body so he didn't make a fool of himself when he crashed onto the floor. 

Damon cursed, glaring at me with anger-filled brown eyes. "You're not making this any easier on yourself, August."

I glared right back. "All you have to do is give up on making me submit. Then it'll be a whole lot easier on you."

"You're an omega. Omegas are meant to be dominated," he sneered, righting himself, brushing off his bruised ego.

"My wolf is dominant. What's so hard to understand about an omega that doesn't submit?" I snarled at him as he approached me once again, hands stretched out like I was some kind of toy.

"And I'm a dominant beta, born without that extra dominant gene which would have made me pure alpha," he growled. "Omegas aren't meant to be strong. They're meant to breed pups for the next generation, they're meant to submit to the powerful. He threw his head back and laughed like the insane person he was. "An omega, dominating anyone other than another omega? That's called breaking the natural laws of nature, set by the Moon Goddess."

"Screw your damn Moon Goddess!" I yelled as I tried to squirm out of his grasp. "Screw your natural laws of nature! I won't submit to anyone, especially to you!"

Damon shoved my face into the cold floor, tearing down my pants as he did so. Panic rose in me, as it always did when I realized there was no escaping his touch. I shuddered, trying to crawl away. But Damon held onto me tight, laughing softly in my ear at my poor attempts of saving myself.

"Remember, it would be so much easier for you to just submit," he said, his breath caressing my neck.

A ragged sob left me as Damon overpowered me, turning into a scream of pain and fear and hate.

Only a few more hours, I remined myself, just hang on for a few more hours until Blue Cloud attacks.

That was my last thought before I succumbed to darkness.