Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

FREYA

A nother sticker. Or electrodes, as the people in scrubs around me mumbled a few times, called them. Something about tracking my brain activity. I've lost count of how many have been stuck to my head at this point.

I don't know how long I've been lying here as the machines whirr around me, but I'm starting to slip into a strange numbness. They haven't injected me with anything since they dragged me out of my cell, but it's the fact that I know what's about to happen that's making me want to fade into the recesses of my mind.

My omega paces inside of me, and as another sticker with a cord attached to it is pushed against my right temple, a headache begins to bloom.

Instead of focusing on her anxiety, I zone out to the throbbing of my finger inside the little pulse counter that surrounds it.

I've picked up on a few things they've been putting on me, but the technology surrounding me is lost on me. I don't know these machines, but I know what these people are looking for. What's expected of me and what will happen if I fail.

Because of Kate, I know what to expect, but I'm fucking terrified I'll fail. Failure isn't an option even though it's the first routine test I'm being subjected to.

I should be used to being strapped down naked, but the crinkly medical sheet beneath me and the leather straps keeping me rooted to the bed is enough to test my sanity. I refuse to think about the plastic material beneath my pussy that's meant to catch my slick.

The bed begins to incline, giving me a front-row seat to the room next door separated by a retractable glass wall. Where my mates will be put and used against me.

I don't want to think about what's to come, but my chest flares with the emotions of my mates right before the door is thrown wide in the other room. One by one, my pack is shoved into view, followed but Ken.

Fucking Ken.

My awareness quickly snaps me back into reality. My omega snarls viciously, rattling my throat, and I fight like hell to try to get her under control with reminders of what they will do to them if she forces her way to the forefront.

"Alright gentlemen!" The doctor claps, as my guys are positioned in a line beside each other. "Welcome to your first trial. We aren't really here for you though, so don't get your hopes up. All you have to do is just be you."

My lip curls when Ken winks at Ronan and shoots me a smirk. His muffled voice does nothing to irk me any less than if he were taunting them right in front of me.

I watch in confusion as the guys seem to look right through me, then around the room with furrowed brows. Computers, a hose, a tray of medical tools, and a wall of cords surround them.

A fucking one-way mirror. Maybe it's for the best though; I don't want them to see me like this.

Their snarls are muted through the barrier between us as their wrists are chained to the ground along with their ankles. They each jerk and snap at the people bustling around them, sticking cords to their bare chests and backs.

Lucas is closest to the door they came through and on his left is Casey. Beside my beta is our pack alpha, and next to Ronan is Elliott who looks like he's about to explode. Each of them seems to be out of reach of each other, making them useless unless they can break through their restraints.

None of them look okay. I don't remember which of my mates gave me their clothes, but they are all bare chested, dirty, and full of scrapes. My heart throbs painfully, knowing I put them in this position and if I don't get my shit together, they are about to suffer even more.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Please , I beg with my omega when she shoves against me, trying to get to Elliott, who is now bleeding from his wrists as he tries to break free. Please, stop!

I can't be the reason they get hurt anymore. I don't know how I'll handle being forced to watch them being punished for my lack of control.

Sometime while I was frantically pleading with my instinctual side, Ken slipped from their torture chamber and into mine.

"Shall we begin, pet?"

I whimper. I fucking whimper .

That one show of weakness sends Lucas crashing to his knees, back bowed with a pained scream bursting from his soul.

If I could explain it, I would say I snag my omega around the throat in a chokehold, fighting till she hits the ground on her knees just like her alpha. Part of me dies as I wrestle with the part of me that will do anything for her pack.

But so will I, even choosing them over myself. Over my omega.

Straddling my omega in my mind, I hold her arms down while she writhes and wiggles against me.

Please .... I beg her to understand.

Then, as we lock gazes, she sees . She understands, in this moment, that she, as well as our mates, are the weakness that will ruin us all.

A small nod releases a tear from her eye as one slips from my own lashes. As the drop splashes her porcelain cheek, her eyes flutter closed, and she goes limp in my hold.

The only thing left to do is follow her because what I didn't allow my omega to see was how much of a liability I am too.

So I fade away with her, leaving my body to do as the doctor says.

He wants control, but I won't let him touch either of us. I'll disappear for a while, maybe even forever, if it will keep my mates safe.

It will always be them.