7. Caja

Chapter 7

Caja

I listen as Enrique tells me all about his twin brother, Joseph. And his brother's mate, Savi. Then about her sister, Kari.

About all the things Carlos did to them.

How he tortured Joseph and Savi for mating one another.

How Carlos tormented any Alpha for claiming an Omega.

But he was particularly cruel to Joseph because Savi was Carlos's daughter.

"He didn't take kindly to Joseph claiming her," Enrique says. "But it was irreversible once done. So Kari, Carlos's other daughter, took the brunt of his anger and frustration."

Enrique describes what some of that means without going into too much detail. But it's enough.

The whole situation is complicated and heartbreaking.

He continues by telling me about having to agree to marry a Beta to help firm up an alliance with another sector. "Carlos offered it like it was a gift for being so loyal to him, but I knew better. It was a command," he says.

But then he explains how the marriage never went through.

She ended up being an Omega who mated another Alpha. "She snuck onto his plane during our betrothal dinner," Enrique muses. "That Alpha was Kazek, whom I don't think you met, but he was part of the raid this week."

I nod, enthralled by this entire story.

It gets even more interesting as he tells me that Kari was also on that plane because Kazek's friend kidnapped her from the party. Or rather, saved her.

"I ended up going to Norse Sector to meet with them under the guise of looking for my former betrothed, but really, I just wanted to find Kari." His lips twist into a smile. "Turns out, she didn't need rescuing. The Alpha who took her from the party—Sven—did that for me."

"How?"

"That's their story to tell, but they're mated now. And she seems happy." He clears his throat. "But to help condense a very long tale, Sven wanted to take down Carlos as a way to avenge Kari. I offered to help. We succeeded, and here we are."

Wow . I'm not only stunned by his story, but also the fact that he just shared all these details with me. "Were you upset about your betrothed mating another Alpha?" I wonder aloud, somewhat caught up on that point of his history.

He was engaged to another woman. An Omega in disguise.

My wolf growls inside me, clearly agitated by this discovery. Or maybe she can just sense my own discomfort with this knowledge.

"No," Enrique murmurs. "I was never interested in the marriage. I only went along with it because I suspected Carlos would give me Kari as a wedding gift. I wanted to save her."

So this is all about Kari, then. "Do you love her?" It's an intrusive question, yet I… I can't help but ask it. Is he heartbroken that another Alpha saved her and claimed her? My stomach twists with the notion, my heart skipping a few beats.

"As a sister, yes," he replies. "I used to visit her in the dungeons. It served two purposes—it convinced Carlos I was the monster he intended for me to be and allowed me to check up on her. He had no idea all I ever did for her was purr."

My insides churn again at the mention of him purring for another female. Another Omega . I want his purr to be for me and only for me. Which isn't fair. This Alpha isn't mine, even if he is kind to me.

"You do have a very nice purr," I tell him, my cheeks warming with the admission.

He smiles. "Yeah?" He brushes his knuckles against my cheek, the action one I'm starting to love more than anything else in this world. "Thank you, peque?o tesoro. I can purr for you whenever you'd like."

Now would be amazing, I think, but I don't have the courage to utter the words. So I just nod, my face burning even hotter now, especially where he just touched me.

"Anyway, that's a very long explanation of why I hate Carlos and how I helped kill him." He leans back in his chair, his large body angled toward mine. "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, Caja. Being Carlos's general was about survival, but it doesn't excuse everything I've done, everything I've had to do."

A haunting gleam enters his black eyes, giving them an ominous glow.

I swallow, somewhat uncomfortable with that glimmer. Primarily because I often see it reflected in the mirror when looking at myself.

"I'll understand if you don't want to be around me," he continues. "Especially if I remind you of Bautista. He might not have been one of Carlos's generals like I was, but he managed a piece of the operation, making us similar in that regard."

I frown. "You're nothing like my former Alpha." He would never have talked to me like this, let alone even looked at me.

Enrique makes me feel… seen . He makes me feel important. He makes me feel safe .

"You're nothing like him," I repeat, staring into his dark eyes. "You're…" Mine , a soft voice whispers inside me, my wolf humming in agreement.

His gaze holds mine, his expression seeming to darken. But not in a frightening way. His eyes… his eyes are… intense . His lips are full. His cheekbones look like they're cut from marble. His face is just so incredibly handsome. So masculine, yet beautiful. I want to trace his jaw with my finger. Lick the dimple on his cheek. Nibble his plump bottom lip.

"Caja," he whispers.

"Alpha," I return, my body tingling all over. It feels like my veins are on fire and the only way to cool down is to touch this man. This Alpha. This impressive wolf.

I reach for him, suddenly emboldened with the need to stroke him. To caress the stubble on his jaw. To crawl into his lap and kiss him.

His mouth parts, the movement seeming like an invitation.

I push off of my chair, ready to accept, only to fall back into it as a crashing sound echoes throughout the cabin. Enrique instantly straightens, his gaze flying to the windows. "What the hell?" he says, a series of alarms suddenly sounding all around us. "It was fucking clear!"

I don't know what he means, and I don't have a chance to ask because a bolt of lightning has me flinching backward against my seat.

"Fuck!" he shouts, his hands flying around the cockpit as he starts dealing with the alarms. Or I assume that's what he's doing, anyway. He grabs a headset and pulls it over his head. "Everyone find a seat and buckle up!" The command in his voice is all Alpha, causing my wolf to whimper inside.

I flounder in my chair, trying to figure out how to operate the harness. It's different from the ones in the main cabin, causing my fingers to fly around uselessly as I frantically try to pull the straps over my body.

"Here," Enrique says, his tone still harsh but not as loud.

His touch is surprisingly gentle as he pushes my hands away. He leans over and tugs the various buckles into place, the snapping sounds barely registering over the thunderous claps shaking the jet.

"I have no idea where this storm came from," he tells me. "It's like it just magically appeared out of no?—"

Boom!

My hands fly to cover my ears, my body trembling as violent vibrations jostle me in my seat.

Enrique curses and starts pulling up various screens showing infrared camera feeds. I try to see what he's seeing, but I don't understand it. However, I grasp that we're in trouble when he freezes at whatever he finds.

He clicks his headset. "Sven?"

My wolf hearing engages, yet nothing but static reaches my ears.

"Elias? Ander? Kazek? Can anyone read me?"

More static.

"Fuck, we're going down," he whispers, the words seeming to be for himself more than me. "Activate escape pods," he says before I can comment, the demand sending a chill down my spine. " Shit ." He yanks off his harness. "Stay here, Caja. I'll come back for you."

I blink. "What?"

But he's already out of the cockpit and shouting orders at the Omegas in the back.

"You take pod A," he tells one of them. "You go to pod B. There's no time for me to provide directions, just follow the instructions inside. It's all automated, and from what I can tell, the pods weren't impacted by the lightning strike."

Lightning strike? I repeat, another shiver traversing my spine.

"I'm so sorry," I hear Hel say. "I… I don't know what happened…"

I frown. Why is she apologizing?

She mutters something else I don't hear because another boom echoes in my ears. I wince, my sensitive hearing not doing me any favors right now.

"Can you control it?" Enrique asks her, his voice a distant rumble that I can barely make out over the reverberations in my head. I've clearly missed some key part of their conversation, though, because I have no idea why he's asking her that.

"N-no…"

"Then you're going in pod A," he replies. "We can't risk another bolt to the jet, and we need you far away from the others so they have a chance of surviving."

My eyes widen. Does that mean Hel… did this? Is that why she looked so off earlier? I noticed her paling complexion after takeoff but thought maybe it was just the plane or the fear of the unknown bothering her. Was it something more?

"Okay," she agrees as another series of deafening explosions rattle the cockpit.

I try to look behind my chair, to see what's happening, but the straps cut into my chest, preventing my movement. And I have no idea how to unfasten them.

Trembles rack my body at the realization that I'm trapped .

Enrique left me here.

No. He's coming back. He… he won't leave without me. Right?

But as a series of whooshing hits my ears, I realize the pods are all being deployed, and I'm still here. Strapped in. Facing a wall of darkness sprinkled with flashes of light.

A storm .

And there's blaring happening all around me, too. Alarms. Screens flickering with exclamation points. An automated voice issuing a countdown.

Oh, Gods, I'm going to die here. I'm going to ? —

" Caja ." Enrique's growl rumbles through my mind, jolting my focus up to where he stands beside me. I have no idea how much time has passed, but he has on some sort of backpack, as well as a pair of goggles on his head. "We're going to have to jump."

I blink at him, sure that I heard him wrong.

But as I look out the window, I realize we're no longer in the storm cloud. It's clear again, the moon high up in the sky. Except it's too high. And we're angling downward.

"The jet is going to crash," he goes on. "That freak storm Hel created took out a?—"

He stumbles as the cockpit rattles, the vibrations near violent.

"We have to go right fucking now," he snarls, diving forward to rip the restraints right off me.

He yanks me out of the seat before I have a chance to move and starts wrapping more straps around me. Only these ones are connected to him, not the chair.

I cling to his broad shoulders as the ground shakes beneath me, my limbs quaking with nervous energy.

"I've got you," he says, lifting me off the floor. "I promise I won't let go."

He tucks me into his chest, his arms resembling steel bands around me, his strength more secure than the fabric he just wove around my body.

"Close your eyes, Caja," he whispers against my ear before air rushes into the cabin. I bury my head against his chest and cling to him, my heart thundering against my rib cage.

Then the sensation of falling has me screaming in terror, the icy wind whipping around my exposed skin.

Enrique purrs, his rumble loud and demanding as the air ripples around us. I try to press myself into him even more, determined to have that soothing vibration follow me to my death.

Because I have no doubt I'm about to die.

Wolves can endure a lot, but we just jumped out of a jet. There's no way we'll be able to survive this fall. We'll shatter upon landing. Break into a thousand pieces.

But if I have to die, at least it's like this—in the arms of the first caring Alpha I've ever met.

A morbid acceptance. However, I've always known I would die a horrible, painful death. I'm just happy not to be alone.

I relax into his embrace, thankful for his power, his tenderness, the few moments of peace he gave me. "You're a good Alpha," I tell him, uncertain of whether or not he can actually hear me over the roaring wind. "Thank you for showing me that some Alphas can be kind."

A vision of what could have been forms behind my eyes, providing me with a destiny I would have craved in another life. A destiny involving Enrique. Choosing him as my mate. Being claimed by him. Bearing his pups.

It's a dream.

A fantasy I know will never happen.

But it's a nice vision to entertain on the way to my?—

His arms shift and everything jolts, eliciting a scream from me as our free fall momentarily jerks upward. And suddenly we're coasting through the air, not free-falling. I blink against his chest, confused by the varied sensation, my stomach rolling in response.

"This is going to be a rough landing," Enrique rumbles against my ear. "But I still have you, tesoro. Just don't let go of me, okay?"

I have no intention of ever letting go of him, so I just cling to him tighter and revel in his purr. It's soothing. Hypnotic. Almost tranquil.

I can hear his heart thudding beneath it all, the steady rhythm one I strive to match. His presence is calming, his strength reassuring.

The rush of air seems to quiet, perhaps because I'm so utterly focused on Enrique that I can't hear anything else.

Then a thud rumbles through us both, followed by Enrique jolting forward into a run.

I startle, confused by the jarring change in sensation. One moment, I felt like I was floating. And now… now everything is bumpy once more.

Enrique releases a string of profanity, his purr dying beneath his words. "I have to set you down, peque?o tesoro."

I clutch his shoulders, not wanting to leave him, but he's already unfastening the straps around me.

"But I need to get this thing off of me, and I can't do that with you in my arms," he tells me as he tries to untangle my arms from his neck.

A whimper escapes me as he succeeds in overpowering my strength, my wolf curling up inside me in terror.

Except my feet don't touch air; they touch something soft. Something grainy .

Sand , I realize, glancing downward in a startled blink. What…?

I look around, my mind slowly deciphering the vision before me.

Gentle waves.

White sand.

Nearly full moon.

Stars.

Animal whispers taunt my ears, causing me to turn toward the junglelike village behind us. I frown at the buildings, all decorated in overgrown weeds and other wildlife.

"Where are we?" I whisper, confused and alarmed and partly… relieved. Because we survived. My focus shifts to Enrique where he's untangling himself from a series of cords. A parachute , I realize, some of the last however many minutes—or hours —starting to make sense.

We jumped out of the jet.

With a parachute.

"Why didn't we take an escape pod?" I ask on the heels of my other question.

"It was malfunctioning, probably from Hel's storm," he mutters, slicing through the last of the cords with a knife before ripping off his goggles. Then he points at a glowing fire in the distance. "And we just crashed into Exiled Sector. Specifically, Venom Island."