A bump in the road woke me for a brief few moments.

I was trussed up, chained in heavy links. Everything smelled of lavender and I cut in a whimpering breath, smelling burned flesh. My burned flesh. I was in a cage, only big enough to curl around my body. Not big enough to allow me space to move – space to throw strength into a blow. That cage burned me too.

I couldn't move my head.

A muzzle kept my maw shut. A link kept that snarling mouth pinned to the floor.

I slid a look sideways, the world jolting violently again.

"Stop hitting every pot-hole imaginable." A man's voice snarled ahead of me.

I didn't recognise the voice. Tiredly, I glanced to the side. Another cage was set beside mine. The first Ravager lay inside, encased in chains. He was asleep, his breathing low and shallow. I scented the air. Just lavender. I moved, trying to wiggle from side to side. Enough strength and I could topple the van to the side. Anything to stop me from getting to my dreaded destination.

"I'm not trying to hit every pot-hole. It's not my fault the road isn't paved!" Another man retorted. Then, "The monitor is picking up an elevated heart-beat."

"Which one?" Came the sharp reply.

"The right."

"Shite."

Nothing happened for a minute and then pain exploded behind my eyes, currents rocketing through my body. I couldn't scream, my mouth pinned shut but it burned in my throat and I struggled violently for a moment. It wasn't enough.

I was gone again.

They had taken the muzzle around my snout.

Burning chains kept my arms pulled taunt. My back legs were pinned to the ground, chained with a short link. I took that in the moment I came around, straining forward as if ready to run that second. It was dark around me with only a luminescent bulb in the hallway beyond.

I raised my heavy head, panting at the burn in my shoulders.

It looked like a holding cell of sort, with a double layer of thick bars. Between those bars was a thick pane of glass. I knew it wasn't normal glass. They had gotten the blueprints off the Ravi. Little red and blue cords ran along the dark ground, and past my mangled feet. I shifted again, feeling the weight of a chain on my neck.

"I can hear the panic inside your chest." A dark figure shifted, standing beyond the glass.

I looked up, tongue heavy. I tried to form his name, but my tongue wouldn't work. Couldn't work. Frustration cut the name up, muffling it into a malformed snarl. Blav.

Blav stared through the bars, lips pressed tight. I had known him, I thought, long enough now to recognise the conflict on his face. "I don't relish in this." He told me.

Blav.

"But you've given us no choice. What you did to that farmer, what you did in Lunar, means you've sealed your fate. Your friend is held in another cell, but he maintains that you were not involved. Several people were injured in the crush to escape the square, some seriously."

I pulled on my restraints, feeling white-hot pain lance across my shoulders. The Omega, burning bright in the fore-front of my mind, fed on my panic and pain. I pulled harder, deepening the pain. If she could laugh, she would have.

"One is missing." Blav took a step closer to the bars. "Nova Linden. Where is she?"

Seriously injured. I pulled again, thinking of tiny Lux on the ground. What if the Ravager had broken her skull, snapped her spine. I pushed powerful legs into the ground, trying to gain a vantage point. Blav watched me.

"You won't get out. Tell me, where is Nova Linden?"

Here.

I tried to move my tongue. Here.

"H...he...."

My heart thundered as the seconds passed to minutes. Blav's frown deepened, his usually smiling mouth curving down into a grimace. "You will tell me."

He vanished into the dark, further than my eyesight could catch him. Seconds later, the world around me began to hum. I knew the sound. Knew it. Knew it. I panicked then, jerking at the chains that would not given. I tried to fold in on myself, to turn soft but there was too much poison in my blood.

No.

I tried to pull on my arm, to break the clawed hand so I could slip it through it's bindings.

Electricity, burning and cruel, pulsed into me and I spasmed, a cry in my throat that was drowned by another wave of pain.

For a while, the world passed like that.

Burning pain. Questions that I didn't understand after a while. My skin was weeping and ragged where chains burned into me. Under that, festering rage grew. Faces that had been familiar to me once before, Lycans that I had passed in the street, became unfamiliar.

Faces demanded that I change, to show my human form.

'Become a man once more' they sang, in voices that rang between jolts of electricity. Change.

But I couldn't. This was me.

I couldn't be anything else.

The longer they kept me locked in poison, the further away Nova seemed. They tried to feed me once, slipping into the cell as I had been given a reprieve in the corner. I had waited for that and lunged, stretching to grab the new-comer with a killing hand.

They screamed as I cut into them, pulling so hard that I felt the links holding me back beginning to give.

Electricity came again.

Whispers disturbed me.

They had let me down and I no longer hung. They had given up on asking the questions and I lay in the corner, chained. Everything hurt. Everything ached. They whispered about his coming like he was a terrible storm – his mate had vanished again they said.

And they blamed me.

I watched people pass the cell. I watched and I plotted. For all the pain and the questioning they had given me, I understood. The Ravi had been cruel – they had delighted in my pain and in breaking others apart.

These people only wanted answers. Pain didn't delight them. It disturbed them.

And I would use that to my advantage.

A younger Lycan watched my cell today. I dragged a whimper from my throat, casting him a pitiful look when he glanced to the cell. He frowned, mouth sagging in a grimace.

I tried to work my tongue. The last burst of lightning had made it hard to do anything other than stare blanky, my mind a festering pit. "W – W..water..."

Lordie, my throat was so dry.

"No – I'm sorry, I can't."

His fright incensed me. He was frightened of me, but they were the ones causing me pain. I lunged forward and the boy flinched. He backpedalled against the wall. I lunged again and felt the slightest give, the wall behind me groaning as I pulled my weight against it.

The boy was frozen. Excellent.

Dust fell on my flattened ears. I lunged again and pain lashed across my body, driving me further. He shouted out and that terrifying, low buzz started again.

Agony burst behind my eyeballs. I was driven to the ground again, powerful limbs jerking against the stone. Sharp teeth cut into my tongue. Talons ripped at my own flesh after finding no purchase on the harsh ground. They came into the cell then when I was fried, lying there and panting. Trying to find a semblance of a sensible thought.

More chains pinned me down.

The low buzz continued.

My hatred festered. They watched me and I watched them, unblinkingly.

It was very easy to burrow back into that dark hole. The door had never been closed behind me and I retreated into it, comfortable with how familiar it felt. Not safe- never safe, but steady. Reliable. In the burning lights, I could imagine seeing the sway of a white doctor's coat and Doc-Mai holding her face near the glass. But there was no glass. Only bars.

Ones I could reach between if only I could reach far enough.

Days had passed.

I knew it was only days, but Lordie it felt like it years. Sometimes, I could hear the Ravager's pain coming down the hall. The walls buzzed before that and I strained against the pain to come, but it was only followed by the Ravager's choked screams.

Poor bastard.

As I contemplated how I could kill the stoic faced guard beyond the door, I managed to crack my hand into some semblance of a human form. The guard neared at the brutal cracking, drawing too near the bars. I blinked languidly, teeth baring in a snarl.

Bones cut through my skin, the transformation brutal and unforgiving. The lingering poison was gone from my skin. Foolishly, they thought the lightening was enough to hold me now.

Claws turned to fingers curling on the stone.

A whistling breath from a broad chest turned to a choking gasp. I spat blood onto the floor as my jaw twisted and reset. The pain was muted by fury. I had let myself get too comfortable with these Lycans. They were monsters, just like me. Just like the Ravi.

Wide-eyed, the guard watched as dark hair tickled my shoulders. It hung loose and greasy and I scraped it back harshly, nails digging hard enough into my scalp to draw blood. My clothes were tattered, my stance unyielding. I could move my tongue, shape words now. Pity that ability hadn't come when I still had a shred of care inside of me.

"Nova Linden." He breathed.

Hatred, caustic and as electric as the pain they inflicted on me, I said with a dry, cracking voice. Words were easier to form on this tongue. "I am sick of this. Kill me and be done with it."

"Moons." The guard breathed.

The chains that held me slipped from my smaller form, hitting the ground loudly. "I am sorry."

Before he could make a sound, I was across the cell. A hand whipped through the gap in the bars, claws sliding into his throat. He gurgled, panicking as I hoisted him into air. With the other hand, I broke his shoulder and then his other so I could slid him through the moderate gap.

I pulled the keys from his waist-band and then began to undress him. His clothes fit me moderately well. They were long enough, but a little too wide. He watched me as he died, choking on his own blood. He had seconds. I shook the keys at him and croaked, "I always did dream of one day walking out of my cell of my own accord."

I walked down the dark hall, swinging the keys with a maniacally cheery whistle. I didn't know if I was welcoming a fight or I wanted it, but I found no need to skulk around in the shadows. Not anymore. I had been happy, but I wouldn't get that again. All I needed now was to find my peppermint friend, make sure she was safe and then guarantee the safety and comfort of my family.

Which meant ...

Easton could never figure out I was the Omega. He would have to be content thinking I had been kidnapped in the attack. He would mourn, but he would continue to look after my mother and the twins.

I didn't go straight for the exit. No.

The barred cell was unguarded. A large man lay curled in the corner, his breathing harsh and his brow sweating.

"Your leg has healed."

Eyes, dark like molasses, focused on me. The Ravager was a man of considerable size, with a workman's calloused hands and hefty shoulders. His olive skin was grey with dust and blood darkened the cell floor. "The Ravi do good work."

I titled my head at the smooth, rich voice. "Do you know who I am now?"

The Ravager rose wearily onto his knees. "The end? Absolution? Whatever dramatic phrase you wish to accompany your given abilities."

Sharp teeth pressed into my bottom lip. The end. "Do you hate the Ravi?"

The Ravager rose onto his feet. "Surely conversation is the last thing a person wants to engage in when they're escaping?"

"The next guard won't come for fifteen minutes. He comes smelling of cigarette smoke and sneaks glances at his phone when I just lie there. He thinks that I am docile."

The Ravager cocked a brow, pondering for a moment. Then, "I loathe the Ravi. Down into the marrow of my bones. To the furthermost corners of my mind. What cells are made and what cells are destroyed inside of me are filled only with hatred."

"A poet." I unlocked the door. "And somewhat of a decent fighter. I am going to kill the Ravi. You can join me if you wish. I'll need it."

Despite his size, each step was silent. "And you're unlocking the cell even though I might refuse?"

"Both of us have spent enough of our lives locked away in cells at the mercy of others." I held out a slender hand. "And both of us will live half-lives while Doc-Mai lives."

"You have people here. People who care. I hear them begging for Nova's location when they burn lightening into your skin." The Ravager closed a large hand over mine. "I have no such life, Omega."

"You might one day."

"I doubt that," The Ravager stepped out of his cage, rolling his broad shoulder. Intelligent eyes swept over the dim hallway, his nostrils flaring as he warily inched forward. "You had a life to some degree and they still threw you into a cell."

"They don't know it's me."

"You didn't think to tell them? To save yourself the pain?"

It was strange to talk to another soul who knew what I was. Not a doctor looking to pick my mind, but another lab freak. I had kept my mouth shut for eight years, spinning lies and falsehoods. Now would be no different and I would be a fool to think otherwise. "It means protection. Not for me, but others. Pain is worth that."

Easton would look after my family and Lux even when I had vanished. I knew that. He was a good man – I just didn't trust anyone enough not to lock me away when they realized what a beast I was. The Ravager kept silent. I took off down the hall, bare foot and scorched. Any Lycan with a snout worth a penny would smell my burnt skin. My bloody hands.

The dark halls were empty, the other cells bare of occupants. I wondered if this place was open only to us. We were the honoured guests. I didn't expect to be so unhindered, stopping only to knock-out three guards who sat outside a heavy metal door before clambering up a set of bare stone steps to throw open an unalarmed door.

The ease of this meant there was a trap somewhere up ahead.

Rain greeted us. Soft, misty rain that soothed my heated cheeks. I took a shaky breath, staring across the slate grey compound. High walls boxed us in. Pitifully small walls. Jeeps were parked under a sloped roof and men's voices spilled out of a crack window.

"Are you afraid of heights?" I asked.

"No."

I knew the chances of being spotted were rising with every second. I didn't know if it was Omega or me who relished at the bloodshed that would follow if I was.

"Good. Let's go."