Alpha Tribrid Rising

Chapter Four~ One More Day

~Chelsea POV~

The basement was always coldest right before dawn, the kind of damp chill that seeped into your bones no matter how many times you shifted on a mattress that felt more like a slab of sun-baked mud. I stayed still listening to the rhythmic, shallow breathing coming from the other twin frame. Alicia was still asleep.

In the dim gray light filtering through the high dirt-streaked slit of a window, I could see the dark shape of her back. My chest tightened. I knew if I pulled back the thin, ragged sheet, I'd see the fresh marks from the Alpha's silver laced whip he'd lashed her with just for existing. He called us weak. He called her a disappointment. If only he knew, Skye whispered in the back of my mind, her mental voice a low, protective growl. If only they all knew what’s coming tomorrow. "One more day…" I breathed the words so softly they barely stirred the dust.

Alicia told me to have my most precious belongings ready. I looked around our pathetic excuse for a room. Aside from the clothes on my back and a small, silver locket I'd managed to hide from the Alpha the night he lit my childhood home on fire, I had nothing.

But as I watched Alicia stir, I realized my most precious belonging wasn't an object at all. it was the girl in the other bed. I stood up, my legs shaky but my heart set. I had to play my part today. I had to be the perfect, invisible omega for twelve more hours, or neither of us would make it out of this bloodbath alive. I was just reaching for my ragged t-shirt when Alicia bolted upright, her green eyes wide and frantic. She didn't even look at me as she scrambled out of bed, her movements sharp and desperate.

"Alicia? What's wrong?" I whispered, my heart already hammering against my ribs.

"I have to handle something. Fast. Before the kitchen bell," she muttered, her voice tight.

Before I could ask another question she was out the door, disappearing into shadows of the basement hall. I stood there, frozen and confused. Handle what? We were supposed to be invisible today. I sighed, trying to shake the dread pooling in my stomach, and reached for my shoes. I had to keep moving. If I didn't show up for breakfast prep, they'd come looking for both of us. I was leaning over to tie my laces when the door didn't just open it exploded inward.

"Where is she?" a familiar, oily voice boomed. I looked up, my blood turning to ice. Standing in our doorway was the high-ranking wolf from yesterday, the one who had humiliated Sarah and forced her to bleed for a broken glass. He looked even larger in the small confines of our room, his aura heavy with a sickening, predatory heat.

"Alicia is... she's already heading to the kitchen," I lied, my voice trembling. He stepped inside, his lip curling in a sneer. "I don't care about the brat. I'm here for you, little omega. You thought you were brave yesterday, didn't you? Intervening in my business?" He began to circle me, his heavy boots thumping against the wood. "I think you need to be taught exactly where your place is before Alpha Ben decides that he’s bored with you and you’re no longer needed and discards of you permanently.”

He took a sudden, aggressive step toward me to pin me against the wall, but as his weight shifted, a loud, hollow creak echoed through the room. His eyes dropped to his feet. He had stepped directly onto the 13th floorboard. "What do we have here?" he chuckled, a dark, victorious sound. He reached down, ignoring my gasp, and pried the board up. He pulled out one of Alicia's satchels—the one filled with knives and my breath hitched. My vision tunneled. No. Not now.

"Planning a little trip?" He dumped the contents onto the floor, mocking me as he kicked the silver coins and small knives around . "You really thought you were going somewhere? You're property,Chelsea. You'll die in this basement before I let you walk out that door!” He snatches up the satchel, steps up to me menacingly and speaks in a malicious yet excited tone. “Just wait until Alpha Ben finds out about this you’re dead.”

My fear reached a breaking point, but then something else took over. A low hum started in my ears, and Skye roared in the back of my mind. Protect the plan. Protect Alicia.

I looked up, meeting his eyes directly. I felt my hazel eyes bleed into the piercing blue of Skye's. "Look at me," I commanded. My voice didn't sound like mine anymore it was layered,

melodic, and impossible to ignore.

The wolf froze. His sneer melted into a blank, glassy stare. The power of Skye's gift wrapped around his mind like a physical weight. "You didn't see anything," I whispered, the hypnotic pull tugging at his consciousness.

"There is nothing under the floorboards and now you are going to leave. You will forget you were ever in this room, you will forget the satchel, and you will forget the plan.”His head tilted slightly, his pupils dilating until his eyes were almost entirely black. "... forget," he whispers to himself.

"Now go," I snapped. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room like a puppet on a string. I collapsed against the bed, my lungs burning as I fought for air. I quickly shoved the satchels back under the board, my hands shaking so hard I could barely move. We were out of time. If a mindless brute like him could stumble onto our secret, we wouldn't survive another twenty-four hours.