Omega Phoenix: Pursued

Chapter 2

2

Zack

I bang my fist into the metal wall of our ‘cell’, the side that’s against the outside of the ship. I glare at my fist. It’s still fully human. I try to force it to turn into my hydra claw, but nothing happens, the energy spiking a moment and then immediately disappearing.

From the bottom bunk, Max lets out a groan. “You trying to punch a hole in the wall and flood the inside of the ship or something?”

“Shut up.” I ball my fist again, but then relax it as I slide with my back down the wall until I sit on the floor. “Can you be a bit more annoyed that we’ve been locked in here for who knows how long, and we’ve got no idea where we are?”

Max sits up on the bed, his head bowed, his shoulders strong, as he puts his legs over the edge. “You think I’m calm?” His voice is scarily quiet and I instantly remember when I’d pissed him off a couple of days back and he’d thrown me against the door. He claimed he was testing how strong the door was, but I still don’t believe him.

Max looks up and it’s currently very obvious that Max is a cerberus shifter. I had no idea how often he shaved, he always had dark stubble, but I’d not seen him with more than that, but he’s got a full-on beard right now.

I’m not allowed to ask if it’s soft and fluffy and if I can pet it. I did that once. It did not end well. And I’m supposedly the one with a short fuse...

I shrug, not able to stop myself from pushing his buttons at least a little. “I think you’re keeping all the ideas to yourself and not sharing with the group.”

“What group?” He looks around pointedly. “Unless you mean the bastards who are keeping us locked in here?”

“Me. I meant me.” I stand up again, walking from one side of the room to the other, giving myself something to do. “Tell me what you’re working on. What you’re thinking of.”

We’ve tried all my plans in the first week or so that we were here. Not that time has any meaning. I have no idea if it really was a week or maybe longer or shorter than that. Since we have no windows here and can only try to keep the time by when someone brings us food, which might not even be on a real schedule, we estimated that it was probably about a week. And it’s been over two weeks since we were locked in here.

When my Alpha dad left us and told us that we’d be leaving in ten minutes, we contemplated for a moment that we could just escape and try to make our own way for a while. Slowly circle back to where Max thinks that Liam would bring Cyra and Spence, a centaur clan north of the city we were staying in. But only a couple of minutes had passed when a group of people barged into the room, and someone took us out.

We woke up in the hull of this ship. First, we tried to shift into our shifted forms, but that didn’t work. We were locked into our human form. Not good. Then we tested if our strength had remained, which it luckily had, so we were simply not able to shift. Still not good, but also not the biggest issue.

When we had our first meal delivered, we’d planned to try to get out of the room. That was our first real attempt of breaking out. But they opened a small hatch at the bottom of the door and shoved two trays with food through it before closing.

I’ve tried to grab the arm of whoever feeds us, but they’re too fast and get away before I can get a hold of them. I’ve tried to hold onto the top of the hatch and get leverage on the door that way so I could somehow wrench it to the side. Also didn’t work. I’ve kicked and hit the door to no avail. I’ve tried to kick and hit just about any surface of this cell, but none of it has worked yet.

“We can’t break out. But we can wait until they reach their destination and then escape when they try to move us.” Max’ voice is a low growl and he doesn’t look up, he keeps looking down at the floor. “Even if we escape now, while we’re in the middle of some sea or ocean, what are we going to do then? How will we get back to land?”

We’ve had this discussion before, many times. “I can fly us away from here. But not if we have no idea where the closest landmass is.”

“Right.” Max nods and he lies back down on the bunk. “I hope Cyra is safe. I hope she’s not feeling too poorly and that they’re taking good care of her.”

I nod too, not finding any words to reply to him, and push myself onto the top bunk, dropping on my back and looking at the ceiling above me.

Even though I can’t shift, I can still feel my hydra and he’s not happy, at all. The longer we’re away from Cyra, the more this explosive feeling is building inside me. I want to destroy things, rip them apart, let my hydra loose. Anything to calm down again, anything to finally be able to feel calm again, something I’m definitely not feeling right now. If I’d been able to shift into my hydra, I would probably destroy this ship and anyone on it in no-time.

I need to get back to Cyra. I need to protect her, I need to make sure that she’s okay. And this destructive feeling inside, this need to destroy and kill and m**m and all things deadly, it’s not going away until I see her again.

Please, let us get to a port soon, before I do something I’ll regret, or before Max does something more than simply throwing me against a wall when he’s in one of his moods.

Max gets up from his bunk, going over to the wall that’s on the outside of the ship and he puts his hand against the metal, a very focused look on his face.

I sit up too quickly and nearly bang my head against the low ceiling and I let out a quiet curse as I slide down to the floor. I’m glad shifters heal fast, or I’d be covered in ugly bruises from banging against the stupid walls all the time, either awake or asleep.

“What is it?” I walk over to him but he holds up his hand, giving me a hard look, making me stop in my tracks.

He moves his hand down the wall and then up, frowning before he stops, his shoulders sagging and he goes back over to his bunk, sitting down, thinking.

“And? Share, please?” I put my hand against the wall too, but don’t feel much, just the vibrations of the ship and the waves banging against the sides.

“I thought I heard something. I thought I felt that we’re hitting a different type of water, the waves felt different, but maybe I was wrong.” He sighs and then looks at me, his dark eyes almost black from pain and desperation.

“Different water?” I frown, trying to become aware of the movements of the ship, but I don’t feel much. The ship is still being beaten by the waves and sways slightly, not really much that I can sense. It feels the same as it has ever since we woke up.

“Like we went from open waters, deep seas, to shallower water, getting nearer to the coast.” He stands up again and goes back to the wall, this time, instead of going all over it with his hands, he just sits down against it, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Almost like he’s asleep, but I’ve spent enough time with him now to know that he’s just thinking.

My heart starts beating faster. Closer to the coast? “You think that we might get to a port soon?” If we’re getting close to a port, that means we might be able to escape soon. We might be able to finally get away. No longer locked in a stupid metal box at sea. That would be good.

“Maybe.” His voice rumbles almost as low as the ship and he opens one eye, looking me over. “Don’t get too excited. They might just stop at the port, load some cargo on and off, refuel, and then get back to the ocean again. It might not mean anything for us.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I roll my shoulders. This is the first time in weeks that we have some hope of getting out of here and he’s telling me I shouldn’t get excited over it? Who does he think he’s talking to?

If we can escape from our captors, we might be able to find out where we are and then hopefully find the quickest way back to Cyra. Or, at least, find a way to communicate with someone who can get us in touch with Cyra and the others, no matter where they are.

We just have to escape, we just have to get away from our captors and then things will be fine. Once we get away from them we’ll be able to survive and get back to our mate. We just have to escape. That’s all.

Time passes, minutes, hours, maybe even a day, and the excitement over Max saying that we reached a different type of water has faded away. It was too good to be true.

I stalk over to the bunk beds, before I go to the door and put my ear against it. No matter what Max said. I can’t hear anything different. He’s probably right, it was probably nothing.

We need to get out of here. We need to get out, but I have no idea if we can, if we’ll be able to... Or when we’ll be able to. If it might already be too late for us...

Fuck.