No Mercy

Chapter 22

My eyes force themselves open only after the shaking hand on my leg grows bolder. I turn my head this way and that, trying to force away the last bits of unconsciousness as my pupils dilate from the light suddenly shining into them. The pounding in my head intensifies as I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the bright light. 

The hand returns to my leg, shaking even harder as it compels me to wake up. I whimper twice, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, but nails dig into the thin fabric of my muddied joggers. I peel my eyelids back, allowing my eyes focus on the girl from last night. Well, at least I think it was last night. My head rolls as I try to get some sense of what day of time it is.

When I look back at her she is standing next to my head, a plastic water cup sloshing between us. I try to speak, to ask her how long I've been here, but the dryness in my throat produces nothing but a squeak. She silently holds the cup to my lips, a straw bending over the edge of the cup to allow easier reach. I suck it down greedily; gasping in the empty air from the cup once all of the liquid is gone.

She roughly extracts the straw from my lips and leaves the room without another word. I allow her to go without trying to speak to her, instead trying to test my restraints to see if they are looser. I can draw all of my limbs in slightly more now than I was able to when I first got here. I try to figure out whether or not this s intentional, but I can't think off any reason as to why they would want to give me some slack.

Before I can come to a conclusion the door slams open, drawing all of my attention to the brooding figure blocking the entrance. I immediately fall back on my "scared co-ed" routine, flinching to protect myself as I whimper. Alpha Torrence narrows his eyes as he glares down at me, but my eyes catch on the arm of a person standing in the hallway, most of their body obscured by the "window" that points out there.

So there are people watching.

"Tell me what Rylan is planning," he demands, slamming the door even harder behind him. I jump at the sudden noise; my knotted hair flies around my face and acts as a cover as I rethink of everything Alpha Mercy told me the other night.

"You have to tell him the truth," she advised. "Torrence may be many things, but he's not stupid. He wouldn't have been an alpha for as long as he has without being able to spot a lie a mile away. And while you may think that you're a pretty good liar, you aren't good enough to get by him. Just like you couldn't get by me."

"So what do I tell him?" I ask with a turn of my head, refusing to ask the other obvious question that's floating in the air: how many of the lies that I told her did she figure out?

"Tell him so much that he doesn't think to ask anymore questions." She replies with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I whisper faintly, my chin trembling as his eyes darken.

"Don't lie to me, little girl," he scoffs. "You know exactly what I'm referring to. What attack is Rylan planning?"

"But you're just going to kill me if—" his hand slams into the wall he standing next to, a hole the size of his palm imbedding itself in the plaster. My words get caught in my throat as an involuntary whimper forces itself out of my mouth along with the tears that are now pouring down my face.

"Now you really have a reason to be afraid," he growls. "My patience is running thin. Contemplate your next words carefully."

I pause in fake thought. "She hasn't told us told us exactly what she wants to do yet. But a couple weeks ago we had this huge meeting where she told us we were getting ready to go to war. Alpha Mercy said that joining The Alliance was a mistake, but we're going to use it to our advantage by dividing all of the packs and using them to fight for us." I hesitate before continuing, purposefully avoiding his gaze.