Reese (Pack of Misfits #2) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,21

They can smell my worry. That makes me an even bigger target. I know better than this. Shifter politics are brutal. I should’ve made sure I showed no emotion or weakness. That’s the only way to survive in our world.

I wonder if the other arcane races—Canes—have it the same way? I’ve heard vampire hierarchy can be brutal, but I think shifters are in a league of our own.

The alpha turns to look over his shoulder at all the gawking pack members. “Everyone out.”

Without hesitation, everyone gets up and leaves. It sounds like a small stampede as all of the shifters in the large cafeteria file out until just our small group is left. Alpha Hugo, Addie, Lug Nut, and the huge bald dude are all that’s left to witness my weakness.

I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet. I can’t figure this pack out, but I want to trust them. And if I have any real hope of escaping, then they’re my best shot—my only shot—at having allies.

Lug Nut keeps an arm around my waist, helping me to balance some of my weight. I shouldn’t let him—shouldn’t lean on him like this, but he smells good, and my limbs are already tired, and I’m really not sure I can stand on my own, but I need to face them standing up. I need to meet this head-on. Hugo broke my alpha bond, and I need to be ready for whatever comes next.

I clear my throat and meet Alpha Hugo’s eye. “I grew up in a mischief—a pack of rats,” I explain. “When I was a kid, there were a lot of us, but then we had to relocate because of some territory wars. It took most of us out, our alpha included. We moved with only about a dozen of us left. And when we were looking for a place to settle down in again, that’s when we got hooked up with Sid.”

I swallow hard against the memory of when we first met him. He’d been so friendly and sure. Like the answer to our prayers. “He offered to take us in. He owned an apartment complex where his pack lived. He had empty spaces for us.”

“And he became your new alpha?”

I nod. “He was a mongoose—he and his pack. For a few months, everything was good. My mischief was able to settle in and feel safe again. We started to get used to our new life, and Sid helped us with everything, even got us jobs.”

I remember Sid helping me get a job as a gas station attendant. It wasn’t exactly fulfilling work, but it was a job, and I was thankful.

“The first time I brought home a paycheck, Sid was there waiting for me with his hand out. I thought it was a joke. I laughed.” The memory makes me grimace because I can still hear the crack of his hand against my cheek when he backhanded me. “He hit me so hard I fell to the ground, and then he plucked the paycheck from my fingers and stepped over me to go back inside. That was when I realized who Sid really is.”

I feel everyone around me grow tense. Lug Nut hisses between his teeth.

“And then?” Hugo asks.

My throat hurts from all the words I’m scraping out of it, but I swallow hard and keep going. “After that, he showed his true colors. He didn’t need to pretend anymore, because he had us, and he knew it,” I say bitterly. “We had nowhere to go. Our mischief can’t go up against any other shifter pack for a territory battle. We’d lose. So we had nowhere else to go, and he had too much control over us by then, anyway.

“We couldn’t leave the apartments without permission. We couldn’t get groceries or gas or anything without his go-ahead. And he also started to act like we were nothing, like we were second-rate to the mongooses, and so they treated us that way too. We were just there to earn him money and that was it. Everything belonged to him. Our paychecks, our time, our choices. Whatever he said was law.”

“Typical asshole alpha bullshit,” the bald man says with a glower.

I nod. “I wanted to leave. All of us did. But by then, it was too hard. He had us right under his thumb. Someone was always around watching us, keeping us busy doing their shit, making them money—money that we never saw a dime