Sighing, I pushed myself up from the floor. Avoiding her forever was an unlikely possibility, and I wasn’t an uncontrolled teenager anymore. I’d dealt with worse than Shannon Doherty over the past few years. If she thought she was a bad-assed bitch, she needed to visit some of the female faeries I’d had dealings with. Her being with Connor just increased my intense dislike of her. I’d not seen a pack mark on her when she’d draped herself over him, but then again, a week ago I hadn’t known what I was looking for.
The most powerful pack next to the west pack, which was Connor’s, seemed to be the north pack, but since the alpha had been challenged and killed just after I’d arrived, the power struggle between the packs had ramped up. Now it was uncertain who was the next most powerful alpha after Connor. My bet was on the south wing alpha. I’d only heard about Drake Alexander, but the stories painted him as big enough to make you think twice before taking him on.
My stomach rumbled. Avoiding food was silly. I needed to keep my body strong. I was not a member of any pack, and I had no intention of whoring myself out for safety. That meant until my reputation for being difficult got around, I was fair game for anyone.
Just as I straightened, the guy who had fought for the top spot on the plane came sauntering in with four other males. His long blonde hair hung over his shoulders and his keen blue eyes coldly surveyed the hall. I shuddered. His lack of remorse at dismembering those that had challenged him on the plane had stuck with me.
My eyes narrowed. Alpha power rolled off him. It dawned on me; this was the new north wing alpha. His head turned my way, so I shrank down behind the backs of two males who were in front of me. I didn’t want the attention of anyone, let alone a psycho like him. I might be able to fight, but beating five males who were as physically powerful as them wasn’t a smart way to push my luck.
I waited until they’d disappeared down the same corridor as Shannon, then headed that way. Food seemed even less appealing now. I sighed and rolled my head to loosen my tense neck muscles. Keeping my senses alert and letting my wolf a little nearer the surface, I headed towards the food hall.
The noise was intense. Food was served for two hours, morning, noon, and night. There were hundreds of inmates to feed and it took an army to do it.
Aware of the people moving around me, I grabbed a tray and took my bowl of slop. It was the same as every other day. A bowl of some kind of soup with nondescript meat in it and a few vegetables. I didn’t care, I was starving. I grabbed a piece of bread, and, surprise! For a change it was fresh. I sought out a space at a table near the door. It wasn’t my preferred spot to sit, but it was free, and these tables didn’t seem run by gangs or heavy handed individuals.
I washed my bread down with the soup and watched as Shannon walked by and headed out. She had a vest top on, and crappy though it was, it enhanced her curvaceous figure. She drew eyes from every lascivious male and even some females. She clearly knew the attention she commanded and didn’t care. Someone banged my shoulder as they pushed by. I cursed. I’d been licking my dish of every last drop and now I had a cut lip. There was a flash of long blonde hair as the guy from the plane stalked after Shannon, his menagerie of males following him.
I stared at my tray for a moment hoping she could still fight as well as she could in the agency programme. She wouldn’t suffer any abuse from them….or would she? I still didn’t know if she had the protection of a pack, and five males, crazy ones at that, could easily overpower her. I shrugged. Then again, she wasn’t my problem. She’d been here a damn sight longer than me and had survived so far.
I took my tray to the stack and chucked my plastic bowl in the empties tub. My cardboard spoon was mush, so I dropped that in the bin.