Chosen By Ruin

LILIANA

“Strip!” I flinch at the order. It isn’t for me. Yet. But after Elena, I’m next in line.

I watch in horror as Elena strips down with trembling hands until she is left with almost nothing in front of me. Her partner is ordered to do the same. All for the attention of the sick, wealthy elders and Alphas from different packs dressed in expensive suits who have gathered here to buy us.

This sickening game happens twice every year in Scarlet Pack—a gods-forsaken cannibal house ruled by Alpha Kol and disguised as a pack.

Omegas and humans are packed into the field in pairs. One omega on the left, one human on the right.

Before we reach the finishing line, a gun will be fired.

If the bullet hits you, you die.

If it misses and you reach the finishing line before your partner, you will be sold out, mostly as a breeder or sexual slave to whoever buys you.

No one cares about omegas or humans here, especially humans who are orphans.

Like me.

And to make it even more entertaining for their twisted pleasure, they pour water over us after stripping us down to the tiny underwear we are given. The thin fabrics cling to our skin, leaving little to the imagination as the cold water runs over our bodies.

It makes us colder.

More vulnerable.

More scared.

Just like they want.

Beta Gary raises the long hose and sprays Elena and Phoebe. Their bodies shiver violently under the cold stream as murmurs of amusement rise from the wealthy guests watching from behind the barrier.

“I’m so hard for the shaky little blonde on the left already.”

The predatory comment reaches my ears, and pure disgust thickens around my throat.

Most of these men are old enough to be our fathers.

“Run!” Beta Gary orders, and I close my eyes immediately. I don’t want to see who gets shot.

Just because I had always managed to miss the bullets and reach the finishing line first, doesn’t mean Elena or Phoebe would be lucky too.

But I had never been sold out before. The two times I’d joined the game in the past, the buyers always claim not to like the wounded marks on my skin. But this year is different. The marks are healed. Or almost.

My heart pounds as I wait for the sound of the gunfire. And it comes. The sound tears through the wide space of the field and a wild scream follows. No.

My eyes open on their own and I see her on the floor- writhing, before she yields to the cold hands of death. My strength fails me and my knees wobble. Elena is dead.

All the nights we stay awake- discussing about the hopes of being free one day- gone. I can’t…

Phoebe made it. She would be sold out.

“Clear up her body and dispose it. Next!” Beta Gary says, wasting no time. I can’t help it. Blinding anger floods through my body.

My partner- the Omega on the left- is already stripping, but I’m not. I can’t find any atom of obedience in me to yield.

“The human on the right, what are you waiting for?” The new voice belongs to the ruthless Alpha himself. Kol. He appears in front of me in his tall, broad form, dressed in a long black cloak, his jet black hair combed to the back, hazel eyes as vicious as ever.

And even though, I know through my angry state that I’m signing myself up for death, I don’t yield.

Murmurs of surprise rise immediately.

And before I know it, Beta Gary is reaching for my long-brown hair. I am too pissed to care. Elena was my closest friend in this den, and she had just been killed for simply existing. No. I refuse to move on like that didn’t happen.

My hair is grabbed and I’m shoved so hard I fall on the floor. I barely feel the impact. I am used to being rough-handled, and tortured. It’s what Alpha Kol does to me almost every night before forcing himself on me.

My body has learned to survive pain even when my mind hasn't.

I don't waste time getting back on my feet, ignoring the bruise forming behind my elbow.

My eyes meet the Alpha’s fiercely.  “I don’t have to strip. I will die if the bullet meets me on the run anyway.” My lips had moved before any logical thought could form. Alpha Kol’s brows draw together, clearly not expecting my foolishness.

Yes, I would call it foolishness rather than defiance. Because he wouldn’t spare me for this.

I hear the omega opposite me gasp, and more murmurs rise. No doubts they are all shocked.

Nobody of low rank has ever dared to defy Kol.

Certainly not a human orphan like me whose only purpose in life is to find her long lost sister and avenge her parents’ death.

Whenever I look at Kol, I remember the night his elder brother shot my parents in the head and took my sister away from me.

That was my story. The rage that I carry within me- that makes me want to live every single day.

I shouldn’t be risking my life tonight after everything I’ve been through, but I have spent thirteen years in this den learning that fear doesn't always keep you alive.

Sometimes, it only teaches you how to die quietly.

And I refuse to.

“No. You’re mistaken, little human.” Alpha Kol says in a low intimidating voice that I know too well, extending his hand to Beta Gary, who immediately offers the gun to him. At this point, my defiance falters a little.

“You won’t have the luxury of a choice.” A small poisonous smirk surfaces on his lips.” You will be killed right here. Right now.” He finalizes.

I swallow hard.

And suddenly, the gun is pointed at me. I hold my breath, tears blurring my eyes in an instant. So this is how I die. I will never find Rhea. Would never get to find out whether my sister is alive or dead- all because I couldn’t hold my anger in for a moment to pass.

His hand presses on the trigger, and I close my eyes, waiting for it as a tear slips free, but instead of the bullet to come, a resounding slap hits me hard and throws my face to the side.

My eyes snap open to meet Aunt Maerra’s hostile gray ones.

“What has gotten into your head, Liliana? Do you have a death wish?” She makes a face at me that I quickly understand. She’s asking me to cooperate. She’s saving me from getting killed.

Maerra is the chief maid of Scarlett pack. She’s fond of me, and she is also one of the very few who have access to Alpha Kol’s favorable sides.

I swallow and quickly act along . “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what… came over me.” I lower my gaze, and make my voice sound as low and submissive as possible.

She turns to Alpha Kol. “I’m deeply sorry for her stupidity. I guess the insomnia she informed me about recently is finally affecting her sanity.”

I can’t remember telling her that but I nod along anyway. Alpha Kol’s menacing gaze remained fixed on me, his finger still hovering over the trigger.

Deep anxiety clouds my earlier defiance.

“Apologize to him! You idiot. I don’t even understand why one of our prestigious buyers is already interested in you.” Maerra scolds me.

I quickly bow before Kol. “I’m…I’m very sorry, Alpha.”

As I say that, it occurs to me suddenly that Maerra just insinuated I already have a buyer.

“She has a buyer?” Alpha Kol asks, surprise lacing his voice as he lowers his gun slightly.

Maerra bows to him. “Yes, my Alpha. He has been watching. And he prefers that she comes to him in the selection room. Privately.”

My stomach plummets deeply. I already have a buyer without finishing the game to convince him I’m worth buying…

Who is he and what did he see in me?