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Prologue

Valdys

Two months earlier …

The Legion soldier, no more than a boy, led Valdys down the hallway by a chain attached to his throat. Hands bound behind his back, the Alpha hobbled in pain from his recent tortures—the punishment for having defected. Worth every lash, as far as he was concerned, even as the whip lacerated his flesh, while the metal prongs tore unforgiving grooves into his muscle. Though he’d been trained to endure such abuse, a man could only stand so much at a time, and it’d felt as if his torment had lasted hours. He was still human, after all.

At least the bastards were kind enough to bandage them afterward.

Four other soldiers flanked him on either side, armed with their poison-tipped spears. Behind him, another Alpha, one he hadn’t seen before, trailed his steps, as they made their way to the hibernation room.

Valdys had heard about the place from the guards tasked with escorting prisoners there. A place where they attempted to reprogram the mind with horrific nightmares of blood and gore. Hallucinations that lasted weeks at a time. Those who suffered the brutal torture emerged violent and, supposedly, more obedient to the cause, though Valdys had never actually seen the prisoners afterward, as they were subsequently kept locked away with the mutations.

Still, with whatever unimaginable fate awaited him, it was a worthy cost for having slept beneath the stars with Cali. Not even the hell of imprisoning him could make him regret that.

The young soldier glanced over his shoulder, lips pressed into what Valdys might have surmised as a sympathetic smile, if he thought Legion were capable of such emotion. “You must’ve done something really bad, huh? I’ve never actually had to escort someone to hibernation before.”

Keeping his gaze straight ahead, Valdys didn’t bother to answer. No matter what they did to him, he’d never answer to a Legion officer again. Particularly a boy.

“Seems a bit extreme. Even for this place.”

“Hey! No talking to subjects,” one of the Legion soldiers from behind chided.

The chain hung loose in the boy’s hand, and with one good yank, the Alpha could probably flip him on his ass and have the metal wrapped at his throat, even with his hands tied behind his back, before any of the other three could stop him. If not for his wounds, he and the Alpha behind him could probably take on all the guards. Leave them mutilated and discarded in a matter of seconds. It’d be futile, though. An army would await him, and they’d kill him for sure.

The only thing keeping him alive was the possibility of seeing his female again, though that was growing slimmer by the second.

What would she want of a man who’d become a monster, after days spent dreaming of nightmarish things? What if he hurt her?

Perhaps Cali had always been an impossible dream.

Valdys knew, the moment Legion had stabbed Titus back at the waterfall, that they had no intentions of honoring their concession to let Cali and Cadmus go. He’d only hoped his own capture would’ve provided enough time for them to escape, particularly when Titus managed to break away to warn them. Both Cadmus and Titus, assuming his friend was still alive, would protect her. Of this, Valdys was certain. And if she lived, that was all he needed in this life.

Having arrived at the hibernation room, Valdys looked around at the capsuled men, where they twitched behind glass shields, their jaws clenched in obvious distress. As he passed one in close proximity, he could see the Alpha’s eyeballs shifting behind their tightly shuttered lids, his whole body shivering and tense.

Walls of shelving housed more capsules and Valdys wondered if they, too, held Alphas inside.

“Heard defectors get the tunnel simulations.” The Legion guard behind him snickered

What Valdys wouldn’t have given to smash his fucking face into the wall.

Rows upon rows of capsules lined the too-bright room, its white walls and white floored tiles practically glowing beneath the fluorescent lights overhead. The scent of bleach and disinfectant reminded him that death loomed in the shadows, easily erased by harsh chemicals and fumes.

“This one’s yours.” The boy pushed a code into a keypad beside an empty capsule, which popped the shield loose.

“Ridge and I will get this asshole locked in.” What must’ve been the higher ranking Legion officer pointed toward the other Alpha, who didn’t bear quite as many scars as most the ones Valdys had been locked up with down in S-Block. Must’ve been fairly new, and Valdys wondered what he’d done to get sent to hibernation, also referred to as Purgatory amongst the guards and prisoners. “You two get that one squared away.”

Jerking his head, an older Legion guard urged Valdys inside the capsule, and once again, he found himself musing over how quickly and efficiently he could kill the two. End their lives, and even if he suffered death as retribution, maybe he’d be better off.

A hard shove to his back brought his wounds flaring to life, and on instinct, Valdys turned to snarl at the guard whose spear was already poised, the pointed end of it scratching at the Alpha’s throat. “Get the fuck inside, unless you want to breathe through a goddamn tube.”

Jaw clenched with fury, Valdys leaned into the spear, allowing it to press into his flesh without breaking the skin. Whatever poison they laced it with would render him useless, if it managed to pierce him, but maybe his situation would be easier to swallow if it did. Breathing hard through his nose, he continued to challenge the Legion officer.

“Hey, man. I … I don’t wanna see him spear your throat with that thing. I’m guessing you don’t, either.”

Valdys slid his gaze toward the boy, the ignorant kid who had no clue about the world yet. One who’d probably joined Legion in hopes of being a hero someday, unaware of their ruthlessness.

Cali. The only reason he had left to stay alive. Reason enough to relent some of the fury bottled inside him and allow the kid to unlock his wrist binds. Everything inside of him told him to snap the kid’s neck, but when the rebellious little shit knocked the spear away from Valdys’s throat, those thoughts were quickly tamped down by the rage coloring his superior’s face, which served as an amusing distraction.