Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 57 - Oranges

Chapter 57 - Oranges

~~~~~ Ariadne's P.O.V.

I wake up again to a pitch black cell and pure silence.

I had to cut my links with the pack while Lilith was having her fun, and there's an emptiness now where they all used to be.

Focus, Ariadne, I have to tell myself before I let my fear of the darkness swallow me whole. You need to get yourself out of here.

I crane my neck around in my seat, trying to figure out if there's someone waiting for me in the dark, but my senses don't pick up on anything. I guess Lilith left when I passed out. When I try to move, the whole chain series tightens, tugging me back into the chair and leaving an aching feeling in my wrists and ankles.

All I've accomplished is the reopening of a cut somewhere on my arm. I feel fresh blood oozing onto the dried, sticky layer already on my skin.

I try again anyway, hoping to weaken the chains. Instead I feel the metal chair rattle a little as if, somewhere, a bolt is loose. I keep tugging at the arms of the chair, now trying to pull the whole thing apart, but the whole chair just moves with me. It scrapes across the concrete floor, but the rattle still continues.

Hopeful, I ignore the pain and repeat the motions over and over again until the metal door that leads underground to the prison slam shut. Immediately, I stop, close my eyes, and hang my head like I'm still asleep.

The steps down the hall are heavier than Lilith's, and it doesn't smell like Cain.

Great, I think, I get to meet a different minion. I hear the cell door unlock, creak open, and a single person enter.

My chair falls backwards, and my eyes shoot open. The back of the chair hits the ground first, letting out a loud banging sound, and pain radiates from the back of my head.

The man laughs. The seat of the chair keeps me from seeing him until he steps around to my side.

"Lilith is coming back soon," he says, "but she gave me the keys so I could come meet the girl that killed my brother."

Goddamnit. At this point, Bram's whole damn family will try to take a bite of me before I can get out of here.

He bends over, grabs the back of the chair, and pulls it back up. I can feel the arm wobble a bit. His power play must have loosened the bolt more.

He studies me for a second.

I tug gently at the chair arm while his attention is on my face, testing to see if my assumption about the bolt was correct. I can feel the metal ready to give; it just needs one more tug.

"Bram lost his touch," he says lowly, leaning in to taunt me. "You look pathetic, not very hard to kill at all."

I don't pay attention to his words. Behind the swamp smell in his scent, I smell something else, a hint of something cleaner. Oranges. It's not strong, but it's there. This one is a part of the pack.

"Come closer," I order, putting as much strength into my tone as I can muster.

His head lowers further down automatically, but his eyes widen as soon as he realizes he accidentally followed my command.

I use his distraction to my advantage, pulling my right arm up. The arm of the chair breaks off with the tug.

Without being secured to the chair, the whole series of chain loops is ruined, and the chain around my right wrist slides off, taking the attached chair part with it. With my free right hand, I pull him down into a nasty head butt before he can step away. The man falls to the ground.

"Not pathetic now, am I?' I ask the limp form.

I quickly set to work on freeing my other limbs from the system, completely bypassing the lock.

When I make my way upstairs, the man guarding the outside of the prison thankfully isn't armed with any tranquilizers, so it doesn't take long to take him out.

Suspiciously, no one else is around, but I still run into the woods for better cover, aiming to make my way to the pack house to find Cain before he finds me.

My adrenaline numbs my pain as I run for it. It keeps me going, stride after stride.

The sounds of some kind of commotion start in the distance, and I pause for a second, trying to determine its source. It sounds like it's coming from the direction of the prison. They've probably realized I've escaped.

Great, now my element of surprise is gone, and Cain will make his way to the prison to look for me. He won't be in the pack house.

Now, I'll have to fight him and his stupid lackeys.   

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This is the second time that Ariadne has mentioned that people from her pack smell like the orange grove in front of the Atchafalaya pack house. Remember when Ariadne and Mateus first met in the meeting room, and he noted that she smelled like citrus? Obviously, as heir apparent she would smell potently of her origin pack. I dropped so many hints that Ariadne was from the deep South throughout the beginning of the story. Remember the Rougarou legend?