"... I'm a prisoner to my
addiction I'm addicted to a life that's
so empty and so cold ..."
~ The Weeknd ft. Lana Del Ray

...♛...

"Where are we going?" a soft, anonymous voice wakes me up. From my fatal balled up position, I stretch my arms out as I sit up on the recliner sofa.

My eyes blurry, I blink several times turning my head to spot the person who the voice belongs to. In distance, I spot Alec helping some girls into a black van.

A knot forms in my stomach at the sight. When I make up my mind to stand up for them, it's too late. Alec gives the signal allowing the driver to take the girls to an unknown destination. Most of them will never be seen again.

After making sure the car has left, Alec turns around and walks in. Walking past me, he says, "Breakfast is an hour."

I don't reply. Instead, I get up and grab my box on the way to the bathroom. Once I'm in, I hide the box deep in a cupboard. Soon after, I find a new tooth brush and brush my teeth just before heading into a cold shower.

Once I take a shower, I realize I have no clean clothes to change into so with a towel wrapped around me, I walk downstairs to the kitchen. Walking in, I spot Kai by the stove, Alec cutting some vegetables and Cole setting the table.

They all seem happy with a light conversation about who's a better a rapper Kayne or Jay-Z. I don't want to destroy a moment, I thought would be impossible, but it's too cold for my body to stay in a towel. To get their attention, I clear my throat. For a bunch of people who run a gang, it's weird they didn't notice me earlier. I guess they were into their conversation just as much as I was.

All their heads turn my way. Cole and Alec's eyes stay close to my head but Kai's eyes scan me from head to toe. A remote feeling finds a way through me making me uncomfortable. His stare makes me fidget, scared that the towel might not be covering what it needs to. I'm not sure if it's actually fear or something else. The feeling is too foreign for me to know for sure what it exactly is.

When the, now dark eyes, meet mine, they send chills down my spine. It's like they're approving me in a way. Why they're approving me? Is something I don't want to find out.

"Missing something?" Alec asks, his tone full of mockery.

"Just clean clothes," I reply not taking my eyes off of Kai's. It's like we're challenging each other to see who will give up first.

With my response, Kai's eyes close in realization, "Right. I'll grab you some."

I let him walk past me to get some clothes as I follow behind.

"I'll bring them to you," he says. We part ways at the stairs. A few minutes later, Kai shows up with clothes in his hands. He gives them to me and leaves silently. Without another thought, I change into the black pair of skinny jeans and a lose white hoodie.

I take out most of the moisture in my hair with the towel and leave the rest to air dry. After throwing old clothes into the laundry basket, I make my way down to the kitchen. Everything is quiet as the three boys eat on the dining table. On their plates, are pancakes and a side salad along with orange juice.

Since I don't spot any extra food on the table they're eating at, I walk closer to the kitchen counter only to find more of nothing. Guessing I'm not a part of the breakfast club, I find a box of gluten free cereal on top of the fridge and decide that's my breakfast for today.

When I look around the kitchen, I internally groan. The kitchen is massive with almost fifty cupboards and drawers. Starting the search for some dishes and cutlery, I open the cupboard closest to the fridge. I open ten different one's before finding the dishes and the drawer right beneath that cupboard holds some cutlery.

I take out a bowl and a spoon pouring some of the Nesquik cereal into the bowl followed by milk. Hungry, I start munching on the cereal right after putting the milk back into the fridge. When the only sound I hear is the crunch of my cereal, my eyes look up to see the three men staring oddly at me.

"Do you not know how to cook?" Alec questions.

I swallow the content in my mouth and reply, "Is it that obvious?"

The three men bob their heads, "Mom and Alice always cooked for me. Any other situation, I just bought food from outside."

Embarrassing, I know. Ever since I was a child, I've never cooked a single thing in my life. Life during my first fifteen years was easy. Minus the physical, mental and strategic training, practically everything was done for me. Even now, the only house chore I properly know how to do is my laundry.

They all start eating their food again, but without facing me, Kai says, "You're helping us cook from now on. That's the only way you'll be allowed to eat with us."

"I'm allergic to almost everything you eat," I state. "I'll manage."

"We'll adjust. There's no discussion about it," Kai ends the conversation. I roll my eyes and stuff my mouth with a spoonful of cereal to keep myself from starting an argument.

...♛...

Breakfast was over in a breeze. No one talked after Kai had decided that I was going to help cook from now on. After that, Kai and Cole left, leaving Alec to babysit me.

The first thing on our to do list, was to get clothes. Kai got some designers to show up to get my measurements so that I didn't have to leave the house. The designers were quite space invasive, touching me everywhere. I was more pissed off than uncomfortable and I had to deal with them for over an hour answering stupid questions like do you prefer the colour orange over red? Like no, I prefer black over everything, end of discussion.

They left just minutes ago sparing me some workout clothes for training today. One thing that wasn't so annoying about this morning, was finding out I get a room that belongs all to myself. That's where Alec's leading me right now.

Once we reach the top of the stairs, we take a right. This is the first time I'm going down this hallway. Even though it looks identical to the other two, something still feels different. We keep walking until we're at the end of the hall. As I inhale, the smell of Kai's cologne reaches me. I turn around thinking that he'd be standing there but he isn't. On my heel, I spin around, trying to determine where the strong smell is coming from. My eyes travel around until they stop at the door on my left.

"What's wrong?"

"That's Kai's room, isn't it?" I ask. Saying the words out loud still doesn't make me want to believe the possibility. Majority of the day I'm going to be spending with Kai and even at night, I'll only ever be twenty feet away from him.

"Ye-ah," Alec replies skeptically, "How'd you know?"

"Just a feeling. I mean, I need to be glued to someone every second of the day and so why should the night be any different, right?" my words drip with sarcasm.

"Right," Alec dismisses me. "This is going to be your room from now on."

I look at the door exactly parallel to Kai's. Before I can open the door, Alec adds, "There's hidden surveillance cameras in every inch of this house except for our four personal bedrooms. Even then, if you spend a lot of time in your room, someone will always come to check up on you."

"So clearly, privacy isn't really an option here," I correct him opening the door which allows the large room to come in sight. When I spot the king sized bed, I let out a sigh of relief.

"Meet me downstairs in fifteen minutes, training starts today," Alec says just before closing the door behind him. I take this as my opportunity to relax so I walk over to the bed, drop my clothes on the floor and belly flop onto my new bed.

The mattress sinks right in to the weight of my body. A smile appears on my face at the feeling. I thought that I wouldn't get to sleep on a mattress for a while so this was a total surprise to me. That too, a good one. Knowing that the day has still to start, I sit up and look around at the room.

The walls are painted black. The red, wooden exterior compliments the red and beige coloured comforter settled across my bed. On the left of my bed, is a glass door leading to the balcony and another wooden door at the end of my room, probably leads to a bathroom.

Another door, next to a desk, hopefully is my closet. I walk over to it. The closet is like another room inside of a room. It's empty and I really hope that Kai isn't planning on filling it up because even after spending thousands of dollars, this closest can't be filled.

Remembering that I only have fifteen minutes, I head to the bathroom to change. The bathroom is also large filled with a jacuzzi and a shower with a steaming system. As I change into the sports bra and leggings, I wonder why Kai gave me all this.

To be honest, I didn't expect anything but a small room with a creaky bed and a dirty bathroom as my room from him. I don't know what he's trying to prove ,so I'll try not to get too comfortable with what he's giving me. He does have the power to take it all away and if he does, I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of him watching me suffer from it.

When I'm done changing, I tie my hair up in a ponytail, but let some loose strands linger out. The loose strands of hair helped hide the tattoo that marks me as a part of the White Dragons. For me, the tattoo wasn't really a choice. When I got it, was and so I chose to get it on my tenth birthday.

The tattoo is a dragon's right wing curling around the back of my ear on my skull. The tattoo hurt like a bitch and I remember blinding myself with tears, but I never told the artist to stop. I wanted to prove that I wasn't weak, that I could be just as strong as my brothers. Thinking about it, at that time, I thought that was the biggest problem I would have to face.

Taking a last look in the mirror, I tell myself, "You're doing this for Alice, your family and you. Don't let yourself down, Summer."

With that, I head down. At the doorway, wearing basketball shorts and a loose t-shirt, stands Alec. The veins on his arms are more than attractive. His arms aren't too big, letting me know that he doesn't take steroids to get them.

I approach him as he types something into his phone. Once he's done, he acknowledges my presence by looking me up and down.

"A picture will last longer."

"No, actually my relationship will," Alec comments, heading out. I follow behind and enter his BMW.

"You, have a girlfriend?" shock evident in my voice. I mean any of them having a girlfriend is shocking to me.

"Yeah, two years."

"I should say something like a guy like you doesn't deserve love or hate on your relationship but all I wanna say is just treat her right. Finding love is hard, especially in this business." Alec looks surprised by my reaction, but he bobs his head letting me know that my words got to him.

I want to find love too. Sounds sappy and cliche but having a person that I can trust no matter what, is a constant craving of mine. Even after how many times I've been used, there's still hope inside of me saying that I'll have that one person soon.

To keep my mind off of the things to come later today, I turn up the radio. One Dance by Drake starts to play.

Nearly an hour later, we stop at a building located in the middle of no where. We exit the car and walk inside. From the outside, the building looks like an old factory but from the inside it's definitely something else.

At the back of the room are exercising machines, while close to us, is a fighting cage, wrestling matts, punching bags and a boxing ring. The whole room is brightly lit and air conditioned. For once, I'm more than surprised and impressed. This is definitely one up from where I trained as a kid.

"If you're done awing, we have some training to do," Alec says walking towards the back.

"What are we doing today?" I ask as I catch up to him.

"Cardio," he replies.

My eyebrows knit in confusion.

"Haven't we come to terms about my cardio? I did finish that maze in less time than you."

"Nope," Alec grins. Something tells me he has something worse in mind for today. We keep walking until we stop at a glass cage. The walls of the cage are about ten feet high. Inside of it, is a bar hanging down from the top that I could reach if I jumped high enough, and the floor is a treadmill about three by five feet.

"Let me guess, you want me to get in and you get to control the speed of the floor," I watch as Alec's lips take the shape of a sinister smirk.

"The floor doesn't stop until I make it and you don't get out until I let you out. You can take a break whenever you want by hanging from the bar," he states.

"And what if I say, I won't do this?"

"You can say goodbye to any freedom you have."

With a heavy sigh, I open the small door, built into one of the walls, and stand inside. I watch as Alec locks the tiny door with me stuck inside.

"There's air holes in the glass so I can guarantee that you won't die," Alec says before disappearing up a flight of stairs. I look above at the glassed windows until he comes in sight. He looks down at something and the floor starts moving.

My legs move at a suitable pace in sync with the speed of the treadmill. I can't help but feel like a mouse being experimented on. I'm helpless. I'm too far in. The speed starts increasing and I can feel my legs starting to ware down.

"Alec slow it down."

I try to keep myself from stopping by mentally encouraging myself, but I know the speed is getting too fast for me.

"Alec. Alec," my voice is full of panic knowing I'm going to fall or stop at any second. So without hesitation, I take a leap and my hands barely catch the bar hanging above. I look down. Catching a sight of the treadmill moving at what looks like seventy kilometres an hour. Anger builds up inside of me.

"Are fucking physcotic! No one can run that fast!" I yell catching my breath at the end. My whole body full of sweat. Worst of all, my heads are sweaty making me slip. My breath isn't normal and the ground is still running at the same speed.

If Alec isn't going to let me out, then I will have to do it myself. I readjust my grip on the metal bar and start kicking the glass walls with all the strength in my legs. One hit, nothing. Two hits, nothing. Three hits, it starts to shake. At four, I can feel the whole box being impacted.

On the seventh kick, the wall cracks. With a few more, the wall shatters and I jump out. I land heavily on my feet and my legs feel the impact. I don't get the chance to recover, because as soon I lift my head, I'm blinded with a strong fist to my left eyes.

Where the fuck did he come from?!

My body falls back, but my hands catch the sharp edge of the glass wall. The glass pierces through the think layer of skin dressing my hand. Even though it hurts, I don't let it go. Instead, I use my grip on it as support to pull myself up.

With my functioning eye, I spot Alec ready to hit me again but I move out of his way just in time.

"What... the fuck... is... wrong.. with you?!"

He doesn't reply. His right fist lifts again ready to meet a spot on my body, but I block it. My forearms take the beating as I keep blocking his forceful hits. At the same time, he keeps moving forward making me move back. A few more steps back, and I will be cornered against the wall.

Physically, I haven't always been the strongest, but if I plan out my moves first, I can win any combat fight so as I block his punches and kicks, my eye roam the room trying to find a way out of this fight.

In the corner of my eye, I spot a bunch of fighting equipment hung on the wall. My favourite, the fighting chains, are a part of the showcase as well. With a block of another punch, I decide to attack back with a kick to his ribs. He stumbles back giving me the opportunity to run and grab what I need.

As my fingers curl around the chains, the cuts and bruises on my arm appear in sight. I can't feel any of them. The blood rush has stopped any physical pain from running through my body. It's pleasing at the moment, but the pain that will come later, won't be.

At any given moment, Alec can come at me so instantly, I pull the chains off of the wall and turn around. The chains are heavy in my hands, but I try not to show it even though my face is probably contoured that way.

"You don't know how to use them," Alec grins confidently.

I don't reply. I simply wrap the chains around my hands waiting for Alec to come my way. He is much bigger than me and beating him with no weapon is almost impossible, so when he acts like the fish to my bate, I start reeling the cord. When Alec starts attacking, I block him using the chain. This is useless until I attack back.

He turns to the side to dodge the whipping chain. With his back towards me, I kick the back of his knee. He falls to the ground and I wrap the chains around his neck. He struggles to breath and tries to loosen the chains but when he figures out it's useless, his hands go up in surrender. As soon as I spot them, I loosen my grip and step back.

As he turns over to lie on his back, I fall down on my knees. The whole room starts spinning. My whole body starts to feel the pain and I fold up in a ball. My hands tightly press the sides of my head trying to stop the spinning. If I had eaten anything heavier for breakfast, I would be puking right now.

A few silent moments pass before everything stops spinning. My head lifts up and I find Alec is still on the ground. The organ inside of chest bulges against my ribs. I wouldn't be surprised if it bursts killing me. I've never experienced so much surprise and adrenaline in my life before. Needless to say, it's an eye opener. Clearly, I've been training wrong this whole time. This feeling of adrenaline is amazing.

This is the kind of adrenaline I was born with. The kind of adrenaline I grew up with, but fifty times better. Even though the life I live is empty and cold, this feeling is still another one of my addictions. This feeling is one that no other life could have provided for me.

Alec sits up facing me. His chest rises and deflates mimicking his breathing. The shirt he's wearing clings to his body, devoured in sweat.

"You look like shit," he breathes out.

"You're welcome for not killing you," I deadpan. Why didn't I kill him?

"Where'd you learn how to use the chains?" he questions.

"You don't get to question my abilities. I have them, that should be good enough for you." I wipe off the sweat covering my forehead. I curse when I realize that I just stained my forehead with blood. "Are we done for today?"

"We're done. We'll train properly tomorrow. I just wanted to see how you react to the unknown."

"Whatever, but you get to carry me to the car. I don't have e-nough... energy t-to wa...lk," I say as I start to lose conscious. My eyes blur but just before I fully lose all feeling, I feel myself effortlessly being lifted.

A/N:

Ivy: Longer chapter than usual, had a lot going and the day hasn't even ended. How did you like this chapter?

Do you think Summer can prove herself worthy enough to become a part of their gang or will she fail?

Amora: Editing is not easy, especially when it's midnight and you're tired asf.