Corday looked over the newly freed Omegas, silently observing as they assembled a living space from piles of garbage. The mid-level Incineration Plant no longer created compost for the farm levels—not since citizens had taken to dumping their garbage in the streets. Now rotting mounds of muck protected an enclave of frightened women. Every breath stank of putrid food, mold, and things better left undescribed.
One thing it did not smell like was the young Omega still writhing through estrous, the girl moaning and begging for relief.
Corday was admittedly not an expert on Omega heat cycles, but whatever had been done to her, her sobbing response could not have been normal.
He kept his distance. The other Omegas also gave her a respectful berth, the group huddled together for warmth, gnawing on the rations he had provided.
An old woman, Nona, had come knocking on his door. It was Claire, she said, who’d directed her to find him. It was Claire who’d promised the resistance would feed and supply the freed Omegas.
It was the name Claire that made him come running.
He’d taken supplies without the permission of his commander. Brigadier Dane was going to kill him, and he was going to tell her straight to her face to go fuck herself. He was not going to let Claire down.
When he’d arrived the previous night, the Omegas had been… hostile. They were filthy, reeking just as badly as the garbage heap they’d chosen to shelter in.
Nona had warned him the women were dangerous, that they were armed and might shoot any male on sight. She had even warned him not to follow her back once she’d procured supplies.
Corday was having none of it. He needed to see Claire.
But Claire was not there. Even hours after the women had settled in, their liberator failed to show her face. The night dragged on, morning came, afternoon, Corday stiff from leaning against a slimy wall.
Had Claire been captured? Had the tyrant killed her?
Nona gently told him that Claire’s plan required her to arrive from a different path; that the woman most likely was waiting for dark before she moved; that she had always been overly cautious when away from the safety of the group.
Corday scoffed. The Claire he knew was reckless. She was also badly hurt.
Over and over, Nona reminded him that if Claire had been taken, Shepherd’s men would have already come for them.
Claire O’Donnell was out there.
And so he waited past the point of exhaustion, exasperation, and flat out fear. Evening fell. At first Corday thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. A two-headed hunchbacked beast staggered down the plant’s dark garbage chute. Milky eyes stared right through him; they never blinked—just as the mouth beneath those dead eyes gaped in a fixed expression of hopelessness.
It was the face of a corpse.
Hidden beneath it sat a much dearer countenance, the struggling woman’s eyes half-covered by a curtain of black tangles.
‘Claire!’
Corday rushed towards the Omega and her burden, unraveling the frozen limbs of a cadaver unwilling to release its host.
Claire did not seem happy to see him. In fact, she didn’t seem herself at all. ‘I found that boy alone in an alley, Corday… forgotten.’
Once the dead child lay safely upon the ground, Corday pulled her against his chest. Warmth of his cheek against hers, stubble scratching, he breathed, ‘Nona came for me. I know what you did.’
After the atrocities Claire had seen in the city, the attack on the Undercroft… facing Shepherd, seemed to have happened in another life. ‘The city’s become a horrible place. I saw things… What’s happening to us?’
Existential talk on the human condition could happen later. Tugging her towards the Omegas’ fire, Corday urged, ‘You’re freezing, Claire. Sit.’
Nona ran over at first sight of her friend, the older woman throwing herself around her. ‘Your mother would be proud. You know that, my girl?’
Claire didn’t want accolades, she just wanted to collapse.
There was no shyness, Corday ignored the watching women and tugged Claire down to rest between his thighs. Arms and legs wrapped around the girl’s shivering frame, he put his chest to her back and purred.
The Omegas were openly confused by the state of their hero. Where was the confident deliverer who’d faced down an army? Why was she letting a Beta male hold her in an intimate embrace?
Why wasn’t she speaking?
Nona smoothed the hair off Claire’s forehead, watched her young friend close her eyes, and waited until Claire’s breath became steady in sleep. Only then did she sniff.
Cautious not to wake her friend, Nona mouthed the words, ‘She smells pregnant.’
Corday nodded and whispered, ‘She is.’
It should not have been possible—not when Claire’s last cycle had come the day she’d entered the Citadel.
Pressing her thin-lipped mouth in a frown, Nona’s heart broke. ‘Shepherd has done this to Claire. This is….’
Corday cut her off. ‘I know,’ he tightened his hold, ‘but she won’t be alone.’
Nona’s severity lessened, she even smiled at the boy. ‘You care for her.’
Corday did. ‘Swear to me you won’t let her leave when I’m gone. Swear you will keep her safe.’
The inevitable was unstoppable. ‘She is pregnant and pair-bonded, Corday. Even if you tend her constantly, she won’t be able to stay for long.’
Looking Nona dead in the eye, Corday chewed out each word. ‘Shepherd damaged the pair-bond. It has no bearing now.’
Older and wiser, Nona spoke as gently as she could. ‘That is not possible… what he damaged was Claire.’
‘So you’ll just let her wander back to Shepherd?’ Corday would be damned first.
‘You are not an Omega. You can’t possibly understand the finality of a pair-bond.’ Nona began to smooth Claire’s hair, looking at her friend with pity. ‘The only way for Claire to be free, is with Shepherd’s death or hers. I guarantee she knows that, no matter what she may say.’
‘But…’ Corday chose denial, ‘Claire told me…’
Her friend had always had misplaced altruism. ‘She would want you to have faith.’ In a hushed voice, Nona confessed, ‘I know better than to give you false hope. But know this, so long as she is pregnant, she is precious to Shepherd. That makes her safe.’
Corday pulled down the scarf around Claire’s neck. Nasty bruises sat on display. ‘Would you call this something treated as precious?’
Nona took in the marks, tears gathering in her eyes. Words were difficult. ‘It’s more than just the pair-bond. Everyone here knows she is mated to Shepherd. They will not trust her. They will drive her off.’
Corday glared at the collection of women stealing glances in their direction. ‘Claire saved their lives.’
‘Listen to me, boy,’ Nona urged, fervently whispering. ‘That does not mean every Omega in this room deserved it. It would only take one to bring us all down again.’
Had the Omegas not learned? ‘The women who turned her in last time were hanged by Shepherd. I watched their executions myself.’
‘You and I both know that fear makes people do very stupid things.’
‘Then she comes home with me.’
Nona, her face full of compassion, agreed, ‘That might be best.’
Looking down at the sleeping woman in his arms, Corday felt shaken… because he knew what was wrong with his scheme. ‘But she won’t stay unless I lock her in.’
Nona nodded. ‘I think you’re beginning to understand. Keep purring. It will calm you both.’
Puzzle pieces were his specialty; Jules understood the finite operation that motivated people, he was second only to Shepherd in that particular skill. He was also the only other person who’d had any access to Claire over the last few months. He knew what she smelled like, even pregnant. He knew her voice, and had pegged her at once for a brooder.
She was almost sweet in her misguided agenda, and Jules grasped exactly what had drawn Shepherd so strongly. Claire was an enigma, all wrapped up in a little moral bow.
Claire was everything Shepherd falsely believed Svana to be.
His commander had never lived amongst Dome civilization, not like Jules had before he’d been imprisoned. Shepherd’s rearing underground—surviving the extreme of Undercroft society—had wired the man to thrive in acute circumstances. No matter how preternaturally brilliant Shepherd was, his lack of empathy in dealing with conventional people was obvious. Yet he was an amazing leader, drew men to his standard, could see the world in a way others could not.
He’d freed the outcasts… even before the breach.
One man had driven back the nightmare underground. Shepherd had organized a feral population; given slaves purpose, hope. Yet, like all prisoners, if Shepherd wanted something, he took it; and God help you if you disappointed him.
Shepherd remained incapable of understanding Claire’s hesitations.
Even for all the Alpha’s aggression, there was no one in the world Jules admired more. His respect even withstood the flaw in his superior—Shepherd’s universe began and ended with Svana.
The fact the two Alphas were lovers was no secret. Even Jules had witnessed Svana’s enthusiasm for Shepherd for years. He knew the story of how she had drawn him underground, approached Shepherd as if she were an angel with her passcodes and rare food. At the time they’d both been young; perhaps they had seduced one another—two miscreant wild things enslaved by the system. But where Shepherd had been born in hell, Svana had come from heaven.
He practically worshiped at her feet. He had made himself the mission for her; built her an army.
She claimed to be special, chosen…
Worst of all, it was true. All of it.
She owned something no amount of money could buy; a valuable bloodline.
Svana was the key to freedom, to a new world, to a land where no one would look down on them for Da’rin—where no one would hiss the word ‘outcast’. With her help, all of them would be heroes, redeemers, saviors.
They would all be reborn.
Svana had not been born in Thólos Dome. Instead, she’d been gifted to the people of Thólos…
None of this was public knowledge, of course. Very few knew Svana had arrived on a transport two decades ago as part of an Interdome trade of viable females. Even less knew who that child in rags really was. Her adopted parents didn’t know; and from Jules’s investigation, even Premier Callas was not privy to such information. The secret belonged to Shepherd and to the chosen Followers of the man sworn to lead them to freedom.
Svana was cunning on her own; she used her position to develop access to everything… secrets, money, favors—even lovesick teenaged Shepherd.
It was a fancy she’d grown out of. Shepherd, on the other hand, had been entirely unaware of the fact that his beloved had moved on. She knew what she was doing, feeding his regard for her, nurturing his devotion. It seemed pathetic, had you not seen what the two of them could accomplish together.
That Jules hated. She was necessary for the plan. Shepherd, all the Followers, needed her.
But she also needed them. Without Shepherd’s army there was no way the woman could reclaim her birthright. Svana was the only surviving offspring of Greth Dome’s ruling family; a monarchy that had been deposed and disposed of. Insurgents had killed her parents, and had foolishly thought to extend mercy to a little girl considered too young to remember.
Svana may have been small when her life under Thólos began, but she had been coached to corrupt from birth. But, just like her parents, she believed herself beyond reproach.
The affair with Premier Callas… Whether the Alpha admitted it or not, Shepherd had been forced to face a glimpse of what she truly was.
In response, Shepherd had acted against his beloved; he took an Omega mate. A fact, Jules had known Svana would not be pleased about once discovered. Was this not the very reason Shepherd had kept the Omega obsessively hidden? Not a soul was allowed near her, and even Jules had been cast out for only looking once… until recently.
The Beta did not know what had spurred Shepherd to take quarters away from his room for days; he didn’t ask. He had instead been stuck dealing with an irate ruler who possessed far less patience, and a pregnant Omega who looked heartbroken each time he brought her another of the blasted trays.
For reasons unknown, Shepherd had reduced Claire to a position of breeder, not mate. Jules accepted it and did his duty. It was less than a week before the lieutenant opened the door to find Miss O’Donnell on the floor, altered, and trapped in a room with an odor Jules had smelled in his leader’s quarters before—the spiced scent of Svana’s Alpha slick. The Omega who should have been nesting was as far away from the bed as she could get, so still she seemed corpselike. It was the only reason he’d spoken when she asked his name.
On closer inspection, it had been impossible for Jules to miss the split lip and the discoloration on Miss O’Donnell’s neck. Even more, he had recognized the look in her eye when Shepherd approached outside Undercroft; every nuance of her expression Jules had read with precision. The Omega was devastated—not just afraid—emotionally crippled, and clearly suicidal no matter Shepherd’s denial on the subject.
And that was where the issue lingered. Jules presumed the obvious assumption was correct. Shepherd had mated with his long time consort… and he was aware of their habit of sharing heated Omegas.
Claire had reacted badly to whatever the Alpha female’s visit had inspired.
The situation was irreparable in the allotted time. Shepherd’s denial and Svana’s vindictive nature had done the damage. If what Jules suspected was true, Miss O’Donnell now had good reason to hate the man beyond just the initial fear of her situation and misunderstanding of his true agenda. Even more, Shepherd’s current demands that Miss O’Donnell be returned to resume her position as his mate made the situation far more complicated.
It would almost be more convenient if the little Omega just died, the entire situation being nothing but troublesome. But she was carrying what would be Shepherd’s heir.
Claire was important now.
The ground was hard beneath her, the unyielding floor setting her hip to aching. But there was the smell of safety… a well-known Beta. They were wrapped together, covered in his coat like an overripe bug cocoon.
She cracked open an eye, finding Corday already watching her, his expression too controlled to read.
Claire admitted guilt. ‘I knew you’d help Nona if she used my name.’
Corday put his lips to her forehead; he held her tighter. ‘She told me what you did. You held a gun to your head, Claire.’
She had done that… and she had been very scared. ‘I did.’
He could play the belligerent game just as well as she could. Still holding her, he moved his face until their noses were touching. ‘Claire, please.’
Claire glanced to the side and absently worried her lip. ‘I’m not sorry for setting these women free.’
‘I don’t want you to be!’ Urgent, Corday whispered so the spying women might not hear. ‘What I want is for you to trust me. You don’t need to fight alone.’
But she did… both Corday and Senator Kantor had explained their position. ‘I am not going to attack Shepherd or his pig army. The Omegas are free, it’s done.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Still bone tired, Claire sighed. ‘I give you my word that I will not attack Shepherd. Such a thing would be pointless.’
‘Look at me,’ Corday urged, face grim and determined. ‘Swear it.’
She held his gaze. ‘I swear I will not attack them.’
The Beta seemed satisfied. ‘How long has it been since you’ve eaten?’
‘I ate at your house.’
Frustrated, he squeezed her. ‘That was three days ago, and you threw up afterwards.’
‘I had more important things to worry about than food.’
‘Claire, you are not superhuman.’
No. She did not even feel regular human. She felt quasi-formed and misshapen. ‘I will eat.’
A twitch curled Corday’s lips. ‘Good.’ He sat her up, rubbing at her neck when her bones cracked. ‘And while you are eating, I am going to ask you what other crazy schemes you have planned. You don’t need to keep secrets from me, Claire. Let me help you.’
They had an audience; several sets of eyes watching their low, murmured exchange. Corday went to pillage through the crates he’d brought. A piece of fresh fruit and a packet of protein rich supplement in hand, he returned to her.
Others approached Claire.
A few even sniffed the black-haired Omega, backing away quickly as if she might taint them once the rumor had been confirmed.
If Claire noticed, she did not react.
Corday could see that Nona was right. No matter what she had done for them, Claire would not be tolerated by the pack for long. ‘Come home with me, Claire.’
Claire looked to the man offering her an apple as if he’d gone mad. ‘I can’t put you in that position. No.’
‘Then I’ll come here every day until you change your mind.’ The Beta took her cold fingers and urged, ‘I want to take care of you. When you come to your senses, I will take you home.’
Claire mumbled, looking to the fire, ‘Should the time come, I look forward to going home.’
It was Nona who’d sat quietly through the exchange, who’d touched Claire’s arm in understanding.
It was time for Corday to go. Claire stood, pulled him into a hug, dismissing the man as she teased, ‘Next time you visit, bring decent coffee.’
He chuckled.
Suddenly serious, she gripped the fabric of his coat. ‘And if you are foolish enough to get caught, I will charge the Citadel to get you out.’
Corday’s laughter faded. ‘That’s not funny.’
‘I wasn’t joking.’
Frustrated, running a hand through his hair, Corday argued, ‘You set the Omegas free. You moved mountains. It’s time for you to rest.’
Claire agreed. ‘Nona would not allow anything else. Now, get out of here, Beta. No boys allowed.’
Corday did not want to go, but he gave her space, swearing he would return.
With the Beta gone, Nona placed an arm around her young friend, the old woman muttering, ‘He doesn’t understand.’
The broken Omega whispered, ‘He doesn’t need to know.’
There were only four in the room: Corday, Brigadier Dane, Senator Kantor, and a stranger.
‘There is a new member come to join the resistance.’ The typical exhaustion that had aged Senator Kantor since the Dome’s fall, lifted. The pleased Alpha gestured to the beautiful woman at his side. ‘We made contact with my niece… This is Leslie Kantor.’
Smiling softly at her uncle’s heartfelt relief, the brunette Alpha female reached out her hand in formal introduction. ‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Corday.’
There was a glint in the older man’s eyes, long lost spark returning when Corday grinned and took her hand. ‘It’s rare we get good news. Welcome.’
Dwarfed in her layers, bundled up warm, Leslie offered, ‘And I hope I have more to buoy you. Before Shepherd’s invasion, Premier Callas had been my betrothed. Our circumstances had yet to be announced,’ she waved a flippant hand, ‘these things have to go through the proper channels, be approved by the Senate, and so on. In the interim, Callas arranged for me to have deputy access to everything… As it was done in secret, Shepherd’s men are unaware that I can infiltrate their communications network.’
Corday’s mouth gaped. ‘Holy fuck…’
‘Yeah, son.’ Senator Kantor chuckled. ‘Holy fuck.’
This changed everything, gave the resistance an actual chance. ‘Do you know where he’s hidden the contagion?’
Leslie shook her head. ‘No. The language they communicate in, it’s difficult to understand. But that does not mean we can’t crack it. I just need time.’
But this was still great progress. The secrecy of the meeting began to make sense, no one could know Leslie Kantor’s secret. She would have to be hidden, the information restricted. Corday said as much. ‘No one can know about her. If Shepherd got wind, it would be an easy thing to revoke her access.’
‘Agreed.’ Senator Kantor had Corday’s next orders. ‘If we kept her here, too many people would see her. We can’t have questions raised. I’m entrusting my niece to you, Corday.’
The honor bestowed on the low ranked Enforcer came at a very bad time, however there was no way to refuse such an important mission. Claire needed him, but the entire population needed the intel Leslie might uncover. Corday shared his news. ‘You should know sir, the Omegas were freed. Today we’ve struck two victories against Shepherd.’
The Senator genuinely smiled. ‘I told you my bet was on Claire.’
‘You did.’
And that was it.
Jules frowned, a rare thing, and listened to the audio surveillance of Thólos’s pathetic resistance headquarters. The hunt for Claire had been waylaid when report arrived that a certain Alpha female had presented herself on the resistance’s doorstep.
Svana—Leslie Kantor—had a different part to play in the fall of Thólos. She had a specific mission that had nothing to do with playing rebel. And if she’d known where they were all along, why not pass that information to Shepherd.
Jules knew exactly what the bitch was up to.
Svana was hunting Claire. Of course she’d know the Omega had escaped. It was the reason he’d had the Alpha female followed since Shepherd’s mate had gone missing.
And now she’d lead them right to the resistance.
The woman was truly foolish to think this act would go unnoticed. Shepherd might have lauded his beloved, but Jules did not find her cunning clever. Oh, she was useful and she was powerful, and for that reason alone, Jules had not engineered an accident for her years ago.
But she was trouble.
No matter the plan or the promises, the female was self-serving.
Jules didn’t trust her, and was eager to prove that she needed to be curbed. It was the reason he chose to follow them, to make a preemptive visit to the listed domicile of one Enforcer Corday.
It wasn’t difficult to breach the building. All it took was the acquisition of one terrified rebel and a few minutes of torture to learn the location of Enforcer Corday’s home, and a few well-placed distractions for the dubious couple working their way across the city. While the Enforcer and Svana were still meandering through the dangerous city streets, Jules opened the door to the sad little apartment.
That first breath of air… and the Beta froze. The room was saturated in Miss O’Donnell’s scent—the couch, the bed, he even found her bloody dress tucked in the bathroom hamper.
Svana could not have intended it, but she had delivered Jules right to the Beta who’d taken in Shepherd’s mate.
Even if the Omega was not in the domicile, Enforcer Corday had access to her. Miss O’Donnell’s retrieval was imminent.
Bugs were placed, the surveillance team handpicked by Shepherd’s second-in-command, situated nearby. The job was done quickly. All that remained was to report personally to Shepherd and explain the complicated situation.
