The other Omegas probably thought she was insane, and maybe she was. At this point it didn’t matter anymore. Claire knew her time was almost up, that the group was starting to chafe at her presence, that her behavior was a threat to them.
Claire understood exactly what was happening; that was the very reason why it was so important she hurry.
With the city’s shops stripped clean of valuables, it wasn’t hard to find the ‘nonessentials’ useful for her ploy. With Shepherd in power, COMscreens and networks were beyond Claire’s reach but, like the book in her back pocket, paper had power.
A printed leaflet embossed with her image stared up at her; reproduced over and over again until no more paper could be found.
Nona had been brave enough to join her. To find the machines and make the copies… Through the madness, the old woman had not left her side, not once. Her friend had even helped as Claire created what would ruin her in the eyes of the world.
Senator Kantor had warned Claire of the consequences should anyone learn who she was to Shepherd—of the potential outcome should the resistance get their hands on her. The conversation had been burned into her memory, had carried her away again and again over the silent hours she walked the city.
There was no great hero to stand for what had once been Claire O’Donnell; even her own people found her useful only as a commodity.
So be it. If that was what she was to be, she would make them all eat it. She would sell herself, choose how to manipulate the product, before she was out of steam.
Claire was not a leader of men or a great orator. She was an Omega who enjoyed painting pictures for children, who once believed she had a future full of promise. Now she knew there would never be a loving mate or smiling children. Distorted and ruined, she was just a faceless statistic in a city full of nightmares and indifference. Well, not anymore. She had nothing left and nothing to hide. So Claire created the voice she’d lost, the last piece of resistance she could manage—something horrific from her weakness that could give others strength.
Nona had captured the brutality of the image perfectly:
Though the flyer was black and white, something about those large, enthralling eyes pierced brilliantly as the girl on the flyer stared forward. It was the profound expression of pain, the tracks of tears, the defiance, all balanced with the set of her mouth and the obvious cut in her lower lip. Claire stared out at the viewer over her shoulder, displaying the violence of her scabbed claiming mark—the grotesque thing still bruised like a rotting flower. Her chin was cocked high, her black hair pulled back so the damage to her throat was exposed. She was absolutely naked, the fullness of one breast round above thin ribs, the nipple just covered by the arm clasping her hair. The world would see her as she was; captivating and beautifully tragic.
It was her handwriting, the feminine script her final statement to Thólos:
I am Claire O’Donnell.
I am your mother, I am your sister, I am your daughter.
Look at me.
I am what you have done to yourselves.
I was pair-bonded to Shepherd against my will. I carry his child.
I fought back.
I fought back for you.
Each Thólosen who does nothing stands with evil. There are no excuses. Confront the abuse perpetrated on the streets, stand up to rape and violence.
Do not turn a blind eye again.
Do not make me stand alone.
Claire fled the warehouse as soon as the dark gave her cover, racing her own shadow like a wild thing. For a body that was strangely listless, she flew through the streets, sheaves of paper clasped to her breast.
It took all the dark hours of the night, multiple trips back and forth to gather more stacks of paper Nona handed off to her. The flyers were placed on the tops of buildings to blow in the icy wind like garbage through the streets, to continuously rain down on common areas where in only a few hours citizens would congregate.
Her portrait was like a virus, almost unnoticeable as it infected Shepherd’s system, her image blowing about like leaves.
When her body gave out and her vision began to blur, Claire dropped the last armful of flyers from the highest causeway she could reach. Once it was done, she crawled like a wounded animal into the nearest building. In a dark corner she collapsed, oblivious of where she was, and uncaring.
It was simple enough for a man of Jules’s skill to enter the apartment of the sleeping Enforcer. Svana was collected, and from the monitor in Shepherd’s hand, it was clear that Jules’s appearance had been somewhat surprising to her. When he crooked his finger, she swept from the room with her customary air of superiority, head held high like the royalty she was.
Shepherd kept her waiting, entering Corday’s domicile, finding it typical, small, and full of the trappings of city life. The Beta was asleep on his bed, snoring just loud enough to make the continued assurance of his slumber simple, the Enforcer completely unaware that the very terror of Thólos slipped through the darkness like a demon to stand over him.
Claire’s scent was rich in the room. Even, to Shepherd’s extreme antagonism, rising from the bedsheets. Watching the handsome Beta, his lips parted in sleep, the predator awakened; the beast licked his chops, ready to tear out the throat of his prey. But the giant needed the naïve young Enforcer alive long enough that the fool might lead him to Claire. Once that mission was accomplished, he would personally tear Corday limb from limb, relishing each scream. Staring down at the Beta, Shepherd could already imagine the tactile pleasure… feel the warmth of blood running through his fingers.
Moving away before he could give in to the temptation to carry out such a punishment before its due time, Shepherd forced himself to ignore the other traces of Claire lingering on the bed; the long dark hairs on the pillow, and smears of her blood on the sheets.
In the bathroom, Shepherd found the dress she’d worn when Claire refused to eat, ripped and ruined, stained from wounds accumulated from a highly dangerous fall—a fall that could have easily killed her.
Shepherd did not know how long he stood in that dark cluttered space clutching that dress, wanting to rip at the fabric just as badly as he wanted to take it with him. But no sign of his visit could be left behind. Stuffing it back into the laundry container, he noticed the waste basket brimming with wrappings and white paper of used bandages, blood soaked cotton balls; all the signs that the Beta had tended her wounds.
It made him want to squeeze the man’s neck until he felt his vertebrae pop apart.
The very air in the apartment was offensive.
Corday’s smell had scented his female once before, it was clearly his sweaty clothing she had been wearing when the Omegas had turned her in. Worse was the odor of Svana’s musk, picking apart Claire’s sweetness in a gross reminder of what had been created in his den when all his weeks of dedicated exertion to draw out his Omega were spoiled by an action as rudimentary as sex.
Through his inspection his ire only grew, and Shepherd knew he had to leave before the stink of his outrage escaped his carefully buttoned coat and high collar. Vanishing like a phantom, he moved at last to confront his beloved, finding her unaware of his entrance into the dark apartment chosen for their private meeting.
Closing the door to face down the subject of his anger, Shepherd addressed her with a blank expression. ‘Greetings, Svana.’
Svana purred over her shoulder, her voice full of the richness of their shared history. ‘Must I remind you, Shepherd, that you do not summon me and leave me waiting.’
Ignoring the lack of subtlety in the reprimand, Shepherd stepped closer. ‘How very beautiful you are this evening.’
She smiled, her lips curving up like a cat lapping milk. ‘Am I not beautiful every evening?’
The warmth of his hand came to her shoulder. ‘Enforcer Corday is a fortunate acquisition. Exactly when did you infiltrate the resistance?’
‘My love?’ Svana’s hands were already slipping up to cup his neck, to press to the small amount of warm exposed flesh so that nothing might be between them. ‘Are you not pleased at how easily they trust me? I can control them… mislead them.’
The feel of her body under Shepherd’s palms was familiar. ‘Nothing but ourselves could stand in the way of our success.’
At once the soft, luring quality of Svana’s blue eyes went sharp and narrow. ‘It is unlike you to make such a reference, especially towards myself.’
Shepherd hissed. ‘Your undiscussed appearance amidst the resistance was unsanctioned.’
At once, Svana moved out of the comfort of his touch. ‘I am not a child to be corrected, Shepherd. Remember to whom you are speaking.’
Watching Svana in the dark, the shine of moonlight over the perfection of her face, did not bring him peace. Instead he found himself growing aggravated that there had still been no outright mention of Claire. Did she think he didn’t know? That she would keep knowledge from him, purposefully, again… that she would presume not to admit her doings… it did not sit well in his gut. ‘Equivocation does not suit you. Let us speak plainly on the subject and be done with it.’
The way she stood, with the city backlighting her silhouette, the silken tone of her voice, all of it was to allure. ‘Can it be that you are displeased with me?’
His large hands came to the lapels of his heavy coat, gripping tightly as he spoke. ‘The Followers overheard every word of your conversation with Corday, and nothing relevant towards our mission was even pursued. What is it you seek to accomplish in this game? You risk exposing your identity and purpose to chase the scent of my mate.’
‘Mate,’ she spat the word, revolted. ‘When I had originally heard of your toy, I figured it was some passing fancy to fill the hours you could not spend with me. Finding her pregnant was staggering enough, but I can hardly believe what that fool downstairs described. You pair-bonded with something so beneath you!’
‘You have had many lovers to satisfy your body. I chose to have only one. I could not rightfully keep Claire without bonding. Accepting her as my mate keeps her in my power and in line with the Gods’ plan.’ Sucking in an angry breath, Shepherd took a step nearer. ‘Furthermore, you should take care where you would point that finger. You attempted to produce an heir with Premier Callas!’
It was a rare thing for Svana to display surprise, but it crept into the corners of her expression.
Shepherd did not wait for her to speak. ‘Did you really believe I was unaware of your attempted conception? I smelled the effect of the drugs on your body. It did not go unnoticed by my Followers, either.’
‘It was necessary, Shepherd,’ she argued at once, fisting her hands in his shirt. ‘His genes house a treasure that cannot be lost—immunities, resistance to disease. Why should it have been wasted? What better revenge than to have Premier Callas’s child one day leading our people?’
Shepherd reached out to run his fingers through Svana’s hair, watching the brown slip right through his touch. ‘You would have preferred to carry the offspring of the man responsible for the corruption of Thólos. He threw my mother into the Undercroft. I would never raise a child of that monster as my own. What crawled out of you would never rule.’
Svana’s face twisted into one of disgust. ‘So you seeded a weakling out of spite? I feel both honored and disappointed that you would act out so from petty jealousy, my love.’
His own great anger fell back behind an alarmingly placid expression. ‘Was it not your explanation that our love transcended the physical? My desire for a corporeal mate should mean nothing to you.’
The woman circled Shepherd in the dark, calculating her next move. Something seemed to register and Svana’s eyes grew warmly seductive; she licked her lower lip. ‘It is not too late should you wish to breed me. Think of the greatness of our combined power. The necessary drugs could be found and we could begin at once.’
‘Even as glorious as you are, the chances of an Alpha female conceiving with Alpha male sperm are very slim—carrying to term even more so.’ Placing his great hands on her shoulders, Shepherd outlined what was unchangeable. ‘Claire will bear my offspring and serve as my mate, and you will rule at my side once Thólos is in ruins and my army has delivered Greth Dome from those who usurped your family’s claim to the throne.’
‘The Omega is unsuitable. A foul creature of this city is unworthy of such an honor!’
Shepherd hissed, agitated that she would further question him on the matter. ‘Claire was untouched, her body pure and receptive. I was her first. That is only one example of how Thólos has not tainted her.’
Svana laughed, scoffing. ‘An Omega of her age… No, dearest, such a thing is not possible. You have been fooled.’
‘Through the bond she can hide nothing from me.’ Where the flawless cadence of the words came from, he did not know. Nor did he miss the tiny shift in Svana’s expression when he said, ‘I have absolute faith in Claire’s former celibacy and her current fidelity.’
‘Fidelity. I see… you question my behavior.’ Svana understood his deeper meaning. Composing her face into an expression of pain she asked, ‘Are you trying to hurt me?’
‘No, beloved.’ Shepherd bowed his forehead to hers, working to calm the torrent of anger before it swept him away.
Her body softened against his, conformed to his strength, seeking to mollify. ‘If you wish to keep a pet then I expect that you will share her with me.’
The concept turned his stomach, felt incredibly wrong. ‘I am certain, given your introduction, that she would be unwilling to mate with you if asked. It is impossible.’
Svana’s derisive snort preceded, ‘It would not take long for the Omega to learn her place… one which is below me. She may have fought my initial touch but you are her Alpha; her opinion matters little. She is nothing but a physical vessel for your needs.’
‘Initial touch?’ It was like the spark of a forest fire, Corday’s accusation, sex offender, wrecking Shepherd’s last vestige of calm. It cost him a part of his soul to accuse, ‘You tried to touch her sexually and she resisted. That is why you struck her…’
Svana seemed unperturbed, shrugging. ‘She refused to spread so that I could taste… I merely wanted to confirm the scent of her pregnancy—which I did.’
A surge of violence almost overwhelmed his control. He shook, felt the dagger of the link twist hideously in his chest. The female Alpha had dared to touch his mate inappropriately! Svana had hurt Claire simply for being defensive and sexually obedient to only him. Shepherd blinked, fighting not to reach out and break bone. ‘That is unacceptable, Svana! Beyond your needless attack of a weak and pregnant woman, such behavior is so very against your nature that I question if you have lost yourself. How would you even consider what you have done as appropriate?’
Her eyes narrowed, she showed her teeth. ‘You keep her to fuck her. What is yours has always been mine.’
‘I claimed her as a mate!’ It was almost a roar but so soft it seemed strange that the windows shook with unseen force.
‘And then unquestioningly fucked me right in front of her, proving she is nothing but a sorry replacement. Because I am the one you adore. The scrawny Omega is only a diversion you believe to be more important than she is because you foolishly pair-bonded in a moment of weakness.’ A purr came from Svana’s chest. ‘I understand now that I have neglected you. The situation will be rectified and from now on I will see to your physical needs. There need be no animosity between us.’
Shepherd blinked, jaw clenched as he looked down. His beloved had reached out to lower his zipper, her elegant fingers pulling out the flaccid length of Shepherd’s cock. Svana began to stroke. It was the anger that sent his blood pumping and made him stiffen in her grasp, the fury that pulled forth the low animal growl as he latched onto sensation to escape the unbearable realization of what his beloved had done.
Rubbing her thumb in smooth circles over the tip of his cock, she cooed and leveled him with a hungry stare. Caught up in the grip, in the way Svana knew exactly how to earn a response, Shepherd tore at the fastenings of her pants, already rutting her hand in desperation to redirect so much wrongness into something right.
The apartment they were in was in shambles, the stained mattress he pressed her to as disgusting as the rotting chain in his chest. Gripping his staff in his fist, he met her eyes, lined up with the opening slit of Alpha pussy, and shoved in remorselessly hard.
The immediate sense of victory he saw in her shining eyes was appalling. Gripping her legs and turning his attention to look out the dark window over the city he’d conquered, he rammed hard and fast, just as he’d done on Claire’s nest to save the Omega’s life.
Just as before, Shepherd found less satisfaction in rutting a female who did not possess the smaller frame and the tighter cunt that would milk him when she came, that would draw out his essence until every last drop had been savored. There was no musical voice sighing his name as if it were the most beautiful sound in the world. Alpha females did not respond that way; they were built to mate with Omegas, to be dominant… they hardly even self-lubricated.
Shepherd felt no humming connection, no mental depth, just aggressive, angry sex… and it was eating at him. Svana was performing well, making her calls and trills, spreading wide to show the beauty of her body. It was not enough. His abject fury did not abate, it only distorted, it left him in ruins, and Shepherd began to feel the unsettling wrongness grow with every thrust.
He did the unthinkable and flipped Svana over, to mount his beloved from behind so he would no longer have to look at her. She gasped, tilted her hips at his strength, and seemed to relish the rough handling. To keep her head forward, Shepherd fisted her hair, immediately noticing the tactile wrongness of it. It was not silky black, but a coarser brown, and his growl led to no surge of wetness that bathed his cock and beautifully scented the air.
The woman he rode was not his mate.
Even with his eyes closed, even thinking of another, all he could see was Svana… altered, seemingly tainted by what she had done, by what he knew and could not forget. Once she came, tugging at her clitoris in little flicks of her fingers, Shepherd could not continue for another moment. Pulling out, he tucked away his already softening dick.
Spinning about, she gaped at him. ‘Dearest… everything will be as it was. Come, let me soothe you. I know what you need.’
Already she was reaching for his zipper again, leaning forward from the bed to take him into her mouth.
Brushing her hand aside, he continued to right his clothing. ‘No, Svana.’ Shepherd felt an impure film on his skin, everywhere Svana’s hands had crept over him unclean. ‘It was wrong for me to take you now. Your assessment was correct, we have surpassed physicality and I will not defile our bodies by attempting to mate with you again. Things have changed, we must both accept that.’
Her voice cracked. ‘You cannot possibly prefer another to me.’ Svana stood before him, demanding he see reason. ‘Especially a woman who defies you; who prefers the pretty Beta downstairs.’
Shepherd lowered his chin to his chest, the deep furrow between his brows sinister. ‘Claire is unenlightened and misunderstands my purpose. The very fact that she abhors what I’ve done to her people demonstrates her worth.’
‘I am the one who loves you,’ the beauty pleaded. ‘Do you not see that she hates you? Has run from you… The Omega could never love a marked man from the Undercroft. You disgust her.’
The sharp sting of Shepherd’s tattered bond concurred. ‘But she is still mine, carries my heir, and is under my protection.’ He grew, cracking bones as he postured. ‘You will not touch her again, Svana. Do you understand me?’
‘You will come crying to me when everything you imprudently created falls apart.’ Svana nodded, staring forward as if she could see into the future. ‘And I love you so greatly that I will give you the comfort you do not deserve.’
Shepherd could not tolerate another moment of such spite. After what he had heard earlier, the lie spilling from her lips, it was painfully obvious Svana had never intended to let him keep his due. She’d expected that he would cast off the Omega. Nothing he had done had satisfied her—and like the monster Claire believed him to be, he’d stood by and let Svana debase his mate… even willingly participated.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he heard Jules’s words echo for what felt like the hundredth time: You allowed Svana to manipulate you into dishonoring your pregnant mate.
Shepherd had accepted his beloved’s liaisons, even though the revelation had dumbfounded him. He had even adored Svana despite her foulness with Premier Callas. The same respect was not wielded in his direction, her expectations contradictory, immature.
Every word Svana had spoken when they’d faced off over Premier Callas had been carefully chosen to extradite herself of blame, to justify her own actions. Now he understood—she’d never expected him to seek sexual fulfillment with another.
His beloved had taken him for granted, made his devotion common.
There was something so very cutting in the revelation. After all, her actions had led to his response… his needs apparently considered less important than hers.
Svana had never truly been concerned about Shepherd’s feelings on the matter, and now she stood before him and openly lied.
Faith shaken, Shepherd nodded sadly. What had once been the adolescent who’d climbed atop him at her first urge and mated, swearing to be his forever, was not the woman he found he could not look at.
Shepherd left in disgusted silence.
Back in his room he showered in water so hot his skin burned, found the discomfort cleansing, but still felt the taint of what he’d done—found the recoil of the bond, the violent sting, a welcome penitence for mating in a way that degraded them all. No stranger to suffering, he relished it as his due, just as he had each time he had purposefully harmed Claire for her own good.
A knock came to the door. One of his lieutenants entered to hand him something far more disturbing than anything else he had faced in the last grueling twenty-four hours.
Shepherd held a wretched piece of paper in his hand, unable to look away.
Even with the consuming sadness of Claire’s expression, even with the arrogant tilt of her chin and judgment in her eyes, she was beautiful. But it was the marks on her neck, the split lip… wounds created when Svana had forced Claire to spread, that held Shepherd’s attention.
Look at me. I am what you have done to yourselves.
‘Sir,’ the Follower began, ‘these are blowing all over Thólos. Reports say they were discovered scattered at six locations so far. They have already been seen by the citizens lining up for rations.’
Shepherd’s unresolved anger, the long hours of poisonous rage, vanished at the realization of what her actions could mean. His silver eyes darted all over the page, absorbed every curve of a body that was only for his eyes… read her words… and could not look away from the complicated pain.
He wanted nothing more in the world than to hold her, to touch that naked skin, to do anything necessary to remove that expression from her face.
I was pair-bonded to Shepherd against my will. I carry his child.
Her message to the world, the exposed expression of her spirit—it was the final rebellion. Death was coming for her, and she was going to feed herself to the city in an attempt to show them all the truth of what they had become. The foolish, brave little Omega.
Do not make me stand alone.
There would be no sanctuary for Claire after this. She would not live long enough to know the pain of Red Consumption. Thólos would slaughter her; rip her apart like dogs fighting over a bone if he did not get to her first.
Knowing the Beta Corday had been with Svana and under surveillance all evening meant the man could not have known the Omega had done this. If the Enforcer did care for her, even a little, he too would know exactly what that flyer meant. Banking that once Corday saw the image he would impulsively run straight to Claire, Shepherd grabbed his coat and organized a team to make sure the Beta stumbled on that very flyer the second he stepped out his door.
The hulk addressed his soldiers, resolute and indomitable, with a mind as still as a frozen river. ‘A team must keep visual contact on Svana. Should she attempt to interfere or leave the Enforcer’s domicile, I authorize interception and detainment.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Not one man questioned him.
How could one female cause such havoc? Corday was furious, looking down with a scowl at the suggestive image. At first he saw only rubbish on the ground; most of it wet from the sludge, and then he saw familiar eyes.
Naked, she looked out at him from the page, marred and damaged, but so fucking proud. Then there was her message… her goddamn message! What the hell was she thinking?
As he made his way to her, Corday passed people on the street who had their own copy, whispering the name ‘Claire’ amongst themselves.
Corday moved as cautiously as he could through the city until the mid-level byways spread out before him. The flyer crushed in his hand, past pissed off, he found the Processing Plant shut up, desolate and lifeless, just as the Omegas intended it to look. But a careful eye could see the sentry with one of the Omegas’ acquired automatic rifles guarding from the chute hatch. The way was opened for him and he went inside, barreling through the space to find Claire and shake some sense into her.
‘Corday has made contact with the Omegas. No visual on O’Donnell.’
Shepherd and a team of twenty had already surrounded the clever home Claire had found for her pack. There was little view within. Even so, from Shepherd’s invisible perch on the building opposite, he and Jules could see the females mulling about in the dim space… but just like the Beta Enforcer scanning the room, they saw no sign of Claire’s raven hair amongst the herd.
