Muscles stiff from built-up lactic acid, scraped raw inside and out, bruised—sleep had dragged Brenya down so deep she didn’t so much as toss in the sticky puddle of fluids left behind when Jacques finished with her.
The first sharp jerk didn’t so much as register. It was the following insistent tugs on her arm that, oh so slowly, gave her a reason to part her lashes.
It was still dark, yet a single lamp had been lit, outlining the form of a radiant woman dressed in maroon silks. Pin-straight black locks perfect, almost as smooth as the glass of the Dome.
“You must rise, Commodorina!”
Accent thick, fingernails sharp, a slender figure literally pulled her almost to the floor.
“What?” What on earth could anyone want when there had been dreams of sandy beaches, jungles outside the Dome? There had been fresh, unrecycled air….
“I was ordered to fetch you. Wash, dress, quickly. Chancellor Shepherd waits for no one.” Narrowing her eyes, Lucia clicked her tongue. “You have to answer for what you did.”
Her stomach dropped, the sense of failure in duty hardwired into every part of her being. She did need to answer, but not to the men. She needed to answer to Annette.
Defeated, Brenya couldn’t even find the energy to snarl at the unexpected and undesired presence. Blinking up at the woman with the perfect sheet of black hair, her aristocratic features and straight nose, her sun-bronzed skin, Brenya found it hard to see her past prejudice. “Lucia.”
The Omega was pregnant with Ancil’s preferred child. His mate.
“Hate me later, Commmodorina. Bathe now, and dress for royalty. The men wait to judge you, and I will be held accountable if they are not impressed.” Lacking all mercy, Lucia yanked her arm again. “Come, come, the bath is already full, and you stink.”
Even bleary and aching head to toe, from Brenya’s position, she had all the leverage, applying the proper force to take back control of her arm.
The very thing she had been unable to do when Jules Havel was the one with his paws on her. It was either set Brenya free, or Lucia was going to end up on the disgusting bed beside her.
The Omega set her free, bracing before she too might end up on that horrendous bed.
Once her footing had been gained, Lucia snarled, raising her head only to bite back whatever she had planned to say.
In their little struggle, the sheet had fallen away, an unobstructed view of Brenya’s nude upper body exposed.
Openly staring, Lucia took in all that was on display: the shape of Brenya’s breasts, the bruises, the bites, each scrape. Eyes rolling upward, she sighed. “You’re one of those Omegas. Gods, send me strength.” As if to dig some barb that Brenya didn’t quite grasp deeper, the woman added, “And your nesting skills are atrocious. You are practically a queen, yet you sleep like a peasant. No wonder Ancil sent me to prepare you. You shame us all!”
Just the sound of Ancil’s name set Brenya’s teeth on edge. “I have no interest in being prepared. I can be judged as I am.”
There was no shame in what she had done, only regret that she had failed Annette and her son. That she had been caught and might never have another opportunity to do what was right.
There was regret in having heard a man cry out for his woman when he was tempted by something as inconvenient as her traitorous pheromones. There was regret in how Brenya had gone to Jules Havel first to make it right. Regret in her failure to understand normal feelings—in assuming the Ambassador cared for Rebecca.
Why else would he have whispered her name?
It had not been Brenya’s imagination—the moment, like every moment she had ever lived—was catalogued and memorized. Even now, she could replay the look on his face and the pain in his voice.
Yet he had chosen to stay locked in a cell?
And she now chose to lay in the soggy bed of her own making.
Ignoring the Alpha who yanked at her mind with such force she was little more than a puppet. Rejecting the treacherous Beta’s void and the lies within it.
Let them have their icy cold indifference and burning hot anger.
Brenya was done with them both.
Rubbing her sore shoulder, she closed her eyes and allowed herself a deep breath. Then another, too tired to care.
Fingers repeatedly snapped in her face, Lucia saying, “We are all aware that you are unpolished, but I didn’t assume you were also dimwitted. Men of this level do not wait on one foolish Omega.”
No, they didn’t. “I’m ready.”
Lucia’s beauty was not marred by her irritated expression. “You are naked.”
Did it matter anymore? She had just crept through the palace bare from the waist down. Projections of her writhing in a sexual encounter were playing on repeat for a prisoner in a shoddy cell. Modesty had yet to apply in her new existence.
“I’m always naked.”
A trill of aggressive foreign language followed, Lucia moving to the dressing room to pick through the uncomfortable clothing that hung from every last rail—so many dresses. Brenya had not even worn a portion of them. She had not so much as entered that room. Jacques picked all of it.
Out of sight, Lucia shouted, “You want to stink of a sewer and show us all once again how lacking you are, I will not be blamed for it. Dios mio, these dresses are ghastly! Is this what I will be expected to wear here? Split skirts? Never! How much more of a burden could you be? We came here for the best life might offer, and you are the reason we cannot enjoy it.” As if she did not care to be overheard, the woman muttered, “The first time I am allowed to leave my apartments in days and this is all I’m afforded. And the clothes, I have been ordered to cover my body from neck to toes, thanks to your preferences in fashion. My entire mating wardrobe is forbidden.”
Ignoring the woman’s ramblings, Brenya slipped from damp sheets and padded to the window. No hand reached out to test the door. No thoughts of taking the golden fork and fleeing for her freedom arrived. Her attention was on the rising moon; the way light cast from its beautiful face was slightly bent by the shape of the Dome.
It led an eerie light over a city that did not glitter as it should have in the dark.
Because she had been caught…
Lockdown had been engaged.
There would be barriers bolted into place that could not be opened with a golden fork and knife.
The Commodore had anticipated she would run, but Annette had been right. There was nowhere to run.
Not through the city she loved. Not to sandy beaches she’d flown over on her ill-fated way to Thólos. Not to the ruins of the once great Paris.
The Alpha was hooked into her chest, raging like a roaring lion. The entirety of the city had been shut down.
Annette’s child was probably being smothered in that moment.
It was over.
Lucia returned, beautiful and lithe, her arms full of fresh frothy white material, and watching her reflection in the window, Brenya couldn’t find it in her to hate the female. The foreign Omega had said it herself—she had come here for the best life. Being mated to Ancil would be the worst.
Though Lucia clearly didn’t understand that yet.
“Did he tell you he will murder his son? Annette’s life will be next.”
Compunction soured an angry expression to one of discomfiture. “No. But I will not lie and pretend that such an outcome has not occurred to me. The customs and laws regarding Omegas in this Dome are centuries behind the progress of Greth. I cannot be expected to change them overnight, especially when our Commmodorina does nothing with her influence. You have done nothing for any of us—your Omega guests locked away for these past weeks? We have not been able to even speak with one another. But, why should you concern yourself with your kind? You lay in filth and refuse to wash yourself.”
There was only one thing Brenya might offer. “I will request that Jacques send you my honey.”
Confused, Lucia cocked her head. “What does that even mean?”
Brenya turned away from the view. “It means I can do nothing for you.”
“You could take a bath.”
She could. Brenya could do this one and only thing for the woman who had inadvertently led to the destruction of two innocents. “It will be the only thing I ever do for you, Lucia.”
“Fair enough.” Setting the fresh gown on a nearby divan, Lucia tossed her sheet of shining black hair. “And know this. At no time did I suggest we be friends.”
“That is good. The Commodore has tortured all my friends.”
It was as if the female was finally starting to understand. Painted lips parted as if she might speak, but only silence grew between them. Turning from the view of a city she loved, Brenya went to the lavatory and stepped down into the steaming tub.
The water was warm, a comfort. The company was anything but.
