Reborn (Alpha's Claim Book 3) (14 page)

Mirroring his body language, she leaned closer, her voice completely non-reactive, even if she looked like she could kill him. “You will take this child from me over my dead body.” Green eyes hardened. “You think you have seen me act out before? What I would do to you if you make one unsatisfactory move against this baby would make you wish you were back in the Undercroft.”

“You will never be parted from our children.” He answered at once, the Alpha taking immense pleasure in her scathing threat. Shepherd held her hand. “Thólos is not an acceptable place for
either
of you. As such, your departure is imminent.”

Claire took a slow breath. “And there is the complication. No one can leave Thólos.”

“There is no Thólos. Thólos is gone... it’s time to accept that.” That big hand moved higher to cup her cheek. “You need to let go and move forward.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Taking his hand away, running her own over her face to wipe the wetness away, she explained, “I have seen what’s happening on the streets no matter the pretty view you provided from this window.”

“Then let’s embrace the fact our son deserves better. You will live in comfort, be provided for. Paint all day if you wish. I will grant you a piano, teach it to our child.” Shepherd was using that earnest tone he employed when speaking of the future, of his plans for the world, all the little promises he had made that she had ignored.

It was making her nervous.

The way his eyebrows lowered at her stubborn expression, the shine of incredulity in his eyes matched the tone of his voice. “Why would you wish to remain here? Why choose the citizens of the city who murder women with dark hair, who are the ones responsible for the deaths of countless innocent children, who turn on each other, climbing like rats on a bloated corpse? How could you possibly be loyal to that over our son? Imagine what they would do to him if they knew who he belonged to.”

Squeezing her eyes shut so hard she saw spots, Claire tried to find an answer that made sense. She could not fathom forsaking Thólos even if she had come to hate what it had become—even if everything about a home that she once loved was gone. It was like clinging to the bones of a long dead friend thinking they might one day wake up and hug you back. Grasping at straws, Claire said, “Being parted from the Alpha is dangerous during gestation.”

“I would not be parted from you either, little one,” Shepherd interjected, his voice holding the trace of a smile hidden in his eyes. “We will travel to our new home together.”

Forcing her eyes open, she looked at the set of Shepherd’s eyes, dissected his almost eager expression, and did not trust a word he said. “You will leave Thólos, really?”

Shepherd increased the purr, and noticed at once how the sound made her jump and glare right at him. “I am going to leave Thólos... with you.”

Clutching at the hand that held hers, feeling a little shaken, Claire demanded, “What of Nona, Maryanne, Corday? What of them?”

He shook his head before his words hissed passed his scarred lips. “Little one, you have to give them up. Aside from Miss Cauley, they believe you are dead. Make peace with it and move forward.” Shifting from the chair, kneeling before her, Shepherd wrapped an arm around her middle and cupped her cheek again, his big thumb swiping away the tears. “There is a home for us in Greth Dome; I will give you something beautiful. The best tutors for our children, plenty of unrestrained culture for our family to enjoy...” He spoke honestly, “But, no, there will never be a future in Thólos, or further time with your friends.”

Reading between the lines, Claire saw what Shepherd intended towards the people of Greth Dome. “And what of friends for your son?”

He explained simply. “There will be Follower children, and we will create siblings.”

Bitterly, Claire asked, “And will this grand home have windows?”

“Many windows with views of distant mountains, and you will be able to move freely through our den.”

Claire nodded, finishing Shepherd’s thought aloud, “Because it will be on a base full of armed Followers who do your bidding, where I might live locked away from real civilization while you control a new population.”

“I will order for a terrace to be cleared for your use as a garden as well.” Gently he tried to coax, “You can ineptly kill all the plant life you like.”

She felt his urging through the thread, the heated pulse and forthright reassurance. Her attention ran over every part of the man who was offering her a future. But something was very wrong and she could feel it bubbling up inside her like panic. “I need to go outside.”

Liquid iron eyes, hard and serene, sat above a serious mouth. He was not smiling. “No, little one.”

The miasma was choking her. Claire leaned closer to his warmth, needing to smell the thing that was supposed to keep her anchored. He pulled her forward, carefully and slow, to let her settle where he knew she wanted to be, purring louder until his mate’s breathing grew less labored.

Resting her forehead on Shepherd’s shoulder, Claire’s thoughts began to tumble. It should have been horrible to feel such comfort from the man who she should hate, who fed her reassurance through the link, who was going to allow an entire city full of people to cough up blood as they suffered horrific death from Red Consumption.

Her eyes went wide at the thought, her breath hitched, and Claire finally grasped the missing piece as if she had lifted it from his very thoughts. “You are going to release the virus!”

Shepherd did not even blink. “There is nothing but evil here, Claire.”

Frantic, she offered the first word that came to her mind. “Nona.”

“Is a murderer,” Shepherd answered. “And it was more than just her husband. Did you know that?”

Eyes welling, she shoved at him. “Do you think I would believe anything you told me?”

He urged her to listen. “Your friend, your mentor, is responsible for the deaths of at least seven Alpha males.”

All who probably deserved it, Claire thought. But that was the same argument Shepherd was using towards Thólos. Feeling her expression crumble she tried again. “Maryanne.”

Shepherd countered, “You told her to hide. I know what is in her dwelling. If she is wise, she will heed your warning. My men will not interfere.”

Claire felt so lost, gripping the front of his armor she knew there was one, one man even Shepherd could not count as evil, one man who had asked her to survive. Heartbroken, Claire whispered, “Corday is a good man.”

The Alpha stiffened. “The only civilians who can leave the city are the family of my Followers and newly bonded Omegas.”

And she finally understood what he had hinted at for months. “Because the Omegas carry the offspring of your Followers? Because
I am pregnant
with your child...” More tears fell.

“Yes,” Shepherd answered softly, kneading the tension where his hands rested on her back. “It was the only way to save you.”

The weight of the nightmare fell on her shoulders. Claire slid from her chair. She got down on her knees, mirroring Shepherd’s position, but so much smaller, and begged, “Please don’t do this. I will do anything you want, bear as many children as you desire. I will love you.
Anything
. Just don’t do this.”

She had never actually seen the man look desperate. The sound of his breath caught, a quick suck of distorted air preceded his confession, “I cannot stop it; I will not chance an uprising of the scum of this city who may muster, build transport, and threaten our family. Nothing can stop the inevitable.” He was already wrapping his arms around her. “Please do not cry.”

But she couldn’t stop. Nor could she stop how she clung to him as she wept, seeing in the bond the motivation for his deception. It was a pure emotion, acts made from the only good he knew—his absolute love for her. It was the very reason he had inflicted every last horrible thing on his mate, including pulling a syringe out of his pocket and driving a needle into her flesh at that very moment.

Four precious hours had been wasted in the pursuit and pointless questioning of Maryanne Cauley. Corday had nothing to show for it, no further progress made on his dilemma. On the long walk back to his apartment, outside temperatures grew uncomfortably cold, but the pain of numb fingers was welcome—anything was welcome that might make him feel as wretched as he should.

Hands shaking from the chill, he unlocked his door, his eyes on the spot where Claire had once propped herself up, knocking in the night so he might give her shelter. The smears of blood on her pale skin, the torn flesh, the look of unbearable pain in her eyes, he hated the memory. That’s not how he wanted to recall her. Corday wanted to remember her cautious smiles, the spark that would come into her eye on the rare times his jokes chased away the cloud of fear storming inside her.

Had they the fortune of meeting before the breech, Corday was certain they would have been friends, lovers even. Sometimes you just see a person and know... and he’d lost her before she had ever been his.

She’d felt the pull between them too. After all, she had come to him after she’d leapt from the Citadel’s roof, ran through the dark and the cold, to reach
him
. He wanted to be there for her, but there was so much she belligerently carried out on her own.

Claire had fought her pair-bond.

Claire had stormed against her mate to free the Omegas.

Through her flyer, Claire made herself a beacon and a movement.

She did it with no support. She did it knowing it would cost her her life.

Releasing a shaking breath, Corday sat back upon his couch, put his head in his hands and, muttered to himself, “Claire...”

Leslie Kantor was a sad shadow in comparison. The Alpha female’s fire may have inspired the men and women hidden in the Premier’s Sector, she may have successfully reconstructed the resistance into a true rebellion, but she was not eager to sacrifice herself to keep her people safe—not like Claire had been. Instead, she was ready to sacrifice others. Leslie’s rebels were fanatical in their adoration of their
gods-sent
leader. Men and women Corday had known before the breech—calm, collected, rational people who’d lost too much, seen too many horrors, had transformed into willing suicide bombers. He hated to even draw the comparison, but his compatriots had begun to behave like disturbing reflections of Shepherd’s Followers.

They never questioned, they only obeyed.

They were willing to draw innocent people into the crossfire.

As Lady Kantor would say, that was the price of change.

The sad truth was, no matter the outcome of their attack on the Citadel, unlike Senator Kantor’s resistance, the rebels would accomplish something. It might not be the outcome they hoped for. After all, if even one bomb should be incorrectly placed, it could bring down the whole Dome. But revolution would take place. Shepherd and his virus would be eradicated.

New life could be built upon the ashes.

One blast and the stagnation of citizens under the Dome would stop. Riots would ensue; everyone would fight or be killed.

As Leslie loved to say, the people of Thólos were to be reborn.

Corday pressed his palms to his face and tried to rub the nightmare away. Little more than one day was left. Brigadier Dane would carry out her mission, Corday with no ability to know of her success or failure. Instead, he’d be marching with Leslie Kantor.

His former commander expected him to assassinate the leader of the rebels, Dane’s reasoning disgustingly sound. Pulling that trigger would most likely cost him his life. He would never see his lovely Claire again. The only thing left he could do for her was to pick the right location of Shepherd’s den, so his friend might have a chance to survive.

The words came on a sigh. “The basement or the east corridor?”

From a shadowed corner of the room, an unexpected voice sliced through Corday’s concentration. “I’m surprised you would return here, given what you now know. It almost appears as if you want to be captured. Do you, Samuel Corday? Do you want me to take you to Shepherd?”

At the sound of the intruder’s taunt, Corday’s heart skipped a beat. Breath coming quick, stiff where he sat on his couch, the Beta searched the dark for the source. It was more than fear that churned inside him... it was a strange sense that the intruder was right. Breathless, adrenaline tightening his voice, Corday answered. “I haven’t been able to decide.”

Again, the toneless voice moved through the dark. “He has a temper. I don’t think you would survive a conversation with him. Fortunately for you, whether you tell me the truth or lie, I have no intention of ending your life tonight.”

Eyes wide, Corday looked over his shoulder. With so much shadow, he could barely make out the shape of a man—an outline armed with an assault rifle pointed right at him. “What is it that I
know
?”

“You don’t know anything but what we’ve fed you. There is no single fact squeezed into your brain that is wholly correct... And yes, before you ask, Claire
is
alive. Shepherd has nursed her back to health. Four months from now, she will give birth to a boy.”

Nursed her
? The man in the dark made it sound as if Shepherd were some sweet lover, not the monster who murdered men with his bare hands. Corday did not even try to hide the look of disgust from his face. “After she was captured, Claire exposed the resistance. You’ve come here to gloat.”

“Is that what you believe?” Twisting his smirk with an evil chuckle, Jules took a step out of the dark, exposing his face to enough light that the Enforcer might grasp just who had come. Recognition was instantaneous: Shepherd’s second-in-command, the harbinger of death. It was more than the flat expression and lifeless voice, it was the outcast’s intention. “She would be so disappointed to hear such a thing from a man she admires as much as you.”

The Beta looked heartbroken. “I know she’d never have done it if he hadn’t forced her.”

“Shepherd’s mate has never once offered even a hint of information about you or your pathetic resistance.” Face suddenly blank of expression, Jules stared forward with a pair of strangely focused eyes. “It was you who betrayed her.”

Confusion darkened Corday’s voice. “I would never betray Claire.”

Without breaking eye contact, completely aware of how threatening he was, Jules lowered his weapon. “It was you who led me to Claire, you I followed right to the Omegas’ hiding place.”

Corday knew his eyes were filling, that he could not hide the effect the Follower’s words had on him. “Does she know?”

“She’s painted a picture of you. You were cooking something in this kitchen, smiling. She left the gold ring you wear on your little finger out of the portrait. I assume she didn’t think I’d notice the obvious lack of it.” Rifle in one hand, Jules began to stalk from his corner. He walked through the apartment as if the man on the couch was absolutely no threat to him. “She esteems you Corday. Why else would she have promised her life to Shepherd in exchange for yours? And her infatuated mate has kept his word: his men watch over the Omegas, make it so they have access to supplies and clean water without ever interfering with them. You have been left in peace, your rebellion allowed to exist. Even Maryanne Cauley was not murdered for her part in Claire’s attack on the Undercroft.”

The Enforcer’s voice came out, ragged and worn. “Why are you telling me this?”

Lowering his chin to his chest, allowing a subtle sinister curl in his lip, Jules spun a perfect lie. “Claire has asked me to talk to you.”

Corday refused to rise to the bait.

Jules taunted, “You lack complete subtlety in your expressions. Five years of torment in the Undercroft would cure you of that weakness. I spent more than a decade underground. What do you think it did to me?”

Corday said nothing. He said nothing because there was nothing to say.

Jules was more than happy to fill the silence. “Many prisoners are quiet in the beginning. If they don’t talk, the nightmare isn’t real.” Jules cocked his head to the side, running his eyes over the Enforcer. “It doesn’t take long for them to learn that the nightmare is all that exists. Unfortunate enlightenment leads to despair. Despair leaches away everything else, until a clean slate is all that’s left. We were all like you once—silent prisoners. Soon you will be just like me. Leslie Kantor saw your potential and took advantage, she has done well in conditioning you to fit her needs.”

There was a thick oppression in the air, a weight that made Corday’s body feel immersed underwater. Grinding his teeth until the muscles in his jaw jumped, Corday barked, “What do you want?”

“I don’t like you. You are not a good soldier; you would be an even worse leader.” It was conversational, Jules’s admission. The man even had the audacity to cross his arms over his chest,
his deadly rifle’s barrel resting against his shoulder
. “The entire city will be caught up in the flames of revolution in a matter of hours, and all you can think about is your selfish need to free one woman instead of trying to protect your people.”

“I will tell you nothing.”

“Keep your plans and your war. There is only one thing I want to know.” Edging closer, Jules let his voice drop to a terrible, grating hiss. “I want to know where Svana is hiding.”

Corday knew that name had been planted on purpose, and could not stop his reactive growl.

Jules did not miss a beat. “Do you love Claire?”

The Beta refused to answer, but his face contorted into an image of fury.

“Do you believe Claire loves you?” Jules pressed, growing more menacing with each word.

The air in the small room seemed to thicken, grow dense with the poisonous hate. The stink was coming from Corday

“Tick tock, Enforcer Corday.” Jules gestured towards the window, pointing to where a fragment of the Citadel could be seen in the distance. “The answers are there. Claire is in there. Are you going to let them die over one woman’s greed?”

Corday shook his head because it could not be true. It was all some trick so he would betray the rebels, too convenient a name to drop. “I have never heard of a Svana.”

“But she has been in this room with you. The very woman who hurt Claire, you have been indulging for months. A lovesick fool who pines after Shepherd’s mate is the exact kind of toy she would have enjoyed the most. Twisting your mind, your memories of so sweet an Omega to reflect what she desired, is Svana’s specialty. I suspect her victory wasn’t hard. You doubt your friend. You believed the woman who saved your life betrayed you, even if it was in a small, coerced fashion.”

Throat tight, Corday’s voice faltered. “Stop.”

“Begging already? But we’ve only just begun.”

A great pain growing behind his eyes, Corday said, “You cannot imagine I would believe a word from your mouth.”

“I’ll confess that you were not under surveillance when Claire must have told you about Svana, so I don’t know the details of what the Omega shared. But, I was with her after it happened, I found Claire laying on the floor. What did you call Svana, a sex-offender?”

There was no point in continuing to pretend that name had no effect on him. Jules had noticed it, and Corday was accomplishing nothing playing dumb. He ground out the words, “Enough! Svana is Shepherd’s lover.”

“Again you are wrong.” There was no hesitation on Jules part to share the secret. “Svana is Shepherd’s
partner
... or she was until Shepherd fell in love with an Omega. Now, she is his rival for power.”

Corday swallowed the sour taste growing on his tongue, sick with the possibility that the terrible man might be telling the truth. “You make him sound weak.”

“Love is an interesting thing.” A knowing glow in his eyes, Jules looked pointedly at the Beta who’d made foolish decision after foolish decision all based on his
love
for Claire. “Svana will know we uncovered her betrayal in three hours. Her forces will attack immediately. I am telling you this because I know there is no way to stop them. Even if I kill her, even if you kill her, the slaves she has created will act out her will. Shepherd will be able to mediate a portion of the attack, but bombs will still detonate. How many, I cannot say. So, how will you save Claire?” Unflinching, Jules demanded, “You tell me where Svana is hiding, and I will tell you what Maryanne Cauley would not.”

“You have no proof that Leslie Kantor is Svana. I will tell you nothing.”

“Perhaps you are right. Sometimes it is best to let storms run their course.” Jules smiled, his whole face turned strange with the action. Straightening, he nodded his goodbye. “Claire is kept in the basement: corridor 7, sub-room 3. As the Citadel begins to crumble, she will be crushed to death. Or, if she is really unlucky, she will be trapped under layers of immovable rubble to slowly die from dehydration. Maybe her painting of you will keep her company in the dust and lonely dark.”

Once the door was closed and Corday was left alone with his thoughts, he began to shake. It was as if he’d just survived hours of torture, as if just a few soft-spoken words had irreparably damaged him.