Chapter 21
JUDGE
The omega that Dominion took when we stormed New Bunker has been raped.
As soon as I found out, something cold ran through me that resembled something close to…
fear? Since when am I afraid? It’s disturbing, obviously, for many reasons.
Including the way we failed her, and that these kinds of infractions are extremely rare among us, and it’s a reminder of how much our walls are fraying.
But I can’t shake how if I don’t get this shit under control, this could happen to Diana. If I hadn’t been nearby when she was at Trinity… she would have been broken.
Just another reason I had to remove her and place her totally under my watch.
As soon as I’m alone, walking to deal with the issue, I check the comm screen.
It’s from military tech we salvaged. If there’s one thing the bloom proved, it’s that humans are incredibly capable of recovering.
Dominion has been very accomplished at collecting tradesmen who know a great deal about the relics of society that are stagnant, waiting to be rediscovered.
Never anticipated I’d use it on my own omega, but here we fucking are.
Diana sits there for long enough that I even consider returning.
But then the cautious omega is finally on her feet, placing the letter down on a table, and once she gets going, she’s searching the place like her survival depends on it.
I’ve lost all trust in Ravina, and based on what I’ve been hearing, Diana is not handling the transition off of her suppressants well.
She sleeps during the day and spends time at night outside in the cold.
She needs an alpha’s scent, presence, and knot, and the idea of cultivating her experience so she requires me is fulfilling a part of my soul I still don't understand.
I need her to want me, and the possibility of her rejection…
It’s a vulnerability I’ve thought about over the last few days, riding even in the cold to clear my head.
There’s a fragility in desperation, and the longer she rejects who I am to her, the more it eats away at the person I am.
The person I built, scar by scar. Murder by murder. Sacrifice by sacrifice.
Any scent-matched omega should see past Dominion and any preconceived feelings about them.
She should see me, an alpha who has constructed an entire world so that one day, whoever his mate was would be happy.
To realize what I’ve done and sacrificed to ensure omegas find a home in this desolate world.
The idea of sharing with her the true reason I keep her locked away makes my body stiffen with unease. No, no, this current plan will work. It always does for the other alphas.
She will give in to me in due time.
I needed her to see and feel how much my scent and growl have an effect on her, because that will do the persuading. I knew she’d require the excuse of Selene, but I had to show her subconscious that she still willingly chose to go with me.
I’ll consider opening up more. Perhaps that will persuade her further, too.
I lower the screen as I round a corner, passing by a few of our men—Rhys, Keller, and that new kid Tomas—who all go quiet the second they see me. Keller gives a stiff nod, Rhys pretends not to be nervous with a half-lit cigar, and the kid just about forgets how to breathe.
Good.
At least some respect still prevails, because I can’t have this place falling apart on their morals.
What would Diana think if she learned what happened to the omega from New Bunker?
Diana claimed to have seen her picked right up off the streets herself.
I grit my teeth, almost snarling at feeling anything akin to shame.
So what if Dominion might go the extra length to convince these omegas that this is safe? It’s better than being caught by Titan.
Or by traffickers.
That nagging, annoying sensation that there could be a better system is back in my chest, and I want to rip it out. What other fucking choice is out there? Let all the spineless alphas take these omegas, force dark bonds on them, and allow their numbers to grow? Then what?
Then more men like me get born into this world…
I shove the comm back into my pocket, heat searing my veins.
I need to kill someone.
That will make it better.
I have tunnel vision as I make my way to the cellar, where the fucker who betrayed us—betrayed the raped omega—and arranged for this to happen is waiting. The one with our sigil on his back that said he’d keep watch. The one who took money for it.
The Iron Circle comprises the top thirty members of our ranks, though rarely are they ever all gathered at once; that would make us an undeniable target.
About half are in the room tonight, and they’re the caliber of men who keep Dominion moving.
They’re the ones that see this for the entirety of the failure that it is.
The remaining two dozen are lower-ranked personnel, present to learn the consequences when someone fails.
Like any dog that starts to push the boundaries of its training, those within Dominion need to have fresh reminders of how things operate.
The traitor is already on his knees, stripped naked—he’s got a small cock, too. His face is swollen from the beating he got before I even arrived. Beast stands behind him, holding the chain like a leash. Beast’s breathing is wet and uneven through the filter. I can smell the torchwater off him.
“I didn’t even touch her!” the traitor shouts at me.
“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll take care of the one that did.
But what about you?” My voice is low enough that everyone has to lean in to hear.
“Dominion doesn’t rot from the outside. It rots from the inside.
And you fed it rot. You won’t die today, though,” I say, grabbing his skull with one hand to make him look at me. “But you will wish you had.”
No one dares speak.
I will make sure what happens here makes its rounds, because the idea that something like this could happen to Diana within my own walls makes me hold my free hand out, motioning with my fingers as one of them brings me pliers, then helps me open this fucker’s mouth so I can grab his tongue as he screeches like a little bitch.
“This is so we don’t have to hear you complain. ”
I’ll nail his tongue in the long hall of the Iron Castle, where everyone comes to eat, drink, and speak with me from across our territories. Once he’s dead, I’ll then have his skull passed around the Iron Circle and their terrain.
It’s for this that Diana will stay in her space, where cameras can keep a very close eye on her. Where I know everything that happens to her.
It’s been a few hours since I cut out the tongue of the man who arranged that omega’s assault. I’ve returned to my room, cleaning the blood off my hands, the comm screen with Diana on the counter next to me as my hands run through the water.
She seems to have accepted I’m not coming back for the rest of the day, despite how I want to.
Something in me says she needs the space, and a lot of it.
She’s now rounding the corners of the attic, freezing as she comes across a set of stairs.
We refurbished this space for security, but with the recent installation of cameras, it became unused.
Now, it’s Diana’s.
She hurries down the open stairs like I somehow forgot about them, which makes me grin, and scour the rooms below.
I tap the screen to shift to the other cameras as she glances up at them, always checking for where they are.
She pats the wooden walls and tries every door.
It’s an empty space below her nest, the original setting seemingly used as a greenhouse based on what we found when we first took this ward.
Diana then finally slows down, and looks out the massive windows on this lower level, hand and forehead on the glass. I wanted to ensure that while she’s tucked away, she still gets to see others. Even if from the glass.
No one will enter her space for the foreseeable future, except for me.
Lifting my attention to look around my space while my mind wanders, my gaze skims over the leather collar on a wall, only to get pulled back to it.
I stare at it for a long while, my jaw clenching before I finally look away.
Boone.
Dogs make for one hell of a companion for the vagabonds in this world, and he was the only creature that I ever trusted to never betray me.
I loved that damn dog.
That slight opening of emotions in my chest closes shut when I remember how I have something just as vulnerable locked in the space above me.
With time, she’ll become such a vulnerability that I won’t survive if she dies, too.
She thinks I’m basically the devil wearing human skin, all because of rumors she’s heard.
Once I’m cleaned up and see that Diana has finally eaten her food that was brought earlier, I assign Kitty to actively watch over her while I go about my daily rounds.
I continue the rest of my night with one final patrol, getting reports from anything the men may have seen.
I don’t need to sleep like others do, and I check on Diana frequently with the comm screen I carry.
It’s something I already check on a regular basis, so it hardly disrupts my old patterns in the eyes of others.
As far as everyone else is concerned, Kitty is merely helping me with a personal task, and that’s the reason she’s been pulled from her daily life. It’s easier to use her since he’s Skinner’s Iron Lady, which means it’s not abnormal to require the help of my closest members.
After nearly the twentieth time checking the screen, Diana is asleep.
On the floor, with no blanket.
I snort, but there’s no humor. She’s so offended by the nest I provided?
It’s pissing me off more than I want it to, and it’s then, at some point in the middle of the night, that I end my rounds and return to my room, irritated.
My heart races faster than usual, unable to wind down.
What if she continues to reject me? She claims she wants freedom, but that would risk her life.
I doubt she’d even believe me at this rate—a pang of disappointment hits me, as I realize I’m failing in this.
Why has it worked so well for others, but not her?
Then the comms make a sound, alerting to movement. I pull it out quickly. I see her stumble up the stairs to the nest and pass out, losing herself in the blankets.
A smile spreads on my face. I slept in those the past few days, smothering them in my scent. I keep looking back at Diana, who is so utterly passed out I can’t help but let my pride enjoy that my scent has this effect on her, even if she wants to deny it.
She really is mine…
I’ll bring her breakfast in the morning, after I get some sleep myself.
There’s a purpose to my method, and it will work.
Poor thing is utterly worn down from the world and trusts nothing.
It’s good she’s in the space above me, which will soon be filled with the smell of us fucking.
Of my cum and her slick, and it will be purely us.
Her hot chocolate is already filled with a taste of that, but she won’t know for a while.
An alpha’s cum to a scent-matched omega can make her seek me out more than she expects.
Make her happy to see me after an absence.
She will see me as a comfort one way or another.
Then, I will bite her. It will give her the protection among my own people that if something happens, they’ll at least know she’s mated. That an alpha will skin them alive if she’s touched.
It will just take time.
Until then, I’ll keep her in that space where she’s watched and guarded.