Chapter 5 #3
Improvement did not come with time. Her terrible desolation had not abated with freedom or success; Shepherd could feel it flowing from her like an endless bubbling poison.
Claire was past the point of despair. It was a thing he had witnessed countless times in the Undercroft—a cessation of spirit.
But the Omega had spoken; her eyes had been full of fire when she faced him on the streets, a marked improvement from the vacant figure who had subsisted on air in his den.
And it was the Beta smiling at Svana that had roused her. Corday was the one Claire had run to, his food she’d accepted. He was the man Claire preferred to him.
Shepherd deliberated on such an outrage, frustrated further to see Svana playing the fine lady—touching Corday, wooing him gently, all the while digging less than subtly for information.
What game was Svana playing?
Svana had a great many strengths, but the Alpha female had a tendency to miss the minutiae. It was for that reason Shepherd was sure she had no idea he was watching, that the Enforcer’s apartment had already been bugged… that Followers were listening to their would-be queen.
As the conversation between Corday and Svana continued, the stiffness of his second-in-command was impossible to miss. Jules found the whole thing distasteful.
Svana had no cause to get involved, to distract. Her only duty was to keep the contagion hidden and unleash it once their exodus began. If she were to be captured or killed in this ploy, the finale of their great insurrection, of their great revenge, would fail.
Worse, every minute Corday was stuck tending Leslie Kantor, he was not giving them the location of Claire.
Her interference was a disappointment.
Svana’s initial displeasure with his keeping of a mate had been addressed, handled, and resolved.
Shepherd had paid the price for Claire—a far steeper price than he had expected—ruining the Omega’s growing affection.
He had even fucked Svana in the same bed he shared with Claire, watching the Alpha female grow excited by the scent of his mate, a thing Shepherd hated allowing.
Breathless, Svana had claimed their mating to be the most glorious yet, satisfied when Shepherd’s orgasm was finally achieved.
As always, he’d ensured his knot remained on the outside of her cunt; Svana unwilling to let them be linked in a position that left either vulnerable—a long standing sexual rule between them.
Grunting as he gushed, he had offered the answer the female sought, “Glorious indeed, beloved.”
Shepherd pulled out, lay at her side while she petted his broad chest. In a silken voice, Svana had purred out her absolution, “I forgive you.”
The words had seemed unfair. Had Svana not herself fornicated and tried to lure her Alpha body into highly unlikely pregnancy with their enemy? Were not her very words the idealization that their love was beyond the flesh… a thing of spirit and destiny?
Shepherd had fucked her twice more, once almost immediately, simply to keep Svana from speaking on the subject, and again to ensure he’d exhausted her.
There had been no more pillow talk. In the end, there had been no demands about Claire at all.
As if the hiding Omega was of no consequence, Svana had simply dressed and left.
All that was left behind was Alpha female scent saturating the air of his den, blending oddly with the sweeter smell of Omega.
No, that was not all that was left. The Omega who had only a few days prior begun to respond, who for once had been eager at last to be near him, had lain crumpled on the bathroom floor—everything between them left in wreckage—all his effort dismantled and ruined.
He had not seen Svana since, and now he was forced to listen to her subtle manipulations as she sat beside the hated Beta.
“I just assumed… Omega scent is on your coat.”
Shepherd growled so violently at the presumption that Jules ordered the other Followers from the room.
“It’s not like that. She couldn’t even if she wanted to… or even if I wanted to.”
Shepherd gripped the table, the wood beginning to buckle.
Did Claire want to have sexual congress with that male?
“My friend was pair-bonded to a stranger, someone who mistreated her. Any kind of physical relationship is off the table for now.”
And if it couldn’t get worse, like magic, it did. Svana’s reaction to Corday’s words was authentic. Shepherd saw her face through the feed, the beauty of her exotic bone structure lost the mask of Leslie Kantor. Svana showed herself. “Pair-bonded? That is unthinkable.”
That disgust was genuine.
Outraged, Shepherd was forced to conclude Svana had believed he’d kept a female under lock and key in his quarters that was not his rightful possession. Rape was beneath him, as Svana well knew considering his mother’s sad history, and Shepherd did not break his code, ever!
Vibrating with utter indignation, Shepherd felt energy build up, crest, years of anger threatening to seep out as a low endless howl of rage. Only one thing stopped the outburst, one phrase that carried him beyond explosion and straight into stagnant shock.
“The little I know is that the woman behaved like your run-of-the-mill sex offender.”
Blood throbbed in his skull. Was that Claire’s interpretation of Svana?
Of him? She had called him a rapist once, and he had taken her when she was reluctant…
but she was his bonded mate. Claire grew willing once she learned he took the time to pleasure her; the Omega relished their mating once she let herself enjoy it.
Even the first time, he had not touched her without her consent.
The one time he’d punished her physically, he had not hurt her.
When she’d cried so pathetically afterward, he could not bring himself to do it again, even though it was his right as Alpha to correct her bad behavior and establish dominance.
Never had it been rape. Her hesitation was due only to misunderstanding her position as an Omega, and her fear of her unfamiliar Alpha.
After their time together, she had been coming around… he had painstakingly melted that ice.
He would not dishonor Claire, nor would Svana. His beloved had never touched Claire, he’d ensured it himself!
But he’d found Svana choking the life out of his mate… the Omega pushed back on the bed, her lip split and bleeding.
A new feeling, a sort of churning sickness stole his breath. Perspective shifted. Svana had come into his room and attacked a pregnant Omega clearly under his protection… but she would not have sexually assaulted her. It was against everything they stood for.
But Claire had been very frightened; it’s what drew you from the Citadel to rush to your mate.
No! Such a thing was impossible. His beloved would never degrade herself in such a way.
Perhaps this was based off Svana’s suggestion that Claire join them in intimacy—the very statement which had sharply commenced the decay of the bond.
Shepherd had not missed a nuance of Claire’s reaction to those words, had felt her repugnance, her disgust pulse through their link.
She’d looked on him like he was a monster.
Consumed with separating the opposing factors, far too determined to maintain the status quo, Shepherd had not regarded the exchange’s baser intent.
How had he not seen? Svana had preyed upon the Omega so flawlessly…
spoken every word to shame and debase. Thinking of it now, Svana’s verbiage seemed so very beneath her, so calculatingly terrible.
The more Shepherd considered, the more he hated: hated Jules for daring to do less than he was ordered.
He hated the handsome Enforcer Corday who had the audacity to feel fondly for his Omega—a man who spoke as if he knew Claire intimately.
Corday couldn’t know her. A base Beta could never have the bond that exposed Claire’s very soul and perfection to her Alpha mate.
Shepherd knew her. Every breath she took, the music of her hum, her purity, her light. That was his alone.
The hate expanded, and even for the briefest of seconds, he hated Svana for effectively taking Claire away. The fleeting feeling of something other than reverence for his beloved confused him. Mechanically, Shepherd looked to the only other person in the room, as if the man might have the answer.
All was written in the smaller man’s flat expression. Not one word spoken had surprised Jules.
Placid despite the tempest inside, Shepherd rose. “Once the Enforcer is asleep, pull Svana. I desire a private meeting.”
“Yes, sir.”
Shepherd’s eyes narrowed. “What? No unwarranted opinions?”
There was no hesitation or fear of imminent recourse. Jules spoke openly. “I only stated facts. I have not shared with you my opinion.”
“By all means, Jules, SPEAK!”
The sharp edge of the man’s dead stare displayed more than enough. “Choose an Alpha surrogate for Miss O’Donnell.”
Rising from the chair, all the waves of provocation, the violence Shepherd had been restraining, flowed out in the simple phrase. “I would kill anyone who dared to touch her.”
Jules rebutted, unflinching, “Not anyone.”