Darling Diana (The Omega’s Mercy #1)

Chapter 1

DIANA

Dirty Diana.

Disgusting Diana.

Disappointed Diana.

Defiant Diana.

I’m no longer just Diana. I have a mate now; it's a poison ivy invasion, spreading with every acknowledgment. Distance doesn’t seem to matter, the tension intertwining with my soul. Like it’s hard to breathe, the bond distraught over what’s happening.

Fuck him for doing this to me.

For betraying me.

I can’t stop imagining Judge finding me… if he was willing to lock me in an attic while flaunting another omega and considered that courtship, what will he do as punishment?

I have half a mind to mail him my damn scent gland once it’s ripped out.

“How does the Witch Doctor remove a mate?” I ask in the quiet jeep, my words a little breathless.

We’ve been on the road for about two hours, and the snow is now picking up.

The train station we’re aiming for is at least four hours from the Iron Castle.

There’s a train stop right at the heart of Dominion, but for obvious reason’s that’s not an option.

So, the next stop is about two hours from where we currently are. The snowflakes are heavier than earlier, obscuring the view as I focus on the road ahead.

“I think they literally just surgically remove it,” Rebecca replies, stretching in the front, her bent arm overhead. “I don’t know what it does to the bond, though. Your guess is as good as mine on that.”

My heart sinks a little. It was easy to place hope on something that I didn’t immediately need.

It’s like this damn tether is alive and listening in, upset to hear the suggestion of something so violent.

And I swear I can feel the echo of Judge’s fear being magnified, twisting with deep rage.

What is he afraid of? That people will learn his own omega bested him?

The omega he marked?

No longer being drenched in alpha stench is letting me think more clearly. No matter what, Judge wrapped me in lies. Sure, there might be a world where there’s a perfect explanation for it all, but that requires the benefit of the doubt.

I don’t live in that world. I live in the wastes.

I don’t even want to ask Rebecca about the engagers he gave me, because it will make it all worse to accept the gravity of what he has done to me. Betrayals have relentlessly badgered me my entire life, so to have it come from my own mate is the heaviest blow.

Gripping Judge’s shirt in my hands, I raise it up slightly, the scent sitting safely in my lap. Worn-down strings of my heart shed their frayed edges, wrapping around a new soul that is affixed to an alpha. I hate him for making his own scent something I need to calm myself with.

Selene shifts, bringing herself closer to me. “What all exactly happened, Diana? I know it’s a lot, but I’m dying over here to know.”

We haven’t spoken since we got in the jeep. For the first hour, I could hardly form a sentence. Judge’s rage pelted me through our tether until enough distance was between us, or maybe he just on the road and is focused on hunting me.

I honestly can’t tell.

“He confused the shit out of me,” I mutter, staring at my pants. “I lost myself in there. And I don’t understand anything right now, other than that if I didn’t run, I could have been locked down for the rest of my life.”

While Roxy wears his fucking patch.

I can’t admit that to her, yet. It’s too embarrassing how fucked up it all is. That I actually felt, well, things for him.

“Diana, he’s Judge. It sounds like he had you locked away from what Rebecca and Jennifer have said. It’s okay if you lost yourself. What matters is that now you’re free.”

I lift my gaze to Selene. “How are you?” I feel like I’m slowly able to focus more. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask right away… what happened? From Trinity to now?”

She waves a hand. “Listen, it’s better than it could have been.

I didn’t get raped, at least. I got into a huge fight with the person from Dominion who took me, but then I was knocked out and woke up in a cell.

That’s where I met Jess, since she brought me my food.

” She looks to the front with the driver. “Rest is history.”

“Wait, what? You got into a fight? He told me you were uninjured.”

Her eyes go dark. “Of course he did.” She sucks her teeth to chapped lips. “I’m so sorry he did what he did to you.”

And that’s why I didn’t really want to talk yet.

I don’t know if I’m ready to handle all of this, to untangle the lies from the real emotions I developed for Judge.

“How did you get away, Rebecca?” I ask, facing ahead, trying to reorient myself.

“You said you had a dark bond? Didn’t Judge ban those?

Don’t tell me he’s lying about that, too? ”

“As far as I know, they are banned. I don’t know if anyone knew.

Jack forbade me from talking about it and made me cover it up.

And since the dark bond makes an omega do whatever the alpha wants, well, he got away with it.

Jess,” she nods to the driver, who is focused entirely on driving through the snow, “took like four months to get a vial from the Black Mirage. It temporarily releases the hold he has on me. Lasts only about a month, though, so that’s why I had to leave as soon as I took it. ”

Something cold slides into my chest that has nothing to do with the winter outside.

I can’t believe I actually started to believe and trust Judge. What if there’s a bunch of omegas that are dark bonded, and it’s all kept secret?

The jeep rocks as it hits a rough patch, the tires crunching over packed snow, and suddenly the space feels too small.

Too enclosed. If it weren’t for Selene in this car, I might be a little more concerned about being on the run with people that are technically strangers to me.

I glance at the dark fabric of Judge’s shirt, feeling the coarseness in my hands.

Why did he have to let Roxy wear his fucking patch? And let her sit on his lap?

What kills me the most is how I don’t know him, which means I can’t trust him at all, even if the bond is begging for me to. I can almost hear him in my head, as if to tell me otherwise. Telling me to come back to him…

“I think she’s missing Judge,” Selene says suddenly, her tone almost observational.

I look up too fast, my gaze flicking from her to the windows, to the snow-smeared dark beyond the glass. My chest feels tight, breath shallow, the bond tugging in a way that’s low and insistent and deeply unsettling.

I bet he’s trying to lure me back.

So he can add chains to my wrists this time.

Rebecca turns in her seat, twisting just enough to meet my eyes. Her expression softens, losing its edge.

“Hey,” she says gently. “It’s okay, alright? That’s the bond. It’s supposed to make you miss your alpha. Even if it’s fresh, it’s still very real. It will do whatever it can to bring you back to him.”

There’s a sickening sensation in my stomach that says the Titan situation was probably all a lie, too. Or heavily extrapolated on, at the least. I realize, with a hollow clarity, that I haven’t felt truly safe with anyone since home. Since my brother chose my comfort over obedience.

He was the only one who ever truly cared for me.

Judge put this bond in me so he could control me, for one reason or another. If I rip it out, I can be free.

“Can you tell if your alpha is lying with the bond?” I ask.

“Not if they’re good at it,” Rebecca says with a slight grimace. “Especially if they purr.”

Okay, so about a hundred more points to running, then.

If Judge catches me, there’s no way I’m ever going to feel the sun on my skin again.

He could very easily spin all the lies he wants, and I will never be able to validate them.

When I glance at Selene, my brows furrow as she looks at me like she doesn’t quite know me.

“Are you okay?” I ask her.

Her brows perk up. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just want to get to the Black Mirage and finally start over. I’m sorry you’re stuck in this, Diana.”

Yes, that’s true. The Black Mirage is where I have to fight toward, tooth and fucking nail.

I hope Judge doesn’t catch me before then… I can’t go back to being imprisoned.