“It’s good we came,” Selene says right next to me, making me damn near jump. My teeth dig into my lip as I keep an eye out for the entrance to the bunker—I want to get this over with. “I already recognize a few faces,” Selene adds.
Selene and I are both somewhat new to the Enclave, with both of us working there for just over a year. Ever since I fledhome, I’ve been in search of a perfect bubble to hide within. For a while, that was at a smaller healing sanctuary until Dominion got too close. The Enclave was supposed to be south enough…
“Yeah, I don’t see one familiar face.”
“Well, take it in. Once they know our faces, we can’t really walk through here without being bombarded to look at this cut, or look at this wart, or listen to this cough, or examine an eye that’s abscessed. And then they’ll let even their third cousin know that women from the Enclave are visiting, so they can get looked at.”
That iswaytoo many watchful eyes. “I hope to never visit again.”
“Probably won’t after this, not with Dominion. It was already a rough week last week here. Heard a little spat happened over their freakingterritoriesagain. I swear they’re toddlers who don’t know how to share.”
My smile stretches a little wider. I really appreciate that Selene can lighten my day even when I’m balls deep in a pit of questionable people—the entrance! My relief spins quickly into worry because down there is where the danger truly is. But the shop we need is supposed to be close to the stairs.
And, personally, Ineedwhat we’re getting today.
Selene was completely right earlier.
If I don’t keep living my life as if I’m not an omega—which the suppressants help me with—people will get suspicious of my caution. I’ve seen it countless times.
Then I’ll be offered to agang. Which is basically a collection of alphas, sometimes little packs within, where instincts rule the land. Dominion is one of the largest.
They always pay the most for my kind.
With a lot of blood, usually.
If that happens, I’ll be mated and bound to a fucking stranger for the rest of my life… if I’m lucky. If fate wants to take a shit on me again, then I’ll be raped by many,nevermated. Just fucked, bred, and used as a tool to make more omegas and alphas.
My head starts to feel light, a sign I’m letting the fear creep too far in again.
We descend solid steps, ones that are a reminder of the military base it once was, from a different era for a different purpose, the designers undoubtedlynotforeseeing its use as a free market in a fucked up world where body parts are traded. At the bottom, we pass beneath a rusted archway, and the world opens up. It’s as if the ceiling had been ripped off, the gray sky expansive overhead, lined with balconies made of scavenged scaffolding, ramshackle markets below it.
A man squats down in a corner, shaking like a kicked dog as he stares off with vacant eyes while kids poke him with sticks, probably on some kind of stimulant. The crowd thickens as we move deeper, until a man seems annoyingly difficult to navigate around. We both peer up at him, his skin cratered with pock marks. My heart races when it’s clear he wants something from us. “Smile for me,” he demands.
“What?” The word comes flat, but my heart rate spikes.
“Show me your teeth,” he repeats, grinning wide to show yellowed, chipped ones.
Selene leans her shoulder into mine, sticking her head out with a cocky, dead grin. “Happy?”
“Those are clean,” he remarks, as if that’s proof of murder. “Where the fuck you both from?”
Shit.
Iknewsomething like this would happen. I just thought it might come from the fact that if someone looked for too long, it would be obvious these weren’t worn with time but rather rolled frequently in the mud. Never thought to dirty myteeth.
“Just because the world is shit,” I say, panic speaking for me as Irefuseto be outed here, “doesn’t mean we can’t figure out how to clean our teeth. Now move.”
Selene quirks a brow. “Yeah, you’re wasting our time.”
He snorts while tilting his head, a predatory gleam in his eyes. He steps closer, and we step back. “What, you getting in line to see if you’ll be lucky enough to get near Judge? You’ll be sad to know that pretty pussies don’t count. He’s already got enough of those.” He raises a very thick brow. “If you’re that desperate to suck some cock, I’d be happy to oblige.”
Blankly staring at him like I can’t believe I’m having this conversation, I carefully reply, “We’re not here to suckanyone’scock!”
Thelastthing we’re here for is Judge, especially not to give him a fucking blowjob.
“Don’t take a genius to put two and two together, road doll. You’re definitely here to suck his cock.”
Selene scoffs. “You crash your skull on concrete or something? Leave us the fuck alone, weird asshole.”
