“Briefly,” Cora says with a sigh. “He’s surrounded by no fewer than five guards at a time.”
More than when I was held captive. His work must be pleasing the Prince. I press my lips together and nod. I haven’t told my pack, but my intention is to face down my father. I’ll be of better use taking him out than in battle, nomatter how much my combat magic skills have improved. Something in my soul needs this, to finally sever the puppet strings my father holds in his hands.
“You didn’t see…” I begin, my stomach roiling.
“An operation? No, thank the saints. But I wasn’t able to get as close to the medical school as possible. It’s warded. I don’t know what operating room he’s using for most of his work.” She drums her pen on the table. “There are still guards during the night, but they’re a skeleton crew. The rest sleep in the ballroom. They’ve converted it into barracks. It’s guarded by ten Soldiers through the night. Plus, there are at least two Soldiers guarding each room holding hostages. Another five doing rounds where the omegas are being held.”
“That’s not insurmountable,” I say slowly, ticking the numbers off on my hands.
“Not insurmountable until the Soldiers wake up,” Graeme argues. “It’ll be impossible to do this quietly, not with the volume of hostages and test subjects. We must assume we’re facing the full contingent of Soldiers. Jack is right. Even if every resistance member joins us, we’ll be out-manned by a large margin.”
“What about the other omegas here?” Cora asks, leaning over the map to tap the section of the consortium holding the test subjects. “They’ll want to rescue fellow omegas. I know it.”
“We can’t ask them to—” Graeme protests, but Cora cuts him off.
“They want to fight back, Graeme. You know they do. This is their opportunity. Let them fight while they have a choice. The Prince isn’t going to stop at conquering the Council and the consortium.”
“It’ll be all-out war on the streets of Fairhaven,” I murmur. “I’ve seen it. We need to ensure that there are fewer affinitiedalphas when that war comes, and the only way to do that is to take down my father and free the omegas in the consortium.”
“My darling, you never said,” Ian says softly.
“It was the other night while I was training. I saw affinitied alphas leading armies of Soldiers, and their affinities were brutal.”
“Plus, you heard what the Prince said about the hostages,” Cora cuts in. “In the palm of his hand and he’s about to squeeze? I know you don’t like the odds, but we have to do this.”
“I don’t like this either,” Marcus sighs. “Your father is heavily guarded, Juniper. We just don’t have the numbers.”
“Yeah, but we have affinities on our side.”
“So do they!” Marcus says, his voice raised, fear flashing through our bond. “Your father has given at least twenty-one alphas affinities.”
“And if left unchecked, he’ll only create more,” I grit out. “He needs to be stopped. Plus the hostages… Cassian’sfamily.”
Cassian’s expression is bleak. “The Soldiers aren’t negotiating for the release of hostages. When he made his announcement, he was talking about my father. But as much as I want to save my parents, this isn’t the way.”
“Then what is?” I demand, standing and slamming my hands down on the table. “Baphomet’s Prince has the Council, and he ordered the army to stand down. Help isn’t coming from anywhere else. We don’t have time to sit on our hands waiting for more members to join the resistance. We have to fight with who we have.”
Luca takes my hand and laces his fingers with mine, fraught tension flooding down our bond. He doesn’t like this either, but he also knows that I won’t be stopped. “Juniperhas seen things that terrify me. Her visions have been accurate, and we don’t know if we can change the future. If we can’t, she’s right. We’re looking at all-out war. A war where we’ll definitely be out-manned. Doing this the right way didn’t work. We’re all that’s left between now and a future so fucking horrible, she can barely talk about it. If you value omega lives at all, we need to move, and quickly.”
“This is Juniper’slife,” Marcus roars.
“And her choice,” Simon says, ice in his tone.
“And my choice too,” Cora adds, shooting a glare at Graeme and Jack.
“Cora,” Jack protests.
“We’re getting nowhere,” Graeme cuts in, trying to diffuse the situation. “Listen, I can arrange a resistance meeting. We can talk about it then. Try to formulate something approaching a plan that isn’t utter suicide.”
Aimee sticks her head into the makeshift kitchen. “We’re taking the fight to the consortium?”
“Yes,” Cora says resolutely. “We’ll tell the rest of the omegas in the morning.”
“Too late,” Aimee says brightly. “Your arguing woke most of us up. You keep running your mouths. I’m going to go get everyone together.”
Aimee gathers the omegas,and to my surprise, nearly all of them gather in the great hall, ready to hear about the fight we need to wage.
Graeme stares at the omegas, a frown on his face. I understand his reservations. While I’m amazed so many have volunteered, I almost wish they hadn’t. I can’t promise their safety, and neither can Graeme.
