She blinked at him. Felt the room spin, knew she’d lost this fight before it had even begun. He was that good. Preplanned it. Knew all the right words, how to buoy, how to cut, how to hone and shape her responses.
And she was scared of him, of his superior skills, of his power.
It had been a long time since she’d felt hopeless, but like an old friend, the ugly feeling settled over her as her eyes drifteddown to the counter, and two splattered drops of tears hit the stone.
And that resonance, that despondency, poisoned the link between them, Shepherd softening his tone, his posture, a purr instant as he reached forward to cup her cheek. “Little one….”
Pulling her face from his touch, Claire cut her glance to the side of the room. Smaller, exhausted, wanting to look anywhere but at him. “You just murdered my only friend.”
“She’s a capable woman who knows what she’s getting into. Who can build herself a new life without the baggage of the one before. If she dies, she dies working to make a broken society a better place. Why don’t you think she can do it?”
A breathless whisper, a shiver, and another tear. “Because youlether go. Which means you have something you want. People are tools to you, even me. I am a tool that you fuck. A mate that you coddle to make yourself feel normal.”
A moment’s hesitation, a pause that said more than any harsh words he might have spat back. A clear sign that she had indeed hurt his feelings. “Anything else?”
Opening the drawer beside her, Claire pulled out her bottle of heat suppressants, making a show of swallowing one. Denying him her estrous, a chance for another child, a future where they could live as they should. “No, Shepherd. I have nothing else to say to you.”
“It is clear to me that I have allowed you to brood for too long. Youwillmake new friends. Today. Enough clinging to untrustworthy memories that make you sad and… unkind.” Shepherd, unmerciful down to his bones, was unwilling to allow his mate to wallow. “You will make friends, and Maryanne will move on with her life.”
Slapping the counter, she snarled, “I’m not having this conversation with you again. I’m not putting innocent women into your crosshairs just so you can lock them up or shipthem off when you remember that you don’t like sharing me.” Scoffing, he earned her fresh glare as she tucked away her sadness and found her rage again. “I refuse.”
“You need friends, Claire. Healthy female relationships.”
“Youneed friends, Shepherd!”
He seemed to like the direction this had gone, prepared to monopolize the opportunity to entice her. With a smirk and a devilish gleam in his eyes, Shepherd purred, “You’re my friend.”
“Stop!”
“And I love you.” Was that an actual smile on his face? He began to circle the counter, to prowl toward his woman.
Backing away, just a hair, Claire hissed, “What are you doing?”
“Stalking you. Looking forward to a chase. Are you going to run, Omega?”
Another step backward, her entire expression perplexed. “Shepherd. Stop it.”
“No.”
“I mean it!”
His grin grew. “You will go into the city tonight, to a fine restaurant, and have dinner with Annette, the Ambassador of Bernard Dome. There, you can ask all the questions you’d never dare ask me. She is a very sweet, well-bred Beta—one who needs a friend, after Brenya saved her life and the life of her baby by sending her here when her husband wanted them both dead.” The words struck exactly as he intended, a flicker of compassion in her eyes, the female compulsion to protect a child apparent. “Also, Guadalupe, the Omega you so callously refused to befriend and help, will be in attendance. You will guide her on how to be mated to abeastlyAlpha like me. You will do this, because you are a good person, and her suffering is needless. I expect you to behave like the wonderful woman you are, and notthe spitting kitten throwing things in her kitchen just because she didn’t get the knot she wanted last night.”
“No!”
He was almost on top of her, cornering her beautifully, as he murmured, “When I invaded Greth Dome, I altered the genetic registries to assure my mate would be protected. That allowed a peaceful transition of power, so she could have a safe home. It had to be done. You look so much like her, and I don’t regret it. We’ll get through this. Understand that.”
“What?” What was he going on about now? Why was he backing her into a corner and talking to her like she might bolt or hurt herself? “I don’t?—”
“Everyone native to this Dome believes you are Queen Svana, and you will be addressed as such for the rest of your life. Including tonight. In public, when you go to dinner in the city. Your first public appearance since the death of your son.”
The remembrance of female fingers inside her, then the gut punch of what the Alphas had done to her in the Undercroft. As if they were doing it all over again… as if Shepherd condoned it.
Her scream was from the deepest part of her guts, pain and shame and the remembrance of Shepherd’s betrayal when Claire had been forced to listen to his mate fuck that woman in the other room. “How could you do this to me?”
It wasn’t her who hit him. It was something else that had crept inside her skin. Something that grabbed that vase of red poppies and threw it to the floor to shatter. Who screamed as hard as she could and tore at her hair.
And died a little inside.
