No, he had Followers here that would have assisted him with this. Hand-selected soldiers that had volunteered for this mission too.
He was an accomplished surgeon.
And he’d been her surgeon—for her face, her shoulder, and her vaginal canal. Jules and his men could have hidden that insidious device anywhere inside her!
She couldn’t take it out. She couldn’t tellanyone.
But she could be horrified. “What if there had been an accident! Everyone would have died! You would have killed my sisters and my brothers because Jacques is a bad man? No. No, Jules. Why?” Brenya could not fathom what made a man do such things,risksuch things.
It wasn’t even for revenge.
Bernard Dome was innocent.
Heknewthat. He’d seen her peaceful people. And though Central was horrible, it was the minority when it came to the population. Less than a third.
But he would not be moved. “There are lives I care about in Greth, and in order for them to flourish, control of the satellites is required. For you to be safe, I must have those satellites.My goal was diplomacy, but if Jacques chose violence, then everyone under this Dome would have been infected and eradicated so the good men and women I am responsible for would not suffer again.They’ve suffered enough already.More than you can imagine. Every single one of them. Some far more than I. And I amloyal, Brenya.”
No, this was greed. It had to be.
“To you above all.I am loyal to you. If I’d died, having that device in my body, you would have died—either of Red Consumption or from the chaos that would take place in your Dome once it was released. My beloved, dear mate. I chose my actions with care. I don’t put myself in situations where there might be accidents. Such as when Jacques imprisoned me. You came to break me out,to rescue me, but I stayed in my cell… to keep you safe. I will even concede that your plan to escape the Dome and build a beacon may have worked, but… commandeering the satellite network was not optional. Continuing to control it, more important than you imagine.” Voice even, Jules’s sea inched up her shores, a soft embrace more than a rough annexation. “I need that to keep you safe too.”
Slipping out of his arms, Brenya’s gray uniform smeared with his blood, she put space between them. Trying to think in a soupy mind. “What could you possibly need the satellites for? Your people already stole Greth Dome. Now you have Bernard Dome. What more could you possibly want?”
He allowed her her rebellion, shifting his body slightly to put himself between the crystal vase of flowers and his enraged mate. “There are few Domes left standing after all the centuries. So many failed?—”
“I know!” Brenya cut him off, unwilling to fall for his verbal distractions again. “That’s why Bernard Dome feeds us Beta Rations—to keep the population content. Jacques told me. Only twelve Domes are left after what you did in Thólos. And you would have eradicated another one of them! Why would you do that?”
“Mon chou… please. I’m here. Come.”
One mention of the Alpha, and it was as if he was right there, behind her. His physical presence so real that she spun around, her icy fingertips to her lips in fright.
And Jules saw. He saw, and he put his arms around her again, the rocking starting again. “He’s not there, Brenya.”
But he was there, picking at her brain, that clicking back with a vengeance until her eye began to twitch, and it was so very hard to ignore him when she was so livid. Harder still to evade Jules’s mental caress.
Her back was to his chest, the light rocking swaying her as Jules wrapped strong arms around his agitated mate, careless if he bled on her clothing. “Two Domes are known to possess weapons that can blow apart continents. World-ending missiles… which require access to the satellites that Jacques was far too distracted with petty Central politics to pay attention to. They are at war over mined resources, believe it or not. Even locked in their Domes, they war. Using drones, ballistics. I know this, because I saw it myself. The situation is escalating. That is why I volunteered for this mission. That is why I brought the virus here,evenin my body, because this is not a mission that can fail. If one of them fires a single large missile, the other will retaliate. If somehow the fools release their entire barrage,everyone on the planet will die. The fallout would end life as we know it… even with the protection of our Domes.
“And I came here and foundyou. My darling. And I took your Dome. I incarcerated your Alpha. Relished my bond to you, because I cannot and will not live without you, Brenya. I cut the containment vessel out of myself and hid it inside your body. And so long as your heart beats, your people will live. Not to punish you. No. But to protect you. I swore to you I would keep you safe. That includes from yourself.”
The maelstrom of Jules’s sea, his lies, his truths, and his violence. Gods, how was she to survive it? His cum was glue in her cunt, his words daggers in her heart. He’d sworn to keep her safe.
And now?
Now, she’d never put herself in danger.
Now…
She had totry.
Now…
She would be physically dragged to Jacques’s cell, all because of some Omega nightmare that required an Alpha’s presence, or her brain would not stop ticking.
Or it would eventually, because separation would drive her to her death.
A risk she could never take.
Voice small, she let out a shuddering breath. “You are a bad mate.”
