“Brenya, don’t fall for this setup. That bitch wants power and will do anything to get it. I’ve seen her kind all my life!You cannot go outside. It isn’t safe! Please!” Beating on the glass with his fist, Jacques was growing more and more uncontrolled. “DO NOT LEAVE THIS ROOM, BRENYA!”
Somehow cutting through the din, Jules, commanding, suggestive… even content, purred. “You can go for a walk if you want to, Brenya. It’s a beautiful day, and this is your home.”
“It is a beautiful day,” Lucia agreed, using Brenya for leverage so she might stand. “But I will not be seen with you until you change out ofthat.” A little color came back to her face, a hint of disapproval, and the click of her tongue. “Come, help me up. I have something you can wear in my trunks. Oh, and we must avoid Central.” Brenya’s hand trapped in hers, Lucia’s darkeyes cut to Jules, glaring. “Someoneset dozens of Greth Omegas free for a mate hunt at the main landing zone, and the males are gathering them up like candy. Best if we don’t interrupt their first meetings. They can get a little… base. Had you seen Ancil after he swept me into his arms, you’d understand. A stallion, that man. Instead of the gorgeous canals, you could give me a tour of Beta Sector, show me where you grew up. There must be something to do there, right?”
Assessing Brenya with a lengthy, measured once-over now that they were standing, Lucia already sounded exasperated. “It might help me understand you better. We’refamilynow, after all. Sisters… of some sort, I suppose. Heaven help me, if you knew all the sisters I had back home, you would pity me for having to put up with another.”
Lucia didn’t pause long enough for Brenya to answer, tugging her toward the door. “And here I am pregnant with a little girl. Us Greth women and our female offspring.Dios mío, next time, bless me with a boy.”
Jules was supposed to put a stop to this, to keep her to himself. To feed her dry fish with a broken sauce—whatever that meant—and force this meeting, but he did not interfere as Brenya was tugged toward the door by a determined Lucia.
“No.” Another refusal was ignored, Brenya unable to get her fingers out of the woman’s grip.
Pacing the length of his cage, following as far as he could, Jacques shouted at the Beta still sitting unbothered in his chair. “You can’t possibly let Brenya walk out there alone! What is this about dozens of Omegas? It will be a blood bath! Brenya, come back!”
“Wait.” Retreating from Jacques motivated Brenya’s legs to follow, but something was off.
As if this had been choreographed, everyone in the room was in on it in some way. Both males wanting her to leave, even Jacques, as he roared and overturned his table.
“Enjoy yourself… and remember…” Jules pressed his hand to his heart, reminding her what the consequences would be if it should stop. “I love you.”
And the doors shut between them, the muffled shouts of the Alpha no longer able to hurt her ears. Brenya realizing that every last soldier guarding Jacques’s cell—all seven of them—had followed her out without question. Jules remaining behind. Unguarded.
The black-clad killers were for her protection… not his.
Blinking in confusion at a smug Lucia, Brenya said, “You… ruined breakfast.”
Dipping her shoulder in a half-shrug, Lucia preened. “I know.You’re welcome.”
And then they were off, Lucia forcibly threading her thin arm through Brenya’s, dragging her toward the lift. “You still need to eat, so you can snack in my room. God, every morning with both of them? It will be unbearable. Thank goodness the Commodore did not demand lunch and dinner together too, no? Nights though, I still have to put up with one of them. But it’s not all bad for me. Jacques had a big cock, huh? I didn’t mind it in the slightest. Don’t look at me like that. We all know you have no idea what to do with it. I’ll take it off your hands, and you can have your romance with the Commodore. Speaking of which, I’ve never seen Havel look so human. What an effect you have on him. Back home, no one would believe the day would come that a man like him discoveredfeelings. Just wait until you see what he’s done in Beta Sector. Freed Central’s slaves for you. What an uproar. The staunch old Alphas lost their?—”
“Stop pulling on me!”
“I will not.” Spat back with even more venom, the true Lucia coming out now that the males were out of earshot. “You are to spend the day with me and learn how to embrace your position. No more Omegas will suffer because you refuse to leave your room. See what your hiding is doing to your people! Meet the other Omegas who came here with me to have better lives. The two most powerful men under this Dome will give you anything you ask, and you will ask for our kind to be treated with dignity, or I will make your life a living hell. Don’t think I can’t. Like I mentioned many times to you, I have many sisters and know exactly how to make my point. Now march. We don’t have much time to make you look less insane.” Muttering to the Gods, Lucia motioned for the guards to make more space for them. “Repeat after me, Brenya. ‘I will not be the reason innocent women die.’ Say it.”
Yanking her arm free at last, Brenya snarled, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the Beta workers in Central. Jules freed them and moved them back to Beta Sector, where it is now a disorganized mess. No one knows what to do with them, and the Beta males are not looking for free blowjobs they keep trying to offer.That is all they were trained for. I’m talking about the Omegas that came here with me and have suffered this whole time because you won’t get your Alpha in line. I’m talking about the uncounted women who were dumped in Central this morning to be picked off by whoever got to them first.Do you know nothing about what’s going on outside?”
A tiny series of head shakes, Brenya intimidated and unsure why she felt deeply chastised.
Shrill, Lucia demanded to know, “What have you been doing all these weeks?”
Dumbfounded, Brenya muttered, “Building a clock.”
The slap to her cheek came hard. Brenya having never been struck in her life.
Lucia was incensed, showing her teeth and disregarding the soldiers who barked out a warning that she would be punished. “Building a clock? You should be ashamed of yourself! My baby is in danger. My people are abused.Yourpeople are abused… and you are playing with your weird toys? That disgraceful behavior ends today. You will dress appropriately every time I see you. You will conduct yourself like a queen. And if you don’t know what to do in a social situation, you defer to me and follow my lead. My daughter will be born, and shewillhave a chance to live.”
Hand pressed to her stinging cheek, Brenya was more in shock than anything. “Aren’t you afraid of him?”
Thehimin question was not Jacques Bernard.
“I don’t have time to be afraid. My child is at risk every second this Dome is unstable. Soon enough, you’ll be pregnant too. Yes, gawk at me like a fish all you like. Wait and see. There will be a war for your womb, so be prepared to choose which male will father your firstborn now and live with the consequences.”
“Jacques cannot get out of that prison cell. Jules promised me?—”
“Jules might have the threat of the virus, but he does not have the support of the Dome or nearly enough men to hold it. We all know he would not put the mate he is so obsessed with at risk by releasing Red Consumption. So, either you convince Beta Sector to back Havel, you win over the Omegas, and thereby influence their mates, or get ready to learn how to properly take a knot and a belly full of Alpha sperm. By your next estrus, the final leader of Bernard Dome will be decided. So, you can go make your stupid clocks, or you can save your people from an avoidable catastrophe.”
