And Lucia smiled like a proud puppeteer, taking the seat across from her with a flourish of her skirts and a beautiful smile. “It’s natural, this response. You’ve been very sick, easy to manipulate all dazed and passive. Omegas are not passive. We do not let the males rule us. No.We bite back, Brenya. When they push you around, bite hard. It reminds them they are puppies tussling at our feet. It makes them wag their tails and sit up for more.”
It was the first time Lucia had addressed Brenya by her name.
And that… that… got her attention.
“Waking up now, yes?” There was more, Lucia leaning closer and looking deep into Brenya’s eyes. She even seemed to soften, only half the viper she usually was. “No one is coming to save you. The guards are not interfering. If you think Commodore Havel did not influence and coerce, and—what is the word in your language?—massage the events that led to this entiremeeting, then you are woefully outmatched by your mate, Brenya.” Reaching forward and threading her fingers through hers, Lucia gave her hand a little squeeze. “He wants you to be here, or you wouldn’t be here. He knows we are doing this. And yes, I will be punished for slapping you, but Ireallyneeded to do it. I won’t even complain when he slaps back… figuratively, of course. Havel would never actually hit me.”
Jules had encouraged this encounter?
And he’d dressed her in the scratchy jumpsuit and taken her from her nest.
Ignored her terrified screams and hauled her off to Jacques.
Brenya suddenly salivated with the craving to bite him all over again. Harder this time.
Grinning, Lucia was tickled by whatever she saw in her face, but the rest of the females in the room were far entertained by something else.
The blonde giggled, glancing at Lucia under her lashes before going back to aggressively filing Brenya’s nails. “You hit her?”
“Yes, pretty hard.” Admitting it with a smirk, Lucia accepted the accolades she felt she deserved.
“Good,” Gertrude purred.
And then Lucia’s pretty eyes went right back to Brenya, explaining the unspoken rules of their kind. “Had I hit you in secret, I would be dead now. But I slapped you with his soldiers watching. Hi, Andreas,” the foreign Omega said with a flirtatious smirk and wink toward one of the larger, unimpressed males positioned around the room. A man that did not so much as glance Lucia’s way. “It’s about intent,nena. The Commodore knows I don’t like you. He knows youhateme. That’s why this will work.”
But Brenya didn’t hate her. “I don’t?—”
“Yes, you do. You just don’t want to admit such dark feelings live inside your perfect little want-to-be Beta brain, you innocentlittle bitch.” Another squeeze of Brenya’s fingers, half gentle and half threatening, as Lucia softly added, “I say this with respect. I don’t think there was ever a time in my life that I was so… guileless. I envy your simplicity. You envy my… everything. But youneedme. I need you. That is what we are. Family.”
No. What Brenya needed was to…
To…
She didn’t know, and that confusion made her feel very unsafe.
It led her to mutter, “I am the reason Ancil is dead.”
It wasn’t meant to be cutting. It wasn’t meant to be cruel. It was plain fact, spoken by Brenya as if reporting to her Overseer. Pair-bonds were tethers; they were fixtures. And Lucia’s had been destroyed. Which meant Lucia was broken. Her family was gone.
But not as broken as Brenya. “Jacques beat him to death because he hit me… just like you did.”
And there it was. The rage under all of Lucia’s act. There was the bloodlust, and she curled her lip and growled lowly, “Ironic, isn’t it?”
And then gone.
One blink and malice vanished as if it had never existed.
But Brenya wasn’t done, there wasso muchmore to say. “You hurt Annette… for personal gain. And I find myself sometimes thinking about how you will die. It’s upsetting, the things I’ve imagined. I miss her.”
“Since you prefer not to filter your thoughts, I won’t either.” With a toss of her dark hair, Lucia lowered her chin to her chest and sneered. “Your friend was well-bred and trained, but she would never have been able to handlemyAncil long-term. He would have digested her slowly, made her life a living hell. Probably killed her before she hit forty. As I said, it takes an Omega to reign in an Alpha with that much… ambition.”
That word again. One of the most useless words for those born in Beta Sector.
“He was evil. Lucia, he?—”
“Enough of this banter.” Standing, nothing graceful or pretty about it, Lucia began to pace, rapid-fire information delivered without the false smiles or useless manners. “Brenya, a large cargo ship from Greth landed this morning in Central. My contacts informed me that there was no prior notice of arrival or manifest until thirty minutes before they landed. Do you understand what I am telling you?Greth Dome sent a large ship, and no one knew it was coming.The hull was full of Omega females. Whoever was controlling communications blasted profiles of the unmated females onboard through Central. Alphas of all ranks rushed to the landing pad to fight over who might claim them. Our sisters were dumped into a frenzy of Alpha desperation. Many women, Commodorina. Many. The feeds were cut, so we cannot see what happened to them after the first three minutes. But what we did see was violent. Central is in lockdown now. The Commodore refuses to answer my messages. He tolerated my prodding at breakfast but will give me nothing. Several of my sisters were most likely on that ship. And not just mine. Most of the women in this room had family that competed for the opportunity to be chosen for Bernard Dome—innocent young women who have no idea what it’s actually like here. You have already failed us, abandoning us to the whims of this place. Do not fail our sisters too. I will serve you faithfully, make your success my mission. Just demand your matedo something. Learn how to please him and use it!”
But, they had been in the nest all morning, fornicating. They had played and laughed, before he’d terrorized her with breakfast. These were not the actions of a man who knewmanywomen were being raped in Central.
