“Him.” The man tilted his head from one side to the other, as if considering. “The omega?”
Roman’s eyes narrowed. “Myomega.”
“We can make arrangements for such a thing, I assume, provided you accept the offer I extend.” The man dropped hishand, and Roman waited, watching as he seemed to gather himself. “My name is Lorcan Devereaux, and I own the Viper mercenary squad. We’ve lost a member in the recent past, and I’ve had a difficult time finding a suitable replacement. You just might fill that slot.”
Viper? Mercenary squad?How had one of the richest men in the country found his way into Roman’s cell to offer such a thing? “You’re with Ouroboros?”
“That I am.” Lorcan slipped his hands into the pockets of his pants like he had all the time in the world to wait, but why wouldn’t he? If he had time to stop in a Podunk little town like Roman’s, then he must not have been a busy man. This was just a business meeting for him. “I will have you trained to my standards as quickly as possible in order to ensure you will not be a burden during our missions. If you cannot live up to my expectations, I’ll put a bullet in the back of your skull, and I will ensure that no one will find your corpse. How does that sound?”
Better than the inside of a cell. Better than death at the hands of the system that demanded the violence. Roman was more than happy to give them to keep his mate safe. “And Sidian?”
“As I said, I can make arrangements for such a thing.” Lorcan arched one dark brow, silent meaning clear.
There was no reason to sit in that cell and wait for daybreak, wait for death, wait to be made nothing but a useless corpse to be tossed into an incinerator since no living member of Roman’s family would want anything to do with his body. He would have been satisfied to die if it meant atoning for failing Sidian, but if he had a chance to survive, a chance to be reunited with his omega…
Then it would be a failure not to accept it. “I’ll join.”
“Good boy.” Lorcan turned, snapping his fingers, the sound echoing through the empty cell. “Follow me. We have a long drive ahead of us.”
Chapter One
“All right, Mr. Vey.” The heavy steel door of the room slammed shut as Dr. Richard Barnes stepped into the room, the impact ruffling the bottom of his long white lab coat as he offered Sidian a thin, unimpressed smile. “Let’s go over this once again, shall we?”
Sidian said nothing. He watched the doctor approach the side of his bed from where he curled in the center of the wafer-thin mattress, his arms coiled around the swell of his stomach. “You've got this entire facility to run, and you still make time to come see me in person? I’m flattered, Doc.”
Dr. Richard Barnes sank into his usual seat at Sidian’s bedside, folding one leg over the other so he could prop the expected manila folder against it as he flipped it open. A middle-aged male beta with thinning brown hair streaked with silver combed over the bald spot in the center of his scalp and sharp blue eyes, he’d become the person Sidian hated most in the world. He didn’t think there was anyone he could hate more thanhe hated Pack Kincaid, but Barnes gave everyone Sidian had ever known a run for their money with ease.
To his credit, Sidian tried to give the beta as little attention as possible. Laying hands on any of thepatientsat the Bell Breeding Center was off the table; leaving the omegas incarcerated in that hellhole bruised and ugly made them unattractive to potential clients. The last thing a beta like Barnes wanted on his hands was a pissed-off pack all riled up over the fact that their usual canvas wasn’t blank for them to ruin as they saw fit. They paid a premium for the privilege of getting away with vicious treatment that would have had them all sitting behind bars somewhere.
The thought made Sidian’s stomach twist. After his last heat, the staff dropped Sidian off back in his room splotched with black and purple and blue, his skin scrubbed clean but still bearing the phantom itch of blood drying tacky on the insides of his thighs. After the first heat spent beneath Pack Kincaid, he knew it would be bad. He just didn’t know it could be worse.
Barnes heaved a put-upon sigh like the weight of the world rested on his sagging shoulders. “You bit one nurse during your gland examination.”
“Shouldn’t bring those cards around me right now.” Sidian’s arms curled a little tighter around his stomach, the instinct to shield the most vulnerable part of himself running high in the presence of someone who had been nothing other than an enemy to him.
“Your glands have been sensitive since your admittance into our program almost two years ago.” Barnes clicked his tongue, scribbling notes in the file that Sidian knew he would never be given the privilege of reading. “I would have expected you to have grown used to it by now. Perhaps further examination is necessary, though we’ll save that for after the birth.”
Sidian’s fingers splayed over the bump, and the baby gave a slight flutter against his palm as if reassuring him he wasn’t alone in this. “You come at my neck, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“I’m sure you’d like to believe you will, but you’ve yet to do much more than cause me mild irritation.” Barnes chuckled, the ground grating on Sidian’s already-frazzled nerves. “Cataloging your changing scent is an important part of monitoring your pregnancy, as you well know.”
“I’m aware of it. Doesn’t mean I like it.” And it didn’t mean Sidian was going to comply with every single test they wanted to run on him just because they could.
“I don’t care about your personal feelings on the matter.” Barnes wrote something else down, pen scratching over the paper in quick, jagged movements. More notes on how difficult a patient Sidian was? Plans to drug him up through the pregnancy so he couldn’t give the staff more headaches? The possibilities were endless with that sociopathic piece of shit. “You know, it’s rather impressive you bred so well. Pack Kincaid seems so brutal when they visit you.”
Sidian’s mouth dried at the mention of the pack responsible for his current predicament, the pack responsible for—No. He didn’t want to think about that, think abouther,right now. “Fuck off.”
“Let’s see, let’s see…” Barnes murmured before clearing his throat. “Bruising around the throat, upper arms, wrists, hips, thighs, ankles, and even ribcage. You know, we thought they might have broken one of your ribs with how deep the mottling was.”
“Stop it.” Sidian’s body curled inward, his arms cinching tight around his stomach as the memories of his last heat assailed him.
Hands gripping him. Pinning him down. Twisting him into any position Pack Kincaid could think of. Fingers digging intohis skin, his chest aching with every breath, his throat sore from just how much the pack choked him and how roughly they used him.
Barnes continued on, unconcerned about the impact of his words. “Lacerations on the shoulders, hips, thighs, and breasts reminiscent of the shape of teeth marks—”
“Shut thefuckup,” Sidian hissed, ducking his head. Covering his ears would mean uncovering his stomach, and he couldn’t do that. Every instinct demanded he protect his belly.
“I would have thought they were trying to mark you, but even brutes like that know when an omega is not worth more than the holes he offers them.” Barnes never took his eyes off the file. Not once, not even as every word shaved off slivers of Sidian’s soul. “Internal damage, of course, though at this point we expect the vaginal and anal lacerations.”
