Gathering her up, he lay back in a bland nest, knowing the state of their bed was the biggest statement she might make concerning the arguments of the day. Her weight on him was perfect, the way she instinctively hummed in tune with his soft purr, a balm.
Before he might share a history that didn’t belong to him, he gathered up her hair and let its silk slip through his fingers. “Jules was once married to an Omega—”
Claire whispered, stroking his flank, “You were there, spying, when Jules told me about Rebecca. I did not forget the terrible story concerning his sons—how Senator Cantor murdered them in front of her before he forced a pair-bond. How he found his wife, once he was free of the Undercroft, that she begged him to kill her. Jules shot her in the head.”
“He did.” And his compatriot had returned to the Undercroft a very different man.
Placing her chin to his chest so she might look him in the eyes, his little one asked, “You were surprised Jules told me.”
“He would have only done so for good reason, a testament to the effort he has put forward for my sake.”
Cautiously playful, Claire teased, “He is your friend, Shepherd. It’s okay to acknowledge that you have one besides me.”
A strange sensation twisted under Shepherd’s ribs. “You would consider me your friend, Claire O’Donnell?”
Sleepy smile, eyes glittering, she said, “My best friend.”
Before he knew it, she had coaxed a smile out of him, a rare thing that felt both unpracticed and welcome when they were together. If only he could spend the morning playing with her hair and making soft love to her. Instead—for Jules—he told his wife, his friend, tales from the Undercroft.
The disturbing story of two Alphas who had been condemned to the dark. How both of them claimed they had been used by a powerful Beta, tricked into a three-pronged pair-bond. How he had confirmed the information himself once the registries were available to him. How the Omegas had died.
And then he told the story of Brenya Perin, looking at his wife, knowing he would be condemned by the parallels of what he had done to Claire.
He had taken his Claire against her will. He had forced her to know pleasure on his cock. He had harmed her friends. He had shamed her by lying with another. He had failed to keep her and their son safe.
He could not honestly say that what had motivated him in those early months was any different than what motivated Jacques Bernard—Shepherd understood an Alpha’s insatiable obsession with a new mate.
Shepherd had made mistakes, but he also had an accounting of every last mark on his Omega’s body. There could not have been so much as a splinter he did not know the source of.
There was no meal on her plate that he had not approved. Every article of clothing, every last green dress, was chosen by him. He still dictated her days to an extent that, should Claire ever realize, would upset her.
It would greatly upset her. And he had no intention of changing his ways. Ever.
She would always be his number one priority.
And that was the difference between himself and Jacques Bernard. He had put his Omega in danger from the moment he’d forced a pair-bond. And it would never be undone.
Listening with a concentration of someone who understood the weight of his words, she asked relevant questions regarding the stories of the long-dead Alphas, their Omegas, and the Betas who had orchestrated it all.
Gnawing her lip, Shepherd could see what she was thinking, surprised she put a voice to her thoughts.
“In both situations, the Omegas died and the Betas lived.” Dropping her voice to a whisper as if the Goddess might not hear her say such a thing, Claire said, “Jules could leave her behind and come home.”
Cupping his mate’s cheek, Shepherd met her eyes. “If you only knew the things that man had done to return to Rebecca, you would be frightened to stand in his presence. Brenya Perin broke into his cell tonight and offered him a sound chance for escape. Knowing that we could have assured from our end that it took place, Jules refused to go.”
“So he wants this woman despite the fact that he cannot ever have her?”
Drawing her cheek down to his chest, increasing the purr, Shepherd replied, “I saw the way he looked at her, little one. It’s the same way I look at you.”
“Then it’s done, Shepherd.”
No. It had only just begun.
A foreign power could not contain Jules Havel. The Commodore of Bernard Dome could not degrade a man who had stood by Shepherd’s side, who had been his friend—who had charmed Claire when she was lonely, who had stood as his partner as they had wreaked vengeance upon Thólos.