Having already begged for her freedom, having told him point blank that she wanted to be returned to Beta sector, having heard his denials, she was slipping away.
Especially now that he was changing her into something else.
He might have turned her head, but her eyes did not follow. Still she looked to the light playing off the Dome as if to ignore him.
“Are you going to answer me?” The firmness of his voice folded into softness, displaying all the strength she lacked.
Another trail of silent tears fell.
His hand left her chin, fingers lightly wrapping her neck as if he toyed with the idea of pulling her closer—of making her answer. “You enjoyed it last night. Need I remind you of that?”
The Alpha was equal parts threatening and sweet, careful in how he touched her, yet lingering over her throat as if to remind the Omega she stood no chance.
Her eyes. Brown eyes the color of honey… she knew this because he said it often, because he complimented them… shifted in their sockets. A light shadow of dark blond stubble shaded Jacques’ cheeks. His eyes were aglow, his features rested. He was not suffering as she was.
He was content. Satisfied.
Even her voice sounded different, carried inflection and pain when before it had been perfunctory. “It wasn’t me. You’ve put a stranger inside my head.”
“You don’t need to be afraid of emotion.” All buried aggression faded from the male. He became infinitely soft, his eyes full of love, his voice careful. “What you are feeling now, is who you always were. You just didn’t know yourself.”
“I knew myself. I knew my work. I knew purpose.”
Settling back in his chair, Jacques took her limp hand and intertwined their fingers. “Near the end of the Reformation Wars over forty Domes were in development. Many failed to seal their doors before plague ruined all their efforts and entire populations were decimated. Half the original Domes never made it past the first year leaving twenty-two spread over the globe.”
It had always been considered uncouth to speak of other Domes outside of lecture, the idea discouraged from a very young age. The fact that Jacques spoke so pointedly of it now, considering context, snagged Brenya’s attention… as well as her distaste. “We should not speak of these things.”
He ignored her trained response, squeezed her hand, and spoke on. “Approximately two-hundred years have passed since those still fighting in the wars died of plague. Civilization has somewhat stabilized… to a point. But, it is not common knowledge that of the original Domes, only twelve stand now.”
Shaking her head, she clarified, “There are twenty-two Domes.”
“There are twelve left standing today, Brenya.”
He was wrong. She’d been taught about the other Domes in school. “I can list off their names for you, their locations, their cultures and languages.”
“Usually our leadership learns of the reasons a Dome failed: technical difficulties, over-population, disease… war. Sometimes we are left with only questions. But seventeen domes over the last two-hundred years were lost—more than half. The people inside them are dead. So, you must understand that it is imperative order be maintained inside Bernard Dome. Order is what keeps us all alive.”
Brenya asked, “Why would we be taught that things are different than they are?”
“Because confidence in the world, a firm knowledge that our species has found its place, lessens fear. Very few people know the truth. For, if I was to tell you that less than a year ago one of the most successful Domes, the Dome most protected from plague, from outside influence, from even my satellites’ reach, fell in a bloody civil war, how would you feel?”
The human race had moved past petty squabbles. The human race had advanced itself. War no longer had a place in the world. All these thing Brenya told herself, but fear slipped into her reply. “I would not believe you.”
“Thólos Dome was ripped apart from the inside. It is fact.”
A cold wash of uncertainty set her skin to gooseflesh, made her breath shallow, and turned down the corners of her mouth. “I don’t understand.”
“Civil war, Brenya. It could happen anywhere, at any time under the right sort of pressure. In Bernard Dome, our founder, my forefather, set into motion a society structure that made it improbable but not impossible. It is my duty, the duty of every Dome leader, to assure their people do not fall into the same trap. Over the generations, we have fine-tuned this plan, amplified it, adjusted as we could. There was some sacrifice… such as the decrease and eventual cessation of Omega births.”
He was talking about her, all of it, his entire point was her. “Our founder, Henry Bernard, was a brilliant scientist, exceedingly wealthy, and pragmatic. The initial population did not know what he’d added to the water and the food supply. They did not know they had been emotionally suppressed, that their children and their children’s children would be farmed into placement and training to benefit the whole. Like all Betas outside of central, you too were subjected to these restraints—from birth, in fact. Pharmacological control has been added to your food, your water. You have been monitored and conditioned from birth to be complacent, obedient, hardworking, and dedicated. Those Betas who fail parameter tests are removed permanently from society. There is no reassignment. Had you not been Omega, you would have been terminated at your next review.”