"I was not the only man trapped in that dark by corruption above. Like my mother, more than half of the men forced below were innocent enough, but inconvenient to the powers that be. I learned secrets from them, things you cannot imagine… if you only knew the infection creeping through the hearts of this city, little one, if you could read the stories scraped into the rocks below us."
Why was he telling her this? She began to struggle, and flinched when his finger inside her surged deeper, stretching her until she stilled.
"Open your eyes, little one." The growl was menacing, guttural. "You will look at me when I say this."
She did not want to look at him, felt invaded by that single, oversized finger, and the way he still teased at her tongue with his thumb. Jerking from the penetration, she met his gaze.
"These men, this rotten society—in your goodness, you fail to see the flaws. I could tell you things that would keep you awake at night. Everyone, man and woman, hanged outside the Citadel participated in, or knowingly ignored, atrocities. Like the imprisonment of my mother.
"And yes, years ago Svana became my lover and I thought she was also, equivalently, my mate. I learned I was wrong. She is a driven woman, powerful, but you are the mate the Gods designed for me. Had you been dropped into the Undercroft, had I smelled you once, I would have killed every man who tried to touch you. I would have claimed you and dragged you to my cell, bent you over my cot, and fucked you where every convict might see through the bars… so that they all knew you belonged to me. Do you understand?"
There was no answer for such a barbaric statement.
Shepherd sniffed her, growled. With his finger still submerged in her ass, he worked his cock deep inside where she was wet and ready. She gave a little scream, muffled by his thumb as he began to rut. There was nothing tender, it was pure aggression, but it satisfied in a strange way. The overfull feeling, the way he left no place untouched as that uninvited digit squirmed around. She climaxed so quickly it was startling, felt his knot press against her quivering passage as he removed his finger from her rectum.
Claire screamed when her orgasm twisted into a tuneless vibration that wracked her bones.
When he shot his load against her womb, each spurt was matched with a roar. Head buried at her shoulder, lips at her neck, Shepherd pressed his chest to hers, to the place where they were tied. The cord sang, burned, ached, pleased, and consumed.
His thumb left her mouth, Shepherd pleased when he ground his knot inside her and his little one came again.
Crushed under him, his Omega moaned, lowered her lashes, and found sleep in the clinging arms of what may, had circumstances been different, been a good man."What do you mean she's not here?" Corday demanded.
"I mean, Enforcer Corday," Nona offered a tired sigh, "that she isn't here. Claire slipped away days ago and has not returned."
Behind narrowed eyes, Corday's mind raced a mile a minute. The worry was making his stomach churn, and by the look in Nona's eyes it was clear she was just as upset, only concealing it better.
As if trying to offer the young man an explanation, Nona said, "I think she simply decided to go home."
"To Shepherd?" he snapped, anger written all over his face. "Claire would never do that."
"She had been low on spirits, Enforcer. What I am trying to tell you is that she most likely went home."
"You are wrong," Corday spat the words. He had spoken to Claire only three days prior. The Omega had given him her ring… she'd made a vow. "Did those women run her off?"
"No, but they would have in a matter of days. She knew that."
The agitated Beta looked at the old woman as if she was stupid. "So she went somewhere else for shelter."
"Perhaps," Nona admitted, debating if it would be best for the young man to have something to hold on to.
"When did she leave, precisely?"
"The morning of your last visit."
Corday threw up his hands, growling at the ceiling. "Goddamn it, Claire!"
Nona took his shoulder again, squeezed his coat, and pulled him away from the gathering Omega crowd. "Sit!" The Beta male obeyed out of decorum, Nona glaring. "Claire did not want me to tell you who I really am. But I am going to anyway, because you are a Beta and I know you care for her, but you do not understand."
Nona made him be still, composing herself beside him. "When I was sixteen, I was abducted from my home, kept under lock and key for days until I was sold like cattle—bought by a man named David Aller, and forced into a pair-bond at my next estrous by a stranger twice my age.