He studied her with exasperation. “Why would they choose this instead? Why would they choose a life of fear and injury, even death over what we offer?”
She leaned forward to brush her sister’s hair gently back from her face. Max’s eyelashes fluttered on her cheeks, a soft murmur in the back of her throat as though she knew her twin was there and was comforted by it. Something was heartbreaking about the touch and he looked away, uncomfortable intruding on such a moment.
“Because all you offered was more of the same.” Her voice was soft with a resigned, sad note in it that tore at his heart. “If we’re going to die anyway, we’d rather do it on our feet with a weapon in our hands than on our backs, bleeding to death from knot wounds.”
He snarled. “We are not like the L’crav. You know this. You’ve seen it. Why do you still cling to the belief that this is better.”
The look she gave him would give even Var, the overseer’s shield, a moment’s pause.” Because this is all we’ve known for twenty years. I’ve killed more of your kind than you’ve spent days on my planet. You lot can’t just show up and say, ‘Oops, sorry. They were assholes, but trust us. We’re nothing like them,’ and expect us to throw ourselves into your beds in joyful relief that everything will be fine.”
“Yet, you gave yourself to me. Do you think I’m going to kill you like some ravening beast?”
Her expression shuttered and he felt the growl rise in his throat. His hand snapped out, and he hooked it around the back of her neck and hauled her up against him.
“You are mine,” he snarled. “You agreed to it. Now do not lie to me.”
She didn’t fight him as he expected, which was… disconcerting. He expected her ire, for her to push against his hold and threaten him with physical harm if her kind saw her being manhandled. But she didn’t. Instead, she was pliant in his hold, merely resting against him.
“When did I lie?” she asked, her voice low and calm.
His fangs had dropped and his anger added a deep rumble to his voice. “When haven’t you? This place. Your sister. Where you were captured. What you were doing at the time. All lies. So now I want to hear one truth from you. Do you think I could ever hurt you?”
“I don’t know.” The words didn’t hurt as much as the look in her eyes as she said it.
He was off balance, his pride stung. She still didn’t understand. “I will never hurt you, little star. And I will never let you go. Your sister will live to fight another day. I’ve kept my promises. It’s time you kept yours.”
She didn’t move at first, their gazes locked, but he couldn’t read hers. Then she nodded, her eyelids sweeping down as she relaxed against him. A surge of triumph rolled through him. She was his. She had admitted it and surrendered to him, naming him her alpha.
Leaning down, he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. Gentle. Tender. He would make her see that she was his, and he would protect her. Not because he wanted to, even though he did, but because he needed to. Being claimed was the safest place for any omega because their alphas were literally hard-wired to protect them. To see to their every need.
She would see. She would stop doubting him.
“Come,” he murmured, slinging his pack over his shoulder and reaching for her hand to lead her from the tent.
She took his hand and followed him out, but her head was turned to look at her sister until the last moment. Only when they reached the door did she look away. By then, her face was an expressionless mask.
Aware of her pain, he made an unexpected offer. “You may continue to stay in contact through her. Written notes. Once I have approved them, you can give them to the Mother Superior. Clearly she has ways of conveying such things.”
“Thank you.” Her words were soft and held none of their usual fire. “But that won’t be necessary. It would put too many at risk.”
He turned to look at her and lost his train of thought as someone who should not be anywhere near this camp appeared in the door of one of the tents. His shirt was tossed over his shoulder and he was fastening his pants as he exited.
A’Rett, the lord overseer’s spymaster, was here?
Kinn kept his expression level with iron control. Not only was the spymaster here, but he looked like he’d been here a while. His clothing was Terran, and as he walked past them eyeballing Kinn with a hard look that completely lacked any recognition, one of the other males called out to him to help them take down another structure. Stunned amusement filled Kinn as he tugged on his omega’s hand to lead her to the bike. The spymaster was here posing as a beta male, in the middle of a group of omegas and obviously knew the human general was an omega… and Kinn couldn’t tell a soul.
Some asshole god somewhere was laughing at him. They had to be.
Serena didn’t let herself feel anything on the ride back to the citadel. She locked away her grief, fear, and regrets. The pointless emotions wouldn’t change anything. She’d made a deal to save Max’s life. She couldn’t regret that. The rebellion would continue.
She just wouldn’t be part of it anymore. All that was left for her was to do what every omega did when forced to submit—wait for death’s release. The only omegas she knew of who hadn’t done that were Leia and Savannah… and they had each other.
She had… no one.
The walls of Zabor T’ah loomed over her, its high walls foreboding. Once those gates closed behind her, that was it. A bitter smile crossed her lips. Who was she kidding? It had been over for her as soon as Kinn had laid eyes on her. She sat, back straight, as he pulled the big air-bike to a stop in the transport compound. Unmoving, she waited for him to dismount, not arguing as he held his hand out to help her down. Silence stretched between them as he led her up to his rooms. She didn’t make eye contact with any of the alphas or beta servants they passed, letting her gaze slide out of focus.
The door shut behind her with a click and she jumped. She hadn’t realized they were here already.
“So this is how you plan to defy me now. Is it? Through silence and sulking?” Kinn’s voice was hard and threaded with fury. She turned to find him leaning back against the closed door, his arms folded over his massive chest. “I shouldn’t be surprised. In my experience, humans lie and deceive.”
“And in my experience alien assholes, are well… assholes. You take what you want, when you want it. Food. Water. Sex. Hell, you took our whole planet.” She kept her gaze on the floor. “But I am not defying you. You wished me to embrace my nature. To surrender. This is me surrendering.”
It was the hardest thing she’d done in a lifetime full of hard choices, but she put her hands behind her back, bowed her head low, and got on her knees. “I’m yours, T’kinn of the H’thor.”
Silence stretched in the room, the air crackling with something. Fury. Radiating out from the alien male at the door.
“Very well,” he bit out, his voice hard. “If this is how you want it. You get your wish. Come.”
She looked up as he strode past her toward the bedroom. For a moment she just watched, her entire body weak, but then she pushed to her feet and followed him.
It was the longest walk of her life, each step another link in the chains that bound her… but she did it. She put one foot in front of the other until she was in the bedroom, standing in front of the huge alien alpha with her gaze downcast in submission.