“An omega as precious as you would be wise to shut her lips. One might decide to split them open,” Severin said.
In what appeared to be an attempt to save face, Severin came closer to her and lowered himself to his knees. He was old—much too old for her. Everyone in the building must have known that. Besides, he had an omega he could fuck whenever he felt the mild urge take over, and without the annoyance of sharing with a whole pack of alphas. Her sister was his whore. If only he cared…
He opened the center of the sphere, reaching inside to make sure she was latched in place. His frail palms felt like crumpled paper against her thighs. Quietly, he spread her apart and breathed in the musky air that hung against the atmosphere of her bottom bliss. All for effect. All to make her writhe and scream. All to make him appear as the alpha he wasn’t.
“Ah,” he exhaled, nose twitching abruptly. “You are ovulating again.”
Rae jerked her arms back, but every movement served against her needs. Thick cables of military grade fastened her to the glass like a Chinese finger trap. She was taken in more and more by her struggle. Eventually, she grew tired. All it did was reveal her weakness to the audience of sex-crazed men.
“Don’t you fucking dare touch me,” she growled. “Don’t you dare!”
I have learned how to be patient. My mind is open. But my heart has been pierced.
First, Rae glanced above her. She quickly saw the metal piping attached to the rounded glass. Tracing the metal, she analyzed the circular assembly. She was in an artificial glass womb held in place by a giant, metallic structure. Near to her, a golden throne, empty and horrible, waited for its rightful ruler. She assumed her sister Ruby would walk in at any second.
This was a disgusting display created for the people to preoccupy their minds. A religious experience, that much was clear. But how far were they willing to take their acts of repugnance? And did Severin understand the full scope of his actions? How much was there that had yet to be uncovered? Rae would find out. She would expose them for who they were.
Severin turned a rusted knob attached to a thick pipe in the center of the room. The alphas nearby widened their eyes and lowered their jaws as if sharing in their collective pleasures. Coming from within the room, a rumble shook the floor.
“I’m an honest man, precious,” he said.
“Don’t… don’t call me that,” she whimpered.
My mind flashes back to when I still had them… my alphas… my babies…
Severin smiled and shook, mocking her twisted body—her agony would be edited in a way that would be suitable for public consumption. Of all the things her twin allowed for as the new prime minister, this seemed the most profane.
Despite the women’s connection by blood, they were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Her twin, Ruby, was an activist and soldier, but her body would not allow her to bear children. She was not a true omega, but she could pretend. In that way, Ruby was like most of the women in the region, but she had gained power by using her sister as a compass. She used her to find the exact areas to infiltrate, the correct people to kill. It didn’t sit right with Rae, but Rae did not fault her as much as she should have. After all, this beta scum was the one who’d taught her how to behave.
Rae was a mother. As for Ruby, without a working uterus she offered the New Republic very little, spare her skills in the battlefield. Her commanding twin had no sympathy for those who skirted the reins of power to start a family. In these times of war and devastation, it made no sense to burden oneself with more responsibility, especially when the world was begging for real leadership.
That was why Ruby allowed Severin to torment her sister. She didn’t know what else to do with the poor and uneducated lowlife. Not to mention, Severin was the controller of ideas and images. It was his duty to weave an intricate and bloody story, and what better way to force emotions onto the public than by broadcasting her suffering to the world.
Rae liked to think of herself as someone always on the brink of self-liberation. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Rae was no longer a test subject under Cassian’s hand, she was a captive whore, pathetic and retaken. However, she would not allow any of these men to rape and defile her.
Again, the men laughed at her pain, but Rae knew that merriment through troubled times only meant stupidity. They might have shared a brief sense of comfort, but the years after a war were always the hardest, and the sons of bitches hadn’t seen true devastation. If she knew humanity’s strength, it was that with each downfall, they always knew how to put on a better show.
Digging her heels back against the circular glass, she felt the sphere fill with water from below, nearly freezing to the touch. Her jaw extended open to suck in air, but her lungs seemed to shrink away from the cold. Every ounce of oxygen she took in caught against her throat.
“N-N-No! Turn it off, turn it off, turn it—”
She slipped and twisted farther into the cables, which she now noticed gripped better when wet. They coiled around her body, mechanically spreading like ivy.
Rising above her, Severin grabbed the soft and pudgy areas of her cheeks where her makeup had been smeared to death. Clawing down, his hands shook and eyes burned with pious fire.
“There, there,” he cooed. “You will do what is good for the New Republic, yes?”
“Please, I can’t take any more, I—”
Whistling, the man turned the valve to the other side. The edge of the water hung just above her navel. “Why do you insist on fighting me, dear?”
Eyes pried open with fright, she scoured the room’s inhabitants. Each man threaded through a pile of cash; some threw coins near the tub. Sultans, kings, generals—they’d traveled across the world to see the new spectacle, and they would pay a pretty penny to be the ones to spin the valve next.
“I just want to see my babies,” Rae said through chattering teeth.
Severin stopped the water from rushing any higher. As the amber liquid hung against her body, she attempted to breathe, slow and methodical. If she focused hard enough, there was a chance of powering through the cold.
“What is it with you omegas and procreation? It is such an odd obsession driven by wild urges. Urges that must be contained,” Severin scoffed before focusing on her pale skin. “I need the world to know that under the beautiful and vast New Republic, there is so much more to live for.”