The alphas’ eyes violated every revealing cut of thread. The dress was a heap of shreds, but plenty of women must have walked down the aisle in worse. It was the thought that counted.
“I’m going to marry the shit out you, sweetheart,” Vash said. The rest of the men grumbled in agreement.
How funny it was to see the men fall to the recognized feminine position of receiving. Marriage was odd in that way. For a brief moment, the men could act as humble servants to her nature.
Virgil cleared his throat and began a quick and very much freestyle version of the ceremony. “Life has… well, life is full of surprises.”
Rae coughed but quickly straightened her back and smiled. Still, from the corner of her mouth, she said, “You can leave the ‘surprise’ stuff out, Virgil.”
Virgil continued. It was clear that time was of the essence, and every small interruption was dragging them behind schedule. Love was the most important thing to her. She wanted to believe it was real, yearned to truly know that it could be understood, as if something pure could be codified through symbols or language, or even a ring stolen during a bloody raid. As flimsy as those things were, and despite the many negative connotations that they conjured for other omegas, she wanted them. It was important to her, and Virgil would have to deal with the time lost in whatever fashion he needed.
“A shared life is something to strive for. A shared life—yes, something that cannot be separated. That is what we hope for. It is the very essence of our being. To have another’s heart in the darkest of nights, to help you shine when you need to most, is the only glory of man,” he said. “Tonight, we gather under the earth, in an underpass to what we hope will bring us home. We are wet, we are in pain, but we gather together in our belief in love. It might be our only hope against a broken world.”
As the light from the candle hit Virgil’s hand, he slowly unveiled the ring. They each stared, and they must have felt what Rae felt. Symbols were all they had. And their love was the only thing that kept them together after years apart.
The men each took a side of the ring, but Killian held the center and slid it over her finger, a bit too preemptively. The marriage was nearly complete.
“Do you alphas take Rae as your wife, for better or for worse, for sickness and in health? In other words, are you willing to stand by her even if it means losing everything you worked toward?” Virgil asked.
The men answered in unison. “I am, and I do.”
Virgil turned to Rae. Tears fell from her eyes. “And you? Will you stand by your men throughout the chaos?”
The captive queen wiped her eyes and let out a relieved cry of joy. “I will. And I do.”
Virgil raised his hands in the air. “She loves that you want to be close to her. She will remember every memory you’ve made together. You have been a part of her since the beginning, but if you are ever separated, trust that you will find each other again.”
The alphas knelt before their queen. Soon, each rose and stayed close, teasing up her body with fresh kisses. “I’ll never lose you,” Rae said. “We’ll get our children back. We’ll be a family again.”
Rae found herself lost in their touch, their smell, and their passionate caresses. She felt safe and connected as a child might within the womb. Once again, she let herself succumb to their tongues, but she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was a woman, an omega, and she had an obligation to grow and nurture.
As they fell into their love, Virgil walked closer to the exit, where the small pool of water bubbled. He shook with a sudden anger they hadn’t yet witnessed. Throwing the candle at the wall, he seemed to smile before the darkness overtook the light.
“We must go,” he said. “We have to swim under. It will be quick, but we have to make sure we don’t lose each other underneath. It will be dangerous.”
Without her sight, Rae was hit with another unknown. Regarding him as a gentle man, she immediately questioned Virgil’s intentions when she saw the sliver of anger cut through. “I thought you were a man of faith…”
Virgil stepped forward, but still he was shrouded by cold darkness. His frail body morphed inside her imagination, turning into something monster-like and dreadful. Rae could smell him, for he was so close, and she felt terrified of him now. He said, “My god is a righteous monster, the one that hangs from the rafters of the deteriorating mind, casting foul hallucinations in the most innocent of creatures. My god is a wretched, vile, and depraved being, and he answers to nothing but my withering tone. Do not tell me what he presumes of me. I am what shapes his mind. You will meet him soon enough…”
Rae swallowed and nodded, but the action didn’t come as freely as she might have expected hours before. She felt obligated to follow the old preacher, and her mind wandered to their safety. If she knew anything of this inescapable hell, it was that more frantic moments awaited her.
Still, she marched forward for the sake of her children. It was all a woman could do.
Chapter Eleven
Rebellion made a woman as unpresentable as a molting fowl. Rae had been trained to think in those term
s, anyway. She used to be at the bottom. Strangely, killing her captor put her at the top. Nevertheless, she was still at the bottom. The fact unsettled her to no end.
She had dreams of being a queen. Of course, nearly every woman did because they grew up knowing they would own nothing. She wished for romantic canoe rides in beautiful cascading rivers and lakes, long days of sex and eating of sugary pastries, as she addressed the public while her alphas lapped at her clit.
Of course, none of that would happen. Rae’s alphas were raised in the same brutal war and slave culture as the rest of mankind. The only thing they could hope for was to escape. She couldn’t be like the blackbird. She had to stay out of sight forever.
“This is where we must stick together,” Virgil said.
But it seemed impossible. Without the hope of light, she didn’t know how to see the path. Only the adept could keep the way sorted in the absence of grace, and she started to feel trapped in her body again, in the same way she used to under Cassian’s hand.
She turned to Killian and held out her palm. It was still too dark to see, but he took it and squeezed. “It’s okay, Precious. We will find the way to our freedom soon.”