Now, I can be taken seriously.
Before they reached the edge of the tunnel, Wren jumped from Killian’s shoulders, hand still firmly rooted around the pistol. The alphas looked warily at the weapon, but they let her keep it. Even though she could have, she hadn’t and wouldn’t turn on them.
“You know how to reload that thing?” Killian asked.
Wren’s lustrous eyes rolled down to gaze at the mechanisms within the revolver. She had seen the men using their weapons, of course. But she had to admit she wasn’t smart enough to work it all the way.
“Teach me,” she said.
“And then what?” Killian asked. “You turn on us and run?”
“I will protect you like I did back in the barracks,” she sneered.
It was the first time she’d talked back to one of the alphas, but she felt it warranted. Now that she had a weapon, she could stand on her own two feet.
Vash held out the insignia tablet and let it shine brightly. “We are of the blood,” he said. “Soon, she will be, too. For now, we must accept her strengths and use them to our advantage. Cassian knows how we view situations. He has studied us with great care. With her, our movements will be more… unpredictable.”
Reluctantly, Killian glanced at the omega. Her brown hair hung in thick waves across the front of her stunning face. Noticing her sudden strength, he was taken aback and a little bit annoyed. He had never seen a woman like her before.
“I’m special,” she said, stepping forward with new confidence.
“Yes. You are,” Killian said, tossing her a holster to wear. “But I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle your truth.”
Killian turned around and kept walking. The worst part about this was that he knew he was connected to her now. They’d beaten her and bruised her into submission. Breaking her into a million pieces, they promised to be the glue that held her together. Turns out, she was the glue the entire time.
Vash reached into his pocket and pulled out the second pill the doctor gave him. Swallowing it, he clenched his throat as it traveled through his burning esophagus.
“We will go to Wren’s village, Varikar to find a specialist,” he said.
Wren felt hope bloom inside her ribs. Such joy that she ran toward Vash and kissed him, bowing in obedient worship. “Thank you,” she said.
“We will now breed you in your old bedroom. Thank us later.”
Chapter Eleven
The journey to Varikar was arranged and handled by a street vendor near the station. Out of money and forced into uncomfortable darkness for hours, the alphas didn’t say a word. Instead, they slept. Sometimes, when a bump would wake them, they would each take turns peering out of the bullet holes that traced the body of the vehicle.
The packing truck took them deep into the country where houses were sparse and the old fragments of war stood petrified on the stage of unpaved roads and tilted wagon wheels.
“I know this place,” Lucas whispered.
Wren curled her chin against his chest. Her fingers traced a line around his deeply inked tattoos and other faint battle scars. There was something hidden inside him, a pain he wouldn’t dare let out until now.
“You have been to Varikar?” she asked.
“I grew up in a town south of here. It was not known as Varikar then,” he said.
“But it must have been. I remember it so vividly,” she said.
Lucas was prepared for her childish ideas. She had been groomed by Cassian long enough to forget key details such as names, though he had no doubt she had been taken from the town.
The artifacts of war brought familiar demons back into his heart. Ages ago, he’d fought those battles. Him and his father. But that was before the Republic fell and cities broke out into numerous civil conflicts.
That was before mankind fell.
He’d never seen his mother again. Never saw his brothers, sisters, and optimistic neighbors who’d told him he could become somebody greater than himself. The rug had been pulled out from underneath their feet. Somehow, Lucas had learned to harden his heart. And once he killed enough to people to satisfy his bloodlust, he set his sights on Cassian.
They disembarked from the vehicle, stepping into the muddied soil. Bone fragments and gravestones littered the north side of the town. Fog slowly rolled through the emptied and ruined horse stables as the sun started to rise over the horizon. The village itself seemed completely abandoned.