Ravaged Captive (Wren's Song 4)

Ran to where? The Warrens was vast, but not endless. She didn’t have access to the upper levels or any way out of the city without a great deal of money to bribe the guards at the gate.

Pushing up, Wren straightened and let the man get a good long look at her—bare, dirty, dripping fluids, and clearly unhealthy. It was pointless to sign to him, he wouldn’t understand. So, squeezing filth from her hair, she muddied her fingers, and smeared them over the cracked white subway tiles that coated the wall at her back, writing:

My boys.

A hint of evil in his smirk, a flare of light in green eyes. “You think we’d give them back to you?”

Throat bobbing, Wren swallowed, incapable of answering.

“Did Toby lie? You didn’t know Caspian was searching for you?”

A single, subtle shake of her head.

“Because he threw you out. You thought he was done.”

A nod.

“And you came anyway…” Crossing his arms over his chest, Kieran cocked his head. “You must have suspected he’d most likely kill you.”

A debt was a debt, yet she’d come expecting it to be her last day. She’d swam through filth anticipating her body would be tossed right back into the sewage to rot. Not once did she figure Caspian would want her back. Turning to the wall, she pressed one hand to her heart, and pointed again at the two words that summed up her entire motivation.

My boys.

“You wasted your chance to be free.” Kieran’s next words fell with an odd ring. They fell unsure, as if what he shared he didn’t wish to. “Before you get your hopes up, know that you won’t find your kid here. Alec is gone.”

That couldn’t be right…

Eye twitched, her breath stopped mid exhale. Alec couldn’t be gone! Caspian assured her he’d live, and that was even before Kieran had slipped the boy a healing boost.

Had they disposed of him when she was no longer here to entertain them? Had they hurt him?

“I didn’t say he was dead, Omega. I said he was gone.” The Second reached out to stop her wobbly forward assault, giving her a rough shake when her stray hand landed a pathetic slap to his chest. “Toby took your boy to the upper levels to serve as a runner for his offices in Council. The psychopath wanted to honor your memory.”

Eyes wide and spilling fresh tears, Wren tried to find the world under her feet.

Toby got her boy out of the waterworks? Even though he thought she was dead?

He did that for her.

Upper levels? Clean air. No mud. Food on every street corner…

Head falling against Kieran’s chest, Wren began to sob. And immediately the male misunderstood.

“I bet you wish you’d hidden now.” Dropping his hold, he let her sink to the floor and stepped back as if she disgusted him.

The fraying threads that held her mentally together snapped. Just like that.

One moment she had a purpose, the next her purpose was served.

Alec was in the upper levels, safe, where he could take care of himself better than anyone might imagine. Even without her, he’d thrive. Now that he was no longer blind to what Caspian could and would do to the both of them, he’d sharpen up. He’d know when to run, and Wren was sure, if that kid put his mind to it, not even the Syndicate would find him.

Her child was rebellious, unruly, and completely underestimated by these bad men.

And Toby had unleashed him upon the upper levels.

Cracking, as if her body was stone and she was about to shed that craggy old skin, the weight just fell off of her.

And she cried all the harder for it. Right there, on the floor. Emotional vomit purged until she began to laugh.

Mikael was going to heal. Alec was safe.

And where did that leave her?

Shouldering a terrible new feeling—gratitude toward Toby.

She appreciated Toby for doing something selfless, felt in that moment a flicker of fondness the insane Third Alpha didn’t deserve. Unsure if she’d be able to reconcile how much she loathed him for whipping her boy with how much she adored him for taking Alec from this horrible place, she put her forehead to the floor.

After an embarrassing length of time, her mind ceased reeling, and she was able to push back to her haunches. Twisting so her legs splayed before her, Wren leaned against the coolness of the wall, breathless and… smiling.

This must be what it felt like to die.

A lightness that fooled her body into believing it drifted, not slumped on dirty tiles. She couldn’t even smell the mud and shit that she’d crawled through.

Not when out of nowhere Kieran leaned over her, so close that if she turned her head just a touch, she could lay her cheek to his.

Before she might lean into his heat and draw in his scent, the male shoved to his feet. Bracing his legs on either side of her hips, he tore down his zipper, and shoved a fully hard cock past her teeth. Unprepared, Wren instinctively swallowed against the rising water that was moments from escaping her belly, and found his pelvis met her lips.