Shepherd's mother was not the only woman thrown into hell.
At dawn, Claire was exhausted but determined. Maryanne swore up and down and yanked Claire to bed when the Omega would not stop yawning. Once under the covers, it was so simple to fall into old patterns; Maryanne braiding Claire's hair just like she had when they were little.
Hoping the answer would not be as disappointing as she anticipated, Claire sighed, "The way you talk about the Undercroft, the look in your eye every time I say the name Shepherd… You know him."
"Everyone knows him."
No, it was much deeper than that. Claire rolled over to look her friend in the eye. "Don't lie to me, Maryanne. He scares you. He scares you because you know him. Somehow you were once involved with that monster. Are you still?"
Maryanne tried to be flippant. "Involved? I should be asking you that same question. After all, your romance is probably going to get me killed."
"I am not mated to Shepherd by choice." Claire would not let herself blink or stutter. "I went into estrous unexpectedly in front of him. He forced the pair-bond."
Maryanne had the decency to look stricken. "Don't take this the wrong way, Claire, but this is Shepherd. He's a powerful man. It seems a little strange that he would bond to a woman he didn't know… I mean, he's a warlord. People probably give him Omegas for Christmas."
Svana's words echoed in Claire's head. 'We have not shared a heated Omega in some time.'
"They do… I don't know why he bonded to me, and the one time I asked, he gave only pointless, empty words." Her green eyes grew harder, as did Claire's demand for answers. "My question, Maryanne. How do you know him?"
Pursing her lips, Maryanne confessed, "I, um, needed friends once."
"I was your friend. I would have been, had you not run off… and," Claire sighed, knowing Maryanne well enough to see she was not exactly an innocent, "done the things you did until you got thrown into the Undercroft."
Maryanne snorted. "Before I found a way out."
"From Shepherd."
"My services in exchange for my life." The girl who had never felt guilty about a single trespass she had committed in her life looked at her old friend with uncustomary regret. "I was the one who recovered the access codes to the Judicial Sector and the Citadel."
Brows drawn tight, Claire hissed, "How could you?"
"I didn't know their plans for Thólos. I swear."
Claire didn't want to hear it. "What did you think he would do once freed?"
"He was already free…" Maryanne whispered. "How do you think I got out?"
Claire's brows shot up. "What?"
Maryanne snorted at the small woman's naiveté. "Sorry, bitch, but we've been screwed for a long time."
"Do you know where he keeps the virus?"
Smirking, Maryanne shared a hard truth. "If I did, do you really think I'd be here, stockpiling and preparing for the end of the world? Listen to me, Claire, they don't know about this place. I wiped it from the records almost a decade before I was tossed downstairs. I have enough food, enough air scrubbers to get through almost a year. You don't need to follow through with your crap plan. You can stay here with me. Should the worst happen, all we'd have to do is wait until the virus did its work."
Claire shook her head. "The Dome is cracked, Maryanne. You'd freeze to death as the ecosystem fails. It's like he planned for people like you. We're all going to die; we're all going to die if nothing is done."They were both anxious, tired… just like everyone else in Thólos. There was no point in further argument. Instead both Claire and Maryanne fell into hurried preparations. Things needed to be built for Claire's scheme, and technology learned. Maryanne's explanations, the way she could make something dangerous from nothing, reminded Claire just how out of her element she was.
Rudimentary bombs, how to override basic access panels—Maryanne was teaching her instead of just making them herself, wordlessly reminding Claire that their association would soon end and that the fumbling Omega would be on her own.
When all the tools were ready, Claire showered, scrubbing off any lingering trace of Corday's scent. Maryanne was in that bathroom applying lipstick as if they were planning an outing, not an attack against the tyrants holding the city. Blinking at the mirror, Maryanne froze, jaw agape at the sight of the Omega's naked body.
The Alpha touched without asking. "What is all of this?"
Claire didn't need to look down to know what Maryanne found so disturbing. "The price of my freedom."
Careful fingers traced the yellowing handprint over Claire's throat. "And your neck?"
An incoherent noise, a mockery of speech got stuck in Claire's mouth. "It's nothing."
Maryanne took her chin and turned Claire's face to meet her own big brown eyes. She smiled, teasing. "Your feet are disgusting. You're bleeding all over my floor."