Reborn (Alpha's Claim 3)

“Little one.” Shepherd leaned back in his chair and leveled her with those eyes. “You need not be threatened by her. I love only you.”

After swallowing a bite of melon, Claire put down the fork. She let out a sigh, her expression falling flat. “If I say please, can we drop the topic? You have taken my world from me. I don’t need to hear about how I have lost him too.”

The purr began the second it was clear she was upset. “You have Maryanne.”

“But for how much longer?” It was a pointed question that matched the sinking feeling in her stomach. “I feel like everything is slipping through my fingers and I don’t know why.”

“We will lay down now.” Shepherd purred louder, standing and moving towards her. “Come, little one.”

Frustrated, she complained at his course, feeling he did not understand what she was saying. “No amount of fucking is going to make me feel better about what I just heard.”

He was already pulling her dress over her head, kneading the tension in her shoulders. “Time will soothe you and so will I. This is just one bad day. It will pass.”Chapter 7“We are running out of time. Decide. Where is Shepherd keeping Claire?”

They were back in Senator Kantor’s tomb, arguing over his body as they always did. “I DON’T KNOW where she is, Dane. That’s the point. All I know is that she is in the Citadel.”

Brigadier Dane, leaned closer to their shared COMscreen. “Show me a projection of the building’s layout again.”

“Claire jumped off the roof near the back.” Corday explained, squinting at the image. “He keeps her locked out of sight, and would not have taken her far from his den, especially knowing her penchant for escape. She has to be near this location.”

The older woman nodded in agreement. “And there are no windows in her cell; she told you it was grey, so no decorations either, only concrete. There must be running water for her use.” Pointing to a segment embossed in the middle of the building’s foundation, Brigadier Dane said. “She is here, somewhere on one of these two underground levels. Or she’s here,” Another branch of the building in a completely different quadrant was highlighted, “tucked between the loading docks and the ventilation systems. Both locations are fortified, few entrances. Once I am inside there will be even fewer exits.”

Brown eyes hard with intention, he warned, “Bombs will be going off above you. The only plausible way to get her clear of the blast is to go underground.”

“The Undercroft?” Brigadier Dane hummed, scowling over her thoughts. “There must be tunnels spanning the building, the very tunnels Shepherd used the day of the breech. Show me the maps of the prison. We need to estimate which locations he would have found strategic for invasion.”

“These are outdated, originals from when the Undercroft was built. Shepherd’s Followers may have designed a whole network of shafts not on these maps. If you get lost...”

“I don’t get lost.” Irritated, Dane’s eyes flashed away from the screen. “So tell me, Enforcer, which one of these locations am I going to infiltrate?”

Sighing, knowing if he picked the wrong place to look for Claire, that she, that Brigadier Dane, would die, Corday said, “We need a second team.”

“That is not possible.” Dane had explained this before. “You know that is not possible. Not with two days. Not without Leslie learning what we plan to do. You have to choose one of these potential locations. You have to commit.”

How on earth was he to do that without more definitive information? What if she was in neither spot? What then?

Brigadier Dane had seen him question himself over Claire’s position time and time again. “Don’t even consider going after her yourself. You would be noticed by the rebels, shot for a traitor before you got within ten paces of the Citadel. Think of what Claire would want. She wants our people to be free more than she wants her life. You have a duty to her. When Shepherd has been deposed, there must be elections, real democracy. Leslie Kantor will not offer those things. She will declare martial law... nothing under the Dome will change except the name of our dictator.”

His superior officer was right, of course. Anyone who had seen how Leslie, Lady Kantor, comported herself, how she fed zealotry to her rebels in the name of her uncle, would grasp that any power she had at the end of this mess would be amplified by her desires.

She wanted to be a queen, was going to massacre tens of thousands of people to achieve her goals.

Seeing that the Beta grasped where they stood, Brigadier Dane got back to the subject at hand. “Now, tell me Enforcer Corday, is Claire in the east corridor or the basement?”