Reborn (Alpha's Claim 3)

Claire had fought her pair-bond.

Claire had stormed against her mate to free the Omegas.

Through her flyer, Claire made herself a beacon and a movement.

She did it with no support. She did it knowing it would cost her her life.

Releasing a shaking breath, Corday sat back upon his couch, put his head in his hands and, muttered to himself, “Claire...”

Leslie Kantor was a sad shadow in comparison. The Alpha female’s fire may have inspired the men and women hidden in the Premier’s Sector, she may have successfully reconstructed the resistance into a true rebellion, but she was not eager to sacrifice herself to keep her people safe—not like Claire had been. Instead, she was ready to sacrifice others. Leslie’s rebels were fanatical in their adoration of their gods-sent leader. Men and women Corday had known before the breech—calm, collected, rational people who’d lost too much, seen too many horrors, had transformed into willing suicide bombers. He hated to even draw the comparison, but his compatriots had begun to behave like disturbing reflections of Shepherd’s Followers.

They never questioned, they only obeyed.

They were willing to draw innocent people into the crossfire.

As Lady Kantor would say, that was the price of change.

The sad truth was, no matter the outcome of their attack on the Citadel, unlike Senator Kantor’s resistance, the rebels would accomplish something. It might not be the outcome they hoped for. After all, if even one bomb should be incorrectly placed, it could bring down the whole Dome. But revolution would take place. Shepherd and his virus would be eradicated.

New life could be built upon the ashes.

One blast and the stagnation of citizens under the Dome would stop. Riots would ensue; everyone would fight or be killed.

As Leslie loved to say, the people of Thólos were to be reborn.

Corday pressed his palms to his face and tried to rub the nightmare away. Little more than one day was left. Brigadier Dane would carry out her mission, Corday with no ability to know of her success or failure. Instead, he’d be marching with Leslie Kantor.

His former commander expected him to assassinate the leader of the rebels, Dane’s reasoning disgustingly sound. Pulling that trigger would most likely cost him his life. He would never see his lovely Claire again. The only thing left he could do for her was to pick the right location of Shepherd’s den, so his friend might have a chance to survive.

The words came on a sigh. “The basement or the east corridor?”

From a shadowed corner of the room, an unexpected voice sliced through Corday’s concentration. “I’m surprised you would return here, given what you now know. It almost appears as if you want to be captured. Do you, Samuel Corday? Do you want me to take you to Shepherd?”

At the sound of the intruder’s taunt, Corday’s heart skipped a beat. Breath coming quick, stiff where he sat on his couch, the Beta searched the dark for the source. It was more than fear that churned inside him... it was a strange sense that the intruder was right. Breathless, adrenaline tightening his voice, Corday answered. “I haven’t been able to decide.”

Again, the toneless voice moved through the dark. “He has a temper. I don’t think you would survive a conversation with him. Fortunately for you, whether you tell me the truth or lie, I have no intention of ending your life tonight.”

Eyes wide, Corday looked over his shoulder. With so much shadow, he could barely make out the shape of a man—an outline armed with an assault rifle pointed right at him. “What is it that I know?”

“You don’t know anything but what we’ve fed you. There is no single fact squeezed into your brain that is wholly correct... And yes, before you ask, Claire is alive. Shepherd has nursed her back to health. Four months from now, she will give birth to a boy.”

Nursed her? The man in the dark made it sound as if Shepherd were some sweet lover, not the monster who murdered men with his bare hands. Corday did not even try to hide the look of disgust from his face. “After she was captured, Claire exposed the resistance. You’ve come here to gloat.”

“Is that what you believe?” Twisting his smirk with an evil chuckle, Jules took a step out of the dark, exposing his face to enough light that the Enforcer might grasp just who had come. Recognition was instantaneous: Shepherd’s second-in-command, the harbinger of death. It was more than the flat expression and lifeless voice, it was the outcast’s intention. “She would be so disappointed to hear such a thing from a man she admires as much as you.”

The Beta looked heartbroken. “I know she’d never have done it if he hadn’t forced her.”

“Shepherd’s mate has never once offered even a hint of information about you or your pathetic resistance.” Face suddenly blank of expression, Jules stared forward with a pair of strangely focused eyes. “It was you who betrayed her.”