Branded Captive (Wren's Song 1)

The female purred an instant offer of comfort, turning her full attention on the ill child. Smoothing back the sweat soaked spikes of his hair, she cooed, even pressed her lips to his brow.

And there it was. A declaration of her intention.

A fucking Omega. Here.

Purring like a kitten over a raggedy boy in a room full of Alpha killers. Was she fucking mental? “Do you have a death wish, woman?”

In her arms, the boy coughed all the harder until wheezes turned into pathetic sobs.

Violet eyes darted in their sockets, landing on Caspian as if it were his fault the child cried and clung.

She was hardly more than child herself, but… “Is that your offspring, Omega?”

The other boy lost the awe in his eyes, glaring at the Alpha who’d threatened his companion. “She’s Jax! Don’t call her Omega!”

Caspian rounded on Alec, terrible and deadly. “Another word from you, boy, and I’ll toss you over the railing. You can drink all the water you like as you drown in it.”

The woman hooked an arm around the loud-mouthed child, her palm fast against his mouth. With her interpreter silenced, she was left with nothing but those accusing eyes and the ability to nod.

She shook her head no.

“No, he is not your offspring?”

Arms full, she turned her face to display the mark again.

“An orphan dumped here like you were?”

An emphatic nod. There was a magic to the movement of her expression. With a lingering look and a few moments of emotion, she wordlessly said that to give her this child would be in his favor… the little one was sick. Sickness would spread in the damp and weaken his workers.

One quick solution solved this problem. Caspian grinned. “We could just kill him.”

Jax gave a small agreeable shrug, but followed it with a hard look. “But we both know that would be more trouble than letting me take them home.”

“I’ve never seen an Omega rampage. It might be great entertainment…” But not worth the cleanup. Set one into a protective bloodlust and Omegas lost the ability to feel pain, to register fear… to do anything but mindlessly protect their young. She’d die, of course. But so might some of his men.

Dead Omegas, even defective ones, were not good for morale. At least one of the men standing at his back would have a soft spot for a ballsy woman who wanted to keep a couple of kids away from people like him.

She mouthed the word, trade.

Caspian spread his arms, entertained. “And what could you possibly trade to me for the lives of two vagrant children? Water? Credits? Power?”

Tech.

“Salvage?” Caspian was almost impressed with how unimpressive her offer was.

A hint of a smile creased the skin beside the woman’s eyes. Nodding enthusiastically, she hugged her boys tighter.

This Jax was going to be sorely disappointed. Omegas only had one commodity to trade in. Cunt. “Lead the way.”

Chapter 4

Not once had the ponderous Alpha rocking the sinking planks with his heft offered to help manage Mikael’s weight. Wren hadn’t expected him too, but she had struggled keeping her temper every time he barked at her to walk faster. It was difficult enough to keep one’s footing when every walkway was half-sunken in mud. Harder still to walk those unstable paths carrying a ten-year-old.

He wasn’t supposed to have come with her. Shit. Caspian was the Big Bad with better things to do. But Alec had opened his mouth, like the smartass adolescent he was, and made her truly mute. How could she describe her wares?

The brute didn’t understand signs. She didn’t have pen or paper.

Those rare and valuable things were back in her den where the rot couldn’t get them.

As was everything she owned. Should the Alpha choose to take it all… all of them would starve.

She didn’t even want to think of burying more little bodies in the muck.

Continuing to grip Alec by the scruff of his neck, her fingers tangled in his uncut hair—a leash to keep him from wandering back off to the pipeyard and an early death.

He was going to be the death of her first.

And boy was Alec angry with her for ruining his fun. His anger she could handle. What was really worrying was his embarrassment. Embarrassed teenage boys did stupid things to prove they were men.

The cute, stupid little idiot would get himself killed if she couldn’t secure Caspian’s word that she owned both children now.

Owned, because that is how he most certainly viewed them.

His syndicate, The syndicate in the Warrens was the one thing you always, always, avoided. Once in, there was no out. They fed off the wretches, kept them poor, kept them addicted, and kept them employed. Enslaved.

Caspian was going to bleed her dry.

He was going to know where she nested.

A man like him had not come all this way for a few dehumidifiers and rebuilt water filtration.