Born Claimed: A Dark Omegaverse Romance (Broken Angel Book 2)

by Penelope Woods

  “Where are they?” he asked.

  He turned around to find Ruby holding a pistol. Slowly backing away, he hit the crib. Carefully, he grabbed onto the wooden edges and squeezed until his palms bruised. “Ruby, what are you doing?”

  A single tear ran down her cheek and she seemed to choke on the words that so desperately wanted to be heard. She pointed the pistol at his heart, finger visibly trembling against the trigger. “I’m sorry, Killian,” she said with honest eyes. “I never meant for all of this to happen. It’s like a nightmare… a nightmare I can’t ever escape from.”

  “And you think it’s been any better for your sister? You’re more selfish than I thought,” he muttered through his teeth.

  “That’s what makes this so difficult. I know that it’s been worse for her. Everyone does. This can’t go on,” she said.

  Killian quietly snapped the crib barrier, but he made sure to hold a hand out to try and calm her down. Keeping the tone of his voice level and friendly, he said, “It doesn’t have to be like this. You can undo this mess. Severin is gone. You are free. You can go start a life somewhere.”

  The barrel of the gun threateningly shifted up toward his head for a better shot. Still, she seemed uncertain, and her hands trembled. “We all know the dead outlive the living,” she said.

  “What do you mean? You’re not making any sense. I saw him. You fractured his skull three times. They were clean shots,” he said.

  “There’s still so much you have yet to learn,” she said. “So much we cannot untie. Everything is in place. The only one who can stop it is the one willing to sacrifice it all for... well, the world.”

  Killian was confused, but from what he gathered, they were thinking of the same thing. “The device Severin put her inside for her coronation ceremony. It wasn’t just for show, was it?”

  “If it was, would there have been such focus on it? Severin may have been a bastard, but he was no fool. A creative genius always knows exactly what needs to happen. What goes around comes around, Killian. He had been waiting for you for quite some time,” she said.

  Taking a small step forward, Killian kept the wooden post hidden behind his back and made sure she didn’t react too impetuously. “I’m not your enemy anymore. We can fix this. We can turn things around. If what you are saying is true, Rae will know what to do.”

  “Of course she will,” she said. “She will have to die. That was always the plan, wasn’t it?”

  Killian repeated those last words. “The plan.”

  “The key to everything was left inside him, his brain. Surely, he had more tricks up his sleeve, but now that the fire has spread, his body will have been utterly destroyed. The fire must have consumed him by now,” she said.

  Killian couldn’t hold back what he was feeling. He rushed forward, and the loud gunshot rang out across the room. At first, Killian stumbled forward, collapsing against her and the weapon. He wrested the pistol from her hand and smashed the wooden post across the side of her already wounded head. Crumpling to the floor, she let out a harsh whimper and held her hands in front of her face.

  “I had to do it!” she cried.

  “Where the fuck are my children?!” he screamed, throat torn, tight, and dry. His chest pumped erratically, the pressure swelling with each tired breath. He could have broken her, mashed her like a jack-o-lantern.

  Feeling around the cartilage of his ear, he found where the bullet broke through. It just barely grazed him. He was fine, but if it had been inches to the left, his brains would have been left hanging over his baby’s crib.

  He wasted no time lunging at her. Holding her down with his muscular thighs and staggering forearms, he made sure she couldn’t move. The gun slid across the room, just out of reach for Ruby to reclaim it. “Wicked bitch, tell me the truth!”

  “What’s the point? It’s too late. The bomb is set for midnight,” she said, eyes facing the decorated clock on the southern wall.

  Killian watched as the second hand seemed to tighten his nerves with every short spin.

  “You have thirty minutes left before the bomb detonates, Killian. It’s over. Your children are gone.”

  “That’s what it was? A bomb? So, your plan is to create another crisis in the city of Dagon. Don’t you think its citizens have gone through enough?”

  Ruby did not smile. Strangely, she appeared about as sad as Killian felt. “I found out weeks ago. I was going to stop him, you fool. Its location is directly under the heart of the metropolis. But its reach is far wider. Severin’s scope was always toward the heavens. I suppose that’s all you men do… dream you are gods until the very last breath flows between your lips.”

  He felt primitive. No, he felt ruthless, horrible, and absolutely wrecked beyond belief. All of this fighting, the toll it had taken on their whole family—it had only left them more broken and scattered across the land.

  “All for fucking nothing?” he asked as he held the piece of broken wood above her throat. He wanted nothing more than to pierce the center of the cartilage.

  Yet, he did not go ahead with the violent deed. People were coming. More trained guards, probably. He heard a set of heavy footsteps behind them and rolled back, taking the pistol, aiming to kill. A voice shouted, “Killian!”

  Then, another voice muttered, a familiar voice. “He can’t be dead. He can’t be.”

  “There is blood everywhere, Vash. It’s not looking good.”

  Killian’s eyes lit up. Beads of sweat fell down his forehead, hanging onto his deep and dark eyebrows. Laughing, he lowered the gun and let out a deep exhale of relief. “Oh, thank the fucking lord above.”

  Lucas was the first to enter the room, stopping when he saw their weakened state. “Jesus. Killian? Is it really you? Holy fuck, you’re alive!”

  “Ain’t nothing holy about it, Brother. Now, come here and give me a big fat kiss,” he joked.

  Vash sighed as he followed Lucas inside. “Is that part of the rules now? We all have to kiss and make up every time we split apart?”

  Killian chuckled. “It’s good to have you back. Now, if you want to help me out, you’ll cuff the twin and help me onto my feet.”

  Lucas bent down and analyzed Ruby’s wrecked face. “For a second there, I thought you found Rae.”

  “At least we caught the bitch. She might make for a good trade down the line,” Vash added with a smile. “You know… it feels pretty good to be the ones doing the hunting again.”

  As the fire spread, more of the building collapsed. Lucas tripped, feeling the heat of the flames lick his face as a warning before he fell. “It can’t be over. Not like this… our children… are they…”

  “Don’t,” Killian said, admitting what he thought the other men might take as weakness. “I’m sick of it all. The madness. Madness everywhere. I feel it in my bones like the rest of you, but I want it gone. I just want a pure life.”

  “Some might take those words as giving up,” Vash said, eyes full of fire.

  Killian wondered if it was obvious by the way his eyes wavered whenever he stared into theirs. Times had been hard, and for the most part, Killian simply felt embarrassed. He knew that, even if they found a way out of this, nothing would ever be the same again. All of the nights they’d spent in the barracks in their twenties, dreaming and drinking the pain away could never be revisited. They were adults now, and most of that came with the responsibility of bearing crosses made of titanium steel.

  “I killed him. My father,” Killian answered. “And now you have the audacity to think I’m giving up? Fuck off.”

  Although more footsteps were echoing throughout the outside hallway, none of them made the effort to leave. Vash stepped forward, showing off his bulging muscles, a threat that might have worked a decade ago. Now, it seemed compulsory. “Make me.”

  Killian tried to focus his mind on his children and Rae, but flashes of electric anger sent his eyes widening with energy. Deep within every blink, he could see Severin’s shallow grin,
hear his last words, the harshest insults he had ever heard in his life. And now, looking at Vash and Lucas, he wondered if they even fit together, or if it was just by chance that they’d ended up in the same pack. After all was said and done, did it ever mean anything? No—not in this new world, it didn’t.

  So when Vash forced his hand around Killian’s collar to threaten him, he didn’t feel a damn thing. When Vash forced his jaw close to his, he didn’t even flinch. For him, life had run its course. How many minutes were left until the whole world exploded, he wondered. Twenty? Fifteen. Either way, they were doomed.

  “I killed my mother,” Vash growled and pushed Killian against the crib, shattering it. “I watched Cassian die. Everyone I have ever known has died.”

  Killian swallowed, ready to pummel the bastard into the ground. However, Lucas was the first to stop the fight by forcing two pistols against the underside of their chins. Through tight focus, he said, “Both of you are dead wrong about everything. In this world, we are all fucked. And that’s why we need to stick together. If you can’t do it for yourself or the pack, do it for Rae. She’s still missing, you know.”

  Killian regained a sense of calm. Lucas was right. Instead of fighting Vash, he put his arms out to hug him. “I’m sorry. Just been through a lot these past few years. I know you have, too.”

  Vash hugged him back. “Mostly, I’ve felt guilty. All of this horror is because of me.”

  “Cassian,” Lucas corrected him. “It’s because of Cassian.”

  “And after Cassian died, did things get better? Maybe I should have never interfered with his plans,” Vash said.

  Killian laughed and inhaled the smoky air. “We interfered because we wanted her. Nothing more powerful than lust.”

  More explosions sent shockwaves underneath their feet. The low rumblings of destruction were intensifying, and the convicts were growing wilder by the minute. Killian snapped out of his rage and felt his stomach drop when he realized what had happened. Where the fuck did Ruby go? “No... fucking no!”

  Thrashing through to the next room, he searched for her, the elusive twin who seemed to have no motives except to live and let the rest perish. “Ruby!” he shouted. “Goddammit. You can’t leave us!”

  Turning sharply, he thought about all of the violent acts he could do to the ones near him. Only, he knew that wasn’t the answer. Vash wasn’t his enemy. Neither was Lucas. Placing his hand over the center of the broken crib, he sighed. “C’mon. All in on this one. Got it?”

  “Read ya, loud and clear, champ,” Lucas said with a cheesy grin.

  It didn’t matter where Ruby went. Among the convicts, she’d surely get raped and killed. And now that she gave up the information, Killian knew exactly where to take the firefight.

  Underground.

  Vash smiled and placed his hand in the center. The three of them stood together, despite the wreckage around them.

  They brought their pride in, pounding down with their fists before throwing their hands into the air.

  Suddenly, the guys stared at Killian like they used to, back when they were all soldiers. ”Who the fuck are we?” Killian asked.

  No hesitation on any of their parts.

  “Ouroboros.”

  “Rae! Don’t move. I’m coming for you.”

  A voice. Noah’s voice. Calming, soothing, Noah. The man who was too decent for his own good. The man who thought he had it all figured out.

  She didn’t have much time, but she wondered if, deep down, he thought of himself as the shepherd of the clones. In a way, he had found his own pack like Cassian. Why shouldn’t he partake in enslaving the women once he retained their trust?

  Rae threw this out of her mind. It was a quick and fleeting thought, anyway, and she couldn’t quite figure where it came from. Some men could be good. She believed that. She just couldn’t understand it. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw the mess she was in.

  “Don’t move,” Noah repeated. “And whatever you do, do not look down.”

  Of course, Rae couldn’t follow the man’s orders. The first thing she did was look down and immediately felt her stomach shift with her vision. The ground seemed to swell, and the pull of gravity weighed on her heavily. Despite the danger, Noah was climbing her to safety. At first, she was thankful, but her mind went back to what she saw above.

  “I told you not to direct your attention below,” Noah said.

  One step up. Stop and take a breath. Another step up.

  Every person’s movement was judged by time, Rae thought. That’s what made life so special, and so fucking terrifying. She was starting to understand. Every action came with a set of consequences. But sometimes when something seemed good in intent, it could lead to the destruction of the entire world.

  Could Noah plan for the unexpected? Sure, he had helped build an underground network of defected clones and reject beta males, but was that really enough to stop what she had just seen? What she knew was that time stopped for no man, no woman, no omega, beta, alpha, or biological pond scum. Time didn’t care because it made the rules, and the ultimate rule was that everyone must die sooner or later.

  Rae was entangled within the metal bars. She was in so much pain that she decided she must have fractured at least half of her womanly figure. “Noah, please,” she said through terrifyingly aching movements. “We don’t have time. None of us do.”

  “Just hold on. I’m coming for you,” he said. Underneath him was the clone, and she stood staring at the cold depths of water below. It seemed as if nothing mattered to her at all. Suddenly, a chill ran through her.

  “Noah, why did you bring me here?” Rae asked.

  “Keep still!”

  Rae’s throat was unbelievably dry, but she attempted to swallow, despite the roof of her mouth sticking together like sandpaper. “Noah, answer me. Why are we here?”

  Noah stopped climbing and glanced up. “We wanted you to see the complexity of the situation. It’s just that—”

  Rae interrupted him and moved an inch. Pain ruined her, but still, she kept twisting her body out of the metal frame. “You led me here for a reason, and it wasn’t so I could stop this bomb. You knew I’d run to the top. You assumed what I’d see up there.”

  And then, from the very top of the structure, she heard them. The sharp cries of her children rang out above their heads. She forced herself out of her entanglement. It didn’t matter how many broken bones made up her body. She felt every tormented cry from her children, and it gave her the strength she needed to continue.

  “I didn’t tell you for a reason,” Noah said.

  Rae ignored him, glancing up. But before she climbed a second time, she looked back at Noah and the sad clone. “You led me here because you wanted this bomb to go off, didn’t you?”

  “No,” Noah said.

  “Don’t lie to me!”

  Noah shut his mouth and huffed out his nose. Shaking, he stopped climbing and stayed still. “This thing is going off, whether we want it to or not.”

  “Don’t give me this ‘world is doomed’ crap, Noah. I’ve heard it one too many times,” Rae said, climbing a foot up.

  The pain. Fuck. The pain.

  It still wasn’t worse than losing her children. Wasn’t worse than having everyone in her entire family taken away from her.

  “The ones who hurt the world... let them fight! Vitriol has always coiled within their genes. But you... you are something else. We are something different,” he said.

  Rae nearly scoffed. “We are all the same. The only thing that sets us apart is how we act, but even then, I understand my enemies. They reacted to the lot they were handed when I was restrained. That is the only difference.”

  One more step up was all it took to get back to the last metal edge, but this time, Noah shut his mouth. He stopped climbing and watched in defeat.

  Instead, the clone called out to her. “Rae, pause for one moment.”

  Before she could pull herself up, she stopped.


  “Please, Rae. There’s a bunker underneath the water where we can survive. The explosive is on a timer. It’s the only way to safety.”

  Rae took another deep breath and stared calmly at the woman who was exactly like her. She didn’t wish her or any of their group an ounce of animosity, but they had to know that not everything could be lined out like a simple card game. If Severin were the parlor master, he would have planned for her escape. He would have met her down here to explain it all himself. Instead, he used Virgil’s group as a means to finish what he started.

  Still, where was Severin? By all accounts, he appeared to be far away from this section of the world, perhaps gazing proudly at the burning city of Dagon, an effigy of a two-year reign. Perhaps he’d locked himself in his quarters to prepare his national emergency speech.

  Or, maybe he was dead.

  The only thing Rae could be sure of was he wasn’t down here to see her die. If he were the world’s parlor master like he acted, he would never let her live to see her children again. No, the babies she was watching... her babies... they must have been left there by Virgil. He left her one last gift. To her, that meant the old man was the real puller of the strings, and that’s precisely why he allowed himself to die. It was much better to be an agitator than the one who was forced to keep the empire whole.

  “Go. I will meet you there. I need my children,” she said.

  Rae pulled herself up, rolling gently against the metal platform. Each defining ridge pressed against her back, and though the pain was almost too much to push through, she had been through worse. She turned her head and her heart nearly exploded with warmth. It was like finding her body again and diving into the familiar smells and senses of family. For Rae, it was everything.

  The three toddlers were tightly tucked in a sizable wooden basket, reaching toward their mother. At first, all she could do was stare, but as the strength came back to her, she crawled and gathered them in her arms. “My children,” she said.