by Addison Cain
Not that she’d seen other peddlers about…
Everyone was on edge in the Warrens, but that was nothing new. Her old building tilted no matter the supports tethering it to the more sturdy structures. Like the rats Caspian liked to call them, everyone scampered about, prepared to duck the fall. And it was a fair reason to fear. When decrepit buildings finally went down, the tidal wave of destruction that followed killed off more than a few.
Though even destruction of that magnitude was not nearly as deadly as poisoned water, starvation, and everyday violence that plagued this part of the city.
When she shook her head at the offer of three chips instead of four, it seemed the huffing trader was willing to make the barter. Credits and a single bar of food were placed in her hand, and he smiled, decaying teeth on display. Canteen offered, not so much as a word spoken between them, Wren took what might buy her three days of sustenance and began to turn.
The wind died down just enough for her to hear him say, “…I’ll share the bounty, scavenger.”
Whatever he was talking about, she didn’t care. Itching her marked cheek under a faded bandana that kept her mouth free of flies, Wren left the old peddler to his table.
She had a schedule to keep. First her twilight scan for Alec and Mikael.
Slip past their favorite haunts just in case they’d been released and found their home long gone. Then, once it was dark, to the Waterworks to see if they’d been thrown out and left in the mud.
She’d conduct the same search at dawn, and had for days.
No sign of either boy had been found. Considering that Caspian wore a coat made out of people, that he’d had a child whipped, she knew anything he did with either of them would be theatrical.
So… at least thus far… it seemed he’d done nothing.
Except cast her out, practically naked, into the mud.
Crushing down feelings of betrayal, Wren refused to acknowledge them. One could only be betrayed if one cared. She didn’t. She wouldn’t no matter how her eyes stung or how it sometimes grew hard to breathe.
Those Alphas didn’t cherish her; they just enjoyed the novelty of fucking their very own freak. Even Toby—who wanted to take her out and rub the city’s face in his defective, tattooed mate—thought only to parade her around, smiling that creepy unhinged grin while others scattered at the sight of them.
She was no one’s mate.
This she had told herself, over and over earlier that day when she’d picked the honeycombed splints from her hand. She was her own person.
And the reminder, coupled with free wiggling fingers, left her feeling more herself than she had since waking up in a dark closet, bloody and draped with chains.
She was healthier than ever. And yes she was hungry. And yes she was extremely thirsty. But she could last years like this.
And she had not had to whore herself once since she’d fought through the torrents of mud and climbed free of her sinking building.
She had slept alone on her terms.
And as she had done before Caspian had ruined her already hard life, she had survived.
In the worst part of this city, clothes muddy and wind biting, Wren remembered pride.
And felt her heart warm—held onto that beautiful sensation, slamming the door shut on whatever ugliness the males on the other end of their links reveled in.
She was strong.
Though her fingers were weak and not every bone had healed perfectly straight, she could move them. Had practiced for hours with gentle sweeping motion and cautious stretches.
She had her voice back.
And now it was time.
This wasn’t ideal, certainly not what she desired. But after days of deliberation, Wren had come up with no plausible alternate strategy.
In the dark of night, she had searched out potential places to make a new home. So far, nothing had been safer than the crack in the wall where she squatted. But that was no home, and there was hardly room for her body in there, let alone two growing boys. Tempted as she was to just sneak in and steal Alec, where would she take him for shelter?
There was no new home.
Despite years of trying, together they might find a way to climb over the gates and search out Mikael. But Wren had no idea which building housed her sick boy. And there were so many.
Tens of millions lived in Dale City.
Three credits left to her name. No food. No water. She could not provide for them like this.
She’d need money to buy her way out of the Warrens.
A year’s worth of water could be traded for a lot, maybe even tickets out of this horrible city so they might find a fresh start.
The very thought warmed her heart further. She’d heard there were parts of the world that were still green. Distant places far beyond what even a year’s worth of water and pockets full of coin might take her to.
Of course, she’d die before she saw such a place, but all she needed was a new city that would take in two boys and give them a real future. Far, far, far away from Caspian’s Syndicate.
From the Alpha in his hideous coat. From brown eyes and secret smiles when no one else could see.
...she’d dreamed of him last night—dreamed of Caspian. And in the dream, he’d been kind. He didn’t stink of other women. He didn’t lie.
There wasn’t pain or battles or mockery.
The nightmare had been horrific. The following ping in her heart when she’d awakened more than enough to make her ill.
Ripping the wrapper from her last meal, Wren shoved it under the bandana keeping the reek of shit from her nose, and fought the dry thing for a bite.
And felt…
She felt a rippling sensation wiggle and squirm in her belly. She felt a come-hither buzz in her chest.
The quasi-bond sang to her that Caspian wasn’t fucking his women. He wasn’t drunk or high. But he was angry, frustrated. Had been for two days straight.
Taking the final bite of her dry supplement bar, Wren swallowed a jagged bit of food down her throat. It scoured her gullet all the way to her belly.
And that was that.
To face him starving and even thirstier would make her look weak.
The splints were off, her bones had healed, she could communicate at long last… and it had to be today.
Today she demanded her due.
He’d probably kill her.
And that… was better than living without her boys.
Chapter 15
“Sir, there is an intruder wading through Pitchfork Canal 7.”
For a moment, a painful beat of time, Caspian’s heart stopped. Hanging his head, it took three full seconds before he found the ability to draw breath. And it shook, damn the mouse, it shook rattling its way into his lungs.
That was her pipe. The way she had first breached his kingdom all those weeks ago.
Unable to look at the guard who’d delivered such news, he kept his eyes on the data relay before him, and asked. “Does the intruder look small, like a child?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s her!” Toby shot around the table laden with the evil works of evil men, prepared to make a manic run down several floors of rickety rusty steps.
“We don’t know that!” Caspian snarled, grabbing his Third’s shoulder as he passed. But who the fuck else could it be in that pipe? “And if it is her, charging down there will scare her off.”
They both could sense her caution, the flutters of distress and anxiety. And it was that, Caspian suspected which really stayed Toby’s hand. Not his leader’s order to cease.
Things between them had been… tense.
Crossing bulging arms over his chest, as if unsure what to do with the twitching limbs, Toby said, “She has no reason to run from me.”
The Third believed it. Deep down, Toby believed there was no reason in the world the mouse might fear the Syndicate’s infamous killer. And for that, Caspian had a dash of pity for the male. “We wait. If she’s come fo
r the boy, she will be captured. We’ll deal with her afterward, calmly.”
But continuing reports made it clear the mouse was not slinking into shadows heading the direction where the males’ denned. Instead, she was climbing up the stairs, trying to blend in with the slaves.
Heading to him.
“Kieran should be told,” Toby said, eyes darting left and right as if he might see her through the concrete and spy her approach.
“No.” This moment wasn’t for the Second. Let him stay locked in his room fucking his new toy, as he had for the last several days. The last thing Caspian wanted right now was the vitriol that bastard spewed burning the mouse’s ears.
Toby didn’t demand an explanation, he just backed away, as if the stairs leading from their perch were too much of a temptation to bear. Breathing hard from the corner, he snarled at the guards, “Leave.”
When the trio turned toward the stairs, the Third hissed, “Not that way, you idiots!”
There was no other way for them to go. The upper levels at their backs were prohibited. And when the guards seemed confused Toby, in his infinite patience, threatened to behead their mothers if they didn’t walk up, take a right, follow the hall for a hundred paces, and die there of starvation.
Without so much as a look at the madman, and his very real threats, all three obeyed.
Leaving Caspian and Toby alone on the landing overlooking the Waterworks, waiting for the mouse.
Walking to the railing, Caspian palmed bowed metal, and peered down into the deluge. She was there, just as he had seen her that first time. And she was trying her damnedest not to turn her face up to collect some of that precious water on her tongue.
His mouse was thirsty, but would not drink his water.
She was dirty, but had not come to him to bathe.
No doubt she was also starving…
As if she felt the weight of his stare, she glanced up. But when their eyes met, even from the great distance she still needed to climb, she didn’t look desperate or pleading.
She looked resolved.
No smile for him. No wave.
From their link, Caspian felt a wash of determination.
Head turning down, she gripped ancient railings and continued the climb.
“You let me think you were dead,” Caspian said to no one.
It took every ounce of self-control he possessed not to run down those stairs and demand answers. Gripping the railing so hard it whined in protest, he made himself wait. Refused to show weakness before his men.
And then she was there.
Winded from the climb, she pushed back her hood and let all that glorious, mud-caked white hair fall free.
It had not been brushed, most likely in days. It was not braided and wound about her skull like the first time they’d met. It was just caught into some kind of thong, an afterthought. A burden.
Hands that would have been snow white if not for the dirt, raised before her. Squaring her shoulders, the little mouse sucked in a breath, and began.
Caspian had never taken the time to learn how to speak to her, and in that moment fucking hated that he had no clue what she said. So he blurted, “Where have you been?”
Had his voice sounded choked, unsure?
Toby, eyes unblinking, marched closer.
And she, she almost flinched.
“He asked you a question, sunshine. Where have you been?”
The confusion on her face was unmistakable. Looking between them, she signed, Toby translating, The Warrens.
The non-answer set his blood to boiling, Caspian barking, “Why not walk through the front gates? Why sneak in?”
Fingers moving slowly to spell out her meaning—the action obviously uncomfortable—she signed, There are guards at the door. I knew they wouldn’t let me in.
Bloodless fists released the railing, Caspian turning to face her full on. And God, seeing her in such a state outright gutted him. “There is a bounty worth a fucking mint on your head. The Syndicate has been combing the Warrens for days!”
So, you’re going to kill me. Instantly deflated, she sagged. A despondent pretty lavender gaze slipped from him to find the floor. I had hoped… Never mind. Just do it. Get it over with.
Before her eyes might grow any redder, they darted back up to Caspian’s, one last request on her unmoving lips. Please don’t hurt my boys.
“Goddamn it, Caspian! I can’t hear her say this shit!” Toby bellowed, “Tell her that you fucking love her already!”
Men like him didn’t love, that was for the weak and the mental. Toby, for example. But that did not stop the merciless twisting dagger in his chest when she snorted at the very thought.
Sobered, she fisted and unfisted clearly aching fingers, then flourished them in her special language. But Toby did not translate.
Hissing at Toby over his shoulder, Caspian demanded an explanation. “What did she say?”
Growling under his breath, Toby snarled, “You don’t want to know, boss.”
“THE FUCK I DON’T!”
The little mouse jumped, loudly swallowed, and moved in the same pattern. Repeating herself.
Toby took a step closer. “It’s not what you think, sunshine. He didn’t mean it.”
The look on her face was the most blatant kind of incredulous, the kind of look that couldn’t be faked. Fingers flying she dashed out a fountain of meaning, all of it directed at Toby, who tried to follow and failed.
“You’re going too fast, I can’t—”
That didn’t stop her. Marching right up to them, her lip curled, throat growling through the slapping violence of her unspoken words.
“Tell me what she’s saying,” Caspian barked, causing both a frazzled Toby and the furious mouse to startle.
“I can’t fucking tell you what she’s saying,” Toby, hissed. “She’s talking too fast!”
With an animal growl, the mouse shoved past and went to their table. Taking up paper and pen, she wrote down, and violently underlined, exactly what she wanted to say. A second later it was held right up to Caspian’s face.
You owe me a years’ worth of water and pockets full of credits!
“After the ground shook, I went to your house. My men have been digging ever since.”
The paper slipped from suddenly slack fingers, the mouse’s expression transforming from determination to disquiet.
Toby, the madman and the killer, shook his head and translated her stupefied signs.
Why would you go there? Horror was there all over her face, as if the very thought was the reason her breath hitched. Are you crazy? You could have been killed! Don’t you know how dangerous that was?
Voice almost gentle, Caspian asked, “Is that why you left?”
You shouldn’t have gone there! It wasn’t safe!
“I thought you were dead...”
The pain in his voice, the fact he’d actually allowed even a modicum of vulnerability in, she flat out ignored. Her eyes went to the fallen paper.
As she stared down, so much crossed her face, the mouse never having been skilled at concealing a single thought. More so, Caspian could feel the myriad troubles that weighed her down.
A deep sense of betrayal.
The total lack of hope.
Her disgust with him.
So much sadness.
All he could manage to say was, “Are you hungry? Do you want water?”
Lavender eyes shot up, aflame with indignation.
“We’re not going to let you leave,” Toby murmured, easing ever closer. “No one is going to hurt you either.”
Bending down she picked up her paper, ignoring Toby entirely and held it up to Caspian’s face.
Just like the letters she’d handed him weeks ago, he snatched the paper from her fingers, tore it, and tossed it over the edge.
The bits fluttered down, some sticking to concrete walkways, some drowning in the rushing river.
The look on her face…
It didn’t so much a
s alter when Caspian collared her neck with his grip. There was so much he wanted to say, days’ worth of sick feeling that lanced him internally even now, even feeling her soft throat under his fingers.
Unrelenting in her demand, she stood under the intimidation of his scowl—not so much as flinching when a roughened palm slipped from cupping her throat to caressing her nape.
Unaware when his second hand had come to play in the mud-packed strands of her hair, when he held them to his nose for a sniff, Caspian groaned.
It was the sound of despair.
“I’ll pay whatever you want if you stay. Right now. I’ll fill up your pockets and give you more water than you’d drink in a lifetime. But you are not allowed to leave again. Ever.”
Chapter 16
The rich overbearing Alpha scent called to his marked female, cutting through the mud crusting up her nose and the Warrens’ stink she’d dragged in with her.
With Caspian pressed so close, Wren staggered and took a graceless step back.
Countering, the First dared one of his dark smirks. “Do you agree to my terms, pretty mouse?”
Why was his voice so soft?
He wasn’t even purring. There was no real word for the growl-born rattle that came from the massive male’s chest. But the vibration did her in all the same.
Male fingers continued to slip over her neck and face, Caspian seeming to marvel at her filthy skin, stroking all the places it peeked from her clothing.
His pleasure in the moment churned in her belly, ran shivering through Wren’s viscera to meld with the same enticement Toby chimed within her bones.
“Make this easy on yourself. Say yes.”
Wide eyes blinking in shock, Wren didn’t know how to answer.
Caspian was going to pay his debt.
She never truly expected it, yet… victory felt unexpectedly hollow.
Wrapping her arms around her middle, Wren truly felt like a prostitute.
The transaction was almost complete.
Payment for her to fuck him and his friends, so that someday she would be the one leaving his rooms to see a new, shiny girl brought in to replace her.
And that thought stirred a soul deep ache.
It had to have been written on her face, the eventual loss. The knowing that servicing men would be forever, as he had said.
