by Lizzy Bequin
I’m seated in the front row, along with Dog and Truk. Lily is nearby with two of her Alphas, the ones named Hasker and Kadmon. Her third, Addom, is on the stage, along with the other dozen or so council leaders.
Up on the stage, Addom raises his arms high and calls out in a booming voice.
“Silence!”
Addom is the leader of the council of the Alphas. As Lily explained to me, he only ascended to this position a few months ago, but he fills the role as if he has been doing it his whole life.
As the leader of the Alphas, he wears no special garment or crown to designate his status, and he doesn’t need it. His sheer confidence and thunderous voice is enough to make it clear that he is in charge, and he will brook no dissention.
With a mate like him, it’s no wonder Lily is here to stay.
Then again, I still prefer my own motley pack of Alphas. I have a special bond with them, and I feel it growing stronger all the time.
With one exception.
Kane.
I haven’t seen him since we left the chamber of the Source. He is a broody one.
I still feel guilty for tricking him before, and I wonder if it will ever be possible to set things right with him. But I’ll have to worry about that later. For now, there are other, more pressing concerns.
The gathered throng of Alphas occupying the seats and balcony grow quiet at their leader’s command. Addom takes a moment to survey the crowd, his face dark and thoughtful in the diffused light of a hundred candles.
“You all know why we are gathered here today.” His deep voice carries easily over the crowd, “For nearly a year now, Lily has been sending transmissions to the outside world in an attempt to reveal to the hive dwellers the atrocities that their leaders have tried to hide for so long.”
There are unhappy grumbles from some corners of the crowd.
“I know that some of you feel that we should not be sending these messages.”
A voice calls out from somewhere in the back.
“Why should we care about Outsiders? Leave them be, I say!”
“It will only bring more of them into our homeland!” another voice shouts.
Addom calmly holds up his hand again, and waits for the crowd to settle down.
“The Outsiders were invading our lands long before Lily began sending messages. That’s how she came to be here in the first place, after all.”
Addom casts his eyes down toward me and Dog.
“Besides, if what these Outsiders say is true, Lily’s messages have not been reaching the ears of the outer world. But the female, Sloane, has a plan to change that. She is going to lay it out for us now.”
He gestures for me to come up on stage.
My heart skips.
I thought I was ready for this. Even though I’ve never been much of a public speaker, I’ve never had a problem with stagefright.
Then again, I’ve never faced a crowd of savage Alphas.
I whisper to Dog and Truk. “I need you guys to help me through this, okay?”
The two steadfast Alphas take my hands and give me a comforting squeeze. Just that simple touch fills me with renewed confidence. Together, the three of us rise and get onto the stage—Dog and Truk leap up first with no problem, then they pull me up with them.
I turn and face the crowd of Alphas, and my stomach suddenly feels like I just swallowed a lead weight. Hundreds of pairs of eyes are on me, and not all of them are friendly.
“You can do this,” Dog whispers beside me.
I look at Truk, and he nods, urging me to speak.
After a gulp and a deep breath, I steady myself against the two masculine pillars on either side of me and begin to speak.
“Right. As Addom told you, I have a plan. It won’t be easy, though…”
Once I find my rhythm, the words begin to tumble out smoothly, and over the next few minutes, I outline the plan that I have already discussed with Lily.
We knew that her messages about the coverup were not reaching public of the city hives. However, the fact that I was sent here to kill Lily means that somebody inside SynerGen must have been receiving the messages at least. Based on that, we figured out the problem.
The data slate that Lily has been using to transmit to the city hive is part of SynerGen’s private network, which means all of its messages are routed through SynerGen’s central communications hub. The messages were being intercepted and blocked from being spread to their intended recipients.
With the technology at our disposal, I can only see one solution to this.
We need to send a team back to the city hive to infiltrate SynerGen’s communications hub. From there we can unblock the messages so they can be transmitted throughout the entire public network.
Like I said, it won’t be easy.
But as far as I can see, it’s the only chance we’ve got.
When I finally finish speaking, the audience is silent, as are the council leaders lined up on the stage beside me. I’m getting the impression that my suggested plan is going over like a lead balloon.
Addom scratches his chin thoughtfully.
“This infiltration you are describing sounds dangerous. Suicidal even. Who do you propose to send on this errand?”
I look between the two Alphas standing on either side of me. Of course I have already discussed it with them too.
“I will go,” I answer, “Along with my mates, Dog and Truk.”
Another wave of murmurs passes over the crowd. Addom growls the crowd back into silence before turning toward me again.
“Are you sure you’re ready to do this, Sloane?”
I stand up a little straighter and meet his eyes with the toughest look I can muster.
“Hell yeah, I’m ready,” I answer. “SynerGen betrayed me. They lied to me and set me up on a suicide mission. There’s nothing I want more than to get back at them now.”
I raise my voice so everyone can hear.
“I may be an omega, but I’m a marine first, and I’m not going to back down from danger.”
A new commotion breaks out among the Alphas in the audience.
“No one has ever left the Zone to attack the city hive before. The Outsiders are sure to retaliate against us.”
More voices join in, shouting in agreement.
Down in the front row, Lily stands up on her seat so that her small form can be seen above the crowd.
“Listen, the Outsiders have been coming into the Zone for years. They’ve killed the Alphas and omegas, and they’re just going to keep doing it forever unless something changes. The only way to stop them is to bring down SynerGen. It’s the only way to—“
Her voice is drowned out by more shouts and cries. For a moment, it seems helpless, like the gathering is simply going to descend into chaos. Even Addom cannot restore order.
Then another voice explodes through the theater like dynamite.
“Shut up!”
The voice is so loud and so close, I nearly leap out of my skin. I whirl around, wide eyed with surprise.
“Kane?”
The theater chamber grows silent as the silvered, bearded Alpha strides forward from behind the tattered stage curtains and takes the stage beside me.
“You all know me here.” His voice rumbles like a distant thunderstorm. “You know I have no love for Outsiders, and that includes those among us here today.”
He gestures toward Lily.
“But Addom’s omega is right. For decades the Outsiders have been invading our homeland and killing our people. I should know that better than anyone. I lost my own sister Talia to their guns. Well, the time has come for that to change. The time has come for us to take the fight to them. I know full well that I most likely will not return from this journey, but I swear this: the Outsiders will remember me when it is over, for I will leave a trail of bloody corpses in my wake.”
He stares over the crowd as if daring anyone to challenge him.
His body is practically humming with i
ntensity. I almost believe that if I touched him right now, I would burn myself.
At last, Addom breaks the silence.
“So be it, old friend. You will lead this expedition to the city hive. But there seems to be one part of the plan that is missing. How do you plan to get beyond the Quarantine Wall? No amount of hatred or thirst for vengeance will be enough to get you past those Outsider weapons.”
Truk steps forward.
“I know a way!” he shouts a little too loudly. He is clearly overjoyed to be able to help, and I’m glad for that because this is one part of the plan that I had neglected.
The other Alphas eye him suspiciously. He is part Farlander. To them, he is a pariah. But they let him speak.
“There is a tunnel under the wall,” he says, speaking in a rushed manner and almost tripping over his words. “It was a mine shaft, from before the great change. When the Outsiders built the wall, they neglected to seal the tunnel. Nobody knows about it except for the Farlanders, and they never use it since they have no need to go beyond the wall.”
That’s it. That’s the answer. If we can just use the tunnel to get under the wall, then we can steal a vehicle to take us into the city.
Addom stands scratching his chin in the wavering candlelight.
“The council of leaders must discuss this. We will confer together and make our final decision.”
***
Back in my seat, I try to make myself as small as possible. I don’t like being the center of attention like that, and it’s a relief to be off the stage, although I can feel eyes looking at me from all over the theater.
Luckily, I have my three Alphas to protect me. Even Kane, who is seated behind me, seems unusually possessive and intent on hiding my body from sight.
The whole audience is murmuring with conversations. No doubt, everyone is discussing our plan.
I sneak a peak over at Lily, and she flashes me a supportive smile.
Meanwhile, up on the stage, the council leaders seem to have come to a decision. For nearly an hour now, they have been up there talking, their voices too quiet to hear and their bodies as unmoving as statues.
But now they have begun to stir, nodding to one another in unison.
Addom steps forward again, spreading his hands to signal the crowd to be quiet. No roar or harsh words are required. The audience’s murmurings immediately trail off into silence.
“The Council has come to a decision.” He is not yelling, but somehow his voice seems to carry all through the theater. “We will go through with the Outsider’s plan. The three Alphas, led by Kane, will venture into the city hive along with their omega. They will undo the witchcraft that is blocking Lily’s message.”
Witchcraft? I smirk but keep my mouth shut.
I feel a simultaneous wave of relief and a knot of apprehension. I’m glad that the plan has been accepted. At the same time, I’m nervous as all get-out about actually seeing it through.
But Addom is not finished.
“There is, however, one precondition.”
He pauses, letting the silence ripen for a few moments.
“The Outsider omega has been marked, but her binding is incomplete. She has not undergone the necessary ritual.”
My skin seems to tighten around me like shrink-wrap. My breath catches in my throat.
Ritual? What ritual is he talking about?
“The ritual must be completed according to the Will of the Source. It is necessary for these three Alphas to be fully bonded as pack brothers, and for the omega to be fully bound to them as their shared mate.”
My face is blazing with shame. I sink lower into my seat.
Addom’s eyes glance down toward where I’m sitting.
“The bond is absolutely necessary. These Alphas are so different, so disparate. The only chance that the mission has for success is for them to be joined as a true pack.”
Although he doesn’t say it, it’s clear that I’m to be the connection that joins them together.
I’m still not sure what this will involve, but I have some idea. My eyes stray over to Lily. She is looking at me in a concerned way.
That’s not good.
Addom turns toward Kane.
“Brother Kane, as an Alpha of the central ruins, you are the leader of this pack by default. So I put it to you: When shall the ritual of binding be held?”
I hear Kane move behind me.
“The sooner the better,” his voice rumbles through the old theater. “It shall be done this very night.”
CHAPTER 26: KANE
I perch atop the roof of the theater and look to the western sky. The horizon is smeared red with the blood of the setting sun, stretching long shadows from the packs of Alphas filing out of the theater into the avenue below.
They will return home for their brief evening repasts, only to gather again in the Great Hall for tonight’s ceremony.
Tonight I will be bound to the Outsider omega, along with the other two Alphas.
I pick her out among the crowd below. Lily is leading her by the arm.
A presence appears beside me, looking down.
It is Hasker. He is Addom’s pack brother and Lily’s mate. He was also my sister Talia’s mate many years ago before she was killed. In our youth, we were best friends. Then I started roaming the Zone alone.
Together, we watch our two females divorce themselves from the throng and move off in another direction, toward the old hotel.
“The arrangements have been made,” Hasker says. “Lily will take your omega to the hot baths so that she may make the necessary ablutions in preparation for the ritual.
I merely grunt in acknowledgement.
I wish Hasker would leave me to my solitude. I want to be alone with my thoughts.
Hasker chuckles.
“You spend too much time alone with your thoughts,” he says as if reading my mind.
I turn toward him wide-eyed. Can he really read me that well?
Hasker simply smiles and rests his heavy fist atop my shoulder in a brotherly gesture.
“Kane, what is troubling you?”
The surprise falls from my face, replaced by tension and darkness, I turn my face back toward the ground below. The crowd has mostly wandered off now. Sloane and Lily have disappeared from sight.
I feel a slight twinge of concern, not being able to see my omega, not knowing exactly where she is. I suppress the feeling. It angers me that I should feel so protective of her.
Hasker’s question still hangs in the air.
And I just let it hang there. He already knows the answer anyway.
Hasker lets out a gruff sigh.
“Kane, I used to feel the same as you when it came to Outsiders.”
“That’s clearly changed,” I respond a little too quickly and angrily.
When Hasker was bound to Lily, his Outsider omega, I assumed that it was against his will. I assumed he was being forced into it by Addom, his pack leader.
But then, over the following months, on those rare occasions when I would return to the central ruins, I saw the love he felt for her. It was written all over his features. Hell, if anything, he was even more protective of his little Outsider omega than his pack brothers were. Maybe even more protective than any Alpha I had ever seen.
I couldn’t understand it.
“Kane,” Hasker goes on, “we only see the worst of the Outsiders among those who invade our lands and kill our people. But they are not all that way. It took Lily for me to see that. And I sense the same goodness in Sloane. She is courageous and determined.”
I remain silent.
Still, I can’t disagree with what he said about Sloane. He’s right. She is courageous and determined—more than any omega I’ve ever seen. Perhaps that is why I feel so drawn to her.
But that doesn’t change the fact that she is still an Outsider.
My inner turmoil rises and boils over.
“I guess it’s not as easy for me to forget what happened to my sis
ter,” I hiss.
As soon as I have spoken the words, I regret them. I sense Hasker tense up beside me, and his fist resting on my shoulder clenches tighter. For a moment, I think he may even attack me. I wouldn’t blame him if he did.
But he doesn’t.
The truth is, I know that the death of Talia—my sister and his old mate—at the hands of the Outsiders hurt us both equally. For years the wound burned in his heart, and I know it still burns there. An Alpha who loses his mate never fully recovers. But the new happiness that he has found with Lily has been a salve for his emotional wound.
I used to think I resented him for that happiness. But the truth is, I envy it.
“Talia would want you to be happy,” he whispers.
Hearing my dear sister’s name spoken aloud nearly brings me to tears. I stare off toward the darkening horizon. Hasker reads the troubled expression on my face.
“Kane, you are a warrior through and through, to the very marrow of your bones. Of all the Alphas, you are the strongest fighter. There is none that would dare stand against you in battle, not even myself.”
He laughs, and I can’t help but smile too. But after a moment his face grows serious and his smile disappears inside his beard.
“But you can’t fight Fate, brother,” he says. “It’s like quicksand in a morass. The more you struggle against it, the more firmly it will hold you fast. Instead, you must learn to surrender.”
I gaze up at the sky, where the last of the light is draining away like blood.
“Surrender,” Hasker says, “It’s a bitter word in the mouth of a warrior like yourself, old friend. Believe me, I know. But you cannot fight Fate. You cannot fight the Will of the Source.”
And with that, his fist disappears from my shoulder, and the grizzled Alpha slips away as silent as a cat, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
So many thoughts.
I stand there on the ledge for some time, watching the stars multiply in the purple sky as I think about the things to come. The ceremony. The coming excursion beyond the wall. What may happen if it fails, and what may happen if it succeeds.
But more than anything, I find myself thinking of the Outsider.
