by Addison Cain
Stark black ink on snowy white skin. Just as her lashes and eyebrows were snowy white.
They looked clean against all the filth, framing eyes an impossible shade of lavender.
So that’s why she’d been cast into the mud…
A hacking cough unsettled the boy on her shoulder. Easing him down, she held his head to her breast and gave three hard raps to his back. Her second companion didn’t seem to notice, the kid staring up at Caspian with awe.
The woman let out a sigh, giving Caspian her full attention.
And said nothing.
She was waiting for him to speak, completely candid in expression as if it was he who intruded on her. Yet those eyes said that she knew fucking well that she should not have been there.
She was frightened, the scent of fear seeping just enough through the muck drenching her to mark the air.
As well she fucking should be! Rolling his neck in a quick snap of motion, bones popped, Caspian releasing a growl. “And you would be?”
Breaking their gaze, she turned to the gaping boy. When he failed to pay attention, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and gave him a good, hard shake.
Brushing off her grip, his face went red as he grumbled, “She’s Jax, I’m Alec and that’s Mikael.”
Expressive, earnest eyes went back to Caspian. She nodded.
Arms crossing the span of Caspian’s chest, he sneered. “I didn’t ask the boy, I asked you.”
“Her brain can’t make words, sir. Only sounds,” Alec piped up, throwing his shoulders back in a mirror image of the man before him.
She stroked her hand down Alec’s tangled hair before pointing at the coughing boy clutched to her breast. Then she thumbed at her own chest before moving her hand in a circle as if to signify they were together.
“You wish to take these boys with you?”
A quick nod was offered.
“No.”
His growled reply did not discourage her as it should have.
The female silently assessed, breathed, blinked, and waited.
“I said no,” Caspian repeated himself, a thing he never did and would make her pay for.
Jax smirked, a stifled breath coming forth.
Had she just laughed at him?
Yes. The slow curl of her lips hinted at the beginnings of a smile. Not quite as collected as she wished to appear, a drop of sweat dripped down her temple, running through the grime on her cheek as she began to sign with one hand.
“She wants to trade,” Alec interpreted, clearly dejected at the idea. “But I don’t think you should let us go. I like it here.”
She smacked the kid upside the back of the head hard enough to rattle him a step forward.
“I do, Jax! I like it here!” Pride wounded, the kid threw a glare at his would-be savior. “Look at all the water! We’re allowed to drink as much as we want.”
Fingers flying, she spelled out words Caspian couldn’t begin to grasp. An argument commenced between woman and child, halting abruptly when the fevered boy at her breast drew a rattled breath and said, “I want to go home.”
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.
Gut gnawing anxiety left her sweating. Exactly what she needed when she was already soaked through and disgusting.
The male’s callously rattled growl warned, “I don’t have all day.”
Before she could stop herself, she threw him a glare saying, “Then why the fuck didn’t you send someone else to barter on your behalf?”
“I’ve killed men with my bare hands for daring to look at me that way.”
The beast thought this was funny? Of course he did. Sadist.
Picking up the pace, the stitch in her side warped from a minor annoyance to tried and true pain. Mikael squirmed as he coughed, and she felt his weight slip off her shoulder. Head first he went, right down to the planks.
And then the body stopped, forehead inches away from impact.
Wren’s ass met splintered wood when her balance failed. Biting back a groan, she gulped down stink-riddled atmosphere and saw just why Mikael seemed to float in midair. The Alpha had him by the ankle, and the brute looked disturbed by the fact.
Clambering to her aching feet, Wren reached out, signaling she was ready for Caspian to pass the boy forward.
The Alpha curled a lip, openly hostile as he snarled, “Your attempt to impress me with your stubbornness has been noted. Move!”
Sorely tempted to make a grab for her boy, Wren fisted her hands. Fear infected her expression, she was even foolish enough to feel her eyes well.
“It’s the cough that will kill him. Not me.” The Alpha turned the child right side up, flinging him over his shoulder carelessly. “March.”
Fast as she could manage in squashing shoes and with a petulant teen at her side, Wren hobbled over the planks, bringing the wolf right to her door.
A hand-hewn sign above read: Goods For Sale. It creaked in the drafts, reminding her to hurry with the locks before even more Warrens dwellers saw just who’d followed her home.
No one would frequent her shop if the head of The Syndicate was seen here.
One lock, two. Five. Seven, and the door gave, Wren falling inward after it in her haste to get inside. Alec rushed past her, Caspian ducking his head to fit past her door.
Like clockwork she slammed the door shut and locked it tight, letting out a breath when the last tumbler clicked. Flipping the switch on the nearest dehumidifier, Wren hastily stole Mikael away from a man she was certain would drop him out of spite.
Zippers were yanked, buttons popped, sodden clothes pulled from a rail-thin body. All done on the entry floor until a naked boy curled in on himself, shivering.
And he wasn’t the only naked child. Alec had stripped to his skivvies, arms out to help his friend to the bathing room. But as he helped his brother, he shot Wren an angry glare.
She was not forgiven.
Wren had much to say on the subject, but kept her lips sealed, so to speak, so she might deal with her guest.
“Your home is”—making no attempt to hide his disgust, the Alpha surveyed what her hard work had achieved—“very clean.”
Well, it had been before the four of them had dragged in an ocean of mud. Considering it was full of dry air and that there was even some decent salvaged furniture, Wren wasn’t sure what he had to complain about. Lost wonders she’d personally fished out of the muck were everywhere. Working view monitors, music receptacles, she even had a rickety cleaning bot.
Of course, the boys all had their favorite device, a working game console that might fetch her a pretty penny if she found the right buyer. Unfortunately, kids’ entertainment devices didn’t sell much in the Warrens.
Kids rarely survived here. Not on their own… and that’s how they arrived.
Rubbing heat into her hands, Wren breathed into cupped palms and eyeballed the man who seemed to be stealing the little ones before she could get to them.
Bastard.
“What did I tell you about looking at me that way?”
Throwing back her hood, she signed, aware he would have no clue as to her meaning. “That you’d kill me you vile, disgusting, piece of half-rotted dog.”
The man instead narrowed his eyes. His attention went to the knot of white hair pinned atop her head, his massive hand taking a grip of her shoulder. “I have a feeling you deserve punishment for whatever it was you just said.”
Wren smiled, all warmth and hospitality for the brute as she signed, “Let’s get this over with.”
“Take off your coat.” Meaty fingers started yanking at her zipper, careless for tearing the only slicker she had. “What else are you hiding under the world’s ugliest garments?”
Just because the boys knew to strip and wash as soon as they entered, didn’t mean Wren was going to do the same. But the beast had her out of her covering, spinning and twisting her about until she slipped on the busted tile floor and fell.
Gaping, she cradled a tweaked wrist, left with a wet flannel shirt that clung to her breasts.
“Up with you.” Caspian caught her as she tried to scramble back, setting the frazzled thing to her feet. With a grip of iron around her arm, his eyes raked over what little he’d uncovered. Then he drew her flailing body flush to run his nose up her neck. “How much do you sell for? You think I would have heard of a pretty, albino whore working the Warrens.”
Slapping at him, she pressed back with what little strength her arms had left.
“Too proud for me?” The man chuckled; it was not a noise of mirth. It was one of vile thoughts and vicious anger. “My face might be a bit banged up, but you’ll scream for my knot like a good little Omega slut. Play nice, and I might let you keep your boys.”
Wren squealed when he licked his lips, poking the tattooed flesh of her cheek. Defective.
Caspian’s brow dipped dangerously low. “Diseases?”
Head shaking, Wren patted his chest in a bid to be set free.
“What’re you doing to her?” Alec—wiped clean, and dressed fresh—with Mikael leaning on him for support, shouted, “She ain’t no whore!”
He eyeballed the boys but made no move to put Wren down. “She got a mate?”
Looking skyward as if it was a stupid question, Alec said, “Who do you think dumped her here?”
“Roll your eyes again at me, boy, and I’ll pop them right out of their sockets.” When the teen showed the wisdom of fear, Caspian demanded more, “Explain.”
“The Alpha gave her a poke and didn’t like her. He had her marked so she couldn’t be sold to anyone else.”
Red up to her roots, Wren looked away, thoroughly humiliated that Alec knew such things.
The bulging arms at her back softened, Wren sliding down a stone-hard chest until her feet hit the puddle of mud on the floor.
The interrogation wasn’t done. Pinching her chin, Caspian watched her eyes very closely. “You’re raw?”
She didn’t understand and it was clear in her expression.
“A virgin?”
Lavender eyes darted to where Alec stood, Wren wishing with all her heart the boys were not in the room.
“He stays until I say so.” The pressure on her chin increased. “Answer me.”
She shook her head no. She was not a virgin.
“Just the one time?”
An embarrassed nod.
“Then you’re raw.” A mean grin broke across Caspian’s face. “And you might actually have something worth bartering for here if what’s hiding under these clothes is as pretty as that hair.”
Wren drew in a deep, shaky breath, blowing it out slowly in a bid to compose herself. All of this had gone so far out of hand, she didn’t have a clue how to unravel it.
“I like pretty things that like me. I like pretty things that obey.” He ran a finger over her jaw, her pink lips, inspecting the merchandise as he enticed with an Alpha growl. “Be a good girl, now, and parlay. Do you want those boys or not?”
Signing carefully so Alec might answer, Wren shared her greatest shame. “The Alpha… I�
��” How the fuck does one describe what happened that night? “I didn’t know how to take his seed. It hurt him. He hurt me. I’m defective…”
Hearing Alec repeat what she’d shared, Wren began to sniff. Tears tracked through the dirt on her cheek, wiped quickly away.
She flat out started bawling when Alec interjected with, “Is that really what happened?”
Caspian took in her face, roaring, “Silence, boy!”
Silence came, Wren terrified of making so much as a sniff.
And then the air trembled with a bone-deep resonance that wrapped around her like a warm blanket.
An Alpha purr.
“In exchange for the boys, you’ll serve. Please me, and when I grow bored of you, you’ll come home with full pockets and enough fresh water to last a year.” He tapped a finger to her breastbone, leaning down so they might be eye-level. “This is the only offer I am going to make.”
There was no question of if she’d say yes. Wren knew exactly what would happen to Alec and Mikael if she refused.
Eyes wet and heart hammering against her ribs, Wren accepted his offer.
It earned a victorious grin from the smug Alpha, and an even louder purr left to jar the air.
He booped her nose. “I will be back tomorrow. You will be here, clean, dressed in something appealing, or I’ll hunt down the rabid children haunting the Warrens and rip a limb off each one I find.”
Chapter 5
Everything had been scrubbed until her fingers were raw: floors, the door, clothing, her body, even her hair. Wren washed the day away, lost in the work so she might forget why her feet were stained brown and her home had been sent into upheaval. And between bouts of cleaning, she tended the sick boy curled up on her couch, a makeshift nest built up around him.
Two doses of costly decongestant, expired antibiotics, filtered water, compresses, and finally… finally he’d slept. Which is why Caspian found her as he did, collapsed over the couch at Mikael’s side. Like her boy, she was fast asleep.
