Silent Captive: A Reverse Harem Omegaverse Dark Romance

by Addison Cain

  And so Wren tucked that unwarranted stab of sadness away and smiled all the larger.

  It didn’t matter that the other Omega hissed at her approach. It didn’t matter that she reeked of Caspian, and even a little of Kieran… whom Wren had given herself to less than an hour before.

  Letters tight in her fist, Wren went to the First.

  To the male who had stolen her.

  To the first man who had told her she was not defective.

  To a person she greatly feared and could never thank enough.

  And slipped her arms around the stiff Alpha’s middle to give him a genuinely heartfelt hug. She didn’t even mind the hideous coat touching her, or the shock she sensed when he braced as if she’d burned him. She embraced him, her ear to his heart, and smiled as if all was right in the world.

  He didn’t purr. That was okay. She did, loudly, so loud it rang in her ears.

  Pulling back, she went on quick tip toe and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek before stepping back.

  Eyes on her mouth, he scowled, dragging his thumb down her split lip. “What’s this?”

  Miming waking surprised and thrashing, she tried to get him to laugh. He didn’t.

  His loss.

  Letters somewhat rumpled from her fist, she smiled at the male and held out the one with his name scratched on top. Pinching it from her fingers, face utterly blank, Caspian waited.

  So she spoke in her way. Hands flowing with her excitement, Wren ignored all others to tell him exactly how she felt, knowing he could not understand, but hoping the sentiment came across.

  Mikael is going to live thanks to you! Do you know what that means to me? There is nothing in the world I love more than my boys. Nothing. And today I saw my youngest smile, I saw him feel like he might have a shot at the world. I saw him come alive.

  He laughed and it didn’t hurt him.

  Thank you! Thank you with all my heart!

  I will repay this kindness. I swear it.

  Glancing toward the seething Rosie, Wren gave her a friendly smile, knowing she had interrupted time the other female prized with Caspian. Pressing her hands together in supplication, she wordlessly asked the Rosie’s forgiveness for intruding. And backed away, still smiling.

  The other Omega’s disgust was obvious. “What the fuck is she doing here?”

  “Shut up!” Caspian snapped at his guest, pulling open the letter to read it over. It didn’t take him long to absorb the message or to turn rich brown eyes back upon the bearer.

  They were furious. “You were told to rest! I forbid you from ever stepping foot down here again!”

  The unexpected boom of his voice made Wren jump, avert her eyes in immediate submission, and back away. But she still had Toby’s letter to pass forward, so she held it out, glancing quickly to where the Third edged forward.

  Caspian snatched the paper from her hands, tore it lengthwise, and threw it over the ledge. Sailing end over end, the two halves were caught up by all the pouring water. Ruined.

  Wren’s eyes tracked the path, earlier exuberance melting into a chill when it fell into the churning cistern. Her page was caught up by clean water and washed down a path that led right where Wren had first entered Caspian’s domain.

  A figure far below was waving, face alive with excitement to see her. A boy with the painted black handprint of the Syndicate marking his face shouting, “Jax!”

  Alec.

  The boy she had bought with her body, jumping and exuberant to get her attention.

  This… no…

  Why was he here? Why marked as if he’d joined this band of criminals and murderers?

  Like a snuffed out candle, the joy in her heart extinguished. Horror wormed its way into the hollow place, snapped through sinew and limb, and the icy clarity that she should have known better.

  Daring to look at the seething male who’d forbidden her to come here, accusation sat clear on her face.

  Caspian held no guilt in those mud colored eyes, only the glinting sting of entitlement. Clutched in his fist was her letter, a physical manifestation of her gratitude, and she could not help but stare at it as if it might come alive and destroy her.

  Toby marched closer, speaking as if moving his jaw was difficult. “Go back to your room, sunshine. Now! I will come to you later.”

  This sinking feeling… this was what those who lived in the Warrens choked on every goddamn day.

  Disappointment. Betrayal.

  Wren looked to the Second. Kieran wouldn’t even turn his head her direction.

  She’d been dismissed.

  As if these men had a right to do so.

  They’d made an agreement, she’d held up her bargain… and it began to dawn on Wren that all the while, all those days, Alec had been right here. He’d probably marched right back to the pipeworks once she’d dragged him home and demanded a place.

  And to get that mark, Caspian himself had accepted him into the fold.

  Stolen him. LIED.

  Caspian, Kieran, Toby… all of them had lied to her. Used her.

  Churning behind her breast, swishing anger began to wash away sticky shame. It pushed it out her fingertips and into the air to coat the males who should be cursed to suffer it.

  Teeth on edge, she cut a glare back to the eyes of her betrayer.

  She could feel the veins pulsating behind her eyes, knew her nostrils flared and an intense look of hate shaped her face.

  There had been times in Wren’s life when she had felt anger. This was so much more.

  Rage flowed through her spirit, and sent her dashing away. Rage moved her feet on a path not one of them might impede until she’d jumped off rotting planks, ran over crumbling cement, and swung her way down rickety ladders all the way below where the child laborers were whipped and abused.

  Where her boy looked to now be in charge. Of innocent slaves. Of fellow people.

  One look at his Jax, and Alec’s enthusiasm became the sullen frown of a culpable accomplice.

  The kid thought to placate. “I know what you’re going to say…”

  Wren struck him. And it was not the open-palmed slap of a mother correcting her young. It was the backhand of a pissed off Warrens’ rat ready to harm.

  Alec hit the floor with a yelp, pushing himself to scream, “You don’t have a say in my life!”

  Hands flying, Wren had her fucking say. “Do you have any idea the things I’ve done so you wouldn’t have to be here? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME?”

  “You’ve been put up special in the big room! Get anything you want.” Sullen but loud in the way of embarrassed adolescent boys, Alec shoved her back and shouted, “Besides, the girls in the pen are taken care of!”

  “HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW?”

  Dusting himself off and raising his chin, Alec boasted, “I’m a full member of the gang now. I’ve been there. It’s nice. They have lots of food and water. Everyone smiles when they touch you.”

  She was going to be sick. He was a fucking boy already corrupted by this horrid place and the filth that gathered amidst so much clean water.

  Seeing her pant, taking in the horrified whites of her eyes, Alec lost the smirk and cleared his throat. “Caspian is a great man—”

  Never had she been so tempted to wrap her hands around Alec’s throat and end him. “He is not a great man. He’s a criminal who enslaves the most vulnerable so he might climb higher on their corpses. And you want to be just like him?”

  Stubborn, obstinate and angry, her boy, her sweet Alec spat. “Yes.”

  Wren hit him again, harder, knowing it would leave his ears ringing and linger in a bruise.

  And while she reached for her kid’s shirt, while she hoisted Alec up with unusual strength and shook him, Wren had heard the cause of all this pain rush forward.

  It was their fault! She’d face down the males who had stolen her child and ruined him. Who’d ruined her!

  Seething, glad her lungs could take on so much damp air, Wren droppe
d the kid they thought they might steal and turned her back on him to face down the enemy.

  Ready to burst from her flesh, she snarled, hissed, and flexed her fingers. Water rained down upon them, soaking her white hair, her borrowed white clothes, and left them all filthy in its decadence.

  Caspian, massive in his hideous coat of human flesh breathed fast and angry. He dared to glower at her as if she had broken their contract. As if she has threatened his family.

  A year of water he’d promised her. Pockets full of credits. Two boys.

  Bastard!

  Behind him, Kieran held up his hand in caution. And Toby, that psychopath crooked his finger at her, calling out. “Come to me, darling girl. Step this way.”

  Never again.

  Cracking his neck, Caspian crossed his arms over his broad chest, announcing, “Think of the other boy. It would be a shame if something—”

  Color leached out of her vision, leaving greys and shadows, and a deep, abiding hate.

  Wren didn’t hear the rest of Caspian’s speech or threats. How could she when a perfect piece of corroded rebar stuck out from the ancient cement, close enough that she might brace her foot against the ground and tear it out. Roaring, she hefted half the slab upward until it cracked. Watching the dust flake off her weapon, smiling to see a quantity of hardened rock still clung to the end of her perfect cudgel, she hoisted it high.

  Caspian stood taller before his men, before his slaves, and demanded, “Put that down before you hurt yourself.”

  There would be pain alright. Theirs. She’d kill every last one of them.

  And then he sealed his fate. “This farce of an agreement is behind us. You are mine, the boys are mine. Every last life in this fucking city is mine. Don’t think I won’t hesitate to harm the other one if you don’t obey.”

  The other one? This bastard didn’t even know the name of the boy he threatened.

  Animal noises came from her chest, a mournful wheeze twisted in a raw, chattering growl.

  There was a point all males knew not to push an Omega past, a point that led to unyielding bloodlust. She became something else.

  A creature that would single-mindedly defend her young. A creature who could not feel pain. A creature who would not stop until death.

  She was going to kill this man, beat him to death with the metal rod she’d torn from hardened rock.

  “Stop threatening her boy, boss!” Toby pushed forward, snapping his teeth at Caspian before his wild eyes met her unblinking gaze. “Put down the weapon and come to me, mate. Mikael will remain unharmed. You have my word.”

  Mate? Her grip tightened about the aged rebar, fingers going white. Word? Worthless.

  Cajoling, singsonging false calm, Toby held up his hands patting air as if to calm her. “This is all a misunderstanding. Look, he even gave Alec a place. One with pay. Food. Water. You’ll be able to keep a close eye on him. Caspian means no harm to your boys.”

  “Like hell I don’t!” The First Alpha stripped off his disgusting coat, dropping it to the mud, muscles bulging as he demanded surrender. “Submit, now, or I’ll cast him out on the street. Submit, or the sick one will drown in his own body’s juices. You are mine! I don’t give a fuck about our agreement.”

  Greys and shadows bleached away until her world was only black and white.

  Rearing back with a guttural scream, Wren launched herself at the betrayer, laughing at his roar.

  Chapter 15

  Lashes crusted and gummed with drying blood stuck together when Wren tried to blink herself awake. The ground below her was cold and wet. She was soaked, naked, save for scraps of ruined cloth and the icy touch of heavy chains.

  They weighed her down, pinning her to that rough cement floor.

  There was enough light coming through the crack in the door to see her shackled hands and swollen, stiff fingers. Five of her nails had been torn off. At least three of her fingers were broken… and the blood. Her skin was scraped off.

  Wren could see why. She’d attacked the door, the walls… herself.

  Around the shackles on wrists and ankles was raw skin, torn when she’d tried to remove them.

  She didn’t remember doing it. She didn’t remember being chained or thrown in this room.

  All she could remember was Caspian’s threats. Submit, now, or I’ll cast him out on the street. Submit, or the sick one will drown in his own body’s juices.

  Well now she was lying in hers. Everything hurt: each muscle, each bone. Her split flesh.

  So many bites marked her limbs. They burned, but nothing like the gouged flesh of her neck. Raw fingers had tested the skin, coming away bright red. She was still bleeding, just as her cunt still spilled cum if she moved.

  It smelled of Caspian.

  These were his bites. He had bruised her and torn her neck. And she could remember nothing.

  He should have just killed her and been done with it. Shoving her into a dark closet to rot seemed too personal.

  It was almost as if he cared.

  That thought made her laugh, a thing she regretted immediately when scabbing skin stretched and oozed. If he thought to torture her, he’d better hurry. Infection would kill her in a matter of days.

  Maybe this was Caspian’s idea of compassion. Time to mourn her boy before inevitable death carried her out of this hellish life.

  Footfalls outside her door, the shadow of a man, and Wren began to sob. They could do whatever they wanted to her so long as she was reunited with Mikael and Alec in the afterlife.

  And maybe, just maybe, he was bleeding now too.

  Hopefully they all were. Caspian, Kieran, Toby… damn them all to burn in hell.

  The iron crank of a rusted lock shrieked, encroaching light burning her eyes as the door parted and a man peered in.

  “Are you sane?”

  Considering the one who asked, Wren hiccupped—an almost laugh in all her misery.

  Toby peered in at her, the look on his bruised face setting a thump in her chest that almost knocked the wind from her lungs.

  “I don’t blame you, sunshine.” He slipped through the door, closing it behind them so just the two of them were sequestered in the shadows. Kneeling, he lifted her shivering body so she might rest against his chest and steal warmth. “I don’t blame you, but I do request…”—he spoke the word as if testing it. As if really wanting to say demand instead—“Yes, I request that you capitulate. You cannot win, sweet girl. You must apologize.”

  He smoothed sticky hair from her face, staring down at what must be horrible damage with a frown.

  “So pretty…”

  Teeth chattering—and yes, her tongue felt all of them—Wren could offer up only another sorry sob.

  “Beg him for the lives of your boys. Do it now before it’s too late.”

  That got her attention.

  Despite the wreckage of her fingers and her bleeding wrists, Wren tried to grasp the front of his shirt. A shirt already marked with her blood, sweat, and tears.

  “We will get past this, all of us.” He pressed a kiss to her aching forehead. “But only if you submit.”

  Nodding emphatically, Wren gagged on the gore in her throat and tried to sign.

  She would not be signing for some time. Truly mute, tears fell, the salt stinging as they ran their course.

  He held her eyes, purring as if the sound might set her at ease. “Someday I hope you’ll tell me what that letter said.”

  Before she might find a way to reply, he stood, hauled her up into his arms, chains and all, and carried her sorry, half-frozen body out of the dark.

  It was a short walk to Caspian’s room, Wren noting that his hive seemed oddly silent. Beyond the sound of rushing water there were no yelps from whipped slaves, no barked orders from evil men. Just the water, the thrum in her chest, and the sound of Toby’s breathing.

  Two guards flanked the door, one opening it without so much as a glance at the bloodied, naked woman. And then she was inside.

/>   It struck her how familiar the space had become. The scents swept through her nostrils, invaded her lungs, and set that constant throb in her chest to spiraling heights.

  Caspian waited. Kieran too.

  The pair of them stood in the center of the space, but Wren couldn’t make out their expressions. She was too busy enjoying the wounds exposed by fresh clothes.

  Even in all her pain, in all that desperation, she enjoyed that Caspian’s eyes had both been blackened. That the corners of his mouth were crusted with blood. Under his clothes she pictured long strips of missing flesh, maybe even one of her missing fingernails burrowed deep to prick and harm.

  These were evil thoughts. That man, that hateful, vile, deceiver had the lives of her boys in his hands, and though her chest thumped, her lips blubbered.

  This awful person wanted her to scrape at his feet. He owned them all. His word meant nothing.

  But he was her only chance.

  Ground met her knees, Toby laying her naked, chain-draped body at the feet of his master.

  Thoughts of Mikael smiling from his hospital bed, the sound of his laughter ringing clear with no tinge of a wheeze, and Wren broke.

  Just like all the women in these caverns.

  Clinging to his boot, lips pressed the laces, she wept a river of pain and begged.

  Kieran’s scent neared until paper and pen were laid beside her.

  “Write that you are mine,” Caspian demanded, draping the ultimatum in a seductive purr.

  Manacled wrists moved together to pick up the pen, fumbled it, and tried again. It took agonizing ages to gather it in a fist only three fingers could grasp. Even longer to try to scratch upon the page, Please don’t hurt my boys.

  “Then submit.” He crouched over her bent head, a hand tangling in her wet hair. “Write it.”

  The sounds that came from her as she penned his demand were pathetic, angry, horrible… but she did as he requested, that hand on her head oddly supportive.

  I’m yours.

  “You are.” His fist tightened in her hair, gathering the mass back so he might yank her head upward to expose the worst of her wounds.

  Her throat, she felt fresh blood pump from the open wound to trickle warm down so much cold skin.