Naomi was already there, laying out a veritable bounty with the fish she had been preparing earlier as the centerpiece. It was enough food to feed a battalion, much less the three of them.
And there were a handful of candles on the table. Ianthe had to hold in a gasp at seeing them, marveling at the expense. Even in the midlevels, candles were impossible to find. Glowlights, made from mildly radioactive remnants harvested from the uninhabitable regions, were cheaper and more efficient. Candlelight was one of the purest and most pointless luxuries that she could imagine.
It was difficult for Ianthe to reconcile the excess of Legion’s compound with the degradation that could be found in the lower levels. And, of course, elites like him put no thought to all of those who suffered for his luxury. It just wasn’t right for so few to have so much.
But she didn’t bother to lambast him with a lecture on social reformation. At best, he would simply laugh at her. Alphas didn’t care about anyone but themselves.
The bond whispered to her in protest, reassuring her that her mate was a good provider, that he would ensure she had everything that she could ever dream of.
Ianthe wanted to rip her own heart out of her chest.
Legion had her take his arm, obviously playing at the gentleman for whatever reasons pleased him at the moment. She had no illusions that it was anything other than a ruse meant to keep her off balance. And yet, a shiver still coursed down her spine when his hand brushed the bare skin of her back.
The table was long enough to seat a dozen, but Naomi had unsurprisingly only laid two place settings on one end. The glaringly white china looked like two lone islands in a sea of wood and shimmer from the glowlights.
He seated her in the chair immediately to the right of the one at the head of the table. His hands traced the sides of her arms and slipped up to rest for a moment on her shoulders. He wasn’t holding her down or even applying significant force, but she kept her eyes squeezed shut until he moved away. The hairs on the back of her arms stood on end as an electric current tickled along her skin.
“Will you be needing anything else, sir?” Naomi asked, her tone more formal than it had been before.
“That will be all for the night.”
The woman spared Ianthe the briefest of glances. She seemed almost to hesitate for a moment, as if there were something that she wanted to say. But whatever it may have been died on her lips. Naomi gave a sharp nod before turning to walk down the lit pathway. It did not take long before she disappeared into the darkness.
Her heart beat a little faster as Julian passed behind her and took his own chair. Perhaps it was the glowing darkness, the days of isolation or something else entirely but she found herself very aware of his presence in a way that unnerved her.
When he finally lowered himself into his own seat, she was alone with whim in a small circle of light surrounded by encroaching darkness. She had the fantastical idea that something terrible lurked in those shadows and he was the only one that kept it at bay.
It had to be the bond fooling with her mind, making her more susceptible to his presence, making her want to submit. Even without him touching her, she felt a phantom pressure on her skin, teasing her.
None of it was real.
At least, that was what she kept telling herself.
“This is the quietest that you’ve ever been.” He picked up his fork and twirled it between long and tapered fingers. “Should I be optimistic? Or is this just the calm before the storm?”
Ianthe stared down at her plate, willing herself not to look at him. If she met his gaze, she knew that she would be lost. “I don’t know what you mean by that.”
His gaze remained on her, it was like a physical weight. “Eat.”
She automatically obeyed, spearing a small piece of fish and bringing it to her mouth. Flavor exploded on her tongue with spice combinations that she didn’t even have a name for, but the experience paled in comparison to the anxiety thrumming along her senses. Sick anticipation had completely overcome her appetite, even for food this fine. Her mind was too consumed with what he would do to her next to focus on anything else.
The fork fell from her fingers and onto the table with a soft clatter. “Can you just get it over with?”
His raised eyebrow cast an additional shadow over his features. “Get what over with?”
“Whatever it is that you’re going to do with me. Whatever you’re going to make me do. Just get it over with.”
“And what is it you think that I’m planning to do with you?”
“How should I know?” she grumbled. “Something awful. Something terrible that you’ll use your Alpha tricks to make me like.”
“Alpha tricks?” He laughed then, the sound dark and full of promise. “We’ll have to discuss that in more detail at some point. For now, tell my why you‘re so on edge.”
“You claimed me without my consent.” She spoke though gritted teeth even as the bond hummed discordantly in her chest, urging her to believe that all was right with the world despite all evidence to the contrary. “Of course I’m on edge.”
“I meant in this particular moment. But I‘ll repeat myself as you seem in need of hearing it again.“ Legion seemed legitimately surprised at the vehemence in her voice. “I am protecting you, keeping you safe from the consequences of your rash decisions. This is the natural way of things and it always has been.”
“Not always.”
“Are you speaking of times pre-devastation? Hundreds of years is enough for most of us. You are Omega and you have been claimed by your Alpha. You have no cause to be upset. This was inevitable.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly.” He leaned closer, rudely resting his large elbows on the surface of the table. “Your unwillingness to accept the natural way of things is causing you unnecessary distress. You are Omega. Eventually your ruse with the alterants would have been discovered. If I hadn’t claimed you, Central Command would have assigned you to a suitable mate. That, or sent you to the workcamps as punishment for hiding your dynamic. Although that would have been an unlikely outcome for someone as lovely as you. Your courage is admirable, but this outcome was inevitable. Omegas are things of considerable value. If I had not claimed you, someone else would have.”
She finally raised her eyes to glare at him. “I’m not a thing.”
“I am surprised you’ve gotten this far with that mouth.”
His voice was gentle, but the chiding tone was not lost on her. It warned of other things to come.
Stricken, Ianthe returned her attention to her plate. It was so hard to let go of the anger, but she understood that it would not serve her. Perhaps if she appealed to the small part of him that was still human. “There are other Omegas, especially for a man as wealthy as you are. You could have your pick of anyone.”
“And I chose you.”
“My sister read on the CommNet weeks ago that a Senator’s daughter is Omega and unclaimed, they are already accepting claiming bids for her. She would be so much closer to what you want. No one would ever need know about this…”
“Enough!”
His roar was more than enough to shake her to the bone. She fell silent as frustrated tears tracked down her cheeks. It was a struggle to regain control of herself enough so that she did not break down completely. An Alpha’s roar was difficult to take at the best of times and now she was trapped out here in the dark with him.
“I do not make rash decisions and understand this, taking you was a decision. You are exactly where you belong.”
He spoke the words with a deep finality.
Ianthe gathered herself, relying on the small font of strength inside of her that she had not been aware she possessed until it was all that was left. “Just tell me why you’re playing this game with me.”
Rage still shimmered in his eyes but his voice was controlled. “Game?”
“All of this.” Her wild gesture took in the table lit by flickerin
g glowlights and the expressive spread of food. “What is the point of pretending to woo me. You don’t care about me. I could be deaf, blind and dumb, as long as I have an Omega cunt you’d be happy. Why not just lock me in a cage, pull me out when you want to mate and be done with it? Why pretend this is something different than what it is?”
She assumed her words would anger him even more. Perhaps part of her even hoped to send him into a rage that would confirm all of her worst assumptions. But her words seemed to have the opposite effect.
Legion leaned back in his chair, expression pensive as he regarded her. And then he surprised her further by changing the subject completely. “Tell me about your father.”
“What?”
“Your father. He was a Beta who worked for the logistics corps, correct? Tell me about him.”
She hesitated, somehow unwilling to give him more information than he already had as if that would give him that much more power over her. “What is it that you want to know?”
“How did yout parents meet? Did they ever tell you the story?”
In fact, her mother had delighted in telling them all of the details of how she had met their father. He had met her in the market when she was too young for estrous to have reared its ugly head and he was a fresh-faced recruit in the logistics corp. Her mother’s parents, now long dead, had owned a small shop selling small luxury items like fresh flowers and trinkets. Her mother would work the register after returning from the education program and her father would go into the shop every day to buy things that he clearly did not need, just for the chance to speak with her.
When her mother eventually came of appropriate age, her father had acted honorably, requesting proper permission to claim her and her mother had been given the chance to agree, even though it wasn’t strictly required by law. Their courtship had been civil, mutually agreed upon and had contained none of the violence that Ianthe associated with any dealings involving an Alpha. The reminder of what things could be left a bitter taste in her mouth.
“I don’t know all of the details,” Ianthe said finally, when Legion’s eyes narrowed at her lack of response. “My father was always respectful of my mother if that’s what you’re asking. He fell in love with her before he ever knew that she was Omega.”
“You’re certain of that?”
“I know that they met before her first estrous, so how could he? He wanted her for her, not because of her dynamic.”
The unspoken accusation in her words was clear — unlike you.
“I knew you to be Omega from the first moment that I encountered you. You can’t be certain the same wasn’t true of your father in regards to your mother.”
“It was before her first estrous…”
He interrupted her, tone deceptively gentle. “And you had enough hormonal suppressant in your system to completely sterilize a Beta. If I knew, why wouldn’t he?”
“Is there a point to this? I really don’t want to talk about my parents.”
“I don’t recall offering you the choice.” He took a sip of wine, but continued to watch her over the rim. His gaze never broke from hers unless she looked away. Ianthe wasn’t convinced the man ever blinked. “The point is that you’ve created a fantasy in your mind of what it means to be Omega. The fact that reality does not match with your imaginings is causing you unnecessary distress.”
Her fingers clenched around the fork and she barely managed the urge to throw it at him. “My distress is very necessary.”
“I disagree.” He leaned forward until their faces were close enough that his breath moved the curl resting across her forehead. “Imagine for a moment that your father knew exactly what it was he had found in your mother, even if she was barely out of childhood. Is it really so difficult to understand that he would do anything in his power to possess something of such incalculable value — an Omega?”
She found herself inexplicably near tears again. “He loved my mother.”
“And I’m not refuting that.” The tip of one finger touched her cheek, catching a tear before it could fall. “But ask yourself if his initial desire to possess an Omega — one that every man in Pandora shares, I assure you — does anything to diminish the love that he had for her.”
Something seemed to shift in her, only slightly but it was enough. Weakening to his pull, even in the smallest way, was another step toward him possessing her completely. The bond hummed between them, bathing her in feelings of contentment and safety that she recognized were not her own. “You don’t love me.”
One hand caught at the back of her head, fisting a handful of dark curls. “I feel a great many things for you.”
Legion kissed her like he would crawl inside of her very soul, forcing everything else away until there was space only for him. She understood that she was being manipulated, but that didn’t stop her from instinctively responding, moaning as his teeth bit at her mouth.
The kiss ended almost as quickly as it had begun and he leaned away. Ianthe caught herself following his mouth with hers and pulled back as her face flushed.
“Your fish is getting cold,” he murmured, gaze full of smug triumph.
Ianthe picked up her wine glass and took a large gulp, refusing to look at him until the heat in her cheeks cooled. She took a small bite of the fish, forcing herself to enjoy it despite the turmoil in her thoughts. “This is delicious.”
“I’ll pass your compliments on to Naomi.”
They ate in silence for several minutes until Ianthe finally couldn’t take it anymore. She felt wholly incapable of peacefulness, so she pushed at him, knowing what would result. Alphas were animals. She knew, given time, that was exactly what he would prove himself to be. “Just tell me what your plan is.”
“Plan?” He asked.
His voice remained moderate but held a small note of warning that Ianthe blithely chose to ignore. She was going crazy, allowing him to court her as if he were civilized and not a monster.
“Will I spend the rest of my days trapped her playing dress up, like a child who’s gotten into her mother’s face paint?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Would you like face paint?”
“That isn’t what I meant,” she said, flustered. Why was he being so reasonable? Any other man, even a Beta, would have slapped her down by now for her tone alone. “And I wouldn’t even know what to do with it. I remember when I was little girl, watching my mother at her vanity table. She had all of these little pots and pans in a rainbow of colors. Just so pretty. She died before she could show me how to use any of it. Circe doesn’t use it either. She doesn’t want anything to draw more attention…” She trailed off and then stared down at the plate in her front of her.
“More attention to her face?” His tone was carefully neutral.
“Yes. Perhaps a bit of paint would improve the appearance of the worst of the scarring, but Circe isn’t really one to experiment.”
“She suffered the accident as a child, correct, before your parents died?”
“The accident was when she was really young, yes.”
“Yes. Why are you asking about this?”
“I thought you wanted to have a conversation. Should we move on to other activities?”
“No,” she said, catching the soup spoon that almost fell from her shaking hand. A shiver of desire ran through her but it was quickly accompanied by a cold splash of fear. Each time that he took her, it was as if she lost a piece of herself. “Keep talking.”
“Tell me more about your brother.”
“Eaon? He’s a typical fourteen-year-old boy. He’s been sick, which makes him feel weak, so he sometimes responds to it by rebelling — running around with his friends instead of reporting to the education program, staying out too late, that sort of thing. He’s mostly a good kid. But it’s hard to grow up in the slums, he’s never really known anything else.”
“Indeed.”
“You know, if you cared so much about my family then you’d let me speak to them. Circe must
be going out of her mind with worry by now.”
Legion picked up a glass of wine and regarded her over the rim. “The night of that gala, your sister received a CommNet message, addressed from you, detailing the temporary job assignment you’d found in the midlevels that required you to be away from home for an indeterminate amount of time.”
Of course he had thought to concoct a story. “She won’t believe that for long. Eventually, she’ll want to speak with me.”
“I told you before that access to a terminal is a privilege that you’re going to have to earn.”
Ianthe couldn’t hide the burst of anger that briefly twisted her features. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
And she immediately regretted her sharp words when he rose from his seat at the table, towering over her.
“Let me show you,” he murmured, eyes flashing.
Chapter Nine
Legion loomed over her, all Alpha size and ferocity.
Like any other animal used to being prey, Ianthe held herself perfectly still, as if she could sink into the chair and disappear completely. But Legion made no move to touch or grab at her.
She wanted to run from him, but her hands felt glued to chair’s armrests, even though he did not have her bound.
As if reading her mind, he picked up his discarded napkin and draped it over her left wrist. Before she could react, he wrapped the napkin around the arm of the chair and tied it tightly enough that the cloth was taut against her skin and just this side of painful.
He picked up the napkin next to her plate and repeated the action on the other side as she shivered when his fingers brushed her skin. She felt the way she did that first night in Eros House, full of terrible anticipation.His coldness was more frightening than his anger.
And she had brought this on herself by baiting him.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice reedy with fear.
“Hush.” He bent low over the chair so that their eyes met.
Ianthe stared into the golden eyes that flashed in the light. Her heart quivered in her chest, like a bird beating fragile wings against the cage of her ribs. She shifted against the bonds at her wrists. He had not tied her cruelly tight and she could likely free herself if given enough time. But she knew better than to try.
Omega's Capture (Omegas of Pandora Book 2) Page 7
