Maryanne turned full Alpha. "I WON'T FUCKING DO IT!"
"You will."
The blonde paced towards the window, checking for the twentieth time for a sign of trouble. "Goddamn you, Claire. Goddamn you and your pointless humanitarian bullshit. You always were a goody two-shoes when we were kids; it was disgusting then and it's even more pathetic now."
"But I was never a pushover." Claire took Maryanne's arm, her expression one of desperation. "I am sorry, but I need you. I need the skills you have that I lack. If you do this for me I will never bother you again."
A deadly look came with the question. "Why not just ask your mate?"
"He's the one who locked them up." Claire pushed her hair behind her ear and stood her ground. "Like you, he's blind to what is right and wrong."
Maryanne cursed. She raged for hours, trying to talk Claire out of such madness, but the outcome was inevitable. Maryanne Cauley had no choice, and she knew it.
They fought over the plan vehemently. There was no time for reconnaissance, the pair blind to what may or may not be waiting. Diversion was one thing, but what Claire intended was insanity. But it could be done, Claire knew it in her bones. She could make it work. She had to, because if she did not give her all, risk everything, then nothing would change.
In the end, it was a shot in the dark at best … suicide at worst. But Claire, it seemed, had come to the right woman.
Maryanne Cauley knew the Undercroft-she knew entrances, she knew secrets-and though she refused to speak of why, it was obvious that once upon a time, Maryanne Cauley had been disposed of down in that dark place.
Shepherd's mother was not the only woman thrown into hell.
At dawn, Claire was exhausted but determined. Maryanne swore up and down and yanked Claire to bed when the Omega would not stop yawning. Once under the covers, it was so simple to fall into old patterns; Maryanne braiding Claire's hair just like she had when they were little.
Hoping the answer would not be as disappointing as she anticipated, Claire sighed, "The way you talk about the Undercroft, the look in your eye every time I say the name Shepherd … You know him."
"Everyone knows him."
No, it was much deeper than that. Claire rolled over to look her friend in the eye. "Don't lie to me, Maryanne. He scares you. He scares you because you know him. Somehow you were once involved with that monster. Are you still?"
Maryanne tried to be flippant. "Involved? I should be asking you that same question. After all, your romance is probably going to get me killed."
"I am not mated to Shepherd by choice." Claire would not let herself blink or stutter. "I went into estrous unexpectedly in front of him. He forced the pair-bond."
Maryanne had the decency to look stricken. "Don't take this the wrong way, Claire, but this is Shepherd. He's a powerful man. It seems a little strange that he would bond to a woman he didn't know … I mean, he's a warlord. People probably give him Omegas for Christmas."
Svana's words echoed in Claire's head. 'We have not shared a heated Omega in some time.'
"They do … I don't know why he bonded to me, and the one time I asked, he gave only pointless, empty words." Her green eyes grew harder, as did Claire's demand for answers. "My question, Maryanne. How do you know him?"
Pursing her lips, Maryanne confessed, "I, um, needed friends once."
"I was your friend. I would have been, had you not run off … and," Claire sighed, knowing Maryanne well enough to see she was not exactly an innocent, "done the things you did until you got thrown into the Undercroft."
Maryanne snorted. "Before I found a way out."
"From Shepherd."
"My services in exchange for my life." The girl who had never felt guilty about a single trespass she had committed in her life looked at her old friend with uncustomary regret. "I was the one who recovered the access codes to the Judicial Sector and the Citadel."
Brows drawn tight, Claire hissed, "How could you?"
"I didn't know their plans for Thólos. I swear."
Claire didn't want to hear it. "What did you think he would do once freed?"
"He was already free … " Maryanne whispered. "How do you think I got out?"
Claire's brows shot up. "What?"
Maryanne snorted at the small woman's naiveté. "Sorry, bitch, but we've been screwed for a long time."
"Do you know where he keeps the virus?"
Smirking, Maryanne shared a hard truth. "If I did, do you really think I'd be here, stockpiling and preparing for the end of the world? Listen to me, Claire, they don't know about this place. I wiped it from the records almost a decade before I was tossed downstairs. I have enough food, enough air scrubbers to get through almost a year. You don't need to follow through with your crap plan. You can stay here with me. Should the worst happen, all we'd have to do is wait until the virus did its work."
Claire shook her head. "The Dome is cracked, Maryanne. You'd freeze to death as the ecosystem fails. It's like he planned for people like you. We're all going to die; we're all going to die if nothing is done."
They were both anxious, tired … just like everyone else in Thólos. There was no point in further argument. Instead both Claire and Maryanne fell into hurried preparations. Things needed to be built for Claire's scheme, and technology learned. Maryanne's explanations, the way she could make something dangerous from nothing, reminded Claire just how out of her element she was.
Rudimentary bombs, how to override basic access panels-Maryanne was teaching her instead of just making them herself, wordlessly reminding Claire that their association would soon end and that the fumbling Omega would be on her own.
When all the tools were ready, Claire showered, scrubbing off any lingering trace of Corday's scent. Maryanne was in that bathroom applying lipstick as if they were planning an outing, not an attack against the tyrants holding the city. Blinking at the mirror, Maryanne froze, jaw agape at the sight of the Omega's naked body.
The Alpha touched without asking. "What is all of this?"
Claire didn't need to look down to know what Maryanne found so disturbing. "The price of my freedom."
Careful fingers traced the yellowing handprint over Claire's throat. "And your neck?"
An incoherent noise, a mockery of speech got stuck in Claire's mouth. "It's nothing."
Maryanne took her chin and turned Claire's face to meet her own big brown eyes. She smiled, teasing. "Your feet are disgusting. You're bleeding all over my floor."
And the pain was a blessing, the perfect distraction. "Shepherd didn't allow me access to shoes. I had to run in the streets barefoot."
"Does it hurt?"
"Yes. But it doesn't bother me and it won't slow me down."
Maryanne crouched to see why fresh blood was running down her old friend's shin. "Your knee needs stitches."
"Nothing I can do about that right now."
"Sit down, I'll do it."
It was so backwards to have Maryanne Cauley be the one to tend to her; as kids it was always the other way around. Watching the fully grown woman pull a needle and some metallic thread through her skin, feeling the pinch and burn, the world seemed so very strange. "Whatever happened to your mom?" Claire asked.
"Who fucking knows," Maryanne muttered as she made another tight stitch. "Probably OD'd years ago."
Claire just hummed, distracted. "My dad died four years back. Roadway accident."
"Your pop was always pretty cool."
Claire had to agree. "Yeah … I'm glad he's not here to see this."
Maryanne rubbed her lips together as if she wanted to say something but thought better of it. Instead, she stood and gathered clothing appropriate for the mission and shoved the horrid black garb of Shepherd's Followers towards Claire.
The Omega didn't balk, just dressed silently while Maryanne squeezed her limber body into a matching uniform.
"You know, Claire," Maryanne was dead serious, knotting her hair to tuck under a cap. "Underground there's a whole 'nother world. Those who follow Shepherd are beyond dangerous."
"Whatever they are doesn't matter."
Maryanne's voice fell flat. "What I am trying to tell you is, pair-bond or no, they have an agenda. Shepherd might just kill you."
Claire had no illusions on that score. "I'm counting on it."
"I could save us all this trouble and kill you right now," the Alpha offered.
"That's awfully sweet of you," Claire teased, standing on tiptoe to press a peck to her friend's ruby lips. "But I will already be dead to you after tonight. Give me what I need and you have my word."
Maryanne tucked a loaded gun into Claire's pocket. "Promises, promises … "
"And, Maryanne," Claire added, forcing a playful smile. "You look like a slut in that outfit."
Chapter 3
"This is the entrance to Purgatory." Maryanne pointed to the map alight on the screen between them. Tracing the snaking tunnels that lay right below the concrete footpaths of the Lower Reaches, she said, "This floor is for administration and separated from the true Undercroft. If your Omegas are being kept in this shithole, Shepherd would not stash them any lower than here. Not if he wanted to keep them alive."