"Beloved Goddess of Omegas, great Mother who nurtures and protects,
I thank you for the life you granted me."
It was not until she was standing near the center of the reservoir before the sound she anticipated arrived—the crushing threat of cracks and imminent death.
"I am your image. I am your delight. For you hold me in your care. Watch over the world—"
"Do not move, little one."
The first thought at hearing the sound of that commanding voice was that she should have known he would be there. The devil would have to witness her final moments. There could have been no other way.
Her focus left the horizon and moved down towards her feet, to the fractured pattern that bloomed under her stolen boots. Claire sucked in a slow breath, felt it stretch her chest, and glanced over her shoulder. "The city is a horror show and I don't have anything left. You win, Shepherd."
"You willfully misunderstand," the urgent coarseness of his voice was insistent… nervous. "Svana would have killed you had I not…"
Claire felt her mouth form a small smile at the man behind her. "At least I know what made you the way you are. It wasn't only your life in the Undercroft. It was her."
Shepherd held out his hand, his eyes wide and unblinking. "It was the only way I could appease her and keep you."
A look of pity—and it was pity she felt—saddened Claire's face. "You tell that lie almost as if you actually believe it. The choice you made was not the only way; it was the way you chose. You chose to do that horrible thing… to do many horrible things… for her."
Shepherd's lips wavered, he looked confused. When he spoke next, it seemed as if the words were foreign to him, "If I was to offer an apology, would it make any difference?"
"No."
"Then I will offer this instead." He stretched his hand out farther. "If you return to me, I will give you what you want. I will leave the Omegas in peace and see that they are left alone. You have my word."
Claire hummed, her attention returning to the cracking ice under her feet.
He tried again, determined. "Svana will not be allowed near you; nor will I ever touch her in that manner again."
Claire ignored him.
Exasperated, he gritted out, "I will even allow you to see your sky."
She mouthed the words, spoke them as if the very idea meant nothing anymore, "My sky…"
"I will care for you."
Water fell from her eyes, ran down her cheeks. Her voice was so sad. "It almost sounds like you mean it… how funny."
It took a great deal of effort for Shepherd to manage the last inducement. "I will spare the Beta, Enforcer Corday, whose death will otherwise be very slow and painful."
That was the tipping point. The hazy quality of her green eyes sharpened and her soft lips pressed into a firm line. She listened closely.
"I am offering you the lives of forty-two people, little one." Shepherd employed a voice of reason, his purr rumbling to show sincerity.
Claire looked at his upturned palm, at the largeness of it, the lines and the calluses. She thought of Corday, of his vow to free the city… of everything that had been whispered between them in the dark. She thought of the child she felt utter indifference for, and put a hand to her stomach.
"That is right, little one, think of our baby."
She would never allow Shepherd's evil or that horrible woman to have the child, but she could buy Corday time. If he failed, she would kill herself and the life growing inside her before it might be born; she could do that, and she would. The smooth turn of her step, the little movement necessary to face the giant made the ice crack further, yet still she stood above what should have been her watery grave.
Shepherd knew she would say yes, that she would subject herself to him to save every life he'd mentioned. Claire could already feel it through a link that should not have been there; a burning barb knocking about where her lungs fought to expand. Her breath hitched painfully, and she fisted the leather of her jacket over her heart. "There is one more life I want."
"Who?"
Despite the invasion of the clawing worm, Claire sneered at the Alpha. "I will only tell you if you give me your unequivocal word that this person will never come to harm."
"And if I do this, you will return to me and live fully as my mate?" It was what he wanted, he could see it, feel her just a little bit more through the link, and he did not stop the malicious greedy evil that fostered his grin.
She felt his pleasure, glanced into rapacious eyes, and saw every ounce of his desperate elation. "Yes."