Page 3 of Forbidden Bonds
Not exactly ugly, but not pretty, either. Not like the other omegas who pass through her tender care.
“Remind Cohen he needs to make time for me to test you in his schedule.”
She walks off. Leaving me outside my master’s office.
General Hammond Cohen is sitting at his desk on a video call when I enter. He doesn’t pause to acknowledge me, just motions me over to stand at his side.
He’s speaking to his assistant about the next in-person alpha briefing Cohen has coming up. The Uncorrupted move around a lot. Their ships and space stations are numerous, but in a few days, we will be arriving at Pilgrim Point, one of a few rare planet-side bases that has sprung up in recent years. At every base we visit, Cohen tries to have time scheduled to meet with the alphas stationed there so that he can update them personally.
“…that theta prick has been wasting my time. Tell him I’ll be in contact. Let him sweat it out…”
My ears prick up at the mention of the theta. I’ve only come across such a dynamic once before, during a similar call where Cohen had me stand as I am now: he likes to display me—his little war prize—because it elevates his profile.
The theta wanted to borrow my mind-reading skills. Cohen had been open to that… at a price. One that, from the sounds of it, will not be delivered any time soon.
He finishes up his call and turns his attention to me. “What did she have you doing?”
“A diverging alpha.”
“Her little pets,” he muses, with a dark smile as his gaze returns to his desk.
An ironic statement given he wants to be an alpha. Desperately. However, despite many attempts, he remains unaltered.
I hate Cohen and everything about him, but I know he is not the worst monster to be found within the ranks of the Uncorrupted. I despise them all. At the same time I am aware of my hypocrisy in seeing others as evil. I myself am a monstrous tool wielded by both Jenda and Cohen to facilitate the Uncorrupted’s recent rise in power. Their manipulation of my singularity has been the catalyst for their own viral program; without me, they would never have been able to torture the necessary information out of the Empire’s soldiers.
Helping him and his people has only ever caused me shame and sickness. Early on in my incarceration, in an attempt to avoid being used for their purposes, I tried to deceive him. I was young and naïve, then. He must have suspected that I was lying, because he planted some tests and caught me out. The resulting punishments were swift and severe.
I shy away from those memories by coming back to the here and now, only to remember what my imminent future holds.Jenda is going to experiment on me.Part of me acknowledges that I deserve the pain when my very existence has brought suffering to so many.
Melancholy wraps around me. Better if I’d died ten years ago… or, better yet, if I had never been born.
These thoughts are not new. But for some reason beyond my comprehension, as terrible as this life is, —and as much as I loathe myself and what I’ve been forced to do—the bottom line is… I still don’t want to die.
Chapter Two
Rhett
The room is dark; the only light source is the bank of monitors directly opposite me. Information. Systems. I’m hacking in through the backdoor of a local hotel chain’s network so I can dig up some dirt. A nobody politician is campaigning to get Lucian’s fight club shut down. On some noble crusade to remove what he callsthe scourge from our great city.
Lucian fucking loves that fight club. It was one of his first acquisitions when he quit the military and returned to civilian life. A special sentimental attachment and all that.
No one fucks with my brother. Not on my watch.
I already have suspicions that Councilman Stevens is going to be dirty. When they preach family values and talk about cleaning up things that no one is actually wanting to clean up, you just know they are overcompensating for their own failings. Councilman Stevens is a man with aspirations above his mental paygrade. And delusional if he thinks he can play hardball with Lucian.
All I need is some leverage to shut the fuckwit down.
Ah, this looks promising. A hotel booking. Business, but in a location that he could easily commute home to his pretty beta wife and family. Mrs. Stevens is not with him…
I dive deeper, searching for security footage. It’s basic hacking, and not even a challenge.
When I’m inside this room, I’m a god with a keyboard. Outside it, I’m a mess of broken instincts. Two entities in one body. One is the cocky hacker who knows he’s fucking good, the other’s a loser who can’t even step outdoors.
Jackpot.
I’m distracted from my pity party as the security footage from the hotel pops up on the nearest screen. Well, well, looks like Councilman Stevens has been a naughty boy.
“Your constituents will not be impressed with that, will they?”
