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  His lips pursed in disapproval. “Impassioned words do not change the fact that you have committed a serious crime. The penalty for dynamic concealment can be as harsh as a ten-year consignment in the work camps.”

  And Ianthe knew, as everyone did, that ten years might as well be a hundred in the work camps. Most people did not survive even a year of grueling labor, much less a decade. And if the physical toll didn’t kill you the poisoned air in the fields would. But that realization did nothing to still her tongue. At this point, what did she have to lose?

  “I was given no choice, in any of it. My parents were killed because an Alpha could not control himself and his baser urges. I had every reason to fear that I would meet a similar fate.” Without that defining moment in her life, perhaps Ianthe could have been someone different. But even before her mother died, she had impressed upon Ianthe the importance of treading carefully where Alphas were concerned. It was her mother who had fed her the first round of hormone suppressants on the day her estrous had started. “I have been filling my body with hormone suppressants and pheromone inhibitors since I was twelve years old. And now you would judge me because I only wanted to protect myself.”

  Another robed figure seated to her right spoke then. “Since your twelfth year, did you say?”

  Shaking hands clenched at her sides as Ianthe spoke. “Yes.”

  “The circumstances could be considered partially mitigating,” the head judge mused. “If what you say is true and it was others in authority over you who first provided you with the means of subverting our laws. Your parents were killed several years ago, correct?”

  She did not trust this new line of questioning. “My parents died when an Alpha killed them as they removed the remnants of my first estrous from our home. He was a Guardian and caught the scent while on patrol. He killed them both after he lost control of himself.”

  “Your father was not an Alpha?” This came from another judge although she could not tell who as they all stared down at her with faces that seemed nearly identical.

  “He was Beta. And a better man for it.”

  A grumbled murmur moved through the gallery but was quelled by a quick movement of the head judge’s hand. He glared down at Ianthe, expression repressive. “The purpose of this assembly is to determine the legitimacy of the charges and determine an appropriate sentence. You would do well to remember that the severity of your punishment depends on the decisions that we make here today.”

  As if she could ever forget that her fate was not in her own hands. Biting down hard on her cheek, Ianthe conceded. “I apologize if I spoke out of turn.”

  “Tell us what you know of the criminal, Legion.”

  Her stomach dropped as she stared down at her hands. She had to choose her words carefully, for the sake of them both. “He discovered that I was truly Omega and he claimed me.”

  “Was your claiming consensual?”

  “Are they ever?” A growled warning had Ianthe quickly hang her head before they could see the defiance in her eyes. “It was not.”

  “And are you prepared to testify against your mate, if necessary?”

  “I don’t know anything. He kept me locked away, so I know nothing of any possible crimes.” It was a hedge, but technically the truth. And what more did she owe them than the technical truth. “I won’t be able to tell you anything useful.”

  “That remains to be seen.” The head judge steepled his hands beneath his chin and regarded her with a solemn gaze. “Did he ever reveal to you the failsafe codes for his mainframe, specifically the ones that control the air processors.”

  “No.” At least that wasn’t a lie.

  “Very well.” The head judge straightened to his full height. His gaze moved around the room, as if he were reading something in the faces of the other judges seated in a tight semi-circle around her. “We are prepared to render judgment.”

  At that, her courage promptly fled. Ianthe lowered herself into the metal chair, practically collapsing as she tried to sit. Her hand briefly moved to touch her still flat stomach before catching herself and forcing her arm back down to her side. It was imperative that they not discover that she was pregnant with the child of an accused terrorist. There was no telling how her unborn child might be used to manipulate her or what they might try to do to it.

  “Ianthe ban Sarrin. You have been found guilty by this tribunal of willful dynamic concealment.”

  For a moment, it was as if all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the room, leaving her gasping. Ianthe sucked in huge lungfuls of what felt like empty air, as a trail of fire burned down her chest. Her fingers gripped the sides of the metal chair, hard enough that the pain was enough to cut through the blood rushing to her ears. It was all that allowed her to hear the next words out of the head judge’s mouth.

  “However, we have taken the circumstances of your youth into consideration. In lieu of a term of service in the work camps, you will be remanded to Eros House for the pleasure of Guardian Alphas who have not yet found mates. Your remand will last for a period of one year or for as long as it takes to find an Alpha willing to claim an already tainted Omega as a mate. You will learn your place, girl. But there is little sense in allowing good breeding stock to go to waste.”

  “No!” The walls were coming down around her. Or perhaps it was simply the floor rushing up to meet her as she collapsed to her knees. “Please don’t do this! Send me to the work camps.”

  But her words fell on deaf ears. The faces of the judges that surrounded her had already faded back into gray concrete as the hologram disappeared. That gray must have been specifically chosen, because her whole world seemed suddenly colorless and without light. Their footsteps were silent in this awful place, but she knew the Guardians would appear at any moment to drag her away.

  She had vowed to never step foot inside of Eros House again. And now, she would not even have the protection of her hormone suppressants to keep her safe. She would be meat for anyone who wanted her.

  Ianthe wrapped both arms around herself as she huddled on the cold floor. They would not even allow her the decency of ending her own life, not in this empty room with only a chair inside that was bolted to the floor. She had been sentenced to a fate worse than death, a fate worse than the one that had placed her in Legion’s path.

  The only thing worse than enduring the attentions of another Alpha, was enduring many of them. Hot tears that she could not control slipped down her cheeks. She cried not for herself, but for the unborn child she carried that would have to endure more than anyone should before it had even been born.

  And then she prayed.

  She knew better than to pray for herself, as no god had ever been moved to answer. Instead, she asked the gods who never revealed themselves to protect her mate, in the hopes that perhaps he could still be saved.

  But she knew that hope was a lie as she was lifted by gloved hands. The Guardian Alphas did not even wait for her to get her feet underneath her before propelling her through the door. They supported nearly all of her weight as they walked her back down the long hallway and past the identical doors.

  How many lives had ended here, she wondered.

  Ianthe wanted nothing more than to see this place, and by extension the whole of her society, pulled down and crumbling around her. She would survive this and whatever else came her way. There were those who would stand against Central Command, against the rigid hierarchy that corrupted all of Pandora. She would do whatever she could to support that mission.

  She would survive long enough to see this corrupt nation fall so that something new might rise from the ashes.

  Chapter Four

  Ianthe faced down a man that she thought she would never see again without a trace of fear in her expression, despite the coil of emotions roiling inside of her.

  The Procurer stared back at her with an expression that might have looked almost like concern, had he been anyone else.

  “Oh, my dear.”

&nbs
p; “You really don’t have to say anything.”

  ”Oh, but I do.” The Procurer sat at his immaculate desk in the same office that she had first met him in, what felt like a lifetime ago. “How have we ended up here?”

  “This isn’t my fault...”

  “Isn’t it?” The aging Alpha raised a questioning brow as he regarded her narrowly from the other side of the expensive mahogany desk. “You made a contract with me under false pretenses and now we’re both suffering the consequences.”

  “What false pretenses.”

  The Procurer slammed his hand down on the tabletop and the sound echoed through the room. “You led me to believe that you were Beta. Submitted fraudulent lab work to maintain the ruse and have now brought all manner of chaos to my house. I find myself involved in political machinations, the nature of which continue to elude me. You might not have realized this, but the only thing I detest more than being kept in the dark is politics.”

  For some perverse reason, Ianthe almost felt like apologizing. “What machinations?”

  “Do you assume it a common occurrence for Omegas who have committed crimes to be sentenced to Eros House, rather than a detention center or the work camps? Because I assure you that it is not. Someone at a very high level within our government has clearly intervened on your behalf.”

  Ianthe could think of only one government official who had any interest in her fate. It was not a pleasant realization. Would Undersecretary Barnard really try to to come for her here? Although it wasn’t as if there would be anything to stop him.

  She looked to the Procurer with pleading eyes. “You have to help me.”

  “I am still struggling to figure out how I’m going to help myself.” He swiped across the surface of his desk and the wood was overlaid with a wall of tiny printed text. “I’ve received this remand order with no explanation of how I’m expected to execute it. Eros House is not a prison. Our integrity has been of the highest order since our founding. And now I am to serve as warden to a renegade Omega for reasons that I apparently do not need to understand.”

  “I fulfilled my end of the bargain we made.”

  “Perhaps by the letter, but not in spirit. Had you truly been Beta as you claimed, we would not be sitting here having this conversation right now, would we?”

  “No.” Ianthe’s voice was small. “Will you please just tell me what is going to happen to me?”

  Perhaps realizing that the girl in front of him was in no way prepared for the verbal haranguing that he had intended to deliver, the harsh lines deepening the Procurer’s face eased slightly. “We are in uncharted territory. I have never been tasked by Central Command to assist in the correction of a prisoner, much less an Omega accused of dynamic concealment. Obviously, you will not be allowed to leave the compound once we arrive. As far as what will occur after that, I don’t have a complete answer for you.”

  Once again, she would be stuck in a prison, one that that was at least partially of her own making. Perhaps if she had been more defiant with the tribunal, made them angry, she could have gotten herself sent to the work camps simply out of spite. And she couldn’t imagine that the treatment she received during her previous visits to Eros House would be a feature of this experience. She had no idea what might be asked of her or what she would be forced to do.

  And she could admit, at least to herself, that she had wanted Legion from the very beginning. But whatever awaited her now would be the worst sort of violation.

  “Will it be the way that it was before?” Ianthe asked, even though she already knew the answer.

  “Likely not. I have been instructed to make you available to clientele who do not normally patronize Eros House.”

  Dread sank like a stone to the pit of her stomach. “What sort of clientele?”

  “I’m not privy to that particular bit of information.” The distaste on the Procurer’s face made it clear that he welcomed this governmental intrusion into his business as little as she did, even if the consequences to him were considerably different. “Government officials of some kind would be my best guess. Eros House has always prided itself on our selectivity, both in terms of our clientele and what we offer. I have been instructed to waive our normal protocols for vetting. Unfortunately, I do not have the answers to your questions.”

  Ianthe forced herself to ask the next question, even as her heart constricted. “Have you heard any news about Legion?”

  “When he first approached me with the intent to acquire you, I had assumed all of this would be simple. You have both created quite a mess that has landed squarely in my lap.”

  She already knew that Legion had orchestrated her initial offer from Eros House as part of his ploy to gain access to her. At any other point before this one, knowledge of his manipulation would have inspired anger. But now, all she could think was that she would forgive him anything if it might save them both.

  “Would an apology help?”

  “That won’t be necessary.” The Procurer regarded her with a narrow gaze, even as his expression no longer seemed entirely unsympathetic. “But I have always held a certain amount of respect for the man. He is one of the few Alphas in the city concerned with things outside of his own basest urges.”

  Ianthe wasn’t sure how much she agreed with that, but now wasn’t the time to argue the point. “What have you heard?”

  “There has been no news. Surely you must have realized by now that this is not the expected way of these things. Legion was arrested and charged with frankly heinous crimes, but his capture has not been publicized. The charges have not been read in the public square and no date has been set for his trial. And why have you not been sent to the work camps or at least confined to a detention center? Whomever orchestrated this turn of events wants it kept quiet and hidden. Legion is likely being held at a dark site, a place completely off of the grid and outside the normal procedure of justice. I am sure that I will hear no news, regardless of what happens.”

  The paralyzing fear that she had managed to keep at bay since being unceremoniously dropped in the Procurer’s office returned in a rush. The now silent Guardians who had accompanied her since she was taken from Legion’s compound still stood sentry on the other side of the closed door, preventing any possibility of escape. Even if the Procurer were willing to aid her in fleeing, which was unlikely, success was a virtual impossibility.

  Ianthe stared out the window that separated them from the mile-high view she had once foolishly admired. For an irrational moment, she considered what it would be like to jump from this spot so high in the upper levels and fall to the slums below. It wouldn’t be the worst death imaginable. She had heard of others who had fallen, or jumped before, and they often died before hitting the ground. The lack of oxygen from the rushing air led to a loss of consciousness. Her heart would give out before the ground finally rose up to meet her.

  But there would not be such an easy way out for her. The thick pane of glass was designed to resist even greater force than she was capable of producing. And Ianthe did not really have the capability for suicide within her. Because even with all that had happened, the small seed of hope buried within her was dormant but not dead. Part of her still thought it was possible for the world to right itself, despite so much suffering.

  Legion was still alive out there somewhere. She would know it if he weren’t, wouldn’t she? For the first time since they were separated, Ianthe tentatively reached out through the bond and searched for any hint of her mate. Since he had first claimed her, his emotions would overtake hers in a way that had been oppressive. But now, it felt like a wall had been placed in between them. It was as if he had put effort into holding himself separate from her. She knew that he was still there on the other side, but she couldn’t feel him.

  Ianthe abruptly stood and turned away from the window, the beautiful view tainted with the knowledge that each step she took would take her further away from happiness.

  “I’m ready to leave.”

&
nbsp; The Procurer rose as well, his expression guarded. “I’m surprised at your eagerness.”

  “I need to sleep,” she murmured, as a wave of exhaustion washed over her.

  Had it really been less than a day since the Undersecretary had arrived with the Guardians to Legion’s compound and arrested them? It felt closer to a week. Had she truly been the girl who had stood in this exact spot how ever many months ago and accepted the Procurer’s initial offer to sell herself to the highest bidder at Eros House? That girl felt as distant from her now as another lifetime.

  “I’ll have to keep you separate from the others for a time while we sort out the details of this unprecedented arrangement. You will have your own room, of course. I dare say that should be a slight source of relief for you. I can’t imagine the accommodations in the work camps or in detention match what is provided at Eros House.”

  And all of it could be hers for the small price of her dignity. Ianthe had not fully engaged with the thoughts of what awaited her now. Pawing Alphas violating her in ways that she did not want to contemplate, the complete loss of autonomy over her own body. She had signed up willingly for this before, but now it seemed an unimaginable violation to allow herself to be touched by anyone but her mate.

  Thoughts of him immediately turned to thoughts of the growing child inside of her. Would she lose it at the hands of some Guardian Alpha incapable of controlling himself in the presence of an Omega. Her scent would not be as enticing as if she were not already bonded, but she didn’t imagine for a second that would stop any of them. Perhaps a raging Alpha would kill them both while overcome with dangerous urges. Death was the only escape from this that seemed possible.

  It took her a disorienting moment to realize that the Procurer was speaking to her again as he walked around the desk. She tried to track the movement with her eyes which sent a wave of dizziness washing over her. The Procurer kept her upright with a steadying hand at her shoulder for the time it took the room to stop spinning.