“Enforcer Corday wears a woman’s gold band on his smallest finger.” Svana’s nonchalance slipped, her voice hinged on desperate. “Every time he hears the name Claire, or talks about her, he touches it, toys with it. When I asked him about the ring, he confessed. Has your Omega told you she’s betrothed to him? Has she told you he promised her he’d end your life? Remember that while you are enraptured by your pair-bond, she has appointed another man to kill you.”

Seeing her china blue eyes looking over him with pity and disappointment burned. Shepherd swallowed, squared his shoulders, pretended he did not feel a knife slice straight through his heart, and lied. “She told me. The confession was... cathartic.”

“I see...” Svana braved placing a hand on Shepherd’s chest, stroking up to touch the bare skin of his neck. “I am begging for you to forgive me, my love. Look through the information I have brought, do what you will with it. Please remember what we are to one another.”

His voice came out worn and sad. “I never forgot, Svana.”

“I know you are going to ask me where the virus is, and you expect I have been keeping it from you—that I will continue to keep it from you, as if we are in opposition and not partners looking to build a great future together.” Heartache was open in her voice, in her expression, and falling in liquid testament from her eyes. “In order to reaffirm what we are, I’ve brought it. It’s yours.”

Reaching into the layers of her clothing, Svana produced a biohazard banded cylinder, the thing so small and unassuming, it was hard to believe what that little device was truly capable of. Inside something smaller than Svana’s fist lurked a nightmare, the very disease that almost eradicated the entire human race.

She offered it freely, her one bargaining chip gone. “Take it, my love. I don’t want you to have reason to doubt me.”

The cylinder was placed in his hand. Closing his fist around it, Shepherd sighed. “When you act on your own without talking with me, I fear for you. It was not a question of doubt.”

Voice dropping to a whisper, Svana’s eyes shifted to the man’s scarred lips. “I wish I could kiss you.”

The tension softened in Shepherd’s face as he smirked. “I will kiss you the day you take your throne and free our people.”

“Yes, that will do.” A warm smile on her mouth, Svana slipped away and eased towards the door. “Goodbye, Shepherd.”

The virus now in his power, he let her go. “Goodbye, Svana.”

It was three minutes before Jules dared enter. “She’s gone, spotted above ground moving east.”