“I can’t play with you for too long. You see I have plans to visit someone I am very much looking forward to seeing.” A long fingernail traced lightly from the valley between Claire’s breasts and down her belly, Svana insincerely admiring what was beneath her. “But the gods gave me this time with you, and I will not waste it. Martin, the others, did not even question when the elevator doors parted on the fourth floor. Why would they question their savior? I shot them so quickly, I am surprised there is not more blood on you… but, it won’t take long before you are covered in it.”

“You do realize you are giving me what I want?” Claire offered a challenging gaze, forcing her body not to tense when that nail scraped over her child. “I could not live without my mate anyway. It is fitting we die together.”

Svana purred, lightly tracing a circle over Claire’s mound. “Then I will allow you to thank me.”

Claire spat full in her face.

The look of disbelief, the instant rage that someone would dare such a thing, was something Claire was only able to enjoy for a moment before Svana reached up to wipe the wetness from her cheek with her sleeve.

“You know what I have learned, little one?” Svana giggled under her breath, her tongue darting out to lick at the spittle nearest her lips. “It’s to let the men always underestimate you. Let them think you are flawed, that you need them. Do you have any idea how many times I have stood in your room and watched him fuck you? Neither of you knowing I was near enough to touch. When your eyes were closed, when he buried his face in your neck, sometimes those fingers carding through your hair were mine.”

Claire’s mask cracked. It was impossible to keep the revulsion from her face. Feeling Svana chip away at the little courage she could manage, the Omega knew in that moment the exact type of wickedness Shepherd spoke of when he spoke of the true evil that had been cast in the Undercroft. It was all there, a conglomeration of vileness in the woman running her nail up and down the slit where Claire was still slippery from Shepherd’s last ejaculation.

“It has been unpleasant, the way things have gone,” Svana pouted, her mouth heading towards a cold tightened nipple. “But I have done Shepherd a favor in this. You are a whore, desecrated and as disgusting as this city—unworthy of a man like him. But like all men, he is weak.” That single finger slipped easily inside Claire, no matter how her muscles clenched to deny her entry. “They all bow to this. Premier Callas, Shepherd, even my dead uncle. It’s a pity I was not born Omega. I would have ruled the world ages ago.”