Her green eyes looked upon the familiar heart-shaped face, half-hidden by lank salt and pepper hair. "How many are left?"

"Last head count was fifty-six."

Claire felt sick. Fifty-six... practically a third of the remaining Omegas had been picked off while she had been imprisoned by Shepherd. "I have so much to tell you." Her voice grew stronger. "If you have not already figured it out, the blue pills are not heat-suppressants... they are fertility drugs. I went into my cycle right in the middle of the damn Citadel."

Gasps of horror, too many staring with pity, shamed Claire.

"There's more. Shepherd will not help. He refuses to send rations and wanted me to disclose your location so that everyone could be taken, segregated from the population, and readied for his Followers."

"But isn't that what we want?" a redheaded woman by her side hissed.

Claire looked Lilian dead in the eye, saw the miserable state she'd been reduced to and said, "You would be imprisoned and offered to a stranger in estrous, bonded to a man of his choosing. He told me so himself."

"But would he feed us?"

"Is that what you want?" Her arched eyebrows went up. Claire wanted to rail, to berate the woman, but she did nothing more than shake her head and continue. "I have also met with Senator Kantor. He offers food. He wants to help us."

"How?" several voices asked in unison.

"He needs a few days to get a plan together. Once I find out what it is, I'll come back and tell you. Then we can all decide."

Nona put her hand on Claire's shoulder. "You are not going to stay? It's dangerous for you out there. Don't you know there is a huge bounty out on your head? Amelia saw the flyer two days ago."

Claire scowled, but the news was not exactly surprising.

Lilian poked the flesh of Claire's cheek. "You have grown fat. Shepherd's men were feeding you."

Brushing off the fingers, Claire barked, "I was trapped in a room for five weeks!"

"But they fed you!"

"Quiet, Lilian," Nona snapped at the instigator. "You're hungry, not stupid... you can tell from her altered scent that Claire has been pair-bonded. They would feed what they want to keep. Instead of remaining with her mate, she escaped and came here to help us all."

Claire was mortified.

Did she really smell different? When more eyes began to shine at her in the light of the candle and noses began to sniff, all she could do was try not to shrink back.

The question was tossed around. "Which one was it? Who claimed you?"

Answering quickly, Claire muttered, "It doesn't matter."

Lilian, her lips curled in a nasty sneer, laughed under her breath. Claire tried to remind herself that the redhead was starving to death, lived in a constant state of terror. Her feral behavior was understandable.