Page 4

“You sitting here, drinking and brooding like a skinny red hen, isn’t going to change anything.”

“That’s why we aren’t going to keep sitting here. If you’re sure about the broken omega,” Merrick said, letting the last word dangle. He already knew the answer, but that didn’t stop him from wanting Bezeck to change his mind.

“I’m sure, Mer.”

Merrick frowned at the name.

“We are going into the unknown. Leaving the Mad Monster’s beautification of Sector 2 and taking an exit. ‘Change is ahead of us. We are not what we once were.’”

“Save me from quotes from the King, please.”

“It’s fitting. Today is our Restitution Day.” Bezeck shrugged.

“My mother wrote all his speeches.”

“Even better.”

Cut off from the trade and prosperity of the rest of the 11 Sectors, Sector 2 had only one resource for survival. The Un-lands. Unlivable, Unredeemable, Unlawful. The Un-Lands.

His oldest brothers had been born beyond the mountains, plains, and ruins in the wild broken Un. Shaped by their environment, they matured into soldiers who followed their father without question. They helped make him a King, uniting the feral alpha tribes and shaping them into one great force to use against a shining city built by the humans who had created and discarded them.

Merrick had read about it when he was a boy. Stories filled with feral giant breed who barely spoke, stubborn tribes who lived wild and kept their omegas in pens treating them like cows, roving bands of insane humans, poisoned land, ghost cities, forests full of beasts with teeth and claws.

The humans built the sectors as refuge from their wars and their abuse of the environment, leaving behind the ruined lands of the Un.

Sector 2 wasn’t the only way into the Un, but it was the only open door the King’s Administration didn’t control. Edge farmers lived at the border. The scabs went even farther, risking the unknowns to scavenge resources for trade. They brought back animal skins, fruit from ancient orchards no farmer had propagated, and treasures from the past.

And stories. No one had seen children, but they had heard them, smelled them. Breed children. It could be a myth. But it was a treasure worth hunting. If children existed, there were breeders. Uninfected. Healthy. Wild breeders.

The Un-lands held mysteries but also hope. Merrick held up the keys to the transport he’d won in a pit fight. “You know where it is. Could you load your stuff, your drones, keep it running? I need about 20 minutes. Maybe fifteen.”

Thinking of Sasha, Merrick had his eyes on the girl in the cage. “Do your magic, prince. I’ll be ready in ten,” Bezeck said, heaving his bulk upward.

Ten minutes later, with all their bridges burned, they left the 12 Sectors.

Kane

“He’s gone. You can stop looking for him,” Annalise said. She sat in the chair across from Kane’s desk, ignoring the clutter in his private office. Maybe she didn’t notice it. He’d seen her workroom.

A gift for his newest daughter sat in her lap. He’d offered to take it into the nursery, but she wanted to do it herself.

Other than his wife-mate, his mother was the most amazing woman Kane knew. An omega who let no man bully her. She held his respect, but he also argued more with her than anyone in their family or in the entire 12 Sectors.

Today she used the voice she reserved for him and his father.

“Gone?” He wasn’t sure who she meant, but he could guess. Had Meridon, who’d taken the fake name of Merrick, gotten himself killed? Finally?

That would solve a few problems, indeed.

“He’s left the 12 Sectors.”

“Alone?”

Her eyes twinkled, but she didn’t answer.

The queen was not a woman to underestimate, Kane knew. She never abandoned her children, never. She would know where Meridon was going and who was with him.

Kane kept the memories of his earliest childhood close, tucked into the deep recesses of his heart where they could not be touched or examined. They’d never talked about how his father had taken him from her, screaming, and thrown Kane into training. Her love was replaced with cold female beta caregivers and demanding teachers. He’d continued to feel her at night whenever he reached for her comfort during their separation.