Savage Prince by Alison Aimes

21

“It’s time.” The door slid open. The gangplank lowered. A few of the soldiers fanned out in front, weapons raised.

Tess squared her shoulders. “I’m ready.”

When it was their turn, Maxheim gave her the signal, and they descended. The plan was to surround the compound and then enter silently using her codes, taking Rav and his guards by surprise. The hope was to be able to subdue them without risking the slaves. Most of whom would be in the omega living quarters, the small cells where they were kept when they weren’t working.

To her surprise, the air was as hot and dusty as ever. The outside looked the same as well: an imposing dark fortress encircled with high walls topped by broken glass, electric wires, and guard towers. No windows. No beauty. Just a solid, inescapable structure meant to crush any notion of escape or hope.

For some reason, after all that had happened, some part of her had expected it to look different. Feel different. But the oppressive sense of hopelessness and fear remained heavy in the atmosphere.

Her steps faltered. This was going to be harder than she’d thought.

“Tess?” Maxheim’s concern was apparent. She appreciated, though, that he didn’t threaten to send her back. She suspected that had more to do with his confidence that the safest place for her was by her side, but she was grateful nonetheless.

“I’m fine.” She wasn’t stuck in this place anymore, she reminded herself.

In fact, she was here to catch Rav and claim a new life for herself and the enslaved omegas.

Her nerves calmed.

Until they moved in closer and she saw the massive main gates to the compound.

They were always kept locked.

Except now they hung off their hinges, singed and twisted and blown wide open.

It shocked her. Like her enslavement, they’d always seemed inescapable.

“What happened? Did Rav do this?”

“No. Someone got here before us.” Maxheim’s big body moved in front of hers like a shield. “What I don’t know is if whoever is hunting Byrel is still here, so stay close.” He scanned the area ahead. “And brace yourself, I don’t think this is the only destruction we’re about to encounter.”

Even with his warning, she was still not prepared.

The compound had always been divided into two parts, a nicer residential shelter she’d thought was Aldar’s but she now suspected was Rav’s, and the more run-down quarters that housed the slaves.

A set of locked doors and tunnels connected the two buildings.

She’d never been inside the residential section before. Few slaves besides Rav ever had. Now she knew why.

Surrounded by Maxheim’s soldiers, they moved toward Rav’s home.

They found the first body ten arms’ length away, sprawled on the path to the main door.

With a cry of horror, Tess lurched forward, only to pull back as she remembered Maxheim’s warning. “I know her. That’s . . . Narela, 227.” Her voice shook.

As slaves, they’d been referred to as numbers and had been forbidden from exchanging names, but they’d done it anyway.

They’d whispered them to one another in the night, willing to risk punishment because the alternative, having your identity erased, was even more terrifying.

But Narela had been wiped out anyway.

“She never got to escape.”

She’d been older than Tess, harder, and too lost to the drugs forced on her to care much about anything but her next fix and fuck. But she’d still been kind when Flora had gotten sick once and shared her drink ration so the younger girl could recover.

A steady hand pressed Tess’s face into his chest. “Remember her as she was.”

But it was too late. The image of her now was burned in Tess’s brain: Narela’s red and silver hair fluttering in the wind, her eyes empty and open, her face as pretty as ever, even with the cut slicing her from throat to belly button.

“Why would someone do that to her?”

“To tie up loose ends.”

Loose ends? Fury whipped through Tess. “It’s not fair.”

“Little in this life is.”

She knew it too. She’d frankly never expected it to be. But this felt especially cruel.

“Do you think we’ll find others like her?”

“Yes.” Laser out, he hustled her closer to the entrance.

Dread curled in her belly.

His gaze searched hers. “Are you going to be able to handle this?”

“Yes.” She wouldn’t desert Lottie or the others now.

And once more she appreciated that he didn’t question her assertion, only gave a grim nod and moved on.

She and Maxheim stepped through the open doors and into Rav’s home.

She sucked down a shaky breath.

Inside was a ghoulish nightmare of one horror after the other.

Rav had lived in luxury—there was opulent furniture, soft fabrics, flashy art—but all of it was worthless now. Blood splattered the inner fortress walls and nice fabrics.

Bodies lay twisted in heaps. No one inside had been spared.

Two safes in the wall that had been hidden behind large works of art were now exposed and open, torn universal dollars and singed papers spilling from within. Everywhere she looked, it was total and complete destruction.

“Why would they do this?”

“To send a message and smoke out Byrel.”

Maxheim’s men were rolling over bodies, searching among the ruin for anyone alive.

“Use the images on your comms to search for a match,” Maxheim instructed his men. “Any sign of Byrel or the male posing as Aldar, let me know immediately.”

Her heart slammed against her ribs.

She hated Rav, but she didn’t want him to be among the dead.

And if Lottie, Flora, Mauve, and Betta were here too . . .

Someone shouted Maxheim’s name, gesturing toward a downed body.

They hustled over together.

Her stomach tightened.

Aldar. Or at least the male she’d thought was Aldar.

She recognized the robe as well as the gloves and the boots.

Her greatest terror. Her worst nightmare. Except this version of Aldar had no influence over anyone anymore.

Expression grim, Maxheim used his boot to roll the form over.

With the blood-soaked robe torn in several places, it was easy to see the padding this male had worn at his shoulders and chest to hide his beta frame and make him look bigger.

It was also easy to see the numerous cuts on his body.

Bile burned at the back of her throat. “Is this the work of Rav’s employer?”

Suddenly, she wasn’t just afraid for Lottie and the others, but for Maxheim too.

“Yes. Likely more of the death squad that came after you. Byrel is one of only a few who has information that might lead us to his employer. He’s taking no chances.”

The whole thing sickened her. “I need to go to the slave quarters. I need to see if they’re okay.”

His frown deepened. “You already know the answer.”

“I need to go anyway.” She paused. “Do you think we’ll find Rav’s body there too?”

Maxheim surveyed the carnage. “No. These souls were tortured. That means someone was looking for answers. Specifically, where Byrel might have gone.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “I think he got away. Again.”

She and Maxheim left a large portion of soldiers searching for clues in the main hall. The rest followed them back outside and then into the slave section. They passed the first round of doors. Usually, they’d be locked. The only way through, her retinal scan and a code the guards inputted to open the doors. Rav had taken no chances.

Except there was no difficulty passing through the doors now. Like the others, they’d been blown apart. The farther they went, the narrower and darker the corridors grew.

She’d made the trip so many times before, usually accompanied by at least two guards. It was strange to travel the corridors with Maxheim by her side.

They went through another broken set of doors and reached the rows of cells.

Hers had been the first on the left. It seemed smaller and more barren than before. Maybe because she saw it through Maxheim’s eyes now. Felt his growing fury.

But for her, it was more complicated. She’d always had mixed feelings about this place. It had been her prison. There’d been fear. Sometimes pain. But it had also been the spot of some of her better memories. When she was no longer on display and just allowed to be.

Omegas were separated from Alphas, so she hadn’t seen Rav, but she and her young omega friends had spent time together, plotting and dreaming. This was also where she’d promised them and the other omega slaves that she would do all she could so that one rotation soon, they would be free.

Except she’d failed.

They found the first bloody body three doors down from her cell. More after that.

Dalesh. Marca. Lena. R’lana.

All older slaves.

All dead now.

There was no sign of Rav. Or her young friends.

“I’m sorry, Tess.” Maxheim’s hand threaded with hers.

It was too hard to speak. She squeezed back instead.

“We should go.”

She forced herself to look at them all. “Wait.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Those I was closest to are not here.”

Eyes narrowing, Maxheim turned in a slow circle, taking in what? She didn’t know.

But by the time he turned back to her, his gaze was a little less grim.

“There was a chance he got them out before the slaughter. Some of the cell locks aren’t broken, which means they might have already been open when the death squad came through.”

She let out a slow whisper of breath. “So Rav could have taken them away?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you think he’ll hurt them?”

“Doubtful. He’s still hoping he can use them to draw you out and start over. Otherwise, he would have simply cut and run.”

It was all so much.

“Tess . . .”

Her hand came up. “Please.” She couldn’t take his kindness right now. Not when her chest felt cleaved in two.

A cry sounded from down the corridor.

She lurched toward the sound, only to be checked in place by a veiny forearm.

“Wait.” He moved in front of her. “I will take the lead.”