by Isoellen
"Did you love him, then?"
She shook her head.
"Words, Naya."
"No."
It was hard not to get defensive. To explain herself. She’d never had to before. Her mother and sister had understood, even her father. Her younger brothers had teased her about it. Finnor, still in school, had wanted to challenge Crispin, certain the other man was more beta than alpha and wouldn't be able to beat him.
Monster wasn't satisfied. "Tell me about him. How did you meet him?"
"He's nothing to you. Not a rival. We are bonded now. I chose you. Why does it matter?"
"I wasn't your first choice. I want to know about the man you really wanted. Answer my questions. Maybe this man is how you ended up with the likes of Tenbel."
"That's not possible. Crispin would never have put me in a box and sent me to that disgusting male. Never."
"Someone close to you had a hand in you ending up in my tower, Naya. I am going to find out who." One of Monster’s hands had wandered to her hair and he tugged at a loop of it, working his fingers through it. "How did you meet this Crispin?"
"My father is master of a scribe house. Crispin is the youngest son of his second. He is training to be a scribe master also. We met at a party. He was on furlough and was kind to me."
"Scribes? Law slugs?" He said the derogatory term with the casual ease of someone who talked that way often.
"Don't be crude,” she reprimanded him.
He gave her hair a sharp tug. "I'll be fuckin' whatever I want to be. Unlike a scribe, I've earned my way to the top of the heap, not manipulated my way. They have their place, law slugs and their little houses of betas, but not in my world where muscle is backed by credits instead of credits backed by muscle. How was he kind to you?"
"I was sixteen. The party was with my dad's business friends. Crispin brought me a plate of food because I was too afraid to get my own."
Her father's parties always overwhelmed her. Mother had been there, as well as her sister and her husband-mate. They were celebrating a contract victory that had brought in a lot of credits. Father had bought Mother an expensive bracelet with antique jewels only found in the ruins of the Un and presented it to her with a flourish where everyone would see.
It was common practice for families with breeder daughters to expose them to potential mates at society parties. With Alphas outnumbering available breeders, these cordial community events where girls could meet bachelors were held often.
Her parents were always making her go to one party or another, and she was always finding a chair where she could hide with her knitting or a book like one of her elderly beta aunts.
"Did the courtship start then?" Monster wanted to know. The sound of his voice offered no comfort. This was a male who would happily hunt Crispin down and kill him just because he had once held her hand.
"Don't be silly. I was a child. But I remembered him after my first heat and requested that he be available for consideration. My family had other ideas. They wanted someone older, but no one stood out."
She let her hand wander over the tense muscles under his shirt and to his neck where she could touch his throat. Naya liked that. She liked touching his skin, having access that no one else had to this beautiful beast. She burrowed into him, scenting him.
"I think even without the drugs they gave me you would have stood out." She laughed a little. At him. At herself. "You would have stood out like a bonfire in the middle of a room of unlit candles. I have never met anyone like you. Had you been at one of those parties, you wouldn't have even seen me. You’d have been too busy surrounded by prettier, livelier girls, floating around you seeking your attention, flaunting their plumage at you."
"Flaunting plumage, you think? I doubt it. Females generally run screaming from me. Not that I have been around any for a very long time.
“Don't undervalue yourself, treasure. You smell like my favorite dessert and springtime. Even now you make my mouth water for a taste. I'm pretty sure only one female in the world would choose a monster who bathed in the blood of his kill before coming to her."
She bumped her head against his. "Oh, lucky me."
"Lucky you, is right." His hand was at her throat again, a thumb brushing over her jaw and cheek, then slowly over her lips.
She gave him a look from under her lashes, embarrassed by his praise. His eyes heated as they focused on his clawed thumb moving back and forth over her mouth.
He wanted to kiss her.
She wanted his kiss.
Chapter Ten
Darre
What a devious little thing she was, his treasure, thinking to choose a weak alpha so she could have her way. Had someone not intervened, she would have had her well-planned life bossing around everyone, including her alpha, while never knowing the fullness of her nature. He had not expected her, had not wanted her. But now that he had her, she was everything.
Everything.
He liked her in his lap, though it wasn't convenient. She'd need a space of her own in all his favorite places in the tower. The idea of not having her near made his spine twitchy and tension spread up to his shoulders.
Fragile and delicate, he loved the feel of her throat under his command, though he noticed she had not once offered it to him in submission. Her pulse beat strong under his palm, quickening with desire, not fear. She went limp when he held her this way, subjugated by her instincts, yielding her will to his.
She trusted his monster.
It was mind-bending.
His data pad beeped, distracting him. He looked down at a message from Mac. A long-time soldier and the youngest son of a poor family, Mac had spent a lot of his life in the Un. He'd ended up on trial after killing a couple of guys. The incident involved a female. Darre hadn’t asked for details. But he'd seen the records and knew they didn't tell the whole story.
Rather than face death for his crimes, Mac had taken banishment, which had landed him back in the Un. He'd eventually found his way back to Sector 2.
Territorial beast that he was, Darre couldn't tolerate rivals. He was driven to challenge any and all males unless they were obviously weaker. When Mac lost, Darre hired him.
Mac had survived fifteen years as Darre's secretary, the longest of any before him. He was ambitious for credits, honest, and ruthlessly exacting with all other males of the household. As a bonus, he hated Rhineholth as much as Darre did.
The double knock at the door startled Naya, but Darre knew it was only Mac.
"Come."
Wearing a breather over the bottom half of his face, light armor, and bristling with knives he never hesitated to use, Mac entered. Behind him one of the drone males carried a loaded tray of food. Without a word, he brought it in and set it down, then slipped out.
Naya turned her head to look at the newcomer. Darre breathed deep, expecting fear or the very least anxiety. Mac was an imposing son of a bitch. But her smell hadn't altered. It still bloomed with the desire that been filling his nose with since he woke.
Amazing girl.
"Alpha." Mac tipped his head down, keeping his eyes off the girl.
"Report."
"What do you want first?"
"Whatever you want, let's just get it done." Darre picked up a cracker from the tray and smoothed goat cheese onto it, took a small bite, and then gave the rest to Naya.
"There was a fight in the dorms. One dead. Want me to hire new?"
"Yes, but no one new in the tower. Have the new guy do something else."
"One of the scabs came in with some goods you might want to see."
"What do you think?"
"Gems with value."
"Send them on, then. You know what to do. Anything else?"
"Berandal, on the Southside? He had men waiting on tithe day. We lost a guy."
Darre looked out the window thoughtfully. Berandal liked to hide behind a wall of men and metal. He ran a few pit fights and a lucrative brothel. He must think he was ready to take down Darr
e.
"Give him until sunset tomorrow to accept my challenge. If I don't hear from him, take him out—everything but the females and the drones. I don't have time for his games." He picked up an apple slice from the tray and bit off the end, handing the rest to his quiet mate. "Do we have enough men for that?"
"No, but we have enough credit for it. I can get bodies easy. It will be messy, though."
"I like messy," Darre said with relish.
"Since you are setting up a home now, you want me to keep the females and drones?"
Naya's sweet voice piped up. "You're talking about killing people, aren't you?"
"Not females and drones," Darre clarified.
"I usually sell them," Mac said.
"Sell? You're slave traders?" The pitch of Naya's voice climbed in horror.
"This is Sector 2. There are no free females and drones here," Mac said flatly.
Darre felt his mate process Mac's declaration. He'd been holding off telling her where she was or who he was. As a little omega breeder princess from the King's civilized society, she would naturally become outraged at the discovery. She might hate him for it.
"I'm in Sector 2?"
Mac looked around him at the room, at the windows, and at Darre, his eyebrows twitching with confusion. "Miss, where did you think you were?"
"Don't sell them." She was looking at Darre, watching his face.
Naya was already breaking his third rule. Since breeders were known to be soft-hearted, it wasn't surprising. Holding back his smile, he gave her what he hoped was a mild, blank expression rather than the lewd and hungry one he felt stirring. He'd been hoping that he wouldn't have to wait too long to punish her.
He bit off the end of another slice of apple and handed her the rest, watching her put her mouth where his had been.
Mac knew Darre didn't keep slaves. Ambivalent about the practice of enslaving drones, Darre represented a stronger position when he forced weaker alphas to obey him. He allowed the appearance of it, though. The five male drones on his staff who did menial labor for him all wore a collar with his mark for their protection, but they earned a salary and could leave his employment any time. There was just nowhere to go.
He had never allowed any females in his tower or other holdings. He couldn't stand the smell of them, nor did he want a lot of extra bodies around.
Drones were too easily injured and prone to sicknesses. They caused more problems than they were worth, and betas only irritated him.
Since weakness was a commodity in this sector, he permitted Mac to sell drones like any other asset. Setting them loose as free agents would just get them killed. There were no uncollared women or drones because there was no one to ensure their safety and freedom other than their owners. Might made right in the land of the damned, and drones didn't have the might to oppose alpha strength.
With Naya here, other females were now a necessity. It would be unhealthy to isolate her. Having a whole building full of them plus a bunch of drones, all of whom would need policing and protecting, was going to be a gigantic pain in his ass.
"Bring them here," Naya said. She didn't ask; the command was tentative, but she made it anyway.
"You heard her. Have them make a place for themselves in the empty floors above C Building. Use any resources you recover from Berandal. Get them collars with my mark. I want all his usable goods. But no male breed. You get any volunteers, they have to face me in the pit and I don't want them in the tower."
"That's a lot of new people." Mac didn't look happy about it.
"Time for a change, Mac. No choice now." He tugged at one of Naya's curls and fed her a cheese-covered cracker.
"Females are gonna cause me a shit-ton of problems. Let the men know I'll only allow contract marriages. I won't be running a brothel. There will have to be two signatures. And everyone works. There's a lot to be done over in C.
“Now, is that it? I want to know what you have on the crow and my girl here."
"Did what you said. Cleared out his compound. As you said, ten women all dressed up like high-priced contract girls. Most of his drones were female too. Found his stash—a safe—and retrieved ten data pads, all new tech, password-protected."
"He had a scribe handle his finances. I bet he knows the passwords."
"Got twenty-six men in the hole. They all look like beta scribes."
"Keep them alive. I want to talk to the man who knows how Tenbel spent his money. Ask the drones. Are they used up?"
"The drones? Yeah, they’re in bad shape."
"They will help, then. They’ll get a little revenge. They can go into C too."
Mac nodded. "Tenbel was the type to think drones deaf and dumb. But they won't talk to me. I tried. They started peeing themselves and blubbering before I got within ten feet of them."
"You ask about the breeder?" The breeder in question stiffened when he mentioned her in the third person.
"No one said anything," Mac answered.
"I want to know everything."
"What'd she say about it?" Mac nodded in Naya's direction.
Monster looked at her. "Naya?"
"Am I a person now?” she asked tersely. “In the room with you?"
Darre bounced his knees, rocking her. She squawked and grabbed at his shirt. She really had no fear. The beast loved that, but the man wasn't sure how he felt about it.
"How did you end up with Tenbel?" he asked.
"I woke up in a box." She shivered at the memory and his hand automatically moved in a soothing motion up and down her arm. "A wooden box. I went to sleep in my bed in Sector 5 and woke up being pulled out of a box. I was so folded up in there it was hard to stand after. Everything was numb. And I was sleepy. I couldn't focus. I don't know how I got there, or why. I asked him. He wouldn't tell me anything."
"You're small,” Darre mused. “Must have been a packing crate. He probably bribed Administration guards. But they couldn't have known you were a breeder. One smell of you they would have kept you for themselves, not let you into Sector 2."
He looked at Mac again. "See if you can find out. Is she the only one? Fuck. If someone is sending registered breeders into this sector, there is nothing to stop the Administration from coming in with an army after them."
"Isn't that what we want? To confront the Administration? Everything else we have done, they ignored us. Maybe someone important is going to look for this one." His eyes flicked briefly toward Naya before falling away.
"You think we’re ready to confront the Admin army?” Darre asked, his tone darkening. “You said there aren't enough trained men to take out that whoreson Berandal, and you want to face those young fuckers in the Administration army with the hired sector-rejects? Is that what you are saying?
"Naya's number is flagged. Contact Seta. If anyone is talking about breeders or women smuggled through the wall, I want to know about it. I should've known about it already. Where the fuck is Seta on this? Are my eyes and ears failing me?"
"I'll send a runner for him. You're right; we should have heard about this. Couple of the crow's women look registered. I'm sure they didn't come through willingly."
"My family must be so worried," Naya said. "Can I send them a message?"
"No." The answer came from low in his chest, so fast Darre didn't have a chance to assess the question. The monster saw her family as a threat, one he’d prefer to eliminate. The best choice was to keep them far, far away from his mate.
Darre could feel the weight of Mac's thoughts. They both had the goal of laying waste to Rhineholth and his Administration machine, exposing the man for the lying hypocrite that he was, opening breed eyes so they could see the corrupt, self-serving behemoth the Administration had become.
One thing about Mac, he was in a hurry for his revenge, ready for more blood and less subterfuge. Darre had never wanted a hand-to-hand war. He'd not spent his time gathering an army for one. But he wasn't afraid of it, either. Death and destruction might be his favorite activities, but h
is overall goal was change. A big pit fight wouldn't change anything.
Administrative change was more important than Administration blood, but Mac didn't always see the distinction.
Darre could feel Mac sizing him up, looking at his new weaknesses. Darre had taken a breeder-mate. Instinct had shifted his priorities. He would want to shelter and protect her, not risk her in a conflict with Administration Enforcers.
Mac had no breeder. He had no chance of finding the other half of his soul, of fathering alpha sons and omega daughters. He could have a shallow emotional connection with some beta if he wanted, but he'd not know full physical satisfaction or the completion of a true bond.
Instead he'd given himself over to bringing the Administration down. A fighter through and through, Mac craved direct confrontation. He wanted to see his enemies bleed, but didn't have the muscle to back up his punch. He'd followed Darre, thinking he was that muscle.
If Darre wasn't throwing punches, the other man would have no reason to follow him.
It might be time to get a new secretary.
"I think I'll try Tenbel's drones myself. Have them moved to eleven. Try not to treat them as prisoners, but they'll need a watch."
"Yes, sir."
"We finished?"
Darre wrapped his hand around his treasure's throat, feeling the slender stem move as she swallowed. He handed her food from the tray, watching it pass the sweet bow of her lips and chasing it with a brush of his claws.
He still hadn't clipped his nails. He needed to take care of that before taking her back to the nest.
"I uploaded some numbers on the data pad. Nothing else to report for now."
Darre dragged his eyes away from Naya's mouth and caught his hungry, angry expression before he masked it and tucked it away.
"I didn't plan this," he told the other man, knowing he would understand that he was talking of the mate sitting in his lap. "Wouldn't have planned it. Can't undo it. You know it changes shit, and I can't do a damn thing about it. You have your choices, Mac. If I think you've made the wrong one, you better not be where I can see or smell you."
He let the words sink in. They were harsh, but true. Mac was an associate he worked well with, but Darre would take him down without a thought if he posed a risk to his female. Telling Mac ahead of time was all the consideration he would get.