by Merel Pierce
I rolled my eyes, letting her rant go in one ear and out the other. It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard it a million times before.
With a sigh, I replied, “Mom, we both know I’m not interested in marrying a Beta. I need an Alpha—you know this.”
It was so hard to keep the grin from growing on my face. I’d already decided against going to the auction and had chosen Jaxon, but I still couldn’t resist winding her up.
“Dahlia, quit joking around. It’s not funny anymore. You need to get that idiotic idea out of your head. Have you forgotten the life we had with your father? Because I never will.”
“No, of course not, but not all Alphas are the same, Mom. Just because your Alpha ended up being an abusive bastard doesn’t mean they all are.”
“You know you can’t have an Alpha. You’re a Beta. He would kill you. Please stop with this foolish idea and grow the hell up.”
I growled before storming out, slamming the door behind me. Taking in a deep breath, I ranted in my head while I waited for a transport craft. She just doesn’t understand how I feel. How could she?
My mother was accepted and loved for who she was. Sure, she’d had an awful life with my father, but that wasn’t because she was an Omega. It was because she’d picked a crappy Alpha.
I was fed up with her trying to push her pain and worry onto me when I had more than enough of my own. Being a Beta in an Omega and Alpha family had set me up for a life of rejection and self-hatred.
My excitement for my night out had all but vanished by the time the craft arrived. I didn’t even bother to greet the driver, I just got into the back and slumped into my seat.
The craft pulled away. After a short trip we arrived at Harper's house. I stepped out and pulled my dress down.
I spotted my own craft as I walked up the gravel path toward the house. What is that doing here? I thought while pressing the doorbell.
Harper’s brother Varic answered. I expected him to invite me in, but instead he glanced up the stairs.
I frowned and cocked my head as I asked, “Is Jaxon here?”
Varic's nervous expression was all the answer I needed. I shoved him out the way and barged into the house.
As I made my way toward the stairs, Varic called out, “Harper. Dahlia's here and she’s coming up!”
He was trying to warn her.
I sprinted up the stairs, then raced down the hall to her bedroom. Without even knocking, I burst through the door, then froze. I wanted to scream and shout, but no words came. Tears welled in my eyes, and no matter how hard I tried to keep them at bay, they began to roll down my cheeks.
Jaxon was saying some shit, but it all just sounded like muffled noise to me. He jumped out of Harper’s bed, as naked as the day God made him, scrambling around the floor as he tried to retrieve his clothes.
I turned around, softly shutting the door behind me, then numbly strolled along the hall and back down the stairs.
“Lia... Crap, I’m so sorry you had to find out like that. Are you okay...?”
Varic's voice trailed off as I walked out the front door. I could hear Jaxon calling out to me, but I just continued to walk.
“Lia... Lia, please slow down, will ya? Let me explain!” he shouted while sprinting behind me. “Lia, stop, please.”
Grabbing my arm, he spun me around to face him.
He held on to both of my arms, and I didn’t have the strength to fight him off. He tried to gaze into my eyes, but I stared blankly into the distance. He took a deep breath.
“Say something, please,” he begged me.
Really? Why should I have to go first?
“Crap. Um... Look, I’m sorry. I mean, we aren’t exclusive and...”
I turned my head and dragged my eyes up to his, shooting him the nastiest glare I could muster. With a snarl I replied, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
His eyes quickly avoided mine.
“No! You don’t get to look away.” I clasped his face with one hand. “I understand that we weren’t exclusive, but after today, I assumed that would change. And I didn’t know you were fucking my best friend. Like, how did you think I’d take that?”
He shrugged in reply.
Did he just fucking shrug? Seriously, does he not give a damn?
“I guess I didn’t expect you to find out...”
“Oh, great, so you were just going to carry on sleeping with her?” He went to interrupt me, but I squeezed both of his lips together, making sure not one stupid word would slip past them. His eyes grew wide as I continued.
"No, don’t give me any bullshit. You can nod or shake your head to answer, okay?”
I watched with raised eyebrows as his gaze darted around, then settled back on mine. He nodded.
“Good boy. So, were you going to keep sleeping with her?”
He shook his head.
“Were you ever going to tell me you'd slept with her?”
He shook his head again. At least he was being honest.
“Do you love her?” I choked out.
I knew I’d taken a long time to work out what I wanted, and even earlier today, I hadn’t been one hundred percent sure. But the thought of Jaxon being in love with my best friend crushed me.
I slumped and my hand fell away from his lips as my head dropped. I stared at the gravel on the ground, trying to keep my tears at bay.
He reached up and clutched my chin between his thumb and finger, then lifted my head slightly. Staring into those amazing blue eyes of his had my heart crying out for him. But I couldn’t give in to it—it was broken and not thinking clearly.
“No, Lia. I love you. I always have,” he replied in a soft and caring voice, and I almost bought it.
Almost.
The vision of his naked ass clenching as he thrust into Harper flooded my mind, and with it, a new emotion. Anger.
I lifted my leg, pulled it back, then shot it forward, kicking him right in the crotch. A girly whimper escaped his lips as he dropped to the ground with a thud, cupping his crown jewels.
“Oh my God, Jax!” Harper called out as she ran toward us. “Why in the hell did you do that, Lia?”
My reply was simple—I punched the bitch square in the face.
The crack echoed through the air, and I shook my hand out as I watched her hit the ground like the sack of crap that she was.
Before walking away, I snarled, “Because I’m Lia Mountford, bitch!”
Chapter Three
I called for a craft to take me to the auction. When we arrived, I joined the busy crowd outside the auction house. There were so many alien species in the city, I stood out among them. I got a few stink-eyes, but mostly the visitors were respectful.
After I presented my ticket, my hostess guided me through the halls and into a giant room where the auction was being held. She scanned my ticket again, then led me to a secluded booth in the corner. She took my drink order, then left. I sat back and got comfortable.
The room was noisy, but a lot quieter than it was outside. The hostess returned with a tall glass of cherry-flavored liquor, a small bottle of carbonated water, and my bidding tablet. I could bid for the slaves via that or by good old-fashioned raising your hand. I decided I’d stay out of sight and inspect each slave on my tablet's screen.
I scanned through the Alpha section to see what was coming up. After four more drinks and around ten statistic pages later, the Alpha auction was about to start.
I had my eye on a couple, but none really screamed this is the one. I wanted to buy an Alpha tonight, but I didn’t want to pick the wrong one. My mother would never let me hear the end of it if I brought a narcissistic asshole home.
Yeah, I knew that any slave Alpha would be a challenge, especially for a Beta, but by this point, I couldn’t have given fewer fucks.
Sipping on the cherry magic that was my fifth drink, I tipsily eyed the fourth Alpha. He was one of my picks, but I preferred Alpha number eight.
I let number four go to an old lady
sitting a few feet away from me. She seemed so excited when she won, I felt sorry for the Alpha.
I watched the next three Alphas quickly sell before my Alpha number eight came up on the auction block. He was stunning. He had dark hair and light brown eyes that made his chiseled face even more handsome. His pale skin covered a body of muscle. He was definitely the best of the bunch. There was not a scar or mark on him. He'd been very well taken care of.
Looking around the room, I could tell that a lot of women wanted to bid on this guy. The men weren’t too bothered—they needed workers, not pretty boys—so the women were my competition.
I monitored the price of my Alpha closely. One thousand credits, two... ten... fifty thousand. It was going up quicker than I’d thought.
I put in a maximum bid of two hundred thousand credits. Money wasn’t an issue—for that price, I could have bought him a hundred times over—but if my mom was right and all Alphas were abusive assholes, there was no way I wanted to waste more than that on him.
I sat back and watched the screen as the bidding slowed, but it was closer to my bid than I cared for.
“Fuck it,” I said aloud as I keyed in five hundred thousand. Mom's going to kill me, I thought as my finger hovered over the bid button.
I nervously sipped my drink while I watched the bidding, waiting for just the right time to increase my bid. The women in the room were determined to have him, and it made me chuckle knowing that I could outbid them all with one tap of my finger.
“Dahlia!” my mom screamed from across the room. I slammed my drink onto the table, spilling most of its contents over my hand.
“Shit,” I mumbled, wiping the luminous liquid on my dress before getting up and hurrying over to my mom.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped.
“I’m here to stop you making the biggest mistake of your life. Can’t you see that I’m only trying to keep you safe?”
“You don’t understand, Mom—I need this. I can’t explain it. I just think an Alpha would make me feel whole...” She went to interrupt me, but I lifted a hand to silence her. “Look, I know what Daddy did to us was horrendous, but I’m certain not all Alphas are like him.”
I had tried to sound as sympathetic to her situation as I could, but it didn’t work. She furrowed her brow.
“You silly girl! You don’t understand what you’re talking about. Even if there was a kind and loving Alpha out there, do you really think you’d find him amongst this bunch of psychotic slaves?”
She scoffed once she finished her rant, and I couldn’t help but get angry. She wanted me to settle for a Beta rather than go after who or what I wanted. She had no idea how I felt, and I was about to tell her for the first time in my life.
“No, Mother, you don’t understand what you’re talking about. You always knew you were an Omega. You chose my father, not the other way around. Our whole lives were your fault. You chose an abusive asshole, and then you chose to stay with him. You could have left. This is all your fault.”
By the end of my rant, I was screeching. If I didn’t screech, I knew I’d burst into tears, and there was no way I was letting her see that side of me.
She stood in front of me, mouth wide open, not knowing how to react. So, I continued.
“You were so wrapped up in wanting me to settle down with a Beta, and guess what I did? Jaxon.”
She smiled, and that just made me angrier.
“Don’t smile, it isn’t a good thing. I just caught him fucking Harper less than three hours ago.”
“What?! How could he be so cruel?” my mom asked as she placed her hand on my shoulder.
I slapped it away and snapped back, “I don’t know, Mother. Maybe he’s an Alpha in disguise.”
“Don’t be stupid. He’s an idiot for sure, but maybe you two can talk things over. Maybe it was an accident.”
“A fucking accident? Oh yeah, he just tripped and fell into my best friend while they were both butt-naked, huh?”
“Language, Dahlia! You’re making a scene.”
I looked around the room, and sure enough, a few people were staring at us. I glanced over to one guy, he was sitting at a table, just scowling at me. He was enormous, and not just because of his stupidly bulging muscles, but because of his height too. I knew I had unusual-colored eyes for a human, but his were something else. Purple with white pupils. His strange hair was neon orange, which made it almost look like his head was engulfed in flames.
I supposed he was an attractive man, in a weird, overly symmetrical kinda way, but judging by the glare he was giving me, I guessed he wasn’t staring because of my good looks.
I poked my tongue out at him, then rolled my eyes as I focused back on my mom. The booze had well and truly hit me, and I had a newfound sense of strength—or stupidity. I was too drunk to tell.
“I don’t give a crap about making a scene. I cannot believe you just insinuated that I should forget that Jaxon was fucking my best friend and what? Take him back?”
“Dahlia, that’s enough! You’re drunk. Let’s go home. I’ll call Jaxon and he can sort you out,” she said while grabbing my arm.
“Get the hell off me. You’re just as bad as Daddy was!”
I regretted the words as soon as they left my lips, but I couldn’t take them back. I also couldn’t stop her hand from flying toward my face.
Slap!
That same hand jerked back to cover her mouth. Even in the dimly lit room, the tears in her eyes sparkled.
Clutching my stinging cheek, I tried to comprehend what had just happened. In all my life, not once had my mother hit me. My dad had hit me, and done a lot worse for that matter, but my mom had never laid a hand on me.
“Dahlia... I’m...” She reached for my free hand dangling limp by my side. I snatched it away, raising it high and out of her reach.
“Sold to the young lady in the red dress!”
My eyes grew wide, along with my mom’s. I looked down at my outfit—my red dress—then up at my hand.
Shit!
My mom and I gradually turned around as people clapped and cheered. I didn’t know why they were making such a fuss. They only usually did that if someone spent a record amount.
Oh, crap, how much did I spend? And who the fuck did I buy?
The last time I’d looked, we were on Mr. Hunktastic number eight, and I hoped to the gods that it was still him up on stage and not the disgusting, perverted-looking number nine.
I nervously glanced at the stage and gasped when I saw the gigantic guy standing there, chained to two guards.
“You stupid girl. What have you done?” My mom’s voice floated through the air, and for once I completely agreed with her. I gulped as my eyes took in the magnificence of the Alpha I’d just bought.
“Holy crap!”
Chapter Four
Even at this distance, I couldn’t believe the sheer size of my Alpha. He was by far one of the biggest I’d ever seen. He had a large muscular frame, thick tree-trunk legs, and arms that looked like one hug would crush the life out of me.