Page 43 of Her Broken Alpha
"What's your name? Where do you belong?" Naya asked the pregnant woman.
"I'm Isdorrie. I'm from Sector 7. I woke up here four months ago. I'd heard of the black robes, though. My brother was listening to a broadcast. I think he must be why I'm here. He liked the things Tenbel said.
“Can you get me home? Tenbel talked about an omega. I think last week? He didn't visit me as much now that I'm pregnant. He let the others come, and they only talk about—"
"What did he say?" Monster asked.
"He said he would get a prize that would win the Mad Monster's favor and distract him at the same time,” the girl answered weakly, tipping her head to the side to show her neck.
"Distract him from what?" Monster wanted to know.
"Some plan to get more women? I'm not sure."
"It was more women,” the long-faced woman spoke up. "Tenbel's Great Alpha would reward his disciples with women in this life and the afterlife. He used to make us listen to this book he read from—some dick fantasy. We are bait to turn alphas and betas in this sector into an army the way his Great Alpha did."
"He wanted to keep you, breeder,” a small voice said. “His scribe, Louis, convinced him to stick to the plan. I came in a box too. Just woke up in that place, in the sector of the damned. I couldn't have guessed it would be like this anywhere in the 12 Sectors. I thought they were united. But this place?"
She was sitting folded up against the wall, wearing a sheer purple wrap dress. With her face turned to the wall, she hid her identity, her youth, and her fear, but everyone could hear everything in her voice.
She sounded very young. Since betas didn't have a heat cycle, they often waited until their twenties or later to form marriage contacts. Their biology gave them more freedoms. Unless someone stole those freedoms from them.
"I'm pregnant now too. No one will want me. I think... I think my father sold me. I'm just another beta by-blow." Her words were hollow and helpless. "I never met you, breeder, but I know of you. I think I know who you are."
"Who are you?" Monster snarled. Something about the poor broken girl was making his hackles rise. Under her hand, Naya felt all the hairs on his nape prickle.
"Will you help us, Alpha? You're the Mad Monster, right? Nothonal Darre, the Administrator Prime of Sector 2? Can you help us?"
"What did you call him?" Naya asked.
Monster exploded in a riot of cursing.
Her question unanswered, Monster hurried her away, shouting orders at a soldier. "Interrogate all those beta women. Find out everything they know about Tenbel, my mate, and his fucking plans to take over the world. Find a beta male named Louis in the hole. I want to know what he knows. Get everyone off this floor, out of my tower, and over into C building, and do something about their growling bellies!"
"Monster," Naya protested as he ran down a hallway and up the stairs. He shifted her in his hold, putting her face under his chin and against his neck. He held her there with a hand on the back of her head.
"Scent me. Breathe me in. Too late now." His voice lowered to that bass that was more monster than man.
Naya was putting the pieces together. He must have known she would. His heart was pounding and his anxiety twisted at her insides until Naya realized he was afraid. This giant, brutish, killer of men, Monster of the Tower, was afraid.
Talking over her head, his words slurred and he lisped a little as if his tongue had become too thick for them. He wouldn't let her move her head or look at him.
"You're not her. You will never be her. But I won't let you go. That bastard won't take everything from me."
Coming out onto the landing at a speed that startled the guards there, he went to the sleeping chamber, set her down on the nest, and growled low. "Fix it. Invite me in."
Naya narrowed her eyes at him in frustration as he rocked from foot to foot, clenching and unclenching his hands. His twitchy agitation did not intimidate her in the slightest. They needed to talk.
"Fix it now, breeder." Playing unfair, that gorgeous growl of his went from upset to sexy. It rubbed at her nerves and made her belly and the small of her back flutter.
"I want to talk. Is that who you are? Are you really the Broken Prince? Nothonal Darre, the Mad Monster of Sector 2?" She stood where he put her. He used that sound like a weapon against her and she had to hug herself tight to keep from leaping at him.
"Fix. Your. Nest." He chomped out each word like he was biting into bone, showing his teeth.
She dropped to her knees at the alpha’s order, whimpering because that wasn't what she wanted to do right now. He planned to get her all drunk on him so she couldn't talk, couldn't ask questions.
She knew of him. Of course she knew of him. The embargoes and bans against his sector were notorious, making the place uninhabitable.
All because the King's second-born son refused to follow any of Administration laws and policies. He'd been in rebellion for years. There was always speculation about when the King would replace him, why the Administration didn't intervene to save the sector, and what horrible thing the Broken Prince would do next.
