Page 61 of Her Broken Alpha
Good. All the better. There was a difference between a respectfully submitted alpha and a cowardly one. Darre had a lot of practice figuring out which was which.
Alreck had cleaned up Darre's office after too many meetings gone wrong to not have a healthy respect for what Darre could do when he was angry.
"Yes. Fine. In fact, you can have first pick and organize the mess. I have no desire to play matchmaker. But the rule stands: marriage contracts with willing signatures. You will have to seduce your female, if you can."
Alreck gave him a toothy grin. "Ladies like my scars. Makes them think I can survive and protect them. It’s not an issue."
"Tell Mac you have my orders, then." Darre considered the other man for a moment. "Alreck, something ugly is coming. I need you to have your most reliable men on duty. Loyal men, if such men exist in the district of the damned. You get me? I don't know which direction the threat will come from yet. It's not you. It could be someone else in my tower. Anyone else in my tower.
“Or it could come from outside. Or both. I don't fuckin' know, but I feel a storm coming." He paused to let the words sink in. "Don't tell Mac or Seta my orders on this. You get me? And if you see that old dog Nixon, I want to talk to him."
"He has his wife with him."
"Perfect. I want to see them both."
"Alpha, are you going to be housing drones now too?"
"Until I figure out what to do with them. And all those females get servant contracts, like they do in the other sectors. Ha, and I'll give that over to you too.” He barked a short laugh at Alreck's dismayed expression. "You can pass that chore off if you want, but you'll be the final authority and answer to me."
Darre watched relief play over Alreck's face, and Darre wanted to laugh again. He'd shocked the man enough, however.
Giving Alreck his leave, Darre ordered food from the kitchen before mountng the stairs. He discovered after the first flight that he could run up them now. Nothing hurt.
At the top of the stairs, the guards stopped him. He didn't remember their names but recognized their faces and scents. He gave the three of them a good smell before he said a word. He couldn't check every male who worked in his tower in one day, but by the rod, he would know that the males closest to his mate were not plotting behind his back.
This behavior wasn't too unusual. Everyone in the tower knew of Darre's bestial tendencies. The males submitted and tested true. No scent of deception-based fear. No sour lies.
"Alpha," the male in charge said, "there are two men at the door. They say they have information on the black robes."
Darre frowned. It wasn't the first time someone had come to his front door peddling information in exchange for credits or favors. But it was odd they came with just the information Darre was seeking.
"Has Mac requested a meeting? Or Seta?"
"No, Alpha."
"Any updates from either of them?"
"No, Alpha."
Darre felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck raise. There it was again—that sense of a shit storm looming. Of someone else trying to set him up, plan behind his back, and change the game.
While he loved to stalk and torment his prey—drag out the hunt until he exhausted the enemy—he did not like the feeling of being preyed upon. He was not any bastard's prey.
"Send a runner. Have them go all the usual places. Announce a fight tomorrow. I challenge my Alpha Mac, Alpha Seta, Alpha Berandal, Louis the Scribe, and any-fuckin'-body who thinks they are gonna knock me out of my tower. Those two outside want to talk to me, they can talk to me in the pit. Make sure they have directions on how to get there.”
Darre watched the guards’ faces as he issued his challenge. By morning, everyone in Sector 2 would have heard the news. Only the worst kind of breed ran from an open pit challenge. To not meet Darre would earn a brand of cowardice with a bounty anyone could cash in on.
It was one of the few laws in the sector, meshing so well with the primal instinct of alpha males that no one fought it or questioned it. Fighting was how breed alphas established dominance. It was in their biology. Trying to avoid it meant you were not an alpha. Not a man.
Louis the Scribe, wherever he was, would also feel the pressure. His name had been well-known enough that he had a reputation to uphold, even if he was only a beta. He had a significant position with the black robes. Alpha or not, failing to face Darre would put a bounty on his head and brand him as weak.
Darre was not going to play by someone else's rules of subterfuge and deceit. He played only by his: tooth and claw, flesh and bone, face to face, might makes right. The monster of Sector 2 was the top alpha.
It was time to remind people.
Chapter Sixteen
Naya
