Page 8 of Her True Alpha
Jordan snorted. Although not as affected by the smell of omega breeder as Alreck was, he knew Jordan admired her. As one of Darre’s guards who’d signed on after the couple’s mating, Jordan had seen Naya defend her much taller and bigger mate from any insult or threat. As fierce as a wolverine from the Un, she went from self-contained one moment to teeth and claws out the next. No one disrespected their alpha behind his back if his mate was around. The woman always went for blood.
“I want to drive that machine. Do you think I can talk the king’s brutes into it? Maybe a game of dice would do it.”
At last count, Jordan had ten pairs of weighted dice. His obvious cheating was a notorious joke around the tower.
“Don’t mess with them. You’re not driving the king’s transport.”
“No, I guess not. But fuck, that thing looks like sex on wheels.” Jordan complained.
“Since when have you had sex with anything other than your hand? You getting desperate, old man? Maybe you should run some of that excess energy off.”
“You’re not going to—”
But Alreck did, challenging Jordan to race up the twelve flights of steps to the family floor. Still working on regaining his full strength after suffering a wound, Jordan lost. Wiping at a line of sweat on his brow, he huffed, side-eyeing Alreck.
Scaling twelve floors in gear wasn’t easy, but Alreck didn’t care. “You can’t drive the transport, but if you want a chance to ride on the back of it, you need to do better. Run those stairs again.”
“Fuck.”
“Do it,” Alreck commanded, leaving Jordan behind.
The twelfth floor opened into an empty lobby. There were no inviting chairs for guests to sit in. A wall with a door cut the original design of the room in half. Behind that door was the alpha’s public office, and beyond that lay the family rooms. There were other exits on and off the floor now, but only a few people knew where all three of them were and how to best reach them. Alreck’s guards stood at alert without touching the walls at their backs. He ignored them as he walked by.
Nothonal Darre was a beast of a man. Until his bonding, he’d been prone to blackout rages, giving total control to his violent, primal nature. Alreck didn’t know any other male like Darre. Some past trauma had messed the alpha up when he was younger, changing him into an unbeatable monster of a male.
Those claws of his, minus three on one hand, made him a deadly force. Weapons were not allowed in the pit. Even Alreck had to give up his swagger-stick and just use his fists but Darre’s sharpened claws were a part of him.
After his bonding, Darre still had a dangerous, unpredictable nature, but the monster within shone less often from his eyes. Everyone who lived in the tower and had seen him change felt like he was more clearheaded after receiving the breeder’s blessing.
Darre’s bonding had made him happy.
And fuck, Alreck wanted that. He wanted the laughter, the connection that would fill up the places in his head that felt hot and raw. Not only that, he wanted to know how it felt to have a pussy squeezing his knot.
He balled his hands into fists, beating back the rising rage of his desire. Need always crawled to the surface when he was on this floor; the space was crammed with remnants of Naya’s and Darre’s pheromones during her heat, and little reminders of her in every previously cold and barren corner.
Knocking on the door, he took a breath of the cleaned breather air, listening to the thing heave and expel through the mask layers. He packed his personal mask with a minty herb mix to help cover any lingering scent that might get to his olfactory system. It had worked for a while, but he grew more sensitive all the time.
An older drone male opened the door with a basket in hand. It was James, who helped in the kitchen downstairs. After improvements to the plumbing and a kitchen installation on this floor, Alreck had seen less of the man. The empty basket meant he’d brought something fresh from market.
“Fruit for the omega?” Alreck asked.
“As much as anyone can find,” the old drone answered.
“Maybe we will do something about that in Sector 5.”
Eyes on the floor, James said, “They would have better there.”
Alreck knew he made the drone uncomfortable. James was helplessly affected by breed pheromones and compelled to obey, but the reaction wasn’t mind-altering or completely will-killing. He imagined it must make the drones miserable.
“Come in, Alreck. Is the transport here?” Darre voice echoed out from deeper in the room.
Alreck let James escape, stepping around the drone and into the monster’s den.
Even wearing a breather, Alreck had a sense of the omega. He could almost feel the soft, welcoming warmth of her presence rush over him. He grew more susceptible to her every day.
“It is here. And I think everyone in the sector saw it.”
“That bad?” Darre asked from behind his desk.
