Fragments

by Aya DeAniege

  I turned again, and, again, saw something out the corner of my eye. When I turned my head to look, I felt a heat on my back. A body near mine, but staying just out of sight.

  Suddenly, it became a game to me. When he moved, I moved. Instead of leading him, I was following him, hearing the motion of his clothing over the call of the music. The sharp intake of his breath as he ducked backwards, away from my hand as I swung around.

  We danced together, the stranger and I, and I did not feel threatened. If anything, I was curious about this male who knew how to dance.

  Alphas knew classical dances, but few of them bothered with more than that. Dance was not an artform for them. They liked to watch others dance, but not dance themselves. A waste of energy, I suppose they thought.

  We shifted as one, though there was an awkward hesitance that Rachel and I didn’t have. As the song came to an end, I moved toward him. His arms moved out and I spun on him, lifting a hand to place it on his chest as if I had stumbled into him.

  And he stopped.

  Still as a stone, he stopped, hands reaching, but not touching, as if he were about to grab me by the waist. His body under my hand was hot to the touch, warmer than any man had a right to be. I watched him, watch me. There was a moment of fear that flashed in his green eyes, but that was all, just a moment. Then he breathed out through a barely opened mouth, only to drag a breath in again. I saw his tongue move as if tasting the air, taking in my scent.

  The man had dark hair, almost black but not quite in the light of the gym. Instead it was a very dark brown, with the shades of brown viewable only from the right angles. His squared jaw moved just slightly, as he seemed to work his lips, trying to say something, or to get a better mouthful of my scent. There was, across that jaw, a five o’clock shadow, a stubble that spoke of a long night and an even earlier morning. He even had a haggard sort of look, like he had been working too long without enough sleep.

  We stared at one another for a very long time before I smiled at him.

  “Gerrid,” I said.

  How did I know that?

  The Alpha, Gerrid, flushed, a rosiness coming to his cheeks as I watched him look away, past me. Suddenly he was bristling, an anger about him as he focused somewhere directly behind me.

  “Rebecca,” Blane called out across the gym. “We need to talk.”

  “I have my hands on a man, why do we need to talk?” I asked.

  “Break him if you want, I don’t care. It’d save me some trouble. We still have to talk, now.”

  Chapter Three

  Blane’s estate was too damned big. I needed a map to navigate my way, but no one seemed interested in sharing how they were finding their way around. How Blane got around was obvious, he had grown up on the estate and knew it inside and out.

  The Master could have offered some sort of conversation as he walked. A reassurance that he wasn’t going to kill me, or directions on how to find my way back to my room would have fantastic.

  He led me through it silently, seemingly annoyed at everything.

  He was older than I remembered.

  All through school, we had seen images of him, but Rachel had never been a part of those classes. I took those classes for her, and she took my home economics classes.

  Rachel hadn’t been interested in Alphas or anything to do with them, having every intention of staying out of the way of Alphas for her entire life.

  That didn’t work out for her.

  I, on the other hand, had embraced everything that the schools were trying to teach us. I wanted to know as much as possible before what I had felt was the inevitable happened. There were still plans, classes I had been taking, upgrades to my courses to get into university. I hadn’t just given up on living my life.

  Blane had more lines on his face, his hair was starting to grey, and there was a greyness to the rest of him, as if the light of his life had been snuffed out.

  In a way, that had been true.

  “You should find yourself a companion,” I said as he stopped just outside a door.

  Hand on the door, Blane twitched. He looked over his shoulder at me and scowled. There was a definite annoyance as he snapped open the door and walked in, still no comment to be had. He walked deeper into the room, and I made an assumption as to what was expected of me.

  I followed him in and closed the door.

  At the last second, it slipped out of my hand and slammed instead of just closing. I don’t care what anyone tries to tell you of what happened, that is the truth and I will stick by that until I die. The door slipped out of my hand.

  To be fair, I was used to hollow doors. The types made for houses, where it has the wood or metal on the outside, but if you kicked it in, it was hollow on the inside. The door to that room was a great deal heavier than I expected.

  Blane walked around a desk and sat on the other side as if he hadn’t heard a thing. The door had clearly made a rage filled sort of sound, not a little thump, but the Alpha wasn’t bothered by it in the least.

  He motioned for me to take a seat in one of the chairs on my side of the desk. I approached them, but didn’t sit. Instead, I leaned on the back of a chair and watched him.

  We stared at one another for a long moment. Blane was waiting for me to give in and sit, but I knew that and I remained standing. His irritability grew with each passing second and I took a twisted sort of pleasure in making an Alpha squirm.

  “I will not relent to the demands of the faeries,” Blane said.

  I opened my mouth to ask, but then shut it again. I had wanted to ask, but then…

  ‘Fucking’ went along with ‘faerie’ pretty well, and Rachel had quite a mouth on her when she was poked once too often. I could also see her then proceeding to make comments about her wings anytime anyone tried to say something differently.

  Given her—no, our—oddities, the strange things we had done and how we had done them? Yes, I could see the Alphas eventually giving in and taking up the name to avoid upsetting her. Which would just dull Rachel’s bite because then she wouldn’t know how to respond.

  “Companion, Blane.”

  “I have a companion, Rebecca.”

  “That’s Mother to you.”

  I said it because Rachel had told it to me. I did it to rub it in his face and elicit some reaction, to see what sort of ground I could take and hold over my genetics. Once I had that sorted out, I would start pushing the limits and see what I could get for what had happened to me under Owen.

  The trick with Alphas, I had been told, was pushing those limits because they didn’t expect it. As long as one was respectful, and knew when the limit was actually reached, an Alpha quite appreciated someone else standing up for themselves.

  “Suck it,” Blane snapped, motioning toward his crotch.

  I took that as meaning that the negotiations were open.

  “I don’t suck dick for free.”

  “Maybe I should bend you over this desk,” he snapped.

  “Mm, could be fun,” I said.

  The genuine surprise was my answer. A startled sort of thing as he leaned back and seemed to study me. The Alpha gave his head a shake and sighed out.

  Negotiations complete. If I didn’t like where I ended up, I could simply renegotiate later unless Blane drew a line in the sand.

  “I am not calling you Mother, and I have a companion. His name is Matt. I’ve also had to deal with Robin these past few days as you were distracting Abraham. I’m also not allowed to put my dick into anything—apparently—because I’m supposed to breed on an Alpha female.”

  “How does that work?” I asked.

  “Colour us both confused,” Blane said.

  “What if her genetics are suppressed instead of yours, that would suggest she’s submissive to you, I suppose.”

  “How do you even know that hypothesis?”

  “I was going to study genetics before I was broken. I had to upgrade a few skills before I went, but I read your studies on female Al
phas and how they worked. It was some pretty riveting stuff for feminists. The big bad wolf is afraid of a woman half his size? I was all over that.”

  “She was two thirds my size, not half of it,” Blane said. “And when you wake up to an adolescent Alpha with your cock in her mouth, then you can claim it’s funny, not before.”

  I hadn’t said it was funny, but could see other Alphas thinking it was amusing. The study I had been talking about had also centered around his sister, Daniella. Getting the study to align with what Blane said didn’t quite work out.

  “She’s your sister.”

  “It wasn’t her mouth, but she owned it, same thing. Hard to give demands if a cock is in your mouth.”

  “Do you like the word cock, or are you trying to judge my temperament by this alone?”

  “Little of the one, little of the other,” Blane said. “Abraham came to see me, when you woke. He said it was like Rachel right before she broke Owen. That was why he ran. It was one of the possibilities we came up with. You waking and remembering it all, in a mad sort of rage. He was to get out of there as quickly as possible. I apologize, but I’m not risking Abraham so that you can cuddle.”

  “I don’t remember. Rachel kind of filled me in.”

  “I heard, which was why I woke Gerrid and headed there immediately,” Blane said. “We can fix your stomach, return you to where you were looking physically before. There’s nothing I can do about the slowed metabolism or lowered voice. I can repair physical damage but not hormone changes.”

  “No. Well, maybe a breast reduction,” I said, reaching up and grabbing my boobs as Blane’s eyes went a little wider. “They’re huge, and they kind of hurt.”

  Blane picked up his phone and dialled. He turned his back to me and began muttering into the phone. As he did that, I remained there, hands firmly on my breasts only because I was fairly certain he was hoping I’d let go. I wanted it clear that I’d do what I pleased and him ignoring me wasn’t going to change anything.

  About a minute later he turned back and hung up the phone.

  He glanced over me, eyes lingering on my hands for a brief moment, then he looked up and met my eyes. With my point being made, I crossed my arms rather than continue grabbing myself.

  “Your youngest was just weaned. You may be having a maternal reaction.”

  “Maternal reaction?” I asked.

  “I’ve got someone coming in for Penelope, helping her with it all. Considering you don’t remember the past two years, it may be best that you talk to her as well.”

  I tried to do the math. “He can’t be more than like five months old. Why would he be weaned? Even six months is too early! I don’t know much, but I know that.”

  “He’s weaned off you,” Blane said pointedly. “We’re still piecing it together, day by day. If you had a set of twin Alphas, viable twin Alphas, Owen would have seen you feeding your own child as a waste of resources. You’ve had two miscarriages since then, he’d think the two were linked and likely took the boy as a hostage as well as to stop him from taking up your energy.”

  “Where are my children?”

  “Morgan will judge them as he will all Owen’s children,” Blane said calmly.

  Like he was talking about taking the laundry to the dry cleaner’s or something.

  “Where are my children?” I demanded at a higher volume.

  “The children of Owen must be gone through and the riffraff culled. For the good of the Alpha genetic line—”

  “WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN?” I bellowed.

  “—and the good of the children themselves. Rebecca, you do not get to place demands on me. All Alpha children will be dealt with by Alphas, not by you. You do not get to tell me what to do.”

  “No!”

  I shouted, shoving the chair out of my way. He watched the chair topple to the side, eyes lingering on it for far too long. When he turned back to me, I jabbed my finger at him angrily, wanting him to react, wanting him to understand. His look was passive, perhaps even bored as his eyebrows raised.

  He had seen Alphas throw fits before, my throwing a chair probably did nothing to get his attention, I realized too late.

  But I was angry and not thinking straight.

  “No, Blane.” I laid my hands on the desk and was so furious that I shoved that as well, causing Blane to push himself back as the desk jumped toward him. “No! You don’t get to tell me what to do!” I shoved that desk again and he was retreating as I hit it with my fist for good measure. “You do not get to take my children from me and pretend like they are objects, or broken toys! They are my children. They are mine. And I want. Them. Back.”

  “You don’t even remember them.”

  “They are mine!”

  “They are Alphas.”

  “They are not objects.”

  “An Alpha is only permitted to live by the suffering of the one he submits to,” Blane said.

  He approached his desk as he spoke, frowning at it. As I watched, he reached out and poked it, then frowned more as he looked across the top of the desk. I felt like I had lost him in the thread of the conversation. If he was a regular man, he probably wouldn’t have remembered.

  But an Alpha could do both at the same time, so I pressed on.

  “They are mine, Blane. Say it.”

  “They are yours,” Blane’s mouth snapped shut and he snarled through his nose. Suddenly he advanced forward and set his hands on the desk. “This is my territory, Rebecca. They are Alphas, living on my territory. I am the law, and the law says Morgan does the cull.”

  He gave the desk a good push and it didn’t budge.

  Which made me look down and actually take in the desk.

  Dark wood and bulky, it had probably been made sometime in his grandfather’s time. His father had probably used that desk before him. I frowned at the desk, which had clearly captured a majority of Blane’s attention, then up at him.

  “The law says?” I asked.

  “The law demands it.”

  “Any law that says to kill children, is wrong,” I snapped. “Twenty years ago, the law said all Alpha children had to be castrated for the good of the world. A hundred years ago, the law said women didn’t get a vote, that gay men could be lynched. The law is wrong.”

  “You cannot scare me.”

  “I’m not trying to scare you, if I was,” I shoved the desk again, which caught him along the hips and knocked him backwards. “I’d beat on you. If you won’t help me, I’ll find myself a Dom who will.”

  I got the idea. When angry, I could shove the desk. Blane couldn’t figure out how I was doing it given how small I was, but a body, once in motion, was very easy to keep in motion.

  “I won’t,” Rachel said from the doorway.

  I spun on her and glared. She closed her eyes and gave me one of her shrugs. It was such a Rachel thing to do, to just shrug it off like that.

  “I get what you’re saying, but I won’t give you my support,” she said as she pushed off the doorframe. “Blane could have led with the fact that there’s no way he’d let your twins be culled. He wants to survive long enough to seduce them into bed, even if they are Alphas. Got this weird twin fetish going on, but only interested in male twins.”

  “A man can dream,” Blane said gruffly, rubbing at his hips.

  “Secondly, Owen bred too close and too soon. Some of the boys have deformities. Alphas are not common people, they live outside of general law. Their law says that the dominant Alpha may cull. But. He has to do it with his own hands. Blane is the one going to be doing it, if at all. Morgan’s reported that six of the boys that Owen claimed were Alphas, are actually companions.

  “They’ll be found appropriate homes until they grow up. And then they’ll probably find themselves an Alpha. Several were killed by the breeders before Morgan could stop them. Infants that weren’t sick otherwise, just panic among the women about bashing babies against walls? I dunno, Owen was all kinds of crazy.”

  “I have a rig
ht to my children.”

  “By law, no. You don’t. You were taken by an Alpha and broken. Once broken, any children you have are property of the Alpha. There are no laws for the two people in the world who carry a mutation of the gene which allows them to become whole again later on.”

  “How many times do I have to say it?” I asked. “They are my children!”

  “And I appreciate that, but as a Dom, especially a new Dom, I need to bow to the Master’s wishes. I can’t take him down. I mean, I can beat on him a bit, but Blane’s a bloodrage. Think that’s what they’re called. Something about that makes them learn faster than normal. He’s already started to get the upper hand on me. To keep my place, to be able to let others become Doms, I have to play by their rules. Their rules say that the children need to be reviewed. So, the children will be reviewed.”

  Infuriated, I turned and looked at Blane. He met my gaze steadily, a hand on either of his hips.

  “Rachel,” I said without looking to her. “Leave.”

  “My hands are tied,” she said.

  “Which is why I am telling you to leave.”

  I waited until the door closed, then I sucked in a breath. All the while, I kept my eyes on Blane.

  “It seems you and I do not agree,” I said.

  “I have allies. I have spent a lifetime building the loyalties of my people. You have one person, one person whose loyalty was won over for the betterment of more than just you or her. Don’t blame her for that.”

  “I don’t. I blame you.”

  “Good, at least with that anger, you won’t be trying to sleep with me anytime soon,” Blane said as he moved around the desk and settled on the edge of it. “Second morning you were with Abraham, he slipped you something, it was the only way to make you sleep. I gave you a subdermal contraceptive. You will have no children but for by my good graces.”

  “You bastard.”

  “Your body has been used and abused. It needs time to recover. But, again, at least if you’re angry with me, you won’t try to sleep with me. And you won’t try to tell me to get a new companion. I have very clear rules. You will eat, you will work out, you will take whatever medicines I provide for you. I have a friend coming in, who is a therapist. You will speak with her, you will sort this out. You will work with Abraham and Rachel, because our plan for her doesn’t work if there’s only one of her. It doesn’t work if someone can put a bullet in her skull and end our little experiment. There has to be more than one.”