by Aya DeAniege
“Yes,” Blane said. “All three of them. We have nothing else to compare it to. Alphas weren’t allowed multiple children often. Paul was a single child, so was Abraham. We have no idea if all the siblings inherit it, or just certain ones.”
“My children, you mean, with the proper raising and such, could become like Abraham?”
“No, your children are like Abraham. The kind of Alpha they will become will be determined by their raising.”
“That means they won’t be culled.”
Blane winced. “Sometimes when an Alpha feels a child will rival him, the child is killed. Theo?”
“We have extensive records of Alphas killing Alpha children of rivals. A few first-hand accounts, those from the Alphas themselves, show that they looked at the child and knew, just knew, if the child lived, they would be killed themselves. It was kill or be killed from their point of view. They killed the child. Some dominant Alphas have been known to kill others who might be rivals, leaving only a hand selected heir.”
“That’s not helpful to me,” I snapped.
“If you want the truth, you ask me,” Theo said. “If you want a candy coated shit storm of a cotton candy dream, you go ask your fucking mother.”
There was a thump.
Theo jumped in place and turned as Matt reached out and shoved him off his chair. Matt stood and jabbed a finger down as Theo’s head popped up on the other side of the table.
“No swearing at my table!” Matt roared.
It had taken three or four swear words for Matt to come around. But I wondered if the others had been swearing in an attempt to draw Matt out of his cloud.
“Sorry, little brother,” Theo said.
He didn’t sound apologetic in the least, more exasperated than anything else. Perhaps even a little amused at Matt’s reaction.
Matt spun on Blane and jabbed a finger at him. “No red meat!”
“What? I’m an Alpha, Alphas get red meat.”
“Do you want to die of a heart attack?” Matt demanded, leaning over and snatching Blane’s plate from him.
He gave Blane his salmon, then sat with the steak and began grumbling. Matt looked over the table to Morgan, then down at the steak. He stood and reached across the table, switching Morgan’s partly eaten salmon for the untouched steak. Then he sat back down and gave Blane a look that dared him to question his decision.
Blane seemed to be wiping a smile off his lips, fork in hand as he considered Matt.
“I’m trying to find you a drinking partner, but everyone wants to attend the meeting,” Blane said.
Matt glared for another moment then relaxed and sighed.
“Right, Penelope can’t, and Daniella is a Dom. What about Morgan? If he’s there, they might think he’s going to be the only reason Rachel is protected.”
“Done. Morgan, you’re in the safe room drinking with Matt,” Blane said.
“Better than ending up under a Dom,” Morgan muttered.
“What?” Rachel demanded.
“I’m not a Dom. At meetings like that, they tend to pick on the one they think is weakest, they have no problem ganging up on a body.”
“You enjoyed it,” Blane said.
“I… I may have, but I have someone in my life now,” Morgan said. “Someone who has been very clear about being monogamous and I’d like to do that and be that for her. Not having cocks in my mouth while someone else has me from behind.”
Abraham started choking again. I hadn’t even heard him come back in. I turned to him and, as we made eye contact, he slapped a hand over his mouth and his chest heaved like he was trying to cough again.
“Problem, Abraham?” I asked.
He swallowed and lowered his hand ever so slowly.
“I was just picturing Rachel’s reaction to such a thing. Blood everywhere.”
He managed to say it in such a way that even I almost believed him. I turned to Rachel, who was staring at him with an open mouth and wide eyes.
“Would you people stop trying to get Morgan under a man? For crying out loud, not everything has to be about man on man action around here.”
“No, sometimes it can be about man or woman,” Blane said.
“Or man on woman on man,” Gerrid said in an almost wistful fashion.
“No, just man and woman,” Rachel said sternly. “I don’t want to hear anyone trying to pair Morgan up with anyone else, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Blane said.
“Good. So. What’s the plan for this gathering of yours?”
Chapter Seventeen
“Suit or dress?” the tailor asked.
“Excuse me?” Rachel and I asked as one.
“It’s a formal meeting. That means formal clothing. Suit, or dress?”
“Pyjamas,” Rachel said.
My head snapped around. “What?”
“I’m also not wearing makeup or brushing my hair,” she said.
“Bold choice, but you’ll be in Blane’s house representing him, Blane?”
The Master looked up from his newspaper, peering over his reading glasses at us. He blinked several times then shrugged. The newspaper was raised and shaken a little, hiding his face before he finally answered.
“If you wear a dress, they’ll think you’re weak, that the dress will stop you. On the other hand, you could wear a kick ass dress, along with the bladed stilettos, but that seems a little cliché.”
“Could go naked,” I countered.
“What is with you and going naked?” Blane asked.
I was pretty certain the newspaper was being held up so that no one could see his reaction to anything we said. I was also certain that he was enjoying this little meeting with the tailor, because there wasn’t any other reason for him to be there.
“I dunno, same reason I like cocks in my mouth?”
The tailor’s hands hesitated, but only for a moment.
“Ah, one of those,” he said finally. “Fine, I would suggest a pantsuit. For this one, give her a flashy belt buckle.”
“Why?” Blane asked.
“She’s over compensating. Though, with breasts like those, I don’t know why she would be.”
“Is that what that is?” Blane asked, finally looking over the paper again. “Because the way I hear it, she does enjoy a cock in her mouth.”
The tailor stiffened. I didn’t see the look on his face, because he wasn’t facing us. Ever so slowly, his hand lowered, and I swear the poor man had a little bit of a mental breakdown.
“Tailor’s an Alpha,” Blane said to me, then focused on the tailor. “Pantsuit it is. With sneakers, not dress shoes. I’m told they don’t make a woman’s dress shoe that doesn’t chafe and rub the wrong way.”
“Very well,” the tailor muttered, then left.
Blane watched him go, then pulled off his glasses and stood. He tucked the glasses into their case, then into his pocket and looked us both over.
“I take that as meaning you both have similar measurements, which will work in our favour. The two of you will be presented as you are, identical twins.”
“Gerrid said we aren’t identical,” I said.
“To myself and Gerrid, no, you aren’t,” Blane said with a shake of his head. “As far as anyone else is concerned, however, you are. Law enforcement would say that you are identical. The changes are so subtle that your entire code would have to be drawn out to see it. It’s miniscule and may only be because your body is producing the mother hormone because you’ve given birth. A discerning eye can pick you apart. You look the same size, but Rebecca has a bonier look to her than Rachel does. It’s simply a fact of your lives for the past two years.”
“And then?” Rachel asked.
“I’d tell you the plan, but you’re notorious for not following it,” Blane snarled.
“You told me to forgive my abuser,” Rachel protested.
“And I told you that it could be lip service only, that it didn’t have to be real forgiveness, just the words said
out loud.”
“Hey, now. Then you were willing to kill Owen but now all of a sudden it’s ‘save the Alphas’ so you don’t get to give me attitude about anything.”
“He’s your companion, if he died, you would also feel it. The others be damned, my job right now is keeping you whole and stable.”
“Gerrid yelled at me because I let him wander off,” Rachel said.
Blane considered her, then glanced at me. He sighed and closed his eyes.
“Gerrid upholds the traditions. At the moment there is no give or take for what Owen did to the two of you, or to the area you now rule. Gerrid needs to come to terms with the fact that you will rule it how you please. But it could be some time before that happens. And then, he’ll only do it because of what he hears.”
“Where’s Gerrid now?” I asked.
“Reading the reports Morgan has to send out. The ones we’ve all been neglecting,” Blane said. “He also wanted to speak with Theo about something. He and Theo will be with Penelope and going over as much information as they can going in.
“Theo and Penelope have been looking up our history, piecing it all together from dig sites and the history books. Even the things that we once thought were myth and legend and just plain fantasy written for Alphas.
“Gerrid is a traditionalist. He needs the rules, follows the rules. He’s most comfortable when he knows what’s going on and when it comes to companions, yes, he follows the rules to an absolute letter, even if Owen deserves a painful death.”
“Well, was there anything left of Owen?”
“Goodness, no,” Blane said with a shake of his head. “You can break a companion and strip them of all they are. It’s actually quite difficult. But if you terrorize them, as Rachel did, and none of us blame her for doing, then they’re broken beyond what they were. His only belief is living to serve Rachel. He’s… a doll, or a babe, his companion personality will take some time to develop.
“When Paul first asked for reprieve, and then when it was given to him, he was like a blank slate. He learned, and he became a different person, but talking to Polly, it was like he had woken up one day in an adult, aging body and didn’t recall anything from before. That’s why Gerrid would protect Owen. You hate him, and Owen gets that, but he doesn’t understand why you hate him.”
“That doesn’t change what he did,” I said.
“No, it doesn’t change what Owen did in the past. Ethically, however, there is an ongoing debate started with Paul that will continue through Owen. Can he be extended the same respect or disrespect as was given him while he was an Alpha, is what that conversation would be. It’s a philosophical debate because we were pretty certain, at some point, something like Owen would happen. Except we expected another to do the breaking and then there’d be no question really.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to let him wander off,” Rachel said. “They aren’t going to kill him.”
“No, they won’t kill him. He wasn’t in any danger, except by myself, Peter, and Abraham hunting the hallways.”
“Has anyone seen Owen since?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, he was whimpering and hiding out in the garden,” Blane said. “He’s fine, not even a scratch on him. One of the invaders took him out there and told him to wait for Rachel. He wasn’t too happy that they lied. We were plain with him, that you were never going to go retrieve him because you hadn’t wanted him out there in the first place.”
“And right now?” I asked.
“Drugged up, really drugged up,” Blane said. “I’ve got him in a safe place and he will remain there until after the meeting. Rebecca, are you certain you want to do this?”
“I am,” I said with a nod. “Are you certain you want to do this?”
“Yes,” he said with a nod of his own. “Yes, it needs to be done. I screwed this up, I almost destroyed what Alex had built up for me. It’s time I take it back.”
“How many of your Doms support you?”
“Counting Rachel? Two. With absolute certainty. Nolan may be coming around.”
“But there were only three who wouldn’t have voted for the masquerade,” Rachel said.
“I knew the others would vote in order to bring up their grievance with me, which is what they should have done at the time.”
“Except Rachel broke Owen and then you offered all the Alphas to me,” I said. “They didn’t actually have the chance to bring it forward. They were probably afraid of Rachel, but also afraid if they brought up their troubles, they’d be removed from the count. I mean, you all are like a bunch of teenage boys around women. Especially women who offer sex.”
“Hey, no. We’re like that when you point at your mouth and say you want a cock in there,” Blane said. “I’ve never even met a companion who talks like that. And Matt was pretty active when I first had him. All over all the furniture. He never asked for a cock in his mouth. You keep catching us off guard.”
The door opened, and a servant entered with glasses of wine on a tray. Blane watched the woman approach us, then looked over her, to Rachel.
“I thought you were against drinking,” Rachel said in response to his look.
“Against Alphas drinking. I do adore a slightly drunk woman. Just makes me want to cuddle you,” he countered. “Slightly drunk, not enough to be tipsy, but just enough to tell you’ve been drinking.”
“Isn’t that cheating?” Rachel asked.
“How much did you have to drink before you broke Owen?”
Rachel snatched a glass off the tray and sniffed it. I took the other one and watched the woman leave before I turned to Blane.
“Is this safe for me?” I asked.
“We’ve been over this. You aren’t pregnant or breast feeding,” Blane said, then he hesitated. “If you were, that woman I brought in to teach Penelope said that you would have known like an hour after you got up, if that. If you’re worried about it, just keep your tits out of the mouths of children for a few days.”
“I don’t put my tits in anyone’s mouth!”
“Really? Let me make a standing offer, then.”
Rachel choked on her wine. Then she began coughing.
“Oh God, the bubbles got up my nose.”
Blane watched Rachel choke, then looked at me.
“Rachel, wait outside,” I said.
“What?” she asked.
“Please,” I sighed out.
Grumbling, Rachel left the room. I noted that she took the wine with her and sipped it as she went. Once the door was closed, I focused on Blane and sighed out again.
“Too far?” he asked.
“We can’t have sex,” I said.
“I figured you’d end up saying that,” he said. “And I completely understand you not wanting to add me to a long list of men who have taken advantage of you.”
“It has nothing to do with you taking advantage of me, Blane. The problem is deeper than that.”
“If I don’t attempt to make an offer, everyone else will think I’m homosexual.”
“What’s wrong with being homosexual?” I asked.
“If they think I’m homosexual, they won’t want to sleep with me.”
“Wait, when you say they, do you mean the Alphas, or women?”
“Women!” Blane protested.
“Okay, but you can’t be hitting on me in public.”
“Everyone is fighting over you and Rachel.”
“Oh, so it’s impossible for one of you to be mature and show us the respect we deserve as thinking, breathing women? As people with brains between our ears. You can’t even show us that respect? We’re just blow-up dolls, shiny prizes to be won over by the Alpha who can make the most sexually inclined comment?”
“I’m sorry for talking to you like that.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that, because proper deference wasn’t shown.”
“You like using fancy words, don’t you?” he asked as he closed the distance between us.
&nb
sp; “I do. I like fancy words, especially words I’ve not heard before and only kind of suspect the meaning of. So. Why don’t you show your mother the deference she deserves?”
“I’m sorry that I treated you and Rachel like sexual objects whose only worth is the man that claimed you.”
“At least that time I believed you,” I murmured.
I sipped my wine as Blane watched me. The sweet, almost sparkling, flavour of it danced over my tongue and down my throat as I swallowed. I didn’t taste the alcohol at all. I peered at the glass, then past it, to Blane.
“Last time I gave her free reign on alcohol she got drunk and caused several problems,” Blane said. “This has seven percent alcohol, if that. It’s like a cooler for fancy people.”
I smiled and almost laughed, but brought the wine to my lips and sipped again, instead.
“Tomorrow night could be dangerous, are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “I just need one other thing from you.”
“What is it?”
Somehow, I had ended up with a Master wrapped around my finger again. I realized Gerrid had a scientific explanation for that, but it didn’t explain why I hadn’t been able to use that on any of Owen’s followers, or even Owen himself. It was both dangerous and freeing at the same time.
“Gerrid is worried that other Alphas will view me as available because he hasn’t submitted to me like Morgan submitted to Rachel.”
“So? He needs to submit to you. Simple answer.”
“I’m not Rachel, I’d never be happy with that arrangement,” I said. “And he doesn’t want to. It’s not fair of me to ask that of him, when he wants to remain free of a dominant party.”
“Do you think less of me?”
“No, I don’t think less of you. But you also aren’t Gerrid. When was the last time he owned a home?”
“He does somewhere, threatened to kidnap Rachel to it. But that was before he met you.”
“You know what I meant, Blane. He’s concerned the other Alphas will see me as free game. And when there’s something to fight over, especially when it comes to sex, Alphas do. It’s not fair that he has to take on all your Doms. Men who don’t respect the fact that I’m a woman of some intelligence. I could be a shiny rock for all they cared. They just want to add me to a collection.”
