Choosing Her Alpha Read online

  Merrick had intended to use Maura and Sasha to slink into a position of respect and establish himself as a husband-mated slum lord.

  Although Sasha had been born with a desire to please any alpha she met, she found her inner nature easily resisted if the alpha in question acted like a complete jerk.

  Merrick didn't smell right. He didn’t act right. Had the man been even the slightest bit kind, she might have fallen under his influence. But he always had to assert himself, prove he was alpha, prove he was stronger. He was a bully who used his charm like a fist one didn’t see coming until it was too late.

  Sasha’s father used to say, “Character isn’t like gold. You can’t steal what you don’t have.” He would have cut Merrick down with his officer's retirement sword before the younger man could get within thirty feet of his daughter.

  Timing his words with his thrusts, Merrick said, "Oh, little girl, I'm sorry, but your mama is so, so, sick. Your time is coming. Look at Ditah. Look at my dick."

  His lust spiked pheromones thickened in the room like particles of floating dust, and Sasha sneezed. Her presence excited Merrick. He’d wanted her since the day Maura had brought him home.

  Physically immature, Sasha looked and smelled like a fleshy little teenager. She shouldn't have been arousing to anyone. But this man looked at her and saw a glorious future of power and prestige—the realization of all his goals.

  An untouched, registered omega breeder was a special kind of trophy. His lust was palpable, and it had nothing to do with her as a female.

  Cruel hunger glimmered in his eyes. "Look at me. She can't take me. Even after twins, she can't take me. No knot for the betas. I'm saving it just for you."

  It wasn't his alpha command that tempted her to look, but a sick fascination. Sasha closed her eyes to keep from giving in.

  He inhaled deep, hoping to scent her arousal. Perhaps it was because she hadn't had her first estrous or made the transition into adulthood, but whichever it was, he had no effect on her at all, and she was grateful.

  With her eyes still closed, Sasha missed his expression when he finally caught a whiff of the filthy bedding. The alpha made a disgusted noise.

  "Stupid bitch. What are you doing with that shit in here? Get out!"

  "Yes, alpha," she said with relief, backing out of the room before he could see she was smiling.

  *

  The laundry had to be carried down two flights of stairs through a dingy, mold decorated hallway to the washroom. There Sasha found her friends on duty, doing washing for the twenty people that lived and worked at Dover's End. The twin drones smiled when they saw her.

  "I bring you a challenge!" Sasha declared, holding up her mess of soiled fabric.

  Their faces twisted unpleasantly at the smell. With blonde hair in short, fancy braids they wove for each other and guileless pale eyes, they were a half an inch apart in height and had different face shapes, but their expressions and words were often humorously identical.

  "I know. It's bad. Can you help me rinse them out? I need to close my eyes to do it and hold my breath. You two can shout helpful directions from the corner. That's all I'm asking. Don't make me look at this yuck."

  The twins laughed. In their late twenties, they wore black leather collars of indentured servants. Used as collateral in a bad business scheme, their beta father had sold his children into servitude to save himself. It was common to split up sets among relatives and fostering households. Sasha was glad Lanny and Lilla had escaped that harsh reality.

  All the fertility treatments on the populations of the past had led to children born in sets. Fraternal doubles and triples were common from beta and human women alike. Sasha had never heard of omega breeders giving birth to more than one kid at a time; for all the hardships of her dynamic, that wasn't one of them.

  Lanny and Lilla were the sweetest things. Their smiles and humor helped Sasha keep hers. She relaxed in their presence.

  Lanny came up next to her. She'd had the good sense to find long service gloves. "I'm sorry you had to be the one to go help your mother. I get to the door, and when she starts yelling, I just find my feet turning the other direction."

  Drones were susceptible to breeding pheromones in a way that made them the perfect servants. Their free will weakened dramatically in the presence of all the breeds, even immature omega breeders like Sasha, making them obedient but also vulnerable to abuse.

  "It's not your fault." Sasha bumped her shoulder affectionately. "You should feel lucky. She looks…" Sasha didn't know how to describe it. "She used to make more sense. She used to want to live, at least."

  Throwing all the disgusting linens in the big sink, Sasha went to wash her hands and find her own set of gloves. It had been stupid of her to forget to wear gloves in Maura's room. That layer of protection would have been nice.

  "I have never known her to be happy," Lilla said, coming over. She had her own linens to wash, sheets from one of the beta girls’ rooms. It was just a step less disgusting than what Sasha was doing.

  Filling a big tub with clean water from the roof reserves, Sasha began the process of trying to wash the mess with as little water as possible. Water was one of the pub's biggest expenses, a resource she knew not to waste. How was she going to get the stink out or get them clean again? It looked a hopeless endeavor, and not one she really wanted to deal with.

  Lanny brought over a box of cleaning flakes. "These are enzyme cleaners. They will help." She sprinkled some over the top of the laundry. "But you are going to need to put your hands in there," she said with a smirk.

  "Yeah. Can't avoid that," Sasha said.

  Her dad had told her tales of when this world had plumbing that worked, machines to do this job and electricity on demand to run them in every city across the planet. Some nicer sectors still had that, she'd heard. He’d told her that the twelve sectors had once been one giant thriving, independent drone city of millions of people, a human built metropolis of modern technology, and if she kept her eyes open, she would see the remains of their creative industry.

  Sasha missed her father every day. He had loved her endlessly, taught her everything, and dreamed big dreams for her. "You're going to help me change the world," he’d said.

  His marriage had not been a happy one. Maura had gone through her estrous cycles, gotten pregnant, and then become so dangerous she needed restraining. Doctors advised Sasha’s father to help Maura through her heats only if she asked, but to not pursue a physical relationship with her otherwise.

  An alpha male dominated by the mating instinct; he'd gone elsewhere for his pleasure after Sasha's birth. When she was little, Sasha had thought Lanny and Lilla were her sisters. Her father had doted on them, had chucked them under the chin and purred for them the way he did her.

  He’d had a soft spot for pretty, biddable humans that led him to father drones of his own. He'd been honest about that. Sasha wanted brothers and sisters, but for some stupid reason, he didn't want any of them around Dover's End. He'd sent them who-knew-where.

  There was a safe in the still room that contained all the recipes for the gin and mead, plus her father's records. Sasha knew the combination, and one day she hoped to have the chance to open it. Maybe he had saved the information of where he had sent her human brothers and sisters.

  Swishing her hands in the cold water, Sasha saw that Lanny's enzyme was helping. Thank the shining stars above. The laundry might be saved. She smiled at it and began to turn and rub the cloth.

  She thought again of Maura's threats and Merrick's assurances that Sasha's time was coming. Could she save herself? A marriage contract would assure Merrick's total control over Sasha's life and Dover's End. He would have control over Lanny and Lilla—over all the indentured drones whose papers her father had bought—to buy, sell, and torment as he saw fit. There would be no reprieve from his quest for wealth and power; he'd already shown a willingness to do whatever it took to get what he wanted.

  She had to get out from un
der his thumb.

  "What has put that look on your face?" Lilla asked. "It's not helping? Do you want the lye soap?"

  Sasha looked up at her bright blue eyes. "That will put holes in the sheets, don't you think?"

  "Better holes than that smell." Lilla wrinkled her nose.

  Sasha laughed. "No, I think it's working. Thanks."

  Driven by her madness, Maura planned to destroy Sasha and Dover's End, including all who lived here. She'd make them all vulnerable to Merrick's capricious nature.

  Her father had envisioned a good life here. He used to talk endlessly about restrictive Administration laws in the other sectors, high taxes, and loss of freedoms, telling Sasha how she would help him build something better. He'd say, "We didn't go through the Great Desolation to learn nothing about the danger of power hungry dictators naming themselves king." He’d say the breeds didn't need a king who wanted to control everything and take everything. The strong should be free to lead the lives they saw fit.

  He and his friends would gather in the bar and talk late into the night about building a better society, toasting their ideas with glasses of Dover's End gin.

  That had been two years ago. Just two years.

  Maura had hated that dream. Merrick only cared for money and prestige.

  Sasha had to do something. She had to protect her friends. She had to decide her own destiny.

  Chapter 3

  Merrick was alpha of Dover's End, but he knew little about the running of it, which left Sasha the daily work of getting things done.

  When she went to the money box to get credits for the next day's market trip, there wasn't enough to buy a loaf of bread. Merrick was such a fool, using Dover's End funds as his personal wallet. The place wasn't much of a pub if they had no alcohol to sell.

  Sasha didn't want to confront him. A day where she didn't see Merrick was a good one. Days like this, when a situation forced her to seek him out, were bad days.

  She couldn’t send a drone to face him; at best he’d ignore the waiting servant, and at worst, the servant would find themselves thrown from his presence for some imagined impertinence.

  She hunted him down in one of the back rooms where he sat with two beta males and another alpha, watching one of the strippers dance.

  For a beta, the woman was surprisingly curvy. It must have been a selling point for the males, because most of her dance was comprised of bending over and showing off her butt.

  Sasha knew the hired women did something to themselves to make their female parts look more enticing. Not only did the girl have a round behind, but her slit also looked red, swollen, and damp. Sasha thought the girl might need to visit a doctor.

  The dancer smelled like a regular beta wearing yeasty cinnamon perfume, a fabricated omega scent. Merrick's friends appeared to think the stripper was full of wanton lust for them. They eyed her lewd movements with unabashed attention.

  Merrick was talking to them about getting past Alpha Warlord Constantine Kane's men at the sector crossing while they were absently rubbing at their pants.

  That name sounded familiar. He'd given Sasha's dad trouble also, if she remembered correctly, hiring men to watch competitors at the borders and stealing shipments. The name was one her father had spoken of multiple times with frustrated rancor.

  "His enforcers can't be bribed. They are all loyal and scared shitless of the man. I need to get to Curry or Pauldo," Merrick said. Since he'd had his time with a female just hours earlier, he was less distracted by the butt shaking.

  "Pauldo is a no," the other alpha said. "The Warlord saved his kid's life."

  "So, Curry?" Merrick asked. Nudging the man beside him, a very distracted beta who had released his cock from his pants and was stroking it in quick yanks that made Sasha wince.

  "Curry is a possibility. He's not a fan of some of Kane's ideas," he said breathlessly. "But you gotta give him what he wants."

  "Constantine Kane and his fucking honor." Merrick spat on the ground. "Arrogant Bastard. Someone has got to take him down. I’m tired of having to tiptoe around him."

  "It won't be one of us. I've seen him fight," the other alpha said.

  The beta who still had his cock in his pants spoke up. "He doesn't control everything. He's not the only big boss with a hand in trade. What about Ebbon Blaze? He's your best bet. Have you talked to him? You know how lax he is about Administration policies."

  Merrick sneered. Ebbon Blaze was their very own sector Administrator, who only had half an eye on the job. He kept disappearing into the wastelands of the Un outside the 12 Sector's, looking for who-knew-what.

  Sasha's father had said the man should give the job to someone who wanted it, but sector admin jobs were earned, sometimes with blood. One didn't just give the job away.

  "Bastard was too busy to even talk to me," Merrick growled.

  Sasha knew of Merrick’s troubles with other alphas. After he’d abandoned his duty to the King's Army, they had no respect for him. They’d all done their time in the army. It was a rite of passage for males of the breed.

  The beta with his cock out decided he'd had enough of being teased. He leapt towards the stripper in a hungry rush. The unfamiliar alpha next to him saw this as a challenge, and instinct struck hard.

  With a deep bark of warning, he stood. The other male instantly deferred to him, even though he’d yet to move on the woman. Tipping his neck to the side in submission, the weaker man slunk around to the stripper’s mouth instead of his original target. The alpha filled the space between her legs. The third, not to be left out, joined them for touching and fondling.

  They had the woman surrounded, one at each end and one in the middle. How could the beta do this every day? Was the pay so good? Sasha didn’t understand it. The act looked painful and ugly. Even the men had grimaces on their faces.

  Merrick watched, clenching his jaw so hard she could hear his teeth grinding. Scenes like this were everyday occurrences in the pub now since he’d taken over. He’d turned her dad’s dream into a den of filth. It saddened Sasha to no end.

  Turning on her with a snarl, he said, "What do you want?"

  "There are no credits and we need honey to make the mead. Do you have any left?"

  "Are you questioning me?"

  "I’m asking, alpha. In six months, there will be no mead to sell. Not a drop. If there are no credits, how can I make it?"

  "So rude and disrespectful, asking me stupid questions. You want to be punished, don't you?"

  His question was rhetorical. She had her eyes on the floor, feigning deference, but he’d caught the lack of respect in her voice. How could she be expected to respect him? To fear him?

  "I need to make a batch of mead. I've already put it off too long."

  "Come here." He spoke with another alpha growl, but it merely rippled over her like a breeze, leaving her agitated but unmoved.

  She took two steps forward, hoping to appease him. He darted out of his seat and snatched hold of her braid, baring her throat as he forced her head to the side. Crowding into her, radiating alpha aggression, he said, "I'm looking forward to teaching you your place."

  His nearness triggered memories of her father and brought on a lonely ache. She wished she hated his warmth and smell. An omega breeder instinctively sought the comfort of an alpha, nature dominating rational thinking. He should want to care for her not break her.

  But Merrick was a terrible person. It would be easier to remember if his outside appearance matched the rottenness of his insides. He made her long for someone else, a worthy alpha. An alpha like her father.

  The other alpha had noticed them now. The male tipped his head back to scent for her and left his position behind the woman on the ground.

  Sasha closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch the stranger's wet cock bob closer as he stalked over to them. She really hoped he didn't touch her with it. She didn’t want his stench on her. These alphas were a bunch of troublesome blockheads.

  "What's this,
Merrick? Is this that breeder girl who lives here?"

  He tried his growl on her, an action that would make a drone or beta willing and wet. But just as it had with Merrick, his growl had no effect on her.

  "Are you Edin's girl? You're about ripe now, aren't you?"

  Merrick snapped at the other man, showing his incisors. "She was just leaving."

  The hand on her back lowered to the curve of her backside. He caught up a little handful of her soft flesh and gave her a vicious pinch that was sure to leave a bruise.

  Looking pleased with himself, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his bulging wallet, which no doubt contained most of the credits from the cash box. He gave her half the papers.

  "Take care of it, then. No mistakes, either. Make this a good batch."

  Make it a good batch? Of course she'd make a good batch. Annoyed, she took the credits and left the room as quickly as she could, happy to have escaped the attention of so many filthy men.

  *

  The day had gone on and on, one problem after another to sort, one mess after another to clean up, all while Merrick was prowling around her, circling like a vulture. Her legs hurt from going up and down the stairs catering to the betas, cleaning up messes, and shielding the drones from drunken advances. Her body was tired, but she couldn't shut her mind down.

  When Lanny came to tell her that Maura was not doing well, Merrick had been watching. He gave her a triumphant grin.

  While Sasha doubted he had it in him to compel her submission, there were too many other things he could do that would keep her under his rule. He was an alpha, after all.

  He might force her into a marriage contract. The possibility existed. Why hadn’t it occurred to her that he would ignore Administration laws? Her willingness wouldn’t matter if he could convince the right people to look the other way. That must have been Maura’s plan. Merrick was just waiting for her to die before he carried it out.