The sun is going down, turning the fluffy clouds pink with streaks of orange. I like watching the colors change. I don’t tell anyone because Alphas don’t sit around looking at pretty things.
"Coming, ma'am," I say, rising to my feet. I brush the dirt off my pants and head inside the den. I climb the stairs to the front door, where the Den Mother is waiting.
“Hurry and wash up. Go on, Thorin.”
I hate when she uses my first name. I'm not Thorin anymore. I’m Knox.
Drill Instructor Sturgiss said names are for those with families, and we don’t need them. “No one will know you better than the battlefield and all it needs is your callsign and rank.”
When the boy with green eyes came back from his punishment, the instructors gave him a really cool callsign: Viper.
He doesn’t respond to it. Not yet. But we aren’t allowed to use his name from before.
At least I got to keep part of mine.
“Knox” was the callsign of the soldier who saved me from my birth parents. I was made by Humans, but they gave me up to the Fathim Military when they found out I had the Alpha mutation. I don’t remember them, and I don’t want to. I want nothing to do with them or any Human.
Knox is a good callsign. Strong. Easy to say over comms. Prime Alpha Knox has a powerful ring to it.
I wrinkle my nose in the mirror as I brush my teeth. I hate brushing. When I was little, the mint always burned when my lips were split. It made a broken nose hurt even more. The older recruits knew I had foul Human blood in my veins and tested daily whether I bled red like them.
I did. I still do. But no one messes with me anymore. I made sure of that.
Den Mother levels me with a stern stare when I linger too long, watching some of the others arm wrestle.
"Straight to bed with you. Tomorrow is your big day."
I nod my head and slip beneath the scratchy sheets of my bunk. I fought a boy two years older than me to get this bottom bunk, but the mattress is still as lumpy as all the others.
I close my eyes and try to follow orders. I really try. But sleep is hard these days.
My enhanced senses developed over the last few months. Everything is too loud and stinks, and I don’t know how to turn it off yet. I can hear the other boys tossing and turning, farting and snoring. I can smell the rot in the floorboards and hear bugs in the walls chewing the old wood. Nothing is ever dark anymore and I can see into the shadowy corners easily.
But that’s okay, because it means I’m a proper Alpha now.
Drill Instructor Sturgiss says I’m the youngest recruit picked for the Prime Alpha Program. Ever.
Today was my last day in the recruit den.
Tomorrow, I start real training.
Tomorrow, I start becoming the best Prime Alpha there’s ever been.
I can’t wait.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Viper
I used to hate Knox, back when we were recruits in our den. Even then, he was a stickler for the rules. Always eager to please. Always the best, and quick to point out when others weren't.
I wasn’t the best, and he reminded me of that every chance he got.
It bugged me how perfect he was and how the instructors fawned all over him.
The way he effortlessly aced everything and the smug confidence in his eyes whenever he answered correctly filled me with a burning resentment.
I hated him up until they took him away to become a Prime Alpha. Then… I just pitied him.
