"He did not pick them by accident. It was a promise. A girl like you—clever, industrious, strong, and so gifted—is a prize to any alpha. You are more valuable than any treasure. He was going to give you to the men who treat other men as less than animals."
Sasha was trembling. Kane's hands moved, soothing over her body. What he was saying was horrific.
"Every single man on this list? All ten of them believes that drones should have no rights, no intrinsic value, nothing more than what their breed masters allow them. These are the men your father cultivated as friends. Are you listening?"
How could she not? He was speaking right in her ear. His sensual lips that had yet to kiss her mouth were right there. She could turn her head, capture his mouth, lick inside and take a taste. But she stayed still while he poured out his ugly truths.
"Your father was younger than me. I did not meet him until his thirty-year military assignment. He served under me. It is forbidden for alphas to take a bride-mate while they are in the service. The Administration encourages abstinence in the younger men because after the first encounter, the mating instinct is activated.
"An alpha at full maturation wants two things to ease the itch under his skin: sex and violence. One or the other will do. The army gives them violence so they can learn self-control for the other, but it's not enough."
She had learned this in school. One had to understand drones and breeds to coexist with them.
Kane continued, "Sex and violence are hardwired into the alpha's genes, super soldiers wired to repopulate the planet. We train them as best we can. We have to, because the only female who will ever fully satisfy them is one like you, Beauty.
"But since males are males and your kind are rare, there are plenty of betas, and even willing alpha females, or even the sterile breeders, to ease the itch. I noticed then that your father, he preferred drones."
"He preferred drones? You mean he lay with them? I know that. You don't need to tell me. Lots of men sleep with drones. I have half-brothers and sisters."
He tipped her chin up, his thumb a barely-there touch coasting over her lips. "Sasha, you don't know. You don't understand. Where are these brothers and sisters of yours?"
"He had to send them away because of Maura. She would have killed them." He'd told her that once. Sasha thought it was just an excuse. He didn't want them around, and she didn't know why.
"Where did he send them?"
"I don't know. He said he fostered them with good families, friends of his." Sasha fingered the list of names. "I was hoping to find a record of them in the safe so I could find them."
"Sasha, I saw that safe. It's quite a piece of work. Unusual for Sector 10, don't you think? Would you give me the combination if I promise to bring you the contents? I'll bring everything to you."
With one hand he gripped her ankle, then slid his palm over her foot. She was tiny in his hand, and he was so gentle. Pleasure pulsed through her when she remembered how he had pushed her foot against the root of himself, used her to touch himself through his pants.
"I would like to go with you. How are the workers? How is everyone now that Merrick and Maura are gone?"
"For those workers who you say were indentured, I offered them a severance package, debt free. They could go to their homes, if they had them, with something to help them get back on their feet."
She felt him smile. She'd been watching his hands, drooling over them, and missed it, but the stretch of his lips across his face changed the tension in the muscles of his neck and chest so much that she felt it come and go.
"However, Beauty, your people are very loyal to you. Only those who had come with Merrick chose to leave. As you know, Lanny and Lilla insisted they come to you. Even those drones who were badly abused refused to leave your service."
"I tried to protect them."
"They tried to protect you. You might ask them about your father and how he used them. Him and his friends." He let that sink in. "Sasha, are you listening?"
"Kane, you don't know what you are talking about. My father was a charmer, and he was lonely. He may have manipulated some human emotions, but he didn't use anyone."
She would have gotten up in outrage, but his lips were pressed right against her temple, warm and sweet, and his hands played over her feet and legs as if he couldn't stop touching her.
"I know you went to school," Kane said, his warm voice low and close. "Did they not teach this in basic anatomy? In all of my sectors, it is illegal for alphas to have sex with drones because it is impossible. An alpha will rip a drone apart every time."
Sasha shook her head. That couldn't be right. She had half-brothers and sisters who were drones. There was all kinds of mixing happening. Everyone did it.
He shook her gently. A lift of his knees. "Every fucking time, Sasha. Even a smaller, weaker alpha like your father, like Merrick. Humans cannot take breed.
"I know you have seen babies. You have siblings. An alpha doesn't need to knot to make a child. He can force an unknotted cock into a human vessel, but it is painful and damaging. He can give his seed, giving no pleasure.
"It helps to give a human shine. It loosens them up. It relaxes the pelvic floor and causes euphoria. Helps males too by loosening the bowels, the anus. But human men and women can't come when they are high on shine; it deadens the nerves.
"Prolonged use, coupled with multiple rounds of sex, can do permanent nerve damage. A human female who has been raped using shine will never vaginally deliver a baby. It must be a C-section. Basically, for a human to get pregnant from an alpha, the human has to be drugged and raped, or else the human loves blood and doesn't mind a bleeding pussy. It's like sex between a bull and a poodle—a win only for the bull. He gets off on a human pussy that's nice and tight like a breeder pussy."
