"And who is to be awake at this hour but breeder girls with crazy plans? What are you telling me? You are running away, alone? Going to another sector? Why?”
"Maura told me she and Merrick have a plan. I think they have bribed an official. He will force me to marry him. I can’t let that happen. I have to find a stronger alpha, someone Merrick can’t bribe or defeat. I don’t know anyone like that here and I don’t think it’s safe to wait for the Selection."
"Sounds like all you’re going to find is some trouble. That’s what it sounds like. Go to market and then run away? You can't go alone. You know that, right? That Merrick and the rest of them are slime, but you are known here. Protected. What if some stranger gets the sight and smell of you? You'll be raped in the street, that you will."
He heaved himself up with a creaking of bones and Sasha reached out again to touch him, knowing it must hurt.
"I don't smell like a breeder yet, Silas. It'll be fine. I'll wear Lanny's clothes. No one will pay attention to me. But I don't know where I'm going. I need a map or a guide."
"There are maps at the public transport stops, unless all that's changed in ten years, which I doubt."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes. Really."
"And can I cross sectors?"
"As far as I know, there will be street checkpoints. How are you going to cross a street checkpoint? They will want your number."
Sasha hung her head. Silas eyed her, challenging her grand plan. "I'll look like a drone. Just stay with the daily work herd. Not all drones have numbers, and breed guards don't pay as close attention."
"It takes one, girl. One to notice you. Then he'll look up your number, contact Merrick, or keep you for himself. There are all kinds of things you don't want happening."
"But the law!"
"Shit law. You just said Merrick and your mother have found a way around the breeder law. Do you think they are the only ones? Think, child. It's in the nature of males to challenge laws, especially if something sweet is dangled right before their eyes.
"Which is where I am right now."
He made his old man hacking noise and spat in response to her mention of Merrick.
Sasha drew a circle on the cold floor, puzzling out the issue of crossing checkpoints. Silas was right; it would only take one.
"Where you going, anyway? I think we should go now to the Administration for the Selection. That’s what we should do. I’ll take you there. They'll fight for the right to a girl like you, missy. Just see if they don't line up to shed blood to get into your nest."
Silas had protected her in the past but been reduced to a puddle of fear when he was hit so hard with tremors from breed pheromones that he could barely crawl out of a room. Now he spoke about her like he could understand what she was, what it meant to be an omega.
He had no clue.
How could he? Even Sasha didn’t know. "I don't think anyone in Sector 10 is strong enough to take on Merrick. He might be young, but you have seen how he fights. And, anyone of them could already be in on this plan he has with Maura. They could just report back."
"Fights dirty, that one."
"I need an honorable male. One who can beat him. I heard him talking. He has an enemy—someone named Alpha Warlord Constantine Kane. He must be strong, to have a name like that. Have you heard that name?"
Silas whistled. "Your father, girl. You know that male was your father's enemy too."
"Do you know why?"
"They always talk about him getting in the way. That he has too much power, needs to be taken down a peg. I think your father may have had some run ins with that Kane during his soldier days."
"But my father didn't take him down, and Merrick's friends say he can't be beat. Do you know where he is?"
"I think Sector 7. I bet if you get there, you could ask some drones. Some of your breed alphas have lived five drone lifetimes. If he’s been around for a while, someone will know."
"How far is Sector 7?"
"Girl, I don't like this. It's not safe. Not safe at all."
