She’d walked halfway down the hall toward him before she realized it. All the while, he held steady, watching her, nostrils flaring and eyes burning, but doing nothing else. Three stripes of scars down the side of his flushed face flared white.
What was she doing? What on Earth was she thinking? Phee stopped herself at her door, dragged her gaze away, and took shelter in her room.
#
She resolved not to leave her room until all the guests had left. Yes, she was hiding. But she had a headache. Everyone would understand.
Unfortunately, no one understood. Her Mother sent Oncca to ask when she would be down. Phee went to the late supper, but did not put on her entertaining smile and instead hugged the wall, waiting for a chance to talk to Naya alone.
The guards did not eat with the mated couple or sit at the table like guests. Phee found herself searching for the man from the hallway. She couldn’t help herself.
Had he always lived in Sector 2? She knew very little about it beyond its bad reputation.
A few years ago, when Rhineholth had still been king, she’d read that the Administration Council had voted to deny the entire sector the shared rights to transportation and multi-sector business. The other eleven Administrators had agreed not to buy, sell, or cross into Sector 2. Which meant Naya lived in a place lacking basic necessities.
Naya’s mate and all the men that came with her were different. Their eyes more watchful, their muscles more defined, they looked like the lived on the edge of killing each other. They burned with intensity, with “more.”
How could Naya stand being surrounded by such men all the time? How could she endure living without common comforts like the power to turn on a lamp or some of her favorite foods? Wasn’t she miserable?
With Naya’s mate sticking close to her side, Phee didn’t get a chance to ask. Uncomfortable and uncertain she excused herself when she could.
Mother glared daggers as Phee walked by, but Phee pretended not to see her sitting in her chair with Onnca standing just behind. After everything, Mother still didn’t understand why Phee kept trying to escape the company.
Focused on her own family, Phee didn’t see the detach from the shadowed corner of the room on her right until she passed him, his focus raising the hair on the back of her neck. She’d chosen to take the servants stairs in hopes of avoiding any more people, and the male followed her right to the bottom.
Squaring her shoulders, she turned to give him the dress down his ill-placed attention deserved. She’d done nothing outwardly to ask for this–and it was her own home. He was rude. They were Sector 2 males, rough in every way, and might not know any better. But that wasn’t going to stop Phee. “I beg your pardon, do you need something?”
“Yes,” he said. His voice was smooth, dark, melting temptation and traveled right down her spine. Phee didn’t know his name or anything about him. Scarred face, too-long hair, and wide shoulders, rugged clothing, he lacked every refinement of other men she knew.
Phee ignored the tingle in her back, clenching her fists and steadying herself. She was not a giggly girl. She did not feel flutters or humms in her belly. “Well, I am not the one you need to speak to. My mother can address any of your concerns.”
“Oh, this concerns only you. You are Naya’s sister?”
He was very tall. Taking one step closer, Phee had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. Trying for prim and irritated, she said, “I don’t matter to you. Not a bit. You should not even be speaking to me.”
“Not speak to you? Let you hide, you mean?” The question was a challenge, as if he could even begin to understand who she was or what she was doing. There was the faintest curl at the corner of his lips, pulled up by the scars.
“Who are you? What on earth do you want?” She asked, her voice pitching high. The sound surprised her. The damn awkward flutter in her middle shocked her. This male unsettled her, and she didn’t know what to do
“Let me introduce myself. I am Alreck. Your alpha.”
Phee attempted to gasp in outrage at the presumption. After all, how dare he? Instead she sputtered helplessly as the curl of his lips broke into a broad smile.
“Can’t speak you are so overwhelmed? Well, that’s good, little omega.” He leaned forward, too close, bracing a hand behind her on the banister as he looked down on her.
Phee should do a hundred things to let him know how improper he was being but all she could do was just stand there and stare, captivated.
“You are gonna listen. I want you to prepare yourself. You need to get your head around this idea. Because sometime soon your legs will be wrapped tight around my waist, my name will be on your lips, and I will be wearing your bond mark on my neck as I fuck you so hard you don’t know anything else other than my cock shoved up deep inside that hot little pussy of yours and my knot making you cry. I am going to fuck you sore, fuck you till you lose your voice, fuck you till you can’t walk, fuck you until every cell in your sweet body recognizes me as alpha and never wants to leave my presence.”
Her mouth opened and closed in a gasp. She had no response for him-never in her life had anyone talked to Phee like that. And never would she thought she could like it. The words skated over her skin into nerve endings with an electric thrill. Her forward-thinking mind tried to push them out with, but her body resisted with startling conviction. Too much saliva in her mouth and an outrageous, red heat poured over her cheeks, the back of her neck and to her chest, all the way down to her peaking nipples.
Blocked from escape, he trapped her in the mad heat of his desire. His want rolled off him like the red-hot burn of an oven, scalding her poise with her own elemental responses. What was wrong with her? She managed to push out a strangled, “You, dare!”
“Baby, I dare anything. A male doesn’t get chances like this. Like you. And time is limited. You bet I fucking dare. Don’t care if your too fine for me. Don’t care if your too high to reach. You look like mine and you smell like mine, so I am going to make it so.”
She wanted to push him back, way back, put him in his place. But the words were locked down under her pounding heartbeat and the new perspiration beading on her brow. Her hands clenched, afraid to touch him, touch any part of him. This stranger, he needed to know that she wasn’t available. That she was worthless. That she had reported a clinic and her name was spread all over the news tickers as a barren, useless female who would never give an alpha a child. That would send him running.
A voice behind them called out soft, “Miss, I have your bath ready and a bite to eat if you like, just waiting for you.”
