Page 200 of Ruled By The Alpha

“Tell me everything—why the alphas left, why my dreams stopped five years ago and have only started up again now, and why the world believes we are diseased.”

“I cannot give you all the answers. The Veil opened unexpectedly twenty-two years ago on the Blood Moon.” She gave me a significant look. During my birth, the Veil—though I did not yet know what that was—had opened. “Then Quintus arrived from nowhere five years ago, and it closed again. I do not know why it is beginning to tear.”

“And why did the alphas leave?”

“Omegas and Alphas are the physical manifestations of the Mother and Father, sent by the gods to take on the pain of the world. But ten generations ago, the betas rebelled and burnt down our shrines and our holy places. They said the alphas were too cruel, that mercy would be better than the rod. The alphasagreed to a treaty: omegas would continue to heal and care for the betas, so long as the alphas returned whence they came. You can imagine how little they liked that.”

“The betas learnt cruelty from the alphas six hundred years ago?”

“Alphas are not cruel,” Yuna corrected me. “They are… our other halves. We heal their torment. They protect us from the world.”

“Magnus had scars, wounds that would not heal.”

“Because he has been away from you. Quintus has Kota. Even just being in the same room can heal and give comfort.”

“In my dream, I declared war against the alphas, but I will give clemency to Quintus for Kota’s sake.”

“War?” She gave a bitter laugh. “Child, you have been waging war since you first breathed. Since your first lifetime. But war against the alphas? With the way betas see us? You will lose.”

“No. I will be prepared. I will ensure that we are given freedom.”

“There is freedom in submission, Tenora.”

“How would you know?”

“I remember my mate.”

Her words were so simple. She remembered her mate, her alpha. My heart wept. Her alpha had abandoned her like mine had left me.

“I am older than I look,” she continued. “Ancient, even. It has been seven hundred years since I was last born.”

“You should hate your mate.”

“How can I hate him when he gave me you?”

“You’re my mother?” What she implied was impossible. We looked nothing alike. Perhaps we both had white hair, but hers had lightened with age. “I look nothing like you.”

“You are the mirror image of your father.” Her sad smile faded almost as quickly as it had appeared. “But do not start—”

Her warning was cut short when the door slammed open. Quintus stood in the doorway, looking at me as if he was seeing a specter from the afterlife. A long-lost…

“Sister,” he breathed as if he’d not seen me for centuries, rather than days. And if all I had learnt in the last hours was true, his reasons for being so deferential to the madam made sense.

Years of trauma had given me deep reserves of resilience and a knack for keeping any expression from my face.

“Tenora.” He stepped into the room, reaching a hand into the space between us.

I looked at the madam and saw a hopeful sadness fill her face, as if she wanted me to embrace the man in front of me, but feared I would reject him—and her.

“You were in my dream,” I said, ignoring the connection he was trying to make. “You ordered me to suck his cock.”

“You’re not my blood-sister,” he said. “We are of the same generation… I did not mean to disconcert you. Magnus wanted a status appraisal… I never thought to see you there.” He blinked. “And I was not fucking him. We were just talking, and we fell asleep because it takes all of our power to meet like that.”

“I did not think you would betray Kota,” I said.

“But Magnus?”

“He is my enemy.”

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