Page 202 of Ruled By The Alpha

“I wanted to give you a show,” I said. “All those times, I thought it was a dream. Were they my fantasies, or yours?”

“No.” His hand slashed through the air, and with it came such powerful fury that I smiled. “You, omega, fuck for me.” Hejabbed his chest and spittle flew from his mouth. “At my behest, not because you seek to flex your rediscovered power.”

My heart sang at his admission. “My power? You mean this?” I snapped my fingers and the statues froze. “Are you so afraid of a weak, pathetic omega?”

The muscles in his jaw ticked. His face was far more compelling than I wanted it to be. His jaw led to a chin with a cleft in it, which sat below lips as full as any omega could desire. As I watched, his lips twisted into a snarl. I dragged my gaze up along the ridge of his nose until I found myself looking into the all-white eyes of the man who had been my creator and my destroyer.

“Never would I claim that,” he answered me. “Fear, or the belief you are pathetic. You and your kind were made to be the world’s whores, but that does not make you less.” He trailed off. “And—”

“And what?“

“What was done to you by the betas who broke their oaths… They shall be brought low, wiped from existence for preventing the Mother and her creatures from their holy task.”

“Is that what you and my brother were talking about?” I asked. “Yes, I know Quintus is my brother.”

“Damn him. He was always a sentimental fool.”

“Tell me everything.”

I never expected Magnus to give me the truth, but when he began to speak, I could not detect a lie. That was not to say I believed him; rather, I knew he believed what he said.

“The world grew too big, too populated, to control,” he began. “But you and your kind refused to allow us to break and remake it again. Oh, Tenora, I regret most of all that you do not remember the argument. You were always willful, but that night, you couldn’t have been fiercer in your defense of creation.”

“What then?”

“A treaty with the humans, who called themselves betas that they might see something of their gods in themselves. We would leave. Alphas would return to the infinite blackness of chaos.”

“And omegas would be hostages to their whims.” My voice was as bitter as lemons to taste, and as sharp as if he’d squeezed their juice into a wound.

“No.” His bark reverberated through the hall, cracking the marble and causing the stone monsters to tremble in fear. “You were to help create life. Betas reproduce slowly. Their quickening takes nearly two years, and they can only deliver one child at a time.”

“I know that.”

“Then you must also know an omega can produce any number.”

“Make yourself plain.”

“We—you and I, and the other mated alphas and omegas,—had populated the world. Why else would you resist their deaths? Your children and grandchildren would be slaughtered.”

His words whirled in my mind. It was like one of those puzzles that did not form a coherent image until you relaxed your eyes and gave up making sense of what you saw, thus allowing the picture to manifest. He was right. It was the choice I would make, then, now, and forever.

“Why were you so angry and cruel then?”

“Cruel? You were the one who led the rebellion against the bonds. You were the one who severed ties and removed any chance for our wounds to heal.”

“You are healing now,” I argued.

“Because you are near.”

“And your proximity hurts me.” Oh, how it hurt, physically and mentally. “When you were a dream, I understood you better. I could ascribe motives and emotions to you that I now know to be false.”

“You know I have always loved you.”

“Prove it to me,” I snapped, unable to ignore his taunting words, for I wanted him more than I could understand.

“My pleasure. But first, you must kneel.”

My body moved against my will. “I resent this.”

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