Page 199 of Ruled By The Alpha

“Could you feel pleasure in the dreams? The ones before?”

“I do not know.”

My answer seemed inadequate. He was asking about physical pleasure. I wanted to tell him of the joy I felt upon submitting to him, and that my pleasure ran deeper than my body, straight to my soul. Even after the depth of his betrayal, I could not forget what he had meant to me for all those years.

“It was not meant to be like this. When we agreed to the treaty with the betas, we were to leave and you would stay, mothers to the Earth and its children.” The master caressed my face. I shied away from the touch, so gentle compared to the hard set of his jaw. So gentle compared to violence when he spoke. “They have broken the treaty, and they will pay. The alphas, the beginning, the fathers of the world, shall return and burn those who dared to deny the mothers’ pleasure.”

The fingers that had pierced my most private part returned to my body, tracing along the soft swell of my stomach and between my folds. He found small nub at the apex of my sex and began to play with it.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Giving you pleasure.” He rolled my clit between his fingers, pinching slightly.

“Why?” I gasped. My sex tingled and pulsed, though I struggled to understand to these new sensations.

“Because, you whore, you were meant to be pleasured.”

“Even if you return, I won’t forgive you,” I said. Why was I angry at him, the man who had vowed revenge against those who had hurt me and my kind? The devastation I’d felt, knowing that he and the alphas had left us, had been great, but now I was consumed by anger—anger at having realized that the fathers were weak, pathetic, and unworthy of being our mates.

“Forna was right,” I told him. “A true master holds their possessions dear and knows they are priceless. You are not a true master. I reject you. On behalf of all the omegas and the mothers, I reject you and yours. The alphas are not our masters any longer. We are our own mistresses, our own power.”

My voice wasn’t mine; it belonged to someone greater, someone vengeful. Yet the spirit that filled my heart and mind claimed me for itself. I was now the mistress. I would heal the omegas. I would deliver justice for my brothers and sisters.

I did not need to move. I did not need to make my body powerful. Any pain he could inflict upon me would heal. No, it was not my body that could be broken, or that he would want to claim. It was my soul, the thing that made me stronger than any alpha.

“I am your master!” Magnus snarled. “I am your alpha through every lifetime, through every pass of the sun and the moon. I am your perfect other half. Tenora, you and I are true mates. Do not deny me. I will not be forgiving.”

“There is no lifetime but this, Magnus. I do not remember others, and I do not give them credence. I will leave you. Come and find me, if you dare. I will be waiting.”

His face closed off in deep thought, and then a cruel smile stretched across his face. “Run. Run, omega, and I will come and find you. And when I take your heat, you and I will create a world both beautiful and new.”

Chapter 4

I woke with a gasp. I was in my sleeping room, but not as I remembered it. Neither Magnus nor the governor were there, just me and the poor girl whose hands I had amputated.

Though my head was spinning and my hands shook with fear, I crawled to her side and checked her progress. Unwrapping the blood-soaked bandages, I saw her hands had regrown into the plaster-cast box we had placed the stubs of her arms in, but the skin was raw and pink.

I applied a salve made with her blood and closed the box up again. Soon her hands would need to be exposed to air so that they could heal properly, but for now, preventing infection and ensuring the bones hardened was more important.

I sat back and thought about what Magnus had said. We were not meant to have been sewed up. I reached between my legs to touch the soft skin. But my hymen was gone. My fingers slide into my still wet cunt. I removed them, my hand shaking. I sucked them into my mouth, the taste unfamiliar but not unpleasant, for I feared that someone would scent my arousal if I wiped them on my clothes. I knew the boy omegas were treated the same, their wombs sealed off with a surgery I did not want to think about. There was much to consider now, and the governor, Quintus, would provide information, especially if I used Kota as leverage. No alpha would risk their omega, and now I knew they were linked through more than just Kota’s coy smiles.

The brothel was quiet as I walked through the dark servants’ corridors. The madam had closed us for the night under Quintus’ protection so that we could better protect the abusedgirl. I knew I could find her in the cramped, scroll-filled room where she liked to smoke her crystal pipe.

“Madam,” I said.

“Tenora! Is…”

“She is fine. Healing well. We will need to give her a strong name when she wakes.” My tone was more curt than usual. My mind spun at the thought that perhaps the madam knew more than she let on. “I need to have a meeting with Alpha Quintus.”

She gasped, her long pipe slipping from her fingers and clattering to the floor. She bent quickly to prevent sparks from touching her scrolls. Still crouched on the ground, she stared up at me, eyes wide. “How do you know that name?”

“I dream. I dream with Magnus. I saw Quintus tonight.”

“Mother and Father.” Her voice was reverent, as if she had seen a vision from the gods. “So it is happening.”

“What is happening, Yuna?” I asked, using her name for the very first time.

“I do not know where to begin,” she answered.

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