Page 6 of Alpha Hunger

“Well, yes, but I thought…” She swats at me as she would an annoying fly. “Never mind what I thought.” She scrolls up, and her name graces the screen, her list nicely uploaded and glaring red. “It says here I’m late.”

“You are.”

“But I came on time and had a tour, which is not on the list. Then you sent me to the bathroom.”

“You’re behind, and you are a wasting species.”

Anna leaps from her chair and strides across the room, heading for the laundry department at the ground level of the Stronghold’s complex.

“Fuck me and the damn shoes,” she mutters.

“My hearing is excellent.”

Red colors her face and neck, patches of it showing on her chest. When Anna blushes, she displays the cute way her dynamic responds to mine.Omega, who sent you to me?I intend to find out, and when I do, I will honor the name that humans have given me.

Chapter 3

Anna

My boss must wonder if his Human Resources department made a mistake. I’m definitely wondering the same thing. A suggestion to take up a corner in the room and get blankets tells me he scented my dynamic and the stupid pills are shit. The corner and blanket thing speak of Omega nesting, and it bothers me he mentioned it. Explaining why I feel he’s discriminating against my dynamic and how viewing us as breeders is wrong is in order. But first, I’d like to prove to him that I can and will work better than any PA he’s ever had.

Downstairs in the courtyard, I move faster, practically running in my heels. On my right, Horde males on hounds circle the space gate monstrosity in the center of the Stronghold complex. The shimmering ten-foot translucent door is a bit difficult to see, but you can tell that something disturbs the air.

I avoid the space gate perimeter as if it’s the gates of Hell and click my annoying heels past one of the Horde males, who pays me no mind. His hound, however, snaps his head my way and rattles off a sound that makes me want to crawl into my nest and hide.

I keep walking. The prince’s PA isn’t supposed to be on the menu for those awful dragon dogs. Clicking claw noises follow me. I walk faster, gaze on the glowing sign that readsLAUNDRY ROOM. The com unit in my ear beeps.

“Stop,” the prince barks.

I freeze.

“Do not run.”

I turn on my heel and look up, trying to see where he is in the office. But I don’t have the time to search the many windows that could be the office, mainly because there’s a riderless hound running toward me. Terrified, I will my feet to backpedal. The hound’s claws screech across the ground right before he halts in front of me, then snaps his head back. He snarls at the Horde male walking by.

The hound’s wet nose touches my hand. His gurgling rattlesnake breathing sounds increase as he sniffs me, his nose near my belly. He sniffs between my legs. I can’t shoo it away. I barely have the courage to keep my eyes open. “Don’t let him eat me,” I whisper into the com unit. “I’m a good PA. I’ll meet all the deadlines. I will do anything you ask.”

The prince chuckles. “I know you will.”

The hound circles me, shakes his head, snarls, and sniffs some more.

“Lord, have mercy.” I cross myself.

“Funny you humans keep calling on your Lord when you believe he sent you the Hordesmen.”

“They’re Horsemen.”

“Same difference, I hear.”

The hound sits in front of me, intelligent black eyes looking up at me as if expecting something.

“What’s it doing?” I ask.

“It is a she.”

My gaze drops between her legs. Sheisa girl, and about five feet tall standing, bulky, with a dragon snout but a doglike set of double ears that stand erect, twisting as she listens. Her black eyes are like the prince’s. Like looking into the depths of hell, if you ask me. But nobody asked me. Why, oh why, did I come here? Because I didn’t have a choice. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

One of the males guarding the space gate dismounts his hound and jogs off. Now his hound joins the she-beast already here. For God’s sakes, I was just gonna get the fucking laundry. He is not paying me enough. “I want a raise,” I whisper.

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