Her Broken Alpha - Isoellen Page 0,11

satisfying crash of noise.

He checked the news updates on his data pad for the third time. Maybe he hadn't read it right. Maybe he’d just imagined it. Lately his reality existed in pieces; days came and went, and he didn’t remember them.

"All on a bright sunny day," he murmured. The nonsensical children's rhyme slipped from his lips as he looked at the words moving across the screen and the flickering photos of his father and brother.

"Constantine Kane to challenge Rhineholth—King expected to concede. Long live King Constantine Kane, Alpha of Alphas. Who will be the next High Alpha of the 12 Sectors?"

Rhineholth was stepping down.

Today was a day of sunshine and memories, a few more puzzle pieces of his revenge slipping and sliding into place. Revenge long denied. His time was coming.

His need for it was eating away at his soul. It took bits of his brain every day.

But Rhineholth was stepping down. His oldest, most perfect, can-do-no-wrong son was taking his place. Like pieces in a game, the board was being reset, making way for the defeat and destruction of them all.

The change created transition, and that was a good time to sow chaos. Apply force at just the right time, and all the progress those pompous assholes were trying to make would stop.

It was a fantastic time to begin enacting the final stages of his revenge and crush his father's dream.

Darre had spent enough time in the Un to know the true nature of alphas. They just needed a little reminder, a little temptation, the sense that a rival was denying them something they deserved. The scent of blood in the air.

He'd gathered a sector full of men who’d been denied all kinds of things by the illustrious Alpha Administration on a daily basis. Within his own Sector were broken men like himself—betrayed, disenchanted men who had no female. They were a veritable mob of hostility and hate, ready to take by force what others held in complacency.

Dear old Father was retiring. The thought mixed with the refrain of the stupid childhood song. "The king is retiring, retiring, retiring, all on a hot sunny day."

And Darre’s self-righteous prick of a brother would take his place. Since no one had come close to beating the honorable Constantine Kane in combat in the last twenty years, the man had no clear successor to take his place as Sector Administrator. There was an empty place on the game board.

Kane had helped Darre by weakening the other pawns in the game. He'd removed their brother Ebbon from Sector 10 and charged him with Administration law violations, all laws Darre made sure were broken daily in his own territory. Busy doing good, Kane personally led the cleanup of the mess of slave plantations and drug manufacturers in that sector instead of appointing someone else to it.

Which meant by default the 12 United Sectors had fewer administrative alphas allied with the King’s Rule. If Darre persuaded his other brother Sebastian Maxis to agree with him about the breed registry, then Kane would only have nine sectors under his thumb. This was the strongest position Darre could hope for.

He would wait no longer.

There was a knock at his door.

"Yes?"

Tenbel’s pinched face and bald head inched around the partially open door. He was an average beta male in every conceivable way.

Shading his eyes when the unfiltered light hit them, he minced forward in awkward, wary steps. Dressed in the mockery of formal Administrator robes and a scribe's collar that he called his “priestly vestments,” the man looked a cross between a beetle and vulture.

Darre had employed the fool months ago, hoping the man would spread a little chaotic cheer. So far, all Darre earned for his credits was the high priest's avaricious collection of beta followers and drone slaves. Tenbel was settling in like a common slumlord.

"Well, hello, Lord Alpha. The sun is bright, yes? I can't remember the last time we had such a clear sky. Not a cloud in sight. How are you? You've called, and here I am. Perfect timing too. I have a special gift for you! Oh yes, Lord Alpha, I do. But first, what can I do for you? Why have you called me?"

Darre eyed the other man. He hated wasted words. They pinged his idiot monitor like nothing else. Tenbel would not be here if Darre hadn't wanted to see him. Why was it necessary to repeat what they both already knew?

"Lord Alpha, how are you? Bright in here,