Her Broken Alpha - Isoellen Page 0,2

For an alpha, his demeanor was far from intimidating—he was pleasant to look upon, even though he was a foot taller than herself.

The man next to him was only a half-inch taller than his son. He had the same color hair clipped tidily at his neck, and the same nose. His brow was heavier than Crispin's, his cheeks fuller, and the lines between his eyebrows and bracketing his mouth ran deeper than the younger man’s.

Naya waited for the men to speak first.

"Naya. Mistress," Crispin greeted them.

His presence reminded her how much she liked him. Crispin was calm and good. Everything would work out. Nature would take its course. All would be fine.

Naya watched her mother from the corner of her eye and stood in tandem with her.

“Crispin, Corre, welcome to our home,” Mother said. “I'm sure you know that my alpha is at his tasks. But you are welcome here, of course. Would you like to sit?”

With a practiced, genteel elegance, Naya's mother gestured toward a nearby couch, glancing at a servant waiting behind the two visitors. With just that look, she commanded them to take the gentlemen's coats and sent them off for food and drink.

After the men made themselves comfortable, she and her mother followed suit. Mother took up her needlepoint, but Naya stayed still, hands knotted in her lap.

Crispin had chosen the seat next to her. She could smell his warm, outdoorsy scent—like sunshine on the grass. She found the smell very pleasant. He was pleasant.

Naya had met Crispin when she was just sixteen while he was on leave from his Administration Army duties. All alphas, with their aggressive tendencies and well-documented issues with self-control, had to serve thirty years in the military. Given their lifespan was double that of beta breeds or drone humans, the requirement for alphas to practice managing instinctive impulses while in service protecting the 12 Sectors benefited society as a whole and cost them little besides their time.

Crispin was much older than Naya, but most of his peers still considered him young and immature, and incredibly lucky to have snagged the attention of an omega breeder from Sector Five.

After revealing her willingness to consider him as her mate, Crispin told her it was the first time his father had ever admitted being proud of him.

Looking up from her hands, Naya only half-listened to her mother's conversation with Corre. Mother shared news of who’d accepted invitations to the final bonding ceremony. The impressive list of acquaintances, business associates, friends, and family had grown so long they would have to use the grand hall in her father's Scribe House to accommodate them all.

Instead of watching Naya's mother as she spoke, Crispin's father watched her. His eyes traveled over her, lifting from the neckline of her wrap dress to her mouth, then her eyes in a way that made her look at Crispin to see if he saw.

He did not, attentive instead to the human drones entering the room with food.

Naya didn't know if Alpha Corre found her wanting or if the tightening of his brow when he observed her meant something else. He was her father's Second at the sector Scribe House. While he’d met with Father in their home for business many times before, she rarely encountered him. He conferenced on the second floor of the house in the rooms her father had claimed for his own. None of the family spent time on that floor. It was an alpha-only domain.

She had dipped her head to him in acknowledgment in the hallways and at community dinners her mother required her to attend, but they hadn't interacted otherwise.

After they’d mated and married, Crispin would move Naya into their own home while he took a job at the Scribe House in Sector 8. Once they were away from both their fathers, he would work his way up to becoming a Master. At home, Naya would set up their home and establish her position in their new neighborhood. They would have their own lives.

"That would be wonderful, don't you think, dear one?" Mother asked, catching Naya's attention.

She glanced back and forth between her mother and Crispin, who was lifting a berry pastry to his mouth.

Making a rough sound at the back of her throat that showed her displeasure at Naya's drifting, her Mother repeated, "That would be wonderful if Alpha Corre and Crispin stay here at the house while you get ready for the mating. That way Crispin will be available at all times, and Corre