Her Broken Alpha - Isoellen Page 0,4

something Naya's younger brother did, while another friend of her father encouraged him to do it again. Naya's mother looked on with a frown.

Naya kept putting food in her mouth to keep from having to talk.

Finally, Phee did something useful and saved her from them all by asking to see her bonding day dress.

"A dress? You aren't going to present yourself like our Queen?" her baby brother teased.

Under normal circumstances, Naya would have smacked the young alpha upside his head. But with so many other alphas present, she didn't dare. She turned so they couldn't see her embarrassment, letting her older sister do the smacking.

Naya felt the weight of the males’ eyes on her body, following her progress. Her father had been bringing home unmated friends for the last several weeks. While he had done his duty in helping to prepare the marriage contract, toasting them both at the pre-signing, he wore a constant glower whenever he looked at she and Crispin together.

Crispin's kindness to her when she was younger had always kept him at the forefront of her mind as the perfect kind of alpha to spend her life with. She'd fixated on him early and had told her mother, who’d told her father her choice.

But as the time drew near for her formalize that choice, she noticed more and more alphas sitting with her at the dinner table. They would lean into her space to pass a serving dish and offer food from their own plates. These were subtle, uncomfortable attempts at courtship.

The men he brought home were all older and established, close to his own age. A union with one of them would benefit her father. And something in their eyes made Naya shiver with fear.

Until her heat, until the formal contract was signed at the bonding day ceremony, Naya could change her mind about Crispin. If she didn't bite Crispin and create their bond with her blessing, she knew Father was ready and willing to get her out of any contract marriage and into one that better suited him.

Compared to the other offerings her father had presented, Crispin was the best choice for a mate she could make. She was certain of it.

Naya opened the door to her sleeping room, holding it wide for Phee to walk in ahead of her. "There are more people at the table tonight than there were for me. Administrator Asesino attended no family meals when I lived here."

"I think Father likes your choice of mate better than mine," Naya confessed, watching Phee for her reaction.

Phee picked up a stuffy from Naya’s bed, a fat bear Naya’s older brother had gifted her, now dressed in a shirt saturated with Crispin’s scent. Naya watched Phee handle and sniff at it before setting it back down in the wrong place.

Since Phee already sounded petulant, Naya didn't bother to tell her the Administrator had come to dinner four times already in the last week.

At least Crispin was there tonight. Naya could breathe a little easier when his sunshine smell was in the room.

Phee went over to the speaker phone on the wall and pressed the button to activate it. "Send an after-dinner tray, please," she said into the grated mouthpiece.

"Well, little sister." Phee's gaze drifted over the room again. "Soon you will have a husband and your own home. Bride-mate of Crispin Spear. What do you think of yourself? Crispin seems a placid sort, nothing like that prowling father of his. He might wait a few years, after your first son maybe, to take up with a beta mistress."

"He wouldn't do that," Naya said. "We are going to bond."

Phee's eyes went wide. "A bond?"

Naya nodded. She didn't know when; Crispin had agreed to wait until it felt natural. But Naya wanted a full bond, making their marriage permanent and irrevocable.

"Then it will be all the more painful for you when he does, won't it? They all cheat—it's an alpha status thing. They must have dozens of women falling at their feet to feel manly. And those beta females lap up the chance. Crispin is sweet and pretty. Don't doubt that they will be after him or that he will succumb."

Phee's face scrunched in a mask of disgust. She must have been speaking from experience.

Naya felt the fullness of her regard, a heated glance before Phee turned her eyes away again. "There are ten beta women to one of you, always ready for alpha attention,” her sister said. “Even a civilized alpha like the one