Merricks Book - The 12 Sectors - Redeeming Her Alpha (authors rough cut)

Chapter 12

ZinnAn Alpha Commands

What had he said? You be still.

She couldn't move. Didn't want to. Had to stand there, as still and steady as stone, waiting for what he wanted next. A small voice in the back of her head, the one claiming an original thought now and then, screamed in horror.

In the tunnel, she'd sensed this. The gate between them, an insane desire to open it for him, awoke into the back of her skull and had made her hands twitch. But this. Oh, no. It was this. This was what the omegas feared, what they hated, what drove them to the cruelest of acts. He could make her.

She hadn't been able to fully understand it until now. Until her mind had taken choice and reason away, and her body had obeyed the alpha's command without her consent. He'd tried to command her in the tunnel and it didn't work. But this time- his words took away her will completely.

He'd said, "Be still." And now she couldn't move a muscle.

Zinn's new knowledge played havoc with all the conflicting fireside lessons she'd learned from the elders.

"Never let him purr," Bastete said to all the young women. "It's a lie that will deceive you."

"Never let him growl," her sister, Hetete, said. "It's the sound that will destroy you."

"Keep him silent so that he cannot control you," the elders all said.

Zinn thought their reasoning was twisted by fear and bad memories. But they didn't say those things only as a way to justify avoiding companionship. They said them from experience. The alphas ability to command, the alphas had done more than ravage the bodies of the village women. They had raped their minds.

Zinn had invited this male along with them. She'd bargained with him to help her and Petar get to a safe place. He'd agreed. But what had she agreed to? Had she agreed to let him do this? To do as he pleased?

Zinn wasn't able to move until they heard something heavy fall out of the trees. The alpha was hunting down Odessa and whoever she'd coaxed into rebelling against the first sister. Even if she escaped Mer, Odessa had signed her death warrant with her rebellion. Her mother would never ignore it.

Were they all dead? Had Mer just gone up to each of them, whispered "be still," and let them watch, frozen, while he slid a blade between their ribs?

Questioning her rash decision, Zinn looked around for an escape, a place to hide, somewhere.

"Petar, I think I made a mistake."

"What mistake?" Mer asked, approaching with a smooth, long-legged walk that belied the hot infection growing in one of his bare feet.

Draped over one shoulder, he carried clothing, a belt, a quiver of arrows, and Odessa's bow. A beta male had helped her craft it—a man who never hurt anybody. He'd been a great resource for making things. When Bastete found out some of her women were sneaking behind her back to share his blanket, she had someone use a knife on him. The elders declared him unacceptable and ordered him to be used as target practice for the bows and arrows he taught them all how to make.

"Not all men are bad," Mombie told her. There were other women, once, who agreed. Bastete and her friends silenced them all, one by one.

Zinn shook her head at Mer. "Did you rob the dead?"

"Of course. They don't need to keep warm. I don't know if you've noticed, Little Bit, but resources are hard to come by."

"You killed them? Can I have Odessa's bow?" Petar asked.

"No," Mer and Zinn answered at the same time.

The alpha was right; things like fabric were hard to come by, and leather, which the warren didn't waste on unacceptables, took time to properly make.

Putting the extra layer on, Petar's face went unreadable. Zinn didn't know if these lessons in survival would change him or not. She hoped not. She liked him as he was.

Reaching over, she smoothed the mop of hair off his face, letting her palm slide to the back of his neck. She took in his youthful heat and exchanged hers. Just for a moment. Just enough to connect with him. They both still lived.

"Odessa isn't the smartest fruit on the tree, you understand. And she wasn't thinking clearly. But she was a sirrah. I don't know who it was with her, but if they had bows..."

"Only this one was worth anything." Mer unstrung the bow he'd been carrying.

"Do you think there are more looking for us?" Petar pat Zinn's arm absently with one hand and Gem's head with the other.

"Where do you think others might hide?" Mer asked. He sat the bow down and opened his arms to take Gem back.

Petar shrugged, his eyes following Odessa's distinct bow.

Zinn's rival was dead then. It had really been her. Zinn thought she'd feel much more like celebrating the girl's death, but the knowledge left her sad and empty.

Looking up at the trees, she hoped there wouldn't be more sirrah hunting them, but like Petar, Zinn doubted Odessa's mother would let them go. Would she be out for revenge, knowing Mer had killed her daughter and those with her?

She didn't want to admit she had no idea where they might lay in wait. The unhelpful truth sounded contrary to her boast that she was good at finding places. She asked instead, "Where is this pack of yours? Could someone have found it? Why wasn't it with the baby?"

The alpha grumbled an answer that Zinn didn't quite hear. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said it's in a tree."

"Why is it in a tree?" Petar asked what Zinn wanted to know.

"Because there's honeycomb in it."

"Really?" Zinn watched Petar's face light up with pure, boyish desire. His eyebrows climbed so high, she smiled.

The alpha caught the smile, Zinn saw, his own lips tilting at one side. "Really. And my girl knew there was honey in it." He cocked his head at Zinn. "You know. This would go faster if you two club-foots stayed here and I go find my damned gear myself. From the goat pit, I'll know where I am from my camp."

"I can't find what I never lost," Zinn told him.

Mer looked down at the head of the still asleep baby in his arms. "Fine, then. Keep up. Be quiet." Zinn watched him settle the baby at the small of his back. Having handed everything off to her and Petar, one blade remained in his hand. "Count to five and then follow me."

He didn't put the force of his will behind it as he had before, so she followed him as soon as Petar was ready. With a direction to go in now, Mer covered the landscape without hesitation. Gem was just a large hump on his back. As agile as a cave crab, he covered ground quickly.

She didn't know how he was ignoring his bare feet. Every step must be painful. Yet he tuned out the pain to the point where Zinn and Petar had trouble keeping up.

Mostly Zinn.

Lacking the older alpha's grace, Petar leapt ahead of her in an awkward imitation of Mer's gate. He ran, jumped, and scuttled over rocks and off of tree trunks.

Feeling stupid and ungainly, Zinn followed after them. It had been years since she'd put her body through so much activity. Her limbs responded sluggishly, missing the secure handholds and instead discovering cracking branches and thorn-wrapped rocks. Then she stepped into a vat of fallen, moss-covered limbs and sank to her waist.

By the time she climbed out, Petar was out of sight, only his scent to follow.