My Alpha Mate (Completed)

Excerpt from my New Book - The Last Red

Kayla's P.O.V.

We all have secrets.
Hateful thoughts about the block, what we did to survive,
who we are.

My parents were murdered because of theirs when I was only 9. They were both rogues living in the Wilderness of our undeveloped planet.

But I'm not a rogue anymore. Now, I'm an inmate of KTL Block.

"Khh!" my chip implant awakes me at once.
I try to jump up-bolt, but only manage to hit my elbows against my sleep pod - the space isn't large enough.

"Good morning inmates," a black screen above my head lights up as a loud voice is transmitted via in-wall block's speakers.
"It is day 7.295. Please be mindful of each other and respect the rules at all times," the same message echoes throughout our sleeping quarters every morning.
"I wish you all a productive day at work and - to those having their free day of the month - a wonderfully relaxing time. Don't forget, your hard work will give yourselves a better tomorrow."

The Artificial Intelligence software running the entire Block is called Omnia. It's a state-of-the-art program that controls all inmates and our robot guards.

"Ugh," I rub my stinging elbows. "Open recents, Om."

Immediately, the screen presents five options:
1 dispense hand sanitizer
2 open safety deposit box
3 lower pod to ground level
4 schedule a psychologist session
5 dispense purified oxygen mask

I tap the first two options, placing my hands below two little holes in the upper part of my capsule. Both are connected to the main control panel and serve to dispense either water or disinfectant.

Voices from other 250.000 sleep pods around me make for a horrific babble.

We all wake up at exactly the same time - a perk of having microchips under the skin of our wrists and necks.

Routinely, I rub the alcoholic liquid between my hands, then reach for the now opened safe on the right side of the pod.
Out of it, I take my brown contact lenses and insert them into my eyes. My parents gave them to me when I was only a baby. I've been using them ever since.

"The capsule will be dispatched to ground level in one minute," Omnia announces.

My capsule is stationed in the 55th row from the ground and 250th column of a sleeping cube accommodating 500 rows and 500 columns.

There's one million of us living in this confined edifice. It's where we work, eat, train, and sleep. Not much else happens in between.

I swiftly run fingers over my bald head to check the status of my scalp.
Smooth - I don't have to wear my wig today.

I grab the two remaining things from the box - an eyebrow dye and a plastic container containing my homemade skin-darkening lotion - and tuck them into my pockets.

"Ground level lowering commencing," Omnia says.

My pod stirs as it's lifted off its reinforcement rods and is then sent forward to outside of my cube - into the hollow barred space made for lifting and lowering capsules.

"What up, Kayla?" Kevin, my left neighbor yells from his pod. "Heard you last night again."

"Just another nightmare," I shout back as our capsules travel down. "Sorry 'bout that."

I keep dreaming of rogues that killed my parents while I still lived in the Wild. But when I awaken from the nightmare, it's only to come to another - my life.