Alpha Lost

Family

"Kneel," Christoph's command echoed through the large warehouse.

Again, though Selah could tell that he meant the command to make her obedient, she felt the pull of the order roll right off her shoulders. Normal Alphas in polite society didn't use that commanding tone of voice on anyone except their own mates or family members. She'd known from her Omega studies that once she was mated, the Alpha command from others wouldn't work on her, but she'd never experienced it. Christoph had definitely never had the same studies that everyone had about each of the dynamics.

Not having to fake her reluctance, she held her tongue and let herself sink to her knees. Years of performing this same motion for Malcolm allowed her to do it gracefully although the thought of never kneeling for her Alpha again made her eyes well up, she blinked them away. She'd kneel at Malcolm's feet again. She'd make sure of it.

"See," he drawled lifting a hand to her hair and brushing it through her blond locks, "Omegas were meant to kneel for an Alpha. This idea of equality and Omega rights is unnatural. Before the government and the Omega Security Force," he said with a sneer, "compelled Alphas into giving up their divine authority over the lesser dynamics, Alphas held the power of Omegas given to them by the gods."

Selah worked hard to keep her expression blank as the hard concrete of the warehouse floor made her knees ache. The cold was seeping into her bones, but that was nothing compared to the ice filling her soul from Christoph's words. She tried to keep her gaze blank as if she were under his aura of command while her mind raced with possibilities. Ashlyn had gone silent behind her. Selah didn't know if she had passed out or if she were just trying to remain out of his way by not drawing attention to herself.

"My mother understood her place. According to my father, he had to re-educate her, but when she was once again acting like a natural Omega, he knew it was his destiny to bring all the Alphas back to their true glory. Father used to say that the OSF was a disease poisoning the minds of Alphas to accept a life of mediocrity, so he started trying to reprogram their mates to show them their natural place. Father let me watch. He'd make them kneel for me to show me how obedient they could be with the proper training. I wasn't strong enough to swing the whip, but he told me that when I presented as an Alpha that he'd let me help him."

Christoph started to circle Selah. When he was behind her, she had to fight the overwhelming desire to turn and keep him in her sights. She felt his presence behind her like a cold wave. When he made the full circle to stand in front of her again, he clasped his hands in front of him so they rested over the front placard of his jeans and settled with his feet resting shoulder-width apart. Selah kept her eyes unfocused stared straight ahead so she appeared to look at his belt buckle.

"Of course, I never got the chance to swing that whip did I, little bitch?" Christoph's voice was pitched to be a soothing hum, but it did little to hide the malice behind it making it seem even more disturbing.

"Your mate killed my father for doing what nature intended. For making sure that Omegas bend before the will of an Alpha." His voice took on a questioning tone, "Did you know that I heard the snap of my father's neck?"

Selah couldn't help the flinch that came with that question. Despite the circumstances, her Omega heart wanted to reach out to him. But for an accident of birth, he could have been a normal boy with a normal childhood who could have turned into a great man. Instead, fate had cursed him with a psychopath for a father. Selah understood that Christoph's mother had been "re-educated," but she couldn't imagine how the woman had allowed her son to be raised that way. Omegas protecting their children were a force to be reckoned with so what had Marc done to Christoph's mother to break her so completely?

"It was easy for my mother to slip us away in all the confusion, but even she proved weak. She ran back to her family and took me to a therapist who tried to convince me how my feelings about Alphas and Omegas were all screwed up. The weakling used some psychobabble terms like 'misdirected hubris.' and 'delusions of grandeur.'"

He leaned forward from the waist, and Selah felt his fingers thread through her hair. His fist tightened and Selah winced as he pulled her hair to wrench her head up to meet his gaze. His eyes were so dark that in the dim lighting of the warehouse they appeared black and soulless. A noise from behind her that sounded like the metal door sliding on the concrete had her shifting her gaze to the side, but with a sharp twist of his hand in her hair, he forced her gaze back on his in time to see his mouth curl into a cruel mocking smile.

"My mother didn't know that one of her own uncles believed in my father's dream," he added almost conversationally, "There's a very active online community of Alphas who believe in the true natural order that my uncle belonged to."

Squeezing his fingers to pull her hair, he released her head to stand over her again, "My uncle didn't have the balls to make it his mission like my father had, but he'd managed to... reform... his own mate before her untimely death. He raised his Alpha son, my cousin, to believe the truth despite the rest of society trying to teach him that Alphas should be the one kneeling, and I was lucky that once my mother brought me to her family that he took me under his wing and homeschooled me with my cousin."

"When I officially presented as an Alpha, he gave me the first test of my divine dynamic," his fingers wrapped around Selah's lower jaw so that his thumb was on one side of her face and his fingers covered her other cheek. He squeezed until the pressure on her jaws made her mouth open, and he slid his hand so that three of his fingers forced their way into her mouth and pressed down on her tongue.

"I made my mother kneel," he continued, "Just like you are now. She betrayed her Alpha. She tried to rob me of my proper place."

He spit those last two words out and slid his hand from inside her mouth. Selah felt the wet slide of his fingers, and it took all of her self-control not to fight him as she felt him wrap his fingers around the front of her slender throat. She felt herself trembling and knew that he could feel her pulse racing under his fingers. Her mind raced with horror as she listened to him. She wanted to scream at him to stop, but just like the villain in one of those action movies she tolerated for Malcolm, the longer he talked the better the chance of Malcolm finding them.

"Oh, mother cried and begged, but my uncle showed me how to bring her to heel. I finally got to wield the whip my father denied me. She died still telling me how much she loved me and that she forgave me," his fingers flexed and Selah's air supply cut off before he relaxed his fingers. "Forgave me! She forgave me! She tried to make me weak. She betrayed her Alpha who showed her the natural order of things. She forgave me? She should have begged my forgiveness."

Another noise from behind her caught the edge of Selah's awareness and a muffled cry from Ashlyn had Christoph's head lifting. When a slow cruel smile graced his lips, Selah felt another spike of fear seize her core. His fingers turned into a hard caress on her throat that alternately restricted and released her airway, and Selah tried to control her breathing so she wouldn't pass out leaving her to his tender mercies. At the loud crack of a whip, Selah expected to feel the lash across her skin, but Ashlyn's scream made her jerk in Christoph's hold.

Fuck! Selah whimpered and tried to pull away from Christoph. He was still in front of her with one hand on her neck, and she hadn't seen him move to wield the whip.

Someone else was here. Someone else had just whipped Ashlyn.

Easily stilling her escape attempt and still looking over her head, he continued in a conspiratorial tone, "It was so easy. So very easy to get close. The OSF isn't nearly as smart as they think they are," he glanced down at Selah and back up, "Are they, cousin?"

The soft thud of a footfall behind Selah confirmed her fears, and she saw movement from the corner of her eye. As the unknown Alpha made his way next to Christoph's side and Selah could finally see his face, she gave a strangled cry and almost choked as Christoph's fingers tightened on her throat.

"Tobias!" came the strangled exclamation.

Alpha Tobias, mate to the uneasy Omega Sara that Selah had just left in her own living room, and Malcolm's OSF teammate, grinned down at her from next to his cousin. Seeing them next to each other, Selah could see the slight physical resemblance, but it was the fanatical light in their eyes that made the connection clear.