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Map
 No Alpha © Copyright 2022 by G. Bailey
All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents
are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands,
and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without
permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated
with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
For more information about the author and to contact her, visit-
www.gbaileyauthor.com

Cover design by Story Wrappers

Edited by Polished Perfection
This was previously published as No Alpha and No Claim. This is a rework with
new content.

Created with Vellum

 H er G uardians S eries

H er F ate S eries

P rotected B y D ragons S eries

L ost T ime A cademy S eries

T he D emon A cademy S eries

D ark A ngel A cademy S eries

S hadowborn A cademy S eries

D ark F ae P aranormal P rison S eries

S aved B y P irates S eries

T he M arked S eries

H olly O ak A cademy S eries

T he A lpha B rothers S eries

A D emon ’ s F all S eries

 T he F amiliar E mpire S eries

F rom T he S tars S eries

T he F orest P ack S eries

T he S ecret G ods P rison S eries

T he R ejected M ate S eries

F all M ountain S hifters S eries

R oyal R eapers A cademy S eries

T he E verlasting C urse S eries

T he M oon A lpha S eries

 Contents

Dedication
Description

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Epilogue

About the Author

Want to read more from this world?
Bonus Read—Description of Her Wolves
Bonus Read of Her Wolves
 Dedication

F or all those who feel like they are at the bottom of the pack . B ite
back .
 Description

A wolf with no claim. A disgrace to the wolves’ society. Never fit to

be a mate for any wolf… Trash.

Elodie Masters knows she is too weak to escape her life as a pack
slave, a wolf with no claim and overall blight to the wolves’ precious
society.

When her pack is attacked, Elodie should have run, but instead she
is kept by the Alpha Brothers.
Ruthless. Cruel. Heartless brothers…or at least that’s what everyone
says about them.
And they were right.

The brothers don’t want her as a mate; they claim she is too weak
to be anything…but they won’t let her go.

Yet sometimes strength hides in the weak, and you don’t see it
coming until it literally bites you back.

Dark RH Romance 18+.

Contains dark themes not for the faint of heart.
 Chapter

One

“W atch it.”
I don’t hear the male’s shout before they bump into me
from behind, and I fall face flat onto the ground. In the
wet, sticky mud of all places. Story of my life. I roll over to see one
of my pack mates standing over me, smirking as I wipe the wet mud
off my cheek, and I struggle not to sink further into it. I don’t
actually remember this one’s name, but I’m certain he knows who I
am. Everyone does, and lying in the dirt is kind of ironic, considering
that’s what they all think of me.
“Elodie, what are you doing on the ground?” Lucy bellows, and I
cringe. The male wolf pushes me back at the same time as kicking
my arm so I fall further into the mud and I glare as I pull myself up.
Lucy stomps over to me, her hands on her hips holding up the sides
of her dress and I know better than to tell her what happened.
Somehow, it will be my fault. One look at the frustrated expression
on her haughty face tells me I’m in for a fun night. Not. Lucy is the
alpha’s mother and a very old wolf shifter female at that. I don’t
know why she keeps me alive when I know her son would kill me in
an instant if he had his way. Or worse. The whole pack treat me like
a human because I might as well be one to them. I’m the only wolf
ever known, not able to actually shift into a wolf. I have little
supernatural strength, or speed, or anything like most wolf shifters
do. It’s frustrating as hell, but I’ve learnt to be as invisible as I
possibly can be to survive.
“I have told you time and time again not to walk this way to get to
the kitchens. Our proud pack do not want to see you walking around
like you’re actually a wolf. You are only asking for trouble and I
won’t have you causing it,” she says, her voice ringing with
disappointment as she gets to me and roughly grabs my arm. Lucy
drags me around the main house and into the pack kitchens just
behind it. When the warmth of the kitchens soaks into my skin, she
finally lets me go and stares me down. “Honestly, I don’t see why
you can’t just stay in the shadows and listen to me.”
I can’t help the little defiance I have left in me as I speak. “I tried to
go the other way, but one of the betas was waiting for me and I
wanted to avoid trouble. Like you’ve always told me to.”
“A beta wouldn’t look twice at you. I do not know why you are so
scared of them,” she tuts at me. I ignore her, knowing damn well I
have every reason to fear the beta twins and the way they follow
me. I turned eighteen yesterday, and without a mate or any chance
of getting one, I’m fair game to anyone in this pack. The alpha said
as much to me when I asked to leave the pack on my sixteenth
birthday. I shiver at the memories. That did not go well. I was lucky
to be able to walk out of the pack house the next day.
“Now start washing up. I will be back to check on you later,” Lucy
demands as she shoves me out of her way as she leaves. Another
day, another hell. I do as I’m told and start getting to work on the
dozens of dishes that are piled high, knowing being whipped by Lucy
isn’t worth it if I don’t finish them. The scars littering my back and
thighs are a stark reminder. I don’t heal like other wolves, and they
all know it. I just finish the dishes when Lucy comes into the kitchen
with a paper list in her hand.
“The alpha has very important company coming over tonight. He
wants you to serve them, and this is a chance for you to prove you
can be useful. Do not let him down,” she states. In other words, if I
mess up tonight, I’m dead. “I have made a list of acceptable food.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I nod. If the alpha wants me there
tonight, I’m in trouble. The last time I was in the alpha’s house, I
left covered in blood and bruises, and I was lucky to leave with my
life at all. I didn’t have any dignity left, that’s for sure. Lucy doesn’t
seem to notice or care about me freaking out as she slams the list in
front of me and goes to walk away. Only she stops and looks back to
run her eyes over me, before sighing loudly.
“You cannot wear that grey dress to serve the alpha and his guests.
It makes you look like an outcast when you are not one.” Outcasts
are wolves without a pack—and something Lucy and the Alpha
Bishop have always reminded me I could be. I think living out in the
dark woods doesn’t actually seem like such a bad idea. At least I
wouldn’t have to deal with being a slave to this pack and treated like
dirt.
“I might as well be,” I mutter under my breath, but Lucy doesn’t call
me on it as she carries on her rant.
“I have a purple dress you may borrow for tonight, one I once wore
as a young wolf. I will leave it in your room,” she muses, nodding
her head like she is pleased with herself and walking out of the room
without another word. I look down at the complicated list of
ingredients for the meal and groan in frustration. This is going to
take me hours to find these things in the forest and storage room,
and I have no idea if I can even pull off this kind of complicated,
fancy food. I know I don’t have a choice as I start getting the things
needed out of the cold storage. I have to somehow cook this meal to
perfection, or I might as well try running from my pack to be an
outcast. The alpha warned me what would happen if I cross his path
a second time… and none of it would be pretty.
 Chapter

Two

I smooth down the skirts of the purple dress with my shaky,

sweaty hands as I stare at myself in the mirror. My dark blonde,
nearly brown hair is up in a bun, pulled away from my pale skin,
making my unusual blue eyes look like they are glowing from the
reflection of the light. I look nothing like most wolves or like anyone
I’ve ever met and a part of me wishes I did. My parents disowned
me the moment they realized I was a no claim wolf, but I see them
around the pack sometimes and they never once let me speak to
them. As a child, I used to try everything and anything to get their
attention… and I only got beatings from Lucy for it. I look like
neither of my parents and for that, I’m thankful. I don’t want to look
in the mirror and see the people that abandoned me. My entire pack
has black hair, brown eyes and tanned golden skin. Some of them
have slight tints of blonde in their brown hair in the summer, but in
the winter, that is gone, too.
My looks just make me stand out more than not having a claim
does. If I could wish for anything, it would be a claim. See, in this
world, being claimed is everything. When any female is three years
old, they meet all the male wolves of similar ages in a gathering.
Then the females find their mate. The males make a claim on them,
and then they are protected until they turn eighteen and become
mated. When they can be with their mate for life. Except that never
happened for me. I went to five gatherings, and at seven, it was
decided I was a no claim. Trash. A disgrace. Disgusting.
I wish I had people around me who cared enough to protect me but
my parents stepped aside. My no claim status means anyone that
has anything to do with me is trash as well and they didn’t want
that. They didn’t love me enough. No one has or ever will do. I’ve
always dreamed of moving to another pack in the world, hoping they
would see me differently but it’s a foolish dream I only allow myself
to think of in the dead of the night when I’m alone. There are four
packs in the world, and three of those packs have an alliance with
each other due to the wars that killed over a hundred pack’s way
before I was born. We are the smallest of the three allied packs and
the nearest to the oceans. The fourth pack, they live on sunny
islands off the mainland and have nothing to do with the inland
packs. I’ve only heard rumors of the heartless alpha trio that run the
pack with an iron fist. They don’t have morals, they don’t have rules
or no claims like me. They only have blood and honor… and those
who betray them find a death which makes them wish they had
never been alive in the first place.
A knock on the door shakes me out of my thoughts, and I climb over
my bed in the tiny room to open the door. Lucy stands with hands
on her hips, her black hair curled into a bun and her brown eyes
flashing with tension. She looks over my dress, nodding to herself
before straightening her back. Lucy, despite being a elder female
wolf, fits into the soft cotton cream dress she is wearing well and it’s
clear why she was chosen for alpha female so many years ago. She
is very beautiful, far more than I could ever hope to be. I don’t have
her soft complexion, no my cheekbones are high and my lips too big,
and pouty compared to her.
“It will do very well. You look normal at least,” she dryly comments
and steps back. I go to hurry past her and get to the kitchen to
starting serve food, but she roughly grabs my arm as I pass.
“You will behave tonight. This is a very, very important night for the
Dawn pack. I will kill you myself if you act out of character,” she
hisses at me, her nails cutting into my arm and her hot breath
blowing against my cheek. “Remember, anything you do tonight is a
reflection on us. You be a good girl and listen to your alpha.”
“I—I won’t do anything,” I stammer, and she lets me go, wiping my
blood off her fingers on a cloth she gets out her pocket. She throws
the cloth at me when she is done, but I just let the blood pour down
my arm, pretending it doesn’t hurt until it naturally heals, leaving
only dried blood and scars that won’t heal.
“Clean that up, and get to work,” she snaps and walks away. Some
part of me wants to cry from her treatment, but I don’t cry anymore.
They broke me a long time ago, and they don’t deserve to see my
tears anymore. Or that is what I tell myself, so I can have a scrap of
hope left. Before I run down the corridor, I wipe my arm and slide
the cloth into a pocket. I leave Lucy’s house and run next door, using
the back alley so no one sees me and heading into the kitchen
through the creaky wooden door. I finish cooking the starter and
leave it plated up on the side just as the door slams open. The alpha
female walks in, her eyes running over my dress and then to the
food. The alpha female is the prettiest wolf in the pack. She has
perfect black curly hair, light green eyes and a skinny frame. Though
just because she is beautiful on the outside doesn’t mean she is in
her heart. No, her heart is black and corrupted like Lucy’s is.
“They are ready for starters to be served. Get on with it, freak,” she
says in a disgusted tone and walks back out. I take a deep breath
and lie to myself that everything is going to be okay. It has to be. I
just have to do this perfectly and then I can leave this house. I have
cooked the food right, and everything is going well so far. I slide the
four small plates onto a tray and pick it up. Luckily, I have some
strength of wolves, so it isn’t too heavy to carry all of the plates. I
rush to the door and use my back to push it open, and pause when I
turn around as it swings shut.
The whip crashes down once. Twice. My skirts are ripped away and
the harrowing laugh of the alpha echoes in my ears over and over as
I stare at the blue flowered wallpaper.
I forget how this place scares me with the memories that come with
it, but as I look at the hallway, the cream carpets I lay on for hours,
it all comes back, making my skin run cold. Even though there is no
sign of my blood on the carpet now, I can still picture it. I can still
feel the pain, I can still remember every moment of that night like a
picture I can’t forget.
“Where is that damn no claim with the food? If I have to show her a
lesson again in how to behave, I won’t be impressed.”
Alpha Bishop’s frightening, deep spoken words and low grunt after
that make me snap out of it and rush down the corridor, the plate
wobbling in my hands. I walk into the dining room slowly, keeping
my eyes down to avoid eye contact like I have been taught. You
don’t get to look the alpha in the eye, not unless you are challenging
him.
“This is your no claim?” A male I have never heard asks; his voice is
raspy. His deep voice sends shivers across my skin, and I curse
myself for the reaction.
“Yes, what of her? Don’t you keep some no claims as slaves. They
are useful,” Alpha Bishop snaps, and I slide a plate in front of the
alpha female before moving to serve my alpha.
“Speak to me like that again and I will end this talk now by ripping
your tongue out. My brother will be here shortly, and this is a fair
warning that he won’t be spoken to that way,” the male smoothly
replies and there is a confidence in his voice that he means every
single word. And threat.
To my shock, my alpha coughs and blurts out an apology. “Sorry.”
I firmly decide that serving the food and getting out of here is the
best idea. I don’t want to be in the middle of this when it goes
wrong, and it’s going to. I’m going to end up getting the wrath of
Alpha Bishop’s anger when this meal is over, I suspect, anyway. I
slide the plate in front of my alpha and move over to the two
strangers in the room, on the other side of the table. I feel their
gaze on me, pressing against my skin like a touch.
“Look at me as you serve me,” the male demands as I slide a plate
in front of him. I force my gaze up, locking eyes with a hauntingly
dark blue pair staring at me. The man is huge, at least twice the size
of me, and has messy brown hair that falls onto his forehead. His
skin is deeply tanned like he spends a lot of time in the sun. He is
handsome. More handsome than anyone I’ve ever seen, and it takes
my breath away until I feel like I can’t breathe in front of him.
“I hope you enjoy your food—” I softly reply, cutting off my sentence
as I don’t know his name.
“Alpha Letric. What is your name?” he commands, albeit tenderly
and his unusual accent has me questioning who he is. He’s an alpha.
My gods, I’m staring at an alpha.
“We don’t allow no claims to converse with our guests. If you wish
to have her sent to your bed later on, that is fine. Though I will
warn, no one has broken her in yet as I was saving her for a special
pack sharing occasion. I will, of course, offer her as a gift,” Alpha
Bishop states, and a cold wash of fear fills me. I straighten my back
and look down, walking around the table to the last guest. “Do not
break her too much. My betas are looking forward to keeping her as
their pet.”
“I prefer my women to be willing. Begging for me, in fact,” Alpha
Letric smoothly replies, and the other man in the room clamps his
hand on my wrist after I put his plate down. I gasp as he pulls my
hand to his face and sniffs my wrist. I don’t move, not knowing what
to do as I look at this other male holding my hand. He has golden
hair, cut short, and his features are similar to Alpha Letric’s. When
his light blue eyes meet mine, I can’t pull mine away. I saw the sea
once, when I was nine and traveled with Lucy to the beach to collect
special salt with other wolves. I didn’t think I’d ever see any color of
blue the same as the sea until now. I have to stop staring before he
thinks this is a challenge, not that I would ever want to challenge
him. He is as big and frightening as my own alpha.
“I don’t care about willingness. I will make her beg and purr for my
cock,” he grumbles, rubbing his thumb into my wrist, and I shiver.
His voice is seductive, like a wolf calling a sheep into its lair, unaware
the sheep is about to be eaten alive.
“Now that seems like a challenge, dear brother,” Letric darkly
chuckles, like it’s some inside joke between them.
“It was,” his brother smoothly replies, never breaking eye contact
with me, and I’m frozen in fear.
“I suppose it all depends on what our oldest brother suggests we do
with her,” Letric muses, though it sounds like a warning to my ears.
“I said you could borrow her for a night. I am not giving her away,”
Alpha Bishop growls. “Not without a promised alliance. I honestly
thought you would ask for something worth much more.”
“Worth is something that usually can’t been seen by someone who
has none,” the male holding my wrist coldly states and finally lets
go. I almost miss his touch when it’s gone. What is wrong with me?
“Very true, brother,” Letric gruffs, and stands up from his chair. My
alpha stands too, both of them staring at each other in a show of
dominance. I find myself stepping back until the backs of my shoes
hit the wall, and I press my back against it, willing myself to be as
small as possible. This is not going to end well.
All of us are so engrossed in watching the two alphas stare each
other down that none of us notices when another male steps into
the room, stopping just behind Alpha Bishop’s back. I can’t see all of
his features, only waist length black hair and a massive muscular
build that makes him the tallest male in the room.
I gasp as a hand bursts through Alpha Bishop’s chest, the movement
slow to my eyes, as I can’t quite believe what I just saw. Blood
splatters everywhere, even on my shoes from across the room, and
there is a tangy scent in the air. My alpha female screams, and oddly
enough, Letric is eating his food at the table like nothing happened.
He doesn’t even care that blood is all over his food now. I stare
quietly at Alpha Bishop’s heart in the other alpha’s hand as he pulls
his arm back from the body, letting it fall. It hits the table with a
sickening thud before sliding off to the floor, taking the tablecloth
with it and most of the food, except for Letric’s plate, which he holds
up. Letric’s eyes catch mine as he licks his spoon, and he winks.
By the gods.
“NO!” my alpha female cries, running from the room, and the three
alphas let her go. The one with the heart looks at me in that
moment, still holding the slightly beating heart in the air. The sounds
of wolves howling and screams fill the night around me, making me
more frightened than I could have been before. I make the mistake
of meeting the alpha’s clear blue-eyed gaze, which I can only just
see through his mess of dark wavy hair that looks so soft as it falls
down his chest. I shouldn’t be attracted to the monster in front of
me, but my body doesn’t follow those rules. Everything about the
three alphas in here is desirable. It’s their nature after all, although I
never found Alpha Bishop attractive. I guess that’s why he liked to
beat me. Every other female in the pack would submit to him
without a thought.
“I want to keep her and so does Alaric,” Letric states while still
eating, but I never break contact with the true alpha in the room. I
can feel his power rippling across my skin like a heat wave that
makes me want to cry and run out of the room, but I won’t. The
benefit of not having a wolf to shift into is that I don’t have to argue
with my wolf on whether to run or not. I can just stand here,
accepting that my death is coming, and I will not run from it.
“She is a good cook as well as beautiful,” Alaric comments. “I want
her to cook us dinner and then fuck us. Don’t kill this one."
I hope he is joking. I’ve been a slave my entire life… I don’t want to
be one for much longer.
“What is your name?” the alpha asks me; his voice is gravelly and
deep. He also has an accent I have never heard before, meaning he
isn’t from the two other packs in the alliance. I’ve served enough
meals to recognize their accent. Where are these alphas from?
“Elodie Masters,” I reply to his question straight away, not leaving a
single breath between the end of his question and my answer.
“Come close to me, Elodie,” he commands, the room rippling with
his power. My whole body shakes from both fear and a nervous kind
of desire as I step away from the wall. Each step towards the alpha
is filled with equal parts dread and curiosity because I want to know
why he wants me close. I pause a few feet away from him, and he
stares down at me. “Closer.” The one word is a complete demand,
and I move without question until I am stood right in front of him,
feeling his breath moving the hair on the top of my head.
“What is your name?” I ask him, regretting it when I arch my head
so I can look into his eyes. Alpha Bishop’s heart is right by my head,
blood dripping from it onto the floor and hitting my hand that I
move closer to my body. I block it all out, the blood dripping, the
other alphas who I can feel staring at me, and the awful sounds
from the rest of my pack who are being slaughtered outside.
“Alpha,” he replies like the single word like it is all I am allowed to
know.
“Just Alpha?” I question and gasp as he suddenly wraps a beefy
hand around my neck, holding tightly, but not enough to really hurt
me as he leans his face down to inches in front of mine.
“You call me Alpha. You do as I ask—without question—or I will
dispose of you,” he warns me, and I don’t doubt for a second that he
would kill me.
“Yes, Alpha,” I gasp, his hand tightening ever so slightly before he
lets go. He keeps his face close to mine. Our lips inches away and
his scent wrapping around me. Forest pine, sea salt and a masculine
musky scent that is all him. He brushes his large finger over my lips,
leaving a smear of blood in his wake.
“Now kiss me as your pack dies outside, and the blood of your
former alpha drips down your pretty little dress,” he demands. A part
of me is so shocked that I don’t move for a moment… until I listen
to the screams outside. I don’t want to die tonight when a kiss can
save me. I do as I am told without a second thought. My lips press
against his cold ones, and he pulls back before the kiss can really be
counted as anything. “Keep her close, Alaric, while I finish this. No
one touches her until I say.”
Alaric stands and I catch his eyes rolling over me as he answers.
“Yes, brother.”
 Chapter

Three

T he screams of the pack outside haunt me as I stand next to

Alaric’s chair, where Alaric demanded I stand until whenever
he wishes I move. One thing is clear, they are taking me from
this place but I’m not sure I’m going to a better place. Letric left at
least an hour ago to join Alpha outside, and by the sounds of the
screams and cries, he is part of the slaughter. I know they are my
pack, and I should want to help them…but I can’t find it in myself to
actually stop this and risk my own life for the people who treated me
like mud under their boots for so long. I also have no idea how far I
could push Alaric into not following Alpha’s command. The silence of
the room is deafening as it makes the screams from outside so much
more frightening and they sound so close to the house, where my
old alpha’s blood is drying on the carpet close to where mine was
spilt all those years ago.
“So, El, we best get going,” Alaric suddenly says, patting the table as
he stands and he stretches, pulling the dark shirt up to strain against
his muscular arms. It also reveals his tight flat stomach with ripples
of muscle that somehow seem attractive to me. I sharply look away.
“Where?” I ask him, my mouth dry. I need to have some idea of who
they are and where they are from. Are they a new pack? Are they
planning on taking over all of our world? Maybe they come from
over the seas, where it is said the children of the night live and pray
on any soul unlucky enough to travel those waters. Though wolves
can’t live there, not without becoming prey too. All my books I’ve
read and the maps in them drift through my mind, and I still can’t
come up with an answer.
“To our pack—your new pack,” he states simply, like I should have
guessed that.
“What pack? Where are you from? How many of you are there?” I
ask. Instead of a reply, Alaric steps into my space, and my breath
halts as he breathes in a deep breath of my scent and closes his
eyes for a second. He reaches his hand down between us, hovering
his fingers over my cheek. “I can’t touch you yet, El, but soon you
will be mine.”
I don’t have a reply for that… anything I’ve learnt about males is
that they like to cause pain and name it love. He lowers his hand,
the screams outside fading off. “Have you heard of the Alpha
Brothers?”
I nod. “The only pack with three alphas. It’s said they share the pack
they made and they are evil.”
He smiles at me when my mouth parts in shock and a little fear
ripples through me as I step back on instinct. The three alpha
brothers, know for their cruelty and heartless pack of monsters.
Everyone fears them—and for good reason. Everyone knows of the
pack that doesn’t have an alliance with any other pack, and now
they are here to kill off their neighboring pack. They must have
tricked Alpha Bishop into thinking he could get an alliance that no
one else could, and he welcomed them in, only to have them
destroy everything. I can’t even feel sorry for Alpha Bishop—he
deserved it.
Still, I find myself asking. “Why are you killing this pack? Not
everyone is evil here.”
“Ah, sweet El, that is not my secret to tell,” he smoothly replies,
walking up to me as I keep stepping back, and he only follows until
my back hits the door. He stops right in front of me, pressing his
hard body against mine. There goes the no touching rule. I’ve never
had a male pressed against me like this and heat immediately pools
in my lower stomach, making me ache for something I’ve never had.
Alaric places his hands on the door on either side of my head,
leaving me no choice but to look at his face as he watches me.
“When Alpha is done with you, you are mine. As I stroke your body,
I want to savor you. I want to make you beg, scream and plead with
me for a release. I want my cock buried so far inside you that you
never forget my name and who was inside of you,” he huskily
whispers, and I am speechless, my breathing heavy as I stare at him
with what I know is desire burning throughout me. These alphas are
going to burn me, if not with death, then with pleasure. Either way, I
am theirs now. “Be a good pup for Alpha and I’ll reward you.”
When Alaric moves away from me, I can finally breathe right and his
lips tilt up in amusement. “See how easy it was to make you forget
about the body on the floor in this room, the screams outside, and
how everything is changing for you? I’m the alpha you come to for a
distraction; remember that sweet El.”
“I will,” I breathlessly reply, as he is right, and I like his distraction.
Alaric waves a hand at the door, and I quickly walk out, wanting to
get out of this place forever. Even if the hand the gods have given
me is laced with dark desire and lust. It’s still the escape I have
prayed for. I don’t dare look down as I head for the open front door,
blood soaking into my thin shoes. When I walk outside, there is
nothing but pure chaos around me and I freeze as I take it in. So, so
much blood and fur fills the town, and fire laces up dozens of the
buildings. Wolves chase each other down, ripping each other apart
but most of them are losing. A few bundles of females and children
are clutched together in the center of the clearing outside the
alpha’s house, and I shake my head. “Are you going to kill them?
Even the children?”
“If they submit to us, we let them live. The women and children
usually do. We do not waste wolves’ lives, but there can be no
resistance in our pack,” Alaric explains to me, his hand pressing into
my back. “But, the males, they will be torn apart, and Alpha will
enjoy it.”
His words roll around me just as I see Alpha in the middle of the
pack square, ripping wolves apart in his human form in almost lazy
motions like they are nothing more than soft toys. Every part of him
is covered in blood, and from the way he moves, I know he enjoys
the pain and destruction he is causing. Alaric is right.
I should be scared, disgusted, or at least trying to run away... but
instead, I stay still, watching him destroy the world. If I’m going to
live with a monster, I will see the bed I’m going to lie in.
“This way, El,” Alaric directs me, and I pull my eyes away to follow
him around the pack house to a carriage pulled by three black
horses waiting right behind the house, next to a pile of dead wolves.
The carriage is round, made of black metal and red fabric that looks
worn, but it’s far grander than anything I’ve seen before. The horses
are stunning, massive with white and black fur. Their glowing red
eyes lock on me as I walk to the carriage and in those eyes, I see
nothing but blood. Something about the horses draws me to them
and I reach out, smoothing my hand down the neck of the horse
nearest me. The horse neighs softly, and for a moment, I let my
hand run through the locks of his mane.
“How very enchanting you are. Usually, our dead horses don’t let the
living touch them,” Alaric says, snapping me out of the moment, and
I drop my hand. Dead horses?
“They look alive to me,” I say.
“Another time,” Alaric says, holding the door to the carriage open,
letting me climb in first and I catch a glimpse of a male wolf shifting
back into human form before he shuts the door. Alaric pats the side
of the carriage, and it takes off as he sits down opposite me. The
inside of the carriage has two leather benches with cushioned backs,
and I sit on the one side as Alaric sits on the other, but I can’t find
the words to say anymore. I rest back, pulling my knees up and
wrapping my arms around them as we drive away from my old, and
very dead, pack. My world has changed in the blink of an eye, and
I’m scared of what will be left of me when the Alpha Brothers are
done.
“There are horses like these in the forest; I used to play with them
as a child as no other children would play with me, but we didn’t call
them dead. They called them blood horses,” I admit to Alaric,
wanting to stop the pressure I feel from his eyes staring at mine
across the carriage. He leans back, crossing his arms as he stretches
his legs out, and he places his leg next to mine. The simple contact
makes me shiver as he breaks the rules once more and touches me.
“They have had many names, but dead horses are the literal
translation of the oldest name I have ever found for them. I train the
dead horses in my spare time. We have over fifty of them which we
can ride, and they pull our carriages when we aren’t breeding them.
Wild dead horses are difficult to train, but perhaps you would like to
help me in your new home,” he offers, and it seems honest enough.
A dream, really.
“I’d really like that,” I say with a cautious smile.
“Only if Alpha allows it. Dead horses can easily kill wolves... he
might not want his new toy damaged,” he warns me. “But for that
smile, I will do my best to convince him.”
My smile drops. “I’m not a toy.”
“Oh, my dear, you are. A toy that he will use until he throws you
away. Don’t worry, I will be there to look after you when he does,”
Alaric simply says and sits back, chuckling at my reaction like he has
seen it before. How many packs have they destroyed and taken
females from? Am I not the first? Or the last?
“I’m nothing; therefore, throwing me away is something I am used
to. If this alpha thinks he can break me, he has a big fight on his
hands,” I argue.
“I know he will break you, but I am interested to see how long you
can keep his attention. You are so very beautiful, and that pretty
mouth of yours never does seem to stop talking,” he says with a
charming smirk that doesn’t match his words. I pause on one thing
he said, something no one has ever called me. Beautiful. Alaric
slowly closes his eyes, looking like he is going to sleep, but I sense
he is alert and watching me any time I look away. I glance out the
window, seeing my old pack burning in the distance, the smoke
rippling out of the tips of the old oak trees.
My pack is gone.
 Chapter

Four

“W ake up, El,” Alaric’s deep, almost soothing voice drifts to

my ears, waking me up from a deep sleep full of burning
wolves and a dying pack I’ve just been taken from. I
open my eyes to see his face inches from mine, his large hand on
my shoulder. He is really handsome, flawless and his face looks
sculpted from the gods themselves.
“Did I fall asleep?” I ask, a little shocked and confused. It was a long
day, but with how nervous I was and still am, there is no way I
would just go to sleep. There is a thick, red blanket resting over me
that has appeared out of nowhere. I try to think back to what
happened. I remember Alaric giving me a drink of water after we
had been riding through the forest for a long time, and the next
thing I know, we are here. I sit up, feeling like everything is spinning
for a moment, until I notice the carriage has stopped moving.
“No, I drugged you with heminglocka herbs as you needed to rest,”
Alaric admits to me, though there isn’t a touch of guilt in his voice.
What a complete ass he is.
“Y—You drugged me?” I question, openly glaring at him and he
shrugs his shoulders before pushing the door to the carriage open,
letting in the bright sunlight. I hold my hand above my eyes as I
climb out, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light before seeing
where we are. The smell of salt, water and smoke fill my senses
along with the sounds of moving water fill my ears. A warm breeze
blows my dress around my legs and I almost stumble from the force
of it.
“Welcome to your new pack, El. The Luxa Pack,” Alaric says as my
mouth parts open at the beautiful sight in front of me. We are nearly
on an island, which is full of bright green trees, with a stunning
beach where waves brush against the soft sand. There are wolves
running around on the beach, and people swimming in the sea with
nets. Everything looks so peaceful, relaxing and I’m stunned silent.
We have stopped is on a long red brick bridge and I look back to see
it leads to the mainland, looking like the only entrance to the island.
The middle of the island is built up, and huts lead up to a large grey
stone castle that sits in the center. The castle has three towers, each
of them facing a different direction, and the castle looks old. There
were older parts of the world int he forests outside of our pack,
made with stone that isn’t around anymore and the elements have
worn it to nothing. This castle looks like the elements have tried to
wear it down but it’s still standing tall.
“This place, it’s so different than anything I have ever seen,” I
whisper, my voice getting lost in the breeze, and the dead horses let
out a long neigh.
“As it should be. We worked hard to build our pack home,” Alaric
proudly says and waves his hand for us to go back in the carriage as
he clearly only wanted to show me the island from a distance. They
built all this?
“Take us to the towers,” Alaric directs the hooded man holding the
horses’ reins before we get into the carriage, and he shuts the door
behind himself once I’m in.
“Where will I be living?” I ask him as the carriage takes off. I’m
curious about my place in this new pack and how much of a slave
I’m going to be. I’m not foolish, I know they want me for more than
just cleaning and cooking, but I can’t think about that right now. I’m
not expecting much at all in terms of a space for me, but a bed
would be nice. “I had a small room at my pack, but I can work with
any space. I once lived in the stables for a month when I upset the
alpha’s mother. It was fine…except for a leak in the roof but I fixed
that.”
Alaric narrows his eyes at me like I said something wrong, and I
have no clue what it was, but I pull myself back on the seat just in
case. “Let me make something perfectly clear to you. You belong to
the Alpha Brothers. All of us. We never let anyone we own live in
conditions like that,” he spits out. “I hate how any wolf is treated like
dirt and you will not be. No one hurts you or they die.”
“But I’m a no claim. I don’t have a wolf,” I admit to him, though I
know he’s already aware.
“And?” he questions, crossing his arms. “We do not follow the old
ways here. No matter what you are, if you belong to our pack, you
are someone who will be looked after.” His words are sweet, and I
want to believe them so much, even if my common sense tells me
that they are using sweet words to get me into Alpha’s bed—and
then his. My cheeks brighten at the thought. They have all made it
clear I am some sort of game to them.
“I’ve heard rumors that no claims, even outcasts, are welcomed
here. That you look after them,” I say, remembering the one night
Lucy told me about the famous Alpha Brothers. I don’t know if the
rumors are true about their pack, but Lucy said it was all a fairytale.
That no wolf in their right mind would see a no claim as an equal in
their pack.
“We do. You will see, and you will be staying in our rooms. I expect
Alpha will have you stay in his tonight,” he says, crossing his arms.
“He always has the female we keep first.”
“That’s what you want me for then,” I say in disgust, because it’s
clear they just want me for sex, and their poor mates must just put
up with it because they are alphas. I don’t want my first time to be
with someone else’s mate, but it sounds like I’m not going to have a
choice. I’m just going to be a whore to them until they get what
they want and leave. Lucy told me that’s what wolf males do best:
leave after they catch the prize. “I’m not a whore and I don’t want
to be killed by one of your angry mates for lying with you.”
Alaric frowns at me, like he can see what I’m thinking before he
moves across the carriage and grabs my face with both his hands.
“We will have you in our beds because you are beautiful and smart.
We are loyal to no one. None of us has chosen a mate. We never
have, and you are not a whore for lying with us. You will be
rewarded for your time with us, pleasured by our touch and treated
as an equal,” he explains to me, but everything from when he said
they don’t have mates seems like a blur.
“You’ve all never claimed anyone?” I ask in shock. That’s… unheard
of.
“No,” he solemnly replies. His blue eyes seem desperate to tell me
more before he suddenly goes cold and starts to move away.
“Wait, I have more questions,” I say, gasping as he pulls away from
me and goes back to sit on the other side.
“Quiet now. We will be home soon,” he commands, altogether
dismissing me. I scowl at him before crossing my arms and resting
back on the seat once more. No mates, accept no claims… all at the
price of being in their beds. It doesn’t seem like the worst deal I’ve
been offered. Under every sweet deal is a cruel intent. I just haven’t
seen it yet.
 Chapter

Five

W hen the carriage stops the next time, Alaric opens the door
and waves me out first. The warm breeze blows against my
lower dress as I look at the light outside. I climb out onto
the stone ground, looking around at the large courtyard we are in,
my eyes better adjusted now. There are three big archways that
lead to each tower just behind them. The main courtyard has a few
barrels, a holder full of different weapons and little else but some
bushes and a tree. Alaric climbs out of the carriage after me and
closes the door before quietly talking to the hooded man. When he
is done talking, he steps back as the hooded man directs the
carriage around, back out the gated entrance we came in.
“Alpha Alaric! You’re back!” A female happily shouts, and I turn to
see an elderly lady walking over, stopping when she gets to us. The
female has on a grey dress with little flowers stitched into the corset
part at the top and the skirts swamp down around her legs. Her skin
is lightly tanned, and she smells like spicy cooked bread. Her grey
hair is up in a complicated looking braid, spun into a bun but she
seems kind, at least until she looks at me. Her eyes widen for a brief
second. “Who is this?”
“Mary, this is Elodie. Alpha has decided she will live with us for now,”
Alaric explains, and Mary smiles, coming over and slowly running her
eyes over me.
“I can see why. Can she cook? Clean? Be of any use outside the
bedrooms?” Mary asks Alaric, as my cheeks light up at her
suggestion of why I’m here.
“I tried her cooking, it was lovely. But she will be helping me with
the dead horses during the week also,” Alaric explains, and I hide my
smile. I can’t wait to help with the dead horses. I never had much
time to go back to the forest to see my old childhood friends. My old
pack always kept me busy doing everything, and anything they
didn’t want to do.
“Brilliant, I have needed someone to help me with your alphas for a
while. I do hope Alpha keeps her around for more than one night
like all the others before her,” she says, though the long sigh that
escapes her lips suggests she thinks he won’t keep me around. One
night? Where would I go next?
“We will see, won’t we?” Alaric muses, his eyes drifting to me for a
moment before going back to Mary. “Alpha is on his way back; he
wants her in his room for when he returns. I must go and help with
our new pack members. Can you take her?”
“Of course, Alpha Alaric.” Mary bows before grabbing my upper arm
and gently pulling me towards the middle archway. I look back to
see Alaric watching me go, his eyes locked on mine for a long
moment, and every step away from him just makes me more
nervous. I turn back to see where Mary is pulling me to only when
Alaric leaves.
“I can walk on my own. I’m not a child,” I tell Mary, trying to keep
the frustration out of my voice. She isn’t going fast, due to her age,
but she is short and strong with her grip.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Mary huffs, letting go of my arm and giving me
a strange look. “Alpha doesn’t usually like the ones who talk back.”
I don’t reply to her, knowing she might just be trying to make me
more nervous than I already am. I don’t know Alpha—not like she
does. I don’t know her at all, and I have a feeling she is so used to
females coming and going from here she makes a point not to make
friends. We walk up to the double doors of the tower, which are
made of dark wood with two metal handles in the middle that curl
downwards at the ends. Mary pulls a silver key out and unlocks one
of the doors before pushing it open, and I follow her in. The inside
room is a dome, with a spiraling staircase that stretches all the way
up to the top, where there is a loft room I can just about see. On
the other side of the stairs, there is a fireplace, a large sofa and one
bookcase rammed with books. The room is spotless; there is not a
single book out of place, and they look color coded to perfection.
Alpha scent fills the space and there is no way to deny this is his
home.
“Light the fire for when he gets back and make yourself
comfortable,” Mary commands as she opens a curtain on the only
window in the room, letting in the bright sunlight from outside. We
never had sunlight like this before because we always had the tall
trees of the forest blocking it out. I was always in the shadows,
searching for the glimpse of light that broke through trees.
“Are you leaving?” I ask Mary as she walks around me to the door
and pauses at my question.
“Yes. Don’t worry, he never kills what is his. The brothers aren’t as
heartless as it is rumored, they are,” she says, looking back at me
with a tiny bit of sympathy in her eyes. “I’ve known them since they
were young wolves. They look after their own, and you can trust
me.”
“So, he might let me leave?” I enquire.
“No, I never said that, Elodie,” she says and walks out, slamming the
door shut. I hear the key being turned only moments later, locking
me in. My heart races in my chest as I rush to the door and try the
handle, just in case, but it doesn’t turn. I’ve traded one prison for
another, but at least I might be able to escape this one. Maybe. I
walk over to the window to look out over the views of the ocean.
There is a beach just below the tower, at the bottom of a ragged
cliff. The waves look harsh as they blast onto the sand, but there are
no clouds in the sky, no sign of a storm coming this way. The ocean
is just angry like me, I guess, though I don’t know the entire
difference between anger and fear anymore. I was born with both
emotions, and they have both been my close friends for so long that
they have mixed together somehow.
I look over at the fireplace and cross my arms against my chest. I’m
not lighting any fire for someone that just wants to use me for sex
and throw me away. I don’t want to be forced into anything. I look
around the room, searching the bookcase but not picking up any of
the books because they look old, priceless, and I’m not risking
breaking one of them. My heart feels like it never stops pounding as
I hear a key turning in the door, and I quickly turn around, walking
to the middle of the room as the door opens.
Alpha is back.
 Chapter

Six

M y new alpha pushes the door open with his large hand,
ducking under the door before pushing it closed behind him
as he stands, looking me over. His very presence in the room
makes me alert. It makes me nervous. Every inch of him is covered
in blood, like the last time I saw him. When he slaughtered my pack
and enjoyed it. I wonder how much of him is wolf and how much is
a person with emotions and feelings when he did all of that. All the
blood is still dripping down him, bits of it dried in his long, black hair.
The blood is everywhere. On his leather clothes and serious face. On
his large boots. The metallic smell drifts over to me as I try to
swallow my own fear and I wonder if I still have blood across my
face where he marked me.
I want to fear him for what he did, but my mind just feels happy
that my old pack—and the bastards who treated me like a slave—are
gone. They didn’t deserve to live, so why should I feel sad for their
deaths? Alpha might have killed my parents today too; their blood
could easily be covering him, as they wouldn’t have submitted. They
loved their pack. Yet I don’t care and not a part of me mourns. I am
more scared of my parents and my old pack than the monster in
front of me. I pull my eyes to him, just like I did when we met, and
find his clear blue eyes swirling with some emotion I don’t
understand.
“Did Mary not tell you to light the fire?” he asks me, his voice gruff
and deep. “It is cold.”
“She did tell me to light it for you,” I reply honestly, feeling my voice
strong despite how this alpha is making me feel. He frowns before
stomping over to me, stopping inches away from my face as he
grabs my chin tightly.
“Why is it not lit then?” he asks, a low growl escaping his lips as his
eyes burn with anger.
“It’s simple—I didn’t want to,” I reply, and he growls at me. Not a
low growl, not a warning. This one is downright terrifying, and he
really scares me this time. I shake from head to toe as I watch him,
wondering if this is the point I’m going to die.
“Kneel,” he demands as he lets my chin go, his rough fingers
scraping across my skin. I know if I don’t, he will kill me but the little
scrap of stubbornness I have left makes me not want to be on my
knees for him. I can see it in his eyes. He wants to kill me. To get rid
of the problem he invited into his home. I sink to my knees in front
of him, my head only level with his upper thigh before I look up. I
am not ready to die yet. I’ve fought too hard for life to die a simple
death at an alpha’s hands.
“You do what I say, anything I tell you… or you will regret it,” the
alpha demands. I look up from where I’m kneeling, staring into his
almost stormy eyes that seem to change color depending on his
mood.
“Yes, Alpha.”
Alpha stares me down for a moment longer before he steps back
and walks up the stairs.
“Follow me,” he gruffly demands. I quickly stand up, jogging to the
stairs to follow him all the way up to the top, which opens up into a
large bedroom with two windows that overlook the sea. There are
light cream curtains that move in the breeze as one of the windows
is open a little, and it’s nice as I watch the curtains move. I look over
as Alpha goes to the large bathtub in the room and turns on the tap.
There is a gigantic bed against the wall near the open window, with
red sheets perfectly folded back on the coverlet. There is a cupboard
on the wall next to it, the doors closed. There is little else to the
room, though. Nothing personal or messy in the slightest. Either
Mary is a good cleaner, or Alpha likes his own space to be clean and
anything but personal.
“Sit on my bed,” Alpha demands, watching me very closely. I think
he is very used to getting everything and anyone he wants. I’m sure
the word no is a foreign language to him. Still, I walk over to the
bed, feeling his eyes watching me the whole time. I sit down on the
edge of the bed, smoothing out my dress just as the alpha begins
pulling off his clothing like I am not even here, and I can’t stop
watching. He takes his shirt off first, revealing his muscular chest
that is littered with old cuts. Not that it makes him any less
attractive. He throws the shirt into a basket next to the bed before
pulling off his boots, lining them up neatly by the tub and then
pulling his trousers and socks off. When he slips his boxers off, I look
away on instinct until I hear his gravelly voice calling to me.
“Look at me, Elodie. I want you to see what you will have inside of
you soon,” he demands, and like a sailor being lured into the sea by
a siren, I look back over at him. His seductive words calling to me.
He is exquisitely handsome; every inch of his body is made of
muscle and no doubt trained to be strong enough to rule a large
pack. When I pull my eyes to the large, hard cock in the middle of
his legs, I can’t help the words that come out of my mouth.
“That is way too big to fit inside me anywhere!”
My comment makes Alpha burst into deep, howling laughs that I
can’t help but chuckle along to. His laugh is nice… really nice. He
looks at me in surprise as his laugh dies off, and I almost miss
hearing it. It makes him less intimidating and more… well, normal.
He reaches and turns the tap off, and then climbs into the bath,
showing me his muscular back, which has dozens of old scars like
whip marks on it. Only outcasts or no claims are whipped, so why
was he?
“Trust me, Elodie. I will make sure it fits soon,” he finally says before
washing his face with water, washing the blood away and making
him look more normal. For a moment, I almost forgot about the
blood and where I am. “I have not laughed in such a way in many
years.”
“They say laughing is good for your soul,” I reply, forgetting where I
heard that one before.
“Do they now? I much prefer pain and loyalty. That is what is good
for me,” he firmly replies, and I don’t really have an answer for that.
“Come and wash my hair, Elodie.”
I know a demand hidden in a light tone when I hear one. I’ve never
washed somebody’s hair before. It seems like an intimate thing to
do, but considering he wants to put that inside me, it’s nothing in
comparison. Maybe it will look smaller up close. I slide off the bed
and walk over to him, seeing his water is brown from the dirt and
blood coming off his body. Alpha hands me a small glass bottle of
shampoo, and I squeeze some into my hands before putting the
bottle down on the floor. I pause for only a moment, my hands
shaking from nerves before sliding them into Alpha’s hair and try to
relax. I’m surprised to feel how soft his hair is as I wash the soap in
before stepping back, and he sinks his head under the water. I wipe
my soapy hands on my dress before walking back to the bed,
freezing in place when he gives one more command.
“Strip that dress off. Now.”
 Chapter

Seven

“W hat?” I question him, needing him to repeat his demand,

but I don’t dare turn around as I ask because I know the
answer. There is no avoiding this now.
“You heard me, Elodie.”
His reply makes me close my eyes and my bottom lip trembles. I did
promise I would do what he wanted… or I’m dead. I’ve been
through a lot of pain in my past; the scars on my back and thighs
will show him as much. They are almost as bad as the ones he
wears. He said he likes pain—no needs it—because he thinks it’s
good for him. I guess I hoped I wouldn’t be the one giving him what
he needs. As I pull the sleeves of my dress down, I swallow a knot
of fear in my throat. I undo the string lace at the one side, every
string I pull out makes me more nervous and more frightened that
he won’t like what he sees when the dress is off. I am not special. I
am a no claim that no wolf wanted. This alpha should not want me,
it doesn’t make sense. The dress falls off my body, leaving me
completely naked with my back to the alpha. My deep breathing, the
drip of the water from the tap, and the sea wind outside are the only
sounds in the room for a long time.
“Lie on the bed,” he gruffly demands, and no part of his voice is
gentle. His voice makes me move my shaking legs forward as I hear
him climbing out of the water, the lavender smell of the soap drifting
over to me. At least it’s much better than the smell of blood. I walk
over to the bed, climbing on before lying down, facing the stone
ceiling and counting the bricks to distract myself from the
overwhelming fear I feel getting worse. I hear my alpha drying
himself with a towel, and every moment, I feel more scared until the
counting cannot distract me anymore.
I nearly cry out in fear as the alpha climbs onto the bed, climbing up
my body and parting my shaking legs as he holds himself over me. I
feel his large cock pressing into my stomach, the hot smoothness of
it actually feeling good in a strange way. His body feels warm
pressed against mine, the weight of his body actually comforting in a
strange way. His damp hair falls around his face, tickling the side of
my head.
“You are untouched?” he asks me, the question almost softly
spoken, and I can only nod for a moment until the silence becomes
too much, and I have to answer.
“Y—yes,” I manage to say.
“I want your first time. I want you as mine,” he tells me, and I look
up at him, shocked not only by his words but the bits of color I can
see in his eyes this close up. It’s like he has the stars in his eyes, all
of them swirled around so you only see lights across a blue
background. It’s unique, much like I suspect Alpha is.
“Are you going to claim me?” I question.
“No. You have no claim, and that will never change. I never want a
mate, and that will never change either. I want your body, Elodie,
and you will give it to me. If you fight me, if you resist, I will have
you and then throw you out into the forest to be an outcast,” he
states, and from the way he looks at me, I know he is not joking in
any way. My alpha gets what he wants. Always. Or he takes it. I
know that from the little time I’ve had with him.
“If I don’t resist? If I let you take me?” I say, and I bravely lift my
hand to place on his chest. There is a little soft hair across his chest
that feels nice under my hand, but everything else about him is
hard.
“You will be in my pack, and that means you will be free. I and the
other two alphas are the only ones allowed to have your body; that
is your only rule. You will be given money, food and looked after
here. My pack will never treat you the way your old one did. You will
never be a slave to anyone again, Elodie,” he tells me everything I’ve
ever wanted. I’ve never been free, and I always said to myself I
would do anything to be. Yet from what he just said, I will be free,
but still owned by him and his brothers. That isn’t truly free, but it is
better than my old life or one as an outcast with no wolf. I can’t
hunt, nor do I have a clue how to find shelter. That doesn’t even
include the risk of running into other outcasts that I cannot fight on
my own.
“If I say yes, I have one condition,” I whisper, rubbing my thumb
across his chest and feeling his muscles tighten in response.
“You may ask it. I might not give it to you, Elodie,” he says, moving
our faces inches apart, so I’m nervous to even ask.
“Don’t hurt me. Ever,” I whisper, and he frowns. “If you think for
even a second you are going to hurt me, then you tell me to go.”
There is a big pause before he firmly nods his head once.
“This first time will hurt as I take you, but I vow never to hurt you in
any other way if you give me your body,” he tells me, moving his lips
close to mine. “I will keep you safe, my pretty Elodie, and make you
beg for my cock. You will miss it when I fill you up and leave.”
“Then you have a deal,” I breathlessly reply, the words feeling like
they seal my fate, and my alpha smiles, a victory smile before he
kisses me. The kiss is brutal, full of desire and lust, and I can’t help
but enjoy the way he kisses me like he is taking my soul. I run my
fingers into his hair, loving his soft groan against my lips before he
pulls away and moves down my body. He roughly grabs one of my
breasts, rubbing my nipple until it is rock hard, and I squirm on the
bed from the pleasure. I gasp as he leans down, running his tongue
around my nipple and gods, it feels incredible. I didn’t know
anything could feel as good as this.
I almost protest as he moves his lips from my breast, kissing his way
down my stomach before spreading my legs. I’m confused for a
moment about what he is going to do before he dives into my core,
his tongue swirling around my nub at the top, making me cry out in
overwhelming pleasure. He slides one large finger inside of me
slowly, and I moan loudly at the way he controls my body. It doesn’t
feel like I’m giving anything away to him in this moment. It feels like
I would beg for this pleasure. A pressure builds in my lower
stomach, and it builds as he moves his finger in and out of me
before my mouth parts on a scream, my back arching from the
pleasure that blasts through my body. I don’t even notice my alpha
climbing up my body, parting my legs until his hard cock presses into
me. Even the tip feels like too much, like it is stretching me.
“Look at me as I make you mine,” Alpha darkly demands, his hands
resting on each side of my head as he slowly inches inside me. I cry
out in pain as he hits my barrier, pushing through it and burying
himself fully inside. He is so big, stretching me until I feel like there
isn’t an inch of space between us anymore and I don’t know if I can
take it if he moves. He doesn’t move as he stares down at me, his
cock making me feel full as the pain slowly disappears into a much
better feeling. “Fuck.”
My alpha’s dark eyes lock with mine as he slides out and then
pushes back in and he grits his teeth. This time it’s sore, but there is
a blast of pleasure with every movement that pulls me into wanting
more. And more. And more.
“Kiss me,” he demands, and I lean up, sliding my lips against his,
and then he snaps, sliding his tongue into my mouth as he pounds
in and out of me. I moan against his lips. The feeling of him inside
me is incredible and overwhelming. I’ve been missing out on too
much. The alpha lets out a loud roar as he comes deep inside me,
setting off another blast of pleasure for me that makes me cry out as
waves crash throughout my body. We are both breathless as he
stares down at me, and I can only look back at him, in awe of this
moment. He pulls out of me, which stings, before pulling the blanket
over us both and resting his head down on the pillow and looking at
me. “You are not leaving.”
“Good,” I breathe out as he runs his hand over my body and down
to my core, where his seed is leaking out of me and down my thigh.
He runs his finger in it before drifting his hand up my stomach,
across my breasts, marking me with his seed until he looks into my
eyes.
“Tomorrow.”
I can only nod, unsure what he means, before he rolls over and
doesn’t move again. I’m not sure I should want to do that with him
again, but I do. Gods, I do. I’ve only known pain and fear—never
pleasure and comfort before. Now I’ve had it, I want it. Alpha is
going to break me into a thousand pieces when he leaves and takes
those feelings with him.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Weapon
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
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you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Weapon

Author: Jesse F. Bone

Illustrator: Bernklau

Release date: January 25, 2024 [eBook #72795]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company,

1961

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEAPON ***

 WEAPON

By J. F. BONE

Illustrated by BERNKLAU

The Dauntless was one of the

most powerful ships in the
Confederation space navy.
Yet, in the showdown with
the Eglani, victory was not
necessarily to the mighty.

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Amazing Stories June 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Bright chatter flowed around her, filling the clean conditioned air of
the room with inconsequential noise that hid the tension in a froth of
words. It was what wasn't being said that was important, Ellen Fiske
thought as she listened to the high-pitched voices. Of course, one
never paraded feelings. It was indecent,—something like undressing
in public. But this matter of keeping a stiff upper lip could be carried
to extremes. You went to these get-togethers, played cards and
talked about dresses and children and grocery bills just as though
there was no war, as though the Eglani never existed, as though the
men in the Navy would come back as regularly and predictably as
they did from commercial runs in the old days. But try as you did,
you couldn't keep the undercurrents hidden. Fear clung to the sharp
shards of sound. There was longing, grief, resignation, and hope, all
mixed with a firm unreasoning conviction that if one buried her
feelings deep enough everything would solve itself and wind up with
a happy ending.
Her hands tightened convulsively and cards squirted from her fingers
to the floor as the high-pitched keening shriek of a spaceship's jets
came to her ears. The talk stopped suddenly as every woman in the
room paused to listen and every eye turned involuntarily toward the
ceiling. A big one was coming in. The entire house shivered,
quivering in resonant sympathy to the throbbing pulse of the
spaceship's drives. The sound swelled to a crescendo—to stop
abruptly with a sharp finality that left an aching silence in its wake.
"I'm sorry, Anne," Ellen said as she bent to retrieve the cards
scattered on the floor. "For a moment I couldn't help thinking that—"
she stopped and blushed.
"Don't apologize," Anne Albertson said. "I know how you feel. Fact is
I've felt that way myself—more than once." Her eyes were gray and
wise in the frame of her pointed elfin face.
Ellen felt a rush of gratitude. Anne was understanding beyond her
years, little Anne with her piercing giggle and gay smile. Anne with a
husband already a week overdue. She didn't allow herself the luxury
of worry, Ellen thought enviously, but then she had been married
nearly four years now. She was a veteran of a thousand nights of
waiting, not a bride of four months who had only seen her husband
twice since that utterly mad and beautiful honeymoon, that precious
two weeks torn from a reluctant Navy.

It wasn't easy to be a Navy wife, to listen to the shriek of jetblasts

that lowered ships to earth or sent them hurtling outward into the
void. It wasn't easy to constantly wonder with each incoming craft "Is
it his ship? Has he come home safely once more?" Or as the weeks
passed to feel the question turn to a prayer "Please God, make this
one his,—make it his!" This one wasn't Alton's ship. It couldn't be. He
wasn't due back from patrol for another week, and until that week
had passed she needn't worry. Her reaction was just the involuntary
twitch of overwrought nerves.
The talk began again,—the bright chatter that tried so hard to hide
the constant unvoiced prayer "Please,—oh please God—let this war
end. Make this senseless killing stop. Turn the Eglani back to where
they came from and let us go back to the ways of peace we know
and love." The prayer, Ellen thought bitterly, didn't have a ghost of a
chance of being answered. God apparently was on the side of the
biggest fleet and the best battle discipline, and neither of these was
the property of the Confederation.
For centuries men had travelled the starlanes unopposed. Intelligent
races were seldom encountered, and those that were were always
on a lower technological level than the outward-sweeping hordes of
Earth. They could be safely ignored and their worlds bypassed.
There were plenty of others without intelligent life.
Colonies were planted. Civilizations were built. Wealth was
produced, traded, and exploited. And in time a loosely organized
Confederation was established,—a glorified Board of Trade that
advised rather than governed. And as system after system passed
by default into mankind's hands, the idea grew that the galaxy was
man's oyster and the Creator had graciously provided him with a
knife.
At that, there was some justice in the thought. An expanding
civilization meeting no obstacles for centuries is unlikely to believe
the minority of Cassandras. So when the expanding front of
humanity collided with that of the Eglani, the first reaction was
disbelief, the second panic,—and the third grim anger.
But anger was not enough. Mankind was trying desperately, but a
thousand years of peaceful expansion were poor experience to pit
against an organized race of warlike conquerors.
The war wasn't going too well. Even the communiques had stopped
calling the shrinking sphere of human power "strategic withdrawals"
and "tactical regroupments." Nowadays they either didn't mention the
loss of another world, or published the new frontier line without
comment. Long ago the dent in mankind's expanding perimeter had
become a bulge, and the bulge a dome that cut inexorably into the
worlds of the Confederation. Slowly man's domination of this sector
of the galaxy was being blotted out. In slightly more than five years a
hundred Confederation worlds had fallen into the hands of the Eglani
as the Confederation evacuated and withdrew, bartering precious
space and lives for infinitely more precious time to forge the
weapons and battle skills to crush the aliens.
Ellen knew all this, but it didn't seem important. What mattered was
that her man was out there on the frontier fighting the Eglani. She
wanted him home with all the blind possessive selfishness of her
sex. She wanted to feel his arms around her and later in the quiet of
their home to tell him what he had a right to know. She laid down her
cards and ran her hands over her abdomen with a curious half
protective half possessive gesture, a wry smile touching her lips. She
was doing her part just as Alton was doing his. Life was needed. Life
had to be replaced.
Another keening shriek from the sky. Another ship was in.
And Ellen was standing up. Her face was glory.
"It's Alton!" she said with odd softness. "I'd know the sound of those
drives anywhere in the galaxy." And then—quietly—she fainted....
Within minutes after landing, interrogation teams from Central
Intelligence swarmed over ship and crew like vultures on a dead
carcass. For hours the questioning and examination went on and not
until the last tape, the last instrument, and the last crewman of the
"Dauntless" had been wrung dry of information did the torture stop.
Literally nothing was overlooked but the results as usual were
negative—three strikes, three kills, two boardings, and nothing to
show for them but Eglan corpses. As usual the aliens were thorough.
They fought while they could and died when they could fight no
more, and headless bodies were no use to Central Research.
Reluctantly, Intelligence released the officers and crew.
The Eglan Enigma was no closer to solution than it was five years
ago when the aliens had blasted a Confederation exploration ship
and had started the war. But Commander Alton Fiske wasn't worried
about that. Ellen was out there waiting for him and he'd been
delayed too long already.

A week is never long at best,—and this had been shorter than most,
Fiske decided as he picked up a ground car at fleet headquarters
and directed the driver to take him to his quarters. It was a little
better than an hour until blastoff, which would give him time enough
to pick up his kit and say goodbye, to Ellen for the fourth time. He'd
been lucky. The "Dauntless" needed modification and repair and the
week planetside was his longest time ashore since his honeymoon.
Of course, Ellen wasn't going to like his sudden departure, but she
was a Navy wife and she knew what she was getting into before they
were married. It was an abiding wonder that she had married him in
the face of his Cassandra prophecies of trouble and heartache. But
then—Ellen was an unusual woman.
As he left the forbidding grimness of Fleet Headquarters he almost
smiled. In a way it was a relief to get away from the long-faced brass
whose professionally preoccupied air was merely a camouflage for
the worry that ate at the linings of their stomachs. Fiske was glad
that he wasn't one of the Ulcer Echelon, that his worries involved
relatively simple things such as fighting a ship and getting home
alive.
As it was, the pain of leaving again was bad enough, and if it weren't
for Ellen's "get-togethers" it would be greater. They were the one
fault in her otherwise perfect character. How a perfectly sane and
sensible woman could endure those gabfests where every blessed
female was talking at the same time was more than he could
understand. But Ellen not only took them in her stride, she took them
three or four times a week.
His face clouded as he saw the squadron of ground cars parked
before his quarters. Their significance was obvious. Of course, she
didn't expect him home this early in the day, and if she'd known of
the orders he'd received there probably would have been no one
here but her. Still, he'd have to go inside and face that crowd of cats
mewling at each other over some conversational bone. He sighed as
he stepped out of the car, told the driver to wait, and walked the few
steps to his quarters.
Through the clatter of shrill voices the squealing giggle of Anne
Albertson cut like a knife, piercing his ears as he stood in the tiny
entrance hall, reluctant to enter farther yet unwilling to leave. He
winced. Sure, Anne probably had a right to squeal. Her husband had
landed his riddled ship yesterday morning and had walked away
from the wreckage. Sure—she had a right to squeal, but did she
have to do it in his house?
Fixing his expression into a noncommittal mask, he stepped into the
living room, and with his appearance the noise stopped. Twelve pair
of eyes looked at him and Anne Albertson said into the silence, "I
think we'd better leave, girls. We're not needed here right now."
There was a murmur and a rustle, and miraculously the room was
empty, except for Ellen. She stood in front of him, a slim straight girl
with a face that was oddly white against the wealth of her blue-black
hair. She wasn't pretty, Fiske thought. She was beautiful.
"Are you off again?" Ellen asked.
Fiske nodded. Wives, he suspected, were telepathic.
"Admiral Koenig should go drown himself," she said bitterly. "He has
no right to send you off like this. You've been home only six days."
"That's twice as long as last time," Fiske pointed out reasonably. He
felt proud of her. She was pure steel all the way through. No tears,
no fuss, even a faint smile on her lips. If possible he loved her more
than ever. "If you don't like it," he continued with a wry grin, "you
might take it up with the Admiral."
"Not me," Ellen said. "The one time I saw him at close range he
scared me half to death."
"Oh well, you needn't worry. It's just another try for prisoners. The
Research Institute wants a live Eglan."
"Haven't they got some? Ed Albertson came in with a few last trip."
"Those were civilians. The labs want a military man or two. There's a
lot of differences between the Eglan military and civilians that don't
make sense."
"All they'd need to do is look at our fighting men. There's a lot of
differences between them and civilians that don't make sense."
Fiske grinned. "Anyway, it's a milk run this time," he lied.
"Don't kid the troops on the home front," she said. "It's big, mean,
and dirty."
"It's no worse than any other mission. Sure, they're all bad but I'm on
detached assignment and there won't be a lot of other ships around
cluttering up space and drawing attention."
"I wish they'd leave us alone."
"So do I. But these mule-eared Eglan militarists aren't going to be
satisfied until we pin their ears back."
"I suppose so, but I don't like to think of you out there."
"Someone has to go," he said quietly, "and besides I've always
managed to come back. I'm getting pretty good at it now." He kissed
her lightly on the end of her nose.
"Just keep on being good," she said. "I like having you around." She
kissed him then, a fierce hungry kiss that left him breathless. "All
right sailor, there's something for you to come home to. Now let's get
your gear together."
Ellen followed him to the door. "I'm not going down to the field with
you this time," she said. "Last time was enough. I don't think I could
stand watching you disappear outside again. But I made something
to take with you." She picked up a square flat package from the top
of the recorder and thrust it into his hands.
"Another tape like the last one?" he queried.
"Not exactly like the last one," she smiled, "but it's along the same
lines. You said you liked the other."
"I did. It was nice to hear your voice. And would you believe I never
grew tired of hearing it? It gets lonely out there."
"It gets lonely here too. Now, off with you or I'll be tempted to kidnap
you for the duration." She kissed him, a cool wifely kiss that was
tender but passionless, pushed him gently away, and stood beside
the door until his car disappeared around the corner on its way back
to the Base.
She sighed and turned back to the house. That was all it was now—
just a house—but for the past week it had been a home. She
wondered when, if ever, it would be a home again. It was starting
already—the worry, the hidden fear, the agony of suspenseful
waiting.
She jumped as the doorbell rang and Anne Albertson's face
appeared in the viewplate.
"I came back," Anne said as she entered the room. "I thought you
might need me, and besides—I forgot something." She looked at the
recorder with an odd expression on her pointed face. "Well," she
said finally, "I didn't think anyone wanted it worse than I did. I thought
it might amuse Ed. He's pretty low. He lost a lot of men."
"Wanted what?" Ellen asked curiously.
"That recording I made of the first part of our get together. I left it
lying on top of the recorder, but it isn't there now."
Ellen gasped and put the back of her hand to her mouth. "Oh no!"
she said in a strangled voice.
Anne looked at her curiously.
"I gave it to Alton," Ellen said. "I thought it was the one I made for
him."
"Oh well, he shouldn't mind. Your voice is on it too."
"You don't know Alton," Ellen said miserably....

As the "Dauntless" bored through Cth space in the middle blue

component, Fiske reviewed his last meeting with Admiral Koenig. It
hadn't been too satisfactory. Central Research, it seemed, still
wanted a live Eglan trooper. It didn't matter that the Navy hadn't
captured one in five years of trying. The requirement still stood. It
took no great intelligence to understand why Central wanted a
prisoner. A great deal about the aliens could be understood if there
was live meat available. The only trouble was that there never had
been, and probably never would be a live Eglan prisoner of war.
Fiske automatically excluded the Eglan civilians. They were
essentially no different than a civilized human.
It puzzled Fiske. How a people who were gentle, civilized, and
understanding could produce a warrior caste so fiercely dedicated
and so utterly different was a mystery he couldn't solve. Sure—some
of it probably was connected with the suicide devices surgically
implanted in their skulls, but that wasn't all of it. Their fanatic will to
fight, their utter disregard of death and their incredible discipline had
no reflection in their civilian counterparts. The Eglan soldiery were a
living denial of the human axiom that a society left its impression
upon all of its components. Certainly there was no reflection of the
Eglan civilian in the Eglan soldier,—or vice versa.
Fiske shrugged. After all, it wasn't his problem outside of the fact that
he had to fight them. And it had been proven some time ago that
ship for ship humanity was fully a match for the aliens. It was only
when groups were involved that the Eglan superiority was apparent.
And then it was overwhelming.
There was some trick of discipline or communication that welded a
group of Eglan fighting ships into a single cohesive unit that was thus
far unbeatable. Humanity had to learn—or it was lost—and would go
the way of the other civilizations that had been in the path of alien
conquest.
Fiske shrugged. Given time, men might learn the answer. But time
was getting short. Koenig felt that if the answer wasn't found soon,
humanity would pass the point of no return. Already the inner worlds
were glutted with refugees. Industry was trying vainly to gain upon
the tremendous attrition in ships and weapons and still supply the
population. Financial structures were tottering on the brink of ruin.
Taxation was oppressive, restrictions were galling and unpleasant,
and everywhere disaffection with the progress of the war was
rampant.
"If the armchair admirals had their way," Koenig had said bitterly,
"we'd be through now. But we can't hold out much longer. This
delaying policy is going to split wide open. We're going to be forced
to mount a counter offensive against an enemy we know can
outmaneuver and out-fight us in large formations,—an enemy who
knows a great deal about us, but about whom we know nothing. We
simply have to get a line on how they operate."
So here he was again, chasing the will-o-the-wisp of an Eglan
prisoner. He sighed, shrugged and turned his attention to the banks
of instruments that recorded every vital function of the ship.
This part of the voyage was easy. Not even the inhumanly efficient
Eglani could guard all parts of the fluid hemisphere they had pushed
into the territory of the Confederation, and ships travelled with
relative ease across the ill defined border that separated the two
warring races.
But life aboard ship was neither easy nor relaxed. Under Fiske's
command, it was a constant striving for perfection. Five years of
battle experience had taught him that neither officers nor crew could
become too familiar with the offensive and defensive armaments of a
ship. Constant practice was the only answer to Eglan coordination
and every man aboard knew that the more proficient they became
the better were their chances of coming home alive. So all hands
spent every spare moment refining skills of war, solving simulated
tactical problems, trying to increase response speed and improve
combat efficiency.
Fiske checked the control console, his eyes sweeping across the
lights and dials that indicated the "Dauntless" was manned and
ready and that the crew were at their proper stations. Satisfied that
everything was in order, he set up a tactical problem on the board
and buzzed for the Executive officer.
"Take over, Oley," he said, as the Exec slid into the chair beside him.
"Hmm, a stinker you leave me," Olaf Pedersen remarked as his eyes
scanned the board.
"I'll be in quarters if you need help," Fiske said. He pushed off in a
flat dive toward the hatch that led to his quarters as Pedersen took
up the problem and the drill went on. As ship commander he enjoyed
the priceless luxury of privacy, and for the little time that remained
before breakout, he would luxuriate in solitude and listen to what
Ellen taped for him. It was a pleasure he had carefully saved for this
moment before they went into action. He hoped that it was
something gay and inspiring, perhaps with a little of the affection
they had for each other—but whatever it was it would be Ellen's
voice and for awhile it would give him the illusion that she was near.
He webbed into his shock-couch, threaded the spool of tape into the
playback and flipped the switch. For a few seconds the tape
hummed quietly through the guides. Then a blast of noise erupted
from the speaker.
Anne Albertson's piercing giggle.
Laughter.
Voices—piercing female voices pitched at their most irritating level—
a cacophonous clatter through which snatches of treble phrases
sliced with nerve jangling shrillness!
Fiske's howl could be heard through the entire forward part of the
ship!
He reached out angrily to turn off the playback, but even as he did,
he hesitated. Ellen must have given him this tape for a reason,—and
it was obvious that he was missing it. She wasn't the sort to play
practical jokes. Gritting his teeth he forced himself to listen to the
gabble that rasped his ears and frayed his temper. It was the
quintessence of irritation, a garbled, calm-destroying jangle that had
all the comfort of a dental drill grinding out an infected molar.
And then he heard it. The background noise died a little, and across
the disconnected chatter came Ellen's voice—clear crisp and light—
mouthing the same banalities as the others! It was wrong. Everything
about it was wrong. And then he understood.
For behind her voice a pattern emerged, a pattern that was neither
light, nor gay, nor superficial. It was a desperate clinging to the
familiar little things that made up normal life, a deliberate avoidance
of the war, the fear and the worry. And Fiske realized with an odd
feeling of surprise that here was a counterpart of the wardroom
gabfests aboard ship. The attitude was the same. There was no
essential difference. He stood it until her voice faded into the
background and then he turned off the playback. Ellen should have
known that he understood how she felt. There was no need for this.
He felt oddly cheated as he put the tape away in his locker and
returned to the control room.
The "Dauntless" broke out of hyperspace travelling just under Lume
One, well within Eglan territory. Fiske knew from experience that the
enemy detectors were efficient and it was always risky to breakout
into normal space—but he had to come out to get a fix on potential
targets.
"Set!" the gunnery officer said.
Instantly the "Dauntless" slammed back into fourspace. The scan
had taken barely ten seconds, and with reasonable luck the dip into
normal space would remain unnoticed long enough to give them the
advantage of surprise. At best such an advantage would be fleeting.
At worst he would breakout in the middle of an Eglan trap. Actuality
would probably be somewhere in between. He'd have perhaps
twenty minutes—and in that time he'd have to accomplish his
mission and get the "Dauntless" back into the relative safety of
fourspace.
The world ahead was a small planet about two thirds the size of
Earth, and from it came the persistent radiation of nuclear stockpiles
and atomic machinery. There was a base here—a big one supported
by a massive industrial complex. The Eglani had the habit of
concentrating their works, which made for greater efficiency of
operation, but also made them far more remunerative targets.

There was no waiting. The cruiser flashed into normal spacetime, a

bank of red lights blossomed on the control board, and the gunnery
officer launched a salvo of torpedoes at the Eglan Base. The torps
were new. Each carried a tiny hyperspace converter that pushed
them up into the lower orange. They would arrive on target
milliseconds after they were launched, breakout into normal space,
and detonate. They were tricky things that required nearly ten
seconds data to adjust, but when properly set they could materialize
within any fixed screen. The inherent qualities of fourspace made
them useless against maneuvering ships, but against a city or a
planetary base they were deadly. Of course, compartmentalized
screening would reduce the damage, but if the Eglani were using a
hemisphere, God help anything inside.
Air screamed around the hull as the cruiser slammed into the
planet's upper atmosphere, her jets thundering to match intrinsics
with the planet. Within minutes the banshee screech faded away and
the cruiser hung motionless in the upper air. Over the rim of the
world behind them an awesome pillar of mushroom capped cloud
rose into the sky.
"Scratch one Eglan base!" an anonymous voice in Fire Control
yelped joyfully.
"Stow that. Silence down there," Fiske barked.
"Airboat at 0025," a spotter announced, "hedgehopping."
"Forward batteries ready."
"Use a force rod," Fiske ordered. "I want that ship intact."
The pale lance of a paramagnetic beam clawed through the
atmosphere and struck the airboat. Driven by the awesome power of
the cruiser's generators it struck, clung, and wrenched the airship
from its slow path through the sky. Instantly all jamming devices in
the cruiser flicked on, ripping the air with a blast of interference that
filled all the nearer reaches of space.
"Quarter drive, vertical," Fiske ordered, and the cruiser leaped
upward, dragging the airboat behind it into the airless outer regions
where the beam could operate more effectively.
"Okay, boys, pull her in," the bored voice of the gunner's mate in the
forward blister came over the intercom, and a moment later the
fragile shell of the airboat thudded against the armored hull of the
cruiser.
"Boarders away!" Fiske ordered.
The boarding party, specifically trained for this operation, opened the
airlocks, carved the side off the airboat, and dove into the crowded
interior.
The Eglani, caught without spacesuits, smashed to the floor of their
craft by uncompensated acceleration, their air lost in a mighty rush,
still tried to resist. Space is not immediately lethal, and by holding
their breath several managed to fire a few hand-blasts at the
incoming boarders. But it was useless. The beams clawed futilely at
the heavy armor and the return fire carved a smoking path through
the packed bodies. Then the living died to join the already mutilated
dead as tiny explosions limned their heads with momentary
brightness.
Fiske sighed at the familiar carnage visible in the viewscreen.
Another abortion. But he had expected it. No one yet had caught a
living Eglan soldier and he didn't think that he'd be the first to do so.
Young Lieutenant Fitzhugh commanding the party stepped up to the
signalman's scanner and reported. "They're all dead, sir. We have no