Chapter One

“You may as well stop complaining about it . It’s your responsibility as a Lycan alpha, and there’s no way to get out of it.” Larssen sat calmly in the comm seat, executing a maneuver that would take them through a wormhole to the Andromeda Galaxy. They could then travel to their destination, Lycanus 2, a sister planet to their own Lycanus 3. Unlike stargates, the wormholes weren’t permanent. Their connections lasted only for a short time, usually sixteen to forty-eight hours, and collapsed if too much mass passed through them. Their ship was small and fast, but it still took almost a full day of travel time to get through to the other side.

“Well, it may be my responsibility , and I’m fucking doing it. But I don’t have to like it,” Konnor grumbled. He’d been in a foul mood since Lucas, his pack alpha and his first cousin, told him he’d been chosen to preside over the Selection, the annual judging of a young pup’s status in the pack.

Konnor and his brother Larssen had been selected to serve on the Hierarchy Panel, an important duty that enabled them to select the new leaders while providing a smooth transition from childhood to adulthoodby deciding on each pup’s rank in the Lycan hierarchy. In their ancient history challenges and fights decided rank. The intense battles among the young pups, as the applicants were called, had sometimes led to unfortunate deaths, especially among the extremely dominant alphas who refused to yield.

As Lycan wolf-shifters, rank was everything. The alphas were the controlling and sovereign leaders of the packs, assisted by their seconds in command, the powerful betas. The gammas were the soldiers, still forceful, as all wolf-shifters were, but they were the followers, comfortable in their roles as followers and rank and file. The lowest ranking, most submissive of the Lycans were the omegas. Omegas were rare, and thought by the Ruling Council to be slightly defective, good enough for only two things—service and fucking. Thus, omegas were taken as love slaves or concubines by the pack. Sometimes the gammas chose them, but if they were good-looking, then one of the dominant alphas usually took them on as their concubines and personal submissives.

It was an important but arduous process to determine the pups’ ranks, and one that the alphas took seriously. Each alpha had a duty to take his rotation as a judge. When Lucas called Konnor into his office to break the news to him, however, he’d still been apologetic.

“Sorry, Konnor, but it looks l ike yourand Larssen’s numbers have come up. The Ruling Council on Lycanus 2 has requested I send two of my alphas right away to participate in the Selection. Since Nikolai is still on his honeymoon, and Kyle and Blayde are both busy in different parts of the galaxy on their transports, all I have left is you and Larssen.”

“ Gods, Lucas, I’m supposed to be taking a little rest and relaxation here. Larssen and I have had three transports and two bounties back to back.”

“I know, Konnor, and I hate to ask you both, but it’s out of my hands. The Ruling Council is demanding your presence. We’ve been able to dodge their summons for a few cycles, but this time I have no choice but to send you both.”

Alphas were comparatively rare, though Lucas’ family on Lycanus 3 had been cursed with not one but six alphas, all closely related. Their greatgrandfather’s concubine, a powerful warlock, had cursed the Balenescu family to have nothing but alpha male children. This was somewhat disastrous, as alphas simply could not live together in harmony. Luckily, only one of them, his cousin Lucas, was interested in leading the pack. The others became either bounty hunters, like Konnor, Larssen, and their cousin Blayde, or Voyagers like Kyle and Nikolai, delivering bauxite, their planet’s export, to planetary systems all over the galaxies. This enabled them to make their homes on Lycanus 3 but also to not be around a great deal. The six alphas, then, were able to remain close without rippingout each other’s throat. Blayde and Nikolai had recently found their mates, and this also helped to tone down some of the aggressive competition among them.

Konnor was only twenty-three, and hoped the other part of the family curse, the one that had to do with finding their mates, didn’t touch him for a long time. Konnor had no desire to become as besotted as Blayde and Nikolai, and be tied down to one mate for the rest of his very long life. Waiting another ten years would be just fine with him, and give him a chance to fully explore the galaxies, along with exploring his very dominant nature.

All alphas were dominant, but unlike his cousins, Konnor was an alpha who not only had a streak of sadism, but who also required his partners to be extremely submissive. Since he traveled so much, he’d actually given serious thought to purchasing a love slave from one of the many auctions throughout the galaxy. He was particularly drawn to sexy little humans, like the one his cousin Blayde had mated, but so long as they were on their knees and knew how to properly serve their masters, he was okay with other species too, like Nikolai’s gorgeous, exotic Jayronian. Not that Nikolai’s little Jayronian prince was particularly submissive. He had led Nikolai a merry chase during their courtship.

The only thing that stopped him from buying a love slave was the fucking curse his family was all under, thanks to that crazy old man his great-grandfather mated so long ago. Since Konnor was twenty-three, his number might be up soon. A love slave would then turn into a liability, because not only had the bastard cursed all the descendants to be alphas, but he had also fixed it so they would find their mates while they were really young. Even worse, once they found their mates, they would be irrevocably, passionately, wildly in love with them, and find themselves unable to be away from them for longer than a day or two. This was the most embarrassing part of the curse for Konnor. Possession, protection, and discipline for your submissive mate were all fine, and to be expected. But love? Love was for other people, but not him. Love only complicated an otherwise straightforward relationship.

“Lucas said there were about ten of them.”

“Huh? Ten what?” Konnor had been so deep in thought he’d lost the thread of their conversation.”Oh, the pups? And how many alpha judges? ”

“Ten—one pup for each of us. That should make it go a lot faster. We’ll be able to really observe them well, and put them through their paces, though alphas are usually pretty easy to spot. They’re the ones who growl back at you and show their teeth when you try to dominate them,” he said with a laugh.“I hope we get a couple of those and then we can be on our way.”The young pups were all around the ages of seventeen and eighteen, with an occasional late-blooming nineteen-year-old. They were also at the age of puberty, which came extremely late for Lycans. Perhaps because of their long lives, sometimes over two or three hundred cycles, most male Lycans didn’t become fully grown until their late teens. Until about eighteen, most males lived at home with their parents, but when they hit puberty, they were expected to go through the Selection, which would decide their paths in life. From that moment on, they were considered fully adult and independent.

Alphas were put into tactical leadership training, betas were given educations in finance and psychology in preparation for becoming the bookkeepers and counselors of their packs, and gammas were put into some kind of apprenticeship with one of the packs, either on their home planet or on one of the other Lycan planets, wherever they were most needed. As for the omegas, if there were any, they would be put into submissive training and then put up for bidding as love slaves. Since they were still Lycan, they would be sold only to another Lycan for his pleasure, and their alpha leaders would ensure they received good homes. Though all other Lycans were dominants, they took good care of their own. The omegas were considered to be mentally defective dependents and were closely monitored throughout their lives by their alphas.

“Well, wake me up when we get close. I’m going to try to get a little sleep before my turn at the controls,” Konnor said.

“Yeah, maybe you’d better. I hear the nightlife on Lycan 2 can be wild.”

“Good. Maybe this trip won’t be a total waste after all.”

Konnor lay back in his seat on the comm deck, dropping almost immediately into a drowsy, half sleep. Used to grabbing a nap whenever they had a chance, he and his family were all experts at falling asleep quickly on a long voyage. Because of the wormhole’s instability, one of them needed to stay at the controls, and since it was Larssen’s turn, Konnor settled back to get comfortable. Before he sank completely down into sleep, he thought about what Larssen had just said. The nightlife on Lycan 2 was renowned throughout the galaxy, and that was saying something. Unlike the insular home planet of Lycanus, Lycanus 2 and 3 were much more socialized and open to visits from other species. Lycanus 2, in particular, had made an industry of providing pleasure. Not only did the planet boast beautiful mountains, waterfalls and rivers, but the southern hemisphere had arguably the best beaches in this part of the galaxy. The Amarinthine Ocean, with its purple, warm-asbathwater seas was Konnor’s favorite vacation spot, its black volcanic sands the perfect place to sunbathe under the twin suns.

But the Ruling Councilhadn’t forgotten the nightlife. Their planet boasted some of the best D/s clubs anywhere in this part of the galaxy. He planned to check one of them out at the earliest opportunity. He might find a pretty little human sub to sit on his lap and maybe ride his cock, while he indulged in a game of Palomian Poker and drank some smooth Lycan whiskey, his favorite refreshment. No, maybe this trip wouldn’t be so bad after all. It was just a simple judging, after all. What could possibly go wrong?

Ethan Capraru looked down at himself for the hundredth time. Naked. Naked as the day he was born, with nothing to hide behind. Not that he was the only one. All the other candidates were standing in a row beside him, equally uncovered as they awaited the call for their first interview with their alpha judge. New candidates always appeared before their judges in the nude. It made things easier if they were asked to shift so the judges could inspect their Lycan wolf. It was traditional, he supposed, and nothing to feel so uncomfortable about. Except that he did.

In any group, he always felt that he didn’t quite measure up . Not physically. He was average height and weight for a Lycan male, and certainly his cock was as respectably sized as any of the other young men standing beside him. No, it was something inside him that didn’t quite fit, something he’d tried all his life to conceal. He’d never felt that he was enough, somehow. Not strong enough, not tough enough, not brave enough to survive without help. He was about to be judged on his fitness to rule, and he knew he would be found lacking. He thought he could be a good gamma, though. He was much more comfortable following orders and while he wasn’t as physically controlling and dominant as some of the others, he was intelligent, if just not terribly forceful or decisive.