The other boy glanced over at Ethan. “Well, that was pretty intense. I’ve never seen such strong alphas. Scary as hell, right? ”

Ethan nodded, but he remembered how Balenescu had held him on his lap, soothing him. Inside him a little voice chanted to him. Not my alpha. He’s not scary at all.

“Tell me what happened . You had sex with him, didn’t you?” Larssen shook his head and perched a hip on the table. “You know we’re not supposed to touch them unless they’re given to us to train by the council. Even then we’re supposed to only teach them about giving pleasure, not take it for ourselves.”

“He came to me on his knees . You think I was going to turn him down? He’s my mate, Larssen. I need to claim him so bad it’s killing me. I could barely let him leave just now. This curse thing is a bitch!”

“He was on his knees to you? Gods, he is an omega then.” “Yes, I’m sure of it . I hate to even put him in the ring,but there’s no avoiding it. We’ll just have to alert the referees to keep a close watch on him.”

“You’ll have to tell the council.”

“Of course,” Konnor nodded. “But before that happens, I need to contact Lucas. He needs to use his influence with the Ruling Council to make sure they know Ethan belongs to me.”

“They’ll only give him to you for training. Then he’ll go up for bidding as a love slave.”

Konnor glanced over at him, a sneer on his lips. “You think I’d allow anyone to outbid me? Or pay any attention to it if they did? I’d take him with me to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Or else I’ll kill anyone who dares to challenge me for him.”

Larssen nodded. “I know. And we’d all be there to back you up if you needed it.” He gave a short bark of laughter. “I have to say I never thought I’d see you like this. Makes me thankful the curse hasn’t hit me yet.”

“It’s powerful. I regret the way I teased Nikolai and Blayde now. They’re going to give me hell over this, aren’t they? ”

Larssen laughed and punched his younger brother on the shoulder. “Maybe just a little. Okay, c’mon and let’s contact Lucas so he’ll have time before the Challenge to speak to the Ruling Council.” He straightened up and turned back to Konnor. “How do you think your Ethan will react when he finds out he’s an omega?”

Konnor shrugged. “I’m sure he won’t be happy about it. There has always been such a stigma attached to the name. I don’t think he has any idea, but I think he knows somewhere deep inside him that he’s different. He wants to believe he’s a gamma. I have to show him that there’s nothing wrong with accepting who he really is.”

“None of us would want to be an omega,” Larssen said gently, shaking his head.

“That’s partly because you’re an alpha, and you can’t imagine submitting to anyone. Neither can I. I don’t know much about omegas, but I do know submissives. I play with them all the time at the clubs, and they’re wired differently. They enjoy giving their submission to the one of their choice. I think omegas must be the same. The problem is that in the past the omegas haven’t had a choice—the Ruling Council has always tried to say they’re defectives. They take care of them by ensuring they have a good master, who won’t abuse them, but maybe they need to take other factors into consideration—let them choose their own masters, for one thing, and stop treating them like they’re mentally challenged. Ethan, for example, is smart and sensitive.”

“I’m sure he is, Konnor, but then again, you’re not giving him much choice either,” Larssen reminded him gently.

Konnor bristled and glared at his brother. “He’s my mate. He feels it too. He came to me, I told you. He’s made his choice, and I could feel it. I could see it on his beautiful face. He may not be totally aware yet of what he was doing, but he came to me instinctively. We have a mating bond, and if I feel it this strong, I know he must feel something too.”

“Whatever you say,” Larssen said with a laugh, holding up his hands. “I just hope he doesn’t turn against you when you tell him who he really is.”

Konnor sighed. “He’ll probably hate me at first for exposing him. Can’t be helped though. It’s the first, necessary step to claiming my boy. The sooner he understands he belongs to me, the better off he’ll be.”

The hours until the Challenge passed quickly because Konnor had so much to do. As soon as he’d talked to Lucas and explained the situation to him, Lucas promised him he’d handle the council. The alphas on Lycanus 3 were important and powerful, becauseof their planet’s highly valuable main export, bauxite. Because of this, the Ruling Council would surely keep the Lycanus 3 contingent happy by agreeing to allow Konnor to train the omega pup. Afterward, of course, the law demanded that he be put up for bidding to the entire Lycan population. In the meantime, the Ruling Council would be only too happy to curry favor with the powerful Balenescus.

Descendants of an ancient Lycan pack on the home planet of Lycanus, the Balenescu family had first come to start a new life on Lycanus 3, away from their political enemies. Centuries later, long after the ancient political struggle ended, the Balanescu pack were still on Lycanus 3, having made a good life for themselves on the desolate, yet mineral rich planet. It was the site of one of the largest bauxite mining operations in the galaxy. Bauxite was used in the making of aluminum, and in the manufacture of the space transports. Formerly a plentiful metal on many planets, overly zealous mining operations had extracted so much over the mega-cycles that it had become scarce. The mines on Lycanus 3 had become as valuable as the diamond mines on the home planet of Lycanus, and the diamond was now a galactic monetary standard. Only the planet of Tygeria, in the far northern reaches of the galaxy, had as many diamond deposits.

Konnor was busy the rest of the morning and early afternoon making preparations for their departure immediately after the Selection. Just before they left for the Challenge Ring, Lucas contacted Konnor to let him know the Ruling Council had given their permission for him to train the young omega for a period of three months. After that his training and care would revert to his new owner, who would be the highest bidder.

“Over my dead body,” Konnor had growled into the communicator. “Yes, yes,” Lucas said in a soothing tone .“I know you won’t give him up, but I couldn’t very well tell that to the council, now could I? ”

Konnor controlled his tone to sound respectful. “Thank you, Lucas. I appreciate your talking to them for me.”

“No problem, but we need the two, or I should say, the three of you back here as soon as you can. We have an important shipment to get out and neither Blayde nor Kyle will be back in time. Nikolai’s on his way, and he can help you, but I was hoping you two would be available to transport it.”

“We can leave here this afternoon right after the Selection. Everything’s ready for takeoff and I’ll be bringing Ethan with me,” Konnor said.

“Good. Give me a call when you’re en route, so I can get everything ready on this end.”

Lucas ended the transmission and the other two alphas headed for the arena. The arena was located inside a huge sporting complex near the center of the capital city, Zebulara. As they approached the area, they could already hear sounds of a large crowd of people in the viewing stands. Konnor and Larssen made their way inside to the judging stands to sit beside the other alpha judges, a few of whom were already in place. Konnor scanned the arena for a glimpse of Ethan, finally spotting him standing at the back of the group of pups, looking scared and nervous, his eyes on the big crowd in the arena.

The pups were already outfitted in protective gear, a loose fitting harness of sorts strapped around their chests and waists. It extended down past their groins and tied off on their thighs. Everything was oversized since once they shifted, they would bulk up considerably. Konnor signaled to one of the referees on the arena floor, an alpha he knew casually. The man moved over to the side of the stands and Konnor bent over to shout down to him. With all the noise of the crowd, he felt fairly confident that the pups across the floor couldn’t hear him. “I’d like you to watch my pup closely when he gets in the ring. I’ve examined him carefully, and I’m almost positivehe’s an omega. If any of the others get too excited and overly aggressive with him, he could get badly hurt. I doubt he would make any attempt to defend himself.”

The referee’s eyes widened in surprise. “Are you sure? We haven’t had an omega come through in a long time.”

“I’m almost positive. My brother concurs with my evaluation, and the Ruling Council has already been notified it’s a distinct possibility.”

The other alpha nodded. “All right then. I’ll watch him, and if I think anything’s about to happen to him, I’ll pull him out.” He turned to look at the group of young men. “Which one is he? ”

Konnor pointed at Ethan. “The blond in the back.”

The referee turned his head a bit to regard him. “Nice. I wouldn’t mind bidding on that once he’s properly trained.”

Konnor felt his hackles rise, but he forced his voice to remain calm, with only a slight growl tingeing his voice, even though inside him his wolf was raging at the other alpha, ready to tear out his throat. “If you pull him, bring him to me.”

The referee went back to his post and Konnor was glad to see the games were beginning. The three Lycan pups who had been initially identified as alphas came out against the four betas first. As Larssen said the day before, alphas were always easiest to pick out. In their shifted form, they were usually the largest, most aggressively feral ones on the field.

None of the pups had weapons of any kind, using only their fierce claws and teeth against each other once they’d shifted. There was the usual posturing and a couple of fights broke out, but it didn’t take long for all three alphas to be confirmed. Mostly the combatants circled each other, growling and threatening, until the weaker pups lowered their heads and bared their throats in submission. Once this happened, the officials took the stronger Lycans from the ring and the ones left faced a new batch of opponents.