Take Me Once, I'll Bleed You Twice novel Chapter 19

Take Me Once I’ll Bleed You Twice

Chapter 19

BEATRICE

“He didn’t bother you while you were down there, did he?” Alise asked, sounding worried.

Beatrice stared at the other woman, wondering if there would be repercussions if she answered honestly — that he’d actually been good company. If they punished Riaghaire for talking to her… that’d be unacceptable. The guy was lonely and had taken advantage of the fact there was company down there for the first time in who knew how long.

It wasn’t lost of Beatrice that she found herself siding with a vampire, one who admitting to murdering countless people – okay, werewolves, but same difference. She had always thought her moral compass was more black and white than this. Then again, he hadn’t done anything to her, and she saw the werewolves as being firmly in the ‘evil incarnate‘ category. Yeah, that probably had something to do with it.

Since the maid was being rather loose lipped with information, Beatrice had decided to shelve finding her things for now. firstead of answering, she decided to change the subject in hopes of learning more. “Tell me about werewolves.”

“What would you like to know?” Beatrice’s curiosity into Alise’s species seemed to have perked the maid’s up a fair bit, her voice suddenly sounding excited.

“Welk I know literally nothing, so…”

Alise mulled this over, as if deciding where to start. “Well. I guess the most important thing to know is pack structure. At the top is the Alpha and Luna; the Alpha is in charge of the pack as a whole, but focuses on keeping us safe, while the Luna is more focused on keeping everyone happy.”

Did they really expect Beatrice to be some font of happy–times? Because that was laughable. For far too many reasons she wasn’t going to get into.

“Next is the Beta couple, who are the right and left hand of the Alpha and Luna, respectively. Beta Benedict is there to support Alpha Hendricks and, if something were to happen to the Alpha before an heir is born, the Beta would take his place. His mate would support the Luna the same way.

“Then there’s the Gamma, who oversees discipline and training, and Delta, who oversees the other wolves and makes sure everyone gets their work done and

are taken care of.

“There’s a handful of other, minor ranks, but they aren’t important compared to the top four,” Alise explained with a cheerful smile. “At the bottom of the ranks are we Omegas. We tend to the needs of the higher ranked wolves. We usually work and live in the pack house until we find a mate, and just see to

the general comfort and day to day running of the pack.”

Beatrice nodded along with the explanations. The structure as a whole was very business–like; they had a CEO power couple at the top, who delegated tasks

to managers overseeing different parts of the company, who then divvied them up again to the next level, and so forth Efficient, if a little impersonal. “And

how do you decide who gets what rank?”

“Oh. We’re born with our rank. If you’re born an Omega, or an Alpha, then that’s what you are.”

“So… what happens if someone has a baby, and it turns out to be an Alpha?” What Beatrice wanted to ask but didn’t think it would go over very well was whether or not the current Alpha culled those who would vie for his position. If he knew ahead of time that a child would try and oust him, how would the Alpha secure his position?

Alise let out an amused giggle. “Only Alphas can give birth to another Alpha. A wolf’s rank is always based on the parents‘ rank.”

Ah, great, so it was a monarchy. “What happens if the Alpha has a child that isn’t an Alpha?”

“That doesn’t happen. An Alpha’s child is always an Alpha.”

3:18 pm MA

Chapter 19

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