King of the Mounder Chapter 1 Novel

Cadence
My brother isn’t a bad kid. He isn’t some wannabe gang-banger, or a thug out looking for trouble. Michael is still in high school, gets good grades, and never causes problems. He is a typical beta teenager in every way.
Which includes making bad decisions.
He got in over his head. An act of desperation by someone pushed to the edge.
Because weweredesperate.
Everything was crumbling around us, and we were running out of time.
It started when Daddy died. Even though he had been a soldier, we’d never thought it would happen to us. Sure, he had been in a war zone, but things like that happened to other people. Not us. Daddy wasn’t in real danger.
We were so wrong.
It was a rude awakening for me and Michael when Momma started screaming in the middle of the night, saying things we couldn’t make sense of. Our mother never was the same after those people showed up at the door the next morning and explained Daddy was gone, and Momma was suffering from a broken matebond. They were surprised she’d survived the loss at all, but one of the doctors mentioned it was probably because of us. We were still young, and we needed her.
It took a while for her to pull herself together, but Momma managed to keep going. She smiled and tried to pretend for us, but she was a ghost of the woman she had been before. Even at twelve years old, I could see it.
When Momma started having memory problems, I hated myself for thinking it was a blessing. Momma had days where she was laughing again like she used to, and the haunted look in her eyes faded.
Then she had days when she was screaming in pain, unable or unwilling to get out of bed. I wasn’t sure if those were better or worse than when she was silent, staring at nothing, not responding to anything we tried.
We didn’t realize what was going on at first. The good days started before the bad ones, and we’d thought enough time had finally passed for her grief to ease.
Until one day she stopped in the hallway and stared at the picture of Michael and I with Daddy. She hadn’t known who that man in the picture was, and once we’d reminded her, it was as if he’d just died again.

loading.. Loading novel

Half the time she forgot her own mate, the other half she couldn’t function she was so heartbroken by his loss.
The mood swings weren’t too bad at first, and it was chalked up to the broken bond causing long-term stress and depression. The memory loss was explained as her mind trying to protect itself from the trauma of the sudden loss of the matebond, but the episodes were infrequent. It was a couple more years before they came more often, and the bad days started to take over.
The outbursts affected her day-to-day life, and we finally had to admit it was more than depression due to painful memories. Momma was diagnosed with Bond Loss Syndrome. Usually an omega died if they lost their mate and didn’t establish a new bond to replace it, but Momma refused to take another mate. There wasn’t a lot known about Bond Loss Syndrome since it was so rare.
Momma had struggled to make ends meet on her own after Daddy was gone. She had done everything she could, working crazy hours which I assumed helped her bury the pain of the loss, but once she started having issues at work, they had to let her go. She’d been an administrator at a busy hospital downtown, and the job was too important and complicated for someone who would have days when she couldn’t get out of bed, much less go to work and deal with other people.
By the time I finished high school, we were in trouble. Bills were piling up, and Momma losing her job sent her on a downward spiral we couldn’t seem to stop.
I had picked up a waitressing job as soon as I was old enough to work, and once I graduated, I found a second one in the call center for an insurance office. Michael had tried to get a job too, but as Momma got worse, someone had to be home to look after her. I didn’t even like her being alone while Michael was in school. If no one came home to tell her to eat she would forget, and there had been a few times when she’d tried to fix dinner and almost caught the house on fire because she broke down and left food on the stove, or burners on.
We couldn’t afford to put her in a care home no matter how many times she’d begged us to so Michael and I couldhave a life.
“Sell the house, put me in nursing care, and go have fun! I’m not your responsibility. You can’t give up your life for me.”
Momma didn’t know we couldn’t sell the house because she didn’t remember taking out a second mortgage. One I was struggling to pay because the interest was so high and the house wasn’t worth enough after years of neglect and a falling market.
I got her the best care I could, signing her up for trials when we couldn’t afford the doctor’s visits. We got her on medications to stabilize her moods and try to keep her present, but it took a long time to find the right balance. I was barely holding things together.
And now I had to find a way to bail Michael out of the trouble he was in.
I didn’t know what he’d been thinking. Or how he even found these people to begin with. He was a nerdy kid who spent his time online or with his nose in a book whenever he wasn’t helping Momma.
He wasn’t a drug dealer.
Yet he’d managed to get himself tangled up with the local mafia. Or were they a gang? I didn’t know what they were, besides dangerous. I’d found out what I could once he admitted what he had done, and it was enough to scare anyone.
He’d told me he got the idea in his head that he could make some extra money running packages for the Galleons while still being able to keep an eye on Momma. It was what they called an entry-level position. He’d thought he could pick up whatever it was from point A, deliver it to point B at the designated time, and leave with enough cash to feed us for the week, with no one the wiser. He’d guessed what was in the package, but he’d wanted so much to help that he’d ignored it.

loading.. Loading novel

The problem was, people like the Galleons had enemies. Enemies who were watching when some skinny, high-school beta picked up a package he wasn’t able to defend.
Michael told me he didn’t know what exactly was in the backpack because he hadn’t looked inside, or who the alphas were that attacked him before he’d been able to deliver it. There had been four of them, surrounding him and yanking him into an alley to take the backpack, but luckily they’d let him get away with only a few scrapes as they taunted him and had a good laugh.
But now Michael was responsible for the value of the contents in the backpack he’d allowed to be stolen. His phone had been blowing up, and I couldn’t wait for the men he owed to decide to make a personal house call.
It might have been his mess, but there was no way I was letting him handle it alone. He’d meant the best, but his naive idea had landed us in trouble with people I’d rather not associate with, and I couldn’t trust him to be smart enough to get us out of it.
When the guy who’d given him the bag called again asking where he was with their package since he’d missed the drop off, I took the phone. I wasn’t stupid, I knew they were going to make Michael pay for losing their stuff. I just needed to know how much it was worth, and if they would be willing to work out a deal. The man refused to tell me anything over the phone, so I’d set up a meeting to talk face to face with the boss.
It was the last thing an omega should be doing alone, but what choice did I have?
The older alpha sitting behind the mahogany monstrosity of a desk looked like the stereotypical mob boss from any movie. Greying dark hair, thick around the middle, with a rounded reddish nose, wearing a pinstripe suit, complete with fedora, and a cigar clenched between his lips.
I couldn’t tell if the scent of smoke was his natural smell or from his bad habit.
The two goons beside me matched the meat-head description, with nothing but muscle between their ears. Intimidating in their MIB suits, their alpha-musk clogging up the air, but mostly useless without exact instructions, which was why I was facing the man in charge instead of the one my brother had met.
I may have been a bit uncharitable towards them. Stress didn’t make me very gracious.
I kept my chin level and my breathing even, not willing to show the tension coiled inside even though they could probably smell the anxiety rolling off me. I’d already run the numbers and figured if I took on a few more hours at the diner each week, and only made partial payments on a couple bills, I could probably come up with at least a thousand by the end of the month. If Michael owed more than that, I’d have to hope they were willing to work with me on payments.
I wouldn’t think about what they might suggest instead. Michael said he hadn’t given them our address, but I wouldn’t put it past them to know everything, including where he went to school, and when they could catch him alone.
“So, tell me who you are again?”

loading.. Loading novel

The mobster’s eyes traveling down my body wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to. Young, slim, blonde, omega; I was aware of my dynamic and worked my assets for tips on a daily basis. Alphas were alphas, and I did what I had to, to make ends meet.
“I’m Michael’s sister.”
“That new kid who disappeared with our merchandise,” Meathead Number One supplied.
Keeping my gaze focused on the alpha behind the desk, I ignored the goon on my left and straightened my shoulders, trying to make my five-foot frame larger.
“He was attacked by four alphas on his way to deliver your package, and they stole it. I’m here to work out a deal to cover whatever he owes you for it. He’s just a dumb kid, and we don’t want any trouble.”
Heavy grey eyebrows lifted, the only sign that he’d heard me as he continued to stare. He remained silent long enough for my stomach to churn and bile to burn the back of my throat before he leaned back and steepled his fingers in front of him.
“So, your brother gets jumped, loses our product, and lets his omega sister come here trying to work out a deal to pay us back? What kind of man is he?”
My brows drew together, lips tightening at his tone. It wasn’t the first time someone made a comment about me watching out for Michael, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last, but the sexism was still irritating every time I heard it.
“He’s not. He’s still a kid, and I’m responsible for him. I just need to know how much he owes you to make this even so we can forget about each other.”
The alpha’s head dipped, chin resting on his chest. His steady gaze was unnerving, but he at least seemed to be considering what I’d said.
Turning his attention to Meathead Number One, he finally leaned forward and placed his elbows on the desk.
“How much was in the bag?”
“Twelve kilos.”
I had no idea what that meant, or even what drug they could be referring to. I’d always been a good girl, far too busy and serious to get involved with recreational drugs like some of the other kids at school. The only thing I knew was that some of them used to buy what they called dime bags of pot that had cost ten bucks, because one of the boys had tried to convince me to buy it.
That calculating look focused on me once again.
“As noble as your intentions may be, I have the feeling you don’t have an extra twenty-two grand lying around. How do you plan to pay me? I’m a faithful man, omega, and happily mated, so don’t think I’ll accept anything but cash.”
My eyes dropped, locking on the gold ring he spun on his finger. I hadn’t missed the silvered bite mark on his neck, nor the notes in his scent that marked him as safely bonded. It was one of the only things that had let me retain hope when I entered the room, despite the clearly unattached and interested goons at my sides.

loading.. Loading novel

The air rushed from my chest before I could control the reaction once the rest of his words sank in, lungs refusing to draw in a fresh breath as the amount replayed in my head. I knew I had to be stinking up the office with the stench of my fear, the number he’d stated so far past what I’d considered that my mind had gone blank, still stuttering over it.
Twenty-twothousanddollars.
That was a quarter of what we still owed on the house. It was almost three-fourths of what I made a year at my office job, and it was double what we owed in medical bills for Momma.
The alpha waited as I gaped, mouth opening and closing as I tried to get my brain to string words into sentences. Eventually I gave up and bowed my head, shoulders curling around the fear in my chest, finally sucking in a deep breath to keep from breaking down in front of the strangers surrounding me. I wanted nothing more than to run home and dive into my nest, and I had to grip the sides of my skirt to stop the trembling of my hands as I struggled to think.
The door behind me opened, but I was too focused on trying to get myself under control to look up. A couple thousand dollars I could have figured out, given time, but twenty-two just wasn’t feasible. I had no idea how to get that kind of money.
But I couldn’t leave my brother to face whatever they would do to him if we didn’t pay. He was my responsibility. With the reputation the Galleons had, I wouldn’t be surprised if they simply put a bullet in his head as an example if he couldn’t come up with the money.
He was just a kid. A stranger to them, and a beta at that.
In other words, useless to them. Expendable. They had no reason to care what happened to him.
He’d never done anything like this before, so why had they trusted him with a package worth that much?
The longer I thought about it, the angrier I grew. The trembling eased as rage flooded my veins, curling my hands into fists. They would have seen Michael wasn’t capable of defendinghimself, much less something with that much value, yet they’d given it to him anyway.
When I looked back up there was a younger suited alpha standing behind the desk, but I ignored him. My glare focused on the one still seated.
The one ultimately responsible for us being in this situation.

loading.. Loading novel

“Why the hell did you trust a kid you don’t know with that much? Shouldn’t he have had a trial run with an empty bag or something first? What the hell were you thinking?”
When I’d entered the room, I had ignored the girl standing across from my father’s desk, figuring she was one of the many that worked for us, but when she raised her voice, she caught my complete attention. No one who worked for us would dare speak to my father like that.
She was a little thing, more than a foot shorter than everyone else in the room, with light blonde hair that hung almost to her hips. A deep breath brought me the scent of honeysuckle beneath the stench of fear, the sweet notes telling me she was an omega, yet her dark eyes flashed with anger as she glared at one of the most powerful alphas in the city, her plump lips pinched together as her nostrils flared.
Glancing down at my father, it was easy to see his amusement at her tirade. He could be a hard man to read, but the quirk of his eyebrows let me know he didn’t see her as a threat. She was nothing more than a kitten hissing at a lion.
“He said he could do it, and we took him at his word. Thatwashis trial run. If he was one of our regulars, he would have had at least triple that.”
The omega ground her teeth so hard I was surprised we couldn’t hear it, her small fists clenched at her sides. I had no idea what was going on, or who she was, but the girl had spirit.
My eyes trailed along her slim figure, taking in the prim outfit she wore. A cream-colored blouse, buttoned all the way to the top, almost hid the gentle swell of her breasts. Cream heels were sensibly low instead of the long spikes that would have given her a few extra inches, and her pastel pink pencil skirt hugged hips that my palms itched to grab.
If I’d have looked at her when I came in, I would have known right away that she wasn’t one of our girls. She was too sweet and innocent looking, unlike the women who frequented my club, and it made her stand out. If she had been one of ours I’d have already noticed her.
I needed to know who she was, but I couldn’t admit I wasn’t already aware.
“Look, I’m a nice guy. I can give your brother two weeks to come up with the money to pay us back for what he lost.”
My father leaned into his chair, fingertips pressed together in front of his chest. It was his signature move when he knew someone wouldn’t be able to meet his demands, but he wanted toseemgenerous. He always had a backup plan for when they failed.
However much the omega’s brother owed, the way her eyes bulged showed she’d never be able to come up with it in two weeks. My guess was even a month wouldn’t be enough time. What was chump change to us could be a year’s wages to the average person working a nine to five.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what his plan was to get the money out of them.
Skimming my gaze over her body again, I pictured what she would look like without the demure clothing as an idea popped into my head. She clearly needed money, fast, and I knew how she could get it.
Before she was stuck with my father’s alternative.
I knew what he was going to suggest when they failed to pay up, and no omega with enough spine to stand up to my father deserved that fate. I’d seen too many women broken on the streets, their dead eyes showing what that kind of life did to a person, and omegas were the most sensitive. That fire would be snuffed out in no time.

loading.. Loading novel

Continue to read more exciting comics?