Page 105 of The Alpha’s Heir

Worry ate at my resolve when I thought of how Meg would be handling everything. At least the farce of a wedding was off. I wished she’d stayed with her family while I figured out how to take care of my men here and get them safely through this mess.

I didn’t blame them for blowing off some steam and trying to make light of the situation. Enforcing martial law on our own streets and on our own families was the last thing any of us wanted to be doing. We were a show of force, keeping the peace in the city and reminding them that the council had the power to care for all citizens, while leadership scrambled to make a plan.

Sure, we’d trained for this exact scenario.

Training and doing were two different things.

“Citizen up ahead,” Sgt. Stone called from his position managing the big gun up top.

Silence fell inside the vehicle.

Sgt. Lutten picked up the loud speaker, his voice robotic and reading from a script. “Curfew is now in effect. Return to your assigned residence. This is not a drill.”

Our lights swept over the man in the street who turned to us, caught with bloodshot eyes in the too-bright glare.

“This is all your fault!” he screamed. “You let in the mutants. We’re under attack. They’re going to be here any minute.”

“Great, a nutcase,” Marcus muttered under his breath.

“Go back to your residence,” Lutten repeated. “This is not a drill.”

The man on the street raised two middle fingers in the air.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Yemen asked Jacques as they crouched near the back doors. The two corporals raised their fists, determining who would exit the vehicle first.

I climbed over my chair, putting my hand on Yemen’s shoulder to hold him back.

“LT?” He glanced up at me.

“I’ll take care of it.” I tossed one final look at Marcus, and my old friend nodded.

“Cover the lieutenant,” he said.

My boots hit the street, and I slid my visor into place, readying my weapon.

I wasn’t sure why I thought of Meg at that moment—not that she’d been far from my thoughts all night—but this was the part of Ethica and my job I hoped she’d never see.

Am I a coward for wanting her somewhere safe?

According to the colonel and the goddess, the wedding was off. She had no reason to be here, and I’d left her at the councilwoman’s house, thinking that was the best place.

Now I wasn’t so sure.

“Don’t touch me, pig,” the man snarled, stumbling away from my outstretched hand. “I have rights. I’m a citizen.”

I didn’t know what fantasy world he was living in. “Sir, if you don’t return to your residence, I’m going to have to arrest you,” I told him as calmly as I could.

He stuck out his chin. “And take me where? To what prison? How are you going to feed me there? Or is this an execution? Because if they don’t turn back on the power, we’re all going to starve anyway. Might as well end it faster.”

He wasn’t saying anything I didn’t already know, but my job was to keep the peace.

The man stepped back to the curb, cupping his hands over his mouth. “Do you hear that? We’re all going to starve! Then the mutants will come and eat the flesh from our bones and—”

His eyes widened as I injected him with a non-lethal dose of midazolam.

The sedative quickly worked its way through his system and he sagged in my arms as a dopey smile softened his face.

Docile, just how Ethica liked its citizens.