In a discussion with publicist Sharon Aviles, we’d discussed my teaching romance authors how to write BDSM and incorporate the elements of the Lifestyle into their romance stories. She’d said that the interesting thing was in traditional non kinky romances, we call Dominant males, Alphas.
Sure they may not be kinky but both men have to take charge of situations. Both men feel the need to control and the underlying reasons behind this need for control is generally the same. A belief that his way can guide his heroine into safety feeds his need to be a leader. I teach this often in my course on how to write from the male point of view. It’s aimed at romance authors but the lessons still apply to a broader spectrum of fiction writers.
Often times both men will be in powerful positions either as corporate CEOs or highly trained military experts, these men are used to getting their way.
In the bedroom we see similarities too. Whether he’s using ropes and handcuffs, spankings and scarves, or just good old fashion strength to make his point, he’s still on top. His goal is pretty much the same, drag something from the woman that she wants to give but doesn’t know how. She’s generally afraid to ask and that fear is often masked as stubbornness or anger. Sometimes it’s blatant fear.
As a guide, the dominant male must guide the submisisive on their journey towards inner peace, as the alpha male must show the reasons he’s overprotective. Bondage becomes a tool used to strip away control and bring out emotions needing to be dealt with while the Alpha male may use consensual force to do the same. In effect, he’s binding the heroine and making her choose another path, one that leads to growth, rather than stunted movement. Different plot devices can show us these traits from both sides. Using the react vs respond method of character development talked about on WriteSEX, we can get this accomplished as writers.
His ability to see past her defenses as an alpha male or Dominant is what spurs him on to guiding her. It’s not until he’s learned to grow through the plot that he realizes he’s guiding her as she’s guiding him, but that’s another article. In the end, the two types of men are really one and the same. Our labels are just for publisher and reader convenience as they help us define the characters for the appropriate markets.
When I wrote Lord Frika in Siddella’s Surrender, I definitely created a very sensual Alpha. He had to make decisions on the fly, aware of the potential consequences all while keeping in mind the outcome for his newly found power source, Siddella, the Thief of the Low court.
Enjoy an excerpt;
A wind blew through the empty streets. Military vehicles had made sneaking into the club difficult as they were on the lookout for Frika now. Word of the Thief of the Low Court escaping an assault had made it around military circles in the area.
Despite the fact that his strength slowly ebbed here, Frika was still stronger than anyone else, thank the Goddess above. It wouldn’t last though. Remaining in the Land Between Realms was the only way to truly keep his strength at full since the inception of the power draining grids here in Faery.
With some luck and the power he possessed, Frika managed to sneak past the guards in the fetish club Siddella had been led to. A bit of a slip up caused delay but once he’d found where the two MPs had taken Siddella, he made his way towards her.
Heart racing, he knew what he’d find. When he did find her, the power of their binding unleashed in him with such violence that it became impossible to control.
But the rule for the Black Angus was simple. The quieter one was, the more one could hear.
The two guards torturing Siddella had caused her to bleed profusely. Her wounded body smelled of burnt flesh. Ugly cuts marred her perfectly pale skin. Teeth marks on her shoulder, along with the bruises near her spine would have made a lesser being wince but Frika knew what had to be done.
The flesh and blood faery held his prick in hand, hard and ready to rape her.
Frika couldn’t have that. With quick speed, he’d cloaked himself in a spell, snapped the necks of both the guards and reappeared visible in time to reassure his lover that he was here in time for her.
Seeing her damaged body meant one thing.
He’d have to act without haste or she would die.
The fae had grown weak over the centuries from exposure to technology. Their true power came from the sensual, the sexual. The CyberMage had attempted to stomp that down when he stole the throne.
Somehow, Siddella had become a prude, listening to the propaganda that the city-state blathered about how only those who were sexually active held one purpose.
Procreation. It bothered him that any faery would take such a human, Christian stance.
“You’re safe with me now,” he whispered against her cold skin.
She shivered but remained unconscious.
Using the last of his magick, he repeated the invisibility spell that would hold long enough to sneak past some of her debtors and out of the club undetected.
Rejoining Virus and Anya just a few blocks away, he set Siddella’s body down against a wall. Taking off his floor length leather coat, he set it around her shoulders and adjusted her for comfort. “
Anya was the first to speak. “See you made it back safely. Good.”
Frika nodded. “They were nearly done with her.”
Virus shuddered visibly. “I hate this nightmarish world.”
Again, Frika nodded. Reaching into his pocket, he thumbed the flash drive. “She really is something else, isn’t she?”
Stepping forward, Anya held out her hand. “I need that drive if we’re going to analyze the holes in the security system and deactivate the grid.”
Frika fingered the drive. “What are your plans?”
“Get back to Earth and look at the data, of course. I have some friends who are almost like gods in their own right.” She gave him a wicked grin.
“So be it.” He tossed the drive to her. “Wait though. Could it really be that easy to shut the grid down?”
Siddella moaned. “Oh my fucking head.”
Frika knelt by her side and took her hands in his. “You’re awake.”
Shaking her head, she rubbed her eyes. “It’s possible because the Cyber-Fae aren’t very clever with their encryption methods. Despite the complex technology used here to create the mechanized beings, we’re still not that well advanced in security programming.”
Virus leaned back against a wall and crossed his arms. “You’re saying that an amateur could hack their systems?”
“No.” Siddella took in a deep breath and looked around.
Her magickal sensors hit Frika’s. He sent back calmness to her.
A few tanks drove by.
All four of them shrunk back into the shadows of the dark alleyway.
“It seems the city is on total lockdown since this revolution you started has come underway.”
Frika smiled. “Phase one.”
She turned to face Anya. “To better answer your question, no. The amateur hackers built a secure system based on your WHAX software. Faery magick and intellect enhanced it. But I’m a hacker. A true hacker, meaning I like to solve problems and be free doing it.” She glowered at Frika.
He shrugged his shoulders. “The ideal of submission is that there is freedom in slavery.”
She glared harder. Returning her glace at Anya and Virus, she continued. “Anyway, the truth is, I’m not that strong a fighter but I’m that good a cracker.”
“I see.” Anya slumped down beside Virus. “So what do we need to do when we get this back to Earth?”
“I’d have to come back with you to show you. It’d be easier to let me do it but this deity that Frika passed onto me,” she jerked her thumb in his direction, “won’t let me. She’s hell bent on murder.”
Frika sighed. The green hue of the sky had taken on a bright neon color. The land itself rotted around them, starting with the sky. He swallowed hard. “I’m thinking if the strikes continue on the various city-states while we make our escape back to Earth then you can do this?”
“It’s much better if we stay here and infiltrate them.”
He wanted to stop her and shut the idea down. But he couldn’t. Mate that she was, she was also someone who possessed knowledge he and the rest of the Black Angus did not. “What do you think, Anya?”
Anya shrugged. “What choice do we have?”
Frika’s lips pursed together in a thin line. “We need better control over your deity my sweet.” His eyes narrowed and groin hardened.
Backing up against the wall, Siddella put her hands up defensively. “Don’t look at me like that.”
He kept his voice to a low whisper. “I can help you control her.”
She started to stand but fell back against the wall and on her ass. “No!” She looked at him with wide eyes.
He stepped closer to her and held out his hand. With her snow white hair framing her face, she looked almost like a porcelain doll wearing an oversized coat. His heart beat an extra time at the fact that his tiny mate was not only skilled but nearly as stubborn as he was. “You’re the only faery I’ve ever met that rejected their sexuality. Do you realize you’d have more power if you’d accept yourself?”
Pulling the coat over her naked body, she looked away.
He knelt down before her and took her head in his fingers. Lifting her chin to meet his gaze, he studied her, noted flecks of gold in her dual colored red and silver eyes. She smelled of Unseelie, scents that reminded him of times of old.
Her bottom lip quivered.
Softly, he brushed his lips over hers. “You don’t have to fear me.”
“I don’t!” She retorted but the words didn’t come out as though they held meaning.
Either way, the faeries have a unique perspective and give us a taste of something different in our stories, especially with the myriad of legends that surround them.
