by Milana Jacks
“Something terrible.”
“She got her first period.” John smiled. “I didn’t know what it was. It hadn’t crossed my mind. She didn’t know, ’cause there was no woman to tell her. Yeah, we made it through the teen years. Then you came around. Kind of like her period. Sudden, painful, and the way life goes.” He gritted his teeth. “She likes fresh-squeezed grapefruit, drinks it knowing it makes her stomach bloat. Her favorite color is black because it hides the dirt. She eats like a bird, and when she does eat, she takes a long fucking time to finish. The same way I know all that is how I know she loves you.”
He pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at me.
I caught it in my hand.
It was a dark red bullet. I turned it between my fingers. Torrent was engraved on the side. Motherfucker really did have my name on it.
“You said there were two bullets. Where’s the other one?”
“Gonna keep it for when you fuck up.” John hunched his shoulders. “Don’t fuck up, asshole.”
“I’m not gonna fuck up.”
“I want grandkids.”
“You got it, man.”
“And she’ll want Bowser.”
“Who?”
“Bowser. Our cat. You’ll need to get the cat. Good luck with that.”
“Is that all?”
“Mm-hm.” He stepped away.
“Hey, John.”
“Yup?” He didn’t turn around.
“Don’t fuck up back in there. Stay cool, be smart, and when it gets tight, reach out so I can pull you out. We’re family. I’ll be there for you, you hear me?”
John nodded and strolled away.
Damn. I hadn’t seen him coming. I lived. Yet again. Perhaps I was destined to serve my people. Great Mother surely stood in my corner. I kissed my mate’s shoulder and prayed I didn’t fuck up.
Zap!
Current zapped my brain, traveled down my neck, and spread around every nerve in my body, triggering my muscles. They contracted and expanded. Why was I in battle form?
I snapped my eyes open, looked around. Still in med bay, sans Sienna, and with white stickers all over my body. I peeled off the ones on my face, my arms, my stomach, my thighs…my legs. Wait a second.
Legs. There were two of them. I blinked, unsure if the current Lers kept zapping me with made my brain see double. I lifted my right leg. The attachment, a gun-metal silver in color, gleamed, polished and clean.
“Wakey-wakey,” came from the speakers.
“Lers?”
“One and only.”
I glanced up at the camera, picturing Lers leaning back in an office chair and twirling his mustache. “Where is my mate?”
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“You tell me.”
“Whole.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a great healer.”
“And my mate?”
“Wiggle your toes.”
I looked down at my new metal digits and wondered if it would work. Inhaling, I commanded them to move. They wiggled. “It works.”
“Of course it does. Bend your knee.”
I swung my legs over the bed.
“I wouldn’t,” Lers said.
I ignored him and, careful as the day I started walking, placed my soles on the floor, then balanced with my new limb. It looked out of this world, like something a cyborg species from Hnada would have attached. “Is this leg imported?”
“Only the material used to make it.”
“From Hnada?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I frowned, thinking of the distance between Earth and Hnada. “We had this thing onboard?”
“No.”
Motherfucker. “How long have you kept me down?” They fucking sedated me, implanted me with a new leg, and now I’d lost my mate again.
“Sixty-four Earth days.”
I gaped at the little green blinking camera light. “I will kill you!”
“Which is why I did not show up in person.”
I marched to the door. The cage bars slid over it. I roared, gripped two, and tried to tear them apart.
“Torrent,” Alpha Beast said.
“What?” I strained, but couldn’t move them. Both hands on one, I pulled. Fur sprouted on my back, my muscles contracted, bulged, my jaw jutted out, and I snarled.
“Excellent,” Lers said. “Holds the battle form. Check.”
I snarled at him, still pulling on the cage bar.
“Are you done yet?” Jamie asked.
“Release me.” I leaned my forehead on the bar. “Release me. If you don’t, I’ll go mad. I had her, I had her right there.” I pointed to the bed. “She loves me. He said it, not me. What have you done?”
“Thank you, Alpha Beast, for sending a fleet to retrieve the material for my limb. In record speed.”
I said nothing.
A sigh came from the speakers.
“What do you want from me, hm?” I asked. “I can’t live without her.”
“I want the High Priest.”
I tilted my head toward the camera light. “At what cost? Losing my mate?”
“She is not lost.”
“Where is she?”
“The High Priest.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Hear!” Clapping sounded in the room. A woman hooted.
I waited for the peanut gallery to calm down. “Are you in the control room?” Vice directed the ship from the room. All the pilots and officers sat there. If they sat there, they watched me on a screen the size of a house.
“Yup,” Jamie answered. “Wave a little.”
I ran a hand through my hair. Shaved head. I scrubbed my beard. Cut shorter and braided. I didn’t need a shower either. Ah shit. I narrowed my eyes at the camera. “Sienna, are you watching?”
“Maybe,” she said. Something warm filled my lungs. My heart had just swelled. “You think you could meet me up here?” she asked.
“I can. I can do that.” The bars slid open, and I walked out a new male. Beasts passed by me, some I knew, some I’d seen around, and some I saw for the first time. They all fisted a hand and hit their chests in a traditional greeting reserved for the High Priest. I felt their excitement, felt we hadn’t lost our faith when we came to Earth. But more importantly, I felt my purpose. It was solid and awake in the very core of my being. We would have our tradition take root here on Earth, provide Earth-born beasts a place where they could learn and understand their culture.
Unlike my father, I would teach my people the truth. The Alpha Beast was the strongest, not the truest, and the only true beast was a female, our Great Mother who birthed the first of our kind after her encounter with the wild beasts who roamed our planet.
In the elevator, I commanded it to rise, and the door whooshed open when it reached the control room. I stepped out and froze. A pale pink balloon bounced off my shoulder. I looked up. Pale pink and light gray balloons covered the ceiling. Instruments buzzed in the background.
“Surprise!” people shouted.
Jamie and Rey—bless her and her filled belly—stood in front of a group of people and next to Hasel who sat in a wheelchair, a thin film of healing tape over her jugular. The elder had made it. I ticked it off as a miracle, though the other healers on staff would have said it was their magic hands.
Vice, Dewlyn, Troy, Reem, and Mayhem with Reagan stood with them.
“I’m surprised I don’t see my mate here,” I said.
The group parted.
In front of a large observation screen where Beast City’s lights shone in the distance stood Sienna and John. She held a small bouquet of flowers and wore a white dress. No, not any white dress, One of those big ones and yet just her size not a few sizes bigger. There was an unfamiliar light in her eyes and her cheeks were rosy. I couldn’t utter a word. She looked stunning.
Her father wore a suit, didn’t look pleased but managed to show me his teeth. I smiled back at him.
I stayed where I was because I didn’t know what else to do when Sienna and her dad walked a few steps, then paused, then walked again. Rey of the Alpha Beast started crying. Apart from Hasel, every female in the room was crying. What the fuck had I done now? I must have done something.
My mate approached, until she stood only a foot away. I inhaled. She wore perfume. Something vanilla. My mouth watered, and I wanted to lick her body. I bet her pussy tasted like vanilla. Yummy.
All smiles and sweet whispers, John kissed the top of her head. He lingered there and slid me an evil eye, then brushed past me and whispered, “Don’t fuck up.”
The peanut gallery chuckled. Everyone heard him.
And then there was my girl and me, and the world disappeared. She looked me up and down. Twice. I almost fixed my clothes and hair, made sure I didn’t have crap on my face, because Sienna stared.
Sienna
Torrent stood there, his long black robe parted to reveal his massive tanned chest where every muscle was clearly defined, especially those near his hips. He was bigger, stronger, and sexier than ever. I looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. With beads I’d woven into his beard while braiding it, he looked positively sinful.
With one sweep over my figure in my wedding dress and tall heels, his eyes paled to hazel. Heat gathered in my belly as I imagined stroking all his hard body.
“Sienna,” he said. “You stayed.”
“I stayed.”
“You could’ve gone home.”
“I could’ve.”
His lips tipped up. “I believe you’re gawking at me.”
I said the first thing that came to mind because he’d said that to me. “There’s a lot to gawk at. If all priests looked like you, we’d have masses of believers heading to sanctuaries every Sunday.”
Laughter filled the room. I’d forgotten about the people. I blushed.
“I’ll be sure to erect a sanctuary in the Beast City.”
“Boy,” Hasel said and cleared her throat loudly to ease her speech after the throat wound. “Don’t just stand there like a stick. Get your bride.”
The Orthodox bishop we’d hired walked to us. He wore a black robe and a golden cross with jewels hung over his neck. His glasses tipped up as he smiled and opened the bible.
“We’re getting married,” Torrent concluded.
I crossed to him first, angling my face to look up at him. “You’re all I thought about for the past year. Most of it was really bad, wishing I could kill you with my bare hands. It wasn’t until after I thought…you were gone that I felt truly alone. You’d been a part of my life, and then you weren’t there anymore, and I didn’t want to be without you. They say true love is patient and kind. It forgives. I forgive you. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be a clueless little girl aimlessly walking about the mountain. I’d still be a ghost, barely aware of my own existence. I love you and everything about you.” I rose on my toes and waited for him to close the distance.
“I’m gonna take that look as an invitation.”
“I think you should.”
“Are you sure? It’s been a while, and I’m in a ravenous mood.”
“I understand. Alpha Beast gifted us with a chest.”
He pecked my lips, a brief touch of his mouth. “Have you looked inside the chest?”
“I have.”
“And?”
“I don’t know what those things do.”
“That’s okay. I’ll show you.”
Torrent took my hand and turned toward the priest, who said, “I may need to change my attire as well.”
We chuckled, then Torrent cursed.
My eyes widened. It didn’t feel right to curse in front of a holy man, though I realized Torrent was sort of holy too.
“Is there something wrong?” I asked.
“Aren’t I supposed to have rings?”
“Check your pockets,” Mayhem shouted.
Torrent reached inside, but the priest placed a gentle hand over his. “The ring comes later.” He began the wedding sermon.
Right now, I wanted Torrent. I’d been thinking of our reunion for months. I wanted him to tear off the dress and ravage my body. When his nostrils flared, I knew he smelled my arousal, so I kept thinking of the dirty things he’d do to me with all the toys in the chest.
Torrent squeezed my hand.
I squeezed back. “Me and you, Torrent. Me and you,” I whispered. “We made it.”
Afterword
Hello! I hope you enjoyed Torrent’s story. I’ve been meaning to write a disabled hero into the series, and he fit the bill. But Cole, the boy character? This character came to me out of nowhere. Usually, I avoid writing kids as sides because of the dark worlds I tend to create but now that I had written one, know he will pop back up in book 5, the final book in the Beast Mate series where I will take you into Retreat, Texas. Are we going after Tom? Yes. But first we need to connect books 4 and 5. This is why I recommend reading the novella in-between #4.5, which bridges Caught and Free (title of book 5). It goes something like this…
His Beast Mate, #4.5
UNCORRECTED TEASER PENDING RELEASE
Synopsis
I sit in a house in Highborn Hills ready to play a poker game I ain’t never played before, in a suit so fucking preppy, it makes my skin itch. My target crawls around my feet. When her big green eyes lock with mine, and when she smells her Alpha on my clothes, her eyes light up, and I know I have her attention. When I win her in a hand of poker, I promise her we’re gonna stroll right on out of the house.
But her owner has other plans for me.
We’re stuck in a secured house.
We are unarmed.
No backup is coming.
And I gotta get us out of here.
Chapter 1
Red manicured fingernails dangled from a hand inside my food bowl. I flicked one cold nail. The hand didn’t move. It must belong to Karen, who had entertained in the poker room last weekend. The same Karen who’d once entertained the males in the beast compound. I’d seen her over there.
I glanced up at the tiny high window ten feet above me as if it offered me a memory of Karen at the compound. Rey and Jamie’s wedding night. “Ha!” I snapped my fingers. That was right. From their wedding night. I hadn’t gone completely crazy yet.
Karen had called out Jamie about his mate. I should’ve killed her then for insulting his mate, but resolved to party on instead. Had I killed her, she wouldn’t have ended up inside Owner’s mansion after Jamie threw her out. She wouldn’t have ended up as my meal, and I wouldn’t have to deal with the internal debate.
To eat or not to eat.
My stomach rumbled. I glanced back at the window. By my count, it was a Friday. On Fridays, Owner shipped off his wife back to her parents in the community and opened his home to potential business partners. Some came with their wives, some came alone, all came for a poker game where they could sample Owner’s stock of captured women. The other females, tucked in soundproofed rooms ten feet under his mansion, were human. I was a beast bitch. It made me special. It made me the weekend flavor. Everyone wanted the beast bitch though not for sex like they’d done with human captives. They wanted me to serve them on my knees. It was their way of saying fuck you to my Alpha.
I ate. They’d filed my sharp teeth, so it was exceptionally difficult ripping flesh with the blunt ones, but I managed only because I couldn’t take another beating. My body could take it, but my mind slowly slipped each time I rebelled, each time I didn’t take from the hand that fed me. Not this hand. The Owner’s hand.
I threw the bones back into the bowl. Footsteps sounded. Music to my ears. Maybe a rescue? One never knew. I scampered to the door and gripped the iron bars of my cage. Someone sniffed. These human women cried a lot, and I wondered if they’d dehydrate from the water spilling out of their eyes. “Shut it,” I barked.
They listened. Feared me. As they should.
&
nbsp; Ah, I recognized his footsteps. I counted the steps from the very top to the bottom. One hundred and twenty-five. He entered our holding quarters and paused. My caged room occupied the east corner of the house. Where would he turn? Would he go right for the twin girls down the dark narrow hallway or left for me? My palms sweated, my stomach uneasy after the meal. I chastised myself for fearing him and gritted my blunt teeth.
He stepped to the left. For me it was. I scurried back and into the middle of the room, dropped to my knees, spread them, and put my upturned palms on my thighs. I lowered my head and listened to the tech scan his retina. The dreaded cage lock clicked. I’d never thought I’d want to be caged like this, but now when it offered me protection from the others who’d tried to come in uninvited, it was a good thing.
It didn’t offer me protection from Owner, my gatekeeper.
Black polished shoes appeared in my line of view. I knew better than to lift my head and greet him. I bent and kissed the tips of his shoes.
“What is your name?” he asked, his voice rough with need. Owner loved his weekends, especially Fridays. He didn’t visit during the week. Whatever food and water we got for the three days starting Friday night through Sunday afternoon would be all we’d have for the week. I couldn’t be sure, but I believed during the week, his wife roamed upstairs completely unaware of the females in her basement. Nobody dared scream to alert her. It was certain death. I wasn’t suicidal. I would survive him the same way I’d survived Alpha Nie’s prison when I was twelve. And I would escape the same way I’d escaped Tineya. Alpha Beast would come for me. One day, he’d come for me. But not today.
Today, after greeting Owner, I intertwined my fingers behind my neck and squared my shoulders. “My name is Kitten, Owner.”
With his shoe, he kicked my knees wider apart while he wound the collar around my neck and snapped on my leash. “I see you’ve had dinner.”
“Yes, Owner.”
“Good kitty. A new client came in tonight. Wants to play a few hands of cards.”