Maid for the Beast

by Grace Goodwin

  It couldn’t be true. “No.”

  “Yes.”

  I was going to vomit and not from morning sickness. Faint. Scream. “No. It’s not true.”

  “He transported directly to an Atlan prison for execution.”

  “Is… is he dead? Did they kill him?” I whispered, barely able to get the words out.

  “I don’t know.” She wrung her hands, clearly upset. “The Atlans don’t want to kill their bravest warlords. It’s not their intention. They want happy mates. Families. My understanding is that they will keep him for a few days at least. Parade females before him one after another, hoping his beast will take an interest in one of them. A last-ditch effort.”

  So, Braun might be dead. Or he could be choosing another mate right now? And all because I’d had a sleepover with my best friend, let him kiss me on the forehead, and that big idiot Atlan had assumed I chose Casey as my mate?

  No. No. No. I grabbed the pretty little warden by the front of her shirt and pulled her close enough to snarl in her face. She was a good bit taller than I was, but fury gave me strength.

  “Braun is mine. I want him. I love him. I’m having his fucking baby,” I practically snarled. Maybe there was a little bit of beast in me, too.

  He hadn’t chosen another. He’d wanted me, too. That’s what he’d come to tell me when Kevin had been there. But he might already be dead.

  “Find out where he is. Now. And send me to him. I don’t care if the king of all aliens doesn’t want me to go. I’m going. Got it?”

  “Got it.” She was smiling like a giddy fool. This woman made no sense at all. Maybe she really was an alien. “Let’s find your mate, Angela. But I must warn you, he will not be Braun as you know him. He’ll be in his beast form. You’ll have to deal with his beast.”

  “I’m not afraid of Braun. I don’t care what form he’s in.”

  “Excellent.” She walked to the door and opened it. “Follow me. First, you’ll need an NPU so you can talk to everyone in space. After that, we’ll talk to transport. While you are not wearing cuffs and technically not mated to an alien, you are carrying an alien baby, which gives you a first-class ticket to outer space. The transport pad should be available this time of day.”

  I followed her and swallowed down my terror. I was going to transport to another planet and face down a hurting, angry beast.

  16

  Angela, Planet Atlan, Prison Block 384

  I walked between Tiffani and Warlord Deek, their presence on either side of me the only thing keeping me from losing my nerve as we passed cell after cell of screaming, raging, roaring giants. Beasts.

  I’d transported to Atlan, and this couple, one human and one Atlan, had met me and escorted me to the prison. Warden Egara had sent Tiffani to her mate, and they had stayed in touch. Now here I was, walking past raging maniac after roaring monster. Intimidated didn’t begin to cover what I was feeling.

  Was this what was waiting for me? A snarling, destructive giant? Would I find Braun with fists bloodied from pounding the walls of his cell? Skin scratched and bruised from throwing himself against the invisible barrier that somehow held these gigantic, furious creatures inside their cells?

  Tiffani reached for my hand, and I held on, squeezing back with twice the pressure she’d applied to me. I was probably crushing her poor bones. She didn’t complain. “It’s going to be okay, Angela. I was just like you, although I’d been matched. Deek was locked in one of these cells, and I had never met him. But his beast recognized me. He knew I was his mate.”

  “You. Mine.” Deek had transformed into his own beast minutes after we stepped into the prison block, and snarled threateningly at just about every cell we passed. Apparently he was feeling very protective over his mate. Tiffani had grinned at him, patted him on the cheek, and told him he was handsome and sweet and adorable.

  “And you are mine, lover boy.”

  A beast slammed into the cell’s energy barrier on Deek’s left. I jumped. Tiffani ignored the roar. Deek turned and roared back twice as loudly. If Tiffani thought that was sweet and adorable, she must truly be blinded by love.

  I thought he looked scary as hell, but Deek wasn’t my beast. Braun was. Or at least, I hoped he wanted to be. I’d been so relieved to find out he wasn’t dead yet that I hadn’t really thought too much about what was going to happen once I got here. To Atlan.

  To him. And his beast.

  What was I going to do if he was in a rage? I knew he would never hurt me, or at least I believed it up until that raging monster had tried to smash his body through the prison cell wall.

  Tiffani watched me. “You’re going to be fine. Trust me. It’s going to be all right. Braun will recognize you.”

  I gave a shaky nod. “I know he will. But then what?”

  She eyed me. “You’ve had sex with him, haven’t you?”

  “Yes.” I thought the question was a bit personal, but this was not exactly a normal situation, and Tiffani was the only human woman I had access to who had actually been mated to a beast. “But not with his beast.”

  “What?” Tiffani stopped walking. Since our hands were still joined, she pulled me to a standstill as well. “You had sex with him? He told you that you were his mate but he never showed you his beast?” The alarm in her voice made me start to shake.

  “No.”

  Tiffani looked up at Deek. “Why? Why would he do that?”

  Deek shrugged. “Scare mate. Control.” His gaze focused on me, and I had to look up—way, way up—to ask my questions.

  “So Braun didn’t show me his beast because he didn’t want to scare me?”

  His huge shoulder went up and down in the beast form of a shrug. “Run away. Small female. Too small.” His gaze slid to his own mate, Tiffani, who not only was significantly taller than me, but her body was twice the size of mine, overflowing with lush curves. Tiffani noticed her beast’s lingering inspection, and her cheeks turned a cute shade of pink.

  “Deek. Behave.”

  His jaw clenched. “Mine.”

  She giggled, then looked at me with a mix of mischief and anticipation in her eyes. She was practically glowing with happiness. “We better hurry. I know that look.”

  I glanced at Deek and realized I knew that look, too. The way his beast was eyeing Tiffani was the same way Braun had looked at me right before he thrust his cock deep and made me beg for more. “Oh boy. Okay. Let’s go.”

  They escorted me to the cell where Deek had been told we would find Braun. The interior was shadowed, as if Braun didn’t want to bother with the light. Still, the corridors were well lit, and I could see him.

  I had expected to find a raging monster like what we’d passed in the other cells. A bloody, roaring creature so out of control the Atlan’s only option was to put him to death.

  “Let me in there.” I spoke to Deek, but I couldn’t look away from Braun’s bare back, from the shine of the silver integrations evenly spaced up and down his spine. He faced away from the corridor, curled onto his side like a wild animal who had been hurt and was dying. He didn’t move. Didn’t even turn his head to see who passed by outside of his cell. It was like he was already dead.

  Deek walked to the control panel on the side of Braun’s cell and stood still. When he took too long, I tore my gaze from Braun to look up at him. “Let me in there. Now. Hurry up!”

  Deek tilted his head and stared, which was somehow much more serious coming from a beast than it would have been had he still been in his more normal form. Even then, he was big. Like Braun. Big and muscled and handsome. Now, he was so serious and focused. “Must be sure.”

  I nodded, but apparently that wasn’t enough.

  “Female. Mate. No help. You go in. No help.” The jilted way of speech struck me as odd, and I wondered if the NPU device Warden Egara had given me was working properly because I didn’t understand what he was saying. I looked to Tiffani, who was nervously biting her lower lip.

  “He’s right, Angela. Y
ou need to know. If you go in there and he gets violent, no one will be able to help you. It will be too dangerous. A beast with a female to protect is even more dangerous than those we just passed. If Braun loses his shit, you’re going to be on your own.”

  I blanched, becoming a little worried. I’d come all this way to help him, I sure as shit wasn’t going to back down now.

  “You went into a cage just like this, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you and Deek had never met? Right? You’d been matched, but he didn’t even know who you were?”

  She nodded. “I’d been tested and matched to a guy already here, ready for execution. I was insane. I know. But—”

  I cut her off. “I know Braun. He’s mine. He’s not going to hurt me.” I held Tiffani’s gaze until she nodded. She turned to her mate.

  “Let her in, Deek. Then take me home.”

  His growl of agreement would have made me laugh if I weren’t so nervous. I talked a good game, but I was worried. Why hadn’t Braun ever shown me his beast? If he truly thought I was his mate, then why hadn’t he claimed me right away like Wulf had done with Olivia—on live television? The sounds of sex coming through that closed door had been so hot I’d practically cheered when the live broadcast kept right on going.

  But that was Wulf. And Deek was Deek. Braun? I’d never met his beast.

  The energy barrier opened up next to where Deek stood, and I walked into the cell. Tiffani gave me a little wave right before Deek put the barrier back in place.

  “Good luck. We’ll come back and check on you later.”

  I nodded and pivoted on my heel to face my future. Or lack thereof.

  Braun stiffened on the large pad where he’d been lying, as if finally sensing me. It looked like a soft mattress, and I wondered if they didn’t get beds because the beasts would destroy them or use the materials as weapons.

  Not that they needed a club or long stick to kill someone. Not when they were eight feet tall and solid muscle.

  I bit my lip. “Braun?” I took a step forward and stopped, unsure what to do. I had thought long and hard, and I wasn’t going to tell him about the baby. Not yet. He had to want me for me. Just me.

  Braun lifted his hands to his ears and covered them as if he was in pain. His roar made my heart leap into my throat and I startled.

  “Braun? It’s me. Angela. I transported here from Earth.”

  He roared again, but I was ready for it this time.

  “Braun?”

  “No!” His voice was deeper, so low that I felt the vibration in my chest.

  What the hell was his problem? “What do you mean, no? I’m here. Aren’t you even going to talk to me?”

  He swung his legs around, lowered his hands from where they covered his ears, and stood slowly.

  I watched, my neck craning as I looked up and up and up.

  He was even bigger than Deek. More than eight feet tall. “Holy shit.” The words popped out of my mouth before I could sensor them. I’d expected big, but good God. “Braun?”

  He turned to face me, and I held perfectly, completely still as he approached. He wore only pants. No shirt, no shoes, as if those things were no longer needed here. When I was squarely before him, he leaned down and inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring. His gaze raked over my body as if to confirm I was really here, as if the voice he’d been hearing hadn’t just been in his head. That done, he lifted his huge hands and wrapped them around my back, then pulled me flush to his body. “Real. Mate. Real.”

  I wrapped my arms around his waist—well, as far as I could reach—and held him. “I’m real.”

  He lifted me then, off my feet and into his arms so we were face-to-face. “Gold man. No. Mate. Mine.”

  Gold man… gold man. Ah, Casey and his blond hair. My heart ached for Braun now, for the confusion. The mistake. For what he thought he saw and the fact that he’d almost died believing something false.

  I placed my palms on the sides of his cheeks, leaned in until my forehead touched his. “The gold man, Casey, is just a friend. You are the only man I want, Braun.”

  “Mate.”

  I nodded, our foreheads bumping. “Yes.”

  He growled and walked to a section of the wall I hadn’t noticed before. Halfway up was a cushioned shelf, and Braun settled my backside on it. It wasn’t quite wide enough to sit on without being propped up, but it was close. Once I was there, he lifted my arms over my head. I glanced up as the cold shock of metal snapped into place around my wrists.

  They were cuffs. His mating cuffs. And now they locked around my wrists with a finality that should have terrified me. Instead I felt relief.

  He was mine now. Mine. The matching cuffs around his own wrists confirmed our connection. There would be no execution. No losing him.

  “Braun?”

  “Mine.” When I was locked into place, I realized what this perch was for. Mating. Claiming. Fucking. I was more than tied to the wall. I had metal cuffs locked around my wrists, those cuffs attached to metal chains that were anchored in the wall. There would be no escape, no changing my mind. No second chances.

  Good. I didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  Braun waited, his gaze locked onto my face when I lowered my eyes from the cuffs to look at him. He shook head to toe, every muscle and ligament and blood vessel so taut as if ready to explode. His chest and shoulders were pulsing with the fight for control of his own body. He reached down, tugged open the front of his pants, his cock appearing like a club, thick and long. God. It was huge. And hard. Bigger than when we’d been together in Florida. Pre-cum already dripped from the tip as he studied me.

  I was fully clothed. How was he going to—

  Rip.

  There went my pants and undies. He yanked the tattered fabric over my ankles and threw my clothes behind him like garbage.

  Another rip and my breasts were bare and on display.

  While he’d been rough with my clothes, he was being gentle with me.

  “Mine.” Hands on the insides of my thighs, Braun bent forward and put his mouth on me.

  I jerked, gasped, and then moaned his name.

  He fucked me with his tongue. No foreplay. No suckling. Just raw need. Lust. Hunger.

  I was wet and aching in seconds.

  Holding my legs wide, he suckled and tasted me, and all I could do was hold on to the chains for dear life and give in. Give him everything. “Braun!”

  “Mate.” His movements gentled for a few seconds, but his tenderness didn’t last. He thrust two fingers inside my wet core and latched his lips over my clit with such force I screamed as the first orgasm struck like a whip on bare flesh. I had no resistance. I was not ready for the intensity of the pleasure.

  He stood up, gripped the base of his cock, and thrust deep before I had a chance to recover. I cried out again because he was so big. If he hadn’t prepared me, he would have been hard to take. He stretched me wide, filled me deep.

  If I heard the other Atlans’ beasts raging in their cells, then anyone in the prison could hear me being fucked. I was shocked to discover I didn’t care who knew what we were doing. This little padded seat he’d put me on and the restraints indicated that this was the hope for all Atlan prisoners, that a mate would be found and they’d be saved. Sex was the only way out, and everyone knew that I was here to save Braun.

  I. Did. Not. Care. I was free.

  Chained to the wall with a beast fucking me, filling me, thrusting into me like I was the only female in existence. He wanted me. Only me.

  Needed me.

  I was all that would save him.

  For the time apart, I’d been wrong, so wrong. He hadn’t wanted someone else.

  It had been me all along.

  He proved it by his absolute obsession, his devotion to me—and only me. It was intense, broadcast with every grunt, every touch, every hungry thrust of his cock.

  He didn’t want me just because I was pregnant or because he liked th
e way I cooked or wanted to steal my rent money. He was mine in a way no one ever had been before. And I was his. I was saving him, and he was saving me right back.

  His cock filled me until I thought I might sob if I didn’t come again. “More. I need more,” I moaned, my head thrashing against the wall.

  He thrust faster, and I was grateful for the half seat that helped me stay in place.

  “Mine. My pussy. Mate.”

  “Yes.” I could fall in love with his voice alone. So simple. So deep. So hot. I rambled as another orgasm rolled through me, and I yanked against the chains. I needed him. Needed to touch him. I was dying. Dying from too much. Too much cock. Too much skin. His scent. The emotions exploding inside me. Dying.

  “I love you, Braun. I love you,” I breathed as he pushed me over the edge.

  Braun

  Angela. Mate. Mine.

  The words played on repeat over and over in my mind, the beast’s complete focus on our mate. Her scent. Her hot, wet pussy. The way she was splayed before me like a feast. The mating cuffs on her wrists had ended weeks of my agony. I’d been prepared to die, to leave her to her happiness. Her life with the golden-haired man.

  But she was here now. With me.

  “Mine.”

  The beast was in complete agreement. I’d heard her claim that the male was only a friend, but the beast was not satisfied until the cuffs were on her wrists. Until we’d fucked her. Until she’d soothed my fever and made me whole because she was now mine.

  “I love you, Braun. I love you…”

  Her scent, her cries of pleasure, her pussy fluttering and clamping down on my cock as she found her release.

  I was lost. My beast roared as I filled her with seed, claimed her in traditional Atlan custom for all time.

  Anchored by her at last, the rage I’d carried in my blood for years, the fear that I would lose control like my father had, faded for the first time since I was a child, and the peace that settled over me was almost painful.

  It was a silent, calm agony of relief.

  Holding my mate, I released her hands from the anchors in the wall and gently inspected the mating cuffs to make sure they had properly adjusted to her wrists.