by J Haney
I do as told. I swear if I weren’t pregnant, I would have already eaten someone. However, I do need food. “Let’s get this over with already.” I count three seconds to unlock the six bolts, another three for whatever they have over the main door once they shut down the electricity that runs over the entire thing. Another reason I haven’t managed to claw my way through the damn thing. It has to be fifty- or sixty thousand volts easily. But I’m guessing it’s not enough to kill me, but I have no idea what it might do to the growing life inside me.
The door opens; it’s a five-second walk for the handler with my food. I could make it. The door is left open for a fast exit. I watch it from my peripheral. Please let this work…
Snag- Crash!
The idiot tripped over the makeup brush I wedged into the floor. I spin and make a run for it. The lights flicker, and I can hear the gas as it’s already beginning to rise from the floor and drop from the ceiling. I hold my breath and launch for the door, my tiger tears her way to the surface, and I hit the cold and rocky ground. I don’t think- just run, my eyes adjust to the dark, but I’m in a tunnel. There are red lights all around me, and I can hear them chasing me. Alarms blare, making me even more disorientated. I hit a wall, bouncing off of it. I leap up the rocky edge trying to get to higher ground. My claws dig in, but I didn’t calculate my weight as it is now. I lose my footing, dropping to the ground. Before I can recover, I’m caught around the neck. The more I struggle, the worse it gets.
I hear clicks and snarls, and the thought here be dragons crosses my mind as my head swivels. I can feel the sharp claw at my distending belly.
“I suggest you put your claws away, or I shall let him use his.” I hear Adria say sickly sweet. “For this, there will be lashes.” I drop as my broken spirit releases me, and my tiger recedes. I lay on the hard ground naked and in pain. Looking up, I see her. She wears my mother’s crown, and my seal is upon her finger. “Worry not, little cub. The baby won’t feel a thing.” She smirks at me before I see her boot heel, and everything goes black.
When I come to, I’m strung up. There’s people talking. I try to move but can’t do much more than scrape my bare feet in the dirt. My neck is stiff, and my face aches. Looking around, I see I’m at the center of a circle of people. The scent tells me it’s mostly normals. What the fuck is going on now? I was almost gone. So close. Stupid, stupid girl.
I feel the eyes that bore into me, and a snarl escapes from deep in my chest.
“Now, now.” I hear Adria. “You’ll take your licks and give me what I want or..” I feel her hands as she cups my rounding belly. “Well, do I have to say it?” Her dark eyes sparkle with menace.
“Why?” I choke.
“Why the line of ascension, of course. I was passed over because of a fucking birthmark.” She hisses. “You bare the mark the Vēsṭigara deem worthy. The stripe of Uuthanata, the white. My son had it too.” Her eyes darken.
“That’s not my fault.” I strangle as my binds are tightened, the tinsail digs into me.
“You can make it right.” Adria’s eyes slide to the crowd. “You’ll bleed for them, and then for me. See to renounce your lineage, and your heirs require your pawprint, in blood. You do this, and I will give you my word, while I cannot suffer your survival, I will raise the cub or cubs as my own. That is what matters, is it not? The life you carry. Isn’t their survival worth more than a silly crown?”
“I’m not to blame for being the one to take over, Adria. I’m sorry you lost your son, but if anyone understood why I don’t want to give up my own, it would be you. We’re family. We can do this together. Please, Adria.” I beg. Beg for my life and the life of my cub.
She laughs, “You know nothing! You are why I have no son!” Adria grabs my face, her nails digging into my cheeks. “When those normals came,” She hisses so low I have to strain to hear. “They brought disease to us. You were taken care of while my boy was left to wither and die.” She sniffs the air. “We may be blood, but we are not family.” She pushes my head back. “You’ll come around if you know what’s good for you.” Her hand waves in the air and I’m pulled up, my arms made into tightly outstretched branches. “Proceed.”
I hear the crack before the blow. Searing pain rips through my back, like nothing I have ever felt before.
“You should be able to appreciate the whip. It’s tipped in Rhodium, the precious resource your father has allowed to be mined for the last thirty years. Fitting they would make weapons out of it, don’t you think?”
29
I sit, and I wait. I have to be honest, I don’t know much about Zane. I found him in the caverns that overlook Luciteal. I followed the murmurs and rumors of a great flying beast that was neither Chinyoka nor flying Inokoni. I also followed my heartline, and now I sit inside a little farmhouse that has seen far better days. I watch as Zane sits with a once beautiful woman that time seems to have ravaged.
“Momma.” When the words escaped his lips, I was filled with shock. I had no idea that he had a family. I thought that he, like most of the Royal Guard, was an orphan. I now understood what brought him north.
She didn’t seem to register him, not at first. Then she smiled and cupped his cheek. She let us in, clothed us, and shared her bread and soup with us. I don’t know what was in it, but I was so hungry I’d have eaten that kale crap the normals like to add to everything.
“Momma, meet Valaria.” He held her hand softly. “Valaria, this is my mother, Morena.”
“You are not Vēsṭigara?”
“Mechkan,” I answer as she scents the air with a nod.
“Mechkan?” She looks surprised at Zane. “She is your mate?”
Zane nods. “One of them. I have two.”
Morena smiles. “The princess?”
So he’s told her about his love for Maya. I cannot help but smile as he answers in the affirmative.
“I am happy. You were born for greatness. Greatness in battle and love.” She takes our hands. “But where is she? This woman that you have told me so much of?” Her words are soft and very slow, as if she has to search for them.
“I do not know. It’s why I’m here. Momma, you told me that you always knew where father was. That you felt him like sand between your toes.”
She nods again, holding her chest. “His death was like losing a part of my soul.” A tear slips down her cheek. “I felt every lash, and every ounce of pain until there was no more.”
“How? You said he refused to claim you, so how did you do it? How did you feel what should never have been felt?” Zane was becoming desperate even as he tried to gather his patience.
I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to ease him. I speak to his heart. You must be softer with her. She is not well. Give her time.
He growls. “Don’t you think I know that? Get out of my head.”
His voice booms, and Morena jerks back, “You have his anger. His rage was his undoing. If you have love, you have it all.” Her body straightens but only for an instant. “I’m tired. I need to sleep.” She shuffles toward the rickety bed in the far corner of the open rooms.
“Momma, I’m sorry.”
She holds up her hand. “It’s late. You two may stay but do so quietly. I value my resting hours.”
“Thank you,” I say to Morena, and she smiles with a little nod. I turn to Zane, who collapses back into the chair by the woodfire stove.
“We need to keep moving.” He snarls.
My hand gently squeezes his thigh. “Zane, we need to rest. We can move in the morning.”
His eyes darken, but he submits. It’s going to be a long night.
Darkness surrounds us. The farmhouse is reasonably pulled back from the rest of the village, which leaves little more than moonlight to fill the house’s crevices. I can hear Zane and his mother as they gently snore. I, of course, cannot sleep. I’m filled with anxiety, with worry. Wrapping the blanket Zane found around me, I step outside. The stars are shining brilliantly, and I can hear the noc
turnal creatures as they sing their songs.
It’s peaceful, unlike the metropolis of New York, or the obnoxiousness of the castle in Rinewalled. My home, the one my father sold for his debts before he put me into bondage, was like this. Quiet, reserved, and made to live a simple life. It’s something I miss. Something I will never get back, being the mate of the High Queen. I had imagined raising children one day somewhere like here, though I never really imagined who with. Until Zane, I had never had much interest in men. I preferred the softer sex with which to whittle away the hours. Now, I couldn’t imagine my life without him or May. It was why we needed to find her. Why I cannot sleep, I hope that the peacefulness of the night might shine a light on what was happening.
My ears perk up as I hear a low groan. I listen harder and realize it’s Zane. He’s mumbling something in his sleep. “Please- it hurts-” He cries. I head inside, and he’s rising off the bed like someone or something is attacking him. He screams, and his eyes pop open, like two burning blue embers.
I step back as I hear Morena. “Hold him down!” She screams. “You need to calm him!”
“I- Me? I don’t-”
“Ugh- daft girl. You are Mechkan, speak to his heart, calm his soul.” She points to him as he thrashes.
I shiver, taking a step toward him. She grabs me and thrusts me upon him. He bucks like a wild animal that’s been mounted against its will. “I- I don’t-”
“Show him your love, soothe him. The Mantigara will resist, but the tiger and the man, they claimed you. You can do this.”
Zane’s eyes dart back and forth, his fingertips split, and his claws begin to push through. I can’t lose him to his beast, not again. I reach into his mind. Searching for him for the man. I feel his eyes as they roam over me, even as he fights against me. He is filled with so much rage, so much pain. The small bursts of love he has had do not outweigh it. I feel him swell beneath me in his struggles.
I don’t know what else to do. Hiking my skirt, I pull at the buttons to his slacks. I release him from them and straddle him, taking him into me. I gasp and force my mouth over his. I love you. We love you. You’re safe. Feel me. I offer myself to you. All of you. Man, beast, whatever you are, I am yours. His claws dig into my hips, shredding the thin fabric that covers me. His violent thrusts fill me. Brutalize me, but I keep searching for his heart even as his form contorts. He is something between man and beast as tears slip down his fur-lined cheeks. I want to look away, but know that if I do, I risk losing him. His wings rip from his back and envelop us. The talons on them pierce my flesh, and I cry out as his beast claims me.
30
N othing is worse than being on the outside looking in, except being trapped on the inside looking out. This is my predicament. As the Mantigara claims Valaria in a brutal and most carnal way, I am left hearing the whimpers of my loves. Yes, my loves. For some reason, in this split from my reality, I can feel Maya and Valaria. Both in pain, both begging for me. One for it to stop, the other asking me to take her down into the abyss.
The darkness is soothing, even if unsettling. Every nerve ending is on fire, while Valaria’s pleas and moans have me succumbing to my nature as she submits to my beast. I don’t know how much time has passed, but I know that when I awaken, I am still a man, and that man is still very deeply inside his mate. My entire body hurts. I am sticky from the mass of bodily fluids. I smell the blood, cum, and sweat. I try to move, but this prompts Valaria’s insides to tighten. I groan, trying again to lift her. My God’s it’s like a vacuum seal.
“Hmm.” She moans and wiggles her hips, “Good morning.” She licks my neck.
“I- need to-”
“You need to- what?” She grasps my balls, giving them a gentle tug.
“Uhh-” I thrust instinctively.
“Again.” She purrs, and I comply. “I felt her as you took me. I felt May. I saw glimpses as you came inside me. I don’t know-how, or why, but maybe-” She grinds against me.
“My mother-”
“Is outside.” Valaria lifts, exposing her breasts to me. “I just want to test the theory.” She starts lifting up and down, riding my shaft, slicking me with her hot wet pussy.
I close my eyes and behind my lids are flashes—the house in Rhode Island, only not. The place is torn apart—flashes of fur, then pain. “Keep going. Faster.” I pant. “It’s like I’m seeing-”
“Through her eyes,” Valaria says with me.
It’s gone- I am soaked and freezing! Valaria cries out as she breaks away from me. “What?” I am drenched in freezing cold water.
“That’s enough out of you two. You’ve already knocked the child up. Take your debauchery and find your other mate. You haven’t much more time.” My mother says, holding a bucket in her hands.
“We saw her.” Valaria whimpers, pulling her dress closed.
“Yes, yes.” My mother waves her hand. “The claiming helps, as does the touch.”
I roll my eyes, adjusting my clothes. “Not this again.”
“You two need a bath. Then you must go.”
“I don’t understand- what’s going on? How did we?”
I sigh, sitting up. “My mother is not all that well. She has long since suffered delusions. Thinks she sees what is, was, and will be.”
“I don’t think, boy. I do. It was your father’s gift to me. Aside from you.” She approaches me. “Take it, save your love, and protect your children.”
I shake my head in confusion. “I have no children.”
My mother grasps Valaria and holds her up for me to observe. “They may not have taken hold yet, but soon she will be ripe with cubs. Your cubs.”
Valaria squirms. “How could you possibly? I can’t be-”
“The Mantigara only mate when children are to be created. He surfaced. You are therefore certain to be with child.” My mother grabs her by the belly. “This is his home, his sanctuary. He came for you several times. Use your bond but be careful. It will grow as you move toward her.”
“Momma, you’re talking nonsense.”
Smack!
“I am not some feeble woman. I am not losing my sense as you would like to think. I have simply lost purpose. Now give me mine and take yours.”
I don’t know what to do. I look from Valraia to my mother and back. Could it be true? Could there really be a psychic link that runs deeper than just the blood oath and my claiming? My eyes go wide. “You say that I- that my beast only mates when children are assured?”
“That is correct.”
I run a hand over my head. “That day, in the springs. When Maya turned.” I hesitate. “I claimed her again.”
Valaria’s expression mirrors my own as she looks at her belly. I see her swallow. “If she- we have to find her, there won’t be much more time left, and we have to hope that this doesn’t take until after. We Mechkan when with child, turn, and hibernate. We sleep right through delivery, which will make me very little use in a fight.”
Mother shrugs. “Best to bathe and get a move on.”
31
L eft broken and bloodied, again. I haven’t the faintest clue how long Adria’s been torturing me. Not only is she locking me back up in this house for her own sick pleasure, but she’s also trying to hurt me. She needs my tiger to come out.
Her minions do her bidding. Those sacks of shit from the Nation of Normalcy. What fucking hypocrites. They scream segregation that we should all go back where we come from, yet here they are in my realm—working with her. Adria has had them all but rape me to get what she wants. Yet, I haven’t given it over. I’m not going to either. I know if I do, I’m as good as dead. I’m not rolling over and taking it. I won’t! I’ve got marks all over my body, and it hurts so bad. My hands and arms are scarred from the Rhodium and her uses for boiling water. Adria wears a Rhodium pendant ring. It’s now branded into my neck.
Everything she can do that won’t kill me she’s done. My will is stronger than hers. No matter how many times she tries to break my s
pirit and will, it will not be done.
I grab te sink in the bathroom that is in this box I’ve been living in. Looking in the mirror, I say a mantra I’ve been saying over and over.
She may hurt me. She may break me. She will not get my print. She will not get my cubs. These are my babies. I will not give them to her. Rubbing my rounding belly, I promise my babies. We will get out of this one way or another. I don’t want to kill, but I will if I have to. I am the High Queen, damn it, and these people don’t care.
Walking into the living room, I sit down on the couch and try to develop a plan to get out of here. I’m going to have to do it soon because if I don’t, I will have these babies- Yes, babies- there are two heartbeats. The weight from them alone has me feeling like a cow.
It’s like turning on a fucking light bulb. I can pretend to be in labor. I just have to wait until I know Adria is gone. She can’t be here all the time. She’s the face of Aeterna in my absence. Which means she has Oren watching over me.
Something big is coming. I can feel it. Adria is planning something, and I’m the key to that plan. I need to go now while she’s gone.
I stand like I’m going to the kitchen but grab my stomach and cry out as if I’m in pain. Falling back on the couch, I cry out again.
“Maya? What’s wrong?” Oren’s voice comes through the speaker system.
“I-I don’t-it hurts. Oren! It hurts so bad.” Tears fall down my face.
“Are you in labor?” Oren asks.
“My stomach hurts so bad. Oren, I’m scared.”
“Fuck, I told Adria this was going to happen.” I can hear the frustration in his voice. Stupid normal.
I scream like I’ve seen on TV. I grip the couch as I hear the locks begin to click. Yes, keep it up.
