There was nothing fantasy-like about my existence. Not anymore. Wulf would find out the truth, and he would break it off and break my heart. Lingering now would only make it worse.
Being short helped as I ducked beneath the arm of a cameraman and fled. People followed, but I pushed through the crowd and then, thankfully, got lost in the sea of audience members who were leaving the building. I heard a roar and knew Wulf had discovered me missing. Keeping my chin down, I made it to my car.
Wulf was somewhere inside losing his shit. He’d done it once, and they’d caught it on camera. No doubt they were doing it again. I had to assume they were ready this time and must’ve pulled in some of the testing center guards—huge Atlans like Wulf—to try and restrain him. I could only imagine the ratings. The show must go on. So would my life here on Earth.
Alone.
4
Olivia, Her House, 9:15 PM
Lucy must have heard my car pull up in the driveway because when I rushed through the front door, she was standing right there.
I froze. “Hey.”
“Don’t hey me.” She tossed her arms up in the air. “What the hell, woman?”
I blushed and couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I had no idea that was going to happen.”
“Obviously,” she said, her voice laced heavily with sarcasm.
Lucy liked to pull herself together for work, in a cute outfit and full makeup, but tonight her red hair was up in a sloppy bun and she didn’t even have lip gloss on.
The house was quiet, so I assumed the kids were asleep. It was nine fifteen, way past their bedtime. I had no doubt she’d tried to get them down promptly so she could watch the show without being climbed on or asked for juice.
“Are you going to let me past the front door?”
She uncrossed her arms and stepped back, although she followed right on my heels into the living room. The house was small, so it wasn’t as if she was going to lose me. I dropped down onto my couch that was more comfort than cute, and inwardly winced. My pussy was sore. I hadn’t had sex in… God, over two years, and it hadn’t been with an Atlan beast. Looking back, my old boyfriend had a pencil dick in comparison to what I’d just gotten off on.
In the moment I’d been too turned on to consider how big Wulf was. Now I felt like I’d been pummeled on the inside. I bit my lip, trying not to grin. Pummeled? More like pounded.
Too bad I couldn’t do it again.
“Start talking,” Lucy ordered.
“Was it as crazy on TV as it was live?” I wondered. I mentally crossed my fingers that they’d stopped recording.
Lucy dropped onto the couch, turned so her knee was bent and she faced me. The light caught on the little ring in her nose. She took my hand and gave me a green-with-envy look. “Sweetie, he knocked down the set to get to you. He toppled a camera and crushed that twat’s microphone.” She leaned back, making a fist. “God, that was awesome. Then, when he carried you away…” Her voice turned wistful, and she stared at me intently. “You’re going to tell me every single thing that happened when he closed the door to that back room. Every. Single. Thing.”
“They didn’t switch to a commercial?” I asked, holding out hope it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
She laughed. “They skipped commercials.”
I put a hand over my face. “Oh my God.”
“Spill.”
I bit my lip. “He thinks I’m his mate.”
“Duh,” she said as if she were still in middle school. “Everyone on Earth knows that.”
I dropped my hand and stared at her wide-eyed. “On Earth?”
“It was live and broadcast around the world. You know they have testing centers all over, and he’s going to do a tour with his mate once the show is over.” When I didn’t respond, she continued, “I’m going to take your favorite eye shadow set as my own if you don’t stop stalling.”
I gasped, knowing how much she loved the colors in my palette. “We… we, um… he… God.” I knew my face was as red as her hair.
“You had sex with him?” she squeaked. “Please tell me you had sex with him.”
I nodded. She could imagine what she wanted, but I wasn’t telling her about how he’d propped me up on the chair and ate me out. There seemed to be no secrets between me and Wulf… and the entire world, but I’d keep that hot bit of fun to myself.
“Beasts mate standing up,” she said as if reading from a textbook.
“They do,” I verified. “Against the door so that no one could get in.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes as if she were eating a delectable cream puff. “Against the door? That is so fucking hot.”
“It was.” My inner walls clenched as if remembering, too.
“No wonder they couldn’t get in.” Lucy wrapped her arms around her middle and laughed with glee. “They were trying to break down the door. Couldn’t you hear them pounding?”
“Um, I was distracted.”
“By something else pounding?” She waggled her eyebrows like a clown, and it was my turn to laugh.
“Something like that.” I put my hand over my eyes. We were not having this discussion. This was a weird mushroom trip, a dream. Someone had slipped something into my water bottle at work.
“Details. How big? How hard? What did he say? Did he smell good? Was he gentle? Was it him or the beast? How big?”
I arched a brow. “You already asked that.”
“Well… how big?”
“Beast big.”
Her mouth fell open as if imagining, but when I didn’t offer up more information, she started using her hands as visual aids.
I answered her questions, one by one until she was satisfied, but left out the special stuff. Because while it had been hot as hell and totally wild, it had been special. At least to me.
“Now what?” she finally asked me.
“Now?” I grabbed one of Emma’s stuffed animals off the back of the couch and hugged it. “Now I sit here with you and chat. Then I get a shower…” I looked at the clock on the kitchen wall and popped up from the couch. “Shit, I have to hurry. You sure you don’t mind staying a little longer. I’ll only be gone about an hour.”
“Delivering meals to the elderly?”
I bit my lip. Lying to my BFF sucked, but I had no choice. She was my only babysitter, and I’d needed her to watch the kids on the previous drops. I wasn’t getting her involved in my mess. Sure, I’d tell her I had sex with an Atlan beast behind a closed door on live TV, but I couldn’t endanger her life by knowing the truth about my drug runs for Jimmy Steel. The less she knew, the better.
I was a terrible liar. At the beginning, when Jimmy had first confronted me a week after Jimmy’s death, I’d been expected to do his dirty work during the day and my story had been plausible. Now, late at night, not so much.
I only nodded and turned toward the bathroom.
“You can tell me, you know.” Lucy wasn’t dumb, and I was sure she had some idea about what I was up to, or at least that it wasn’t good.
I faced her. Shook my head. “Thanks for being here,” I said, wishing I could tell her the truth.
Plausible deniability was on her side. Besides, if I got caught and went to jail, I needed Lucy to watch the kids. I had no one else.
“What are you going to do about Wulf?” she asked, thankfully changing the subject. Although Wulf wasn’t something I wanted to talk about either.
“Nothing,” I said, feeling silly standing there. I had to hurry, I had to answer her questions first. I grabbed a plastic dinosaur off the floor and put it in the toy box in the corner. “I sneaked out.”
“Yeah, it was on TV. Wulf lost his shit. Again. They shot him with tranquilizer darts like he was an elephant or something.”
My eyes widened. “Shit. They did not.” I’d heard him bellow, stuff crashing. But no. Just no.
“Oh, they did. Took three to take him down. They had to cut the broadcast with a pile of alien hotties piling on top of him a
nd that living mannequin, Chet Bosworth, promising to keep everyone updated in the next episode.”
I frowned and turned to face her. “That was the finale. There is no next episode.”
She shrugged. “Sweetie, you started it all back up again. Now it’s all about the Beauty and the Beast.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said, grabbing a few little cars and putting them away. “Beauty? Me? You’ve seen Genevieve and Willow.”
She stood and went around the coffee table, grabbing her sweatshirt. “You always do this, talk yourself down. You’re wonderful and it’s clear a hot Atlan sees it, even if you can’t see it for yourself.”
I glanced down at myself.
“Not all guys like to fuck a twig,” she snapped. “Meat on your bones is healthy.”
As if what I had was meat. I had meat and potatoes and an apple pie. Right on my hips and ass.
“It’s not going to happen,” I said with a sigh. “I have Tanner and Emma. You know I tried to get tested, but I have dependents. I can’t leave them on Earth. Before you say it, I can’t take them with me. It’s not allowed. They aren’t old enough to decide for themselves, so they have to stay unless I already have a mate.”
“That’s a stupid rule,” she muttered.
I only shrugged because I didn’t make the rules. It would have been great though, to get away from Jimmy Steel. Tonight was it, the last drug run; then Greg’s debt was paid off. I could then start saving for the kids’ college funds. Hell, for groceries. Moving out of town was one thing, but moving to a different planet would definitely get the jerk off my back. This was the end of it. One of Jimmy’s goons had left the package in my garage—their usual drop-off spot—sometime the night before and had left a note as to the wheres and whens of this last drop.
Soon enough, I’d be free.
“Ant Wivvy!” Tanner came running down the hall and hugged me as if he were a monkey climbing a tree. At four he was independent, but he still liked to hug and love on me. I knew it wouldn’t last, so I loved every single snuggle. Leaning down, I wrapped my arms around his little body, currently covered by cute dinosaur pj’s. He looked so much like his father that it made my heart hurt.
“I thought you were asleep, peanut.”
“I’m thirsty.”
“Of course, you are,” I replied, kissing the top of his head. “Where’s your sister? Is she asleep?”
“Yep. She’s just a baby.” Which was true. Emma wasn’t even two yet, and she slept like a log. Tanner, on the other hand, would wake to the sound of bare feet on carpet. I wondered if that was natural for him, or if it was because he’d always been listening, waiting for his dad to come home late at night. I’d never know, and neither of his parents were ever coming home again.
I squeezed him a little too tight, and he wiggled free in protest.
“He’s going to show up, you know,” Lucy said, her voice soft.
My head whipped in her direction.
“What?” She didn’t know about Jimmy Steel, and her words freaked me out.
“Wulf. When he wakes up, he’ll be at the door.”
My heart slowed, then picked right back up again at the idea of Wulf showing up here, at our little house. Angry? Hurt? I didn’t know.
“A woof’s coming here?” Tanner asked, looking excited about the idea.
“He will not,” I told both of them.
She gave me a fierce hug. “He will. You’re his mate and you ran off. He’s going to find you. Come on, squirt, let’s get you back to bed.”
“Yay! We’re getting a woof!” Tanner cheered, running down the hall to his bedroom, clearly forgetting he’d wanted a drink. It seemed he wanted a pet Atlan more.
She followed him down the hall while I went to take my speed shower. Locking the door, I leaned against it. I thought of a different door I’d leaned against just a little while ago. The dainty lock might keep Tanner and Emma out, but it wasn’t going to do anything to keep Wulf away. The lock I’d firmly placed around my heart? I worried he may have already blown that open.
Maybe I did, too.
5
Wulf, Interstellar Brides Center, Holding Cell
What was wrong with me? Was I injured? I’d never felt this… heavy except when the Hive—
No. I was not going to think about that. Not with the taste of my mate’s pussy on my lips.
My mate.
Blinking my eyes open, I tried to sit, realized that my body was too big to be waking from sleep. Then why had I been unconscious? Fuck, I was not myself. I was not in control.
My beast had not retreated. I was in beast mode.
Rising slowly, I swung my giant legs over the side of the laughably small bed, and my beast growled as the room began to spin and nausea made bile rise into my throat. What had happened to me?
A female stood inside the room, blocking a door so small that I would need to crouch to walk through. She cleared her throat. No, not my mate. Not Olivia Mercier. I’d know her sound anywhere. Her scent. Her touch. Her taste. I struggled to hold back the mating fever that clawed its way through me as I recognized this woman was not my mate. She was not mine, so why was she here?
She was either incredibly brave or a complete idiot.
“Are you going to be reasonable, Warlord, or do I need to call in the guards to shoot you in the ass with more tranquilizer before they carry you to the transport pad.”
Her voice was gentle but laced with steel. I was on her turf now, wherever the fuck I was.
“Mate,” my beast responded. “Where?”
“Not here. She went home, Wulf.” She was not a threat. She was small. Female. Human. Like our mate. The soft, sweet-tasting female I’d fucked. Her smell clung to my body, haunting me, which was probably a good thing.
“Where?”
The warden made a scolding sound. “They hit you with enough tranquilizer to keep an elephant down for twelve hours.”
“Not elephant.”
That made her laugh, and I welcomed the sound, made sure my beast focused on the female and her amusement. This was not battle. We were not in danger. Despite that, I was very close to losing control of him, but knowing my cock was covered in Olivia’s scent, that I had her taste in my mouth eased me enough to hold on. I needed my mating cuffs from the glass box on the stage. They were mine. No, one set was mine, but the other belonged to Olivia Mercier and I would see her wear them, devote myself to her care until my last breath.
“I have to give you Atlans credit,” Warden Egara said, still smiling. I’d met her when I’d first arrived on the planet. “You do have a one-track mind when it comes to your females.” She stepped farther into the room, and into the light when she realized I was not going to go into a killing frenzy.
Warden Egara was familiar to me, a female who worked at the Earth’s Interstellar Brides Processing Center where I’d spent most of the past three weeks. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight bun, she wore the ridiculous shoes the females referred to as high heels and her uniform had the Coalition Fleet insignia for the Brides Program on her chest. She was intelligent and responsible for the happiness of many warriors and fighters in the Coalition because she was in charge of the female volunteers from Earth. She’d coordinated often with Rachel about finding mates for The Colony.
She was an ally. A friend. She would know where my female was and how I could find her. Egara lived on this planet and, since she was also human, would know the ways and customs to help me find my mate.
She had to help me before the beast decided to go on a scent-driven rampage and hunt the streets for the one female I knew was in this city. If my beast went hunting, I’d kill a lot of humans before I found her, and he would find her. But once I did, they’d have to put me to death because I would not be able to regain control. I’d be lost. I was that far gone, especially now that I knew she was out there, separate from me.
I was alone. I should not be alone. I’d found my mate. We should not be apart.
“Mate,” I said again as if I suddenly had a one-word vocabulary. I knew plenty of words, even in the Earth English we were using, but that one word summed up everything I cared about at the moment. Her. Olivia Mercier. “Mine.”
Warden Egara crossed her arms in a way I recognized as irritation from the few human females I knew on The Colony. She even tilted her head and raised one eyebrow as Rachel did when she was about to scold one of them. Or me, earlier on the comm call.
“Listen, Wulf, you really made a mess of things,” she continued.
“Mate.”
One hand went up. “Stop. I know you want to know where Olivia is—”
Olivia. Her name was beautiful. Soft, like her breasts. Her stomach. Her round ass when I’d cupped the fullness of her in my hands. When I found her I would—
“Hey.” She waved that hand in circles in front of me. “Earth to Wulf. Stay with me. You need to focus.” Warden Egara stepped even closer, within reach, and snapped her tiny fingers in front of my face with a distinct, clipped noise that got the beast’s attention. “Focus, Wulf. You want your mate? Don’t you? You want me to help you find her? Convince her to accept you and your mating cuffs? Yes? That’s what you want?”
“Yes. Mine.” I scowled. She spoke to me as if I were a child. I was not. For a moment I considered standing, towering over her, backing her down a bit, but she was female. Small. No threat. That would be dishonorable, and as an ally I didn’t want to anger her. Such an act would not get me any closer to the female I wanted. Olivia.
“Listen,” she said, her voice a little louder. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, Warden Egara.” I fought hard, forcing my beast into submission, reasoning with him that it was the only way we were both going to get what we wanted. Out of this cell. Past the guards without killing one of them. To be honest, he didn’t care much about the killing, not if it meant gaining access to our female. Our mate. I took a deep breath, another. Unclenched my fists with substantial effort. When I cleared my throat, I was myself again. Barely. My body had shrunk back to… normal. The Earth outfit they’d forced me to wear fit my body once more, but the fabric was in tatters.
Bachelor Beast (Interstellar Brides® Program: The Beasts Book 1) Page 5
