by Milana Jacks
Blind Beast Mate
Milana Jacks
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Afterword
Wild Beast Mate
About the Author
Chapter One
Rey
A gentle hand landed on my bare shoulder. By the size of her hand, the way she touched me, and her strong gardenia-laced perfume, I knew it was my stepmother, Leslie. “How are you holding up?” she said.
Faked affection. I held my tongue and placed the small wooden box she handed me inside my black leather backpack. “I’ve been better.” I was holding up, or down, depending on how I regarded the forces of nature, just fine. Gravity did the work for me. Holding upward, or up, wasn’t the problem, but holding on to the contents of my stomach when the bike engines—the sounds of my grim future—rumbled above the roof was a problem. The beasts circled above our community. I swallowed bile, didn’t want to vomit on my alien soon-to-be husband. “Leslie, do you know if Uncle told him—”
“Shh, your uncle is here.” She whispered for my benefit, as if I couldn’t hear Sam’s heavy footsteps. He’d walked with a limp ever since my dad shot him in the leg, before my uncle killed him. Go, Daddy, I thought. Two months after Uncle Sam killed my dad and took over the Beast Pairing Program, he’d arranged an alien beast husband for me, his greatest burden. “At least you weren’t sold to the lowest of their ranks,” he’d comforted me. At least he hadn’t killed me, I comforted myself. He’d killed Dad for not punishing my sister for running away from her beast pair my dad had sold her to. The same day he’d killed my sister.
After massacring my family, Uncle Sam did me a favor and allowed me to say good-bye to them. He’d put the bodies in glamorous coffins for the viewing I couldn’t view. Asshole. For the past two months, I’d nursed fears of abandonment, fears of what Uncle Sam would do with me, while smiling for the sake of his new wife—who was my dad’s ex-wife and the mother of my dead sister. Leslie had broken out of one abusive marriage with my dad to enter another with his brother, my Uncle Sam. She pillow-talked my uncle into killing my father for not punishing my sister. She hadn’t anticipated Uncle Sam would shoot my sister too. I hated Leslie.
A tear slid down my cheek, and I wiped it with a shaking hand. I didn’t want to be paired with an alien beast man, because he’d expect a perfect wife, something the communities had provided for the alien race ever since they’d occupied Earth. I didn’t have any choice in the matter. If the Alpha Beast hadn’t bought me, someone else would have. The Alpha Beast was the most inhuman of them all. They said he ate his bedmates. Why me?
“Did Sam tell my husband about me?” I whispered to Leslie, mindful of Sam’s approaching steps.
“I doubt it. We celebrated with the beasts all night. I’m exhausted. Pretend to be normal for as long as you can. If the Alpha comes to like you, he’ll keep you, but if he returns you and requests a refund, I won’t be able to save you, the same way I couldn’t save your sister. Sam won’t listen to me. I’m sorry.” Her soft touch left my shoulder, and her heels clicked across the tiled floors.
“Rey,” Uncle Sam said and placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. “He’s here. Rode in with the entire city.”
Uncle Sam was jealous. The beasts didn’t outnumber us humans, but after the Great Nuclear War, which destroyed most of the Earth, the human survivors had closed themselves off and formed private communities. Stuck inside the confines of our communities, the human race fragmented, and we forgot about each other. The beasts had occupied the Earth in all of one night before the community’s leaders surrendered, and after the aliens discovered some of us could breed with them, the Beast Pairing Program was born.
Uncle Sam gripped my elbow and tugged. I faced the short, stocky man and forced a smile that amounted to a show of teeth. Beside my leg, Dark, my guide hound, growled low in his throat. Despite his dislike for Uncle Sam, he didn’t bite. His spiky fur brushed my leg as he rose to standing and guided me down the hallway leading outside. Before the exit, I tugged my elbow away from Sam’s grip.
Uncle Sam pushed me against the wall. Here he goes again. But I couldn’t have cared less. The only thing on my mind was the Alpha Beast. I hoped I didn’t look too nervous to meet him. I hoped I didn’t vomit when I did meet him. And now, I hoped the giggle that escaped my lips didn’t match my hound’s snarl. Uncle Sam squeezed my elbow and pressed his body against mine. He was only an inch or two taller than my five foot nine, and the stale beer breath hit my nose when he said, “Make him happy. If he returns you because he expected a trophy wife and not a blind bitch, I’ll put a bullet in your useless head. This community depends on their money and on pretty girls like you, so spread your legs the minute you hear his belt unsnap. Your momma must’ve taught you something.”
The Alpha Beast, my husband, didn’t know I’d been removed from the Pairing Program after my accident. I hadn’t expected Uncle Sam to tell him, but again, I’d hoped he’d honor my dad’s wishes to keep me at home and not sell me no matter how pretty I was. Also, I’d hoped the Alpha would ask someone about me before buying me. He hadn’t. I hoped far too much. Fat chance he’d want to marry me if he’d asked. The beasts called us their pairs, and they expected perfect, genetically compatible women who’d give them strong offspring. Trouble with me? I could barely take care of myself, let alone any offspring.
I scrunched up my nose and suppressed a gag at Uncle Sam’s breath and my situation. “You shouldn’t have arranged a pairing with anyone, let alone with a beast you all fear would destroy you,” I said. “I offered to work the kitchens and earn my keep.”
“The beast came and saw you watering the damn plants. He asked about you, so I paired you off. Good riddance, and by the way he kept watching you, I’d say he figured a pretty young thing like you would make any man happy.”
“You must really hate him,” I said, joking at my own expense. I was pretty good at finding the bright side.
“Everyone hates the Alpha Beast.”
Motorcycles rumbled in the yard as the beasts descended from the sky.
Uncle Sam stepped back when the engine noise died and hard-hitting boots over gravel approached.
“Thank you, Sam,” I said and gripped Dark’s leash. “It was nice knowing you. I hope you die a slow and painful death.” Usually, I wasn’t so bold with Sam since he’d swung at me and I lost most of my eyesight due to head trauma, but I figured he deserved far worst parting words than those. I hadn’t told anyone it was him who’d hit me. I said I fell out of the window and cracked my head on a rock. An accident. He’d kill me if I told the truth.
Sam placed his hand on my throat and took Dark’s leash. Immediately, my hound barked in protest. A thwack sounded, and Dark yelped.
I wanted this man to meet his Maker. “Give me the leash.”
“Can’t do. No place for hounds on bikes, just bitches. Put your fucking sunglasses on. Your eyes are on my forehead.”
A large, dark silhouette entered our sanctuary. I couldn’t see a whole lot, but I saw silhouettes and blurry contrast. I stopped tugging the leash.
I presumed it was the Alpha Beast but wasn’t sure, so I said nothing and slid my sunglasses over my eyes. I clenched my shaking hands.
“You’re right on time. I was just telling your wife—”
<
br /> “My pair,” the Alpha Beast corrected in a deep baritone voice, which suited his massive frame. It sent a shiver down my spine. I’d seen a man-beast before I lost my sight. A cross between a man and a wolf. A humanoid monster with an enormous chest, and claws and teeth made for ripping into flesh.
Uncle Sam cleared his throat. “I told your pair how lucky she was. Here you go, honey,” Uncle Sam said and threaded my hands through the straps of my backpack. “Packed small like a good girl. Wants to take her hound.”
The Alpha Beast grunted. “No hounds.” He took my hand in his large callused one and pulled. I followed behind him, grateful for his guidance. Little did he know, I hardly saw where I stepped. The voices of his beasts and the smell of cigarette smoke grew closer as the Alpha Beast dragged me across the community’s yard. Abruptly, we stopped, and I ran into the back of his arm. It was like hitting a wall. “Oomph,” I muttered and bounced off, one leg stretched far back to prevent a fall. I guessed we’d reached his bike when the Alpha Beast released my hand. I didn’t move.
Dark barked with abandon, and I turned toward his voice. I had to have my hound with me. For one, I didn’t know what Uncle Sam would do with him, and two, I depended on Dark to get me around, especially now when I didn’t know where the hell I was going. I opened my mouth to ask my husband—pair, I should call him pair—to reconsider when he slid my backpack off my shoulders. A clawed fingertip lifted my chin. I managed to turn up my lips. A cold leather collar snapped around my neck. My collar. It was a beast thing. I was an owned pair.
“Thank you,” I said, “It’s beautiful.”
The Alpha Beast grunted. A large hand framed one side of my face, and his mouth slammed down on mine, his tongue demanding entrance. Whistling and hooting followed his assault—he considered it a kiss, I was sure. His hand wound around my hair, and I could do nothing but let him invade. I pretended it was a romantic wedding kiss, a press of lips, subtle and gentle for the sake of an audience, but the Alpha clearly didn’t know what gentle meant. My back nearly snapped when he leaned forward and I leaned back. He deepened the kiss. For a second, I thought, he might swallow me whole. When his tongue swirled with mine and a low growl rumbled in the back of his throat, I stopped thinking altogether.
The Alpha Beast tasted fresh, a hint of mint and lemon on his expert tongue, not a trace of stale beer or someone else’s night-before lipstick. Growing up with a community whore had thought me to appreciate the small things and rejoice in those small things even at the most terrifying moments. I didn’t know what would happen to me with this man, but at least he didn’t taste bad on my sensitive palate.
After a minute, his kissing slowed and his tongue stopped moving. Not knowing what else to do, I stroked it with mine. With the tip of my tongue, I flicked his. The Alpha Beast groaned into my mouth and pressed me closer. He was so hard, I thought he might burst out of his pants and take me right over his bike. He could do what he wanted with me. I was his pair.
His lips left mine. My mouth still gaped, and my lips tingled from rubbing on his stubble. I’d never been taken like this before. The Alpha Beast chuckled, probably at my gaping mouth, and his rough, two-day-unshaven cheek brushed my soft one as his sharp teeth nibbled my ear. He whispered, “Your uncle swore to me you are a virgin. Swore up and down nobody’s spoiled you, and charged me an arm and a leg for your virginal pussy. Let’s be clear in case you aren’t. Tell me now so I don’t gotta drive back to collect his arm and a leg.”
I wasn’t a virgin, but I’d protected myself from abuse. In fact, I was so good at protecting myself that I traded rape trauma for a life of blindness. A trade no woman should have to make. I swiped away those memories and focused on the now.
The silence in the yard never sounded louder. I estimated that between his beasts and the community’s humans, about three hundred people watched and listened. Even Dark had stopped barking. “Can we talk about this later?” I whispered.
“No. Answer me.”
My body was still bent back, and he appeared a dark mass against the lit sky. I gripped the back of his head and tried to pull him down so I could whisper in his ear. I tugged, but he didn’t budge. Okay, then. “Maybe,” I said.
“Twenty says there be bloody sheets!” someone shouted.
I would’ve liked to keep our business private.
The Alpha Beast straightened, and three hard thumps sounded. He might’ve thumped his chest, but I wasn’t sure. It sounded suspiciously like something a gorilla did. He picked me up and plopped my ass on the back of his bike. The way he manhandled me suited me fine. He could move me from one place to the next all he wanted. Next, he removed my sunglasses and paused.
Minutes passed, and I barely hitched breaths.
“You’re beautiful,” he said and placed my sunglasses in my backpack so the helmet fit over my head.
Dark barked.
Soft paws padded over gravel.
They landed on my thigh at the same time the Alpha Beast straddled his bike. I found Dark’s head and scratched behind his fluffy ears. He kept barking. If my heart could split in half, it would’ve.
“No hounds,” the Alpha Beast said. “I got a cat at home.”
“Please, it would mean the world to me if you found a place for him.”
“No hound.” He revved the engines and prepared to lift off.
I panicked and hopped off his bike. I stood there in my darkness in the middle of the day, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest. I’d committed a sin. When a beast placed a bitch on the bike in front of his beasts, she’d better not leap off in defiance. I clenched my fists and remembered Uncle Sam’s threat. I couldn’t tell the Alpha Beast why I needed my hound, or he might leave me here. Or get rid of me himself.
The Alpha Beast didn’t say anything right away, probably because he was too busy thinking about yanking my hair and forming words that would say don’t ever do that again. He’d paid a fortune for me. “What the fuck are you doin’? Get back on the bike.”
And there it was. “I can’t leave my hound.”
“I told you, I got a cat. Can’t have—”
I cut him off. “Dark is well behaved. He won’t—”
“Where the hell should I put the damn hound?”
“In one of your space cars. Besides, I have more stuff than what’s in my backpack.”
“Smartass!” the beast who’d bet a twenty shouted.
“You’ll buy new stuff in Beast City,” he said.
“Thank you, but—”
The Alpha Beast snarled, and I pressed my lips closed. “You got a car?” he bit out.
“No.”
“Then get back on the bike right this second.”
I knelt and hugged Dark. If I stayed here, my life was over. If I told the Alpha Beast he’d paired and paid a fortune for a girl who wasn’t a virgin and couldn’t see, my life was over. If my life was over, they’d bury Dark with me. But if we parted ways, I’d live, and when the gates to our community slid open, Dark would run out and join the many stray hound packs. He was such a good boy. “I’m sorry, boy. Run, it’s better than staying here.” Before I left my home, I unsnapped his leash.
Chapter Two
Rey
The beasts operated out of Beast City, about two hours away from our community. Beast City was built on top of the place once known as the City of Angels. The drive went smoothly. When we slowed down and my stomach almost caught in my throat from the steep descent, I knew we’d left the main space way and the bikes were preparing to land inside the city. The beasts traveled by air and not by ground like us.
Even at sundown, the heat beat down with fury and the winds picked up speed. I cried as quietly as a mouse, lest he felt my sobs on his broad back. I gripped his jacket and bit my lip when I thought about Dark. I hoped he remembered the stray ways he’d had before I’d found him and took him inside the community. I hoped he remembered how to hunt for food.
Why me? I asked myself for the millionth ti
me. I wasn’t even sure how the Alpha Beast accepted a pair from my family’s stock, seeing as he could’ve gone into any community in search of a pretty pair without having to deal with Uncle Sam. Pretty girls could be found anywhere.
The Alpha Beast placed his hand over both of mine and held firm. “Hey, you wanna spin?”
“What?” I shouted over the wind in my ears as we descended.
“Don’t worry, gravity’s got your back. Hang on!”
Headfirst, we dived. He spun the bike in the air. We rolled, descending, and I screamed at the top of my lungs.
The Alpha Beast stopped briefly. My stomach rose, and when I thought I’d vomit for certain this time, my stomach settled with a thump. The bike’s exhaust whooshed. We landed with a real soft thud, as if nothing had happened.
I clutched his middle. “Is it over?”
He shut off the engines and laughed. “Get used to it. Got you a small bike at home. Gonna take you spinnin’.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” I said.
“Welcome. Let’s move.”
Quickly, behind his back, I checked the time. I opened my braille watch’s cover and ran my fingertips over the small dots and the minute and hour hands. It was eight forty. I closed the cover and dismounted with a wince. I hadn’t ridden a space bike before, and I rubbed the numbness out of my ass.
“Need help?” he asked.
I shook my head.
Funny beast.
The smell of roast beef and fumes reached my nose at the same time the beasts around us shut off their engines and called for a party. A party? My insides rolled again. They’d spill tonight, I was sure of it.
The Alpha Beast dismounted and took my hand in his. Faced with completely unfamiliar surroundings, I gripped it for dear life.
“Home sweet home,” he said and walked with long strides. I jogged with a big grin on my face in case his people watched us. A happy bride. “We’ll stay only a few hours,” he continued. “Eat some, drink some, get to know your new family. The works.” He wanted to celebrate his pairing when I wanted him to leave me at my new home. Alone. The bright side? Maybe he’d get drunk and pass out. Or maybe he’d get drunk, forget about me, and use a beast girl instead.
