Wild Beast Mate (Beast Mates Book 2)

by Milana Jacks

  “Only if you’re mean to me.”

  “Well, I’m lucky, then.”

  Rey got up and paused at the bedroom door, ready to leave. At her side, her free hand clenched, then relaxed, clenched and relaxed.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  “I wonder if you’ll be back.”

  “I don’t know yet. I gotta make sure he’s not here, that he’ll really leave for New City. I don’t know what to say about all this. I’m surprised, I guess.”

  “Vice is a nice guy.”

  I sighed. “I’ve done things to myself, things I’m not proud of. When I think about all the things he would do for me, and I can’t give him what he wants, when I’m around him, I feel…” I shrugged, unwilling to burden Rey with my issues.

  Rey sat beside me and threw a hand over my shoulder. “Worthless. You feel worthless.”

  I nodded and whispered, “He tries. He doesn’t make me feel this way, but I do anyway.”

  “It’s not your fault. It’s not even his. I’m starting to think it’s not even the Pairing Program.”

  “The pairing should be free of charge. We shouldn’t come with a price tag.”

  “Well, yes, but…you know Reem? The girl who owns the barking poodle?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Her parents visit with her. They do barbecues and picnics at the beach. The problem is in our communities, in the leaders. Reem didn’t come from our communities.”

  “Where did she come from?”

  Rey tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Community One. Her parents? Sometimes they come and load her up in the car. They travel everywhere, see everything, see everyone.” She took my hand in hers, and I found her eyes. “I wish I could see again. I wish I could see Jamie. But I can’t. Do you think I’m worthless?”

  “No, no. You’re…” I paused, and my eyes filled with tears as I realized what she was trying to tell me. Things beyond our control didn’t make us worthless. We had to accept the things we couldn’t change, and move ahead. “Thank you, Rey.”

  She stood and wiped her eyes. “I’ve become a pregnant monster, crying all the time and short-tempered. I hope it passes when the babies come.” She cleared her throat, and I felt there was more to say.

  “Spit it out, Rey. We’re having a party.”

  “I manage, but I don’t know how I’ll manage being a mother. It’s not one. There are six babies inside.”

  “Oh. My. God.” I gaped. Six!

  “Why, thank you, Dewlyn.”

  “I meant…wow, that’s…amazing.”

  “Six.”

  “Okay, it would freak the shit out of me.”

  “Mm-hm. What I’m trying to say is, I hope you stick around. I don’t have anyone else, and they’d have you.”

  I put a hand over my heart, honored she’d think of me and terrified at the same time. “Oh man, I don’t know a single thing about babies. I’m like…überclueless. They’re cute. That’s all I know.”

  “I don’t know anything either.”

  “Won’t Jamie’s mom come? Give you some pointers? To see them, at least?”

  “Yes, but not for a while. Something to do with their dad. I don’t think they like him much, and he sort of approves the leaves from Tineya. So, it’s me. And you, because Jamie won’t let anyone else near them.”

  I wasn’t so sure Jamie would let me near them either. We didn’t really get along.

  Rey and Dark left. I looked around. Jeans? Check. A nice house. Check. Money to buy anything I wanted. Check. All of it at my disposal, Vice-free. He’d given me everything I wanted, if only I’d stop running. Okay, then.

  I left the bedroom in search of Kickster. In the garage, under the other three rooms, and on top of the worktable sat a freshly painted Kickster. Awww. He’d painted my skater red. “Looking good,” I told my skater and picked it up.

  It wouldn’t budge.

  I yanked again.

  It stayed on the table.

  Bending, I peeked under it. Sure enough, it was bolted to the table.

  I chuckled. Some things never changed.

  On the right, I scouted the wall for metal cutters. There weren’t any, but I found an ancient chainsaw. Picking it up, I pulled the string. It roared to life, and, carefully, I chopped up the wooden table.

  The one screw on the landing wheel always loosened, and I’d eat shit into the asphalt if I didn’t tighten it every time I lifted off. Free Kickster in hand, I turned it over to check the wheels. A set of new wheels presented themselves. Man, I love this guy! My eyes widened at the thought.

  Chapter Ten

  Vice

  My wheels touched the high wall of Community Three, and I rolled to a stop. With a glance, I swept the open layout. I tapped my handle, thinking.

  “It’s quiet,” Jamie said behind me.

  I grunted an affirmative.

  “Kids usually run to the bikes when we land. Something stinks.”

  “Maybe they’re in class,” I said and dismounted, then came to stand at the edge. A fourteen-foot drop. I bent at the knees and leapt down. My feet hit the dirt. Other feet followed. I stayed in a crouch primarily because my body followed along with my instincts, and they screamed something was off.

  Jamie crouched next to me. “Spread out,” he ordered, changing the teams we’d assigned. “One stays here, two secure the women’s housing, and Vice with me in the sanctuary.”

  Jamie and I walked across the middle. Someone had just watered the dirt, so the mud stuck to our boots. When I got to the sanctuary, I kicked my heels over the steps and cleaned them.

  “You wanna welcome mat?” Jamie said and opened the double door. He walked inside, dirty footsteps on clean marble be damned. I followed and closed the door behind me. The communities didn’t have much in terms of resources, but they sure loved decorating their shrines. Every gold piece they’d salvaged after the nuclear disaster gleamed on the walls. During their holidays, they spent every penny on a feast in the sanctuary and ate with silver spoons, celebrating the births of their prophets, who preached modesty. The irony of the human race never failed to amaze me.

  The sanctuary had a high ceiling with high-placed windows. Sunlight pierced through and illuminated the metal circle in the middle on the ground. A carving of a man and a woman with a child graced the top of the circle. They prayed for their families, believed they did the best for their kids.

  Jamie stomped right over the circle, paused in the middle, and spun around, arms out, “Come out, come out!” Nothing. “Don’t make me search for you!” He touched his nose and shook his head. I didn’t smell anything either.

  The door burst open.

  Teeth bared, I spun around.

  Torrent stood at the door, an arrow sticking out of his neck. “Ambush,” he said and hit the marble. Men in black swarmed inside the sanctuary. They circled us and aimed arrows at our chests. I backed up until I felt Jamie’s back touch mine. There had to be at least fifty of them, all armed, all dressed in black rags. Men of Earth, I thought. They didn’t speak, their eyes and arrows trained on us.

  “That’s a lot of meat,” Jamie mumbled.

  “Don’t fuck around.”

  “Hey, everyone,” he said, and I wanted the earth to open up and swallow us. Here goes reckless and dangerous. He continued, “You gonna point that shit at me, you better kill me now, ’cause I—”

  Jamie grunted.

  “What?”

  “Motherfucker!” he roared.

  From under our feet, the circle slid open.

  We fell.

  Dewlyn

  About a hundred feet above Best Cake and Deco’s roof, I hovered in the air, waiting for Paulina to park her precious delivery van. She’d just bought that monstrosity and didn’t even know how to park it right. As the city became more populated, driving a monster van on the ground was counterproductive to efficiency of cake delivery. At least I thought so. I rode up high in the sky. Although, this morning, even with my tiny s
kater zipping between the high-rises, I barely avoided the late-morning traffic.

  Finally, when she parked it and went inside, I descended and landed with a soft thump, my wheels taking me the rest of the way to the stairs. Paulina and I had never spoken to each other. She pretended not to notice me coming in and out of the side of the building, especially if I carried things with me. It was safer for her and for me. Sometimes we nodded at each other, but most times, I snuck into the basement without her noticing me. In the rare event the pairs ventured outside, they didn’t interact with her either. They preferred to stay under, keep a low profile, fearing one of the beasts would see them, recognize them as one of the pairs, and report them to their beast male counterpart.

  All the pairs had reasons for being here. Some had been forced to mate despite the fact they’d already made wedding plans with men from their communities. Some were simply brainwashed against the beasts, then sold without preparation, and some were so sheltered that the sight of a beast male made them fear for their lives. Though I resented the mating, I didn’t tell anyone about the difference between a mate and a pair, namely that the beasts needed mates. Since the beasts also bought non-mates, random women from the communities, it wouldn’t make a difference. I didn’t know if some of the pairs here were mates or not.

  Besides, Vice had asked me to keep quiet, and so I kept quiet, thinking it wouldn’t change anything for the women if they knew about the mating anyway. I didn’t share my reasons for forming this shelter with all of them either. Only with Patty, the first pair I’d found eating from a Dumpster. She’d come into her own since then, and become better at hiding when she went out.

  I took the steep stairs down and knocked three times, paused, then knocked three times again on the wooden door. Patty swung open the door, then closed the top button of her pants. She must’ve run out from the bathroom to answer the door. “It’s you!” she said, and we hugged. I leaned Kickster by the door and headed straight for the kitchen. Having forgotten to eat at Vice’s, I was starving. I swung open a cupboard door and rose on my toes to peek up. “Do we have any pancake mix?”

  “Um…”

  I frowned at the empty shelves. Okay. I closed then opened another. Empty. “There’s nothing in here.”

  Patty shook her head. “We’re out. Like out out.”

  Damn. And that was when I realized it was too quiet in this place. “Are they all sleeping?”

  Patty shook her head again.

  “All right. Now, I know I didn’t come through with the key, so there’s no food, but I’ve got good news. We don’t need the key. We don’t need to worry anymore, ’cause we’ve money coming in. Your turn. Where is everyone?”

  Patty sat down at the table, her eyes a bit glossy though she didn’t look like she’d been crying. Her lips were swollen, her hair mused, and her… “Is that a hickey?” I asked and pointed to her neck.

  “Probably.”

  “It looks fresh.”

  She hooked a thumb behind her shoulder. “He’s sleeping in the back.”

  “Christ, Patty,” I whisper-hissed, “you’re bringing men in here? That’s rule number one and two, don’t talk about the shelter, and don’t bring people into the shelter.”

  “Things have changed.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, not liking this at all. When I didn’t interrupt, she continued. “The key was supposed to come in, and when it didn’t, I reached out to my boyfriend, told him you probably got busted again. His men came and took the pairs where they would be sheltered and fed and taken care of better. You failed your mission. We’re starving and live here in Beast City with our beast pairs circling over our heads. It’s scary, they’re scary, and none of us want to be paired with them.”

  “I know that. The shelter has worked for months. They don’t know where it is, and I’ve found money for us.” Patty would flip if she knew Vice would fund us, so I said nothing.

  “Poor naïve Dewlyn,” she said. “You can’t keep us safe here. You can’t even take care of yourself.” I cocked my head. The glint in her eyes told me something about her had changed. “So I had to step in. I told them you could get the key to the storage place. I sent you there, and all you had to do was deliver it. Gah! But no, you went with your beast lover.” She leaned in with a sneer. “You have been blessed not to carry their babies, but the rest of us are cursed. When my boyfriend told me about Brother Tom offering us a real shelter, we all jumped up in joy. A home, a real, safe home.”

  I lifted my hand, palm up. “Hold up. Who’s Brother Tom?”

  “Leader of Men of Earth, our brothers.”

  “And everyone left with him?”

  “Of course.”

  Oh man, this couldn’t be true. Men of Earth existed. Patty knew of them, had set me up to work for them by delivering the stupid key. I frowned, remembering what Vice had told me about them. “They want the beasts exterminated, and they want humans in power on Earth again.”

  “Yes! And we will bear them human children and create more humanity. Isn’t it great? Humanity will rise again, and the pairs are needed.”

  “Okay, so the pairs I sheltered here have been taken somewhere else to be bred like pigs?”

  “Like women to men, not pigs. It’s a safe house.”

  “They were safe here,” I said.

  “There’s more afoot than you know, child.”

  Patty was thirty-one to my nineteen. She could kiss my ass on her age superiority. “Don’t fucking ‘child’ me. I found your old ass in rags and hungry, and I welcomed you in here. I trusted you to take care of us. What the hell have you done?”

  “Your parents are right. We should never breed with the beasts. Eventually, they’ll die out if we don’t. But what your parents failed to do, Brother Tom is doing. See, we, the women, have a duty to repopulate our planet, and what better way to escape the beasts than to marry and have a family with a man? The Pairing Program will never stop, but we are not helpless. If we’re pregnant, they can’t touch us, and all of us here would much rather fuck a man than those things out there. I didn’t see it until Brother Tom explained it to me. He sees all.”

  “God sees all,” I said.

  “Tom is his servant, our new prophet.”

  Oh hell. “The nuclear war happened over the same thing. People kept using religion as a sword to do evil things. Don’t you see that’s what this Tom is doing? The pairs will be used again, but instead of being sold, they’ll simply be bred with whomever.”

  “Yes. It’s the lesser of the two evils.”

  “You think they will let you choose a man,” I concluded, more to myself than Patty.

  “Why yes, Dewlyn, we chose them, quite the opposite from the Pairing Program.”

  I doubted the pairs would get to choose anything. “Where is this Tom guy? I wanna have a word with him.”

  Patty shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  I stood and rested my palms on the table. “Patty, why haven’t you gone with them?”

  “I stayed with my boyfriend. We’re leaving soon.”

  A man emerged from the shadows. Quick and efficient, he palmed the sides of Patty’s head, then twisted.

  Crack!

  Wide gray eyes devoid of life stared at me. He released her, and her body hit the floor. Frozen, my legs couldn’t move, my breath completely arrested. I just blinked at him.

  “I’m the boyfriend,” he said. The man strode back out and picked up some kind of a weapon. It looked something like a fire extinguisher but bigger. He aimed at the beds at the back of the shelter. Whoosh followed a path of fire, and the beds caught, sending smoke in the air. I still couldn’t move, but my brain finally processed Patty’s dead body on the floor. The guy had to be with Men of Earth. Why would he kill her? Would he try to take me?

  Heat swept over my skin and tore me out of the petrified state. I had to get out of there. The bedrooms on fire were to my right. The exit lay across the open space and to my left. And the knives were only
three steps away. I’d have to be fast. I stepped toward the counter when the man walked back and took Patty’s place on the chair. From the back pocket of his jeans, he took out tobacco and paper. He rolled a cigarette and offered it to me. I shook my head. He nodded, looking like he’d gotten tired of standing in line for ice cream and decided to sit and wait it out.

  “Hi there,” I said and inched closer to the knives. “Wanna talk about it?”

  The man’s haunted eyes kept staring at me.

  Fire spread out and covered the part of the open space of the shelter we’d partitioned and made into our bathrooms. I coughed, the smoke burning my throat. When smoke started choking me, I took my shirt off to place it over my mouth. “You just set this place on fire. Let’s get out of here.”

  “In good time.”

  “What the fuck are you doing, dude?”

  “Enjoying my smoke.”

  “Would you like a cup of coffee with that?”

  His eyes narrowed.

  I squinted mine. “I ain’t burning in here.”

  “That depends.”

  At first, I leaned against the counter, but my knees shook, so I hopped up on it and crossed one leg over my knee. Casual while smoke collected on the ceiling. I didn’t think he’d hurt me or he would have already. But I also thought he’d lost his marbles, so I couldn’t be sure. The man didn’t seem too concerned with me, probably because of my size. The only exit was behind his back, which meant I’d have to dash past him to get out, then dash across the open space to the door.

  His gaze fixed on his cigarette smoke. He seemed enthralled by it, so I reached behind me and gripped a knife, hoping like hell it was the biggest one. I fisted the handle. “Depends on what?”

  “If you don’t piss me off long enough for me to ask you what I’ve come to ask you.”

  Patience was never my virtue. “We’re gonna burn down here, so hurry up and ask.”

  “They’re looking for the key to the storage.”

  “They who?”

  “Men of Earth.”

  “I thought you were one of them.”