Page 22 of Breed

“Be good for me,” he says, his voice quiet and even. “You will not like what happens to you if you are not.”

With that, he straightens, and begins to put on his harness and weaponry and a jacket and pants other such accoutrements. Whatever he is about to do, it is something very wrong, and absolutely illegal. I feel a little jolt of arousal as he gets dressed. There’s something very satisfying about the way his clothing is all tailored to fit over his shoulder spikes. He is dangerous in so many ways.

5 RUNAWAY MATE

Lettie

It takes a few minutes for the chill to leave my bones after his warning, but I shake it off. Whatever he will do to me is irrelevant if I do a proper escape — which is what I intend to do. I need to get back to the Mare. I want my own room. I want my captains. I want the life I had, the cozy yet exciting life of a pirate.

My suit has been taken, but I am in a room full of objects, and like I always say, a room full of objects is as good as an escape room. I’m getting out of here, and I’m going to take the tunnel out.

Before I do that, I go through Shan’s wardrobe and I cobble together a bit more of an outfit. Thank god I still have my boots. That’s the part that would be very hard to recreate with handmade items. All I need for the rest of the outfit is enough to keep my flesh covered. The shirt he gave me this morning is a start, but I grab more, a leathery sort of overcoat thing which I belt around my body to give me a bit more bulk and more protection from the elements. It is scaled, which is good. I wonder if saurians might mistake me for one of them if I can wear enough scaled stuff.

It’s probably a bit of a long shot, but always worth thinking about. My biggest challenge here is not drawing attention to myself by being a fleshy human lump. I hope there’s a little more variance among the saurian population than I’ve seen so far. I hope there’s shorter, rounder saurians. Probably not. I’m probably going to stick out like a sore thumb no matter what I do.

I feel a brief pang of guilt as I open the back of the wardrobe. I do feel a little as though I am betraying some trust he has put in me, which is silly. I can’t be identifying with my captor this quickly. I have to remember why I’m here, and what I came to do. I have a mission. I need freedom. I need to think of my future. I need to worry about what the hell is going on in my womb, which has now been left awash in his seed.

I run down the tunnel this time, not worrying about surveillance. Time is of the essence now. I need to get back to the place he and Avel met, and I need to get into the city proper. My captains are waiting for me.

Shan

We are meeting in what Wrath calls his war room. It’s a small room with a big round table in it, thirteen of us ranged around it. Some of these saurians I know, others I only know by reputation. I am sure this is not the only meeting he is having like this. Wrath prefers decentralized command. Each of us reports to him, and to him alone. No one saurian knows enough to bring him down. He doesn’t live down here with the rest of the crew. I don't know where he lives. Nobody does.

“We’ve been making some big moves lately,” Wrath says. “We have struck the alpha where he least expected to be struck. We have attained his wealth. He may still have the official trappings of office, but he has no funds with which to back it up, and that will make him desperate soon enough.”

Usually I hang on Wrath’s every word when he speaks. Not because I find him a fascinating, charismatic figure, but because I need to understand him better than anybody else does. Today, my attention is split. I keep thinking of Lettie, my human mate. I keep catching mental whiffs of her scent. The memory of her is maddening and it makes it very difficult to pay attention to this meeting.

“Now that Thorn has discovered the fact we’ve cleared out his reserve, taken every bit of precious metal out of the place — that is going to lead to retaliation. No doubt about it. By my reckoning, we have hours, not days, until the alpha’s forces come down those tunnels and try to exact what they call justice. It’s time we cleared out of the burrows for a bit and took refuge somewhere even the alpha fears to tread. I want you to go to those who report to you, then go to your secondary and tertiary locations. I want you all spread out. No more congregating. We’ll use the letterbox network to communicate, and runners as usual. Make sure to keep an eye on Thorn’s known associates. Keep your ears to the ground. Alright. Let’s go. Shan, I need to talk to you.”

Everybody files out of the war room except me. There are jealous little glances and some curious ones. A private one-on-one with Wrath is the dream of all his generals and lieutenants.

“How is the human?”

“Very good.”

“You’re fond of her?”

I don’t want to lie to him. Partly because lying to Wrath is a bad idea, and partly because I want to tell everyone I encounter how incredible Lettie is. I don’t like telling anyone anything, but the experiences I’ve had with her are too good to keep to myself.

“She’s amazing,” I say, knowing I am providing him a certain amount of leverage with the admission, but also knowing it’s best to be honest where I can. The more truth I can tell, the more trust I build, the more I avoid his suspicions.

“It’s good to find a mate, isn't it. A real mate. One who is capable of making you feel hot to your core, even when the day is chilly. We’re cold-blooded creatures, but a real mate could make an ice storm feel warm. Saurians don’t know that anymore. That’s one of the many things the alphas have taken from us. It’s not natural for a saurian to live under the tyranny of a single leader. We’re not made that way. We’re not pack or herd creatures. We’re individuals who crave mates and family, and a life outside the walls of a city.”

I’ve heard Wrath’s speeches before. I know what he preaches. He doesn’t think anything about Grave City is right. He thinks Alpha Thorn, and all the alphas before him have been co-opting our natural saurian instincts for family and instead harnessing them to serve the city and the alpha himself.

Wrath reaches out and squeezes my shoulder.

“You feel like a son to me,” he says. “I know that’s a strange thing to say, seeing as none of us were raised by fathers, but I want you to know I’ve taken an interest in you. I’d like to see you mate well. We deserve to live the way we should, you and I.”

This is only the second time in my life a saurian in a position of authority has taken a shine to me. The first time changed my life…

Many years ago…

“There’s something wrong with him.”

“I know. He’s a creepy little thing. But it’s not his fault.”

I am four years old, and I can hear the nursemaids talking about me. They talk about me a lot. I disturb them. They never say it to my face, but even if I did not overhear them, I would see the disgust in their expressions when they look at me.

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