Page 1 of His Beast Mate

Chapter One

Kitten

Red manicured fingernailsdangled from a hand inside my food bowl. I flicked one cold nail. The hand didn’t move. It must belong to Karen, who had entertained in the poker room last weekend. The same Karen who’d once entertained the males in the beast compound. I’d seen her over there.

I glanced up at the tiny high window ten feet above me as if it offered me a memory of when I’d seen Karen at the compound. Rey and Jamie’s wedding night. “Ha!” I snapped my fingers. That was right. I remembered her from their wedding night. I hadn’t gone completely crazy yet.

Karen had called out Jamie about his mate. I should’ve killed her then for insulting his mate, but resolved to party on instead. Had I killed her, she wouldn’t have ended up inside Owner’s mansion after Jamie threw her out. She wouldn’t have ended up as my meal, and I wouldn’t have had to deal with the internal debate.

To eat or not to eat.

My stomach rumbled. I glanced back at the window. By my count, it was Friday. On Fridays, Willam Ghason, who made me call him Owner, shipped his wife off back to her parents in the community and opened his home to potential business partners. Some came with their wives, some came alone, all came for a poker game where they could sample Owner’s stock of captured women. The other females, tucked in soundproofed rooms ten feet under his mansion, were human. I was a beast bitch. It made me special. It made me the weekend flavor. Everyone wanted the beast bitch, though not for sex as they did with human captives. They wanted me to serve them on my knees. It was their way of saying fuck you to my Alpha.

I ate. They’d filed my sharp teeth, so it was exceptionally difficult ripping flesh with the blunt ones, but I managed only because I couldn’t take another beating. My body could take it, but my mind slowly slipped away each time I rebelled, each time I didn’t take from the hand that fed me. Not this hand. Owner’s hand.

I threw the bones back into the bowl. Footsteps sounded. Music to my ears. Maybe a rescue? One never knew. I scampered to the door and gripped the iron bars of my cage. Someone sniffed. These human women cried a lot, and I wondered if they’d dehydrate from the water spilling out of their eyes. “Shut it,” I barked.

They listened. Feared me. As they should.

Ah, I recognized his footsteps. I counted the steps from the very top to the bottom. One hundred and twenty-five. He entered our holding quarters and paused. My caged room occupied the east corner of the house. Where would he turn? Would he go right for the twin girls down the dark narrow hallway, or left for me? My palms sweated, my stomach uneasy after the meal. I chastised myself for fearing him and gritted my blunt teeth.

He stepped to the left. For me it was. I scurried back and into the middle of the room, dropped to my knees, spread them, and put my upturned palms on my thighs. I lowered my head and listened to the tech scan his retina. The dreaded cage lock clicked. I’d never thought I’d want to be caged like this, but now, when it offered me protection from the others who’d tried to come in uninvited, it was a good thing.

It didn’t offer me protection from Owner, my gatekeeper.

Polished black shoes appeared in my line of view. I knew better than to lift my head and greet him. I bent and kissed the tips of his shoes.

“What is your name?” he asked, his voice rough with need. Owner loved his weekends, especially Fridays. He didn’t visit during the week. Whatever food and water we got from Friday night through Sunday afternoon would be all we’d have for the week. I couldn’t be sure, but I believed during the week, his wife roamed upstairs, completely unaware of the females in her basement. Nobody dared scream to alert her. It was certain death. I wasn’t suicidal. I would survive him the same way I’d survived Alpha Nie’s prison when I was twelve. And I would escape the same way I’d escaped our home planet of Tineya. Alpha Beast would come for me. One day, he’d come for me. But not today.

Today, after greeting Owner, I intertwined my fingers behind my neck and squared my shoulders. “My name is Kitten, Owner.”

With his shoe, he kicked my knees wider apart while he wound the collar around my neck and snapped on my leash. “I see you’ve had dinner.”

“Yes, Owner.”

“Good kitty. A new client came in tonight. Wants to play a few hands of cards.”

“He will lose his money,” I said.

Owner smiled. “Yes, he will. You will serve him any way he wants to be served. He’s eager to meet a beast bitch.”

“Thank you, Owner.”

He gripped my jaw and yanked me up. I locked my eyes with his green ones, praying to Great Mother to give me the strength not to bite his face off. If my eyes paled right now, he’d cancel the party upstairs, and he and I would party down here. He’d tie me up and beat me until he tired. The weekend was long, and Owner kept in shape. He wouldn’t tire quickly enough, and I would go mad. I couldn’t slip. I couldn’t allow my temper to get the best of me.

His thumb swiped over my lips.

I followed up with my tongue.

“I love how eager you are. Every weekend, your eyes betray you. You think you don’t like what I’m giving you, but you love it. Shall I serve you the man upstairs this weekend? He’s big, would make a nice meal.”

“Yes.” Whoever waited for me upstairs could become my next meal.

He squeezed my throat. “Yes what?”

“Yes, Owner.”

“What’s your name?”

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