Page 12 of Free Beast Mate

The crowds below gathered. Mothers picked up their kids and sat them on their hips. Warriors spread out, forming a living wall of black robes and gleaming shaved heads against the walls.

“She stole and fornicated with the beast in the holding cell.”

“She’s not a breeder!” a woman shouted. “Hang her!”

“No,” I said. “He threw the bread away. He didn’t want it. It’s not stealing. He didn’t want it.”

“Didn’t want you either, I take it,” the woman said.

People laughed.

Tears stung my eyes. I wiped my nose. Adam yanked my hair and pulled me behind him down the path. I crawled, trying not to cry, but tears clouded my vision anyway. I prayed to our Lord Jesus, asking him not to let me fall. I always prayed to Him as my mom had taught me to do. Probably why she hung for three days before Tom finally took her down. All these new people believed him a prophet, prayed to him as they would to their prophets or sons, believed Tom was humanity’s second chance, had decided they wouldn’t treat him the same way Jesus had been treated.

Nobody questioned why Tom listened to the Beast Father. Nobody except my mom. So they hanged her while she prayed to Jesus to grant them forgiveness. My dad said nothing. He’d never acknowledged her as his woman and me as his child. He’d raped her and denied it. And, then I came, all red curls and freckles, just like my dad. He could deny it all he liked, Tom knew. Tom would forgive me for stealing, but Tom wasn’t here.

Adam pulled me, then shoved, and I stumbled down the steps. My shoulder took the brunt of the fall. I grunted as the pain spread from my shoulder to my neck. Adam kicked my bottom, and so I rose and walked. The crowds parted. The new humans from Above spat on me. People I’d known all my life watched with horror as he bound my wrists.

I glanced up at Cole, who stood in the doorway of my hut. With my eyes, I begged the boy to stay there. I shook my head in case he’d think to come down here.

“What is happening?” Tom’s voice drifted down the sector.

I turned around to see him walking inside, his gray robe nearly black now. It needed a wash. He stopped in front of me, but spoke with Adam, who’d break my wrists if he didn’t let go. I jerked my arms away.

“And?” Tom asked.

“She finished her duties in the beast’s cage. Instead of leaving, she stayed. The new guy—”

“John,” Tom interrupted. “And hardly new to us.”

“Yeah, John. Well, he left his post. He was supposed to send Emma for me, not come to check on me himself. Luckily, I felt better and came to work. I rewound the morning camera feed, and guess what?”

“What?”

“Emma stayed past her allowed time. She hid in his bathroom.”

Tom’s eyes took on a darker hue. “And?”

“He fucked her. Emptied his seed inside her. She then left and snatched his bread on her way out. Caught her eating it with the young breeder boy.”

“Emma,” Tom said, gray eyes on me. “Is it true you’ve taken it upon yourself to relieve the beast of his sexual urges?”

“Adam’s lying.”

“But you don’t deny staying past your time and allowing the beast to see you.”

I clamped my mouth shut. I’d known Tom all my life, and he knew me. No point in lying to him. I hung my head. “I stayed.”

People gasped. And then it came. “Beast whore. Lash her! Lash her!”

Tom put a hand on my head. “We spoke about this.”

“I’m sorry, Leader Tom.”

He gripped my jaw, pulled my face up, and my eyes widened, my heart rate picked up.

“You are not his mate. You cannot be. And now you know. We all know I speak truth when I say only a breeder can be his mate. Somewhere in this community is his mate. We will find her, or we will all die trying.” He turned to the people. “We will find her, or we will die. Lash her!”

“No, I didn’t do anything!”

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