Page 13 of Free Beast Mate

Adam wound a piece of cloth about my head, put it over my mouth, and I bit it when he tied it at the back of my head. He pushed me, and I fell to my knees. He rounded the pole and brought down the rope. I looked up. “Nooo,” I mumbled. “Tommm,” I cried out.

Adam wasn’t gonna lash me. He’d hang me. “Tom!” Where was he? Adam put the rope about my neck. I kicked out and got him in the thigh. He slapped me. My head jerked to the side. Pain exploded in my neck, and my cheek burned. “I hate you!” I screamed, but it came out muffled.

He pressed a hand on my back. “Stay still. Lashing first.”

God, he wasn’t even going to secure me to the pole. He’d lash me kneeling here. If I jerked, he could catch my front, or even worse, my eyes. I froze in place, the damn rope still around my neck. All he had to do was set the machinery, a pull of a lever, and I’d go up, my neck would crack, and life would be over for me.

I looked down at my hands.

The first flick burned across my back. I threw my head back and screamed. They came one after the other, my screams muffled, the crowds growing weary. Nobody chanted for more. They watched, some in awe, some in horror as Adam flayed the skin off my back. I tried to keep steady and up so that I didn’t slouch to the ground and end up hanging myself. But my body gave out anyway.

I fell, forehead first, on the ground.

The rope kept me up and cut off my breath. I coughed through the cloth in my mouth, saliva making my choking worse. In the corner of my eye, I saw Cole screaming and running down the steps. I tried telling him not to approach, but I couldn’t say a word, the rope tight and choking me. Cole rushed for me, and Adam lashed out, caught the boy right under the eye. Cole bent over, hands on his face. Poor thing.

And then a man came to stand over me. He wore a gray tunic that matched his cold gray eyes. With his head shaved and those terrifying eyes, I knew he’d finish me off.

John bent.

I winced, thinking the worse. But he picked me up and removed the rope around my neck. Adam lashed out at him. The man caught the end of the whip and tugged, then put me on the ground. I collapsed next to Cole and watched Adam rush the man, preparing to strike. John skipped aside, wrestled the whip out of Adam’s hand, and pushed Adam away. Adam fell on his ass.

John flicked the whip as if testing it, then struck out. It coiled around Adam’s neck. The crowd parted for Tom, who looked from Adam to the new warrior. “John, I take it you want his position, then.”

John shrugged, but didn’t let go of the whip. “I don’t lash or hang women and kids. Let’s be clear on that.”

“And men?” Tom asked. “Do you lash or hang men?”

“I do. This one, I’d like to carve and cook, then serve to the beast.”

Tom smiled. “Not yet. Let him go.” He spun around and spoke to the crowd. “The beasts have a thing among their ranks, a thing we could learn from. They follow their Alpha without question. And the reason they follow him is because he is what, people?”

“A true god, father of their race.”

“Correct. And you will know a true servant when you see one. It is one who obeys. Adam went far, almost killed Emma, who happens to be a servant of mine. She has been here since before many of you came. She takes care of our sanctuary. When she is wrong, she should be punished, and I have ordered her punishment. But no one…” He paused. “No one takes life here unless I say so!”

The crowds went silent.

“John is a servant. He brought us supplies. They are arriving down the tubes as we speak. What do we say?”

People cheered. The masses gathered at the sector’s entrance cheered. Cole took my hands and unbound them. I sat up and faced him. Stupid boy. Shouldn’t have tried to help me. I pulled the cloth out of my mouth. “Did he get your eye?”

“Almost.”

Adam’s face looked like it might explode, his hands around his throat trying to pry the whip off. John let him go.

My back burned, and it felt like something had attached itself to it, a burden I couldn’t carry. The adrenaline wore off, leaving me with pain. Darkness closed over my eyes, and I collapsed.

---