Page 17 of Free Beast Mate

Adam nodded. “Speaks the truth. But the asshole won’t mate our breeders. We’re gonna have to go back up for more.”

John stood there, looking stunned. “I hadn’t realized this was the reason for herding women across the country and bringing them here.”

“You didn’t need to know. You execute orders just like me and her and everyone else.”

“A beast mate is a one in a million shot,” John said.

Adam sighed. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Yeah, I got a better idea.”

“Speak with Tom about it.” Adam tapped the mike. “Last chance, or I’m coming in.”

Amoris rested, his bottom on his heels, his head down, his glorious gray hair braided at the back. He lifted his head, red eyes paled to silver. “Adam, buddy, long time no see. What happened?”

“Shut up and get in the holding box.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. Come here and make me.”

Adam cursed and marched to the door. John tapped the hologram screen, then followed Adam. I walked behind them. The outermost security door, the bars around the quarters, slid open, followed by the second steel door, revealing Amoris, who knelt with his back to us. Adam didn’t walk inside. He aimed the gun at Amoris’s back, clicked something on the piece, and—I presumed—now the gun would shoot.

Amoris’s ear twitched. Slowly, he moved. He sat behind the table and spread his arms. “Welcome.”

I stepped around John, but he threw out his arm and hid me behind him.

Adam fumed, practically radiating heat off his body. “Get in the holding box, or I’ll load you up so you can’t wake up for days.”

“I have all the time in the world. Come in.”

“Hey.” I peeked from behind John’s shoulder. “It’s me. I need to work. You think I can come in?”

Amoris blinked. Once, twice, and the silver retreated from his eyes, making them red. He didn’t answer me.

“I don’t have all day, my lord. I gotta be out of here by ten. Got sanctuary at ten thirty. After that, I have prayer, then I got my geography class for which I haven’t prepared, and Miss Larnos won’t be happy.”

Nothing. I pushed past John. Adam caught my hair and yanked. I fell back, my caddy flying out of my hand, my supplies spilling everywhere. Amoris leapt out of the chair so fast, he was a blur. In the second it took him to leap, he’d already taken on his beast form. John helped me up and held me back.

Adam took a step inside.

Through the doorjamb as if it were a looking glass, we watched the horror, neither of us moving. Amoris slashed at the gun first. It flew and hit the wall near the desk. Adam shrieked and spun around, ready to bolt, but I was blocking the exit with John close behind me. “Move!” Adam snarled and tried to push past us. John threw out his hand. “I have a better idea,” he said.

Adam gulped.

I stood there stuck between the two men, my eyes on the huge beast towering over Adam. I was frozen in fear, even though Amoris did nothing but stand behind Adam, saliva dripping from the wolf-like mouth filled with canines that could rip into a tree. He was…he was menacing. Eight and a half feet of muscle and fur, his long fingers made longer by his black claws, and his face a cross between a wolf and man with razor-sharp teeth, a bulging jaw, and silver eyes, he looked exactly like the beasts from the paintings along the Community X walls. The ones of beasts snapping humans in half, of blood and saliva dripping down their chins, of claws ripping into soft bellies.

Adam pushed me again, but John steadied me. We effectively blocked the exit, my nerves on the edge, my heart pumping.

I slammed my palm over the red emergency button.

The inner door slid closed.

I stared at the gun-metal steel in front of me.

Growls sounded from inside, and I couldn’t move. “Oh God, oh God, why did I do that? Tom will kill me. They’ll hang me. Oh God.”

---