Page 18 of Free Beast Mate

John grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. He walked me back to the desk and pushed me down to sit, where we watched Amoris feast.

“Why?” John asked and tapped the hologram. The video of me pressing the button showed on the small screen hovering above the table. He glanced at me. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” I wrung my hands in my lap.

John scrubbed his bald head. “What a clusterfuck.”

“Will you get in trouble?” I asked him. He’d saved my life. I liked John and wanted him around instead of Adam.

John folded his hands over his chest. A minute passed, and I got antsy, but he spoke before I crawled out of my skin. “Adam made a mistake. An enraged beast is not someone you want to get close to. He knew better. His ego ate him.”

“Right.”

“But you, girl, you’re my biggest problem now. Or a solution. Depends on how I look at it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I will tell you what I mean. But if you repeat it… “ He leaned in and gripped my throat. I clawed at his hand, the trauma of hanging still fresh and real. I felt like he was suffocating me. He knew it too, so he pressed on. “If you repeat it, I will hang you myself. You feel me, girl?”

“You don’t hang girls,” I choked out.

“I’ll make an exception.” He let go of my throat and glanced at the screen. “Ah, he’s done. Let’s clean up.”

“What? Wait a minute. You were going to tell me what you mean.”

“Changed my mind. Got ahead of myself. Got an extra mop in your canoe?”

“Huh?”

“A mop?”

“Yeah. No, there’s one in the closet by the door.” I pointed. “Over there.”

John got the mop and a water bucket and walked to the door.

“Aren’t you scared he’ll eat you too?”

“No.”

“Wh… Wh… Why not?”

John’s lips tipped up. I didn’t think this man could smile at all. “That a girl. Why not?” John slung a shotgun over his shoulder, walked away and used Tom’s card for the doors. They slid open. Although I’d seen Amoris consume Adam on the screen, it didn’t make the real scene any less gruesome. Blood coated the walls and floors. Adam’s body parts had been thrown around as if he were a rag doll.

John entered and walked carefully, trying not to step on the blood. After grabbing the hose from the closet, I followed him inside, and we lined up against the wall. Amoris sat behind the table with a big bloody grin on his humanish face. He wiped it with…what looked like a part of Adam’s robe, which did nothing but smear the blood over the lord’s face some more. He licked his lips. “Been wanting to taste this one for a long, long time. A hungry beast is not a happy beast. You’d do well to remember that, John.”

John tapped his shotgun. “You’ll do well to know that I will not hesitate. I ain’t no Adam.”

Amoris ignored him. “Turn around,” he ordered me.

“Hm?”

“Turn around.”

I glanced at John. He nodded, so I faced the wall.

“Put the hose down and unzip your dress. John, eyes on me or I will gouge them out. You understand?”

John grunted.

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