Page 31 of Free Beast Mate

Chapter Eleven

Emma

Tom slept on his side.I chewed on my lip, kept glancing at the door as if expecting someone to walk in when I knew no one ever went inside Tom’s hut, a private place tucked under the sanctuary. It was one of the older structures that had remained here after the Beast Father’s first visit, when he’d provided funds and alien tech for us so we could rebuild our community. Beast Father was the only reason we still kept breathing and enjoyed a relatively decent life down here. If he hadn’t come to us, we’d all have died. Though I wasn’t sure how to get him to visit with us now. We needed his help desperately.

A gun-looking thing that healed wounds glared at me from Tom’s open closet. I could load the gun with a medicine vial from the box that sat right next to it. But Tom reserved the last of the medicine for the breeders. I knew I shouldn’t touch it.

I pressed my lips to his temple. His skin burned, and my hand on his sheets came away wet. “Tom?”

He grunted.

“Tom, you’re not well. You need to get better.”

Nothing.

“Damn it, Tom.” I shouldn’t have cursed. I glanced up at the sky and excused myself. I’d been busy in the sanctuary, then with Tom since I’d left Amoris’s quarters. I’d given Tom tea, every herb I thought would make him better, but he kept deteriorating, and now he wasn’t even responsive. I feared the worse, feared he’d die if I left for work.

What do I do? I glanced back at the closet. I didn’t know what would happen without Tom. Clensey, the warrior commander, had already incinerated almost three dozen people in Sector Six. Healthy people died inside too. When Clensey had come around asking permission, Tom nodded his head, but I wasn’t even sure Tom understood the question. He was unwell. My protests fell on deaf ears. I was just a glorified janitor around here.

Clensey didn’t leave after he got the approval. He kept staring at me, undressing me with his eyes. I didn’t like the look. But then he spat on me and called me names. Even though Tom could barely sit up, he reprimanded Clensey for it.

I couldn’t imagine Community X without Tom. Another leader would rise, no doubt, but they wouldn’t be Tom, and they certainly wouldn’t treat me the way Tom had treated me. As if I were Reagan, the child he’d lost in that dreadful family trip to the carnival.

So, I got the medicine gun and loaded it with a vial. Then I knelt by his bed, pulled down his pants, and stuck him in the buttocks. The gun whooshed and emptied. Tom didn’t flinch. I slid back his pants and covered him, put the gun in the closet, and shut off the dim light in the room. He’d rest and recover by morning. He could yell at me for giving him medicine when he felt better. I’d already lost both my parents. I wasn’t about to lose Tom too.

On my way out, I passed through the sanctuary, making sure it was clean for Sunday mass. Oh my God, if Tom didn’t recover, who would speak during the mass? John? Not him, for sure. He seemed content cooped up in Amoris’s sector. Probably the only warrior who actually wanted that position.

Something green littered the floor. I bent and picked it up. A leaf from an oak tree. I sniffed. Wow. It still smelled fresh from Above. I put it in my pocket. Warriors must’ve come recently. Perhaps with supplies?

I walked outside and got in Tom’s canoe, then went about my Thursday morning. Amoris’s quarters next. I’d adjusted my schedule a little, but not too much. I hoped Amoris didn’t mind me coming in later than usual, and that we could simply forget about the spanking. I blushed as I paddled through the water. He could say all he liked, but his body told me he thought I was pretty. As pretty as the breeders. Maybe not his mate, but pretty enough to tempt him.

I presumed he might be upset, though. He seemed to enjoy routine. Get up, exercise, shower, then eat. He also counted and wrote down his exercise routines, had them all saved under his bed. Two years of notes. Lord Amoris was meticulous. Nah, he wouldn’t appreciate my rescheduling without prior notice, not that I cared about upsetting him anyway.

As I came closer and closer to my sector, laughter drifted through the community, violating the somber mood. It made me angry. People had died in Sector Six recently, and these fools laughed. I didn’t care if a clown came, laughter amid all the death and sickness wasn’t right.

I parked and marched across the path, then stopped. People were gathered outside the sector, and everyone stared up. They were expecting something. I looked up too at the open holes in the ceiling, which we called tubes.

“What’s going on?” I asked the person next to me, even though I didn’t know them. So many people had settled with us lately, I couldn’t keep track of them.

“The beast mate is found.”

Something horrible clawed at my chest. I put a hand over it, thinking it would rip open. My vision went blurry, and I blinked and blinked and through a fog of my shock saw several white tubes extend from the ceiling and stick in the ground. Ten seconds later, they retreated back up, leaving boxes upon boxes of supplies. Cheers exploded.

And shame made me choke up even more.

I couldn’t care less about the food.

I couldn’t care less if everyone here died.

Because a mate had been found, and I wasn’t her.

Pissed, I spun around and headed to see the beast. He’d spanked me, humiliated me, asked me a million and one questions, then figured to mate someone else. I just wanted to…to bang him over the head with something.

I burst inside Sector Zero just as Cole readied to leave. I passed John, who opened his mouth to say something, and knocked on the door. “If there is a breeder in there, I will pull all her hair out!”

I pointed at the door. “John, open it.”

The doors slid open, and I marched inside. “God, I am so…” I balled my hands into fists.

---