Page 64 of Free Beast Mate

We faced each other. In battle form, Father stood eight feet tall and twice as wide as me, the abundance of white hair around his shoulders making him appear even bigger. While I measured him, I tried to suppress the fear that Emma would spend the rest of her life alone and possibly raising our children by herself. The thought of her grim future erased my fear and replaced it with anger. I fucking hated the man who’d made me.

The beasts closed around us in a circle. They stomped their feet. My father stomped his too. I wanted to shatter his knee. I wanted to break him. If he lived, Emma would suffer down there in the bunker. The longer she remained there, the more I wanted her out. I knew what made her tick. It wasn’t closed-in dark spaces, it was the vast space she’d never even seen. I wanted to show her everything. And damn it, I would show her the universe.

I leapt. Father stepped back and slipped, fell into the crowd, who bounced him back. Our bodies collided, chest to chest, claws swiped, teeth snapped, and we landed back on our feet. I touched my neck, and my hand came away bloody. Nie hadn’t fared any better, with a gash over his middle. He rushed me. I leapt and met him halfway. Again, we collided chest to chest. My breath whooshed out, but so did his as we clawed at each other. He clamped his mouth on my bicep, his teeth digging into the flesh. I clawed his side, then jabbed my claws under his rib cage. I lifted my hand, felt ribs, and lifted some more.

He wouldn’t let go of my arm.

He’d crush it.

And so he did.

A crunch sounded, and a cry tore out of me. I moved back, my right arm hanging at my side. In the crowd, I found Vice. I couldn’t miss his pale pink eyes. They filled with fear. He thought I’d lose.

Nie lifted his hands and stomped his feet. A victory dance. He leapt at me and struck my face. My cheek crunched under his fist, and I fell to one knee.

“That’s right, boy. Bow to your true Alpha.”

Well, I couldn’t do that, now could I?

Oh, but the pain made me want to pass out. My arm felt as heavy as an iron chest. I grunted, forced myself up, one eye completely shut, the other blurry. Probably had a concussion. I blinked the good eye to clear my haze and stumbled back. The crowd pushed me. Father advanced. We’d collide again, and he’d kill me.

He leapt.

I didn’t.

I waited and sank my good hand into his gut. My claws pierced the skin as he fell on top of me, then I felt soft organs on my fingertips. I snarled and bit his shoulder to keep him on top of me, then jerked my hand. I tore into his insides.

Nie howled.

The crowd quieted. Not a single foot stomped in the control room.

I coughed out his and my blood, then pushed him off. I knelt beside him. Blood gushed out of his middle. I tore off my shirt and covered the wound. Father breathed, his chest rising and falling. “I could’ve killed you, boy. But I didn’t.”

“Oh, you can’t be fucking serious,” Vice said behind me. “You’re something else, Nie, something fucking else. I can only thank our Great Mother none of those crazy genes carried on to your offspring.”

“Blasphemy,” Nie said. “Kill him,” he ordered.

The beasts didn’t move though, unsure what to do. Even the other Tineya’s Second stayed back. Clown.

Soft footsteps.

I tilted my head up and wrinkled my nose. I smelled her before I saw her. My mother pushed past the beasts and ran in a flutter of black skirts and ribbons. Her red eyes were pale, her face was wrinkled with age, and her soft features appeared even softer as she sobbed. She covered Nie’s body, her eyes on me. “Mercy, Amoris, show him mercy.”

She buried her face into the crook of his neck. Beside her, Nie smiled. I stared down at him, unsure why he’d surprised me. But he had. I didn’t think he’d use his mate to save his life. When Com X went down, he must’ve known sooner or later Jamie would find out it was he who had been supplying Men of Earth with tech and weapons, he who might’ve even started the movement. He who led the Star to collect Emma.

He could’ve waited for someone to deliver her to Tineya instead of making the long journey, which led me to believe he thought he could use his beasts and the Men of Earth forces to defeat Jamie. But he also thought Jamie would challenge him, and he knew he would lose. So he’d brought my mother, a sure way to save his life. He didn’t expect me to defeat him, a blow to his pride. I decided to let him live and rot from the inside. He hadn’t expected his youngest to remove him from the throne; he wanted me to share the throne with him. To him, I was worthless, a waste of sperm, a favor to my mom.

I smiled back and walked to said throne. Made of iron and covered in wild red animal fur, it looked magnificent. My ass hit it, and I propped one leg over my knee. Pain shot up my broken arm, and I groaned, grinding my teeth. “Let me hear it!”

The beasts stomped once. “All see Alpha Amoris, a true descendant of our Great Mother.”

I glanced at Vice. He shrugged. “Works for me.”

Jamie’s voice drifted through the com unit in my ear, and I winced, then popped the piece out. I stretched out my hand. “It’s for you, Vice.”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Someone better answer me,” Jamie said as I put the thing back in my ear, wishing I could adjust the volume to mute and give myself a minute.

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