Blind Beast Mate(3)

The Alpha Beast tasted fresh, a hint of mint and lemon on his expert tongue, not a trace of stale beer or someone else’s night-before lipstick. Growing up with a community whore had thought me to appreciate the small things and rejoice in those small things even at the most terrifying moments. I didn’t know what would happen to me with this man, but at least he didn’t taste bad on my sensitive palate.

After a minute, his kissing slowed and his tongue stopped moving. Not knowing what else to do, I stroked it with mine. With the tip of my tongue, I flicked his. The Alpha Beast groaned into my mouth and pressed me closer. He was so hard, I thought he might burst out of his pants and take me right over his bike. He could do what he wanted with me. I was his pair.

His lips left mine. My mouth still gaped, and my lips tingled from rubbing on his stubble. I’d never been taken like this before. The Alpha Beast chuckled, probably at my gaping mouth, and his rough, two-day-unshaven cheek brushed my soft one as his sharp teeth nibbled my ear. He whispered, “Your uncle swore to me you are a virgin. Swore up and down nobody’s spoiled you, and charged me an arm and a leg for your virginal pussy. Let’s be clear in case you aren’t. Tell me now so I don’t gotta drive back to collect his arm and a leg.”

I wasn’t a virgin, but I’d protected myself from abuse. In fact, I was so good at protecting myself that I traded rape trauma for a life of blindness. A trade no woman should have to make. I swiped away those memories and focused on the now.

The silence in the yard never sounded louder. I estimated that between his beasts and the community’s humans, about three hundred people watched and listened. Even Dark had stopped barking. “Can we talk about this later?” I whispered.

“No. Answer me.”

My body was still bent back, and he appeared a dark mass against the lit sky. I gripped the back of his head and tried to pull him down so I could whisper in his ear. I tugged, but he didn’t budge. Okay, then. “Maybe,” I said.

“Twenty says there be bloody sheets!” someone shouted.

I would’ve liked to keep our business private.

The Alpha Beast straightened, and three hard thumps sounded. He might’ve thumped his chest, but I wasn’t sure. It sounded suspiciously like something a gorilla did. He picked me up and plopped my ass on the back of his bike. The way he manhandled me suited me fine. He could move me from one place to the next all he wanted. Next, he removed my sunglasses and paused.

Minutes passed, and I barely hitched breaths.

“You’re beautiful,” he said and placed my sunglasses in my backpack so the helmet fit over my head.

Dark barked.

Soft paws padded over gravel.

They landed on my thigh at the same time the Alpha Beast straddled his bike. I found Dark’s head and scratched behind his fluffy ears. He kept barking. If my heart could split in half, it would’ve.

“No hounds,” the Alpha Beast said. “I got a cat at home.”

“Please, it would mean the world to me if you found a place for him.”

“No hound.” He revved the engines and prepared to lift off.

I panicked and hopped off his bike. I stood there in my darkness in the middle of the day, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest. I’d committed a sin. When a beast placed a bitch on the bike in front of his beasts, she’d better not leap off in defiance. I clenched my fists and remembered Uncle Sam’s threat. I couldn’t tell the Alpha Beast why I needed my hound, or he might leave me here. Or get rid of me himself.

The Alpha Beast didn’t say anything right away, probably because he was too busy thinking about yanking my hair and forming words that would say don’t ever do that again. He’d paid a fortune for me. “What the fuck are you doin’? Get back on the bike.”

And there it was. “I can’t leave my hound.”

“I told you, I got a cat. Can’t have—”

I cut him off. “Dark is well behaved. He won’t—”

“Where the hell should I put the damn hound?”

“In one of your space cars. Besides, I have more stuff than what’s in my backpack.”

“Smartass!” the beast who’d bet a twenty shouted.

“You’ll buy new stuff in Beast City,” he said.

“Thank you, but—”

The Alpha Beast snarled, and I pressed my lips closed. “You got a car?” he bit out.

“No.”

“Then get back on the bike right this second.”

I knelt and hugged Dark. If I stayed here, my life was over. If I told the Alpha Beast he’d paired and paid a fortune for a girl who wasn’t a virgin and couldn’t see, my life was over. If my life was over, they’d bury Dark with me. But if we parted ways, I’d live, and when the gates to our community slid open, Dark would run out and join the many stray hound packs. He was such a good boy. “I’m sorry, boy. Run, it’s better than staying here.” Before I left my home, I unsnapped his leash.