Caught Beast Mate(29)
“Why would I do it, hm? I have no reason to.”
She flicked flour dust away from her apron and tilted her head. “Are you sure about that?”
“Positive.”
“Have you two crossed paths before?”
I waved my hand. “No.”
Her foot tapped faster. My heart matched its speed. “We called him by a different name,” she said. “Priest. We speak of the dead in such a way. Priest is no more. I house one Torrent, son of Tineyan’s High Priest, our finest beast royalty, highborn with healthy bloodlines, one who is sure to breed strong beasts. This past summer, I hear, Torrent mated one Sienna of Big Bear. It is presumed she escaped him en route to Beast City, after which she hid inside a shelter set up by Dewlyn of Tineya’s second. Is that correct?”
Okay, I didn’t like where this was going. I didn’t think Hasel would know the details of how I got to be here. After I confirmed Priest had died, I’d avoided Dewlyn at all costs, hoping everyone would just forget about me. I probably should’ve avoided Reagan too, maybe changed my name, but then Daddy would never know I lived. “I’m not the only Sienna in the country.”
“You’re not. But he is the only son of the High Priest.”
“This beast,” I pointed in the general direction of the west wing, “is not the beast who kidnapped me.”
“Kidnapped?”
“Yes, kidnapped.”
Hasel frowned. “You mean bought you.”
“Oh no. Not all pairs are bought. The beast hurt my daddy and took me on his bike. He kidnapped me. At seventeen too. That’s not in the Pairing Program. I know what’s in the Pairing Program, and kidnapping is…is against the beast code of ethics or something.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I wouldn’t know.” Hasel shrugged. “The pairing is designed to ease the humans into our ways. Alpha Beast and his brother are trying to be fair. If my boy Mayhem took over the planet, it would be vastly different. In our tribe, the beast takes what is his to take. No paying, no begging, no niceties. Torrent acted as a beast male. He took his mate fair and square.”
“You keep repeating that word, mate.”
“Mate is for the beast. I was once a mate. It’s a great honor, one you human girls don’t seem to appreciate.”
I snorted. “I don’t see anything honorable in kidnapping. I hate him.”
Hasel slapped her thigh.
I jumped.
“You hate him so you poisoned him.”
“It’s not the same Torrent guy! I’ve never seen the beast before. And you know what else? If I wanted to kill him, I could’ve left his sorry ass out there in the desert.”
“Cole claimed him, so you had to bring him in. Though I have no doubt if you were alone, you would’ve left him.”
“I would have brought him back.”
“You hate us.” She growled and uncrossed her hands. She flexed them, clearly a show of claws. “You and every woman in the east wing. But oh, they are comfortable. I feed them, I care for them, I give them their own quarters, because I know they fear and hate us. By doing so, I thought I would let them see us as people. You think we’re animals, no different from those pigs out there in the mud. I gave you a chance. I thought you were more like Cole than them girls. But you proved to be the most hateful one. Sneaky little bitch. I kept you safe, and what did you do? Poisoned a wounded highborn under my roof!”
My makeshift bike was ready. My backpack waited at marker fourteen. All I had to do was slip away. I’d only need fifteen minutes. By the time they figured out I’d left, they wouldn’t be able to catch up to me. “What do you intend to do with me?”
“Ha! That’s the catch. I can’t do anything but keep you safe, for you are a mated female who will breed us fine beasts of strong bloodlines.”
“Let me out, then.”
“You didn’t ask what I want,” she said.
“What do you want?”
She leaned in, eyes paled to gray. “I want to make a meal of you, scrawny as you are. I want to suck the marrow of your bones, girl.”
“That’s horrible, Hasel.”
“I won’t. And killing Momma Jo without proof would make me look bad. I hold on to hope one of the girls is a mate for one of the beasts. It is my duty to protect the girls until they are taken.”
“So what? I sit here for…the rest of my life?”
“Torrent is coming for you. Prepare to serve him as you should.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sienna
After Hasel left, I rushed, spearhead in hand, to the lock. If I ran when Cole took me out for my potty breaks, he’d come under fire from Torrent. So I’d pick the lock now before Torrent came in here.