Nobody answered me. Just as well. I rambled on. “Poor Hasel. She made olive bread. I used to sneak into the kitchen and steal it. It was so good. Poor everyone. What a horrible mating party. I should’ve stayed in my room. Torrent would have stayed too. If I stayed, they wouldn’t have come. No bride, no party.”
“You couldn’t have known.” Then Vice added, “Correct?”
“Even if she knew, you’ll turn us free,” Dad said. “My girl and I have done enough for y’all, have suffered enough.”
“But I knew, Vice, I knew. I saw Momma Jo cooking up shit in the back. I said nothing. I thought it was contraceptives for the other women in case they were paired. I knew she kept—” I said nothing more. I wouldn’t mention poison. Deny deny deny. Torrent promised me he would deny, and so would I. He’d said we had to stick together. He’d killed for me.
Vice comforted me. “Regrets will tear you apart,” he said. “I understand how you feel.”
“I doubt that.”
“There are no winners,” Vice said. “We’ll never leave Earth. We all must learn to coexist, accept each other’s differences, and live a prosperous life. This, what happened in the community, serves neither of our species. Men of Earth must be uncovered and shut down. Using women and children to fight their wars is cowardly.”
The memory of Georgina made me shiver. With her lips pulled back in a snarl, the hate in her eyes, and the fork poised to stab me, she’d looked like a….monster. “We are monsters too,” I said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Torrent
Midway to the medical bay, I awoke. Lights burned my eyes, sensitive from the chemicals. Memories rushed me and I snarled, sitting up. A familiar face greeted me. A beast male with short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a bushy mustache he twirled into pointy tips. Our healer, Lers, pressed a hand on my chest and pushed me back down on the bed. He wheeled the bed into a room I recognized as a recovery room. Lers fiddled with the instruments. “Welcome back. Sorry about the lights. A minute. Close your eyes, they’ve been treated.”
“Good to see you, Lers.”
“Priest no more.”
“Nah, still Torrent. Half of Torrent.”
“What do you mean half?”
Something sharp jabbed my temple. Current shot straight into my brain and down my spinal cord. I winced. “Fuck.”
“No pussies in my med bay. Stay down, warrior, don’t embarrass yourself.”
“It fucking hurts.”
“You will live. Tell me about half of Torrent.”
“Don’t go psycho on me.”
“It is not psycho, for I am sane. The word is pushy, and mental wellness is a part of my job.” He jabbed me again.
“Stop that.” I snapped my eyes open.
Above me, Lers smiled. “I’m enjoying it. Talk.”
“Quit jabbing me.”
“Only one more.” Jab! My back arched from the sharp pain. I nearly came off the table. “Done.” He patted my head. “Good boy.”
Lers was one of the oldest beasts on Earth. He’d delivered Jamie, Vice, and Goner, and was their family’s healer.
“I lost my leg.”
“You did not lose a leg, for it implies you’ve lost the entire limb. You lost it below the knee, which I aim to fix.”
“How?”
“With my magic fingers.” He twirled his mustache.
“How?”
“Are you half the beast you used to be? Is that how you’re thinking of yourself?”
Lers spoke casually, but I’d been around long enough to know that if I told him how I felt, if I told him I thought about giving up even for a second, he’d commit me into treatment and try to revive my spirits by making me retreat back into self and my father’s teachings so that I might regain my spiritual connection with our Beast Mother and heal from within. I knew all this. It had crossed my mind to reconnect with Her, but I refused it. And now? I didn’t have time for it. “Sienna. Is she here?”
“Your mate has been treated.”
“Well, how is she?”
“She will also live.”
The doors banged open. Lers jumped and snarled. “Bitch’s holy pussy! Announce yourself.”
Alpha Beast Jamie’s ugly face hovered above me. He was all jacked up. His eyes were the palest silver I’d ever seen, and his white hair had gone even whiter if that were possible. But he smelled like an Alpha. I inhaled his scent, let it revive my lungs, let the strength of this male seep into my pores. I’d gone months without his presence, without him getting rough on me whenever I stalled or doubted myself. It felt good to be home.