After I got off the phone with Vice this morning, I attempted to meditate. Cross-legged, I sat on my floor and tried to clear my head. Instead, I thought about her ass stuffed with my dick as I pounded her like she’d take me to heaven. Meditation failed.
This simply couldn’t be happening. I needed this city. Jamie had made it clear: I would have power and New City if I delivered more Men of Earth. We beasts didn’t give away control of the land; we challenged each other for power. Jamie was handing me a city just for being loyal, willing to hunt, and capable of delivering what he wanted. But I’d plundered, I’d tortured, I’d killed, and I sent out small packs of hunters all over this country. Nothing.
Then they sent her. A spy who fell into my lap. I had to learn to control the urge to fuck her. One, if she was someone’s mate, she couldn’t be my mate. Two, my mate wouldn’t come to me. I would find her after I had this City secured and ready for us.
Flick!
I winced, jerked to the right. Another flayed piece of skin.
“This is gonna take time to heal,” Lore said.
“Maybe it’ll leave scars,” I groaned out and fisted my bound hands.
“Then you won’t be pretty anymore.”
Flick!
Maybe I was thinking about the wrong girl. I should try to meditate over Dewlyn’s sister, because delivering Hanna would get me this city. Yeah, I’d try searching her out through meditation.
Flick!
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said.
“Two more, pretty boy.”
Flick! Flick!
Flick!
“Be done!” I bellowed.
Footsteps approached, and Lore released me, then helped me down. We sat on the stone basement floor twenty feet below the ground. It used to be a bomb shelter, but we intended to use it as needed. Right now, it served as storage. They’d just brought in the Men of Earth truck, a bait loaded with food. I needed to follow the delivery, see when Men of Earth intercepted the trucks, and catch them in the act.
Blood trailed down my shoulder. I wiped it with a clean towel.
“Why do you do this to yourself?” Lore asked.
“Do what?”
“Let me whip you.”
“Helps me focus.”
“Load of crap.”
Fine! “I like how the mouse tastes. I want to taste her again.”
“That’s the sweet pot. You taste and you die. Give her to me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is my city. I gotta get the girl to talk.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that she might be yours?”
I snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been hunting for a mate all my life. Mates don’t come knocking on my door. I’ve got to work for her.” If Reagan were mine, Jamie would put me down, cage me, and separate us so he could secure her in his padded room and interrogate her. A growl built in my chest. I swallowed it and nudged Lore’s shoulder. “Let’s get back upstairs.”
We climbed several flights of stairs and met a wide-eyed Medrix, Jamie’s male, currently counseling my tribe on earthly ways as a punishment for not catching Vice’s mate.
“Medrix.” I greeted him. “How’s Shanice?”
“Pregnant.”
Way to go. “Tell her hi from me.”
“Not in a million years.”
I slapped him on the back. “I love good news. Tell me more. Make it great.”
“Your bike is gone.”
I dismissed the bike update with a flick of my wrist. Humans snuck into the parking lot and stole things all the time. When they ran out of fuel, they’d dump it somewhere and we’d find it again. Bike didn’t matter right now, I wanted to see the mouse. I hadn’t seen her since last night, and that bugged me. “Lore will handle it.”
“It’s the pink bike you bought from Alpha.”
I spun around. That bike was intended for my mate. “So get it back.”
“That’s the thing. One of your girls took it.”
“Ah, the girls always return, begging to come back. When she comes, take the bike, but not the girl.”
“Which girl?” Lore asked with a smirk.
“The one you bought for a twenty.”
I saw red and grabbed Medrix by his shirt. “How did you let her leave?”
“Nobody said she couldn’t. You said, and I quote, ‘Every woman in this house is free to leave.’ We just can’t let them back in. That’s all. Those were the instructions.”
I marched to the Observatory and commanded the parking lot camera. It showed the rows of bikes. Sure enough, the small pink bike was absent. “When did you notice the bike went missing?”
“Ten minutes ago,” Medrix said, “when I came on my shift.” He held up his hands. “Wasn’t on my watch, I swear.”