The mouse scampered outside before I let out a stream.
I chuckled, feeling pretty good this morning. My instincts screamed at me from the moment I saw her, but it wasn’t until I walked in on her in this house that everything from the auction came crashing down on me. I thought I’d caught a spy, felt strongly that I had sensed her intentions and didn’t pay attention to my mating instinct which—lucky for us beasts—was something we couldn’t control or I would already have hurt her for being in this house and plotting ways to kill me.
Although I’d only ever fucked her pussy, I didn’t fumble, and she liked what I did with her last night. So, I was good to go. After a few days in the house, she’d tell me everything. I’d stocked and restocked this house with food, and we could live here alone for a month. I hopped in the shower and asked her to join me. She said she was gonna make me breakfast. Alarm bells rang in my head, but I ignored that shit because my mate was here in my house and that was all that mattered.
Blissful, I showered and dressed, then opened the com unit in my ear.
On my way downstairs, ringing sounded again. This was our home phone. I didn’t bother, probably a wrong number. The people who needed to reach me would use my com unit.
I stepped into the kitchen.
My mate turned around and smiled.
The jeans clung to her hips, and the white T-shirt fell over her shoulder, but when I saw the marks my teeth had made last night, I remembered I’d claimed my mate and put seed inside her belly. I forgot all about the clothes I needed to replace yet again. They were too big for her.
“Hi,” she said, completely oblivious to what was going on here. “I found bread and some eggs, so I made French toast.” She held out a plate. “You want some?”
I shook my head.
“And apple juice.” She poured two glasses and walked over to hand me mine. She held it out.
I shook my head.
“There’s no coffee.”
I shook my head again.
She giggled. “I’m trying not to have an awkward morning after. You’re not helping.” She sat at the table, put my glass across from hers and sipped her juice. “Mmm. Yummy.” She cut into her toast. Feeling like an idiot for just standing there shaking my head, I plopped my ass across from her and stared. Damn. My mate was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, more beautiful than Rey and Dewlyn combined. Yup.
She looked up from her plate, caught me staring at her, and the corners of her lips turned up. I turned up mine and gave her my best smile, the one that made a dimple in my left cheek. Human women liked this smile.
“Mayhem,” Lore said in my ear.
I ignored him.
I’d claimed my mate. She was here in my house. She’d found me, dropped right into my lap, and I owned her. For only twenty bucks. “Twenty bucks. I bought you for twenty bucks.”
“I’m cheap like that.”
“I would have paid a fortune.”
Her fork dropped, and she looked away. “Nah. I’m not worth a fortune, believe me.”
“I think you are.”
She sipped her juice, then put it back on the table. She nudged my glass. “Have some.”
I picked up my glass and brought it to my lips.
“Mayhem!” Lore shouted in my ear. “Answer me, or I’m coming in.”
Wincing, I cleared my throat and stood. “Wait here. Don’t move. We need to talk.”
I walked inside the garage and tapped my com. “This better be important,” I hissed.
“Mayhem. Fuck, I’m worried to death. Where are you?”
“At home.”
“You’re with her,” Lore said, sounding surprised.
“The girl’s name is Reagan.” A pause. When he didn’t continue, I asked, “How do you know where she is?”
“Vice traced the pink bike to your house.”
“I see. And?”
“Maurice left the state, heading somewhere. We’re close, so close.”
Fuck. This meant I had to get going. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“That’s not all.”
“Be done with it.”
“Vice believes she’s your mate, and you’re not telling. Is she?”
“She’s not mine.” Jamie and I had agreed that if the mate to a beast was sent from Men of Earth, we’d separate the couple. The beast, we’d drug and cage; the girl, we’d question. We found it was the only way to keep the male alive and the woman unharmed. Some of those girls were martyrs. They killed their mates and themselves after.
I couldn’t be separated from her. I’d just found out she was mine. I’d figure this out, make us right. She’d tell me about Men of Earth, and with time, we’d work it out. I nodded, happy with my logic.