I wasn’t gonna fail the hunters who’d followed me to Earth. I’d use the auctions to find the female assassin who Men of Earth sent, I would track her sources, and when I finished with her, I would snap her little neck. No mercy, for the humans had showed the beasts none. I’d make an example of her so they’d quit using women to get us. We’d been far too kind to human females. That was why the beasts were dying, why community leaders hurt our mates, and why I wouldn’t buy a girl from a community even if she were mine. No buying for me or any members of my tribe. We would simply take.
“What’s for dinner?” I asked Lore, only to keep him talking so I didn’t appear as bored as I felt.
“The screamer. Screamed all night, had to shut him up.”
Food on this planet was great. New City was great. But sitting around made me feel like my life ran on a rinse-and-repeat cycle. At least when I’d first landed, I’d explored this planet, found things to buy for my mate. Like that cute pink bike I’d bought from Rey, Alpha’s mate. If my mate was as tame as Rey, I would die a happy, well-fucked asshole. At the thought of a woman who would share this life with me, I smiled again.
The dream of happiness lasted all of two seconds before I spotted a male with pale eyes. “Herbert seems excited, Lore. Take him outside, strip him, and tie him up to a post. Put a bit in his mouth. Let him chew on it. He’s not allowed into the dungeons tonight.”
Something soft touched my calf. I peered down at my human servant, who set down a tray. “Your tea, Master Mayhem.”
“Thank you, dear.” Eyes on Herbert, I took the drink and accidentally brushed my finger over hers.
“Oh,” she said. Her big eyes lit up, and she began crawling over my leg. Young and healthy, she rubbed her perky little tits against my thigh. When she rested her palms on my chest, I placed a gentle hand on top of her head. This one never stopped trying. She’d make another man perfectly happy. I wasn’t that man. Or a man at all. “Off, girl,” I said.
She pouted. “I don’t want you to get any more girls. It’s getting crowded down there. Don’t we have enough?”
Shayma was the fortunate rescue from one of the first communities we’d raided. We shut down the community and brought the women back with us. It meant she’d been with us the longest, practically a part of our tribe, and so I allowed her privileges such as touching my calf. “We have plenty of women,” I said. “Mother Beast smiled on us, but we can never have too many women. They make our world spin. Are you unhappy here?”
Her eyes widened at my accusation. “I’m very happy. That’s not what I meant at all.”
The doors opened with a creak. Humans would be here soon. “You will spend time with Lore this evening.”
I caught her disappointment, but she knew the rules. Master Mayhem’s dick was off-limits.
“Yes, Master Mayhem,” she said without further trouble and crawled down the steps.
A deliciously harmless girl. I liked ’em like that. Obedient and harmless.
Chapter Three
Reagan
The crowd that waited for the doors to open squeezed inside like a herd of cattle on slaughter day. About one hundred of us humans entered a well-lit hall and the heavy floor-to-ceiling doors closed behind us with a thud. I felt trapped in a dream. Surely I wasn’t gonna do this, wasn’t gonna lie with the beasts.
Maurice took my elbow and nudged me ahead.
Ancient iron chandeliers hung from the ceilings, long red velvet curtains draped over the windows, and balconies adorned both sides of the grand space. It reminded me of a theater setting for a play from the dark ages. I half expected the beasts that lined both sides of the hall to start clapping, eager for the performance to start. I didn’t think they’d enjoy my performance. Probably because I wasn’t very good at pretending that I was at a ball.
After I’d killed Doug, Maurice didn’t kill me. Instead, he decided he’d use me to spy on the hunters, brought me into this New City, and planned to auction me to the highest bidder. The thought of a beast man buying me made me nauseous. The crowds didn’t make me nervous, the stage we shuffled toward didn’t make me want to gag, but the prospect of having to please a beast to keep myself and those poor souls at the circus alive made me sway on my feet. I stumbled back and turned to run.
Maurice caught my shoulders. His gray eyes—same color as mine—narrowed as he sneered. “Be brave or be dead.”
I turned back around and fisted my hands. Flowery feminine perfumes mingled with men’s sweat made me want to puke on the ringlets of the hair of the girl in front of me. The ringlets keep bouncing over her shoulders as her head moved from left to right, then up at the massive chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Probably none of us had ever seen a hall this big or this lavishly decorated. Oil paintings with silver frames hung from the walls. Whoever owned this place was rich and perhaps a bit pompous.