Wild Beast Mate(3)

I shrugged. “The fuck if I know.”

“If this was Rey, I’d have gone mad already.”

“You are mad. There’s no need to go anywhere.” I watched the screen. The guard—finally!—caught up with her. He heaved breaths, one hand holding the side of his neck. When he saw her standing on the edge, his eyebrows shot up, and he showed her his empty hands. This beast was about five feet ten inches, with a shaved head and large hoop earrings. Medrix. I’d make him run laps for a week. Maybe then he’d build up some stamina. I popped my knuckles, wanting to break his face.

“All right, bitch, listen up,” he said. “Don’t be jumping on my watch. I can’t have it.” He motioned with his hand to the exit. “You can walk. Just don’t jump. It’s not worth it.”

Dewlyn pointed to the two-inch-wide black leather collar around her neck. My collar. The white inscription one could read from five hundred fucking miles away but Medrix had missed, read: Property of Vice, Tineyas Second.

Wide-eyed, Medrix swallowed. “A pair,” he said. “You’re Vice’s pair. Do not fucking jump on my watch!”

“I won’t if you give him a message.”

Both Jamie and I approached the screen. I swiped a hand over it. “Zoom in,” I commanded.

Man, she was something. All of four feet eleven, with her long red braid swaying in the wind, smiling big brown eyes, dirty jeans, and a dirty white T-shirt over her pear-shaped, honed body, she was fire contained in a tiny sexy box. I needed to open up that box, have it spill its secrets without burning us both. She didn’t make it easy on me, and I didn’t know why.

A glint in her eye warned me something wicked had just crossed her mind. A cold shiver ran through my body. Dewlyn pulled on the belts strapped around her thigh.

“What’s she doing?” Jamie asked.

I shrugged again.

She glanced down, to probably over six hundred feet below. A knot of fear formed in my throat.

“Tell Vice I want him to leave me alone,” she said. “Tell him I hate him.”

“Bullshit,” I argued with the screen.

Medrix advanced.

“Don’t come closer, or I’ll go over,” she said.

“She’s messing with him,” I whispered. Right?

Jamie snorted.

“Come back down,” Medrix said. “I swear I’ll let you walk out of here. You running from Vice? I won’t tell him you’re here. Just don’t jump.”

Under her feet, she kicked back the loose cement when her toes crossed the building’s edge. Below, a few lights twinkled, and to the right was an empty parking platform. Dewlyn smiled.

“Is she suicidal?” Jamie asked.

Maybe, but I’d never tell a living soul. “Nah. Adrenaline junkie. She’ll come back down when he quits begging.”

“Disaster, Vice. She’s a fucking disaster.”

“Don’t talk about her like that.”

“What the fuck is she doing on the edge of that building? Why are you all cool about it? Wait, don’t answer that. You’ve lost your shit, that’s why.” Jamie stood and began pacing the surveillance room. We’d moved from Earth back into the ship so we could observe Dewlyn instead of chase her. This view was healthier for her, seeing as she was hell-bent on running from me and running our lives.

But I would have her back. I would have her back, and I would isolate us from all life. I had to tame her. Nothing else would do.

“See ya!” She leapt off the edge.

What?! My chest constricted. My heart didn’t beat as her body dropped. I gasped, struggling to catch a breath, not knowing if I should continue watching, or turn away so I wouldn’t see her splatter on the asphalt. My body, frozen by the scene before me, my eyes frozen in time, my brain blank, made the decision for me. I couldn’t fucking move.

Midway, something blue and huge, like a mushroom, blew up, and Dewlyn screamed when it jerked her body upward. It then leveled with the force of the winds and carried her. She threw her head back and laughed.

Up here in the surveillance room, the machines buzzed, while every male in the room stood frozen, stunned into silence.

My brother paused the screen.

I caught my breath and slapped both palms on the screen, right on her cheek, my head dropping between my hands. I closed my eyes and tried to erase the memory of what I’d just witnessed. I’d taken away her skater, and Rey’s bike was too flashy, so Dewlyn had come up with a parachute. Those things had to be at least a hundred years old. I cleared my throat and turned around, prepared to bark orders at the seven-member crew in the room with us. The males stared at the screen, blinking.