All the pairs had reasons for being here. Some had been forced to mate despite the fact they’d already made wedding plans with men from their communities. Some were simply brainwashed against the beasts, then sold without preparation, and some were so sheltered that the sight of a beast male made them fear for their lives. Though I resented the mating, I didn’t tell anyone about the difference between a mate and a pair, namely that the beasts needed mates. Since the beasts also bought non-mates, random women from the communities, it wouldn’t make a difference. I didn’t know if some of the pairs here were mates or not.
Besides, Vice had asked me to keep quiet, and so I kept quiet, thinking it wouldn’t change anything for the women if they knew about the mating anyway. I didn’t share my reasons for forming this shelter with all of them either. Only with Patty, the first pair I’d found eating from a Dumpster. She’d come into her own since then, and become better at hiding when she went out.
I took the steep stairs down and knocked three times, paused, then knocked three times again on the wooden door. Patty swung open the door, then closed the top button of her pants. She must’ve run out from the bathroom to answer the door. “It’s you!” she said, and we hugged. I leaned Kickster by the door and headed straight for the kitchen. Having forgotten to eat at Vice’s, I was starving. I swung open a cupboard door and rose on my toes to peek up. “Do we have any pancake mix?”
“Um…”
I frowned at the empty shelves. Okay. I closed then opened another. Empty. “There’s nothing in here.”
Patty shook her head. “We’re out. Like out out.”
Damn. And that was when I realized it was too quiet in this place. “Are they all sleeping?”
Patty shook her head again.
“All right. Now, I know I didn’t come through with the key, so there’s no food, but I’ve got good news. We don’t need the key. We don’t need to worry anymore, ’cause we’ve money coming in. Your turn. Where is everyone?”
Patty sat down at the table, her eyes a bit glossy though she didn’t look like she’d been crying. Her lips were swollen, her hair mused, and her… “Is that a hickey?” I asked and pointed to her neck.
“Probably.”
“It looks fresh.”
She hooked a thumb behind her shoulder. “He’s sleeping in the back.”
“Christ, Patty,” I whisper-hissed, “you’re bringing men in here? That’s rule number one and two, don’t talk about the shelter, and don’t bring people into the shelter.”
“Things have changed.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, not liking this at all. When I didn’t interrupt, she continued. “The key was supposed to come in, and when it didn’t, I reached out to my boyfriend, told him you probably got busted again. His men came and took the pairs where they would be sheltered and fed and taken care of better. You failed your mission. We’re starving and live here in Beast City with our beast pairs circling over our heads. It’s scary, they’re scary, and none of us want to be paired with them.”
“I know that. The shelter has worked for months. They don’t know where it is, and I’ve found money for us.” Patty would flip if she knew Vice would fund us, so I said nothing.
“Poor naïve Dewlyn,” she said. “You can’t keep us safe here. You can’t even take care of yourself.” I cocked my head. The glint in her eyes told me something about her had changed. “So I had to step in. I told them you could get the key to the storage place. I sent you there, and all you had to do was deliver it. Gah! But no, you went with your beast lover.” She leaned in with a sneer. “You have been blessed not to carry their babies, but the rest of us are cursed. When my boyfriend told me about Brother Tom offering us a real shelter, we all jumped up in joy. A home, a real, safe home.”
I lifted my hand, palm up. “Hold up. Who’s Brother Tom?”
“Leader of Men of Earth, our brothers.”
“And everyone left with him?”
“Of course.”
Oh man, this couldn’t be true. Men of Earth existed. Patty knew of them, had set me up to work for them by delivering the stupid key. I frowned, remembering what Vice had told me about them. “They want the beasts exterminated, and they want humans in power on Earth again.”
“Yes! And we will bear them human children and create more humanity. Isn’t it great? Humanity will rise again, and the pairs are needed.”
“Okay, so the pairs I sheltered here have been taken somewhere else to be bred like pigs?”