Amoris

On Tuesday, after Emma left, I couldn’t find my cool and kept pacing my cage. My mate roamed somewhere out there, and I couldn’t do anything about it, couldn’t even tell her she was mine. With her good looks, I was pretty sure every asshole hit on her. She’d smile all coy and shy for them while giving me the middle finger. Which, of course, I deserved, seeing as I held my asshole card close to my heart.

Wednesday came, and I did the same, paced around, anticipating Thursday until they brought me two sets of virgins. I gently refused set one, and for the second set, I simply assumed my battle form. That chased them away, but not before one poor girl peed on my floor. John and Adam filled me with tranquilizers and put me in the cube. I thought Emma would come. But no, they’d done it for fun. Great going, Amoris, you really needed that.

Thursday came, but Emma didn’t. They didn’t even put me in the cube. My new guard, John, brought me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all of which I refused. Told the new fucker I wouldn’t eat until someone came in here and started tidying this shit up. It killed me I couldn’t ask about her. Where the hell was she? I sure hoped she hadn’t decided on quitting her job here, or I’d go mad.

So, now, on Friday morning, I woke up inhaling the urine stench. After my morning workout and a shower, I sat on the chair and looked around. Dust everywhere, dirty floors, a day’s worth of food on my table. I glanced at covered plates, salivating but refusing to eat despite my stomach’s protest. Fuck Tom. He could kiss my ass.

I pressed my elbows on my knees and cupped my face. Images of Emma assaulted me. I’d never seen a woman more beautiful than her. I imagined our little red-haired beasts running around… this cage. It was enough to remind me why I embraced self-pity and not hope for a family.

The doors slid open, and John came in. I glanced at him, and he gave me a slight nod before reaching the table to put my breakfast tray down. No space on the table. He stood there holding the tray and probably wondering what to do with it. Adam always came in armed and, on my bad days, slid the tray through the small opening in the door. John kept coming in here unarmed, and it was definitely one of my bad days. “Are you stupid or suicidal?”

“Eat your food, princess. After you’re finished, I’ll shackle you. Can’t have you going beasty around here.”

A smile tugged my lips, but I held it back. “Is this place gonna get some cleaning love, or do I have to do it myself?”

“Princess can’t work. Poor you.” He kept the tray, just stood there waiting.

“Careful,” I warned.

John shook his head. “You don’t scare me, princess.”

I stood and flexed my claws. “No?”

“Sit your ass down. I’m not looking for trouble.” His gray eyes locked with mine.

I took it as a challenge. My stomach cheered loudly. Mmmm, guy would make a fresh meal. Lotta meat on him. I paused when I heard soft footsteps and turned up my nose. I wiggled it. Not Emma. Next thing I knew, there was a human boy child inside my quarters.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?” he said. “I took over Emma’s shift here.” The boy’s eyes kept to the floor, and he stood there by the door with Emma’s supply caddy in front of him. “Right, John?” he asked.

John cleared his throat and put the new tray on top of the old trays, and he fucking better hope it didn’t tip and make more of a mess on my dirty floor. But hey, at least the kid would get this place back in order. I sat back down, finished with measuring my dick against John’s. Mine was bigger, of course. Literally and figuratively. John was suicidal.

The kid fidgeted, then finally gave in to his curiosity. He lifted his eyes to me, and I winked at him. “Hey, little man.” I wasn’t an asshole to kids, though I knew that a decade from now, this boy could very well be my next watcher. For now, he was just a little man with blond hair and expressive blue eyes as clear as Tineya’s seas. A looker, this one. “What’s your name?”

“Cole,” he said, his jaw slackening as he took a good look at me. “You look like red-eye Vice.”

I sat up straight and opened my mouth to ask about my brother, but John put a hand over my mouth and a knife to my throat. I froze, not because I feared he’d cut me, but because I smelled something, something I hadn’t smelled in years. A beast female. His hands smelled of a beast female. I sniffed again, not believing my nose.

“Boy, I fucking told you to take it easy,” John said to Cole.

“I ain’t scared of the beasts. They ain’t gonna hurt me. I’m small.”

“Keep to the chair, princess, don’t make me hurt you,” John said and stepped back to lean against the wall.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest, thinking. Had they captured a beast female? The scent smelled familiar, so I definitely knew the female, but it’d been so long since I’d scented a beast, I couldn’t quite identify her.

The boy was clearing off my table. I wanted the chatty kid to talk more, specifically about my brother Vice. “So, you know Vice?” I kept an eye on John, who didn’t seem to mind my asking. Suicidal and stupid.

“Mm-hm,” Cole said. “Seen him back in my old community. Torrent too.”

I hooked my thumb and pointed, then asked John. “Who is this kid?” John, whom I’d start calling a statue from today onward, said nothing, only watched my every move and let the kid chatter on.

“Something’s wrong with the voice over the camera feed,” John said.

Huh. So the conversations recording was temporarily disabled or rigged. Strange motherfucker, this John guy. I didn’t know what to make of him, and that put me on edge.

Cole cleaned and happily chatted about his life in Community Forty-four. I learned that Hasel, Mayhem’s aunt and one of my favorite elders, made the best olive bread, that the kid had lived under Mayhem’s care and had met Torrent as well. I itched to ask about Vice and Jamie but didn’t want to disturb the kid as he rambled on and on about how he wanted to be a beast warrior, but ended up fucking it all up and becoming John’s minion instead.

“You have more minions?” I asked John.

“One more. A minionette.”

Hm. “Where is Adam?”

“Don’t know.”

“If the kid gets in trouble for talking to me, it’s gonna piss me off. Ya feel me?”

“Yes, princess.”

Okay. He liked to call me princess. It grated on my nerves, but I held back my anger, ’cause…John was stupid. Tough, nice guy, but stupid. “Where’s the girl who comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays?” I asked.

“Home. Suspended. Healing. She’ll be back next week.” From his pocket, he pulled out…a bullet, and rolled it between his fingers. A nervous gesture.

My brain scrambled, rewound what he’d said. “Healing?”

Cole spoke from the bathroom. “Adam lashed her for stealing bread and offering her pussy to you.”

“I will lash you next for cursing,” John told the kid.

Man, I loved this kid. Where the hell had he been all my captivity? “Is Adam off-duty now?” I asked John.

“He’ll also be back next week.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“I bet. You gonna eat?”

“Nah, I’ll save it for next week.” I watched John carefully to see if he’d pick up on my intent, but no, John kept playing with his bullet. A stupid guard with a chatterbox child who would tell me everything I wanted to know about life on Earth made me content. For now.