John

My mission: retrieve Felicia of Wiedeg, the warrior beast female who had been captured with Torrent, the High Priest of Earth—and now my son-in-law—because I was an unlucky bastard, tied to the beasts for the rest of my life. Even my grandkids would be beasty. I could’ve killed my son-in-law, the sorry-ass fucker. God knows I wanted to, but then Sienna would hate me. After all he’d done, she loved him, and if she could forgive him so could I. For as long as he didn’t fuck up.

I stuck a hand into the pocket of my suit pants and played with the bullet with Torrent’s name on it. It was my talisman. From the other pocket, I got my tobacco and paper. Lifting an eyebrow at William Ghason, a businessman who came from old money, I rolled the cigarette. “I hide my rare jewels,” I told him in response to him calling Felicia that.

I’d hidden my daughter for seventeen years. This was before, when I thought the beasts picked their pairs based on looks, and Sienna was a looker. She’d captivated me from the first time I saw her dumped in a basket near my bunker. I sat next to the crying newborn baby, awaiting her father so I could beat the shit out of the guy. I thought he’d left the kid while he went hunting and would come back. It hadn’t crossed my mind that someone had left the girl out there to die.

The night came, and I picked up a stranger’s baby and raised her as my own. Never told her how I’d found her, and I never would. Who the fuck wanted to feel abandoned? Nobody. She didn’t need to feel like people didn’t want her. I wanted her. She was precious and cute as a button, my rare jewel, and rare jewels should be protected. Felicia was no rare jewel to this man. More like a hammer in his toolbox.

“I hide mine too,” William said.

“That makes me think you have more than one.”

He sat at the table, jerked her chain, and she moved to sit beside his leg like a good puppy. He patted her head. “If you’d like to sample, I’ll show you my jewels. Some are for sale, some are not. Stay the night, rest in my home, and have your way with any you like. With the kind of money you brought to the table, I’ve selected the finest one. My apologies, John. Shall I take her back?”

I sat down beside him and across from Boris, one of the two Men of Earth stooges, who stared at Felicia’s tits as if he’d never seen tits on a woman before. Granted, hers didn’t have an areola. They were pale, with a small dent for a nipple. I wanted to reach over the table and slap him. Fucking sick people played here. And I better settle down and learn how to play along. “Deal and we’ll see what happens,” I said.

William dropped Felicia’s leash.

I glanced at him, bent, and picked up her leash, then tugged her over to my leg. Alpha Beast had set me up as a wealthy new neighbor in Highborn Hills, a rich human neighborhood on the edge of Beast City. I made sure to flaunt my cars and money, attended all the right parties, and sure enough, a month later, I met Boris. He hooked me up with a private poker game. I’d played poker before, but not this version of Texas Hold ’em. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing, and this damn suit itched. The whole room pissed me off. It made me want to bite someone.

Before I rang William’s doorbell, I’d met up with Jamie, the Alpha Beast, who gave me one of his T-shirts. I wore the oversized thing under my button-up shirt, hoping Felicia would sniff it out. She didn’t. She kept her head down. I had to get her attention so she wouldn’t fight me when I attempted to rescue her. Vice had advised me of that, had said Felicia trained with their males and could become violent. Though, I didn’t understand how she’d fight anyone in her current state. They’d broken her.

I folded my crappy hand of cards and did what William had done. I patted her head while the other three men continued playing. When she didn’t look up, I hooked my finger under her chin and nudged it up. When our gazes locked again, my heart thudded, maybe skipped a beat. I wasn’t sure what it did, but it was something I hadn’t felt before. Despite her surroundings, there was something alive in her pretty forest-green eyes. And they paled when I ran a thumb over her lips.

The men watched me. I patted my thigh, signaling her to rest her head there.

“I see you’ve come to like my kitten,” William said.

A fucking kitten? “Yeah, she’ll do.”

Felicia lay her head on my lap, her face away from the table. I shifted in my chair, feeling a little awkward that she’d buried her face practically in my crotch. It was all right, though. Women didn’t excite me. I had a case of limp dick, had had one ever since I could remember. Rarely got the useless thing up.

So when my dick stirred from its slumber, I wanted to die of shame. After all the times I needed it to get going and it hadn’t, now it decided it liked a woman on her knees. Fucking pervert. Here I was, behaving no better than these fuckers. I glanced down at her, and she kept inching toward my dick. My dick extended and met her halfway. I patted her head, hoping she’d take the hint and move away. But she kept going, and when she got right up in my crotch, she inhaled. I heard her soft snort. Her head jerked, but I pushed it down with my hand, not wanting her to alarm the others. I smiled down at her. “That a girl,” I said.

An unspoken understanding passed between us. At least I hoped it had. I hoped she understood I was not here to abuse her. I was here to rescue her, though we’d planned the rescue at a later time, after I’d scoped out the situation. I came smelling of her Alpha Beast so she’d know a rescue was imminent. But now that I’d seen her? I wouldn’t leave without her. “I’m gonna win,” I told her.

She shook her head, but the motion was brief. I picked up on it but didn’t understand. William had invited me over for a night, promised me poker, booze, and now pussy. The winner took the prize, his jewel for the night. She was probably one of the ones not for sale. I needed a moment alone with her, so I better fucking win this. Otherwise, I’d have to kill three armed men in the room, one butler, and a security team standing guard outside the house.

He dealt the cards.

Got a four and a two. Unlucky bastard. I contemplated if I should prod Boris for some information on Tom’s whereabouts, though I was pretty sure he bunked underground. Alpha Beast had ordered me not to poke my nose into anything else that happened in this house. Even if Men of Earth came, even if I had the opportunity to strangle Tom, the leader, himself, Alpha Beast had ordered me to stand down. Felicia of Wiedeg, he’d explained, was a beast female, and as such, her life was valued above all else.

Instead of befriending Boris, I patted Felicia.

* * *

Kitten

The poker game lasted most of the night. John ordered me around as if he already owned me. And he did; he just didn’t know it yet. I wasn’t even sure how I would approach him about our mating. But I couldn’t worry about that right now. John caught some luck. He bested both Boris and Alex. They’d since left the room. I watched them walk away, knowing they’d wait out the end of the night in the house, perhaps try to hurt my human mate.

John needed to lose and walk away unharmed. I couldn’t believe it when I’d smelled my alpha on his clothes. Could it be Jamie had sent a human man to rescue me? No. It couldn’t. Human men were weak. Fragile. But then again, a beast male couldn’t possibly get into this house without Owner hurting all the girls in his basement. He’d burn the house down before he allowed a team of beasts to capture him.

John flicked the corners of his cards. I couldn’t see his hand.

I inhaled the smell of my alpha and pretended to be cool, grateful the humans couldn’t hear my heart beating out of my chest. The dealer tech machine flipped a queen. Shit. A high card. I hoped John had some more deuces. Another queen. This Texas Hold ’em poker really excited me. I wanted to play this game, though I didn’t think I had the patience or temper for it. John seemed to have both in spades. Or hearts, as it may be.

At this point in the night—I glanced at the clock; three thirty in the morning—Owner didn’t care what I did. I didn’t have to kneel next to John, and I could move around, read something, that sort of thing. Maybe I could get a drink for myself? I glanced at the bar. Gin and tonic. I’d give my left tit for a gin and tonic.

A two flopped.

Disaster. John had been getting deuces all night. If he had one in his hand, this would give him two pairs. I pinched John’s thigh. Show me your cards!

He stayed cool.

I pinched it again.

Under the table, he nudged me, though it felt like a kick.

An ace.

I pinched John.

This time, he kicked me. I was sure of it. I glared at him. If I’d had my claws, I would have sneaked my hand under those tight-ass pants and scratched him.

The money kept piling up. The men had their serious poker faces on, but I heard their heartbeats and had witnessed enough of these games to develop an ear for how different men reacted to their cards. Owner had a winning hand. Or at least a hand he thought would win. I wanted him to win. He’d kill John if he lost.

John bet more money, then leaned back and waited.

I peeked above the table to see Owner’s forehead sweating. He wiped it with a tissue and counted his chips before he threw them on the pile.

“Not enough,” John said.

Owner nodded, a glint in his eyes. An addict, one of the girls downstairs had called him. I saw it now. He couldn’t stop, couldn’t walk away from the cards. Funny how he seemed in control of his life, but completely out of control of his bad habits. “Collateral?” he asked.

“Kitten,” John said.

What?

Owner shook his head. “She’s worth more than this chunk of change.”

“There’s…”—John paused to count—“three hundred thousand on the table.”

“Like I said, not enough.”

“So fold.”

Owner glared at him. It hurt his pride, and not to mention, he probably had a great hand. “Where did you get all this money?”

“Sold my daughter to the High Priest of Earth.”

Torrent? I jerked my head up.

John pushed me down and tapped my cheek, trying to comfort me. Torrent lived! It couldn’t be anyone else. High Priest of Earth was a title that had been reserved for him for years, just waiting for him to accept it.

“A lot of money to get for one daughter. I got three. Hoping for twenty K each, maybe thirty.”

John’s jaw worked. He released a noise that sounded like a growl. “My kid is special. Don’t talk about her.” He leaned in, hands fisted.

It just dawned on me that he could also have a wife. That was where kids came from. My hope deflated. My mate was married. With kids. I didn’t care if he won or lost anymore. The way he took care with me had made me gullible and stupid, had given me hope. But humans didn’t mate. For all I knew, John cheated on his wife on a regular basis. Like Owner.

I sat back on my heels and away from him. I stared at the red, blue, white, black, and golden chips on the table. I counted them for distraction. Of all the things I’d been through, this was the hardest. I wanted to crawl back into my cage.

Owner lifted his hand. “All right.”

“All right what?”

“All right. You can have the entire weekend with the beast bitch. No more. But I wonder—”

“Wonder later.”

Owner wouldn’t fold. Pride was a vice, and he had it in spades. The last card dealt was a deuce. Neither of the men bet anymore. Owner flipped his cards. A queen and an ace. Owner had a full house, ace high. I’d seen my mate, who had a wife somewhere out there waiting for him to come home. And I would get a night with him, but not the entire weekend, and definitely not an eternity.

John watched Owner gloat and said, “Nice hand.” He reached over the table and flipped his cards. A pair of deuces. Hm. What did that mean? His pair of deuces and the pair of deuces on the table made four of a kind. Did that beat the full house? I hoped not. John would die after our time together upstairs. He wouldn’t go home to his wife. Oh Mother, what do I do?

John pushed the stack of money toward Owner, then he lit up a cigarette he’d rolled and leaned back. Casual. What the fuck was he doing?

I glanced at John. Impassive, he blew smoke in the air as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Finally, I asked, “So who won?”

“He won,” Owner said and stared down at the pile of chips. “The beast bitch is not for sale.”

What? John had offered to buy me again? When had this occurred? Gosh, it must be a man thing, or human thing, because I sure as fuck didn’t read minds, and my hearing was superior to theirs. I’d heard the mention of a sale and Owner’s refusal.

John chuckled. “I kept saying the same thing about my kid. Not for sale, and yet he took her anyway.”

Owner matched John’s smile. “I like you, man.”

“I’m buying the kitten.” John finished his smoke and put it out in an ashtray. I sneezed.

“You don’t have that kind of money.”

“How much are we talking?”

Was this how human women felt when the community leaders bargained for their bodies with beast males? ’Cuz it was pretty shitty. For the first time in my life, I understood Jamie’s mate, Rey, who’d said the Pairing Program was wrong, called him out for buying people, but I’d disagreed with her. We needed mates. Now as I sat here feeling like a prize cow, I understood her.

“Two hundred thousand more and you can walk out with her.”

John reached into his back pocket and retrieved a worn brown wallet. From the inside, he pulled out a leather pouch and spilled it on the table. Several diamonds bounced against the green cloth. “Roughly ten K each one. Plus my winnings.”

“You want her bad,” Owner said.

“I want to fuck a beast bitch. Tie her up and do what I want to her. It’s not every day that I stumble upon a trained one. You feel me, friend, don’t you?”

Owner stood and undid his tie. He picked up the diamonds and put them in his pocket. “Kitten will show you out.”