Emma

Blood rushed to my cheeks. It wasn’t from the upside-down position, though it could be that too. It was from the way the tip of lord’s smooth member touched my side when he bent to lay a kiss on my reddened cheek. It was how he gripped it after the kiss and, with a grunt, slammed his palm down on it. My insides roared to life, my arousal starting to seep between my legs. I hoped he couldn’t tell. I didn’t think I was supposed to like this.

God, I was weird.

“I smell wet pussy.”

Oh, okay. More heat surged into my cheeks. I shook my head. “I don’t smell anything like that.”

“Tell me, Emma. What does the beast father look like?” Amoris rubbed my bottom and kissed it again, trailing his rough tongue over it. It scraped my skin. “Platinum blond.”

Amoris struck my bottom again.

“Oy! Blond and with…I don’t know, maybe white eyes. Maybe silver. Like a wolf. Though I wouldn’t know a real wolf but for some drawings Tom kept inside his desk. He’s an artist, you know. Draws and paints. Well, not so much anymore since he’s so busy with taking care of us.”

Amoris struck again. “The beast father. When did you see him?”

I tried to think when he’d visited. I first remembered seeing him when I was seven and Reagan, Tom’s only daughter, was five. He’d visited the sanctuary early in the morning. Reagan and I were playing in the corner. Nobody paid us any mind.

Amoris spanked both my cheeks. One two three four times.

I screamed. “It hurts!”

“I know, baby, I know. It will hurt more if you don’t tell me.”

“I saw him when I was seven years old.”

“And how old are you now?”

“Twenty-four.”

“So young.” He rubbed my bottom. “Makes me want to violate your innocence.”

“You can only have sex with your mate.”

Amoris laughed. “Who told you that lie?”

“Me. And why do you think everyone has to tell me everything? I know things all by my little self.”

Amoris spanked me in earnest. Said I should watch my tone when I addressed him and especially when I was over his knee. Tears trailed down my cheeks, and I sniffed all the while my pussy throbbed. I felt like I needed something inside. Maybe his finger? “Please stop,” I said.

He landed four more slaps and flipped me over to sit on his thigh.

He wore nothing but a smug grin.

I glared at him.

Then he swiped a thumb over my face and tasted my tears. “My mate would cry quite a bit. I get off on tears and begging. You still think you’re mine?”

“Yes.” I felt like I’d been throwing myself at him and he didn’t want me. But I didn’t care about feeling like that when everyone, including myself, would starve down here. No shame in wanting to survive. And come to think of it, Amoris hadn’t spanked any of the breeders. If nothing else, it might make Tom believe Amoris found a mate. I didn’t have to be the mate. “We can pretend,” I whispered. “I wouldn’t tell a soul.”

Amoris gripped my hips tighter. “Pretend.”

“Yes.” I glanced at the tiny green lights all around his quarters. Not one had been shut off. John was watching. I leaned in and put a hand on Amoris’s shoulder so I could whisper in his ear. A growl came from his chest. I didn’t care. He wouldn’t hurt me. It wasn’t like he was hungry; he’d consumed a man already, and he hadn’t hurt the breeders. “Stop growling at me and listen.” I felt his nose in my hair, and I heard a rumble in his chest when he inhaled. I shivered. “People are starving. I stole your bread because the moment I saw it, I wanted it. We eat soup all the time. It’s water with some flavor, does little for me. I’m tired. If we pretend you’ve found a mate, it would end.”

Amoris pushed me away but not off his lap, his eyes on the table. “When was the last time you’ve seen the beast father?”

“He came when they brought you here.” God, he asked a lot of questions. It annoyed me. I couldn’t talk about the Beast Father or anything I knew.

“I see. Tell me all about it.”

“Why should I? You’ve spanked me hard. I didn’t like it. If I tell you all about it, I want something in return.”

Amoris moved my hair away from my shoulder, trailed his hand lower, and cupped my breast. He didn’t tweak my nipple, he rubbed it with his calloused palm. Then he did the same with my other nipple. I stirred on his lap.

Silver-white flakes showed in the red of his eyes. A corner of his lips tipped up. “What can I do for you, hm?” He kept rubbing my nipple.

Oh, but it was hard to concentrate on anything other than the feel of his rough palm on my soft breast. “I want…” I cleared my throat. “I want you to take me.”

Amoris leaned back and slammed a hand on the table.

I jumped off his lap.

He slammed it again.

I backed off.

“Easy, now,” John said through the speakers.

Amoris stood, took the table, and bent it. It broke in half. Man, he could break me. I ran to the door. “John! Let me out, John!”

The double doors slid open, and I ran outside. At the exit, I palmed the lock but couldn’t open it. I spun around to see that John had left his station. Oh no. I ran back.

John stood inside, leaning against the wall, with Amoris ready to take on his beast form any second now. John must be insane. Likable guy, done me a great deal when he saved me from Adam, but crazy.

“John, what are you doing?”

He ignored me and spoke with Amoris. “You make me want to take up smoking again. My wife, Felicia, would very much mind. See, she has a sensitive palate, and I don’t want to get in trouble with my wife.”

“Felicia,” Amoris said through clenched teeth.

“Yeah, princess, that’s right. So now I’m gonna tell you a little story. But before I tell a story, I want you to put some pants on. I don’t need to be staring at your underwear. Feel me?”

“These are shorts. And if you want me to dress, fetch my pants.”

John shook his head, then, to my utter surprise, walked into Amoris’s bedroom, got the black jeans I’d washed last week and threw them at the lord.

Amoris slid them on. “I didn’t think you’d do it.” He chuckled.

“Surprise, surprise,” John said. “About the girl, though. Adam would’ve hanged her the other day. Now, I happened to be moving bags of potatoes at the time. It seems, I’m fucking with potatoes at the most crucial moments.” He chuckled, a joke clearly only he understood. “See, if she runs out of here screaming bloody murder or, worse yet, crying because she’d been wrong about the beast, someone will punish her. She is not a breeder. She is not particularly useful around here. And she’s genetically…compromised. When the selection begins, her name will be at the bottom. If she isn’t dead by then.”

“What selection?” I asked.

John spared me a glance, then his attention returned to the beast. “Who gets to eat and who doesn’t.”

Silence enveloped the room. I suffocated in it. Surely Tom wouldn’t let anyone hurt me. I’d known him all my life. He was best friends with my dad. He had hurt your mother, a voice reminded me. But that was different. I was not my mother. Not my father either. I couldn’t live in perpetual fear of someone coming after me. Tom had no reason to come after me, and despite what John said, I was useful. I did everything Tom asked of me, and now, I did something nobody asked of me. I became a beast whore. And I was not ashamed. If more people did what needed to be done, the world wouldn’t have gone to hell, and I would’ve been raised somewhere Above.

John didn’t wait for Amoris’s answer. He went outside and stood before me, then kissed the top of my head. “I’m here for you for as long as I can be. Leave him.” The door slid closed.

I gasped. “I can’t leave him,” I uttered, surprised I’d thought that, let alone said it.

John strolled to the desk. “Don’t worry. Princess will come around. He’s stubborn, this one. Or scared. Probably both.”

“He doesn’t seem very scared.”

“No?” John glanced at me.

“No.”

“We call it quarters, but it’s really a prison, a cage for an animal we don’t understand. We use the purpose of his being to blackmail him, and he has no idea why. So it’s natural to refuse what your captor is providing when you know it’s ill willed.”

“It is not ill willed. We have to eat.”

“Yes, yes, we do. We have to eat, and he has to mate. It is against his nature to refuse his mate. It’s how we’ve successfully killed hundreds of beasts in the past year.”

“That’s a lot of dead beasts.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Well.” I cleared my throat and approached the table. “How many beasts are there?”

“Many.”

“If we kill them all, is that when we can go and live Above?”

John slid me a look. “You know better than to ask that. I can’t talk about Above.”

I hung my head. “I’m sorry I asked. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Stay out of trouble. And do me a favor.”

“Sure.”

“Put some clothes on before leaving, and tell Cole I want to see him.”

“The breeder boy?”

“That’s the one.”