Page 11 of Bound to the Beast (Interstellar Brides Program: The Beasts #9)

The lunch bell would ring in approximately eighteen minutes. The children would march to the cafeteria, then recess…and I would march straight to the classroom down the hall.

My mate had been out of my sight for almost four hours.

My beast was furious with me. That was nothing new.

The entire weekend, I’d held Krystal as she slept.

Gently scrubbed her in the shower. Fucked her until she’d collapsed from exhaustion.

Watched over her as she cared for Brody.

Made peace with their killer cat. Been content for the first time in years.

I kept my beast leashed. I’d been fighting him for so long that holding him in check was automatic as breathing. I didn’t even think about it.

He’d nearly escaped when my mate walked on that broken glass. He’d smelled her blood and I’d transformed, my shirt ripping to shreds to accommodate the beast’s much larger size.

I’d stopped him then, and I’d stop him now. Stop him every fucking day until the day I died if that’s what I had to do to keep my mate safe.

The mating cuffs helped me. But my beast? I wasn’t sure even the lure of our mate was enough to control him.

He’d been feral since our time as a Hive captive.

They’d broken him, shattered his mind. His reason.

Turned him into a rampaging monster. Done experiments that forced my transformation into my beast, then refused to allow me return to my natural form.

They locked me inside my own mind so they could control him.

I’d spent weeks at a time as the beast while the Hive Integration Units ran their experiments.

After the ReCon team found me, Coalition doctors kept me sedated and locked in ReGen pods for nearly a month, trying to reach me, pull my consciousness back to the surface. Allow me to regain control of my own mind. My body. My beast.

The beast who’d become a monster, who operated on pure instinct. Who’d been hurt and tortured and abused until he became a wild animal.

I’d fought my way back to the surface and never released him again.

Which was why I’d kept him contained these last years. Fought him, fought mating fever, fought the Hive implants and the ever present fear that if I ever allowed him to surface again, I’d be lost forever.

“Is your wife making you sleep on the couch?”

I looked down to see Ava—leader of the ‘ vagina ’ chant—staring up at me with concern on her adorable little face. “No. Why do you ask?”

“You look sad.”

As the humans would say… from the mouths of babes. “I do?”

“Yeah, Mr. Smith. You look really sad.” Olivia, Ava’s best friend, walked up to me and took my hand with complete trust. “Are you gonna cry?”

“No. I’m not going to cry.”

“Why would Mr. Smith cry?” Oh, good gods.

Now sweet little Elizabeth joined the first two girls, her eyes round with concern.

“Are you hurt? Do you need a bandage?” She dug around in her pants pocket, sighed in frustration, and finally produced a wadded up, wrinkled piece of dirt-smeared paper.

“It’s got Power Rangers on it. My mom gets me the Power Rangers ones because I’m gonna be the Red Ranger when I get big. ”

Ava rolled her eyes. “You can’t be the Red Ranger. You’re a girl.”

“Yeah. You gotta be the pink one,” Chloe agreed.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes with maximum dramatic flair. “Pink is ugly. I can, too, be the red one.”

What in the name of the gods was a Power Ranger ?

I didn’t have to wonder long as Elizabeth peeled back the paper to reveal a sticky bandage with the image of a television character printed on one side.

The other side was adhesive with a small, white square in the center.

Elizabeth grabbed my opposite hand and pulled me toward her.

With raised brows, she inspected the back of my hand and carefully selected a spot for her bandage.

With intense care and concentration, she placed the bandage, then bent over to place a tiny kiss over my imaginary wound.

“There. Feel better now?”

Oddly enough, I did. “Yes. Thank you.”

Her happy smile made even the beast settle. I glanced at the clock on the wall, the pull to be with my mate stronger than ever. I wanted to fuck her right now, plant a beautiful, innocent daughter in her womb.

Twelve more minutes.

“Liar!” Connor’s shout silenced the room. He stood in one corner with several boys, their heads together. Brody was among them.

“It’s true!” Brody shouted back. The rest of the children stopped what they were doing to listen.

“No, it’s not. No way.” Tyson put his hands on his hips and glared at my son. “That’s illegal.”

“No, it’s not.” Brody stood now, facing them both. “They were bad guys. It’s not illegal to kill bad guys.”

Fuck. What was Brody telling them? He knew he was to keep his true identity a secret at all costs.

With an awkward but gentle pat on Elizabeth’s shoulder, I left the circle of girls and made my way to where Brody and Connor now stood nose to nose in direct challenge. “What is going on here?”

Neither Brody nor Connor moved or broke eye contact. It was Tyson, standing off to the side like a referee, who filled in the entire class. “Brody says he has a pet cat that killed two bad guys after they broke into his house. Which is bullshit.”

Behind me, Ava gasped. “He said a bad word.”

Brody trembled now. Did he realize he’d made a mistake, speaking of his Hosiak hunting cat? His small hands were balled into tight fists at his sides as Connor stood his ground.

Tyson dropped another truth bomb. “He also said you’re his new dad.”

My heart ached for the struggle I saw in Brody’s face.

His eyes were too old, too serious, for such a small body.

I didn’t know if Krystal would approve or not, but this was one claim I could respond to.

“I am. His—Ms. James is my—” Fuck. I almost said ‘mate.’ I was a terrible liar.

Never felt the need in the past. I searched my knowledge of the human language for a term the children would understand. “Fiancée. She is my fiancée.”

A chorus of ‘ oooooh’s and excited clapping erupted from the children.

Ava appeared at my side. “Is your fiancée making you sleep on the couch?”

“No.”

Chloe stood on tip-toe and peered at me over Ava’s shoulder. “If you’re getting married, why are you so sad?”

“I’m not sad.”

“You looked sad,” Ava insisted.

Gods help me. Where all human females this difficult from such a young age?

I glanced at the bright red Power Ranger bandage on the back of my hand and my chest tightened. Perhaps. But they grew into fascinating, beautiful, irresistible females like my mate.

Brody had abandoned his standoff with Connor and stood before me, hands on his hips. “Why are you sad about being with my mother?”

Connor and Tyson, who seconds ago had been at odds with Brody, now stood on either side of him in a unified front.

“ I’m not sad.”

Brody sighed, his brown eyes locked on mine. “Yes, you are.”

Fuck. I was not having this conversation with him in front of an entire classroom of children.

Of course he’d noticed my struggle with my beast. Centuries of Elite Hunters’ blood ran in his veins.

I would have to sit down and explain everything to him.

Tell him enough about my time as a prisoner that he understood.

For now, I said what I could in front of the others.

“If I am, it has nothing to do with your mother.”

Long seconds went by as he watched me. Assessing. “Okay.”

How did such small humans cause me such stress? “Everyone clean up. Lunch in five minutes.”

The children scrambled, excited to get the fuck out of there. I felt exactly the same way. I needed to see Krystal. Touch her. Smell her. Hear her voice. Know she was safe.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Knock, knock! Hello?” Mrs. C opened the door and walked into the room without waiting for a response. A few of the children glanced her way, but they all ignored her, intent on being ready for food and time on the playground.

“Mrs. C. How can I be of assistance?”

She grinned up at me as a second woman walked in behind her.

Thank the gods. Lady Radu had returned.

Mrs. C smiled. “I just wanted to introduce the children to Mrs. Radu.” She clapped her hands together to get the students’ attention. “Everyone, this is Mrs. Radu. She will be taking over as your teacher tomorrow.”

I was oddly warmed by the handful of objections that circulated among the children. Brody’s gaze sought mine, stark terror in his gaze. I hurried to reassure him. “Do not worry, everyone. I will still be here.”

“You will?” Mrs. C asked.

“Of course.” I tore my gaze from Brody’s as Lady Radu looked around the room, paying special attention to the boys. Would she know which of them we’d been sent here to protect? “I will start me new job as a security guard tomorrow. I will be here every single day.”

“Yay!” Elizabeth jumped up and down. Chloe and Ava swayed on their feet and smiled.

Connor and Tyson remained on either side of Brody, who was glaring at Lady Radu as if she were a Hive Soldier who’d come to kill him.

Surely the boy was not so upset that I would no longer be his teacher? I’d just assured him I would remain…

My Hive Integrations snapped my senses with a jolt of electrical charge. I activated my scanners.

Ten armed human males were moving into tactical attack position just outside the classroom.

Four in the hallway and two at each of the windows.

Their vital signs and heat signatures indicated they were human, not Everian.

The weapons they carried were of human origin as well.

Every single one of them was dressed as a human law enforcement agent complete with odd human badges and primitive Kevlar vests.

What the fuck was going on?

The bell rang and Mrs. C waited with a cheerful smile on her face as the children lined up to go to lunch. When Brody moved to join them, Lady Radu reached out and grabbed him by his shoulder. “Not you.”

Mrs. C noticed the strange interaction and glanced at me.

I had no idea what Lady Radu had told the poor woman, so I nodded. We needed to get the innocent little ones as far away from whatever was about to happen as possible. “Go ahead, Mrs. C. I’m sure everyone is hungry.”

Giggles and jostling ensued as the tiny principal led all but one of my students out of the room.

When the door closed quietly behind them, Lady Radu’s smile turned cold. “So nice to finally meet you, Broderick.”

Brody shoved at the hand twisted in his shirt, to no avial. “Who are you? Get off me!”

My beast prowled. Paced. Assessed. I activated every Hive enhancement in my body.

Speed. Strength. Hearing. Vision. I watched the human soldiers shift in place on the other side of the walls, my infrared and heat sensors easily outlining their movements.

They were trained soldiers, that much was clear.

But I doubted they’d ever faced an Atlan Warlord. Their nerves were overcoming their training.

If they wanted to survive this threat to my mate and son, they’d already be fucking running.