Page 21 of My Monster’s Keeper

Wilder

I don’t like being surrounded by buildings, so far from the touch of soil and the canopy of the trees. It’s a creeping unease between my shoulder blades.

Diablos’ words go through my head again.

“She’s not an omega.”

“She is,” Puppy growls back, surprising me.

How is he so sure? I can see no signs of a dormant omega nature at all.

“She’s not showing any character traits that one would expect in an omega, Grim.

Becky is aggressive, strong, independent, wildly capable.

She has no omega scent, no pheromones. Whatever information we received about her being the omega was mistaken.

She’s not one. And if you choose to mate with her, she will die. ”

“You don’t know that!” Stix snaps and shoves Diablos back.

“I almost killed my mate. You four are stronger-”

“Damn straight, we are,” Frost hisses.

“-which means I’m right. It could seriously hurt her, perhaps kill her. Could you live with that?”

“Who says we want her?” I say haughtily.

Diablos blinks a couple of times. “Are you serious? Do you think everyone on this planet is blind? You guys have cocks that are all pointing in her direction, following her around like lost dogs.”

I snarl, but he ignores me.

“You can’t sleep with her.” Diablos drops the decree like he’s god.

Stix draws himself up. The shadows shift on the walls, clinging to him as his true power rises to the surface. He lets out a malevolent hiss that echoes around the room.

“You can’t sleep with her unless she asks you!

” Diablos squeaks. “She has to say the words. You can’t do anything, and you cannot do it while she’s teaching you.

You have to wait until you’re all back at home, and you know what this place is like because if you tie yourself to her, this is the only place you’ll be calling home. Humans can’t survive anywhere else.”

Puppy rattles his scales in warning, but it’s Stix who looks at me, silently asking me.

I’m surprised to be included. I incline my head. What other option do we have?

He looks to Frost.

“Yes, I agree.”

“Puppy?” Stix says softly.

“I don’t mate with meat.”

I think all of us hear the lie under the words, but the Grim springs away.

“Two weeks. Until we’ve learned, and then you stay out of our business. If we want to mate her, then we will,” Stix warns.

“Agreed.”

“Why are they walking in groups?” Stix’s curious question brings me back to the here and now.

“Because humans are social creatures,” Becky says in exhaustion.

“And those two, why holding hands?”

“They are,” she pauses for a second, “mated.”

“Ah. Why buy everything? When do they hunt? Aren’t there predators that pick them off?”

Becky sighs, and I wonder if this is harder than she anticipates.

“Humans are generally the apex predators on Earth. Things don’t hunt us, we hunt them.”

“Ridiculous,” Puppy scoffs and glowers at the humans on the TV in disdain.

Becky sits down on the lounge and stares at Stix. “Humans buy things because that’s what we do. We don’t need to hunt or do anything anymore. So we shop.”

“Why is there no green? No life?” I murmur. “Where are the great forests and the trees? Where are the animals and birds? The insects? Why is this place dead?”

She looks at me as if surprised by the question. “People are dumb. We destroy, and we pour concrete on everything, seeking to tame it and bring order to it. Wilder? Do we need to go someplace else?”

I hesitate and shake my head, but it means something to me that she asked. She treats me with a kindness I’ve not experienced before, like I am worthy and not wanting.

I turn back to the window, hiding my thoughts, looking at the barren concrete world and all its glass windows .

“It’s not all like this,” she murmurs. “We can go to places that are still wild.”

“No, I know. It’s just…so sad.”

And now I’ve made her sad. No, enough of this. I whirl towards them and sit on the couch beside her. “What is a human's strength?”

“Intelligence, compassion, empathy?” She blinks a couple of times and shrugs.

“And their weakness?”

“Selfishness, bodies, and inability to get along,” she groans. “This isn’t working. Let’s try a different way.”

She bounds forward and grabs a rectangular box, then sits back and points it at the wall. Is she daft?

The wall bursts into colour. I groan at the stupidity of this world. Magic boxes seem to be something of a fascination with them. It’s baffling.

She searches and then nods to herself, chewing her lip and mouthing words. “Yeah, this one. All right, everyone, come sit.”

We sit close to each other, which just has all our tempers skimming the surface. Frost and I exchange hostile looks.

We can appear like we are getting along easily enough, but deep down, we’re just brewing a cold war.

Despite myself, I get absorbed in some ridiculous show with humans who fall in love. Becky gets up and disappears, returning with food. She sits down and curls into Frost, who stiffens and loses his ability to pay attention to the TV. He, no, we are far too focused on the woman in his arms.

“What is that?” Puppy says climbing the wall beside the TV and leaning his head over the screen, staring at two people kissing.

“They’re kissing.”

“Why?”

“It’s nice. It feels good, and it’s what you do if you want to mate with someone,” she mutters softly and shakes her head. “I really hate that word. Kissing is one of the first steps of a courtship process. There is getting to know each other, shared likes and dislikes, touching, and then kissing.”

“What comes after?” I ask.

Becky opens her mouth to answer but doesn’t get a chance.

“Their skins are peeling off!” Puppy growls. “Are they going to eat now? ”

Becky has a red tinge to her cheeks. “No. They are going to mate. You know what, we should turn this off-”

“Not happening,” I say and snatch the remote away from her. “Your Shadow kin need an education.”

Frost walks over to Puppy, and I watch him talk the Grim through the process of what is happening.

Puppy looks at the TV and then flicks a glance at Becky. “Does this sex feel good to you, meal?”

She chokes on the soda she’s drinking. “Yes. It feels good for both parties.”

“Hmm. Is that all there is?” The Grim crawls the wall around the TV, peering at it intently. “Is that all there is? Just one little flesh stick? No barbs, knots, or…just that useless pink thing?”

“You can do a lot with a pink thing if you know what you’re doing,” Becky protests. Then in a quieter voice. “Barbs? Knots?”

The Grim regards her with haughty disdain. “Hmmm.”

“What?” Becky snaps, challenging him.

“You don’t need a flesh stick. My tail could do better.”

This time, Becky ends up in a coughing fit that turns her puce. When she looks up, her eyes are watering. “Your tail?”

The Grim flicks the tip of his tail, showing off all the ways he can flex it.

Becky’s eyes follow it, and her mouth drops open. Stix, who is squeezed in on her other side, growls at Puppy, and the Grim climbs down and disappears.

The sex sounds go on, but watching Becky’s reactions has all of our attention.

Eventually, it moves on, and Becky talks us through the social norms and explains different questions we have all the way from philosophical, like what faith is and why there are so many, to explaining what slang is.

Eventually, she gets tired, and I pick her up and carry her to the bed. Stix pulls back the quilt, and I lay her in, tucking the material around her.

She rolls towards me and lets out a gentle purr. I focus on her face instantly, listening to that sound as it fades and vanishes.

“You heard that?” I whisper.

Frost nods. “I heard it. Diablos is wrong.”

“We need to be sure. It’s her life at stake. ”

Frost climbs into bed beside her, laying on the covers and staring at her face. Puppy appears and curls up on the end of the bed, but Stix stays near the window.

I approach him cautiously. “We don’t need to learn all of this stuff if we aren’t staying.”

“No, we don’t, but we will,” Stix murmurs.

“Why?”

“Because this is two weeks to really get to know Becky. To discover if she is the one for us or not. It’s to figure out if we can do this together. If Puppy can learn not to hunt her. And we both know that you aren’t leaving Wilder, so drop the act.”

“So, this is a test drive?”

“Yes. But it also gives us time to see if there are any other signs that she’s an omega.”

I stare out at the bright lights. The horrible concrete world doesn’t look so ugly now.

“In the courts, they kept me away from the green and wilds. They kept me chained in places like this.”

“You aren’t in chains. You are free to go Wilder, anytime you need. This is a totally different situation. And she is a totally different female. No one is going to force you to do anything.”

I growl at him, but he just smiles smugly and leaves me by the window.