Beasts and Savages (The Beastly Series Book 1) (24 page)

“Generous offer.” Tanner placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. “Just one more question before I agree to any plan. Why did you pull me down like that when Locke came back into the room?”

I laughed nervously. “It was a kiss. Well, sort of a kiss. A sign of affection.”

His face held the genuine confusion I’d grown accustomed to. “Kiss? Punching someone in the mouth with yours is affection?”

I looked away and blushed. “Well, no. Most kisses are gentle and sweet. And not nearly that long. A quick brush of the lips.”

Tanner leaned over and brushed my hand, his voice a whisper. “Lea? Will you show me a real kiss?” I looked at his pleading eyes, enveloped in how green they were. “Please?”

“Tanner...” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t think-”

“I'm not a child. If you want my help you have to trust me. I know what you are afraid of and I know my limits.” The conviction in his voice lured me to open my eyes and look back at him. He added softly, “Please.”

I needed his trust. I needed his jealousy of me to fade. I wanted to escape and he was my way out. I knew I should just kiss him and get it over with, but there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach: fear. Not of him, but of the affection that was growing for him. If I grew to like him, or worse, love him, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to leave him behind once he helped me escape.

I swallowed my fear. My feelings were an insignificant speck of what I would have to overcome to break out of this prison. I climbed off the bed and knelt down next to the chair.

“Okay,” I breathed. “Just one real kiss.”

I raised myself up on my knees and placed my hands on the curves of his jaw, and pulled his face toward mine. He leaned forward, staring at me intently. I turned my head slightly and closed my eyes. Our mouths touched, and I pulled away, but he followed me, keeping our lips together. He reached his hands up to the nape of my neck, and stroked my earlobes with his thumbs. His lips were rough, yet warm and sweet. My stomach began to flutter. I leaned back. He tried to hold me in again, deepen the kiss, but then pulled himself abruptly away and let go of my head.

We stared at each other in calm silence for more than a minute. Tanner was the first speak. “You do that to other people?” His voice was slightly breathless.

“Yes. Well, no. I’ve never kissed anyone like that before. Family is different, not so … fervent … I kiss my mother and grandmothers goodbye and good night all the time. A quick peck as we pass. And Lucille and I kissed goodbye before she…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. It occurred to me that it was the first time I had consciously thought about Lucille since my capture.

“Who is Lucille? Another girl hunter?” Tanner had snapped out of the effect the kiss had on him.

“No. Well, yes just not with me. She was my best friend. She died long before I was ready to hunt. Suicide.” I sat on the floor and pulled my knees to me. I had sounded so matter of fact, as if Lucille’s death was just a notch in a stony timekeeper that tracked my life.

“What’s suicide?” he was looking away as if he were embarrassed.

“She killed herself. On purpose. Tied herself to a beam by her neck and jumped.” Hot anger seethed through my voice. It had been almost two years and I was still angry at her. My anger was bubbling. It needed a way to escape. I lashed out at Tanner. “I have to teach you about mating and about death? Don’t you know anything? They don’t teach anything here? No wonder we call your kind savages.”

Tanner’s jawline flexed and the frost in his eyes sent chills up my spine. “Your world is full of death, destruction, and despair. I feel sorry for you. You know too much to be so young.”

I let out a dry snicker. “Says the boy whose father sends out boys to be hunted and killed, all in hopes of receiving babies. From us, grown inside of us. The beasts you fear and hate.” I sniffed haughtily. “Besides, I’m older than you. Not so young.”

“Not much older,” Tanner muttered before asking, “Babies come from inside of you? How is that possible?” It amazed me how he could switch his emotions on and off. His entire being seemed to be driven by curiosity.

I rose and lay down on the bed. “Tanner. I’m exhausted. Please don’t make me explain mating tonight. It takes too long.” I pulled the covers up over my shoulders to make sure he understood I was going to sleep.

Tanner lit the candle on the table, casting a soft glow in the room. “Can I stay in here tonight? Watch over you?”

I sighed and rolled over to face him. “You’ve never asked me before. Is there a reason to start now?”

He stood at the edge of the bed. The candle behind him made the edges of his hair glow and his features shadowy. “I want you to trust me. To know that I would, could never do anything to hurt you. That I’m here for you.”

“Haven’t you already hurt me?”

“Not on purpose. And you know what I mean.”

“So you’re going to help me escape?” I held my breath.

He nodded once. “If I can go with you.”

I wasn’t surprised by his request. Once he’d helped me, he’d be in trouble with his father, and his clan. I didn’t know what punishments were here, but I was sure I didn’t want to know. He would also be useful along the way, and if I ever got tired of being tethered to him, I could use my changing as an excuse to send him away.

 “Of course.”

“Lea?”

“What, Tanner?” I huffed.

He bit his lip and for the second time today, I considered telling him that I knew he was nervous. “I made the lavender soap for you. I thought you’d like it. I didn’t know about your mother.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know how to react to this, so I said the only thing that came to mind, “Thank you. I did like it.”

Tanner smiled and brushed my cheek. “Lea?” His voice was a whisper. “Can I kiss you goodnight?”

I tried to keep my voice as even as I could. “You’re
not
my mother.”

Chapter 15

~Girls~

“Wake up! We have a problem.” 

Someone shook my shoulders. I opened my eyes and rubbed them until they adjusted to the light. It was early morning, before dawn. I tried to register what the voice said, but I wasn’t awake enough. I sat up and stretched.

“Tanner?” In the two weeks I had been locked in this room, I had grown more and more accustomed to Tanner coming and going, listening to me explain everything from mating to indoor plumbing to school. His thirst for knowledge greatly outweighed my patience and most nights ended in my plea to let me sleep and his huffy response before finally growing silent.

“No. Tanner’s getting ready. I expect you to do the same. Get up Lea, we need to go. I think you’re the only one who can fix it.” Locke’s voice was panicked.  He tossed some men’s trousers and a pair of boots on the end of the bed.

“Am I going somewhere?” I pulled the blanket off of my legs, felt a wet coldness, and looked down. Blood was covering a corner of my shirt and there was a red circle on the sheet. A familiar pang in my abdomen sent me into an involuntary hunch. I swore to myself for not counting the days better, not being prepared.

“Oh God! You have the sickness too!” Locke began pacing the room in a frantic haze. He was talking to someone called God, but I didn’t see anyone else in the room.

I laughed. “I’m not sick.”

My laughter stopped Locke abruptly. “You’re bleeding, but you’re not sick? Are you injured?”

“Who’s injured?” Tanner walked into the room, his usual shirt covered by a light jacket that came down to the pocket of his trousers. He gasped as he took in the sight of me lying in bed, my thighs covered in sticky blood.

“I’m not sick or injured. This happens all the time. Well, it happens if we change and don’t mate.” I sighed and looked around the room. Tanner had brought me a lavender plant and the picture I had carried with me when I left home.  At the time, I thought he was trying to persuade me to kiss him again, but he never asked. I never offered. If Tanner had been able to get my picture, that meant my satchel was still in this house.

“I don’t really feel like giving another biology lesson right now. Where’s my satchel?”

Locke and Tanner looked at each other in confusion.

“My satchel? Small leather bag I was carrying when you let Miller whack me over the head? It has what I need in it.”

Tanner left the room quickly.

Locke looked at me with narrowed eyes. “You can’t have your knife.”

“I figured you took that for yourself by now. And I don’t want my knife. I want tampons. They’ll help me get through my…. Problem.” I stood and stripped the sheet of the bed. I inspected the blanket and was relieved to see it was still clean. Another cramp hit me and I lurched.

“If you aren’t injured, why do you look like you’re in pain?” I had this sick feeling that Locke believed that I had injured myself to escape or get out of mating Tanner.

“I
am
in pain. My body is just pissed at me for not mating, so this is its reaction, okay? I’ll be fine.” I knew that my anger was mostly from the hormones, but I didn’t care. It felt good to lash out.

“So if you mate the bleeding and pain will go away?” Locke crossed his arms. He walked to the window. I didn’t think he liked the sight of me covered in blood.

“NO!” I threw the sheet to the floor in frustration. “It’ll go away on its own in a few days. I don’t want to explain this to you. Ask Tanner, he’s had the entire lesson on how the female body works. I need a clean shirt, some water and soap, and some towels.”

“Ask me what?” Tanner asked as he came into the room. He was carrying my satchel, a clean shirt, and a bowl of warm soapy water with a rag floating in it. He set the bowl and shirt down and handed me the satchel.

“Did you take out the knife?”  Locke turned his head over his shoulder. He had a jacket over his plaid shirt. I wondered where Locke and Tanner had come from, and where they planned on taking me.

Tanner gave a slow nod to his father in response. Locke studied me before he spoke. “Good. Because I think she’s faking injury in an attempt to escape.”

Tanner laughed. “It’s just her period, Locke. She’s not faking anything and she’ll be fine. Grouchy, but fine.”

I shot Tanner a warning look and dug through the bag. As I grasped the brown box Nana had given me, my hand brushed something hard and covered in leather. I glanced at Tanner. He had lied to his father; the knife was still in here.