Page 36 of Brutally Mated
I don’t like the way she smiles at Thorn either. It seems she is hungry as well.
“We’ll have two steak dinners, rare, please,” he says. “And a beer for me and a sparkling wine for my wife.”
The waitress smiles, slightly tighter this time, and walks away.
“Why did you call me your wife?”
“It’s the human word for mate,” he says. “The easiest way to explain our relationship. I want to get you a ring, so others will know you are taken when they look at you.”
That seems quite sweet, I suppose. Thorn is possessive. All my mates are. I can tell they’re not having an easy time sharing me. They all want to be inside me as often and as deeply as they can be. I was a virgin just a day ago and now I have been mated roughly more times than I can count.
“Enjoy the bread,” the waitress says, delivering a basket full of hot bread and butter to the table. “Your meals won’t be too far away.”
“Thank you,” Thorn says.
“Thank you,” I echo.
She goes to do more tasks. It looks like a challenging job. She has so much to do and so much to remember. I know I couldn’t possibly do it.
“Want some?” Thorn offers me the basket.
I shake my head. I am feeling hungry, but this place is making me nervous. I’m used to eating mostly alone, and this feels like eating in the middle of a huge crowd. Any of them might come for me at any moment. My back is toward so many strangers. The energies in here are intense, and so are the scents, and then there is the chatter. It comes from everywhere. I try to concentrate on a few threads of conversation, but I can’t. They’re not talking about anything, and then someone will talk over someone else and my mind is caught in a tumult of nonsense.
“I love your dress, is that cerulean blue?”
“So I told her, there’s no way he’s ever going to catch that fish, and you know what…”
“…his promotion means we can go to the beach…”
“…Forty-three. No. Forty… one? Wait. I think it was forty-four.”
“Oh, my gods, shutup!”
I’m not aware of how loudly I made that exclamation until the restaurant goes quiet, and dozens of eyes swivel to look at me. The quiet only lasts for a moment, then slowly creeps back in as people return to their conversations.
Is this what people are like? And my mates want me to live among an entire city of humans? Absolutely not. The only thing keeping me in my seat is the smell of food, but even that is beginning to wear on me. Some of the tables have their meals. Some of them do not. We do not.
“Are you okay?” Thorn asks me, his brow creasing in concern.
“I’m fine,” I say, lying through my teeth because I know he wants me to enjoy this. I try to tell myself that it’s not that bad. They’re just people. They’re prey, really. They’re meaty, squishy, silly creatures having meaty, squishy, silly conversations. I shouldn’t let them bother me.
I try to quiet my mind and tame my impulses. I yearn for a cold night, for an empty mountain, for the freedom of feeding alone. I have a flash of being in my wolf form, my jaws sinking into the still twitching muscle of my prey. That is how I was designed to feed.
“Try some bread,” he says.
“I don’t want bread,” I reply, my voice tense.
He looks confused, which only serves to make me feel guilty. Does he not feel the same way? Are his senses not completelyoverwhelmed? Does he not want to choke on the acrid perfume barely covering the scent of salted sweaty human flesh?
“You don’t look happy,” he says. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I lie again, as I fantasize about my homeland.
The man behind me starts slurping a beverage of some kind. It feels as though the very interior of my body and mind is being violated by the presence of this stranger who is inflicting his gross body noise on me, his rubbery wet lips inhaling too much air and creating a gurgling noise that is louder than any conversation.
Krall
Skor and I find ourselves on the street, looking for a vendor to supply us with a few foodstuffs. There’s one restaurant in town, and Thorn and Tabby are inside. We can see them through the window. Tabby is at a three-quarter angle away from us, so I can mostly see her back and a little of the side of her face.
