Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland novel Chapter 181

Chapter 181 New Coworkers

Chapter 181 New Coworkers

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This cleric named Iris ran her treatments for scalation with sharp, surgical precision. Her technique still carried a hint of rust, but there wasn’t a single thing worth correcting.

“You’re fine. Carry on with your work. I’m just taking a look. Good job, two thumbs up.”

Gillian flashed her an enthusiastic thumbs-up, then gently pulled the door shut.

“I agree. Cleric Vale’s purification ability is unbelievably strong!”

The beastman under treatment was young, in his early twenties, and when he smiled the faint flush across his honey-toned skin lit up his whole face.

“I’ve had this for over a year now. If the Legion hadn’t gotten word out that scalation could be treated, the plan was to wait until it covered every inch of us, then charge the source of the taint and ram a taint core At least we could squeeze out a little more use before dying. Not the worst way to go.”

This guy was an absolute moron. What was there worth protecting on this broken piece of land? It had no value at all.

But when the young beastman said those words, his eyes burned with something extraordinary.

Iris caught herself thinking they were more beautiful than the rainbow starlight wrapped around the outer rim of a black hole.

The young beastman pushed to his feet, examining his shoulder with shining excitement as he gave the spot a couple of soft pats. A wide, fierce smile broke across his handsome young face.

Iris dropped her gaze. “Keep it dry. You can go.”

As she spoke, her foot pinned the scaled parasite to the floor. A faint thread of white psionic power dug into its mouth, pulled out a red beast crystal, and dropped it into a metal container with a sharp clink.

“Hey, thanks, Cleric Vale. The 9th Legion takes pride in you!”

The beastman gave Iris a textbook Legion salute, then walked out.

What a nutjob.

Back on the Capital Planet, Iris’ main job had been prospecting inside black holes.

Out there, clerics weren’t called clerics. They were called treasure-hunters.

Treasure-hunters who came up empty got punished. Of course, when they struck a vein, the rewards were beyond generous.

If she hadn’t picked the wrong vein inside that black hole and lost a few critical pieces of cryogold equipment, she would never have been reduced to carving flesh on this backwater Outer Planet.

After a long pause. Iris couldn’t quite shake the suffocating feeling sitting in her chest. She was a treasure-

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Wed, Jun

Chapter 181 New Coworkers

+20 Free ComS

hunter from the Capital Planet, and she had just been complimented by some Outer Planet hayseed?

What was there to be so proud about?

“What was that Gillian Sterling even here for, anyway?”

Iris pushed the irritation back down and called toward the doorway. “Next.”

When Gillian made it back to her own office, she found a pink-tipped white fox crouched on her chair staring at her like he had no idea how he’d ended up there.

“Gillian, weren’t you supposed to be off today?”

“Tristan, why are you still here?”

Gillian and Tristan said it at almost the exact same moment, and both of them went quiet right after.

“Looking like this on regression serum, I’m not going anywhere. Stuck here at your place was the only option.”

Tristan rested his head on his front paws. He hadn’t quite worked out how to handle Gillian yet, and he closed his eyes on instinct.

Gillian felt like something had gone wrong with the universe. Why was this little jerk acting so docile today? Was he sick?

“What happened to you last night? Did you run into a ghost on your way home?”

Tristan’s eyes opened at her words. He stared at the mithril chain wrapped around his paw with an expression that did, in fact, look like he’d just seen a ghost.

“It’s a long story.”

Gillian almost laughed. So Tristan had run into something he couldn’t fix. Served him right. He’d done enough rotten things in his life to earn a little karma.

She walked straight to her desk. Catching Tristan zoned out, she swung the chair around without ceremony and dumped him off to the side along with it.

A puff of white fur lifted on the breeze and quivered in the air, looking impossibly adorable,

The snow-white little fox tilted his head, his bright eyes shining like polished gemstones. He looked at Gillian’s profile with a flicker of hurt around the edges.

“Gillian, you’ve got no heart at all. Whose fault do you think it is that I ended up looking like this? I can’t even sit in your chair anymore?”

“This is my fault? Tristan, are you still holding a grudge against me?”

Gillian’s voice went cold, and she didn’t even look at him. “You want to dig up old grievances? Then let’s dig them all up together.”

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