Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
“What?”
A slight smile follows, and it warms my soul.
The soul I thought I’d long forsaken.
“This is your bed,” she says.
“I can share,” I reply.
She bites her lip, tears welling up in her eyes again, and now I’m the one who doesn’t understand. “Why are you sad?”
“I’m not,” she says, and she laughs a little.
Now I’m really confused.
Who cries and then laughs like it’s funny to be sad? Only this strange girl.
“I just wonder why you’re suddenly so nice to me,” she says.
“Is that why you’re crying?” I ask.
She nods, tucking her hands underneath her head. “I just never expected such kindness.”
“From a beast?” I fill in.
She doesn’t say another word, but the blush on her face tells me enough.
“I know what I am,” I say, a kind of darkness overwhelming the warmth that had just warmed my soul. “But it doesn’t make me a villain.”
“You’re their hound,” she says, her voice filled with dismay.
“Exactly.”
I lean in and whisper into her ear, “Sleep. I will watch over you.”
The second I move away, her eyes have already closed, and she looks like a sleeping beauty, waiting to be kissed.
But I’ll restrain myself, just like I’ve always done.
Not just so she can sleep … But because I always have to remind myself of the consequences of kissing a precious thing like her.
The unraveling of my heart.
Aurora
When I wake up, I blink a couple of times, wondering how I fell asleep so quickly. Was it all a dream, or did I really just sleep for hours on end?
Good God, I needed that.
I yawn and look around, but I don’t see Beast anywhere, and my heart begins to flutter. He was so sweet when he told me he’d watch over me, and I was too tired to reject his offer.
But now that I’ve finally slept, I need to come to my senses fast.
I sit up straight and look around until I find him huddled in the corner of the cell, gazing at the wall. I watch him for a few seconds, but he doesn’t move.
What is he doing?
“What are you looking at?” I ask.
He glances at me over his shoulder. “Oh, you’re awake.”
I hear something scratchy coming from behind him, and then he turns to face me. “Just a bug. I tried to grab it, but it ran off.”
I smile at him, but I don’t really know what to do with it. Why he would want to grab a bug is anyone’s guess. But I don’t want to judge too quickly. These walls could make anyone insane in a matter of days.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
I smile. “Better.”
Suddenly, the door above the staircase opens and in pours more light. I block my eyes because it’s too bright.
“Rise and shine,” Raymond says as he stomps down the stairs.
Beast and I both move away from the bars as the man comes into view, twirling the keys in his hand.
“Guess what you’re gonna do today?” he says with a filthy grin.
“If it were up to me, I’d know exactly what we would do,” I snarl back.
The dude stops smiling entirely. “And what’s that? Smother me with a piece of bread?” He snorts again.
“No,” I say. “I would steal those keys and—”
“Shove them into your eyeball,” Beast interjects.
Raymond is taken aback by his comment and leans away, clutching the keys tight. “In your fucking dreams, Beast.”
Two more guards walk down the steps, one carrying a peculiar-looking metal device.
My pupils dilate.
The collar.
Beast’s body grows rigid at the sight, and he braces himself against the wall.
“Time for some fun,” Raymond muses, and he whips out his stun gun.
The door is opened, and he steps inside, along with his two buddies. “You wanna do this the easy way or the hard way, Beast?”
Beast’s muscles pump up, and he steps in front of me. “I’ll go.” Then he glances over his shoulder. “As long as she is safe.”
Raymond smirks, tilting his head. “You don’t get to make demands.” He hands the stun gun to the other guard and whips out his gun instead, pointing it at Beast’s foot. “Our boss might need your strength, but he doesn’t need your toes. Now choose.”
The other guards approach him, one with the collar, the other with the stun gun, careful of every step they make.
I’m completely frozen behind Beast, terrified of what they might do. He grunts but doesn’t move, his eyes on the guards like a wolf ready to bite their heads off. Every move they make is calculated until they get within a hair’s breadth.
“Move away from the girl,” one of them says through gritted teeth.
His lip twitches, and he doesn’t reply.
ZAP!
The attack is almost instant, the stun gun striking him in the belly.
I shriek. “No, don’t hurt him!”
Beast roars out loud while they haul him away from me and push the collar around his neck within a few seconds, locking it in place. He groans as he tries to straighten his back again, despite the pain in his abdomen.