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)
“We have to leave,” he growls. “Now.”
Lex immediately grabs his cell phone and calls someone. “Ambush! Ready the van. Call for backup!”
Suddenly, a loud bang at the front door makes me shriek.
“They’re inside,” Beast growls.
I gasp. “Who—”
My eyes widen as I realize the answer to my own question … and immediately forget everything that just transpired.
Of course. My father’s men.
They’ve come to save me.
Beast
Suddenly, Aurora jumps up from the floor, her eyes skittering away toward the door like a firefly that’s found a light in the dark.
I brush off the dust and leftover shrapnel, ignoring the pain as I go after her.
“Hey, where are you going?” my owner snipes, but I ignore him and run out into the hallway to follow her.
“Stop!” I bark, but she’s oblivious to the world around her, including my voice.
She ignores me and runs straight toward the front door.
“Aurora, stop!” I yell, and I grab her by the arm before she goes too far.
“That’s my father out there,” she replies, her nails clawing at my fingers, trying to jerk free from my grip. “Let go of me! He’s coming to rescue me!”
“He’s not coming for you,” I growl back.
She completely ignores me and slips out of my grip with ease.
“Beast, take me to safety,” my owner barks as he steps out of the office with heavy breaths. “I need to secure these documents.”
I’m torn between focusing on him, the man who owns me and controls this collar, and the girl who’s captured my soul. Grunting, I flick my eyes between them on opposite sides of this hallway while everything slips out of control.
“My father’s out there. He’s waiting for me to—”
BANG!
The gunshot has her stopping halfway through the hallway.
In the doorway is a man with a semi-automatic. And it’s pointed straight at her.
BANG!
CHAPTER 21
Aurora
The bullet grazes past my skin.
It all happens so fast it doesn’t even register at first.
Until the blood appears on my shoulder, staining my shirt.
Shock makes my bones feel like solid wood lodged into the ground.
Why would they shoot me?
These are my father’s men.
My lip quivers as I stare at the man in the front door, the man who just shot me, tears welling up in my eyes.
“Aurora!” As fast as a human possibly could, Beast storms toward me, covering my body with his, wrapping me into a cocoon beneath him.
I shriek as more bullets cover the area in darkness. I’m terrified and nailed to the floor. Behind us, Lex cowers in a corner near the office door, clutching my father’s papers.
When the hail finally ends, Beast turns his rage toward our attacker.
Everything happens so quickly. Within seconds, Beast has whipped out his knives and chucks them at the guy, who narrowly avoids them, only to shoot at him. His armor catches most of the bullets as he keeps marching at him. More guards appear in the doorway, some shooting at Lex’s guards stationed outside the house. It’s a chaotic scene with bullets and screams flying left and right with no end.
Beast runs like a bulldozer over to the nearest guy who tried to shoot me and grabs his gun the second he fires it again. The bullet lodges itself into the ceiling, and he snatches it from his hands and knocks him in the head with it. The guy collapses, but before his head hits the ground, Beast points the man’s own gun at him and shoots.
BANG!
I close my eyes from the harshness, but when more shouts are audible all over the house, panic forces me to look. Beast spins on his heels and points the gun at the other end of the hallway, toward the office we just came out of, and shoots again.
BANG. BANG!
More bodies flop down through the window, and I shriek when one of them flings a smoke bomb our way.
“Beast!” Lex yells.
But there’s too much going on, so much even I can barely keep up, let alone Beast who is flinging his knives and shooting the gun left and right. Every throw is a hit, whether it’s their heads, their arms, their calves, or even their eyes. It’s as if he was trained to do this … Trained to murder as efficiently as possible.
Bodies drop to the floor like flies, just as I remember from the first day I met him. And the sheer amount of blood makes me huddle in a corner next to the staircase, hoping it’ll end quickly. With my hands over my ears, the sounds aren’t so loud anymore, but nothing can stop the quickening of my own heartbeat.
I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die!
“You …” A voice above me makes me tilt my head.
Someone’s at the top of the stairs, peering down at me below.
A guard.
I recognize him as being one of my father’s, and the mere sight of his face makes my heart jump.