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)
Until a gun appears.
And it’s pointed at both me and Lex.
“Watch out!” Beast yells as he shoots someone in the doorway, only to spin on his heels and fling a knife at the man at the top of the stairs. The knife lodges itself straight between his eyes, blood pouring from his wound.
I flinch as his body topples over the banister and flops down onto the floor right in front of me, blood and guts splattering all over, including me.
Another guard stumbles in through the kitchen, but Beast shoots him down with ease.
As if all of this is normal.
Like second nature.
When there are no more gunshots, and all the dust and blood have finally settled, all that’s left is a whole lot of corpses and tears.
Tears for all the lives lost today.
Tears for my father, who was not here to save me.
Tears for the men who pointed their guns at me.
What did I do to deserve their wrath?
Beast approaches us and shoots at someone already on the floor right beside Lex, who was still blowing out their last breath. Gone. All of them. Snuffed out like their lives meant nothing.
Lex pats himself down while gazing around and then focusing his gaze on Beast. “Are there still any out there?”
Beast shakes his head. “The guards have cleared the area. We have to leave now. Before more arrive.”
Lex nods. “I’ll get that fucker another time. At least I have a paper trail of the money now.” Beast offers him a hand and helps him stand, despite the fact that his entire body armor is covered in dents from absorbing so many bullets. Some must’ve hurt him.
“Finally, you prove yourself useful,” Lex mutters, taking in a big breath. “Let’s go.”
He walks past me like I don’t even exist, heading straight outside into the safety of his men’s watchful gaze while I sit here in a corner of the hallway, gazing at the shambles of what was once my home.
Beast steps in front of my view, his feet alone so immense they block any sight of the body he just shot down from above. He goes down to one knee in front of me until our eyes are on the same level. And when his hand rises to touch my cheek, I flinch.
After all the blood and murder I just witnessed, something this soft and sweet feels odd. Out of this world. Just like him.
“It’s okay,” he says, blood trickling down his hand from the wound in his arm. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Tears well up in my eyes. “But they were my father’s guards,” I mutter. “They shot me.”
Without saying a word, he pulls me closer and pushes me into his chest, wrapping one of his big arms around my body tightly.
“You’re safe,” he says. “You’re safe.”
And for a moment, I stay there in his warm embrace, wondering what I’ve done to deserve all of this.
This hate.
This love.
This confusion.
And the mountain of affection growing deep inside me when I listen to this beast’s heart beating ever so fast just because he’s holding me. This heart filled with fury and death as he hugs with hands that have only known violence.
Over and over, he tells me I’m safe. But the more he does, the more I’m beginning to question whether he wants me to know … or himself.
Instinct makes my hands wrap around his body too, wanting to feel the crazy kind of devotion he showed by killing every last guard who even dared to point his gun at me.
One by one, all shot down until none were left.
And not a single time did he look at his owner to make sure he was okay.
The one man who holds his life in the palm of his hands.
It was this beast’s job to save Lex.
Yet he saved me too.
Not because he was forced to, but because he chose to.
I swallow and lean away to look at his scarred, beautiful face, and for the first time since I met him, I don’t see a monster … I see a man.
The man who wanted nothing more than to save this girl who ran so blindly into the arms of men who tried to kill her.
Blood oozes from the wound on his arm, and I realize a bullet must’ve hit him. My fingers instinctively hover close to it. His armor couldn’t protect all the parts of his body, only the most important bits. But it must still hurt.
“Beast!” A guard’s shrill voice interrupts us, and the connection is broken when Beast looks at the front door.
But his hand still slides down my arm and interlocks with my fingers as he pulls me along with him, out of this bloodstained house and away from the place I once called home. “Let’s go.”
Beast
When we get back to my owner’s house, I’m the one to immediately tear the hood off her face. I don’t like it when they try to hide her from the world. Or when they try to hide the world from her.