Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
And his unconditional love has shown me I’m so much more than just the monster my father made me out to be.
And with a smile on my face, I touch my own skin and all the scars on my fingers and hands with love. All the love I’ve missed all these years when I denied myself just because of what one person taught me.
My father’s opinion of me doesn’t define me.
I do.
Beast
When I wake up and miss her scent, I immediately sit up and look around. The sun is shining brightly, which means I’ve slept through the night. But she’s nowhere in the room, and my heart rate instantly shoots up.
My woman is gone.
I jump out of bed and throw everything aside as I march out the door, not giving a shit about anything in my way.
I have to find her. What if she got taken?
Rage fuels my steps as adrenaline takes hold, but I come to an abrupt stop in the middle of the living room when I see her bent over to reach for something in the back of a cupboard in the kitchen.
“What are you doing?”
BONK!
“Ow,” she murmurs, rubbing her head after she hit it against the cupboard. “Geez, you scared me.”
“Sorry,” I say. “I thought you were …”
“Gone?” She raises a brow at me, then gives me this quirky smile she’s rarely sported, and I have to admit it makes me feel like grabbing her and throwing her over my shoulder. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
I smirk. “I meant by Lex’s goons.”
She makes a face. “Ah, so that’s why you ran out of bed in panic.”
“I was not panicking,” I retort, frowning.
“Is that why you came storming out of the room?” she muses, placing a bag of rice on the counter. “And here I was thinking I was quiet enough so you could sleep.”
“I didn’t hear any sound,” I say, stepping close enough until I can wrap my arm around her waist and pull her in like a fish being reeled in on a hook. “I smelled your absence.”
“You sniffed for me?” She giggles.
I lean in and grab a fistful of her hair, bringing it to my nostrils and groaning with delight. “You know what your scent does to me.”
She giggles some more when my grip on her waist tightens, and my cock begins to grow in my pants from her response. God, I fucking love this woman of mine.
“So what were you doing in here?” I ask.
“Trying to find some food, but this is all that’s left,” she says, pointing at an old bag of rice.
“We’ll figure something out,” I say, planting a kiss on her cheek.
The last time we had this conversation, it didn’t end well.
“We don’t have any money. No jobs. No more family either,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Not to mention the fact that we’re still being hunted by Lex. My father.” She shivers. “I don’t think it’ll ever stop. Or that we’ll ever be safe.”
I grab her arms and make her look at me. “I will keep you safe.”
Her cheeks turn red, but her blush is accompanied by a look of worry. “But that’s just it. It forces you to stay vigilant. To fight. And I wanted you to have a chance at a normal life.”
My brow furrows. I never actually thought about it.
“I don’t just want you as a beast. I want the real you too,” she says, placing her hand on my chest.
I shake my head. “That’s impossible as long as they live.”
She averts her eyes, mulling it over.
I know she wants a life in peace, but such a thing is simply impossible in my world.
“What can we do?” she says, sighing. “I mean, if my father came back here, what’s to say Lex and his guards won’t find this house too?”
Her father. That sly bastard will put everything I fought so hard for in jeopardy.
My fist tightens, and I step away from her to grab a shirt from the closet.
She’s right. If I’m going to protect her, I need to be proactive.
Get ahead of them before they make their plans.
“What are you doing?” Aurora asks as I put it on.
“I’m gonna check something out,” I reply, marching out the door.
“Wait, where?” she asks.
“It’s safer if you don’t know.”
I don’t want her to worry.
“Will you come back?”
Her words make me turn to face her. “Always.”
The smile that follows is all I’ll ever need to bring me back to her.
And I hop into the car and drive off.
Hours later
I drive all the way back to the one place I’ve dreaded going back to. But I have no other choice. I need to keep an eye out on those bastards to know if my suspicions are true.
With a heavy heart, I drive up to the side of the house, wearing a cap I stole from a local store. If I’m lucky, the guards won’t notice me squatting outside the house. At least not while they’re this busy with an unexpected guest.