He let William Reed go and ran back into the woods, belated rifle shots at his back whizzing by his horns.
Less than a month later, his father was killed in a car accident. David brought him the news, along with some supplies and groceries.
Hunter sat alone on the riverbank after hearing about his father’s death. Watching the rapids churning among the rocks, he searched for any satisfaction or triumph inside him and found none. There wasn’t any sadness or grief either. Nothing was the only thing that his father left behind.
Hunter’s mother finally got her heart’s desire—her husband gone, leaving all his money in her sole possession. Either carried away celebrating the unexpected fortune, or simply from the effects of long-term substance abuse, she passed away from an accidental drug overdose just a few months after her husband’s death.
As a final courtesy to her memory or maybe just out of habit of cleaning up the Reeds’ mess, even after their deaths, his father’s lawyers ensured that the official cause of her passing was a heart failure.
Hunter mourned his mother. Not the woman who spent his school years upstairs in a drug-induced dream trying to hide from the nightmare of her marriage, and not the one who would clean up and dress up once in a while to show her face in public at some important social function.
He mourned the much younger woman he still remembered. The one who told him stories about her childhood vacations in the sunny Mediterranean and even sang him lullabies when he was very small.
After the death of his parents, all of their possessions, including this hunting estate, became his. The only problem was that he couldn’t assume any of it in person. He was trapped in this place, physically unable to leave. Little good would it do, even if he could travel to Calgary to visit a lawyer’s office, looking the way he did.
Through David, he was able to receive all of the legal correspondence. Together, they managed to arrange a lease of the house for David. Thus making it easier for him to oversee the maintenance of the place and obtain whatever supplies necessary as well as hire help when needed.
With David around, even as a beast, Hunter still led a civilized life. With him gone, the last link to society had been severed for Hunter, leaving him to spend his days as nothing more than an animal.
Until Sophie.
As starved for human company as he’d been, he tried hard to resist her. He told her to go back to live her life. Only now he knew, the life she’d been living was nowhere as full and vibrant as he’d imagined.
She had been trapped in the prison of her own mind. Like a bird with clipped wings, she had been struggling through life, unable to take off because of his actions on that one drunken night.
Her soft, even breathing moved a lock of hair that had fallen across her face. Carefully, he lifted the strand on the tip of his claw and moved it behind her ear.
Being this close, her gentle scent enveloped him, but the wild lust was easier to tame—her fear of his touch kept his desire for her locked in a cage of self-control. The simple joy of being near her was all he allowed himself to feel.
The slightly musty smell of the air in the room tainted Sophie’s scent. If she were to stay here more often, he’d definitely need to make it more comfortable for her somehow.
Was it her pity for his pathetic ass that kept bringing her over here again and again? Or did she find something in him that compelled her to seek his company? She told him things she claimed she’d never told anyone, not even her mother. For some twisted reason, fate sent her to this god-forsaken place and he became her confidante.
Watching a faint smile flutter across her lips, he wondered if this could be his chance to undo at least some of the wrongs he’d done.
Maybe there could still be purpose to his miserable life?
What if he could be the friend she so desperately needed? Would it help her find her wings and feel the joy again?
Chapter 25
I OPENED MY EYES TO bright sunlight behind the glass doors of the balcony. It took me a moment to remember where I was and then a little longer to realize that I had fallen asleep after having a nightmare. Something that never happened before when I was in bed alone.
Right, I wasn’t alone last night, was I? Monster had been here.
I got up quickly. The fireplace had been lit again, making crawling out from under the cozy comforter much more pleasant. After throwing on my jeans, clean top, and a sweater, I ran downstairs.
“Good morning.” Monster’s deep voice greeted me from the kitchen, and I returned his greeting, glad to see his scruffy figure hulking over the counter. He took a towel off a pot of tea and poured a cup.
A plate of leftover dinner rolls sat in the middle of the kitchen island. I took one before sitting down on a barstool and realized that the roll was sliced in the middle, slightly toasted, and buttered.
“You made me breakfast?” I smiled. “Again?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck, sliding the teacup my way. “No rabbit meat this time.”
“Thank you.” My smile grew wider before I bit into a roll. “And thank you for staying with me last night.”
He nodded silently and sat at the other end of the counter with a glass of water for himself.
“How long are you staying at Rocky River, Sophie?”
“Um. I would definitely have to be home for Christmas . . .”
“Would you stay until then?”
Christmas was still a few weeks away. There was no real reason for me to leave before then. In fact, I could come up with a few very compelling reasons for me stay. One of them was staring at me now expectantly.
“Yes, I believe I could stay until Christmas.” I smiled.
“Good.” He exhaled with a visible relief.
“You want me to stick around?”
“Very much. Actually, I have a favour to ask of you.”
“Do you need me to bring anything?”
“Not this time. I was wondering if you’d sign a lease for this place.”
“What?” I almost choked on my tea. “A lease?”
“Yes. If you were legally leasing the house, you could call maintenance people, right?”
“Right, but . . .”
But I’m not local to the area. I will be leaving to go home, eventually. I’m already renting an apartment in town.
There were many more ‘buts’ I could come up with. The thing was, though, Monster was asking for help the only person he could. He had no one else.
“Sure. I’ll do it.”
“Good.” He rose from his seat and brought a black folder from the dining table. “Here is the lease agreement for you to sign.” He placed the folder next to me, and I opened it immediately.
“The lease is for a year,” I said quietly.
“It’s a standard form. You can cancel it any time without a penalty. I’ve put a clause in there.”
“Okay.” I nodded, continuing to read. “The monthly payments will be made from a trust account?”
“It’s the trust fund that the lawyers set up for me after my parents’ death.”
“So, basically, you’ll be paying yourself?”
“Sophie, I’m asking you for a favour. I wouldn’t expect you to pay to lease a house you don’t need. An agreement requires some money exchange. So there it is.”
“There is no owner’s signature.”
“I’ll sign it after you do.” His voice was quiet now, his tone even more serious than before.
“You don’t want me to know your name?” An accusatory note slipped into my voice. “You’re leasing me your house, but you don’t trust me with your name?”
His broad chest heaved with a sigh.
“It’s not a trust issue, Sophie. Please believe me.”
“What is it then? Will you ever tell me your real name?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure what is the right thing to do here.” He seemed to consider something for a moment, the velvety fur on his forehead wrin
kling in a frown. “What if I told you that I want you to get to know me, without any names? The name I used as a human belonged to the man I was then. I’m still trying to figure out who or what I am now, but it’s definitely no longer him. Would you just call me Monster for now? Until I figure out who I truly am?”
I searched his eyes for any teasing or even sarcasm and couldn’t find any. His expression remained very serious, somber even.
“If that’s what you want . . .” I would’ve loved to know his name. Not because calling him Monster bothered me—but because I now knew he had a real name. His past life was a part of him, and I longed to know all about him. However, I also understood his desire to start anew. “Okay.”
“Thank you.” He lowered himself back onto the barstool.
I almost finished my tea, when I noticed that he hadn’t touched his water at all. Thinking back to our dinner last night, I remembered him eating with me but never drinking anything either.
“Is something wrong with your water?” I asked, taking another bite of my roll.
“No,” he replied quickly. “Why?”
I inspected his face for a moment, his mouth, to be precise. The thin, dark lips stretched over the teeth on his long snout. And I wondered if the shape of his face made drinking out of a glass uncomfortable, if not impossible.
Next, I got up and took out two bowls from the kitchen cabinet.
“What are you doing?” he asked, with a wary note in his tone.
“I’d love to have another cup of tea if you don’t mind.” I reached for the teapot. “Only I’ll drink it from the bowl this time.” I poured some tea into one of the bowls then slid the empty one his way. “Would you join me?”
“Why?” His back straightened.
I returned to my barstool then took a sip from my bowl of tea. Fresh from the teapot, the liquid proved to be way too hot. I gasped and spat it out immediately. The bowl burnt my hands too, and I nearly dropped it splashing the tea all over the counter.
Monster watched me with a raised eyebrow.
“Okay, what was that?” The confused expression on his face was way too funny for me to feel mortified.
“This,” I snorted, unable to hold back a laugh, “was how I make a fool out of myself. Come on, Monster.” I shoved the empty bowl closer to him. “There is no way you can do worse than me.”
“Wanna bet?” His voice sounded sulky, but the lines on his face smoothed out, as his general expression lightened. He poured the water out of his glass into the bowl and lapped at it with his long, wide tongue a couple of times. “How was that?” He asked carefully, raising his head.
I eyed the few drops on the counter around his bowl then pointed at the puddles of tea around mine.
“What do you think?” I laughed. “No wonder I’ve never been invited for a bowl of tea by anyone.”
Despite the sharp points of teeth peeking out from under his parted lips, the lopsided grin he gave me was very human.
“I’ll always have a bowl of tea ready for you, Sophie.” A warm, velvet note in his voice sent a tingling sensation through my chest. His smile grew wider. “Here, you have been invited.”
Chapter 26
I MAILED THE COPY OF the lease agreement to the office of Monster’s lawyer as soon as I drove back to Rocky River that morning. As soon as it was done, I let my friends in town know that the heir of the estate in the woods had asked me to take care of the place.
It was a relief to finally have an honest explanation of my drives to the forest and a valid excuse for my odd purchases.
In response to questions of how I knew the owner in the first place, I still had to lie, though, to keep Monster’s existence a secret. I told everyone that it turned out our families knew each other.
I hated the uncomfortable feeling that scratched inside me when I told the lie, and I could only hope that the day might come when Monster would no longer have to hide from the world.
In the weeks before Christmas I visited him several more times, bringing him groceries and house maintenance supplies. I also had a few appointments with trade people on the property. They inspected the services around the house and started working on bringing them back to life.
Between my visits, Monster continued making improvements on the house and surrounding grounds. He replaced the broken patio door with the new one I’d ordered. Together, we scrubbed the kitchen inside and out, getting rid of years’ worth of dust and grime. Then started out on a thorough cleaning of the rest of the house.
While we worked, we talked.
Despite him opening up to me, Monster was still reluctant to talk freely about his past. I struggled to piece together his previous life from the tiny glimpses he had shared with me so far.
On the other hand, Monster seemed to be hungry to know everything about me. It continued to amaze me how good a listener he turned out to be. He asked thoughtful questions and didn’t seem to be bothered by any amount of detail I provided.
Encouraged by his attention, I told him all about my own childhood, my parents, and every single pet I ever had.
Scrubbing the walls of the living room, I described in detail everything I loved about France and how different it was from Canada. And while rolling the huge, filthy rugs to get rid of them, I talked about the travelling I had done.
“There is so much of the world I still want to see,” I said wistfully then remembered that he no longer had a chance to see any of it.
“Travelling completely on my own was something I was never allowed to do, and now can’t do anyway.” The bitter resignation in his voice tugged at my heart.
“Do you really think it was Cecilia who did this to you?” I asked quietly. Since he told me his story, we hadn’t spoke of it again.
I sensed he didn’t like remembering that part of his life, but I couldn’t stop thinking about his incredible physical transformation and the possible reasons for it. There must be an explanation as to what happened to him, and if he could figure out exactly why and how his appearance had changed, maybe he could reversed it?
“I don’t really know what to think, Sophie.” He heaved the rolled rug over his shoulder, dirt and dry pine needles dusting his fur. “But do you see any other explanation?”
I pondered his question for the few minutes it took him to carry the rug out to the driveway to be picked up by a junk removal truck I planned to call later.
The picture he painted of his behaviour that night was far from fluttering. In fact, I had a very hard time reconciling the image of that arrogant, cold-hearted college boy with the person I had been watching emerging from under Monster’s beastly exterior during these past weeks.
“Do you think Cecilia would still be angry at you?” I asked when he returned.
He crouched on the floor next to me but paused before rolling another rug. “The way I treated her?” His voice was gruff. “I believe, she had every right to turn me into a frog and feed me to a snake.”
“Would you like to find her and maybe apologize? It couldn’t hurt . . .”
“Fuck.” His chest heaved. “There are so many people I need to apologize to, Sophie. So many I wish I could say sorry to and beg their forgiveness. The list is a mile long. Cecilia is way up there. And you . . .”
“Me?”
He propped himself with a knee against the floor and faced me. “I’m so sorry for all the harm I did to you.”
Unnerved by the intensity of his stare, I patted his hand.
“It’s fine. It’s not hard to forgive. I realize I had to deal with a feral beast the first time we met, and I know you wouldn’t want to hurt me now. Not intentionally. Do you think if you apologized to her too, she would forgive you? Maybe undo what she’s done?”
He grabbed my hand.
“Would you, Sophie?” His voice was low, and his focus on me hadn’t wavered. “Do you think an apology is all it takes? Would you forgive Hunter Reed if he said sorry?”
The mere sound of that name made me wince.
My breath hitched under the heavy wave of resentment, making everything inside me harden to ice.
“Hunter Reed.” I swallowed hard. “He would never apologize, Monster,” I said quietly. “I watched him in school. It was like the blindfold fell from my eyes after that night and I saw his actions for what they were, no longer fooled by his good looks. His arrogance. The way he treated other people. I never noticed any remorse in him. He certainly never apologized to anyone.”
I rubbed my forehead with a shaking hand. The memories were always hard, and normally, I’d avoid them at all cost. But I sensed the reasons for Monster’s question were important to him and wanted my answer to be useful and real.
“When you mistreated Cecilia, she must have wanted to punish you, making you regret what you did. That’s why I wonder if she knew that her punishment worked, would she reverse whatever she’d done to you? In my case, I never wished any ill on Hunter Reed. I’d rather he’d never come into my life in the first place. All I’ve been trying to do is erase him from my mind, hoping with everything I have that our paths never cross again.”
THE DAY BEFORE I HAD to leave for Calgary, I drove to Monster’s house again. By now, talking to him had become almost a daily necessity. I caught myself having conversations with him in my head even when he was not around.
The topics didn't need to be deep or personal. I would wonder if he’d like the new dish Melanie had added to the menu. Or wished I could ask him something about a movie I’d watched with Jo.
Christmas was the time I was supposed to leave Rocky River for good. My leg had long healed. The lunch program at school was up and running smoothly. As long as I wrote the monthly cheques for it to continue, I could arrange for others to place grocery orders. My presence was no longer required. Even Jo, my closest friend in town, was set to leave in a few months, as soon as her contract was up.
Monster was the biggest reason why I extended my rental agreement with Bob and Melanie until the end of January. I told myself he needed me, at the very least to help him finish bringing the house back to life. By now, the heating was functional, but the electricity was not on, and the plumbing still needed some repairs.
To Love A Monster Page 14