Beast: The Untold Legend

by Shoshanna Evers

****

  Chapter 5

  Ruined

  The beast lowered his massive body to the forest floor and rested his forehead on the ground, wanting to shut out everything around him. Including the beautiful, frightened girl tied up with her own ravaged wedding dress not three yards from him.

  The queen was right. He hated how she controlled him, how she used her power over him to force his physical submission to her desires. How many nights had he suffered and ultimately desired the tortuous pleasure she plied from his body? If he had any choice, when he was living as a stable boy, he never would have gone willingly to the enchantress’s bed chambers.

  Yes, the queen was perfection to look at, even though she was older than he. But outward beauty meant nothing when her soul was so very dark. It seeped out her eyes and contaminated her to the point that Victor could not look at her without disgust and hate.

  She had forced him to lie with her, to service her. It shamed him to admit it, even to himself. He had been a strong, healthy young man, with the physical ability to hold her off. But how could he raise a hand to his queen, when she held the power of life and death over him?

  And with her magic to use against him…she had been unstoppable. Just as she was unstoppable now. But the worst part was how she made him want it. Want her. She’d twisted his mind to be under her spell as well.

  “Beast?” The princess’s voice seemed far away, timid.

  He growled as he brought his head up, his dark mane falling across his face. This was all his fault. He’d wanted power, dominion over someone the way the queen had dominated him. The few tastes he’d gotten had only fed his need.

  Surely God had seen his heart and was punishing him now. His wish had been granted in the worst way possible—by the Devil herself.

  This girl was his completely, to do whatever he wanted with. The very thought of a situation such as this would normally have overwhelmed him with lust. How clever of the queen to ruin it. To make it too real. Too frightening.

  How could he keep his princess safe, now? Victor looked over at his captive, at her fragility. He would destroy her even as he tried to save her. If not physically, then emotionally. Psychologically. Being with him would damage her beyond repair.

  The queen had won once more, as she always did.

  The girl caught his gaze but broke the eye contact, looking down at the leaves around her. “What did she mean…that she’d turned you into…her?”

  Victor’s cry of wrath and frustration came out as a roar that made the princess crumple into a ball, folding herself up as best she could in her bonds as her only protection. From him.

  He pounced to his hind legs, standing tall. As if of its own accord, his tail whipped angrily back and forth.

  “The queen did not give me the option to not lie with her,” he said darkly. “At least you had the option of death. I never did.”

  Justine’s brow softened. “I’m sorry….”

  “I don’t want your pity,” he growled. “She forces me now to do the same to you. But I will never kill you. That’s the one thing she cannot force me to do, and I’ll never give her that power over me.” He looked at her small form, as delicate as a flower. “I couldn’t do that, not even to spare you this time with me.”

  “I don’t want to be spared time,” she said forcefully. “I survive, it’s what I do. Always. You don’t know what it was like in Summerset…the uprising. Your kind murdered my family.”

  His kind. “Beasts?”

  “No, stablehand. The peasants. The anger that sparked in you that day in the stables had sparked in our kingdom. They left the farms, invaded our castle. My father’s last wish was to see me…safe.” Justine’s mouth twitched, as if the irony had not escaped her.

  “You’re still alive, Princess. That says something about your spirit.”

  She lowered her head. “Thank you for not killing me as she wished. Most men would have broken and done her bidding.”

  “I am not most men.”

  “No,” she whispered. “You are the Beast.” Her words were tinged with wonder. “I thank you, sir. For saving my life.”

  Her gratitude made his stomach twist. Did she not understand? “Don’t thank me. For now I have taken away your choice just as she had with me. You have no options here.”

  The reality of the situation lay between them like a cancer. Anticipation was always the worst part of waiting for something terrible to happen. He wouldn’t make his princess wait any longer.

  Her breath quickened as he stalked toward her, bound and helpless on the ground. One soft, white shoulder peeked out from beneath the torn lace, her collarbone bare. His senses were stronger now than they ever were as a human. He could hear her heart beat, pounding below her breast, a metronome of fear and…something else. Desire. He could smell it on her.

  A dark coil of lust unfurled deep within the beast.

  ****

  Justine couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Every instinct within her cried out to run. To fight back. But there was another part of her that melted under the heat of his stormy gaze.

  “Please untie me, Beast,” she said. “Victor. Don’t keep me tied up, don’t do that to me. Please.”

  He paused, and dropped to all fours at her side. Justine froze. Was this really Victor? Or had the spell turned him into more beast than man?

  His dark mane tickled her flesh as the beast brought his mouth to her hands.

  She cried out when he opened his mouth, his fangs gleaming in the late afternoon sun. “Don’t!”

  With a snap of his jaws, he’d ripped the knots around her wrists, letting the ragged material fall to the ground.

  “This will be hard enough for both of us without you telling me ‘don’t,’” he said sharply. “Keep that to yourself.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I keep forgetting it’s…really you.”

  With a growl he bit off the cloth that shackled her ankles. “As if you’d have lain with a stablehand of your own free will. Don’t toy with me, Princess.”

  “I don’t mean to—”

  “You feared me when I was in my human form as well, don’t try to appease me by pretending otherwise. I remember the look in your eyes. In the stables. In your bedchamber.”

  Fear. Excitement. Arousal. There was a fine line between how the different emotions made her body react.

  Heat flooded her cheeks. He was handsome as a man. Gorgeous. But somehow, as a beast, he attracted her even more. The raw savagery, the passion within him flowed over her like water. She could drown in his desire. Maybe she wanted to.

  “If I were human,” he said, reaching out to touch one wayward curl of her hair, “would you want me to ravish you in the forest?” He didn’t give her time to respond. “Every man has some beast in him. Even if I were human, you would still be where you are now.”

  “Let’s run away from here,” she said. “You don’t have to do this. Get me to the shore. Put me on a boat and I will never return, I swear it.”

  He shook his head. “You’ll arrive in a foreign land and think you are safe, only to be dead by first snowfall. Her magic—it’s evil but it’s powerful. You aren’t safe until you are no longer a threat to her majesty.”

  Victor brought his mouth to her neck, and slowly kissed her there. “I will do everything in my power to keep you safe from her.”

  Justine closed her eyes, letting his kisses push away the last shred of fight within her. “I know you will.”

  “Oh, Princess,” he breathed, his words vibrating on her skin. “If only I could keep you safe from myself.”

  He licked from the shallow indent at the base of her throat all the way up to her ear with his sandpaper tongue, making her senses tingle.

  And yet fear clouded the pleasurable sensation on her sensitive neck from his tongue. The queen was right. She’d be feeling this way with any man when losing her virginity. Scared of the pain. Curious of the pleasure. In her kingdom, the blood-spotted sheets couples l
eft hanging outside for all to see the morning after a wedding had instilled a dark fear about the act itself.

  If a mere mortal could do that to her, what would her beast do?

  He smoothed her tangled hair, brushing it off of her shoulders. “Take off your gown, Princess.”

  Justine couldn’t help but to tremble as she pulled the expensive material up over her head. It felt like she was taking part, helping him ruin her… Yes. It was easier to submit. She wanted to. Let their fight be against the queen, not each other.

  The dark desire that edged into her consciousness shouldn’t be there, but it couldn’t be ignored. His very nearness electrified her like lightning. His strength could be her strength, if they fought together.

  Victor lifted her up against his bulging chest and smoothed the white dress beneath her before setting her back down. She would have her own blood-spotted proof to show the queen he’d taken her virginity. Maybe that was his intention.

  Her breath caught in her throat as he ran his large hand down the curves of her body.

  “I control when the claws come out,” he murmured, as if he could read her mind. Or maybe he’d read the trepidation on her face. “Do not fear me, Justine. Do not fear this beast…”

  His body against hers was smooth as velvet, covering her like a fur blanket. A fur blanket with steel behind it. Every muscle in his body flexed above her. He wasn’t putting his weight on her; he held himself up and feathered her face and breasts with kisses. The black hair of his flowing mane tickled her as it fell on her body, contrasting against her alabaster skin through the dappled light of the forest trees.

  She cried out in surprise as he tested the junction of her thighs with one thick finger, just barely touching her.

  Oh Heavens.

  “Look at you,” he breathed. He lifted his hand to his lips and tasted her wetness with a primal growl. “So aroused. That’s good…it will make this easier. Better.”

  Justine shook her head in shame, even though her body couldn’t lie. He knew. He knew she wanted him, even though it was wrong. She couldn’t even keep a semblance of dignity—not if he could tell just by feeling her traitorous core.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all right to want this.”

  “Please let me go,” she whispered one last time.

  She hated herself for even asking. She knew he couldn’t do that, not without risking her life and his own. And as moisture pooled at her core and her breath quickened at his touch, she wasn’t sure she really wanted him to let her go.

  Victor met her eyes with his, and she saw past the façade of the beast and into his heart. “I can’t,” he said softly. “Please forgive me.”

  Justine inhaled sharply when his finger met resistance inside her. I forgive you, Victor.

  He latched his mouth onto her nipple, and desire rushed through her. She moaned as he sucked and nibbled at her breasts, one hand roaming her body possessively. The other, between her legs, stroking her there. Softening her.

  “Just a pinch,” he whispered. “Just enough to know you’re not dreaming, that’s all.”

  With those words, his long fingers broke through her hymen with a sharp twinge deep inside of her. Justine cried out, but the pain melted into pleasure as he kept two fingers there within her, allowing her body to adjust to the intrusion.

  He picked her up off of her dress and pulled her tightly against his body. She was trapped in his arms, but he was so warm, so attentive and intense, that there was nowhere else she wanted to be.

  “You don’t need to fear,” she said. “I won’t escape, Beast. I swear it.”

  “I know,” he said. “You have nowhere to go.”

  Victor rubbed his fingers against the tiny bundle of nerves at her core, holding her firmly. This was new. This was…incredible. Intense. Too intense—

  “Victor—”

  What was he doing to her, how did he strum her body like an instrument, playing notes that lifted her so?

  The sun was setting, and the low rays of pink light penetrated through the forest, awakening the cicadas’ song. Dusk.

  Pleasure mounted within her and she gasped, and tried to slam her thighs shut at the unexpected sensation, but his hand was too big, his grip too strong.

  “You have nowhere to go,” he whispered again.

  No one had ever touched her there before. How did he know what to do, what spot to manipulate so expertly?

  “You’re all right,” he said. He cupped her face with one large hand, forcing her to look into his eyes, all the while rubbing, touching… “I’ve got you.”

  “Please,” she gasped, but she didn’t know what she was begging for.

  “Give in, Princess,” he urged quietly. “It’s better this way. Open up to me.”

  She tore her gaze from his, shutting out his blue-grey, human eyes. She shouldn’t feel so good, not with him. Not with the beast. It wasn’t right.

  She should not give in.

  And yet I crave this, crave…him.

  Justine cried out as he set her on the ground again, face first, pulling her bottom into the air, her hands and arm bowed, touching her ruined dress. Her breath came hard and fast, and she moaned as he wrapped his muscular arms around her and gripped her thighs, spreading her wide.

  Her cunny pulsed in the absence of his quick fingers and she moaned, wriggling under his grasp. The thick length of his erection pressed against her bottom and instinctively she tried to move forward. What if he tore her apart?

  He slipped his cock between her legs but did not enter her, and rocked gently back and forth, letting his length rub slowly across her clitoris.

  Pleasure built quickly within her tight bud, and instead of crawling away she found herself rocking her hips back to meet his thrusts, urging him to speed his movements against her clit.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  He entered her slowly, inch by inch, painstakingly patient, waiting for her body to adjust to his size before pushing forward more. She moaned with desire as he sank in deep, impaling her on him.

  Her inner muscles pulsed around his cock. The climax that had been building within her exploded and she choked back a strangled cry as the sensation overwhelmed her body, every nerve lit up with intense pleasure.

  With a roar, the beast pulled back and drove himself inside of her once more, not slowing or stopping this time. She screamed at the pleasure-pain, her legs shaking beneath his grip.

  “Good girl,” he grunted, and pulled almost all the way out before thrusting into her again. “It’s almost over, almost…”

  “No,” she moaned. She didn’t want it to be almost over. “I’m—”

  She’d never felt this way before, so full, so complete. As if she had always been missing something, had a tickle deep inside that needed to be scratched and now he’d pushed into her and made everything right, and yet oh so wrong. Was something wrong with her, that she should want what he was doing to her on the dirty forest floor?

  He thrust in and out, the staccato rhythm increasing in tempo, her breathy moans punctuating each movement he made. With a growl that made her toes clench in desire, Victor bit down on her shoulder.

  She screamed in fear more than pain—has the beast taken over?—but he didn’t break the skin with his teeth.

  “Princess,” he grated out, and spilled his seed deep inside her.

  Her inner walls clenched, pulsing as the hot liquid filled her.

  And just like that, he was off of her. The weight of him lifted, the blanket of velvet fur gone.

  Justine collapsed, her face falling against dirt and leaves. At some point during their coupling, they’d moved off of the dress.

  Tears she didn’t remember crying wet her cheeks, and she turned her head to look back at him.

  Her captor.

  My Beast.

  ****

  Chapter 6

  Held Captive

  “I am so sorry, Princess,” Victor whispered. He lay on the ground next to her
, and pulled her into his arms, nestling her soft, warm body into his embrace. “Please forgive me.”

  Her breath slowly returned to normal as they lay together. He focused on her heartbeat as it went from fast and frantic to a more steady beat. Her metronome. Beat. Beat. Beat.

  “I do,” she said. “You know I do.”

  He believed her. The girl’s hatred for the queen nearly matched his own. Perhaps forgiving him for taking her was her way of spiting the queen.

  The queen wanted her to hate him, to hate being forced to be with him. Maybe Justine did. But if she didn’t, then she had beaten the queen at her own game, whether she knew it or not.

  “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

  Justine didn’t answer.

  Victor pulled her legs open and inspected her there, checking carefully for tearing, bruising. A tinge of blood from the torn hymen, but she was otherwise fine. Her own arousal had helped a lot.

  “Leave me be,” she whispered, closing her legs.

  He let her, this time. After everything he had taken from her, he’d allow her that one dignity now. The beast reached for the dress and laid it over her naked form.

  “Maybe we’ve succeeded already,” she said. “My cousin conceived on her wedding night.”

  “It can take time,” he said. He lay next to her to keep her warm. Night was falling. “But I will make sure you are with child before winter; I vow it.”

  “You’ll have me again,” she said. “Until you are sure you’ve done it…”

  He couldn’t tell, from her exhaustion-ridden voice, how she felt about that. How could she feel? She had no choice. He had to keep her safe. Ruin her properly so the queen wouldn’t kill her.

  Ruin her. Kill her. For a princess, killing her would be a mercy. But God help him, he was too selfish to see Justine die just to satisfy the devil’s jealousy.

  It was the first time he’d ever spilled his seed inside of a woman. Maybe it would take root, maybe something wonderful could come out of this. A family.

  “I will protect you to the death,” he whispered.

  But his princess was already asleep, and the stars were coming out.