“I’ll take a drink,” Gregovitch said once they entered his dining hall.
The Beast poured them both one, swallowing his in one quick gulp. The fiery burn of the alcohol did nothing to help the situation, but then he was aware, at this point, that nothing would.
“My actions are not putting our people at risk,” he said a moment later.
Gregovitch nodded slowly. “We all know that,” he said. “No one is worried that Tobias will go to the authorities. Who would believe him even if he did? More to the point, they’d never be able to find us down here. They could spend years looking before finding our exits. We’ve lived here for hundreds of years,” Gregovitch added. “We’ll be here for hundreds more.”
“Tobias would not give up our secrets,” the Beast said and there was confidence in his voice, because if there was one thing he had realized during the brief time he had spent with his mate, it was that Tobias had the same sort of steel to him that they all did. He didn’t know it of course, he was human still, but he had always been destined to be the mate of a Beast, and so those qualities were there. He would keep their secrets because he wouldn’t be able not to.
“It is not his silence that we are worried about,” Gregovitch added.
“Then say it,” the Beast said, because he needed to know what they, his people, were all thinking, and that was Gregovitch’s role. He was second in their community, would be Alpha if anything happened to him, though the Beast knew that Gregovitch neither desired, nor coveted, such a role. He was far too fond of a good time to deal with the responsibility.
“It was expected that you would take a mate long before now,” Gregovitch said slowly.
The unspoken words between them could be unspoken no more, and so the Beast said them, and watched as his brother nodded. “A mate from one of our cities.”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “Tobias is not that mate.”
“You cannot breed with him,” Gregovitch said.
The Beast shrugged, because this was something he had considered since realizing exactly who Tobias was.
My given mate.
“It does not always have to be about that,” he said. “We do not have a system of succession, Gregovitch, you know that. I lead because I am the Alpha. My child might not be.”
Gregovitch nodded slowly, conceding that point. “Still, it was expected that you would take a mate from your own people though. A female perhaps?”
“I do not want a female mate,” the Beast said. “You know I am not attracted to females.”
Gregovitch laughed. “You’re a fool to dismiss half of the world from your bed.”
“I have no choice in it,” the Beast said. “They simply do not attract me.”
He closed his eyes briefly as he recalled exactly what did attract him. Tobias’ blue eyes, his golden hair, his corded muscles. He was beautiful to the Beast in a way that he had never expected his mate to be. Up until meeting the human the Beast had not given much thought to what his mate might look like. He had known it wasn’t likely to be anyone from his own underground city because he would have recognized them before now, and so had assumed it would simply be one from the other cities. There were hundreds scattered around the world, and the Beast was required to visit the ones in his country from time to time, just as the other Alphas were required to visit his.
But a human?
The Beast had never expected that.
And yet he had known, the moment he had locked eyes with Tobias, that the human was his. It was undeniable.
“I understand,” Gregovitch said after a moment. “The mate bond is not something we have a choice over. But it is hard for your people. If your mate, your male mate, were from below ground, your people would find this easier. The females who had their eye on the position of your mate would mourn their lost chance, but they would understand and be happy for you.”
The Beast snapped his eyes open. “And yet Tobias is not from here.”
Gregovitch nodded. “Precisely. He is a complication. An outsider mated to our Alpha? It doesn’t sit right with people.”
“He is not the first outsider to join our family.”
“He will be the first that has mated to an Alpha.”
“So surely they should be pleased I let him go.”
Gregovitch shrugged. “They probably would be…if you hadn’t claimed him.”
“I could not resist,” the Beast said and he couldn’t help but remember the moment he had sunk his teeth into Tobias’ soft skin. His human had been sated below him, his body still trembling from his orgasm. The Beast had not been able to stop himself from doing what was perfectly natural.
Claiming his mate.
He turned and locked eyes with his brother. “There was never any chance of not claiming him,” he said. “He is my mate. Outsider or not.”
“Then why isn’t he here?” Gregovitch demanded. “That is what your people are wondering. If this human really is yours, if you are happy about that fact, why isn’t he here with you, being claimed over and over? Why aren’t you preparing him for what is to come?”
The Beast shifted, because there was much he was willing to share with his brother, there always had been, Gregovitch was his confidante, but this...
“Brother?” Gregovitch said, his voice softening. “Why let him go?”
“I am loath to admit it,” the Beast whispered. “Even to myself.”
“Admit it to me.”
And so the Beast took a deep breath and gave voice to the thoughts that had been plaguing him for weeks. “I did not want to force him to stay. I wanted him to choose to do so.”
“Choose?” Gregovitch said, as if he had never heard the word.
The Beast nodded. “Yes.”
Silence, and then, “You did not give him enough time to do that! He was here for less than twenty-four hours.”
“I thought that would be enough,” the Beast grated. “I thought he would feel the connection as I did.”
“Brother…” Gregovitch sighed. “If he was one of us he would have, but he is not, he is human.”
“I know.”
“You were planning to wait him out? Hoping he would choose to return to you?”
The words sounded so odd coming from his brother’s mouth, but that was exactly what the Beast had planned. To give Tobias time, to wait until he wanted to return, until his craving was such that he would not be able to resist…
“Yes,” the Beast admitted. “If not immediately then…”
“You thought he would return once the changes began?”
“Yes.”
Gregovitch sighed. “Only he has not.” A pause and then, “He is stubborn.”
“He is resisting it,” the Beast snapped. “Resisting my call.”
“Then there is no choice in the matter,” Gregovitch said. “You must go to him. The turning is going to happen. If you are not there when it does…”
“He will be unable to control it,” the Beast said. “Unable to understand it.”
“He is going to become one of us,” Gregovitch said. “Whether he wants to or not, whether he resists it or not, and if this male really is your mate, if you want your people to accept him…”
“Then I have to bring him home,” the Beast said, and he knew then that Gregovitch was right, had known it for some days but had been unwilling to admit it. Fact was, there could be no more waiting around, hoping that Tobias would see sense, that the mate bond would be enough to override whatever else he was feeling. The Beast would have to take charge of this situation, and he had to do so immediately.
He was going to have to force his mate to submit.
Chapter Three
Tobias watched, eyes wide, as Layla sat down to the left of him. She chose a part of the cliff that was in no way flat or smooth, one that Tobias had avoided these past weeks because granite or not, it looked like it might crumble given the slightest provocation. She didn’t seem to notice though, or maybe she didn’t c
are, because she lowered herself with graceful movements, her legs dangling over the cliff in no time, her robes being whipped into a frenzy by the wind.
“Layla?” he said, and it was part greeting, part question.
She tilted her head and shot him a smile. As she did so Tobias had to draw in a shaky breath, because those eyes…they were almost a perfect yellow, and he hadn’t seen eyes like that since he had left the underground city. Down there they all had the same yellow eyes, though Tobias had no idea why, and when he’d asked the Beast he’d been brushed off with an answer that, at the time, had been completely unsatisfying, but then he’d been so confused by everything that he hadn’t bothered to push. Much of what had happened below ground had been like that, and given the chance, there were many things that Tobias would change in hindsight...
“Who else?” Layla asked.
Tobias looked around, chiefly to ensure that she was alone. He didn’t much fancy getting into another fight with her fiancé, though, in truth, Tobias suspected he’d have more of a chance against him now than he did back then. If he felt stronger then surely it followed that he was stronger? Tobias thought as much, but perhaps it was better he not try it out.
“What are you doing here?” he asked once he was sure that her fiancé was nowhere in sight.
She shrugged. “I often leave the underground city. I get…restless.”
“Restless?” he asked, the disbelief in his voice obvious to the both of them. “Last time you escaped I was knocked unconscious. I thought I was rescuing you.”
She laughed so softly that Tobias wasn’t even entirely that sure she had. “Rescuing me?” she asked. “That’s sweet. Wrong. But sweet.”
“If you hadn’t been waiting outside my apartment…” He paused. “I would never have ended up below ground.”
“I know,” she said. “And I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean to involve you in any of this. It was simply unavoidable. Don’t worry though,” she added. “Karl won’t come after me this time. I’ve told him that if he wants to keep me he has to let me go now and then. I…” She paused. “I need to come home now and then.”
“Home?”
Layla nodded, and as she did so, her yellow eyes were suddenly filled with something that looked a lot like pain. It was that which stopped Tobias from demanding to know why she had even been in his building. Why she had caused a situation that had changed his entire fucking life.
“I thought you knew that I was originally an outsider?” she said slowly. “That I wasn’t born below the ground. I used to live up here, you know, in the valley.” She gestured to her left, where the town proper sat.
“You lived here?” Tobias asked, realizing that Layla had answered one of his questions without even realizing. “Is that why you were in my building that night? You were trying to come home?”
She nodded. “An exit comes out up here, from one of the tunnels. It was supposed to be sealed, but I found a way around it. It’s the easiest way out.” She waved a hand at the view in front of them. “Besides I like it up here. I sat in your spot so many times, watching the waves, wandering what else was out there beyond this little town.”
“How long ago?” he asked, and they both knew what he meant.
She frowned. “Just a couple of years.”
“And your family?”
She laughed then, and it was the first hint of pleasure he had heard from her. “I never really had one. I drifted here from somewhere else. Ended up here by chance more than anything else. Or at least that was what I thought.” She sighed. “It’s different now of course. I have so much family. So many of them. And there is no drifting for me anymore.”
“How did you end up down there?” Tobias asked.
She shook her head. “I’m not allowed to talk about that. He has forbidden it.”
“He?” the word left Tobias’ lips on little more than a whisper, because he knew who she meant immediately, almost like he had been waiting for her to say it.
“You know who,” she said.
The Beast, and suddenly Tobias’ heart was racing in a way that he was painfully familiar with. “Does he know you’re up here?”
She nodded. “Probably. I swear sometimes he knows everything that happens both below and above. It’s why Karl always manages to find me. Well, that and the fact that I tend to end up back here every time I go wandering.”
Hadn’t Tobias thought the very same thing? That the Beast always seemed to know what was happening, what he was thinking, how he was going to react? Tobias shivered, because it hadn’t occurred to him up until now, but Layla was the first contact he’d had with the underground world, and by extension the Beast, since he’d left. “What did he—”
“Say about you?” Layla shook her head. “Nothing.”
Disappointment washed through Tobias, and it was so intense that he sucked in a shocked breath. “Nothing?”
“But then he wouldn’t,” Layla said. “Not to me. Probably not to anyone.”
“But…” Tobias was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to ask her for more details.
How was the Beast?
How had he seemed?
What was he doing?
The questions filled him, and along with them a desperate desire to know the answers. And in that moment it occurred to Tobias all over again how odd this feeling he had for the Beast was. Tobias had never been infatuated before, never been in love, but he was sure that this, an all-consuming feeling, was not normal. The way he felt for the Beast, the way he was constantly there in his thoughts, it wasn’t right, it didn’t make sense, and Tobias feared there was more to it than he realized.
He opened his mouth to ask the questions that plagued him, but snapped it shut a moment later. Hadn’t he promised himself that he wouldn’t do this? That he would resist whatever plan the Beast had in mind for him? Resist whatever transformation his body was going through? Because whatever it was, it was something the Beast had caused, it had to be, and it was something that Tobias had not consented to. Layla being here did not change anything, and he had to remember that.
He had to stay strong!
Quickly, and because he didn’t know what else to do to dislodge the combined disappointment and curiosity burning in his gut, Tobias changed the subject. “So you were here because this used to be your home,” he said. “Do you still see this as your home? Even though you’re down there now?”
“It’s complicated,” Layla said slowly. “Because like you I did not have a choice as to whether I wanted to be taken below.” She paused. “But unlike you I also didn’t have the choice to leave, not for a long time.”
It was as Tobias had suspected, but he still said the words. “They abducted you.”
She shrugged. “They don’t see it like that.”
“But that’s what it is.”
Another shrug. “I guess.”
“And now?”
“It’s my home,” she said. “As much as up here ever was. The option to leave forever, to return to a normal life is gone.”
A normal life…
With those words Layla opened the door to all the other questions Tobias wanted to ask, and yet he paused. Why? He wasn’t sure. Maybe because part of him, the part that it seemed Layla was coming up here to try to find, didn’t want to know the answers. Almost like if he didn’t know the truth he would be able to ignore it, to resist it even. And once again, like the Beast had done so many times, Layla seemed to know what he was thinking.
“I can’t answer your questions,” she said.
“Why?”
She gave him a sad smile. “It’s forbidden.”
“Forbidden?” Tobias shook his head, something like anger sparking in his gut then. Whatever the Beast had done to him, whatever changes he was going through, they were happening quickly, increasing with each passing day, and he knew, somewhere deep down, Tobias knew that they would reach crisis point. He just didn’t know what he was going to do when they did.
&
nbsp; “You have to go back,” Layla said.
He clenched his fists, the anger combining with something else entirely now. It might have been fear, but it could just have easily have been excitement. “I can’t do that.”
She sighed, the small noise caught by the wind. “You know there’s no choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” Tobias said.
“Not in this,” she said. “Believe me if there was I would have found it by now.” A pause and then, “Come home, Tobias. Come home.”
Chapter Four
The building where Tobias lived was one that the Beast had visited many times in the past. Years ago it had belonged to his people, had in fact been one of their main exits from the underground city. But over time the tunnel that had led to it had become unsafe, and so in the early days of his leadership, the Beast had ordered it to be sealed off. He still knew the way through though. The Alpha of a city always knew the old ways, and it hadn’t taken much to allow a small opening through and up.
The tunnel itself led to the basement of Tobias’ building, and the Beast owned that apartment, kept it in case he needed to be above ground for any prolonged period of time. A necessity he had never had to utilize. In fact, the Beast couldn’t remember such a situation occurring in a very long time. The people of this town had absolutely no inkling that another species entirely lived under and around them. They had no idea that the stuff of fairytales lived so close by. The Beast took a great deal of satisfaction in that fact. His people belonged underground. It was their way. And they would never consider living any differently. Why would they? They had existed alongside the humans, without their knowledge, for many thousands of years. And even now, as modern technology moved apace, they were able to remain hidden.
They always would.
And Tobias is part of that now.
The Beast nodded slowly to himself as he closed the door of his basement apartment behind him and made his way into the lobby of the building. As he did so he couldn’t help but notice the row of mail boxes, and Tobias’ name on one of them. It was odd now, to consider the fact that his mate had been so close all along. The hand of fate was at play in some way. The Beast could feel its light touch along his spine. There was no denying the nudge it was giving him. He’d known that through all the weeks he had kept himself below ground, waiting for Tobias to find his way back. The fact that he hadn’t? The Beast wasn’t quite ready to consider what that might mean.
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