The Beast: A Wicked Villains Novel

by Katee Robert

  Gaeton shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

  I give a choked laugh. “Funny, coming from you.” I glance at Beast. “Either of you. What happens the next time there’s a fight and you’re needed? You’re generals. Danger comes with the territory. I—” I wish I could keep them safe, could guarantee that they’ll always come home to me without injury. I’ve grown up this world. I know it for a lie. “I will not stand in your way or prevent you from doing what you need to do. I need you to give me the same respect.”

  Beast’s hands land on my hips and he leans against my back. “I think you can understand why we’re having trouble with this.”

  Of course I can. This life isn’t easy under the best of circumstances and this hardly qualifies. I release a shuddering breath and relax back into him. “I know. But you understand why I have to do this.” Anything to protect my family. Anything. I lost my father. I can’t lose anyone else. I won’t.

  Gaeton sighs, his shoulders dropping. “Yeah, we get it.” He meets Beast’s gaze over my shoulder. “Who goes with her?”

  “You do.” He doesn’t hesitate. “I’ll stay here and help ensure Ursa keeps her word. Isabelle, can you get in contact with Zurielle and set up a meeting or however you want to go about it? Once we have a time frame, we can get the finer details down.”

  And, just like that, they shift gears from arguing with me to spending their energy on ensuring this goes off without a hitch. I should be relieved. If Ursa keeps her word, it means we avoid the threatening war. It means I keep the people I care about safe for a little while longer.

  It means I throw Zurielle Rosi under the bus to save myself.

  No one questions that part. I shouldn’t, either. If there’s a choice between this girl I barely know and my family, I will choose my family every time. I know what my father would say, what he would do. Family first. Always. It’s one of the few rules I’ve always followed. This just doesn’t feel right.

  “This is wrong.” I don’t realize I’m going to speak until both my men look at me. “We shouldn’t have agreed to this.”

  “Isabelle—”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know if Zurielle trusts me, but she’s naïve and sheltered, and she hates it. She’s not going to look for the poison in this offer. She’s going to jump at it with both hands.” I don’t have to know her well to know that. I might not have always loved living under my father’s rules, but Zurielle hates it. I understand her feelings in a way only a youngest daughter can. “She’s going to take Ursa’s deal.”

  “That’s her choice.” Beast frowns. “She gets a choice, which is a better offer than I was expecting.”

  It’s Gaeton who seems to understand. He crouches down in front of me. “You can’t save everyone, Isabelle. Sometimes you have to choose who’s worth your blood and sacrifice, and let the other pieces fall where they may.”

  “She’s so young, Gaeton.” I don’t know why I’m still arguing this. Because it could have been me a few years ago? “She’s like twenty-one. Maybe twenty-two. She doesn’t know enough to be afraid.”

  He takes my hands, his dark eyes serious. “If you want to cross Ursa, say the word. We’ll figure out a different way.”

  They would. They might question me, but they’ll adjust our course and shift to figuring out how to neutralize the threat Ursa offers. If we go that route, people will die. Maybe Ursa. Maybe one of the men I love. When it’s laid out like that, it seems a simple choice.

  Then why do I feel like I’m selling my soul?

  “Will she keep her word?”

  Gaeton’s gaze doesn’t leave my face. “Likely. No matter what game she’s playing, Olympus will mobilize if the Thirteen think for a second that we’re snatching their people off the street and harming them. Hercules came of his own choice and no one died in the conflict with Zeus. Ursa’s too smart to stir that hornet’s nest. We can’t guarantee anything, but I’d bet on her pulling some manipulative shit that’s designed to fuck with Triton but doesn’t include murder.”

  I look up at Beast. “Do you agree?” I’m looking for an excuse, and I know it. They know it, too.

  He cups my chin. “Are you looking for permission or forgiveness?”

  Just like that, I’m trying not to cry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I close my eyes for a long moment and fight for control. “This is dramatic, and I’m sorry. I know every single member of my family has had to make hard calls at one point or another and they all put us first. I know you two have done the same. This isn’t even that hard of a call. I don’t know why I’m struggling.”

  “Because it’s your first.” Beast’s hand is so devastatingly gentle on my face. “For better or worse, Orsino kept you away from so much of what it takes to maintain the safety of the people in this territory. There will be other decisions like this in the future, and they’ll be more complicated and won’t always have a happy ending. It’s the way our world works.”

  I know that. I truly do know that.

  “I’m sorry.” I sigh and open my eyes. “I’m ready.”

  Gaeton pulls me to my feet and envelops me in a hug. A breath later, Beast is pressed against my back, the weight of them steadying me just as much as their words did. Gaeton kisses the top of my head. “We’ll be in and out and back to Carver City by morning.”

  We’re doing this. I know we’re doing it.

  I just hope I find some peace about it.

  Zurielle Rosi meets us in a tiny bar in a part of Olympus I’ve never been to. It’s enough to have Gaeton on full alert, but there’s no trouble as we slip through the door and make our way to the table in the back. It’s bathed in shadows, but I make out the slim form of Zurielle. She’s a pretty Vietnamese woman with long dark red hair, and she looks both terrified and excited when she sees me. “Isabelle.”

  I slide into the chair across from her and feel Gaeton take a position at my back. It’s not exactly unobtrusive, but no one around us is paying the smallest bit of attention. “Hi, Zuri.”

  “I almost didn’t believe it when I got your text.” She glances at Gaeton. “I see you’ve worked things out.”

  “Yeah, it’s a little more complicated than that, but we have.” There’s no use stalling. I lean forward and lower my voice. “I have a message for you.”

  She frowns. “That’s what you said, but you were really vague before.”

  I still don’t know why Ursa wants me to be here instead of just sending a text with the message, but the woman has her reasons and I’ve made my decision. I glance around the room. “You know who Ursa is?”

  She flinches. “The Sea Witch? Yes, I know who she is.”

  “She told me to tell you…” It takes me a few seconds to get myself together. “She knows where Alaric is, and she’s willing to help reunite you.”

  The hope in Zurielle’s brown eyes make me feel like a monster. She grabs my hands, gripping me tightly enough that I have to fight back a wince. “She can reunite us?”

  Even though I should leave it at that, I can’t help myself. It’s too big a coincidence for me to have met an Alaric at the Underworld and to have the same name thrown around by Ursa and Zurielle. “He’s a tall guy, right? White, handsome, dark hair and blue eyes?”

  “Yes, that’s him.”

  I can feel Gaeton’s tension at my back, but I’ve gone too far to turn away now. “Zuri, he’s in the Underworld. You don’t need Ursa to find him.”

  “I know where he is, Isabelle. It’s not the where that’s the problem.” She lets out a long exhale. “Thank you for delivering the message.”

  “Don’t thank me. Not if you’re going to play right into her hands.”

  She gives me a sad smile. “Some people are worth the risk.”

  I can’t claim that’s a lie without being the worst kind of hypocrite. “Please be careful.”

  “Thank you for delivering the message,” she repeats. She gives my hands one last squeeze and rises. “And you be careful leaving t
own tonight. There are strange things going on in Olympus.”

  Before I can decipher that, she’s gone, hurrying out the door and into the night. I twist and look up at Gaeton. “Did I just make a mistake?”

  “No.” He’s not looking at me, though. He’s studying the room as if assassins will burst from the walls at any moment. “You delivered a message and now she’s going to make a choice.”

  “A choice that Ursa seems to have carefully orchestrated.”

  “Zurielle is smart enough to see the strings. If she chooses to ignore them, that’s her choice, Isabelle. You have to let her make it.”

  “What if she makes the wrong one?”

  He pulls me to my feet, his expression serious. “Sometimes shitty things have to happen to keep our people safe, love. It’s the burden your father never wanted you to have.” He looks around again. “Do you want to leave?”

  For a second, I think he’s talking about the bar, but then his true meaning penetrates. “You mean leave Carver City?”

  “I don’t have to talk to Beast to know he’s with me in this. We’ll follow you wherever you need to be. Whether that’s Carver City or somewhere else.”

  As if it’s just that easy.

  Looking up at him, I realize that for Gaeton it is that easy. He would walk away from Carver City without a backward glance if I asked it of him. The knowledge leaves me dizzy. “I—” I take a breath and stop. He’s making a serious offer. I have to do it the honor of actually considering it.

  The freedom of leaving the city tempts me. I’d have to be dead for it not to tempt me.

  But walking away means leaving my sisters behind. Worse, it means leaving them vulnerable because I’d be taking Beast and Gaeton with me. If I stay, though, I can no longer look to the stars and hope for something different. If I choose to stay, I have to choose to be part of it.

  I’ve already made my choice. I made it the second I took Ursa’s deal.

  It might take some time to come fully to terms with what that means, with what it will cost, but my choice is made. I go on my tiptoes and kiss him. “Take me home. Our Beast is waiting for us.”

  He studies me for a long moment and then nods. “Let’s go.”

  We slip out of Olympus as smoothly as we slipped in. After all, no one is looking for us. I don’t know how long it will take for the guilt to fade. Maybe it never will. Maybe that’s just a burden I’ll have to bear, the knowledge that my family and my men will always outweigh any allegiance I have for others. They come first. They will always come first. My father’s voice seems to whisper to me in the back of my mind.

  Family first. Always.

  Chapter 30

  Gaeton

  I’ve never had a homecoming. Over the years, missions and errands might take me away from Carver City, but I’d return with as little fanfare as when I left. When Isabelle and I were together before, I didn’t want to worry her, so most of the time I didn’t tell her what my orders were.

  We take the back door into the house, and I follow Isabelle down the hall and up the stairs to the family wing. She steps through a door to a small living room and that’s where we find Beast. He’s pacing, his phone in his hand, and the look on his face when he turns around and sees us …

  Fuck.

  Yeah, I love this guy.

  I can’t doubt that he loves us, too. Not anymore.

  He crosses to us and pulls Isabelle into his arms and then snags the back of my neck and tows me down for a quick, thorough kiss. “Problems?”

  “No. It went off without a hitch.”

  He exhales and some of the tension leaves his body. “Good.” Beast leans back and looks down at Isabelle. “You okay?”

  Her smile wobbles a little. “I will be.”

  “Hard call to make.”

  “I didn’t think it’d be that hard.” She gives him a hard hug. “Let’s go to bed. I’m exhausted.”

  No question that we’re joining her. We follow her though the halls to her room. The family suites are situated in such a way that each has their own hall to give an illusion of privacy. Walking into Isabelle’s room after so long apart from her is a trip. It looks exactly the same.

  That stops me short.

  It’s not the huge bed that she bought when we started spending the night together. Or even the complete lack of change in the other furniture. It’s the photos that are scattered across every available surface. Those photographs used to aggravate the hell out of me. There were pictures of me and her next to ones of her and Beast, a mixture that never failed to remind me that I wasn’t enough for her.

  Now? Now, they feel right as fuck.

  I would have thought they’d change after we broke up, that she’d put away any evidence of us. I glance at her. “You didn’t take the photos down.”

  “I did.” She tugs at her dress, staring at the pictures. “I put them back up this afternoon while I was waiting for dinner.” She lifts her hands and lets them drop. “I missed you two so much when I put them away. But even without the pictures serving as a constant reminder, I still had the memories.”

  “You have more than memories now,” I say

  Her smile is still a little wobbly. “It’s going to take some time for that to really sink it. It still feels too good to be true.”

  Beast sits on the edge of the bed, his blue eyes watchful. “We should probably iron out some logistics before moving forward.”

  “We sleep together.” I don’t mean to say it aloud, but the certainty settles in my chest. “Wherever we sleep, we do it together.”

  He nods. “I’m good with that.”

  “I …” Isabelle moves to sit next to Beast on the bed and looks at me. “I’ll always have my family suite, but I don’t have a strong preference to where we end up.”

  As tempting as it is to put forth another option, there’s something to be said for staying here. I look around the room. Even with all Isabelle’s stuff, there’s plenty of space for more. “Things are going to be touch and go for a little bit. Staying here for the time being isn’t a bad idea.”

  “Agreed.” Beast nods. “But keep your place. If we need some space, can’t hurt to have that as backup.”

  I look at both of them and grin. “Look at us, communicating.”

  “What a novel thought.” Isabelle shakes her head. “I guess we’ll just … talk through every issue as it arises?”

  “That is what relationships entail.” I walk to the edge of the bed and lean down to kiss her and then over to kiss Beast as well. “Let’s go to bed.”

  We strip slowly. I don’t know about them, but the events of the last few days are catching up with me. We haven’t exactly had much in the way of sleep since this started, and I’m fucking exhausted. We end up in Isabelle’s bed with her between us, my leg hitched over both her and Beast, his hands alternating between caressing her side and mine.

  For the first time in a very long time, I don’t question this. We’ve barely passed the first hurdle, but we have passed it. Isabelle’s family. Ursa. The world will throw more challenges our way, but we’ve met these two together and come through the other side. We’ll meet the rest that way as well.

  I move Isabelle’s hair off her neck and press a kiss to her throat. “Marry me.” I look up and meet Beast’s intent gaze. “Both of you.”

  Isabelle gives a hiccupping little laugh. “That’s not legal.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about legal. I give a fuck about what we want.”

  Beast smooths his hand down my side and transfers his attention to her. “I don’t need a wedding. I never did. Gaeton does. What do you need?”

  She’s so still, I have to concentrate to feel her breathing. Finally, she says, “I … At one point marriage felt like something that was just another kind of trap, but not too long ago I thought about walking down the aisle to both of you. I liked the idea of it. A lot.”

  Beast smiles. A real smile, not his cold little tease of one. The motherfucker grins li
ke he can’t contain his happiness. “I have a few ideas about rings.”

  I narrow my eyes. “You just said you don’t need a wedding.”

  “Need has nothing to do with want. I’m not a fool, Gaeton. I want you two locked down in every way you’ll allow. That includes a wedding, and it sure as fuck includes my ring on both of your fingers.”

  “You sneaky bastard.”

  He shrugs, completely unrepentant. “I want what I want.” Something he’s said before, but I’m yet again amazed by his willingness to line up the dominoes and tip them over to accomplish the goal he has in mind. He grins at me. “Yes, Gaeton. I’ll marry you.”

  Isabelle turns in my arms until she can lean back and see my face. I know I’m moving too fast, but is it really too fast? I’ve been in love with this woman for years. My feelings for Beast are newer, but I’ve trusted him with my life for as long as I’ve loved Isabelle. Longer, even. We have the foundation. We’ve always had the foundation. We just required the right inciting event to get us there.

  She runs her hands up my chest. “Last time you proposed, I didn’t have the answer you needed.”

  The memory feels so much fainter now, like something out of a dream. It doesn’t sting like it used to. “We weren’t whole then.” I grab Beast’s hand and press a kiss to his scarred knuckles. “We are now.”

  She nibbles on her bottom lip. “I want us forever. All three of us. I want … I want the wedding. I want to say yes to both of you.” Her eyes shine and her smile trembles. “So … Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.” She twists to look at Beast. “And yes, I’ll marry you. We might be missing the marriage license, but I don’t care about that.”

  “Me, either.” I grin. “How about tomorrow?”

  This earns me a little gasp that I want to eat right up. Isabelle raises her brows. “If you think for a second that my sisters wouldn’t hunt us down, hog-tie us, and then build a dungeon to throw us in if we snuck off to get married—”