All Chapters of The Beast's Slave: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

River breaks the water’s surface with a strangling gasp.A hot burning sensation spreads along the bridge of her nose and head, as she had mistakenly inhaled a lungful of water once they plunged into the freezing water. The impact had stolen her breath, and she reflexively released Hadrius.River coughs violently while her arms flail about, reaching for any sort of anchor and flat ground. There is none. Dark water rolls over her face and the roaring waterfall begins to dim as the black serpentine river slowly meanders further from the foaming base.She struggles to swim, but does not know how, and resorts to maintaining a rather pitiful doggy paddle that still periodically submerges her beneath the icy waters.Something hard wraps around her waist from behind and she gasps again, reflexively swallowing a bellyful of water. The arm pulls her back against a chest as they break the water’s surface again, this time more steadily and she’s he

Thump.Thump.Thump.The periodic pounding against the bed’s headboard is what stirs River from her sickly state of slumber. With a struggle, she carefully peels her fever laden eyes open and blinks up at the unfamiliar darkened ceiling. Consciousness ebbs into her body at an unhurried state - she feels the softness beneath her, a light sheet cast over her clothed torso, and a warm sodden cloth placed on her forehead.Thump.Thump.Thump.Her eyes sweep sideways, and she stretches a hand out, feeling the cold empty spaces all around. The bed is by far the largest she had ever been on, seemingly endless and could fit six people quite comfortably. The thumping does not stop, and her cracked lips tug downwards at the corner in mild vexation at being disrupted.Her body feels weak as she begins to rise, feet hovering tentatively over the carpeted floor. It sinks with a soft sigh, and she groans in turn, rising to her feet and

River is in agony.The fever had broken during the night, yet as her sickness abated, the burning sensation along her neck increased tenfold. She is unable to sleep throughout the night, lying stiffly on her back, staring fixed at the ceiling.Her jaw aches terribly. Hadrius had been firm and insistent on her marking him despite possessing blunt, mundane teeth. Unlike his deadly canines, she could barely pierce his skin — and her irritation only grew as he instructed her on how to properly bite him. The lecture unnerved her for it seemed to border cannibalism.She bit. She bit again. And when that failed, she growled and chewed on his shoulder, trying to rip at his skin like it was a piece of dried jerky.In the end, she had successfully marked him - if marking could be considered a brutal blue-purple colour with vague dental indents.By the time dawn arrived, River was fatigued and cranky.“The Alpha and council will be awaiting

They did not speak to each other for three days.River spends them purposefully avoiding the warlord after her rather dogged outburst, and in hindsight, she does feel shame for hitting the woman as the pillow was intended for the smug man.Avoiding him was not difficult as his schedule was demanding of the majority of his time.Being the Alpha’s Beta, Hadrius spends the majority of daylight in the palace; at meetings discussing politics; plotting the expansion of boundaries, financial terms, war, the next annual raid; and most importantly, the hellhounds that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere. Now threatening their borders.Though he is busy, Hadrius had made sure she was just as active - having assigned her four tutors which she met at 8 AM for Latin, calculus, geography and history - all of which she loathed with a burning passion but could not decline.Perhaps this was his silent way of punishing her for disrupting his moment.It

When Hadrius wakes, it is not the soft pleasant fluttering of drooping eyelids, neither is it a peaceful rousing that pulls from slumber but rather, a violent upright startled, his fingertips aching, hot as embers from a bonfire, with the visibility of wolf claws that had begun to drop during the nightmare. His bare torso glows with perspiration, large chest heaving upwards, darkened hair sleek against his temples and nape of his neck.He blinks into the semi-light room, slants of golden bands slipping from partially drawn curtains. For a moment, he is disoriented and slightly frustrated, heart still thundering from the nightmare of hellhounds of the hooded cloak that reaches for him. But then something shifts beside him- his eyes cut sideways as something brushes his calf, an incoherent murmur from the girl as she rolls over, clearly undisturbed by his inhuman ways.Hadrius watches her a moment, the soft curve of her cheek, clustered freckles behind her eye shaded by