All Chapters of Beauty and the Alpha Beast: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

*Bexley*A pair of eyes stares at me from between two large trees in the middle of the dense forest behind our house. I stare right back, squinting through my binoculars to try to get a better look. I’ve never seen a female white-tail quite so large. I wish I could get a little closer so I could see her markings more clearly, but she’s hidden well behind the leaves of the trees, and it’s clear she’s spotted me. If I make one wrong move, she’s likely to bolt away, leaving me standing here staring at nothing but dense foliage. Still, I’m not seeing much at this angle, so perhaps I should hazard moving a little nearer.Carefully, I inch forward, doing my best not to make a sound. I avoid the crunchy leaf piles that litter the ground. It’s nearly winter; we should be having our first snow soon. Then, it will be easier to move undetected, but for now, I have to be careful.I slide to my right, leaning up a bit onto my toes, and I can almost see her back clearly when I hear the crackle of a

*Bexley*The idea that something is important flutters behind my closed eyelids as I lie in my bed, trying to pull my entire brain out of sleep. It’s a losing battle. All I want to do is roll over and fall back into a peaceful slumber.But that nagging feeling that I have something I need to do won’t allow me to, and a few seconds later, I sit up in bed and push my blankets down to my waist.It’s my birthday.Not only that, but it’s my twenty-first birthday.It’s my twenty-first birthday, and I now live in some crazy kingdom where the king sometimes sends out letters to girls on their twenty-first birthday summoning them to the castle so he can… well, no one knows exactly what he does with them, but none of the villagers approve of it or thinks it’s proper.I take a deep breath and swing my feet out of bed. The wooden floor is a bit chilly, but I don’t pause to put on my slippers. Instead, I shuffle into the bathroom, do my business, and throw on a clean dress. I run a brush over my t

*Bexley* “My father died in an accident when I was quite young,” I begin. “Mother says it happened very quickly. He was only twenty-three.”“I’m sorry for your loss. Do you know what happened?”Again, I shake my head. “No. Mother doesn’t like to talk about it. I only know it happened deep in the woods.”“Interesting.” He strokes his chin leaving me to ponder what’s so interesting about that. “We are beginning to climb the hill to the castle now. Would you like for me to open the curtain so you can see the forest?’“Yes! I’d love that.” My enthusiasm would be embarrassing if I didn’t feel so comfortable with him.Ellison laughs and pulls the curtain back on both side of the carriage. I oscillate between each of them, doing my best to peer through the darkness into the trees. The road is narrow enough that tree branches occasionally scrape the top. We roll over some deep ruts that jar me out of my seat, and one of them makes me bump my nose on the window.“Are you all right?” he asks.

*Canaan* I’m sitting in my room, staring at the wall, sipping a glass of wine when the soft knock on my door comes. It’s later than usual. Normally, entertaining these women at the evening meal only takes an hour or so, but tonight, it’s been nearly two hours since Ellison escorted Bexley away from me.I shouldn’t be too surprised. She is interesting and lovely. Who wouldn’t want to speak to her?“Come in.” I take another sip and wait for Ellison, my Beta, to enter the room. He closes the door behind him and slips into the darkness, taking a seat across from me. It takes him a moment to speak. All he asks is, “Well?”Normally, he says something like, “We’ll try again. Another girl from such-and-such is turning twenty-one the day after tomorrow,” but even he knows there’s something different with this one.Of course, that may be due to the fact t

*Bexley* I follow Ellison down the corridor toward the dark part of the castle. He’s not holding my arm like he was the night before, and he’s walking so fast, I can barely keep up. About half an hour after I made my demands, he left the room and then came back to tell me that King Canaan was willing to meet with me. Barely breathing, I do my best to tamper down my nerves. My lack of oxygen has little to do with how fast I’m walking and everything to do with seeing the king again. A thrumming in my heart has me undulating between rushing to keep up and slowing down and fading into the walls. Would it be possible for me to ditch Ellison and find the nearest exit? Could I run all the way back home from here? I doubt it, but if the king is as scary today as he was last night, I might not be able to control myself.We reach the office door, but Ellison doesn’t knock on it right away. Instead, he waits for me to reach him a