Chapter 25: Chapter 25

REYNA

I pressed my body to the bars, scraping my nipples against them. That little friction surprised me with how good it felt.

“Come, Kitten, let me kiss you.”

How? He was locked in the cell. There was no way I could squeeze through the bars. ~Does he really want me? Or does he just want to kill me when I’m close enough?~ I thought.

That thought sobered me up and reminded me of who and what he was, and who I was. He was a beast and I was a human woman.

This, whatever this was, it couldn’t happen. Cassandra would never let it happen.

I turned abruptly. In my haste to leave before I did something I couldn’t take back, the food I had stolen for him fell to the ground.

I picked up the meat I’d wrapped in a cloth and threw it closer to him, for easy access.

He got down and picked up the cloth. I knew that he already knew what it was without uncovering the wrap.

“You brought me food?” His gaze was intense, like me bringing him meat was special or something meaningful.

I didn’t know beast cultures, so I couldn’t say. His eyes, though, made me tingly.

“Why?”

Why what? I knew what he was asking—why would I feed him when he was my enemy?

“Because I don’t want you to starve and then try to eat me when I come to see you again.”

He smiled. My breath hitched, my heart just stopped for a few seconds, then began to beat again.

It was a beautiful smile that reached his glowing eyes and exposed all his sparkling white teeth and fangs. He looked even more beautiful, with all that glowing light around him—he looked so majestic.

Something entirely out of this world.

“You’ll come see me again?”

I turned and started walking away, my stomach fluttering.

“Maybe,” I replied, hiding my smile.

His deep growl, which made me shiver, was the last thing I heard before I made my way back to the castle.

I walked through the servant quarters, into the kitchen, took a plate with two muffins from the pantry, and climbed up the stairs. The muffins were just an excuse for why I was still awake at midnight if anyone asked.

I’d just say I was hungry, so I went to get a muffin. Fortunately for me, nobody was around to stop and question me.

I stepped into my room, exhaling in relief that I’d made it back safely.

“Where the hell have you been sneaking off to, Reyna?” Nana’s angry voice startled me, and I squeaked.

Guess I spoke too soon.

“Oh my God, Nana, you startled me,” I said guiltily, clutching my chest.

Nana was standing in the corner, which was why I didn’t notice her at first. Her arms were folded on her voluptuous bosom, her eyes narrowed, waiting for an explanation that wasn’t forthcoming, unfortunately.

While my nana was my friend and ally, she was also like a mother to me. If she knew that I had been sneaking off, as she so aptly put it, to see the beast—

I would be done for. She was not only going to scold me, she might possibly tell Cassandra.

She would do it thinking she was protecting me. So I lied.

“I went into the village. I didn’t want to get you into more trouble, so I went alone.”

“So you weren’t up to some mischief but went to see the Jennas?” she asked suspiciously.

“Yes, exactly. I went to see Emma and forgot the time, but she went to bed, so I decided to come home.”

“What about last night and the day before?”

I turned away, wincing.

“I stayed at the sisterhood quarters and read some books,” I said, smiling innocently, even as she scrutinized me with narrowed, unblinking eyes, trying to see if I was telling the truth.

“I hope you are telling me the truth, Rey. I’m worried one of these days you’re going to get in trouble, and you know the queen won’t be lenient if she finds out you are going against her words.”

I got up from my bed and hugged her, with a smile on my face.

“You shouldn’t worry about me, Nana. I’m a responsible woman now. I promise you have nothing to worry about.”

“I will always worry about you, Rey. Get some sleep.” She turned to leave the room.

“Good night, Nana,” I muttered, yawning.

“Good night, my princess.”

***

As the days flew by, my rose training continued. In the afternoons, I learned new, exciting, sexual things with the girls and Sabrina.

We’d watched a lot of erotic movies on the television underground. We practiced how to walk sensually, how to use our bodies to arouse John and the other man, without even stripping out of our clothes.

Due to my strange affliction, I’d begged Sabrina to teach and train me without making me touch either John or the other man, whose name was Dylan. Surprisingly, Sabrina agreed to let me learn by watching, while she, John, and the other trainers made me hot and wet with the kind of debauched things they did to each other.

I’d even watched them fuck several times—Sabrina and John, that is. Chloe and the other girls were as innocent as me, shy but curious.

And that was how we were supposed to stay untouched. Since they did everything in our presence, I didn’t have to suspect what they were doing.

And yet, despite this improvement, my beast somehow always knew the days the men joined our lessons. He always growled at me violently on those days. He’d tried to get out of his chains, which only made the chains dig deeper into his flesh.

I liked talking to him when he wasn’t irritated or angry, and I hated it when he was hurt. The things I had learned from him fascinated me.

What I felt for him unsettled me, but no matter how many times I told myself to stay away, I couldn’t. With him, I felt like I never had to hide who I was. It was like he knew me, felt me, and understood me in ways I was starting to understand him.

My days were spent with Sabrina and the girls in the Roses quarters. In the nights, I visited my beast secretly. Most times, we’d talk about the outside world.

He would do that essence trajectory thing where he shared his memories of places he’d been with me. Other times, we would argue or fight, and I would storm out of the dungeon. I would sneak back into my room with the promise to never seek him out again.

But then, I would have intense sexual dreams of him every night I was away from him and woke up grouchy and beyond frustrated. Helplessly, I’d find myself on the way to him again.

Most times, I would sneak him some food and we would chat long into the night.

With him in the dungeon and me leaning against the bars, Cas would tell me about the old world. He told me how advanced they were before the outbreak, the places he’d been to, and what was outside the walls of Marlenia and behind the mountains.

We were both careful not to speak about our different worlds, since we never agreed on certain things. Through our late-night conversations, I’d picked up a few things about him and his world.

I knew that there were other different creatures out there in the world. I had also learned that there were few human women and men out there, and they weren’t affected by the plague.

I also knew there were dangers out there, though not as serious as Cassandra made it seem. With every late-night visit, my attraction was only growing stronger.

That gnawing hollow feeling didn’t emerge when I was with him. I could feel the connection between us getting stronger each day.

And now that I knew what sex was, and I’d watched Sabrina and John get together in that way several times—~I wanted that, and I only wanted it with him, my beast.~

Once, after a lesson in the dead of night, I’d tried touching myself the way I’d seen on TV when we’d watched an old video of a woman pleasuring herself. I’d only ended up getting frustrated when I couldn’t make myself come, even with the thought of my beast.

After that night, I hadn’t tried again.