Chapter 6: Chapter 6

REYNA

The walk to the infirmary was barely two minutes. I’d expected the beasts to be kept where patients were usually tended to.

Instead, Cassandra led us through a different door that, all my life, I’d thought was just an ordinary wall. The place was immaculate and surprisingly bigger than I’d imagined.

All this time, I never even knew it existed. The security here was tighter than in other parts of the castle; it didn’t just use password-protected doors.

There were biometrics like retina scans and thumbprints—the whole thing made me feel like I never knew my own queendom. We finally arrived at the entrance to the reception room.

Cassandra put in the password, her retina was scanned, and her thumbprints checked before the door pinged and slid open. She turned and stared at me, holding my gaze.

“Whatever you do, Reyna, do not let them know you fear them. They will try to attack you; they can’t resist the smell,” she said.

I nodded wordlessly, trying to slow my heartbeat. My brows scrunched when her words registered.

What did she mean? Fear has a smell? How does one smell fear? Does this mean the beasts can smell fear? What else can they do?

I was so wrapped up in my head that I was left standing outside the first room, where one of the beasts was kept. My mother was at the front, her guards close behind, their hands on their tasers, ready to use them at a moment’s notice.

At least it meant she wanted these beasts kept alive. I thought about how they didn’t try to reach for their guns.

Whether that was a good or bad thing, I couldn’t decide. Cassandra was glaring daggers at the prone body, the council behind her.

It was the most emotional I’d ever seen her. While I had left my previous place at the entrance of the door, I was still a distance away from the bed.

The huge beast lying on the bed wasn’t the one I’d seen earlier—this was another. He was still unconscious.

They were more intimidating up close; even unconscious, he gave off a dangerous vibe. His body was tight and corded with muscles.

The bed he was lying atop was way too short for his large frame. His feet were literally hanging off the hospital bed.

I was sure he was going to feel an ache when he woke; he looked uncomfortable. Both his hands and feet were shackled to the bed, and his upper and lower body were also chained down.

He only had a long pair of jeans to cover his lower half. What intrigued me was the way his upper body lit up with a translucent blue glow that seemed to come from within.

I had thought I’d imagined that. I almost felt pity for the beast.

But then I remembered these beasts had killed innocent women who had done nothing wrong except protect their territory. My heart hardened.

I knew if the roles were reversed, he’d probably just eat me, or rape me and then kill me. That thought sobered me up pretty quickly.

Those monsters deserved whatever they got. They’d been killing my people for years; I should hate them, and I did.

But I didn’t know if it was hate I felt when I saw the other beast earlier. Though he was a stranger, it felt like I had known him forever.

I didn’t know what I’d expected to see. The beasts were not how we were told they were. They weren’t these ghastly, hideous monsters with numerous tentacles and heads.

These beasts didn’t look much different from us, except for their massive size and the claws on their hands and feet. They just looked human to me.

Different, bigger, with sharper claws instead of nails, but still people. I wasn’t the only one looking at the beast as though he was an alien.

Cassandra and the three council members we’d come with were also making their own judgments about the beast. While I was staring at the beasts with fear, awe, and curiosity, my mother and the council, on the other hand, looked at him with fear, disgust, and hate.

I felt like a traitor for the simple reason that I didn’t hate him as much as I should. Dr. Elizabeth was busy poking and prodding him.

She checked his ears, his mouth, and his eyes. I didn’t know what she was hoping to find in his mouth, but whatever. She was the expert here, and she looked like it.

With her white lab coat, medical glasses, and white rubber gloves, you could see that she was in her element. There was a man I assumed was also a scientist. He was a tall, handsome, dark-skinned man.

And her assistant, Emily, was close to her, holding a tray with extraction tools. If there wasn’t a beast right now in front of us—

I would totally gawk at the doctor. He was the fourth man I’d seen today.

Just what the hell was going on? I hadn’t seen men throughout my life, but all of a sudden it was raining men everywhere.

But like with the surveillance guards, the beast took priority. I averted my gaze, my cheeks flaming when the man whom Dr. Elizabeth addressed as Dr. Benjamin took a sharp scalpel and sliced the beast at the back of his ears.

He quickly dabbed a cotton ball on the wound, trying to control the dark red blood flowing from the fresh cut. I tried not to think of all the other things they were going to do with all the scalpels.

“As you can see, Your Majesty, I have this one heavily sedated. I was lucky enough to inject him while he was coming to, and still too groggy from the effect of the tranquilizers the guardians pump into him. I’m not so lucky with the other one.

You can go ahead to the next room. The beast is conscious and contained and wouldn’t let me examine him. He’s more dangerous than this one, so I advise you to be careful. I just need to take some samples here and I will be right with you,” Dr. Elizabeth said.

“Come see me immediately when you are done, Elizabeth. We need to talk.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she replied. They exchanged a grim look that was very suspicious.

I had always known there were secrets between Dr. Elizabeth and my mother. The two were thick as thieves.

But whatever this was, I wanted so desperately to know, and I promised myself that I would find out what was going on. Cassandra and the women sent the unconscious beast a last glare and then proceeded to leave the room.

I followed closely behind this time. My mind was still on that ominous look my mother and the doctor had shared.

Another door separated both beasts from each other. Cassandra put in the password.

A loud, rattling growl reached our ears before the door was fully opened. My stomach dropped. The sound was animalistic, raw, and primal.

And it felt familiar. Instantly I realized it was the blonde beast’s.

My heart raced with exhilaration as we all filed into the room. Lydia and the guards entered first, then Cassandra.

I was last.

I couldn’t explain the excitement I felt. I was both terrified and eager to see him.

And when I finally did, he was exactly as I’d seen him. Big, frighteningly beautiful, and still glowing.

He was chained and shackled to the bed, just like the other beast. He only had pants on, his broad chest and flat stomach bared, with intricate dark tattoos that started from his neck to his upper half, then stretched into his arms to his fingers like a sleeve.

From a distance, it looked like a breastplate, a dark royal blue.

When he strained and struggled, wanting to break the hold the chains had on him, one of the chains snapped.

I gasped loudly.

He swung his head in my direction so fast, I was surprised his head was still attached to his neck afterward. Instantly his eyes widened, his nostrils flared, and he growled again.

I shivered. His eyes were so intense and focused on me I was afraid to think of what he would do if he wasn’t chained up.

I felt hot all over, sweat trickling down my body, my face, and between my breasts.

The beast growled louder than all the other times and began to twist and turn. Violently trying to unchain himself, all the while his red eyes were still on me, with an intensity that rocked me.

I didn’t know what to make of it. I was in a trance.

Those red orbs that seemed to call to something deep within me were all I could see.

Cassandra was suddenly there, shielding me with her body and yanking me back to whatever fucked up shit his eyes were doing to me.

Her stance was not defensive but a means to get his attention.

The beast growled again, rattling the doors.

I trembled, both terrified of the fierce, hard look on his face and confused why the sound affected me so much. Making me ache down below as moisture I couldn’t identify seeped out of me.

I couldn’t even begin to explain the confusion I felt, not even to myself.

“Move,” the beast growled menacingly at Cassandra.

She didn’t. My mother stood her ground.

He bent his head, trying to get a look at me.

“Come, Kitten, come closer.”

“Like hell she would. Why don’t you tell me what brought you to my queendom, monster?” Cassandra replied.

The beast snarled at her. The beast ignored her.

“You will give me the answers I need or you will watch your friend die,” the beast growled, straining harder against his chains.

Everything happened all at once. Suddenly, the chains gave in and snapped with a loud metallic sound.

The guards moved on him with menace, their tasers in hand, trying to subdue him.

He dropped the chains with a loud rattling sound.

“I don’t want to hurt you but I will if you get in my fucking way,” he growled in a guttural voice.

The guardians rushed him, more of them coming inside the door with guns instead of just tasers.

Seeing him loose and free of his chains, he was no doubt a predator. He was massive, close to seven feet tall with broad shoulders.

Even with the guns and silver bullets, we had no hope of stopping him. It occurred to me that we were going to die.

He met them head on, anger making his face even harder, his features sharper than before, his claws dark and sharp.

He used both his hands to fling them away like they were paper mannequins, delivering punches that would incapacitate rather than kill.

Growling and snarling loudly like the beast he was, he moved so freaking fast that he was a blur.

Moving with a litheness that could rival that of a cat, in no time all the guards were thrown around the room, bloody.

Moaning and groaning filled the air. Blood gushed out of the injuries he had inflicted, none of which were fatal.

The councilwomen had run out of the infirmary screaming. At least they were active, unlike me.

I was frozen in place, holding my dagger like a lifeline in a shaky, sweaty hand.

My gray eyes were wide with fear and that unknown emotion I had no hope of understanding.

He tilted his head in that predatory way and took a step toward me.

I countered his step with two of my own, putting distance between us. My heart was hammering in my chest.

Movement from my left side caught my eye. I turned in time to see Cassandra holding a gun.

While he was distracted with me, she had taken the gun from the moaning guards and she didn’t hesitate.

She aimed for his knee and pulled the trigger.

He grunted—a guttural growl—as his left leg buckled. He reached for Cassandra and flung her out of his way like she was a bug.

I gasped, then screamed when I saw her hit the wall and slump. She groaned, her lip split, dark red blood staining her teeth.

She was trying to crawl back up.

I pointed my dagger toward him and rushed to help Cassandra. I was careful; I didn’t want to turn my back to him.

I took two steps before he pounced. He grabbed me.

I gasped at the instant electric spark that ran through me from where his skin touched mine.

His nose flared as he tightened his hold. Another bolt of spark ran from him to me and me to him, his glowing eyes searching my face with a look of utter awe.

I tried to yank my hand free, overwhelmed with the strange sensation.

The beast suddenly placed his large hand on my chest, right on my left breast.

“Get your hands off my daughter, you monster,” Cassandra said. Her voice snapped me into action.

I went to pull back, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Hush, Kitten, it will be over soon.”