Page 116 of Beast

The men are slow to move but obey their leader.

While the room empties, Beast’s gaze burns through the distance between us and I feel the sting of his anger on my skin. “You…sit the fuck down.”

But I ignore him.

He doesn’t get to tell me what to do anymore.

I’m going to leave and take my uncle with me.Goddamn him to hell for this.

I’m married to a man who shares DNA with the very demon who tried raping me and almost killed my uncle.

And. He. Never. Told. Me.

“Stop ordering me about?—”

In an explosive move, he upends the table to get my attention, then charges toward me. I back up until my legs hit the back of a chair. “I said, sit the fuck down.”

I look at the overturned table. It must weigh a ton and he just flipped it like it weighed nothing.

But I’m too angry to care. “I said no.”

His gaze is thunderous. “Why do you need to make it so fucking hard on me whenever I ask you to do something?”

“How could you force me to marry you? The brother of the man who broke into my home, almost killed my uncle and bent me over the kitchen table. He was about to rape me. It was the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me. The vilest act—you saw what he did.”

“Yes, and I stopped him from doing it.”

“But then you forced me to marry you. The brother to—him.”

“I am nothing like my brother,” he growls.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were related?”

“Because the moment he did those things to you, he was no longer a part of my family. I banished him. Stripped him of his cut. That is the biggest and worst consequence to a Knight. He lost his club. He lost his family. He lost everything for what he did to you.”

My heart pounds against my breast and my pulse races through the vein in my neck.

Beast takes a step toward me, but I take a step back. “Don't you come near me!”

My words are like a brick wall and he comes to a sudden stop.

I’m shaking. “You lied to me.”

“I never lied to you.”

“Omission is like lying. You should have told me.”

“Perhaps I should have. But he is gone and no longer a threat to you.”

“So why didn't you?” I cry.

He takes a step closer, blocking out the sun. “Because it should have been inconsequential. His name is not to be spoken by anyone in this clubhouse. He is a Nameless Man.”

“Not to me,” I yell. “To me he will always be Gaston. The man who put his hands on me. The man who put my uncle in hospital.”

Images of that night rattle me even further, and I can barely contain the emotions coursing through me. They tumble through me violently.

I take slow steps backward and point a finger at Beast. “We’re done. Do you hear me? I don’t want any of this. Least of all you.”

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