Page 128 of Beast

I climb to my feet and look down at Gaston slumped on the floor.

This is the last time I will see him. Because in minutes, the fire will eat up this bar and everything in it, and he’s too injured to escape outside.

Our eyes connect for the last time. “I will always choose her. Over everything and everyone. Most of all you.”

And then, turning away, I escape the burning bar and disappear into a night lit up by flames and sirens.

CHAPTER 52

BELLE

I’min the dreamy state between sleep and wakefulness when Beast walks in smelling like smoke and liquor.

I sit up. He’s angry, and his knuckles are bleeding.

“What happened to you?” I ask, climbing off the bed.

He eats up the space between us and takes my face in his hands.

“No one touches you. Do you hear me? No one.”

Panic tingles in the pit of my stomach. He knows about Gaston.

“I was trying to be a good old lady,” I say.

He arches his eyebrow, but his face remains hard. “By not telling me that Gaston threatened you?”

“There was a lot happening at the time. I didn’t want to add more to your plate.”

“Add more to my—Jesus, Belle, none of that matters to me as much as you do.”

I swallow hard beneath his fiery gaze. “I thought I was protecting you.”

Only now does his face soften. “I don’t need you to protect me, little one. I need you to tell me if someone ever hurts you or makes you afraid so I can protect you. You are my priority. Nothing else comes before you.”

He claims my mouth in a kiss that is hard and hot, as if we’re sealing a pact.

When he pulls back to look at me again, a flicker of understanding passes through his expression. “It was Annika, wasn’t it?”

I’m not about to dump Annika in it or throw her under the bus, but clearly he knows she was involved.

“We both thought it was a good idea,” I say. “She didn’t tell Ryder for the same reason.”

“And about now he’s having this same conversation with her.” When I bite down on my lip, he senses my remorse and pushes a lock of hair behind my ear. He softens the stern edge in his voice. “It’s why you got so toasted that afternoon, wasn’t it?”

“We needed something to take the edge off.”

He shakes his head. “You should’ve told me. And I’m going to say the same thing to my cousin.”

“You will do no such thing. Her intentions were good. She tried to protect me from Gaston. Stood between me and him so he couldn’t touch me.”

“I saw.” He scowls. Obviously aware of what happened next. How Gaston slapped her to the ground.

“So you know that she put herself in physical danger for me. She doesn’t deserve your wrath, Beast.”

Thinking, he rubs his jaw and I see just how red-raw his knuckles are. “She should know better.”

“We made a mistake. We’re human.”

---