Page 44 of Beast

“Well, it’s so new I don’t really know how to describe what we are.”

Again she smiles. Again it lacks warmth. She’s suspicious. And I get the feeling she’ll be hard to fool.

And what will that mean for Uncle Maurice?

“You’re Beast’s cousin?” I say because I’m nervous. I don’t want to fuck this up.

She nods. “His father and my mom were brother and sister. How did you meet my cousin?”

Nervously, I think of a story, wishing Beast and I had figured this out before now. I don’t know what Beast has said about me. Until now, I had no idea he’d even mentioned me, let alone told people I’m Mya’s cousin.

We really need to get our stories straight.

With Uncle Maurice’s life on the line, I have to pull this off, and looking at the scrutiny on Annika’s face, it might be harder than I thought.

“In town,” I say vaguely.

“I thought you were Mya’s cousin.”

“Yes, I just moved here. I met Beast with Mya one night.”

“But Mya never goes to town.”

Fuck. That would’ve been handy to know.

“Yes, I met him here when I came to visit Mya.”

Her eyes narrow slightly. “But you just said you met him in town.”

Okay Inspector Annika.

I let out a shaky laugh. “I mean, I met him here briefly. Not even a real meeting really. Just one of those, hello, goodbye encounters. Then I ran into him one night in town.”

I’ve never been good at lying.

Truth is, I’ve never wanted to or had a good enough reason to. But I think I might’ve pulled it off. Although Annika seems far from finished with her interrogation.

But suddenly electricity snaps in the air around us, and the temperature in the room changes, and I can feel him before I even see him. Beast. He’s behind me. His energy eclipsing everything else in the room.

Annika smiles at him as he approaches us.

“I hope you’re playing nice, Annika,” he says with a hint of affection in his rumbly voice.

“Why start now?” she says with a mischievous grin. She kisses her cousin on the cheek, rising up on tiptoe to reach it.

“I see you’ve met Belle,” he says, his dark eyes meeting mine.

Annika’s smile dips. “I have, no thanks to you, Beast. You kept her a secret.”

Beast places a big arm around my shoulders and pulls me against his powerful body. “I wanted to keep her all to myself for a while.”

Annika is suspicious. It’s written all over her face. “Belle was just saying that she met you—where was it again?”

Yep, she’s trying to catch us out on a lie. She knows something isn’t right but can’t quite put a finger on it.

“We met in town one night.” He tightens his arm around me. “And the rest is history.”

“It’s kind of a whirlwind. One minute you’re no one and the next you’re everything,” she says, her cool gaze bouncing between thetwo of us. When she tilts her head, the gold ribbon woven into her elaborate shieldmaiden braided hairstyle glints in the light.

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