Page 61 of Married to the Beast

“Wait!” she exclaimed imperiously. “Before you ruin her, I want her jewelry! It would lookmuchbetter on me than her.”

Reaching up, she snatched the amethyst necklace off Aleena’s neck and tore the earrings painfully out of her ears.

“Ouch!” Aleena gasped and writhed in her bonds.

“Take that breast shield too,” her stepmother ordered. “It’s too big for you since your sister is so fat but it will fetch a pretty price for your dowry, my sweet.”

The two of them yanked off Aleena’s breast shield, leaving her bare from the waist up and she cried out in pain and shame.

“Don’t! Don’t do this to me!” she begged.

“Are you ready to renounce him yet?” Faleesha demanded, shoving the recording device, which was whirring as it took in the scene, into her face once more.

Aleena gritted her teeth. No matter what, she wasn’t going to give in!

“No!” she said, trying to make her voice strong. “I refuse to renounce my husband. If he wants to disavow me, so be it. But I willnotrenounce him. Ilovehim!”

“Too bad he doesn’t love you, then!” Faleesha sneered. “As if he’ll ever want you again after your eyes are the color of soot from having more than one man go at you!”

“Your sister is right—you’ll regret your decision very soon,” Grindelia snapped. Then she put an arm around her daughter.“Come, my dear—it’s better that innocent eyes don’t see what’s about to happen.”

“But I want to see her suffer!” Faleesha whined. “She deserves it—she’s keeping me frommyhusband!”

“I know, but you don’t need to see such things. Come.”

And the two women headed for the door of the tiny back room where they had bound Aleena, leaving the two hulking males they’d hired to close in on her…

39

BEAR

“Where is she? Where is my wife?” Bear burst into Sir Greggor’s residence and found the man standing in his own richly appointed living area.

“What?” Sir Greggor looked startled as he glanced up. His eyes widened when he took in Bear’s state.

Bear was right on the edge of Rage—he could feel the fury coursing through his system and a crimson curtain kept trying to drop over his eyes and color everything he saw in shades of bloody red. He was holding it back by force of will, knowing that going into a berserker fury wouldn’t help him to find Aleena. But he was very close to letting it rush over him as he strode forward and took Sir Greggor by the throat.

“Where’s Aleena?” he roared in the other man’s face. “I know she’s here—where the fuck is she?”

Sir Greggor’s eyes went wide and he seemed to lose the power of speech. With a trembling finger, he pointed towards the back of the house.

“B-b-back room,” he finally managed to get out. “At the end of…of the hall.”

Bear didn’t need to hear any more. He shoved the other male aside and ran through the house, heedlessly passing throughrooms full of tapestries and paintings and all the trappings of idle luxury. He didn’t care about anything but finding Aleena.

And then he smelled it—her scent! There was a lingering trace of her perfume but also the aroma of her skin and hair, which was sweet on its own. But then he caught another smell in the air—a coppery tang that could mean only one thing.

Blood.

His fury doubled and the Rage pressed against his mind like a beast eager to escape its cage. He rushed forward, following the scent of his beloved and found himself in a long, narrow hallway. There was a door at the end and just then, it opened and Grindelia and Faleesha stepped out. Grindelia was holding the platinum breast shield he’d bought his bride and Faleesha had the amethyst jewelry clutched in her greedy hands.

Both women looked up in surprise as they saw Bear charging towards them. Faleesha gave a squeal and pressed herself flat against the wall but Grindelia tried to stop him.

“You can’t go in there!” she declared. “You can’t?—”

Bear rushed past her, knocking her roughly to the ground with one shoulder as he went.

“Oh! How dare you?” she squalled indignantly, but he had no time to waste with her. He pushed through the door and saw a sight that nearly stopped his heart.

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