Page 15 of Beauty and Her Beasts (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 1)

Once I was standing, he said, “Let the maids clean up the rest of this. I want to check your hand and make sure you don’t have any shards stuck in your skin or any bleeding.”

I nodded and let him lead me to the nearest first aid kit. He avoided further conversation while he dressed my hand and led me back to my room. After wishing me goodnight, I shut the door and locked it in good measure.

I was probably going to have to continue locking the door for the remainder of my stay as well. Clearly King was not a man who cared for my presence, and that made my job a tad bit harder.

That was if I still had a job in the morning.

6

KING

I had absolutely no idea what had come over me back there. Nor did I realize how far I had fallen from the man I was not so long ago. Never in a million years would I have seen myself running away from a girl. Especially one as beautiful as she was. That wasn’t me. I conquered women. I was the man that took what I wanted and left the rest.

At least, that was all the old me.

The girl certainly was… different. I just didn’t know just how different yet. She was beautiful, for sure. But there was a quality—a scent—about her that stirred something within me I believed was long dead. The same scent that set her apart from all the rest and terrified me.

I smelled her moments before she knocked over my mother’s favorite vase. I took one whiff and I instantly felt something deep inside me come alive. Something I thought I had lost forever, and that was something I certainly didn’t deserve. Not after everything I had done. The pain I caused. The people who suffered at my hand.

Because of that, I did the only thing I could at the moment and fiercely growled at her. I couldn’t allow myself to experience the joy of being in her scent, much less her presence. Not even the sense of home that she carried with her.

It was odd… everything that surrounded her. And at the same time, damning. The sooner she got it through her head to stay far away from me, the better. Because I didn’t deserve an ounce of what she offered. Even if she laid it at my feet.

I wasn’t even sure who the woman was. I assumed she was the manager that Gunnar had hired. A woman doing a man’s job. She was also up late and drinking from one of the mugs I had in the kitchen cabinet labeled “Not for Guests.”

She had to be something special if Gunnar believed she could turn this place around. I wasn’t going to touch this business within an inch of my own life. I would only screw things up. Just like everything else I’ve touched. Instead of bringing it back to life, it would slowly wither and decay into nothing.

The second I was out of sight, I headed to the lake, where I kept hidden a stash of liquor. Once I got there, I slipped out of my shoes, stuck my bare feet into the cold water, and I drank myself into oblivion. I wanted to remove the scent from my memory and the sight of her as well. Everything about her I wanted erased from my mind. And alcohol was my only answer for that.

Damn, She was gorgeous. She was by far the prettiest thing I had ever seen in my life. But I didn’t deserve a sliver of happiness, and so I drank that away too.

When I thought I was drunk enough, I still kept drinking. I drank until I passed out on the bank of the lake, not waking up again until the sun burned through my eyelids. I woke with a killer headache and my feet numb from sitting in the water for however long it had been since I fell asleep. A couple of hours at least. I couldn’t be sure. I lost all sense of time in the middle of my second bottle.

I groaned and pulled my feet from the water and then shimmied myself toward a tree, placing my back against it and letting my feet be warmed by what heat the autumn sun would give. I didn’t need all the feeling back in my feet. Just enough to get me moving, and I’d be fine.

As the final effects of the alcohol faded and my hangover fully set in, thoughts of the woman from last night came back to me. I groaned, feeling like an ass but not regretting my decision either. She needed to know I couldn’t be trusted. I was too damned to love or feel joy or even the bliss of a lover’s kiss.

I let myself get caught up in wondering what kissing her would taste like. When my pants tightened with my engorged erection, I reached for another bottle of liquor. My hands reached into the empty crate, and I cursed. I had drunk the last of my stash to rid myself of every ounce of joy I had.

I growled and chided myself.Way to go jackass. Not only did you make an astounding first impression, but you drank the rest of your stash.

A branch creaked from my right, followed by crunching leaves and a deep huff of something large. I snapped my head and instantly shifted into my lion form. The mutt who strode into view was one I was exceptionally familiar with. His name was Moon. He was Declan’s wolf. And I didn’t care for him one tiniest bit.

Of course, he was well aware of that fact. The second his eyes settled on me, he growled, baring his teeth as if that would cause me to cower. I snorted. I would ever be afraid of him. There was an accusatory tone in his growl and the last thing I needed was a lecture from a wolf.

I wasn’t afraid, nor was I going to tolerate his unwanted presence. Thus was the end of my tolerance for him.

I growled back.

Moon was moved.

My growl turned into a roar.

That didn’t work either. Moon simply stared at me like he was curious about seeing me roar. I hobbled a step forward and snapped at the air, snarling viciously.

That worked.

Moon ceased with his ridiculous growling and lowered his head submissively. He let out a whine, almost as if to apologize for overstepping.

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