Page 45 of The Beast Between Us
“I’m not human,” he rasps. “I don’t look like a man. I look like the beast I am.”
Without a word, I slide from the bed, padding barefoot across the room. He doesn’t move, doesn’t even look up as I approach.
But when I stop beside him, I reach out, take his scarred, clawed hand in mine, and lean down.
Softly, I kiss his cheek…just beside the edge of where his human skin fades into something more.
“I love you,” I whisper. “Beast and all.”
Then I turn, walk slowly back to the bed, and slip beneath the covers once more.
Thorne doesn’t move for a long time.
But in the firelight, I watch as a single tear slips down his cheek.
And the storm outside, ever echoing his heart, finally begins to calm.
Chapter Ten
Thorne
For the last four nights, Ella has slept in my bed while I’ve taken the chair. My body aches from it, though I would never admit as much. Her words that first night…I love you. Beast and all…have settled deep in my chest, a dangerous comfort. But no matter how I feel, I can never give her what she wants. She doesn’t understand the constant war raging inside me. The threat I pose.
Still… the Beast has been quiet lately. Too quiet. Almost… content.
“Sire,” Oswin says gently from my study door. “Miss Ella is fast asleep in your chambers. Would you like me to prepare your evening tea before I retire?”
“No, thank you, Oswin,” I say. “I’m tired enough that even your strongest blend wouldn’t keep me awake. Sleep well, old friend.”
“And you, Sire.”
When he’s gone, I enter my room as quietly as I can. Ella sleeps peacefully, curled beneath my covers. I glance toward the small glass dome beside the window. The single rose, half black,half red, sits inside still in full bloom, still as dark and alive as the evening she plucked it from my mother’s garden.
It hasn’t withered.
“Mate,”the Beast whispers, not with a snarl, but a hum.
I nod. “I know.”
She’s the reason. The balance. The calm.
She brings life to these grounds… where I bring only shadows and ruin.
Another reason why we can never be.
Needing a distraction, I retreat down the hall and into the bathing chamber. I fill the tub, the hot water swirling and steaming as it rises. Once full, I step in and lower myself with a sigh. The heat seeps into my aching bones and pulls the tension from my limbs.
And for the first time in weeks…
I fall into a true and deep sleep.
***Ella***
I wake with a start, the need to relieve myself tugging me from sleep. The room is still cloaked in darkness, but something feels… off.
Thorne’s chair is empty.
Pushing off the blankets, I slip from the bed. My body doesn’t give me time to worry about his absence as I dash quietly down the hall toward the nearest bathing chamber, only to pause at the soft flicker of candlelight beneath the door.
