Claimed by the Beast - Part One (10 page)

They could hurt the Beast, but not enough.
Hank had said they’d killed creatures like him before, but how? If
they hurt him bad enough, maybe. But how could they strike a
killing blow when he was so strong and so fast? She watched Ember
and Hank pace back and forth, keeping the Beast shifting to face
them. Soon one of them would make a mistake or attack, and then it
would only be a matter of time until the Beast hurt one of them bad
enough to turn on the other.

They weren’t what he wanted, though. It was
her. The Beast wanted her. He’d marked her and claimed her as his
own. Now he only needed to breed her and he’d be satisfied. Her
friends didn’t want that to happen. Hell, she didn’t want that to
happen! But it was looking less and less like she would have a
choice.

Crystal stepped out from behind the trunk
and let go of her pants. They fell all the way to her feet, proving
that she’d lost some weight in the past week. She kicked her shoes
off and let her hand fall to her side. Her shirt hung in tatters,
showing off her bra and doing nothing to hide her stretched and
ripped boy shorts. She saw Hank stop and stare at her. His jowls
lifted in one of the biggest and meanest snarls she’d seen yet.

“Hank! Ember! Just go. I don’t want anyone
else getting hurt,” she called out to them. She turned around and
fell forward to her knees. She kept going down to her hands and
looked back over her shoulder. “Leave my friends alone! Come on,
you sick fuck! This is how you wanted it, isn’t it?”

Crystal barely caught her breath before the
Beast had her. His arm, fur slick with blood, wrapped under her
belly and hoisted her up. She was already kicking back and felt her
heel glance off the inside of his thigh. She let her arms go limp
to throw herself forward and kicked up with her other leg. She felt
her heel hit tissue that was softer than what she’d come to expect
from the muscle-bound monster.

The beast’s snarl turned into a yipping howl
in her ear. She felt herself jerked left and then right before she
fell to the ground and had her breath blasted from her. When she
tipped herself up on a hip and lifted herself up with her elbows,
she saw Ember had her teeth sunk into the Beast’s right leg and
Hank had his jaw wrapped on the back of the Beast’s neck.

Crystal turned some more as her heart
skipped a beat. She sat up, ignoring the ache in her butt as she
scraped her gashed bottom across the ground. A flash of gray out of
the corner of her mind made her turn. Another two wolves streaked
out of the dark woods and leapt onto the beast.

Crystal found herself grinning and rose up.
She licked her lips and took a step towards the battle. The Beast
rose up on his legs in spite of being covered in wolves. Fur and
flesh hung from him and blood fell like rain from his wounds.
Crystal stopped and stared, and then her eyes narrowed as she felt
something twist in her belly. She snarled and curled her fingers
into fists and took another step before a wolf with silver streaks
leapt up onto the Beast and bit down on his snout.

The wolf—Gwen, Crystal guessed by the silver
fur—slid off the Beast but left his face torn and bleeding. He
tottered and crashed to the ground on his back. The pack of wolves
fell on him anew. Blood, dirt, and patches of fur filled the air as
the Beast’s struggles grew weaker and weaker. After a few minutes,
the only ones still moving were the wolves.

Crystal straightened and watched the fight
turn gory. Her brow furrowed, confused, and then she saw one of the
wolves rip a bloody morsel from the Beast’s corpse and swallow it
down. Her mouth dropped as she watched the feeding frenzy
unfold.

One of the wolves, a long-haired gray one,
snapped and roared at the others. The other wolves backed away and
looked up at him, each of them licking the blood from their chops
or swallowing whatever gibbets of flesh were in their mouths. The
wolf shifted, blurring and contorting before her eyes until a nude
man rose up from the blood-strewn ground. He bent over and shoved
his hand into the disemboweled monster’s chest. He pulled his
blood-soaked arm out and held the Beast’s dripping heart in his
hand. She gasped as she saw it still quivering.

Guntar turned and walked towards her,
mindless of his nudity. Crystal was equally ignorant; her eyes were
on the gift he carried. He stopped in front of her and lifted it to
her. She noticed the blood soaking his cheeks and beard, and then
looked down at the heart of the monster. He nodded to it and raised
it to her face. “Eat,” he said in a voice barely recognizable as
human.

The coppery smell of blood and tissue filled
her nose. Her stomach twisted again and her mouth watered. She
licked her lips and tasted something that made her tongue tingly. A
rush of heat spread through her body. She glanced down and saw
blood splatters on her skin and tattered clothes. She lifted her
head up and saw the heart was closer still. She sniffed and filled
her senses with the taste of the Beast’s flesh.

She leaned forward and spread her lips. She
felt the near searing heat of the heart and let the taste overwhelm
her. What she knew rationally was a disgusting thing her body
suddenly craved. She captured Guntar’s arm in her hands and sawed
her teeth into the muscle. She ripped it away and chewed the strong
tissue before swallowing. The act only increased her appetite.
Crystal attacked the heart, tearing, chewing, and swallowing so
fast her throat ached as it had to stretch to let the partially
chewed meat pass through.

When her senses returned, someone held her
back while Guntar pulled his hand from her. He grinned, his teeth
pink contrast to the red of his face. She blinked and looked down
at the stains on her body. Her shirt was soaked and her hands were
coated with the sticky substance. She gasped and felt her belly
rumble. It was a happy and contented sigh. She blinked, horrified
at what she’d done.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “What—”

Guntar nodded to her and looked at the other
naked people surrounding them. “We need to burn the remains.”

“That’s it?” Crystal asked. “Just business
as usual?”

Adrian smirked. “Nothing is ever usual with
a beast like this. They’re all different, and this one died because
of you.”

“Um, great,” Crystal said. She looked over
at the remains and shuddered. “I just ate his fucking heart!”

“Might help you,” Guntar said.

“Or it might kill her,” Adrian said.

Hank touched her arm, startling her. Crystal
turned to see him holding her jeans and shoes. Crystal blushed and
took them. “Thanks,” she mumbled and found herself unable to think
of anything except how magnificent Hank’s body was. Magnificent and
naked. And close enough to touch.

Ember cleared her throat and stepped up.
“Back off, Tiny. She’s still in heat.”

“Tiny?” Crystal asked. She glanced down and
saw that Hank was anything but small.

“Because I’m so big,” Hank explained.

Crystal glanced down again and said, “I’ll
say.”

“Okay, let’s get these two apart,” Gwen
agreed. She stepped up and grabbed onto Crystal’s hand. “Put your
clothes back on, dear. We’ve got to get you home.”

Crystal frowned and realized she was still
holding onto her pants. She bit her lip and nodded. “Hey!” She
looked at Gwen and then Guntar. “If he’s dead, why am I still, um,
like this?”

“The poison doesn’t die with him,” Adrian
said.

“But, I thought—”

“There’s no amount of thinking that will
help. This is blood and magic,” he said. “Might be eating the
Beast’s essence will give you strength to fight it. Or it might be
that it will make it worse.”

“Worse? You mean, like, kill me faster? Turn
me into a slut?”

Adrian shrugged and looked away.

Crystal sighed. “So now what?”

“Get dressed,” Gwen repeated. “We’ll get you
home and get you cleaned up. We’ll watch you and figure it out from
there.”

Crystal nodded and balanced on one leg while
she slipped her jeans back on. She glanced back and saw Hank
staring at her butt and she jerked her head away. Her cheeks burned
and then she realized that Hank was interested. She glanced back
and saw him raise his gaze to hers. His cheeks flushed beneath the
drying blood and she smiled.

She would have him; it was only a matter of
time. She didn’t understand how, but she knew that she’d staked her
claim.

###

Claimed by the Beast is very exciting for
me, and very much the beginning of something greater. This is only
part one of the serial novel but part two is being edited and
worked up by Cora Graphics. Part three is almost finished, and I
plan to keep going until their story is told in full. Maybe as few
as four parts, but probably more, like five or six.

I’d love to share more, but I don’t want to
give away spoilers. I can’t help but be very excited about this
serial. On the sly I’d love to talk more about it if you’re
interested. Feel free to drop me a line at
[email protected]
.
Or you could wait a week or two for part two to come out. I hope to
have a new part released every three to four weeks, and if you’d
like to know when they’re available
sign up for my
newsletter
so you can be the first to know!

Dawn Michelle is a girl next door turned
mother of two and household champion. After years of watching her
husband write novel after novel and not trying to write the stories
she was interested in she decided it was time she showed him how it
was done.

If you enjoyed Dawn’s writing and would like
to have a chance to find out more about her and her new releases,
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You can also reach out to her personally at
[email protected]
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