Submit to the Beast (2 page)

He shifted in his spot once more,
taking one last look out at the beating waves, trying to recapture
the sense of peace that had washed over him as he sat
down.

But it was gone.

For now at least the Beast had won.
There was no point in staying.

He took one last, deep breath, a small
jot of satisfaction hitting as the salty bite of cold hit the back
of his throat. Then, palms down on the granite, Tobias readied
himself to lift up…and stopped.

His neck prickled, a weird sense of
something filled him, and he realized in an instant that he was no
longer alone. It was the oddest feeling, because a few weeks ago,
Tobias wouldn’t have even noticed someone behind him. How could he?
The waves filled the air around him with their noise, and that
combined with the howling of the wind meant that he was practically
deaf in this spot.

Only it wasn’t the sound,
it wasn’t that he could hear someone there, Tobias
felt
it, almost sensed
it. And that had happened more than once these past weeks,
especially over the past few days. It was almost like a new sense
was beginning to take shape, sitting alongside his other ones,
working to fill in their blind spots. Last night when he had been
jogging the cliff edge, he had felt the change in the ground before
he’d seen the hole ahead. It was that extra knowledge that had
allowed him to simply jump over the hole that would have surely
sprained, if not broken, his ankle. Tobias had no idea what it
meant. No idea when it was going to stop.

Curiosity fought fear.

Neither was winning.

And in-between them both
was him.
The Beast
…

Tobias shuddered then,
turned his upper body around, not even sure who he expected to see.
And even then, as he did so, he was unwilling to admit even to
himself that part of him was hoping that it was
him
, the Beast, that despite what he
had said, despite his promise that Tobias would return to him and
not the other way around, that he had decided to come above ground.
That he was going to drag Tobias back. That he’d had enough of
waiting…

Except it wasn’t the Beast.

Tobias realized that immediately, and
as he did he felt his heart both clench and beat far too fast. A
woman approached him. She wore long, green robes, the hood pulled
back from her face, probably because the wind had pushed it there.
Her hair was a startling red, stark against the early morning
light.

Tobias recognized her
immediately, and as he did so a combination of anger, worry, and
excitement filled him. Because, and in an odd way, she was
responsible for the position he now found himself in.
She
had been the woman
outside of his apartment door, the woman asking for help, the woman
he had been knocked unconscious for.

Her name was Layla, and she belonged
below ground…with the Beast.

Chapter Two

The man Tobias knew as the Beast paced
up and down the walkway above the main cavern in his underground
city. The walkway ran the length of the cavern and was connected by
bridges at various points. Those bridges led to tunnels, which led
to other, smaller caverns, and to the places that his people called
home.

It was a place he called home too, had
done since he had been born beneath these walls so many years ago.
And the Beast was very protective of his home. Would do anything
for it…at least that was what he always thought.

He scowled, turned on his
heels, and began to pace all over again. As he did so he tried to
work through the thoughts racing through his mind. There were
a
lot
of things
to think about, because the Beast was facing a situation totally
new to him, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with
it.

Tobias…

The name of the
human,
his
human,
whispered through his mind, and the Beast’s body responded in the
way it had ever since he had first set eyes on the male that he had
known instantly was his mate. His heart thumped, his stomach
clenched, and his cock thickened inside his pants. But then, his
cock was constantly hard these days, and the Beast knew it was
because he couldn’t sate himself with the man who was his and his
alone.

And that fact was entirely his
fault.

The anxiety running through him like a
constant hum was his fault.

The entire fucked up situation was his
fault.

And as of right now, the Beast had no
idea what he was going to do about it.

A shriek sounded, pulling him from his
brooding thoughts. The Beast looked down to see the market in full
swing below him, but he didn’t pause to view it as he normally
would. He ignored the stalls offering all sorts of products,
ignored the tables where people ate and drank, even ignored the
shrieking children running alongside the river.

His people were aware of this. Down
below him they looked up, spotted him, and let out various sighs.
There were no secrets here, and they all knew what was happening,
why he was so preoccupied, and they were all hoping that it would
be fixed soon.

They knew it
had
to be.

The Beast knew it too.

The situation had to be
resolved.

He turned, headed back in the
direction he had come from, and resumed his pacing. A moment later
and he spotted a male emerging from one of the tunnels. He was
tall, broad, yellow-eyed—they were all yellow-eyed—and the Beast
recognized him immediately.

His brother.

“
Pacing again?” Gregovitch
asked.

The Beast scowled. “Not pacing,” he
said. “Thinking.”

“
About Tobias,” Gregovitch
asked, but it was not a question.

“
Why do you assume I am
thinking about the human?” the Beast snapped, because of course,
his brother was right as usual. “I could be thinking about any
number of things.”

Gregovitch laughed before crossing his
arms and leaning against the granite wall. Their entire underground
city was sculpted from that rock in some form or another. The Beast
didn’t know how long it had been here for, or the exact geological
processes that had formed it, but it was home to his people. To
them being above ground was as odd as the outsiders would find
living underneath it.

“
For three very simple
reasons,” Gregovitch said. “It has been weeks since you allowed him
to leave. He shows no sign of returning. This weekend is that of
the full moon.”

The familiar tension tightened its
grip on the Beast at those words. He halted his pacing and shot his
brother a glare. “I am aware of those things.”

“
He
has
to return before then,”
Gregovitch added.

“
I am aware of that
too.”

“
As are your
people.”

The Beast glanced down at the market.
No one was looking up at him now, but he could sense them below
him, sense the tenor of their thoughts, their emotions. They were
worried about him, worried about what it all might mean. They
weren’t the only ones.

“
What are they saying?” he
asked.

“
They’re not saying
anything,” Gregovitch replied. “But they are concerned. In truth,
none of them understand why you let him go in the first
place.”

The Beast let out a low growl before
turning on his heel and striding over to the tunnel that would lead
to his private quarters. Gregovitch followed behind him, and
despite his usual amiable demeanor, the Beast knew his brother was
as worried as the rest of those in the underground city. He could
feel the emotions rolling off the other male.

“
Come,” the Beast said. “I
don’t want to discuss this here.”

They made their way down a long,
slightly inclined tunnel and eventually to the Beast’s domain.
Ordinarily the Beast might have gone straight to his bed chamber.
It was the way of their people. There were no locked doors, no
places off limits, and conversations were often held in the rooms
where they expected to relax. But the Beast did not go in there
today. He found it difficult to be in that room…and all because of
Tobias.

Tobias manacled to his
bed.

Tobias’ cock in his
throat.

Tobias lying on his back
welcoming him inside.

Tobias bent over the
saddle, his ass being pounded…

So vivid were the memories that
assaulted him as he passed by his bed chamber, the Beast clenched
his fists as tightly as he could. His heart raced once again. His
cock thickened to the point of pain. And though he told himself
this was a perfectly normal reaction, the Beast couldn’t help but
become angry at his weakness. He was the Alpha of their group, the
leader of thousands, and yet he had been brought low…by a human no
less.

“
I’ll take a drink,”
Gregovitch said once they entered his dining hall.

The Beast poured them both one,
swallowing his in one quick gulp. The fiery burn of the alcohol did
nothing to help the situation, but then he was aware, at this
point, that nothing would.

“
My actions are not
putting our people at risk,” he said a moment later.

Gregovitch nodded slowly. “We all know
that,” he said. “No one is worried that Tobias will go to the
authorities. Who would believe him even if he did? More to the
point, they’d never be able to find us down here. They could spend
years looking before finding our exits. We’ve lived here for
hundreds of years,” Gregovitch added. “We’ll be here for hundreds
more.”

“
Tobias would not give up
our secrets,” the Beast said and there was confidence in his voice,
because if there was one thing he had realized during the brief
time he had spent with his mate, it was that Tobias had the same
sort of steel to him that they all did. He didn’t know it of
course, he was human still, but he had always been destined to be
the mate of a Beast, and so those qualities were there. He would
keep their secrets because he wouldn’t be able
not
to.

“
It is not his silence
that we are worried about,” Gregovitch added.

“
Then say it,” the Beast
said, because he needed to know what they, his people, were all
thinking, and that was Gregovitch’s role. He was second in their
community, would be Alpha if anything happened to him, though the
Beast knew that Gregovitch neither desired, nor coveted, such a
role. He was far too fond of a good time to deal with the
responsibility.

“
It was expected that you
would take a mate long before now,” Gregovitch said
slowly.

The unspoken words between them could
be unspoken no more, and so the Beast said them, and watched as his
brother nodded. “A mate from one of our cities.”

“
Yes.”

He sighed. “Tobias is not that
mate.”

“
You cannot breed with
him,” Gregovitch said.

The Beast shrugged, because this was
something he had considered since realizing exactly who Tobias
was.

My given mate.

“
It does not always have
to be about that,” he said. “We do not have a system of succession,
Gregovitch, you know that. I lead because I am the Alpha. My child
might not be.”

Gregovitch nodded slowly, conceding
that point. “Still, it was expected that you would take a mate from
your own people though. A female perhaps?”

“
I do not want a female
mate,” the Beast said. “You know I am not attracted to
females.”

Gregovitch laughed. “You’re a fool to
dismiss half of the world from your bed.”

“
I have no choice in it,”
the Beast said. “They simply do not attract me.”

He closed his eyes briefly
as he recalled exactly what
did
attract him. Tobias’ blue eyes, his golden hair,
his corded muscles. He was beautiful to the Beast in a way that he
had never expected his mate to be. Up until meeting the human the
Beast had not given much thought to what his mate might look like.
He had known it wasn’t likely to be anyone from his own underground
city because he would have recognized them before now, and so had
assumed it would simply be one from the other cities. There were
hundreds scattered around the world, and the Beast was required to
visit the ones in his country from time to time, just as the other
Alphas were required to visit his.

But a human?

The Beast had never expected
that.

And yet he had known, the moment he
had locked eyes with Tobias, that the human was his. It was
undeniable.

“
I understand,” Gregovitch
said after a moment. “The mate bond is not something we have a
choice over. But it is hard for your people. If your mate,
your
male
mate,
were from below ground, your people would find this easier. The
females who had their eye on the position of your mate would mourn
their lost chance, but they would understand and be happy for
you.”