Submit to the Beast (3 page)

The Beast snapped his eyes open. “And
yet Tobias is not from here.”

Gregovitch nodded. “Precisely. He is a
complication. An outsider mated to our Alpha? It doesn’t sit right
with people.”

“
He is not the first
outsider to join our family.”

“
He will be the first that
has mated to an Alpha.”

“
So surely they should be
pleased I let him go.”

Gregovitch shrugged. “They probably
would be…if you hadn’t claimed him.”

“
I could not resist,” the
Beast said and he couldn’t help but remember the moment he had sunk
his teeth into Tobias’ soft skin. His human had been sated below
him, his body still trembling from his orgasm. The Beast had not
been able to stop himself from doing what was perfectly
natural.

Claiming his
mate.

He turned and locked eyes with his
brother. “There was never any chance of not claiming him,” he said.
“He is my mate. Outsider or not.”

“
Then why isn’t he here?”
Gregovitch demanded. “That is what your people are wondering. If
this human really is yours, if you are happy about that fact, why
isn’t he here with you, being claimed over and over? Why aren’t you
preparing him for what is to come?”

The Beast shifted, because there was
much he was willing to share with his brother, there always had
been, Gregovitch was his confidante, but this...

“
Brother?” Gregovitch
said, his voice softening. “Why let him go?”

“
I am loath to admit it,”
the Beast whispered. “Even to myself.”

“
Admit it to
me.”

And so the Beast took a deep breath
and gave voice to the thoughts that had been plaguing him for
weeks. “I did not want to force him to stay. I wanted him to choose
to do so.”

“
Choose?” Gregovitch said,
as if he had never heard the word.

The Beast nodded. “Yes.”

Silence, and then, “You did not give
him enough time to do that! He was here for less than twenty-four
hours.”

“
I thought that would be
enough,” the Beast grated. “I thought he would feel the connection
as I did.”

“
Brother…” Gregovitch
sighed. “If he was one of us he would have, but he is not, he
is
human
.”

“
I know.”

“
You were planning to wait
him out? Hoping he would
choose
to return to you?”

The words sounded so odd
coming from his brother’s mouth, but that was exactly what the
Beast
had
planned. To give Tobias time, to wait until he
wanted
to return, until
his craving was such that he would not be able to
resist…

“
Yes,” the Beast admitted.
“If not immediately then…”

“
You thought he would
return once the changes began?”

“
Yes.”

Gregovitch sighed. “Only he has not.”
A pause and then, “He is stubborn.”

“
He is resisting it,” the
Beast snapped. “Resisting my call.”

“
Then there is no choice
in the matter,” Gregovitch said. “You
must
go to him. The turning is going
to happen. If you are not there when it does…”

“
He will be unable to
control it,” the Beast said. “Unable to understand it.”

“
He is going to become one
of us,” Gregovitch said. “Whether he wants to or not, whether he
resists it or not, and if this male really
is
your mate, if you want your
people to accept him…”

“
Then I have to bring him
home,” the Beast said, and he knew then that Gregovitch was
right,
had
known
it for some days but had been unwilling to admit it. Fact was,
there could be no more waiting around, hoping that Tobias would see
sense, that the mate bond would be enough to override whatever else
he was feeling. The Beast would have to take charge of this
situation, and he had to do so immediately.

He was going to have to force his mate
to submit.

Chapter Three

Tobias watched, eyes wide, as Layla
sat down to the left of him. She chose a part of the cliff that was
in no way flat or smooth, one that Tobias had avoided these past
weeks because granite or not, it looked like it might crumble given
the slightest provocation. She didn’t seem to notice though, or
maybe she didn’t care, because she lowered herself with graceful
movements, her legs dangling over the cliff in no time, her robes
being whipped into a frenzy by the wind.

“
Layla?” he said, and it
was part greeting, part question.

She tilted her head and shot him a
smile. As she did so Tobias had to draw in a shaky breath, because
those eyes…they were almost a perfect yellow, and he hadn’t seen
eyes like that since he had left the underground city. Down there
they all had the same yellow eyes, though Tobias had no idea why,
and when he’d asked the Beast he’d been brushed off with an answer
that, at the time, had been completely unsatisfying, but then he’d
been so confused by everything that he hadn’t bothered to push.
Much of what had happened below ground had been like that, and
given the chance, there were many things that Tobias would change
in hindsight...

“
Who else?” Layla
asked.

Tobias looked around, chiefly to
ensure that she was alone. He didn’t much fancy getting into
another fight with her fiancé, though, in truth, Tobias suspected
he’d have more of a chance against him now than he did back then.
If he felt stronger then surely it followed that he was stronger?
Tobias thought as much, but perhaps it was better he not try it
out.

“
What are you doing here?”
he asked once he was sure that her fiancé was nowhere in
sight.

She shrugged. “I often leave the
underground city. I get…restless.”

“
Restless?” he asked, the
disbelief in his voice obvious to the both of them. “Last time you
escaped I was knocked unconscious. I thought I was rescuing
you.”

She laughed so softly that Tobias
wasn’t even entirely that sure she had. “Rescuing me?” she asked.
“That’s sweet. Wrong. But sweet.”

“
If you hadn’t been
waiting outside my apartment…” He paused. “I would never have ended
up below ground.”

“
I know,” she said. “And
I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean to involve you in any of this. It
was simply unavoidable. Don’t worry though,” she added. “Karl won’t
come after me this time. I’ve told him that if he wants to keep me
he has to let me go now and then. I…” She paused. “I need to come
home now and then.”

“
Home?”

Layla nodded, and as she did so, her
yellow eyes were suddenly filled with something that looked a lot
like pain. It was that which stopped Tobias from demanding to know
why she had even been in his building. Why she had caused a
situation that had changed his entire fucking life.

“
I thought you knew that I
was originally an outsider?” she said slowly. “That I wasn’t born
below the ground. I used to live up here, you know, in the valley.”
She gestured to her left, where the town proper sat.

“
You lived here?” Tobias
asked, realizing that Layla had answered one of his questions
without even realizing. “Is that why you were in my building that
night? You were trying to come home?”

She nodded. “An exit comes out up
here, from one of the tunnels. It was supposed to be sealed, but I
found a way around it. It’s the easiest way out.” She waved a hand
at the view in front of them. “Besides I like it up here. I sat in
your spot so many times, watching the waves, wandering what else
was out there beyond this little town.”

“
How long ago?” he asked,
and they both knew what he meant.

She frowned. “Just a couple of
years.”

“
And your
family?”

She laughed then, and it was the first
hint of pleasure he had heard from her. “I never really had one. I
drifted here from somewhere else. Ended up here by chance more than
anything else. Or at least that was what I thought.” She sighed.
“It’s different now of course. I have so much family. So many of
them. And there is no drifting for me anymore.”

“
How did you end up down
there?” Tobias asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not allowed
to talk about that. He has forbidden it.”

“
He
?” the word left Tobias’ lips on little more than a whisper,
because he knew who she meant immediately, almost like he had been
waiting for her to say it.

“
You know who,” she
said.

The
Beast
, and suddenly Tobias’ heart was
racing in a way that he was painfully familiar with. “Does he know
you’re up here?”

She nodded. “Probably. I swear
sometimes he knows everything that happens both below and above.
It’s why Karl always manages to find me. Well, that and the fact
that I tend to end up back here every time I go
wandering.”

Hadn’t Tobias thought the very same
thing? That the Beast always seemed to know what was happening,
what he was thinking, how he was going to react? Tobias shivered,
because it hadn’t occurred to him up until now, but Layla was the
first contact he’d had with the underground world, and by extension
the Beast, since he’d left. “What did he—”

“
Say about you?” Layla
shook her head. “Nothing.”

Disappointment washed through Tobias,
and it was so intense that he sucked in a shocked breath.
“Nothing?”

“
But then he wouldn’t,”
Layla said. “Not to me. Probably not to anyone.”

“
But…” Tobias was suddenly
overwhelmed with the desire to ask her for more details.

How was the Beast?

How had he seemed?

What was he doing?

The questions filled him,
and along with them a desperate desire to know the answers. And in
that moment it occurred to Tobias all over again how odd this
feeling he had for the Beast was. Tobias had never been infatuated
before, never been in love, but he was sure that this, an
all-consuming feeling, was not normal. The way he felt for the
Beast, the way he was constantly
there
in his thoughts, it wasn’t
right, it didn’t make sense, and Tobias feared there was more to it
than he realized.

He opened his mouth to ask the
questions that plagued him, but snapped it shut a moment later.
Hadn’t he promised himself that he wouldn’t do this? That he would
resist whatever plan the Beast had in mind for him? Resist whatever
transformation his body was going through? Because whatever it was,
it was something the Beast had caused, it had to be, and it was
something that Tobias had not consented to. Layla being here did
not change anything, and he had to remember that.

He had to stay strong!

Quickly, and because he didn’t know
what else to do to dislodge the combined disappointment and
curiosity burning in his gut, Tobias changed the subject. “So you
were here because this used to be your home,” he said. “Do you
still see this as your home? Even though you’re down there
now?”

“
It’s complicated,” Layla
said slowly. “Because like you I did not have a choice as to
whether I wanted to be taken below.” She paused. “But unlike you I
also didn’t have the choice to leave, not for a long
time.”

It was as Tobias had suspected, but he
still said the words. “They abducted you.”

She shrugged. “They don’t see it like
that.”

“
But that’s what it
is.”

Another shrug. “I guess.”

“
And now?”

“
It’s my home,” she said.
“As much as up here ever was. The option to leave forever, to
return to a normal life is gone.”

A normal life…

With those words Layla opened the door
to all the other questions Tobias wanted to ask, and yet he paused.
Why? He wasn’t sure. Maybe because part of him, the part that it
seemed Layla was coming up here to try to find, didn’t want to know
the answers. Almost like if he didn’t know the truth he would be
able to ignore it, to resist it even. And once again, like the
Beast had done so many times, Layla seemed to know what he was
thinking.

“
I can’t answer your
questions,” she said.

“
Why?”

She gave him a sad smile. “It’s
forbidden.”

“
Forbidden?” Tobias shook
his head, something like anger sparking in his gut then. Whatever
the Beast had done to him, whatever changes he was going through,
they were happening quickly, increasing with each passing day, and
he knew, somewhere deep down, Tobias
knew
that they would reach crisis
point. He just didn’t know what he was going to do when they
did.

“
You have to go back,”
Layla said.

He clenched his fists, the anger
combining with something else entirely now. It might have been
fear, but it could just have easily have been excitement. “I can’t
do that.”