Submit to the Beast (8 page)

He had been given no
choice.

And if Tobias were to believe what the
Beast was telling him, about there being some sort of bond between
them that could not be denied, then he hadn’t either, they both
were caught up in something they had no say in.

This was always going to
happen
.

Was that really possible?
To Tobias, in that moment, it seemed that anything was. Abruptly,
he recalled how he had felt the first time he realized that there
really was a city below the cliffs, both surrounding, and
containing, the human town in the midst of it. That tunnels snaked
up from that city into the bay, the forest that was miles from the
town, even the next bay over. And that people, and though Tobias
was yet to find out exactly what they were, but those people were
not the same as those living in the town. They were yellow-eyed,
tawny haired, and they chose to be below ground…
because they’re not quite human
.

Tobias shivered at that thought and
dropped his hands. He looked up at the Beast, and it seemed
painfully obvious to him then, like he had denied it for as long as
he could but deny it no more. Not here, not below ground where it
had all started.

“
What are you people?” he
whispered.

“
I am not going to tell
you,” the Beast said. “Because soon you will see it for yourself,
and though it might not seem like it right now, it will be easier
for you to experience it than to hear it.”

“
How will that be easier?”
Tobias asked.

“
Because,” the Beast sat
down next to him, depressing the bed only ever so slightly, “when
it happens, the way you will feel, you will instinctively
understand it all. It will all make sense to you then.”

“
But how?

“
We’re all connected,” the
Beast explained. “Our community. When you become part of it you
will be connected too.”

“
But…” Tobias shook his
head. “You’re saying that you…claimed me…only because you had
to.”

“
No,” the Beast said. “I
am saying that when I saw you I knew you were mine, and mine alone,
just as I am yours. The choice was taken from both of us then
because this is what is
right
for us. That is the way of our
people.”

“
And were you happy about
that?” Tobias asked, and he wasn’t sure what he wanted the Beast to
say because during all those weeks alone, the weeks resisting the
call to return, of telling himself that he would not do as the
Beast desired, Tobias had simply assumed that the Beast wanted him
simply because he did. It had never occurred to him that it could
be otherwise.

The Beast leaned forward so that had
no choice but to look at him. “It’s complicated,” he
said.

Tobias’ heart skipped a beat then,
because if the Beast hadn’t wanted him… “That means no.”

The Beast sighed. “It means it is
complicated. I am the Alpha of our group, Tobias. Whether you knew
it or not, whether you understood it or not, you felt that as we
fucked. It is why you were happy to submit to me, to let me lick
you, to suckle you, to fuck you.”

Tobias couldn’t help but nod.
“Yes.”

“
Because I am the Alpha,”
the Beast said. “It was expected that I would take a mate from my
own kind.”

“
And you got
me.”

“
Which I am more than
happy about,” the Beast said, and he grasped Tobias’ hands. “Never
doubt that, Tobias. But my people may have to experience a period
of adjustment. That is not to say they
won’t
adjust, but it may take some
time. Of course, it would help if they didn’t have to see me
constantly dragging you back below ground, if you came willingly,
happily.”

“
I don’t know what to
think,” Tobias whispered. “I am so fucking confused.”

“
That confusion will
clear,” the Beast said. “Very soon, once it begins, everything will
make sense.” He paused. “It will have to.”

“
But what if it doesn’t?”
Tobias asked. “What if, whenever what happens is going to happen,
what if I still feel this way? And,” he pulled his hands free. “The
fact that it is going to happen? I don’t know that I want it. I’m
almost sure I don’t. I know you say you had no choice, but you took
all mine away. Not just whether I wanted you—”

“
Do you want me?” the
Beast demanded.

Tobias groaned. “You know I do, but I
don’t know if I want the rest, and yet I have no choice. Whatever
you did to me is already happening.”

“
Yes,” the Beast said “I…”
He looked up, to the granite ceiling, to the something beyond. “It
is, Tobias. Any moment now it will begin.”

Tobias gasped, a shiver running
through him, something like urgency hitting him with the force of a
slap. “Any moment?”

“
It is almost evening,”
the Beast said. “I can feel it, and that means we must begin our
preparations.”

Tobias reared back, the dread, the
panic, the worry, spiking all over again even with the Beast so
close, even with the new knowledge that he had, even with the
urgency—an unknown urgency—that was now running through him. “I
don’t—”

But the Beast stood up, halting
whatever it was Tobias had planned to say, and in truth, Tobias had
no idea what that was even going to be! Suddenly there was a look
on his face that Tobias had never seen before. A seriousness. A
sort of reverence.

Tobias blinked once, then again,
trying to work out why everything suddenly felt
different.

A heartbeat later and he
knew.

He
felt
it.

The changes these past
weeks, the feeling that something was looming ever closer, the
knowledge that crisis point was going to be reached…it wasn’t just
the fact that the Beast was different, or the fact that there
seemed to be a change in the air, it was
inside
of him, almost like something
was trying to break free.

Urgency.

“
It is time,” the Beast
said.

And in that moment, Tobias knew that
it was too.

Chapter Ten

It didn’t take as long to make their
way to the surface as it had to make their way down. Tobias
realized as they moved that it was because they had taken a
different route entirely, one that came out on the edge of the
forest rather than the top of the cliff. It was longer in terms of
length but took less time because it wasn’t a question of taking
twisting and turning tunnels downwards.

The journey was different in another
way too.

On the way down, Tobias had been bound
and gagged, and the Beast had carried him pretty much all the way.
He had been wrapped up in a cloud of righteous fury, outraged that
the Beast had abducted him again. Panicked over what was to come.
Wanting nothing more than to run back home.

But now? Now he was moving alongside
the Beast, and the panic running through him was of a different
kind entirely, and he couldn’t even seem to form any words.
Something was pulling him upwards, pushing him to move, making him
hurry. It was like the nights when he had been at home, excessive
energy running through him, and the only option had been to head to
the cliffs and run as fast and as far as he could.

He
felt
it.

Something was different.

Something was happening.

Urgency.

The
turning
.

“
It is nearly upon us,”
the Beast said as they took the final tunnel to the
surface.

It was just the two of
them, though Tobias realized that others from below ground were
also heading to the surface. He had seen them as they left the
Beast’s private chambers. They had taken different routes, but
there was no doubt they were heading out, and as they did, as
Tobias watched them, he began to realize, to suspect, what was
really happening now. Perhaps it was simply an instinctual
knowledge, but Tobias understood that whatever was going to happen,
it couldn’t happen below ground, and that meant that something was
guiding it, and what
was
above ground to guide it at this time of
night?

“
The moon,” he whispered
as they came out of the exit and met the edge of the
forest.

“
Yes,” the Beast said.
“You feel it?”

Tobias looked up, a shiver running
through his frame, something like cold pinpricks racing across his
neck. “I don’t know,” Tobias said. “I feel…odd.”

He reached out almost automatically,
and the Beast grasped his hand. A moment later and Tobias’s heart
began to race. He was nervous, worried, scared.

“
I’m here,” the Beast
said. “No matter what happens know that I am here.”

“
What
is
going to happen?” Tobias hurried
to ask. “You have to tell me now. I’m…”

“
Scared?” the Beast shook
his head. “There is nothing to fear, Tobias.”

“
What’s happening to me?”
Tobias asked, because his heart was racing now, faster than Tobias
ever thought it had. More than that though, his body felt strange.
Like a million butterflies were beating inside it, like something
was trying to get out…

“
You’re turning,” the
Beast said. “Becoming one of us.”

“
Oh God…” Tobias shook his
head, looked around, had no idea what to do.

It was too soon.

Too much was happening too
quickly.

Too much was changing.

He wasn’t ready!

How could it be that just a few weeks
ago he was living his life like he always had? Finishing work,
coming home, watching television, wishing for more. But this? He
could never have expected this. Not just the Beast, but whatever
was going to come now, because Tobias knew, it was so fucking
obvious, that the next few minutes were going to change everything,
and there was not a damn thing he could do to stop it…

The clouds parted and the moon, the
full moon, came into view. It was almost, or maybe it simply was, a
signal. The moment Tobias saw it his entire body seemed to clench
in on itself. He let out a cry and fell to the floor on his hands
and knees.

Sensations filled him,
fluttering from every limb, moving along every nerve, shivering
along every cell. He sunk his hands into the mud, arched his back
and then he, no
his
body
…stretched.

He let out a cry, not from the pain,
but from the shock of what was happening. Tobias could actually
feel his limbs elongating, feel his muscles pulling, and then his
hands… He looked down, to where they were sunk in the mud, and
watched, wide-eyed, as the fingers lengthened and claws erupted
from the tips.

He cried out again, because tawny hair
was beginning to cover his skin now and it was the exact same color
as the Beast’s.

He was turning.

His body changing.

He closed his eyes, let
the sensations wash through him, let his body do whatever the moon
was urging him to do, because it
was
the moon, he knew that now, and
it
was
the bite,
his neck was tingling, the site of the Beast’s bite almost burning
now, and there was nothing he could do but let it
happen.

It was always going to have
happened.

Why the fuck hadn’t he realized
that?

His clothes began to rip as his
muscles grew. They fluttered around him in pieces. His sneakers
fell off as his feet began to change shape. Everything was falling
away.

And then it was over…and Tobias opened
his eyes.

Slowly, he looked at himself, at his
clawed hands, at his skin that was no longer skin but not fur
either, something else entirely. And he stood, and as he did so he
was no longer Tobias, no longer human, not outwardly at least…and
neither was the Beast.

Looking at him, bare, tall, broad,
yellow-eyed, tawny haired from head to toe, Tobias knew he was
looking at himself. Because they were the same now. No longer men,
but not animals, something in between. Perhaps he should have been
scared? Perhaps he should have turned and run, but Tobias could do
nothing but stare at the Beast and try to understand.

“
What am I?” he
demanded.

The Beast smiled, and
Tobias realized then that when he had named his lover he had done
so with a knowledge that had been bubbling below the surface,
because he
was
a
beast, but, and this shocked him, but it was an unavoidable truth,
he was spectacular. In his new form, it was like Tobias was looking
at the Beast as he had always been, looking at what was already
there, but it had taken this for him to see it.

And he was no longer
scared.

He was no longer anxious.

The urgency and the
confusion
had
cleared.