Chapter Twenty Four

Beast

For a moment, it is quiet between us. I’ve asked her how much she wants to know, but she’s not responded. It’s almost like my question has rendered her speechless.

I pick up random thoughts and the sounds of chains in the background. Her extreme worry for her grandmother is prominent. Then there are her feelings of pain when she touches the bars and flinches away because of the searing pain.

The intense desire to rescue her from the imbecile makes me want to rush towards her, but unfortunately, I am limited by the curse and can only do so much.

Lily tenses for a moment as Corbin comes into her mind, and I figure he is there. A few long seconds pass before her feelings relax. He must be leaving.

Lily?

Her voice in her mind sounds like she’s choking back sobs. He put these chains on me again. They hurt so badly.

I wish I could be there. It hurts to hear her like this, but I can’t go to her.

Why can’t you escape the woods? Tell me everything. I want to know it all. Please distract me from the pain.

For a second, I wonder where I should start. Should I begin at the very beginning eight hundred years ago or start where my part of the journey began two hundred years ago?

Both are awful and filled with things I’d rather forget, especially where my journey picked up.

Since you insist, where would you like me to begin?

I can feel her searching for the right question to ask, but she eventually dismisses those thoughts. It's interesting to see where her mind goes, but ultimately, she gives me a simple request. The beginning.

She hasn’t specified which beginning, so I decide to start with my life. It’s a little easier to talk about, though some I won’t be able to until the curse is broken.

Beast, are you there? Why do you feel excited? Is that the right word?

Oops. I let my emotions flood through the bond.

Sorry, sometimes I daydream a little too much and it’s not like I talk to people often. The beginning of my tale starts two hundred years ago. I was a young lad in a village much like yours and one day, a witch with her sister came to our village. At that point, I was only twenty and of age to take a mate. She had a long, flowing dress on and her beauty captivated everyone. I never dreamed of the destruction she brought into the village. The males started fighting for her, but I was immune to her magic.

Lily barges into my thoughts. If you were immune, then how did she curse you?

Chucking, I realize this may take longer than I originally thought. I will tell you, but you have to let me finish speaking, little wolf. Her voice was like a siren song that bewitched everyone. It didn’t work for me. Her name was Natalia and her sister was named Emmeline. I became her target shortly after that.

Lily's emotions are everywhere as she tries to connect the dots. So, because you didn't fall for her like the others, she punished you?

Sighing, I try to block out the painful memories. More or less. I tried to escape her by running into the forest, but she followed me. Anyway, she cursed me to the very place I found sanctuary in.

Sadness is all I feel radiating from Lily. That is so sad.

She said I was no better than the beasts of the forest, so I would become one, never to leave the forest, though she put two exceptions in.

Lily grows quiet as she mulls things over. What are the exceptions?

I want to tell her, but I don't want her to choose it out of guilt. There is no doubt in my mind what she'd do if she knew. She may have been abused her entire life, but she is still soft and loving.

I guess I'm quiet for too long because I feel a light brush against my mind.

Beast, why won't you tell me?

Exhaling, I finally give her a quick response. It doesn't matter what terms she has given me for freeing myself or the nights I can escape my forest prison. The only thing that matters is getting you out of that dreadful cell.

She grows quiet and, just as I think she has fallen asleep, she pushes against my mind again. Hopefully, you'll tell me one day, but I’m betting the exceptions you speak of are days you can leave. You used one to roll in my bed. That’s it, isn’t it?

My cheeks feel hot under all this fur as a blush creeps up along my neck. Guilty, but yes, that was one night I could get out.

She ponders my words and then brushes it off. Well, there must be perimeters for you to come out of the woods and get rid of the curse.

Shaking my head, I know she won't let this go. I have one night for the new moon, which I used. The other can be used on a full moon, but after that, well, I won't go into it.

Sadness washes through the bond and my face feels wet, though I haven't shed a tear.

You don't have to go into it. I understand. If you come out on the full moon, then that is your last time out of the woods. You'll be stuck there forever after that with no escape. I'm not sure what the condition is that would break it, but I don't want you to waste it on saving me.

I feel exasperated as she states the obvious. She is correct. I will become trapped here if I go rescue her on the full moon, but there is more to it that I can't explain to her. I'm technically trapped either way you look at it, unless that one condition is met.

You're going to get out of there, I know it.

She pauses for a moment before she comes up with another question. Did the witch tell you how to break it?

Yes, she did, but I cannot share those details, as it could interfere with my freedom.

I get sleepy and lay my head on my paws. As I drift off, I feel her nudge in again. Wait, are you from this village?

My eyes open in alarm. I hadn't told her that, had I?

I feel her at the back of my mind, but it doesn't seem like she sorted through my memories. Lily, you shouldn't be thinking about those things or trying to figure out who I am.

Fine. How about I tell you the story that my parents told me? Think of it as a gift for telling me part of your story.

She lets out a hiss as the cuffs burn her arms again, and I whimper with her. A story will be nice.

My parents told me this story when I was a little girl. It's not like I could explore the world, so they told me through stories of a time when things were different. There was once a young boy, who was about twenty years old, that loved a woman very much. He hunted for her in the woods, but she was cunning and would disappear on him. Eventually, he came to a babbling brook to get a drink. As he leaned down, he caught sight of her in the water. The moon rose high, and she shifted into a beautiful white wolf. He wanted to be with her so badly that he asked the moon to make him a wolf, so he could be with her. They lived happily ever after together in the woods, roaming wherever he wanted to go.

My heart sinks to my paws. There in the story she was told as a child is the condition to freeing me. It’s been perverted into something it’s not, though. The woman who longed to become a wolf to stay with me was Natalia.

That was beautiful, my Lily. Now, rest.

But I don’t want to. You’re the one who comes into my dreams, aren’t you?

Her question catches me off guard, and I don’t know how to answer it. Technically, yes I am and have been since we started meeting in them sometime after she turned nineteen.

Yes.

There’s a slight pause as thoughts roll around in her mind. Can you distract me again? Those dreams are sometimes the only peace I have.

With us being awake, I’m not sure how much she will see, but I know she might feel it.

I imagine myself caressing her face and feel her surprise. Then I continue to think of running my hands along her body as I lean in to kiss her like the man I used to be.

You’re kissing me?

This is what you asked for and I have waited so long for you that I’m having a hard time holding back.

There’s silence and then I feel her, the gentlest caress against my mouth.

I wish this was happening instead of only in our thoughts.

Me too, Lily. Oh, how I wish I was free and could have you as mine, but I don’t let that thought slip through our bond.

Now is not the time.