Page 15 of Destined Dawn

I consider lying to her. But hiding the truth from her was foolish. It meant I wasn’t there to protect her when I should have been. I won’t make that mistake again. Even if it costs me distance between us.

“I need to change,” I tell her. Her brows knit together. She doesn’t understand. “I’ve spent too long in my human form. I need to let my beast out.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that was how it worked.”

“Yeah,” I say, unable to help from smiling at her. “The longer I remain in human form, the harder it is to control him.”

“So, were you secretly changing into a beast the entire time we were at the academy?”

I shake my head. “I was taking pills to help control things but …” I rub my hand over my head, feeling fucking foolish. “Then you came along and drove my beast into a frenzy and it got a whole lot harder to control him.”

She rolls her eyes like I’m exaggerating.

“It’s true. He’s pretty darn obsessed with you.”

She steps closer to me, lowering her voice. “He said some stuff to me,” her cheeks pinken, “about wanting to devour me.”

Inwardly I groan. Fuck, yes, I’d like to devour her too.

“Erm, I don’t think he wants to eat you, Rhianna. In fact, I think he wants to eat you out.”

She swallows. “That is pretty …” Revolting? Disgusting? Sick? Yeah, I know what we are. “Intimidating,” she says.

The beast scrabbles inside my body and I flinch.

“Is it hurting you?”

I grimace, trying to force a smile onto my face. “It’s fine. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“If it’s causing you pain, Spencer, you should let him out.”

I shake my head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“For me?”

“Yes, and for them,” I say, gesturing my head towards the kitchen. “I can’t control him.”

“You really think he’d hurt me, that he’d hurt them too?”

I mull this question over. Inside me, the beast snarls at me, insulted I’d even consider the possibility. “I don’t know,” I say, earning myself a stab of pain from the beast within me.

“I can look after myself, Spencer,” she tells me, lifting her chin in that damn infuriating act of defiance.

“The beast is powerful.”

“So am I, remember?” she says with a huge dollop of sarcasm. “I’m the girl from some prophecy.”

“But pretty damn hopeless at self defense.”

She pouts. “I was starting to get better at it before you left.”

“Yeah,” I admit. “You were. Maybe we should resume those lessons.” Because I’d really, really like to get my hands on her again. The beast practically drools at the prospect.

“I’d like that.”

The beast strains against his fleshy confines, desperate to break free, and I curl in on myself, straining with all my might to keep him contained.

“Spencer, this is stupid. Let him out.” I pry open my eyes. “I don’t like seeing you in pain like this.”