Beast (MC Fables #1)

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

B EAST

The dungeon of the clubhouse is not a pleasurable place to visit. Lit only by lanterns, the windy corridors are bone-cold and festering with rats squeaking and scurrying through the unforgiving chambers looking for food. Cobblestone walls drip with water, and the strong stench of blood and piss leftover from the years when this dungeon was used to torture prisoners—long before the Knights of St. Boniface took over the castle—still permeates the air.

Gaston is chained to the wall in one of the cells. Blood drips from his broken nose and the deep split in his lip.

“You asshole,” he seethes as I enter the cell. He spits blood onto damp floor. “Let me out of these chains.”

I pace in front of him, considering what I am going to do to him. “In due course.”

His eyes track me. “You’re upset about the girl.”

I stop in front of him. “You were about to rape her.”

“So the fuck what?”

I grab his face, barely containing my disgust. “Only assholes rape.”

Gaston snarls, baring his blood-coated teeth. “It was harmless fun.”

“I don’t think Belle or her uncle feel the same way.”

He rips his chin from my grasp and glares up at me. “What do you care about an old man and some slut?”

I punch the brick wall beside his ear and he jumps. Pain explodes like a mushroom cloud in my knuckles but eases quickly.

“I warned you to stay away from them. But you waited until I was distracted so you could go back and finish what you started. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“He owes the club money.”

“And that entitles you to beat up the old man and rape the girl?”

“At the very least,” he snarls. “They’re nobodies. I’m a Knight, we rule this town, these people. She should be grateful I’m willing to put my cock in her.”

I barely hold back from driving my fist into his face, and the only reason is because he’s my brother. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Don’t play all high and mighty with me. You saw her bent over that table. You saw how that luscious ass was begging to be pounded. Tell me it didn’t make you hard.”

“Rape isn’t my thing.”

“No, but fucking a sweet piece of ass is.” He makes a point of looking at each one of the scars on my face and smirks. “Sorry, it used to be your thing. All that sweet pussy you used to indulge in. All the club whores who used to climb on your cock and bounce on your balls. It must be driving you crazy not to touch. A man can only go without for so long.”

Ignoring his taunt, I bring my face in close to his. “She is off limits.”

He scoffs. “No one is off limits to—” His eyes flare and he starts to laugh. He starts to laugh real hard. “Oh that is beautiful. You like this girl. She means something to you. Awwww, my brother, the born again virgin has got himself a little crush.”

I grab his chin and squeeze. “What are you up to, Gaston? Who were those assholes with you tonight?”

He smirks. “Associates.”

I grit my teeth. “That’s not a fucking answer. Who the fuck are they?”

Gaston has always aligned himself with the type of scum who roam the abandoned rail tunnels beneath the town. The drug dealers and pimps who prey on the na?ve and the weak.

“They’re my drinking buddies,” he says, his black eyes gleaming. He chuckles. “ Were my drinking buddies, thanks to you. Now I suppose I’ll need to find new ones.”

“I’m sure there’s no shortage of scum for you to choose from.”

“Or maybe I’ll look up an old friend. One with big blue eyes and long blonde hair, and an ass that begs to be fucked.”

He’s taunting me. Because my dumbass brother doesn’t know when to quit.

I get right in his face. “Have you forgotten who I am?”

“How can I forget.” His lip curls. “My brother, the president.”

“That’s right. I am the goddamn president of this club, and the only reason you are not festering in the bottom of The Well is because you are my brother.”

The Well is where a lot of our rivals have met their fate. No one survives the fall into the dark pit.

He scoffs. “I’d like to see someone try.”

Stupid motherfucker doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up.

I wrap my hand around his throat. “Don’t tempt me.”

Gaston likes to hang out in the seedy bars with people who live in the shadows doing things that don’t belong in the light. He likes his violent delights and lewd deeds.

Everyone knew there was something not right with him when he was just a boy. The way he’d grin with evil delight when he lasered insects with a magnifying glass and sunlight. The way he’d pull the heads off the crawdads in the pond on the far side of the clubhouse property.

I believed making him a soldier for the Knights would give him a sense of purpose with the club, instead it only increased the envious disdain he’s held for the club— and me— since I was announced as the next President.

It’s getting harder to control him, and it’s only going to end badly. For whom, I’m not sure.

Tonight was the last straw.

I grab the patch on the front of his cut that reads Soldier and rip it off.

“You sonofabitch,” he seethes. “You’re taking my position in the club away from me?”

“No.” I pull my knife from the sheath on my belt and slice it through his leather cut. The vest falls away. "I'm taking the club from you."

Gaston lets out a wild growl.

“You’re banishing me because I put my hands on a nobody slut? You’re choosing her over me , your own goddamn brother?”

“You brought this on yourself.” I re-sheath my knife. “The Knights don’t rape.”

“You can’t do this to me.”

“I just did.”

“So what now? You going to leave me chained to the wall?”

“No, I’m throwing you out of the clubhouse.” I release the lock on his shackles and lean in real close so we’re eye level and he can see how serious I am. “And you should be thankful that’s all I’m doing to you. There’s a special place in hell for you, Gaston, and I’m not afraid to send you there sooner rather than later.”

He snarls at me. “All of this because of her?”

Yes.

“I’m giving you a chance to keep breathing. I suggest you don’t waste it. It’s time for you to get the fuck out of here.”

“And go where?” he asks, rubbing his wrists.

“I’m sure you know plenty of dark little holes you can crawl into.” My gaze meets his. “Maybe one of your associates will help you.”

His eyes narrow to slits. “You will pay for this.”

I step forward, towering over him. “I’ve been paying since the day you were born.”

He scoffs but his bravado is short lived when he realizes I am serious. He’s done with the club. He is now a Nameless Man. Men who have betrayed the club and whose names are never mentioned in the halls of the clubhouse again. The only time their name can be spoken is in Church.

“Fine, I’ll get my things.”

I push a hand into his chest to stop him. “We’ll send your things.”

“You’re not letting me into my home?”

“This isn’t your home.”

The muscles on his hollow cheeks tighten. My brother wants to murder me. Its written all over his face.

“Dodger would hate this,” he says.

“No.” I glare at him. “He’d do exactly the same.”

Gaston tilts his head. His eyes are gleaming. “Well, we won’t ever know about that since he disappeared now, will we?”

The way he says it.

Like he’s suggesting something.

Knows something.

“You got something to say about Dodger’s disappearance?”

“Do you?”

His eyes bulge when I grab him by the throat and squeeze my fingers around his windpipe. “You suggesting I know something?”

His face turning red, he tries to slap my hands away. But he’s no match for me, and I have half a mind to keep squeezing until there is no life left in him.

But that tiny morsel of humanity left in me reminds me he’s my brother, and I let him go.

He falls against the stone wall, coughing and spluttering as he tries to regain his breath.

“Get the fuck out of my clubhouse,” I growl.

Gaston snarls and sniffs, then spits blood at my feet. “This is my home.”

“Not anymore.”

Gaston’s gaze is full of murder. He wants to beat the life out of me. The desire burns like dark fire in his eyes.

But he’s not willing to pick that fight. Not yet. “I won’t forget this. Keep looking over your shoulder, Beast, because one day I’ll be there and I will have my revenge.”

“That’s something a coward would say.” I take a step backward and open my arms wide. “Why wait—take your best shot here and now. Do it.”

He’s tempted. But also a little afraid.

“I’m no match for you,” he admits.

I smirk. “No. You’re not. Just remember that.”

Hate is bright in his expression, and the silence between us is tight.

When I don’t say anything, he turns and disappears down the tunnel leading out to the cliff face.

Minutes later, his haunting voice echoes back through the tunnel.

“Goodbye… brother .”

But we both know this isn’t goodbye.

Not by a long shot.