His Beauty, Her Beast

Chapter One

Maeve

I was sixteen years old when I learned my future.

Before I was even born, it was mapped out and there was nothing I nor anyone else could do.

Imagine being born with the sole purpose of being sold to pay off a debt you had nothing to do with.

That’s me. Maeve Taylor, born to be sold, used, and possibly even killed.

I learned the truth five years ago.

From what I had been able to find out, twenty-one years ago, my parents decided they were better than a crime lord, Mafia boss, or Bratva leader.

I’m not exactly sure who they pissed off, only that they did, and were sentenced to death.

Obviously, this was not the world everyone knew, where there was justice, law, and protection.

No, this was the world people told stories about, sold movies, and romanticized—the black market, the dark underworld.

The place everyone knew existed but rarely dared to touch.

My family had been part of it. So, rather than face the true punishment for their crimes, they made a deal.

Their first-born daughter would be sacrificed on her twenty-first birthday.

That’s me. I’m the oldest daughter. Not my sister Lilliana, who, frankly, is a spoiled little bitch.

It didn’t matter what I did. That was another little detail. It didn’t matter if I studied hard, was a good person, or did everything right. I was going to be sold.

I was not a nasty person, nor a mean one.

However, realizing the reality of my situation and feeling that clock ticking, I did everything in my power to make life hell for my parents.

My arms are covered in tattoos, from my chest down to my wrist. Vines that appeared dead but were alive, with black roses.

The ink took a long time, and I love it.

I had a few choice tattoos randomly on my body, but time had been running out.

I cut my long hair, which used to be right down to my ass.

I have raven hair, but added streaks of silver, because I thought it was cool, and it went just a little past my shoulders.

It was messy, cute, and I loved it. Gone was the woman who conformed to everything her parents said, just because she trusted them.

The harsh reality was, I was standing in a dark room with just a few spotlights, along with several other women, and there were even a couple of guys.

I would have expected the room to be dirty, grimy with the scent of desperation filling the air, but it was none of that.

This place reeked of luxury. My parents also happened to be wealthy, but no amount of wealth was ever going to get them out of this situation.

This just fucking sucked. There were men and women looking at all of us.

I’m not sure of the exact details, but someone was going to take me tonight. I would become theirs. I was no longer Maeve Taylor, I was whomever they asked me to be.

Despite my rebellion, the only thing I couldn’t bring myself to do was lose my virginity. How messed up was that?

I’d learned to fight, drink, and curse as good as the rest of them. I spent the last year of my life living. I stopped studying, because what was the fucking point? There was no life for me. I was at the mercy of whoever I now belonged to. There were no stories to go by, no advice.

I stumbled onto this information while going into my father’s study, looking for an encyclopedia.

I’m kind of old-school. I don’t like searching the Internet.

It’s too ... clean. I love the smell of a musty old book, with information as accurate as the moment it had been written.

We all know what keeps happening to poor Pluto.

My family didn’t even stay.

My father and mother drugged me, making it hard to run away. I was aware of everything. They didn’t knock me out completely, just enough to get me into a car and escorted to a private location. There were no tears. No sadness. It was nothing more than a business transaction.

I guess it explained why they were not in a rush to get me out of the house. They were quite happy for me to not make any rash decisions and just ... enjoy my life.

They never loved me. I was a means to an end.

They dumped my ass and took off, finally paying the debt they owed. I guess I should be thankful they had also provided the dress I wore. It was white, kind of sheer, it covered my privates, and I guess they thought they were doing the right thing. Fucking assholes.

Up until I was sixteen, I loved my parents.

Sure, they were not the most loving. They didn’t give me hugs or tell me it was going to be all right when I fell.

If I hurt myself and required a hospital trip, they were all over me.

Now, I realize why. They didn’t want their precious debt to be spoiled goods.

But I stopped loving them a long time ago. I meant nothing to them, other than freedom from a debt that hung over their heads.

Something was going on. I felt the whole line of us—products—tense up. Is that what we were? Products and goods? I hate this. There was no way out.

And that was when I saw him.

The moment I looked into his dark brown eyes, I could see he was sexy, but there was something more to him. A mixture of good and evil. He looked sexy, like you could trust him, but the way he looked at me, I knew he was anything but. This man was a beast.

He only looked at me. I’m not exactly sure what that meant. Part of me wanted to see who else was in the room, but I couldn’t. It was like the moment his eyes captured mine, there was no way out.

I was not sure how this process worked. I had no idea who I was going to end up with. All I knew was I’d be lucky to make it through the year.

****

Draven

She’s got fire.

I like that. I don’t want a simpering submissive with no backbone. In all honesty, I fucking hated this bullshit. This was repayment for what happened twenty-one years ago, when I was nothing more than a fourteen-year-old boy.

Admittedly, I was not like a lot of fourteen-year-olds. My father saw the gift I had for killing, for ruling, and I was not bound by any rules or law. I killed without mercy.

There were a few things I wouldn’t kill.

Against all odds, I happen to be an animal lover, especially dogs.

I would never harm an animal. I don’t see the joy in that.

Hunting dogs, cats, birds, or any form of wildlife just doesn’t sit well with me.

Some might think I’m a pussy, but there is no real challenge in that.

A knife, a gun, and you’re the king of the jungle. I like my opponents to be like me—able to fight. I’m not after easy wins. I love the joy of the battle.

Which is why I can’t fucking stand this. This is no real battle. The women and men here can’t fight. They are a means to an end. Debt collectors or debt settlers.

My father, bless his evil soul, made a deal with the Taylors.

They had attempted to kill him, turned traitor on him, and tried to take power from him.

My father was going to kill them all, completely wipe out the family, until a deal was struck.

It was a different kind of deal. A life for a life.

Or in this case, a life for a family name.

The Taylors agreed to keep trying for a daughter. Not only did they have one daughter, but they had two, in case one died.

Maeve’s life was in my hands.

This was not an auction. Technically, there was chance for some wiggle room, but there was no one else I wanted. All the men and women here were collecting a debt. If someone wanted to trade, now was the time to do so.

I was not going to trade. I liked what I saw. Maeve Taylor was mine.

It would be a lot of fun to make this torment last. One glance around the room, and I saw a couple of men were not happy with their ... products.

Maeve was even more perfect than I imagined. While the other women were pure and virginal, Maeve was inked. The other women didn’t have a single mark or scratch, which made Maeve stand out like a sore thumb.

In the last twenty-four hours, I had all her stuff transferred to my home in the country.

When she learned her place, I would be able to take her out by my side. For now, I wanted to play these mind games with her. It might be kind of fun to see how hard she could be pushed.

Many of these men and women wouldn’t last a month. There were some sick and twisted people who enjoyed taking a life ... owning a life. They liked to hurt, to hunt, to stalk prey. That was not me.

Maeve was no match for me. It wasn’t a fight I wanted to play out.

The truth was, I wanted to kill the Taylors, not take their daughter.

However, she had intrigued me for the past year.

Her details had been released to me on her eighteenth birthday.

Maeve was not aware of this, but I could have demanded her life then.

Instead, I decided to wait until she was twenty-one.

I had toyed with the idea of just killing her.

It would be cold, and this sorry mess would be over and done.

However, Maeve was nothing like her parents or her family. She was different. I imagined it was because they had treated her differently. The first-born daughter didn’t have a life. They stopped her from being able to live. Until she learned the truth and rebelled.

Only, Maeve didn’t rebel the whole way. She didn’t give up her virginity.

Her body was still pure, and I loved to see that fire.

The ink was stunning. She had no idea I was aware of every move she made.

If she ever went too far into that darkness, I was there to keep her safe.

Maeve was going to make it in one piece.

This was not a feeling I was used to, but it was one I was more than willing to explore. I liked women. I liked obedient women. At least, that is what I thought, until now. Watching Maeve, I wanted that fire and to dance with it.

Stepping up onto the podium, I watched as the other women flinched.

They didn’t hold my attention. Maeve was mine.

Her hands were bound in metal cuffs, to which I had the key.

Pulling the key out of my pocket, I released the cuffs and let them fall to the floor.

No one stopped me. No one questioned if I wanted to trade.

They all knew not to mess with me. Those that did never lived to tell the tale.

I took her hand and met resistance, so I wrapped my fingers around her neck and pressed my lips against her ear.

“I suggest you move with purpose. If you don’t, I can make those men hurt you, and then I will make you pay.”

The threat was there, but I would not let another man touch her. She had a choice. This could go easy, but there was only so much I was willing to do. I wouldn’t trade her to anyone, but I also wouldn’t tolerate her acting like a brat.

I understood that she was pissed. Who wouldn’t be? But that didn’t change the fact that we were in this situation and there was no way out of it, for her or me. We were stuck.

Maeve took a second, slightly longer than I hoped for, but finally her gaze found mine and she stepped a little closer to me.

Now, that was progress as far as I was concerned.