All Chapters of Beauty and the Alpha Beast: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

*Canaan*The world around me is muffled as I try to open my eyes. The intense pain I felt right before I passed out is still present, though I can’t feel it quite as sharply now as I could before. Justin hovers over me, holding a bottle under my snout .I assume it’s some sort of smelling salts. I almost wish he hadn’t bothered. I think I’d rather be out when my entire body feels like I’ve been trampled by a thousand stampeding horses.“Ellison and the others are under attack,” he says, jarring me back to reality. I try to sit up, but he won’t let me. “A mob of armed citizens intercepted them a few miles on the other side of the castle grounds. Three of the six guards you sent are down, and he’s wounded again. I told him to get back here, but he won’t listen. We need another plan. They lost track of Bexley, and their just getting slaughtered.”I nod in acknowledgement. He’s not wrong. With a deep breath, I close my eyes to concentrate and call out to my other best friend through the mi

*Canaan* The moment Bexley disappears behind me, I turn and rush down the hallway as quickly as I can. When I turn the corner, I see one of my warriors lying in a pool of his own blood with Garth stalking toward him, his rifle still smoking.A roar tears through my body. Even though I can’t shift, that won’t stop me from launching myself at the bastard. He doesn’t get his weapon up in time, so when I crash into him, I crush it against his body and rip into his shoulders with my gnarled teeth.“Get off me, you fucking bastard!” Garth shouts, attempting to kick me off like he did last time. I dig my claws in and continue to maul him the best I can. I don’t know what’s happening downstairs, but this asshole needs to die. Blood and muscle fills my mouth as I chew through him, spitting it aside.He shouts in anger and pain and tries again to push me off. This time, he uses his elbow for leverage and manag

*Bexley* I still don’t know how to find the vault. Anna, who was standing nearby when Justin told me where to find Canaan, spoke up and said she’d escort me. Now, I walk with her up a back stairwell away from all of the blood and gore that the staff has already begun to clean up. As we walk, she tells me a story.“It was the night of Prince Canaan’s seventeenth birthday. King Paul and Queen Sophia wanted to throw a ball and invite all of the nobles from all the kingdoms near and far. Prince Canaan didn’t want such an event, though. The king had just finished negotiating an agreement with the townsfolk for the villages between Luna Hollow and Hexeton to become part of the kingdom, and there had been some fighting. Canaan thought it disrespectful to have a party at such a time. His mother, who had a bit of a temper, decided if he wanted to act that way, she’d send all of the nobles home. They wouldn’t celebrate at a

*Bexley*The hazel eyes I see every night in my dreams are staring up at me, wide and hopeful, waiting patiently for me to respond to his question. A simple question. The most important question I’ll ever be asked in my life.This is not a dream. This is reality. This is the real world—where people can turn into wolves, people can discover they have magical powers and use them for good, and people can come back from the dead—or like dead.It’s a world where an ordinary girl like me can reluctantly move to a different kingdom only to discover she’s been summoned to an enchanted castle to break a spell—and fall in love.I’m struggling to answer Canaan’s question not because I don’t know the answer but because I’m crying so much. The only thing that could possibly make this moment more special would be if my mother were here. She’s not, though, and I can hardly wait to give him an answer, so rather than speaking, I nod my head fervently.“Is that a yes?” he asks.“That’s a yes!” Elliso

Beginning of Book 2***Max“Princess? Princess Maxiana? Where are you?”I slip further into the milky, rose scented water of my bath, closing my eyes against the soft pitter-patter of Annabel’s slippers as she searches for me in what sounds like desperation. Her exaggerated sigh and mumbles bring a smile to my face, but I sink under water until I’m totally submerged, my hair floating on the surface. I hear her gasp and cry out as she rushes to the tub, but I burst from the water, laughing as I brush my wet hair from my face. “You scared me to death!” Annabel snaps, her cheeks going a deep, rosy pink. “Goddess, Max, I thought you’d drowned!”“You think I’d be dumb enough to do that on the day of my own ball?” I slide to the side, resting my arms on the rim of the tub, smirking up at my lady-in-waiting–my only real friend, if I’m being honest. Annabel scowls as she moves through the spacious bathroom before whirling and resting her hip against the counter, her arms crossed and lower