In the Arms of the Beast

by K. A. Merikan

  Laurent joined Elliot and together they walked toward the common room, followed by Hound, who seemed mopey rather than energetic. “I know they’re having a meeting, but I shouldn’t be excluded when I know what they’re discussing so late at night concerns everyone.”

  He couldn’t understand how Elliot could be so calm about it all. His life was at stake too, yet he was headed for the kitchen as if his appetite knew no bounds.

  Elliot’s wide mouth stretched into a smile, and he patted Laurent’s back. “You don’t need to worry. They’ll take care of us.”

  Laurent watched Elliot walk up to the kitchen counter and pull out a loaf of bread. How was this a good time for a sandwich?

  “This isn’t a question of being taken care of. How can you stay so calm when something is clearly brewing in there?”

  Elliot shrugged and started pulling a ridiculous number of condiments and products from the fridge and cupboards. “You should just trust your man. He will tell you everything you need to know. It’s their club, so unless they want to hear our opinion, we should stay back.”

  “So you just trust Knight will save you from the impending end of the world, and therefore you don’t need to lift a finger?” Laurent couldn’t keep the poison off his tongue. He and Elliot were good friends, and they’d both suffered at the hands of William Fane, but sometimes Laurent just couldn’t understand him.

  Elliot grinned at Laurent as he spread mustard over Nutella. “I’m helping. I’m making him a sandwich. He’s always hungry after those meetings.”

  That was it.

  Laurent would not spend his life making sandwiches when he could dedicate his time to finding out what the hell was going on.

  “I bet he’ll appreciate it,” Laurent said, without a hint of emotion.

  “This mix is his new favorite. But wait for it… secret ingredient.” Elliot smiled and crunched a few Doritos on top of the sandwich before he closed the revolting mix with another slice of bread.

  Laurent was already backing out of the kitchen when Elliot pointed his way with one finger. “By the way! There was so much going on recently that I forgot to talk to you about this, but a new ghost made contact with me. He must have intentionally avoided me and Knight by hanging out in the woods.”

  Laurent’s feet itched to move, but he stopped at the promise of new information. “Oh? What kind of ghost? Who is he?”

  Elliot placed the sandwich on the plate, adding a few dots of ketchup and mustard around it in a parody of haute cuisine, but looked Laurent’s way as soon as he was done. “It’s this trapper, but I can barely understand him. Knight says he’s speaking French. If I let him possess me, you could talk to him, because he’s being a pest. Keeps shouting at us and making angry gestures.”

  Laurent nodded slowly. This definitely warranted an investigation. “Thank you, Elliot. You truly are a good friend. I shall be back soon.”

  Elliot nodded. “Oh, I’ll be here for a while. And I can’t imagine the ghost’s going anywhere.”

  Laurent took a few more steps back. “I hope you enjoy yourself. I might retire to bed.”

  Elliot waved at him but was already assembling another one of his inedible concoctions, so Laurent left the room, directing his steps right back to the meetings room. He would not be ignored!

  He made sure no one was in the corridor and since he didn’t have any plan, he stalked to the door and gently pressed his ear to the wood. What was the worst that could happen? If he were caught, he’d just be ushered away.

  The voices were dull but loud enough to understand.

  “Can’t it be pulled out of him?” Knight asked. “It’s not like he’ll die, right? He still has the ruby shard from the ghost. That should be an extra week of life at least, and we will intensify our search for more.”

  “To do what? Reward Gray for his betrayal?” Fox said. He’d never sounded so serious, and it made Laurent flinch with worry. What betrayal were they talking about?

  Jake was the next one to speak. “We can always punish him but still help Shadow. Come on, guys, it’s Shadow’s life that’s at stake, we’ve got to understand—”

  “No!” Beast boomed. “He did the most selfish thing imaginable. The Pigeon Heart can’t be extracted out of Shadow now that it’s become a part of him. We’re fucked, and they’re at fault. We’ve sacrificed so much to get that ruby. People died at that mansion, yet Gray stole it and fed it to his man because he couldn’t wait a day longer and see how things develop.”

  Laurent’s head spun, and he repeated the words in his head time and time again.

  The Pigeon Heart was… lost?

  Chapter 7 - Beast

  The thud of the knife hitting the table was Beast’s permission to breathe again. Unshed tears glistened in Shadow’s eyes as he looked at the pool of blood spreading over the wood. Gray hissed something and covered the fresh wound with a tissue, but the pale finger that had been attached to Shadow’s hand just moments ago remained on the table like a scrap of fat separated from meat before cooking.

  “He’s dripping all over the floor,” Rev said, as if it gave him pleasure to watch his son’s partner suffer. Gray said nothing and helped Shadow into a nearby chair.

  “I’ve done it,” he said in a rigid voice. His body remained alert, as if he were ready to reach for a hidden weapon and take revenge for the symbolic punishment for his and Shadow’s betrayal.

  Beast was too soft. His father, King, would have proposed executing both the offenders for a lesser crime than selfishly using the one thing that could protect the whole world from grave danger. He’d even given Gray and Shadow a choice between accepting punishment or leaving the club forever. The fact that they stayed meant that Gray too considered the club’s decision just, even if he hated it.

  The Pigeon Heart, a ruby they’d taken such risks for, the ruby that could have locked Baal away forever, was now a part of Shadow and would remain there until they were all consumed by the forthcoming apocalypse.

  But as much as Beast hated it, he couldn’t be certain what he would have done in Gray’s place. Love made people do strange things. It was a selfish emotion, and Gray had always been loyal before this. Which was why he was even getting a chance to stay in the first place. He had to pay for his moment of madness, but he was also a good man, and the club needed him more than ever.

  The truth was that while Gray’s actions went against club interests, Beast felt hurt by the fact that Gray chose Shadow’s safety over that of his family and friends. But if there was still time, that wound would also eventually heal.

  “Yes, you have,” Beast said, even though his mind was haunted, imagining him and Laurent in a similar situation. His husband could be so recklessly sure of himself sometimes that he needed to be controlled by someone who had experience and therefore knew better. He rose from his seat and poured some vodka into a shot glass, then approached Shadow and offered him the liquor. “Drink up, it will help.”

  Knight came closer too and patted Shadow on the back once the creature downed the alcohol with a hiss. “Prospecting next year?”

  Beast shook his head at Knight, but Shadow didn’t look at them as he nodded, avoiding their eyes at all cost.

  Vars approached with the first aid kit and dressed the wound like a pro. The silence that overcame the room was choking Beast, dense with his brothers blaming him for the decision they’d made together. The members trickled out of the room, but Beast stayed until he was the last person left with Gray and Shadow. He didn’t know what to say to the two. What was done was done, and while he was not a sentimental man, he took no pleasure in the pain caused.

  “Clean up, and we’ll see you in the common room once you’re done. We’ve got a fuckload to discuss,” he said before leaving them to talk in private.

  Gray nodded, cuddling Shadow even tighter. “Yeah. We’re fine,” he said but was already sliding to his knees by his man’s side.

  Beast closed the door behind him and could breathe normally
only once he put distance between himself and the meetings room, joining his brothers. They were on his side, even if the punishment that had been necessary had left a bitter aftertaste in Beast’s mouth.

  He walked past his friends, who’d waited for him to take the lead, but before they could have reached the end of the corridor, Laurent emerged from a spare bedroom and blocked their way.

  What Beast needed right now was a cold beer, not more arguing, but judging by Laurent’s combative stance, Beast wouldn’t be getting back rubs.

  “How could you do this to Shadow? He doesn’t know any better! If anything, it’s Gray who should be punished!”

  A cold sensation clawed at Beast’s shoulders. He sensed the gazes of his brothers picking at his flesh. But his thoughts turned elsewhere when he noticed that Laurent’s hands were free. “Did you leave it on its own?” he asked sharply.

  Laurent seemed confused for half a second, as if he didn’t expect the change of subject. Did he actually think Beast would be fine getting schooled by a man half his size in front of others? Not to mention Laurent had outed himself as an eavesdropper, and the last thing Beast needed was Gray hearing about this and demanding punishment for Laurent just to spite Beast.

  “I… no! Of course not.” Laurent pulled a small backpack he was wearing to his side and showed Beast the egg. “You’ve already asked me this!” He looked at the others without a trace of timidness. “I am a responsible man. I can be trusted.”

  “Except when you listen to conversations you’ve been removed from by the prez,” Rev said coolly, and his tone had sweat beading between Beast’s shoulder blades. This needed to be nipped in the bud, but before he could have spoken, Joker moved forward and would have poked the egg if Laurent hadn’t stepped back.

  “That the hell is this fancy egg? It’s way past Easter.”

  Laurent zipped up the backpack. “This is no ‘fancy egg’. This is a child, so please do not touch it or toy with it. Beast, your meeting was so long, and you haven’t told them? Thanks to Mr. Magpie, we will have a child of our own.”

  The long silence that ensued would have been stressful if Beast hadn’t gone numb. Until now, the egg had been somehow less real. For a moment, he could barely hear anything at all until Knight let out a loud laugh and poked him in the ribs.

  “What? You had a threesome with Magpie?”

  Laurent gasped. “How dare you? Beast and I are married. That means we’ve taken a vow of fidelity. We don’t engage in lewd acts with other men!”

  The amused snorts coming from behind Beast’s back were like a bucket of icy water poured over his head. He couldn’t believe this was happening. They’d only made this decision earlier tonight. He wasn’t ready to explain it all to his friends when he hadn’t even processed it himself.

  “I’ll join you shortly,” he said through his teeth and grabbed Laurent’s arm, itching to take him somewhere private.

  “This is a matter everyone should be aware of. Just like I should have been made aware of the disappearance of the Pigeon Heart!” Laurent struggled against the pull but he was no match for Beast, so it wasn’t hard to navigate him away from others. “You’re hurting me!”

  Beast took a deep breath and loosened his hold, settling on pushing Laurent forward instead. “Be quiet,” he whispered, speeding up by the second. What he wanted now was a few hours on his own, with cold air blowing into his face and his bike trembling between his thighs, but he was the club president and a husband, and he could no longer prioritize his own needs.

  The silence Laurent treated him to came from a place of anger, not humility, so he braced himself for more whining once they were alone.

  Unable to hold back any longer, he led Laurent into one of the empty rooms and locked the door behind them. A cramp had been pulling at a muscle in the back of his neck on the way there, so he rolled his head, trying to rid himself of its insistent presence. “What the hell was that? I am the club president. You do not confront me in front of my men!”

  He’d expected an apology, or maybe understanding, but, Laurent only stood taller, as if that could have helped his cause. “Is that what the club does? Hurt its members? Or their partners for that matter? What in the name of God is happening?”

  Beast clenched his teeth. “You’re not a member. You don’t have a voice, and you don’t get to have opinions on the things we do.”

  He must have finally driven the point home, because Laurent shut his mouth, blinking time and time again. “But…” he drifted off, as if for once he didn’t know how to continue the argument.

  Beast took a deep breath to calm himself in the face of his husband’s stare. “You need to understand that this world might offer more freedom than the one you come from, but everyone still has their place. Everything you do reflects on me. If you don’t show me respect in public, people won’t respect my authority either. And if someone attached to a member does something really bad, then it’s the member’s job to deliver punishment. That’s what happened with Gray and Shadow. Believe me, if we were like most similar organizations out there, both of them might have ended up six feet under. But punishment is still necessary. They took away the weapon we all worked so hard to steal. The weapon that was supposed to protect everyone. Don’t you understand this?”

  Laurent watched him, wide-eyed, but Beast had the feeling something was at last sinking into that stubborn head. He clenched his hands. “You should have told me about the ruby going missing. Even if in private.”

  Beast briefly shut his eyes in frustration. “I would have, but I needed to deal with this mess first. I would have told you once I came back home. You need to trust my judgment.”

  “We are two men. Husbands. I understand it is hard to navigate such things. But I am not a wife to follow my husband’s lead. I have opinions of my own, and when you married me you knew that. I would hope you love me for it, not despite it.”

  Beast couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “Promise me you’ll never say this again. Especially with women around, because it’s the twenty-first century, and they will claw your eyes out.”

  Laurent pouted and shook his head of perfect hair. “Duly noted.”

  Beast stepped closer and tried to touch him, but Laurent stepped back. Fine. They didn’t need to reconcile then.

  “I do like it that you have your own opinions, of course I do. But the fact is that you’re not a part of the club. Does the first lady have any input into the president’s policy? Maybe. But she doesn’t actually voice her thoughts in public when they’re contradictory to his decisions. It’s not her place, and this situation is the same. I will listen to what you have to say, and I will take it into account, but you won’t talk like this to me in front of others. Only the members get to have a vote.”

  Laurent looked away and wrapped his arms across his chest. “Maybe I should prospect then, so I’m not just someone’s responsibility?”

  He only said it out of spite because Beast knew damn well Laurent had never before expressed an interest in becoming a member. And he wouldn’t last a day prospecting, because servitude was precisely one of the things he’d wanted to flee when he first became involved with William Fane in the early nineteenth century. One didn’t get to avoid obligation while gaining rights. It was either one or the other.

  “You don’t even have a driver’s licence. And if you were a member, I assure you, you would have to do things you don’t agree with. It’s my protection that offers you the freedom you want without having to carry the burden of difficult decisions. I think having to keep some of your thoughts to yourself is a small price to pay. I recall you knew when to bite your tongue back in your time.”

  The war going on inside Laurent emerged to the surface in the dark flush and hard set to his pretty lips, but he was at least listening. “I will get a driver’s licence soon. But perhaps I might have been hasty with my words. I do not actually wish to prospect. It rattles me that so many things around me are out of my control.”
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  Beast sighed and petted Laurent’s head. “Well, Gray and Shadow really took control out of all our hands.”

  Laurent exhaled through his nose. “Baal visited me, threatened all of us and our child. I was afraid, but when I came to seek consolation, it was only blood and uncertainty that I found. What are things coming to, Beast? Is this really the position I am in? Would you hurt me if our friends decided I needed discipline?” Laurent’s voice became softer, less confrontational, and he wouldn’t meet Beast’s eyes.

  Beast swallowed hard, and his arms itched for Laurent’s warm presence. Laurent was so small compared to him, so frail, so different from anyone he’d ever known. The only thing he felt was tenderness, and the fact that he didn’t immediately know how to answer struck him to the core. “I’d do anything in my power to keep that from happening, but it’s our secret. Don’t take unnecessary risks, because whatever you do affects me as well. We need to be a united front.”

  Laurent nodded, and to Beast’s surprise, he took the step closer and hugged him. When Beast looked down, beyond the cloud of waves, he was faced with the backpack containing the egg. Their child. He still couldn’t comprehend how such a thing was possible, and it broke his heart that just hours after Magpie had offered them this miracle, he was facing the possibility that whatever the creature inside the shell was, it might not get a chance to hatch. The world as they knew it could end sooner rather than later, and even though others also cared about their lives, he felt as if the weight of the forthcoming doom was on his shoulders only.

  At least having Laurent in his arms soothed the ache in Beast’s chest.

  He kissed the top of Laurent’s head. “What did he say? Baal, I mean.”

  “That if we do not stop trying to interfere with his plan, he will take his revenge on us all. He knows of our child, and it frightens me in new ways I didn’t know existed.”

  Our child.

  It was something Beast had never thought he’d hear addressed to him. The words felt alien yet were true, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about them. Maybe that made him selfish. Maybe he wasn’t mature enough for this yet, but he’d already said yes, and there was no taking it back. “I’ll protect you.”