Seven Beasts_Reverse Harem Romance

by Kelli Callahan

  “How does it feel to be a leader?” Congressman Campbell walked up beside me. “You turned the crowd to your side with barely more than a sentence.”

  “It doesn’t feel very good.” I looked at him as the confession was followed by a long sigh. “I didn’t think they would actually consider this.”

  “You need to throw the first torch. People will remember this forever. Just think, one day they’ll be telling this story to their grandchildren.” He winked and pushed me towards the house.

  “Burn it down!” I heard a voice scream out behind me.

  My thoughts boiled in my brain as I stepped up to the old wooden shack with my torch held out in front of me. I didn’t see any movement inside the house. With any luck, they weren’t home—unfortunately that seemed unlikely. The crowd chanted behind me and I poised the torch behind my head. I closed my eyes and threw it as hard as I could, hearing an immediately crackle as it impacted the house. A cheer erupted behind me and when I opened my eyes I saw the roof engulfed in flames. The rest of the crowd started to join in and they surrounded the house while I watched it burn. Even if the supposed witches were able to get outside, they would face an angry mob of people.

  As the fire spread, I started to see movement inside the house. They were definitely home and two emerald eyes appeared at the window. I swallowed guilt as I watched panic engulf them. The woman was young—barely more than a teenager. She ran towards the door, but before she could open it, one of the people in the crowd threw a torch at it. The dry timber started to burn on contact.

  I can’t do this. I can’t watch them die.

  “Burn, you fucking witches!” A cackle from a drunken slur echoed through the night, which was followed by a loud cheer.

  “God, please forgive me.” I looked around the crowd and then started walking towards the door.

  “Alexander is going to kill them with his bare hands!” The voice belonged to Congressman Campbell.

  “Bring them out into the street so we can watch them die!” Another voice screamed out in support.

  I pushed my way into the door and jumped across the part that was burning. Smoke immediately filled my nostrils and made my eyes sting. I had no idea what I was going to do when I did find them. If I took them outside, the crowd would kill them. I wondered if I could bring them out and show they were suffering, which would prove they weren’t really witches.

  I looked around the smoke-filled room and I could hear the wood cracking from the heat. The torch I threw had burned through the roof and landed in the kitchen. The fire was spreading fast from that location. I covered my mouth with my hand and pushed into the main part of the house. I didn’t see any sight of them, so I started down a hallway that didn’t appear to be burning.

  When I got to a closed door at the back of the house, I could hear voices from the other side. It sounded like they were chanting. My hands pushed against the door, but it didn’t budge. I hit it with my palms several times and could feel it cracking, so I took a step back and slammed my shoulder into it. The door flew open and I found two women standing in the middle of the room. The emerald eyes I saw at the window fixated on me and I could see that she was surrounded by some sort of eerie green glow.

  “You...” My words got stuck in my throat. “You really are witches!”

  “Which is very unfortunate for you.” The emerald eyed woman laughed.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do this. It was a mistake.” I held up my hands and started to back up from where they were.

  “This is your fault.” She narrowed her eyes and her emerald orbs sparkled in the spreading fire. “You were the one who brought them here.”

  “We wanted a new life away from your kind. We left Salem to get away from horrible men who wouldn’t let us live in peace.” She took a step closer.

  “There is a missing boy! You can’t go around kidnapping children and expect it to go unnoticed!” I felt my temper flaring, but I still took another step back.

  “We had nothing to do with that.” She shook her head back and forth. “He’s lost, probably stuffing his face with pie or sleeping off some booze he stole. Children do things like that, you know.”

  “I’m sorry, I’ll tell the crowd that you’re not witches. We’ll leave.” My words started to get tangled in my throat again and I realized the smoke was making it hard to breathe.

  “No.” She shook her head back and forth again. “All of the men you brought here will die tonight. They will all roast in this fire until there is nothing left of them. As for you—you will not get the privilege of death—you will suffer for eternity.”

  My vision started to fade as the aura from the witch engulfed me. There was no more smoke in my lungs or fire surrounding me. I felt safe and calm. It was almost like I stepped onto a cloud. I felt my memories flooding in quick flashes of light. I remembered my grandfather’s farm, the apples we used to eat there when the harvest was fresh, and the cute girl next door I was obsessed with during my youth. I felt my first kiss, the first touch of a woman who wanted me in her bed, and the magic of feeling her body against mine.

  Suddenly, it felt like all of those memories were yanked out of me. I was spiraling in a dark abyss. I could feel myself falling, although there was nothing above or below me. The darkness felt like the agony of death and as I looked around, all I saw was black. I lifted my hand and I couldn’t even see it in front of me. The witch’s words echoed in my ears followed by a cackling laugh. A second later, I heard horrific screaming—men dying and cursing my name as the laughter increased. The darkness engulfed my thoughts again as I heard silence close in on me like a vice. I felt loneliness, guilt, and then my mind itself shut down.

  God, please save me! Save me from the darkness!

  WHERE AM I?

  My eyes hurt when they were forced open. I immediately felt a coldness that was reminiscent of winter’s worst. I looked around and saw nothing but a sheet of white powder that appeared to be snow. That was impossible. It was the middle of July. When my hands finally started to regain feeling, I pushed myself up and found that my bones were practically frozen inside of me. The thin tunic on my chest was not enough protection to keep the cold from pressing against my flesh. The wind whipped against me so hard it felt like daggers. My feet felt like they were weighted in iron, but they were so cold I couldn’t feel anything beneath the snow.

  I turned in a circle, and in the distance I saw what appeared to be a light. I lifted my foot and forced it to take a step. After a couple of painful steps forward, I got a bit of momentum. I was going to die if I didn’t find warmth and shelter. The wind continued to bite my flesh as I got closer to the light. I felt like I walked forever, even though it had only been a few dozen steps. I stared at the ground and kept pushing myself forward, trying to will every fiber of my being to simply exist long enough to get to the light.

  Help...

  My lips were numb and no words passed the chatter of my teeth. I finally got close enough to the light to see I was approaching an enormous castle. I wasn’t sure what kind of trickery the witch had laid on me, because nothing like that existed in America. As much as I tried to fight against the illusion, my body demanded that I seek shelter and it was the only thing in front of me. I passed through the gates and saw my first glimpse of color, an enormous red rose bush that circled the gates of the castle. It seemed to bloom in defiance of the chilled wind that swirled around me. I could see a door and as much as I hurt, I knew I could escape the cold if I could just get to it. I summoned all of my willpower and pressed on until I got to the door. My hands were practically ice, but I was able to push it open until I found a large fireplace stacked with wood. I fell to my knees when I got close to it and let the heat warm me. Everything hurt as my body was thawed, but with the heat pushing back against the cold, I started to finally feel normal again.

  Is this hell? Where am I?

  Chapter 3: Anabelle

  The snow around Lake Vaughn had stopped falling, b
ut the sky was still cloudy. I bundled up and started to explore the area around my father’s truck. I didn’t see any hint of footprints, but I was sure they would have been covered by the snow. I would have expected him to walk along the road if his truck had stopped working. I pulled out my cell phone and found that the service was spotty. I opened up the map on my phone and started walking, pulling my coat close around me. The backpack was heavy, but I didn’t want to find a hint of him and have to rush back. Every second was critical.

  As I walked, the snow started to fall again. The further I walked, the harder it seemed to come down. I looked over my shoulder and saw that my footsteps were evaporating, along with the road. It didn’t seem to be natural. The snow should have taken longer to cover my tracks. After walking for about a hundred feet, I turned around and found nothing but glimmering white in all directions. There was no evidence of where I had walked, and the road had completely disappeared.

  “What the hell?” My words formed steam around my face.

  The ground seemed to give way and I could feel bumpy dirt instead of pavement. The snow got deeper as I turned back towards the direction where his truck had been. I looked at my cell phone and found that I no longer had service. I walked as far as I thought I had already traveled, but I didn’t find his truck or my car. My pulse started to get faster as I spun around. The temperature seemed to drop as I stood there and the coat I had worn was barely enough to protect me from the elements. I turned in a circle several times until I saw a light in the distance. I kept turning to make sure there was nothing else, and snow started to fall.

  I felt drawn to the light. If my father had gotten lost, he would have likely went towards it if he saw it. I wondered why the police officers that were searching for him had never mentioned a house in the area—they made it seem like the whole area was deserted. I started walking, feeling the snow getting deeper as I got closer. I blinked a few times when I got close enough to see the light and realized it wasn’t a house—it was a castle. It was every bit the fairy tale abode from the books I had read as a little girl. When my feet carried me closer, I saw a beautiful sight in the middle of the blinding snow.

  Roses? They’re gorgeous...

  They weren’t just out of place—they were impossible. There was no way roses could have grown in the frigid tundra under my feet. The bumpy ground had given way to ice and every step seemed to crack it when I walked. The snow was no longer comfortable underneath my boots. It was like stepping on glass that broke with every step. I could see a light from one of the windows, so I walked past the roses until I could see a door. The storm started to rage the closer I got to the castle, and the castle was the only refuge.

  I pushed the door open and was immediately overcome by immense heat. It was so hot that I had to drop my backpack and remove my coat when I took a few steps into the stone-walled corridor. The castle was like something out of a dream. I wondered if I was actually in the snow, hallucinating with memories of my childhood fantasies filling my dying brain. I walked into a room and saw food sitting on a large round oak table. In the middle was a rose that looked like the ones at the gate, but it was in a glass case and appeared to have several dead pedals at the base.

  “Hello?” I called out and looked around. “Hello, is anyone here?”

  “Anabelle?” A weak voice echoed from the stairs.

  “Daddy?” I felt a rush of emotions and I immediately started to run towards the large stone steps.

  My legs were sore from walking and still cold, despite the heat, but all of that faded into a solitary purpose—my father was there. I took the steps two at a time until my legs forced me to slow down. The staircase spiraled up into the castle which got colder as I ventured from the heat below. I walked past painted pictures on the wall of a man and a woman, but both faces were torn from the frames.

  I didn’t take any time to try and figure out what I was seeing because my father’s voice was the only mission I had. I kept calling his name until I got to the top of the stairs. I ran through the hallway in front of me, getting closer to his voice with every step I took. My mind was alert and searching for danger, but all I found were empty rooms.

  When I got to the end of the hall, I could hear breathing on the other side of the door in front of me. I pushed it open and saw my father in a large cage. He looked weak and he had a stubble that made him look ten years older than he was when I saw him last. I ran over to him and dropped to my feet, grabbing the door of the cage in my hand.

  “Daddy! I’m here!” I pulled against the cage and a lock creaked, but the door didn’t budge.

  “Anabelle...” His eyes opened slowly. “No, you have to go!”

  “I’m not leaving here without you!” I wrapped both hands around the door and started to pull on it.

  “You won’t be leaving here at all...” A voice behind me echoed against the stone and I spun around.

  “Run, Anabelle!” My father’s words were weak, but they had a certain purpose to them. “Run!”

  The voice belonged to a gigantic, hulking beast of a man. He filled the doorway with his body pressed against the frame. He looked like a creature out of a nightmare, standing nearly seven feet tall with green eyes that practically glimmered in the faint light. I stood up and felt my knees get weak as he approached. I took a step forward, but his large hand wrapped around my arm. I pulled against his grip, but found it was far too powerful for me to escape.

  He pulled me away from my father and as my eyes adjusted to darkness, I realized there was more than one cage in the room. The beast pulled me forward and then used my momentum to send me crashing into the back of the cage I was facing. He slammed the door and I heard a clicking sound, followed by a growl. I pushed myself away from the back of the cage and gripped the door, shaking it as hard as I could. The beast took a step back and then I saw two more forms step into the room. They looked similar to him with long beards tangled around their face and eyes that glimmered in the light.

  “Let me go!” I shook the cage door again.

  “Never...” The beast who had put me in the cage shook his head and growled. “You belong to us now, just like he does.”

  “What do you want?” I pushed my face against the iron bars. “Why are you doing this to us?”

  “This is what we do to thieves.” The beast to the right of the one who imprisoned me stepped forward. “We keep them here and let them rot.”

  “I didn’t steal from you!” My words got louder and were accompanied by another attempt to wrestle the door of my cell from the hinges.

  “I did...” My father’s words were weak, but they were recognizable.

  “What?” I turned towards my father. “You’re not a thief...”

  “I wasn’t trying to be.” He leaned forward and I heard a rattled sigh rise up in his throat. “I just wanted to bring you a rose.”

  “We showed him hospitality.” The beast who imprisoned me snarled. “We took him in when he was starving. We fed him, took care of him, and when we sent him on his way—he just couldn’t leave without showing us what kind of man he really was.”

  “A rose? Really?” I shook my head in disbelief. “You put him in a cage because he tried to take one of your roses?”

  “Those roses are our life!” The beast roared and I saw his teeth beneath his tangled beard.

  “Alexander...” The beast to his right spoke in a softer tone. “It wouldn’t be right to keep them both when only one of them stole from us.”

  “Yeah.” The one to his right nodded and spoke in the same soft tone.

  “Fine.” The beast identified as Alexander looked at my father and then to me. “We’ll let her go.”

  “No!” I shook my head. “Let my father go. He was only trying to get a rose for me. He’s not in good health. He needs his medication. I brought it for him and it’s in my backpack downstairs.”

  “Anabelle, you need to go.” My father leaned against the bars. “I’ll be okay. If one us gets to leave th
is place, it should be you.”

  “Daddy, you can’t stay here.” I looked at him with tears forming in my eyes. “Cassandra and Bethany need you. They can’t run the company—they’re planning to sell it. I would rather stay here so you can go take care of them.”

  “They’ve never been very smart, despite what they think.” He let out a sigh and his voice turned to a cough.

  “Please...” I looked to the trio. “I’ll stay here. Please let him go.”

  “It should be her choice.” Alexander’s voice came out in a growl. “She is the innocent one.”

  “I agree.” The one to the right nodded and I saw Alexander step forward with a key in his hand.

  “No!” My father shook his head, but the beast opened the door on his cage and pulled him out by the arm.

  “You will go now.” He pushed my father towards the door.

  “Anabelle, don’t do this. You should go—live your life!” My father ran to my cage and put his hands on the door.

  “She has made her decision.” Alexander put his hand on my father’s shoulder.

  “I love you, Daddy.” I squeezed his hand through the bars. “I’ll be okay. Tell Cassandra and Bethany I love them.”

  “I love you too, Anabelle.” His words were hurried as he was pulled away.

  “The medicine is in my backpack!” I yelled out to him as Alexander pushed him towards the door.

  “You will never speak of this place.” Alexander put both hands on my father’s shoulders when they reached the doorway. “We opened the way to you once out of kindness, but we will never do that again. If you come looking for our castle or your daughter, we will leave you to die in the snow.”

  “I’m sorry, Anabelle.” My father’s eyes were filled with tears as he looked at me one last time before being pushed out of the door.

  Alexander and the beast that stood to the left of him left the room, leaving me alone with the other one. They were all fairly large, but they weren’t exactly the same. Alexander had dark brown hair and his beard was thick with curls spiraling from his chin. The beast in front of me had a lighter complexion, dirty blond hair, and his beard was almost like hair flowing from the edges of his face. He tilted his head as he watched me. I couldn’t hold back tears. I had finally found my father but he was yanked away from me the instant we were together.