Amber Foy [Foy - Rite of the Beast

Rite of the Beast

Gothic Monsters : Book One

by

Amber Foy

2019 Amber Foy

All Rights Reserved

This book is for adults only and will contain:

Unprotected sex, a wolf-like beast, monster cock, shifter/monster cunnilingus, mating bond and a virgin heroine

I pressed my palm to my mouth and dug my fingers into my jaw.

Silent. Quiet. Still.

I had to be all of those things.

The thick stink of cloves rose up from the stairwell and my covered nose itched. It was how I always knew where they were.

I pinned myself to the cold stone curve of the wall and my heart thudded. The shadows would hide me. They had to. This was my one chance to escape. My last chance.

The shadows in the archway thinned and flickered and the tramp of solid leather soles on the curve of the steps chased after the alerting stink. Deep voices drifted upwards. My fathers stewards. Men of hewn muscle, as solid as the bedrock on which the castle sat. And my wardens in this hated fortress.

She wont get out.

Sour male laughter curdled my belly. Captain Ross. The friendlier of the two men, in a way. He had no interest in me. Captain Burke? That bastard made my skin itch.

And even if she did escape her tower and the beaks of her watching women, would the Beast ever be so desperate?

I closed my eyes to deny the burn of familiar tears. Theyd never been shy of telling me how little they thought of me as a woman and as one of the Blood of the House of Draevan. Theyd been assigned as my castle guardians at the sign of my first blood. For me, thered been no say. No choice. Theyd simplyappeared as hulking shadows in my school room.

Shes a virgin. The Beast doesnt look beyond owning a pristine cunt.

Ross snorted. Taking her side? As if you dont agree with me, Burke.

Their boots grew silent. Theyd stopped on the stairs. Damn them to the pits! This was my last stairwell, the one that connected to the stables and the best and darkest path to the Forest Gate. And time ran thin. I glanced to the narrow slit of a grilled window, open to the freezing night. Moonless with the flicker of stars shifting behind dark clouds. I had to move through the forest at the witching houror I couldnt follow the path to his open altar.

To the bare earth where the Beast took his willing virgins.

Ross voice rose from the shadows, echoing over the cold stone. The ones with even a little beauty, stagger back from the forestglowing. The trolls, do not.

Burke abandoned any consideration for me. As he always did. Any support was only offered to needle his fellow warden. And theres something in her mothers blood. Something tainted. You can see it. Almost smell it.

I ached for the full dark power they always foisted on my poor, long dead mother. Would happily take it all into my flesh and lash it at the utter bastards who pilloried her and me.

True enough. Gods, she was a strange one. Ross huffed another sour laugh. A brave man, His Grace, to stick his dick in that.

I wonder if Lord Hall will see to his new wife

Fucks sake, Burke! Youreyoure wrong in the head.

Dark laughter, low and skin-pricking wove through the silence. What can I say? Imcurious. And Hall is old enough for his dick to be little more than withered skin. Someone has to break her in.

My belly cramped, the wild surge of old anger churned and I fought the real need to surge down to them and lash hard words. Not that they did any good. The odious men always laughed and copied my voice in rolling squeaks and gibberish. But Id have the last laugh, when I was found to be gone. When I came back from the forest, glowing or not, with the Beasts marks on me and his seed staining my thighs.

Id be decidedlyunfit for a marriage-bond. And especially for the one which my father was so eager to see worked upon my flesh with the next dawn.

The Beast was a last resort. One Id happily grab, as forbiddenand unnatural as it was.

The heavy stomp of boots echoed again, and I shrank back, pressing into the shadows. My breath was hot and damp against my palm and only the thinnest wisps escaped into the chilled air. I could not be seen. They would not see me.

Of course, his Lordship is all bent and twisted over that bloody Prophecy.

Prophecy? My heart lurched. What prophecy?

Burke hissed and there was the hard smack of leather against leather. Ross swore and the echo of their heavy boots stopped again. The fuck, man? Im not your horse to curb.

The fuck man, yourself! Burkes panicked and pressured voice cut through the silent shadows. Were under oathoathnever to speak of it.

Ross muttered, and he took three steps. Almost done with, anyway, isnt it? To see the next dawn. And forgive me, oh, Oath-Master, but thats only hours from now. Then we can declare it from the battlements. And, therefore, its fine to mutter it on a bloody stairwell the night before.

And if she heard?

She is tucked up in her bed. Warded. Rocking and sobbing out her little ugly heart.

My chest bloomed. Not from the old insult, but from the knowledge that Ross at least had damned himself. I had heard. And he was oath-bound. The breaking of his oath would fire into his flesh three-fold.

Buta prophecy? A prophecy that somehow twined around my flesh and ended with the first morning light?

Was this why Father was pushing for the hated marriage-bind to the equally hated and foul Lord Hall? What would happen if I wasfree with the rising of the sun? My blood surged, and I wanted nothing more than to escape the castle, to break any chance that the bond would sink into my soul. Would hold me.

Yes, Id welcome the Beast, his slavering tongue and monstrous cock. A forbidden pulse jumped low in my belly, a twist, a squeeze that said I wasnt breaking free of the castle just to escape my bond

I pushed down those thoughts. Wicked and licentious. I could not welcome the dark touch of anan animal. It was wrong. This was all necessity. Just that. Nothingmore. And with the revelation of a hidden prophecy, all the more urgent.

Ross and Burkes muttered voicesa back and forth about the nature of their oathgrew louder. The cloying stink of cloves fogged the passage and the golden glow of a lamp pushed back the final shadows of the too-narrow archway.

Close. So close. I stopped breathing. Closed my eyes. Light caught themsometimes, rarelyand sometimes, sometimes a glow of silver burned there. My mothers heritage. Always said with a sneer by those foul men. A growl of disgust that somethingother lurked in my royal blood.

Gods, I had to look, and I narrowed my eyes till only a sliver of light pushed in.

Itll fall off. I swear. That was a part of it. Burke was shaking his head as he lurched out of the archway, his attention fixed on his companion. Not me. He hadnt seen me. He hadnt.

Ross face was scrunched and red. No, no. I dont remember that. I wouldnt agree to being dickless to protect the fucking creature!

A joyous heat surged in my chest and the sharpest grin, hard and tight, cut my mouth. Revenge