The Beast’s Baby

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

OLIVE

Three Years Ago

“Olive! Hey, Olive!”

I look around for the voice calling my name, pushing my glasses up on the bridge of my nose. My arms are full of books and I’m late for debate team. I don’t have time for idle chitchat.

My eyes find the source of the voice, and I shiver involuntarily.

Axel Reign, the boy next door. He’s been my neighbor since we moved to town when I was four. My first memories include Axel, and my childhood wouldn’t have been the same without him.

Here’s the thing about me.

I’ve always been the good girl.

The boring, run-of-the-mill girl next door. The freckle-faced girl with long brown hair and blue eyes, the one neighborhood boys had a crush on when they were eleven, but quickly forgot once they got older.

Now I’m seventeen, and I was pretty sure Axel had forgotten all about me. Last summer, his dad enrolled him in boxing classes and found a hidden talent in his son. Over the course of a few months, Axel went from the scrawny boy I had a crush on, to a selfish, muscled prick who only cared about the next piece of ass he could score.

“What do you want?” I scowl at Axel, who is sitting on the hood of his pickup truck. He’s grinning at me, his handsome face sending my heart rate into overdrive. Damn it, why does he have this effect on me? I should be over him by now. Get your act together, Olive!

Axel mutters something to his jock friends and slides off the hood of the car. As he walks toward me I wonder if my heart will burst right out of my chest.

Oh God, oh God.

I haven’t spoken to Axel in months. Not since his newfound body and stupid handsome face decided I wasn’t good enough for him anymore.

Well, maybe he tried to talk to me once or twice. But by that point, he was so popular, so handsome and so freaking scary I could barely mumble a response.

Our friendship had gone down the drain faster than you could say “holy mother of God when did you get those abs?” It felt like he’d traded me, his childhood best friend, in for the jocks and cheerleaders he now hung out with.

“How you doing, Olive?” Axel asks, stopping inches away from my stack of books. My face is getting incredibly hot, and I’m certain I look like a lobster.

“Are you all right?” Axel gives me a weird look.

“Yes!” I bark in response. “Why?”

“Err, your glasses are getting foggy.” He points to them, and I blush an even deeper shade of crimson. He’s right, of course. The heat from my face is making my glasses fog, and I can barely see through the lenses.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, in what I like to think of as my confident tone. I blow a strand of hair off my face, my hands too full of books. “What do you want, Axel?”

His smile fades a little, and I curse myself for being so rude. It just seems impossible for me to act like a normal human when he is around.

“What are you up to tonight?” he asks, crossing his arms in front of his body. My eyes follow the motion and I practically start salivating at the view. His biceps are stretching the sleeves of his leather jacket and he just looks … “Olive?”

I realize I’ve been quiet for a moment too long, and I nervously look back up at him. “Sorry!” I clear my throat, nodding my head toward the stack of books in my arms. “Debate club every Friday, remember?”

“Oh come on.” Axel laughs. “I meant tonight. Want to catch a movie or something? For old times’ sake?”

My heart skips a beat, but I’m not about to let Axel see that. I let out a weird sound and blush even more. “Aren’t you going to Becky Sterling’s party tonight?”

Axel’s a year older than me, and so is Becky. But even if we were the same age, I’m sure Becky wouldn’t have invited me. Her parties are infamous. Every time her parents go out of town, Becky throws a rager.

And why would she invite me? I’m a stupid bookworm geek, she probably doesn’t even know I exist.

“Oh, right,” Axel remembers. He scratches his floppy head of dark hair and throws a charming smile my way. Oh, God, my knees are going weak. “Yeah, I guess I’m going. You should come with me, though. I’m sure your parents would let you, knowing you’re with me.”

He nudges me and winks, and I nearly drop all of my books.

I stare at the ground.

It’s not the first time Axel’s invited me to spend some time with him. He’s really a nice guy, and I’ve been avoiding him like the plague because things feel so weird now that he’s changed so much.

A thousand thoughts race through my head, like what the fudge would I wear? Would Becky kick me out if I just showed up? Is this just hanging out or could it be … a date?

“Um,” I reply intelligently. “What time?”

Axel visibly perks up at my words. “You want to come? I could pick you up at eight at your place, if that works for you.”

Oh my God. Pick me up.

“Okay.” I nod before I can stop myself. “I’ll be waiting. Or you know, doing stuff. Anyway, I’ll be there. As I live there. It’s my house.”

I can’t stop the word vomit spewing from my mouth, and Axel is grinning widely at me as I stumble away from him.

“See you, Olive!” he shouts after me, and I wave a distracted hand in the air, almost dropping my books. I can’t believe I just agreed to go out with him. This is going to be disastrous …

“This is going to be freaking amazing!” Selena gushes quietly, and I try to shush her before Jason spots us talking. He’s the leader of the debate team, and I’ve been crushing on him for months now. At least he’s more attainable than a certain boxer beast.

My eyes follow Jason around the room while Selena furiously scribbles on her notepad. Jason’s not bad looking at all. Tall, blond hair and blue eyes. Sure, he wears glasses even thicker than mine, but he’s totally cute. I know quite a few girls—including my best friend who is now passing me her notepad—have raging crushes on him. He’s a couple of years older than us and already in college. Totally dreamy, if you ask me. He knows the capital of every country in the world plus their currency, he told me that once.

I look at the notepad discreetly, and my eyes widen in horror. Selena has drawn two crude stick figures and they’re totally doing it. Above it, she’s written Olive luvs Axel in huge, ornamented letters.

“Selena!” I hiss at her, tearing the paper out. “Are you five years old?”

“Am I interrupting something?”

Jason has walked over to our desk and is staring at me over his glasses. I gulp the lump in my throat and offer an innocent smile. “Sure thing, Jason, perfectly all right.”

“And what have you got there? More interesting than my talk?”

To my absolute horror, he grabs the piece of paper on my desk and raises it to his eyes. I feel all the blood drain from my face as he takes in the crude drawing.

“Oh,” he says. “Oh, okay.”

A small smile curves up the corner of his mouth and I can only stare in shock as he folds the paper and puts it in his pocket. “I hope your drawing skills are up to par with your debate ones, Olive,” Jason says with a wink. He actually winks!

What’s with all these hot guys winking at me today? I’m on fire!

Selena is still snickering as Jason goes back to the front of the classroom, and I nudge her to be quiet. But I can’t deny the grin on my lips.

The rest of the meeting passes excruciatingly slowly, and when it’s over, I barely manage to get Selena off my back. She’s desperate to help me get ready for my date with Axel, which she’s now named “Olive’s last chance to get it on.” After telling her I absolutely will shave my legs, I send her home with promises of reporting back as soon as I can.

I head home feeling light-headed. Selena has already disappeared behind the corner when someone grabs my arm.

“Hey!” I protest, turning around to face the intruder.

“Sorry, Olive, didn’t mean to scare you.” Jason smiles at me with that sexy grin of his. He may be bookish, but he’s the hottest nerd I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure. “Mind if I walk you home?”

“Oh.” I’m surprised. Jason hasn’t really showed an interest in me, apart from complimenting one of my debates with Selena. I figured it was only because she forgot the topic and spent twenty minutes comparing George W. Bush to Kim Kardashian.

“Are you sure?” I give him a doubtful look.

“Well, Olive, are you giving me a reason not to do it?” Jason is grinning, and I can feel myself blushing again. “Just come on, walk with me … I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Want me to carry some of your books?”

He points to the large stack of tomes I’ve been carting around all day. I put half of them in his hands gratefully after a moment’s consideration. “Thanks so much. My arms are really starting to hurt,” I mumble, feeling a little embarrassed.

I’m still a little suspicious of this whole thing. I figure he just wants to talk to me about Selena. Being a tall, willowy blonde with a C-cup is doing wonders for her popularity. I sigh.

“What’s up?” Jason asks me, looking at me as we start walking toward my place.

“Just tell me what you want to know,” I say tiredly. “This is about Selena, right?”

“Huh?” Jason gives me a confused look. “What do you mean?”

I stop and look at him like he’s lost his marbles. “Selena. You. You liking Selena.” I shake my head, realizing I’m saying nonsense. “Anyway, she doesn’t have a boyfriend. I’m sure she’d love to go out on a date with you.”

In fact, I’m more than sure. I’ve listened to Selena whine about Jason for weeks now. He’s the only reason she joined the debate team, anyway. She’ll be so thrilled to hear about him wanting to go out with her.

“Olive …” Jason grins, then starts laughing, and I stare at him, feeling more than a little confused. “I’m not interested in Selena, Olive,” he finally gets out. “I’m interested in you.”

“What do you mean?” It takes a moment for his words to sink in, and next thing I know, I’m blushing again. It feels like every damn freckle on my face is on fire. And there are quite a few. “Oh. Wait, what?”

Jason steps closer to me and awkwardly reaches for my face, which sends my head spinning. Fortunately, there’s a wall of books separating us and he can’t really get close enough to touch me. We smile nervously at each other.

“Guess that’ll have to wait,” he says shyly. “I just … You seem like a really cool girl, Olive. I really loved hearing your opinion on social media commentary. And you know, you’re pretty … well, you’re beautiful, Olive.”

One more comment like that and I’ll spontaneously combust, I’m absolutely sure of it. Plus he needs to stop saying my name. It’s making me all hot and bothered.

“Thanks,” I reply awkwardly, flashing a weak smile.

“So, do you want to go out for a movie or something?” Jason looks at me expectantly.

“Oh, sure.” I nod, finally allowing my smile to grow wider. This is actually happening! Jason Thorne is asking me out. Oh God, Selena will probably kill me for this … “When do you want to go?”

“Would tonight work for you?” Jason asks, and I’m about to tell him about my plans, but he’s not done talking. “It’s just, I have to get back home in a few days, and I’ll be really busy for a while. I’ll be back in a month or so. Awkward timing, I know. I guess I just … couldn’t wait.”

He’s smiling again, and it’s doing things to my insides.

“Well,” I say worriedly, thinking about my plans with Axel. “I mean, I was going to go to this party tonight.”

“A party?” Jason looks amused. “A high school party. Haven’t been to one of those in a while.”

“Oh,” I reply stupidly. Is he thinking I just invited him? How the hell do I get in these awkward, uncomfortable situations? I’m supposed to go with Axel, whether it was a date or not. I’ll have to let Jason down, unfortunately.

“I’ll come pick you up if you want,” he offers. “And don’t worry, Olive … I’ll take care of you. Your dad doesn’t have to worry.”

I give him a long look. He must’ve been listening to me more than I thought, since I don’t recall telling him about my home situation.

“I don’t know, Jason,” I say, but I’m interrupted by Jason stepping closer and pressing a soft, barely there kiss on my cheek. It’s so fleeting I’m sure I imagined it, when I feel his mouth moving closer to mine. I do the Olive thing to do—panic and move away.

“Oh! I’m sorry, you’re just … You really like me?”

He looks amused. “Yes, Olive. I thought I was being pretty obvious.”

Oh, God. Well … I’m sure Axel was only doing me a favor anyway. He’s always trying to make me feel accepted, even though we both know his friends will never think of me as an equal. I’m too much of a goody-two-shoes, too geeky and nerdy. Maybe I can hang out with Axel some other time.

“Okay,” I finally tell Jason with a sigh. “Let’s go to the party together.”

Jason nods, barely able to hide his smile. “I’ll pick you up at seven thirty, okay?”

I’m nodding back just as we reach my house. Jason hands me the rest of my books along with a doubtful look. “You sure you can take care of those by yourself?”

“Yeah.” I smile, feeling another flush coming on. Except this time, it’s not unpleasant. In fact, it feels quite nice, creeping down my cheeks to my neck … right along with Jason’s gaze. “I’ll see you in the evening?”

“Yes.” Jason snaps out of it and looks back up. “Say hi to your dad for me, Olive.”

He waves and walks off with his hands in his pockets. I’m left standing on the curb in front of my house, feeling as nervous as I am ecstatic. My first real date! And with Jason, of all people … Selena will be so happy for me, right after she bites my head off.

I just hope Axel won’t mind …