Ella and the Beast

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ella pushed up and scooted back along the bottom of the pit when she heard a male voice. Her ankle had been throbbing too much for the relief of sleep, but she had fallen into a semi-conscious doze in the hope of gathering enough strength to try to escape. It had made sense at the time to give Jayden her best chance at escaping. It had made sense to wait for help, but the more she had thought about it, the more afraid she had become that Jayden wouldn’t return with help in time.

In the last few weeks, they had ventured further in this direction than they ever had before, searching for items they could take back to their village. Jayden had been excited when she had seen an odd little building on the outer edges of the forest. She had told Ella about it and described all the strange and wonderful things stored inside. They had broken into it and, sure enough, found quite a few items they could use.

They had been returning to the building for more items when Ella had heard the sound of a strange metal beast moving along the road. Fear of being caught had made her reckless. She should have known to avoid the animal trail.

Now her foolish mistake would not only mean her own death, but the discovery of her existence could endanger the lives of her whole village. If Ella couldn’t kill the Other or if the Other didn’t immediately kill her, Ella would have no choice but to take her own life to prevent the Others from finding her people.

Gritting her teeth, she ignored the agonizing pain in her foot and clenched her lance. Her gaze remained glued to the thick, sharp claws that were digging into the soil along the edge of the pit. Ella braced her good foot into the ground and slid until her back was against the side of the pit.

“Kill me,” she ordered, holding the lance menacingly in front of her.

“Why would I kill you?” the man asked in confusion, staring down at her with dark, liquid brown eyes.

“If you don’t, I will kill you,” she warned.

Irritation swept through her when the beast’s lips curved upward in amusement. Reaching up, she wrapped her hand around a root and pulled herself to her feet, using the lance to steady herself. She leaned back against the side of the pit, panting with pain for a few precious seconds, sweat beading on her brow despite the cool rain. She swayed before she stiffened her good leg.

“You can barely stand. I doubt that you could kill me,” he observed. He frowned down at her lifted foot. “You’ve hurt your foot.”

Ella hissed when her foot touched the ground. She jerked it up, almost losing her balance again. Biting her lip, she stared up at the beast. He was nothing like the stories she had been told. He resembled none of the descriptions given by the elders in their many tales.

They were supposed to be creatures with massive bodies, glowing red eyes, sharp claws, and fangs. While this man was very large, he still wasn’t as massive as Ella had imagined the Beasts from the stories would be. Instead of red eyes, his were a dark brown which held a hint of curiosity and confusion. He was wearing clothing, unlike the pictures of fur-coated and blood-covered beasts in the tomes. His face was slightly broader than those of the men in her village and his canines looked a little longer, but she still wouldn’t classify them as being true fangs. Her eyes went to his long fingers. They were normal now. Long and thick, but the nails did not look any longer than her own.

Not only did he not look like any of the pictures of the snarling, blood-coated beasts, he also didn’t snarl and growl at her. He spoke in a warm, gentle voice that caused her tremble with something other than fear, pain, and exhaustion.

“Are you real?” he asked softly, surprising her again.

Ella frowned and tilted her head. “Of course I’m real!” she snapped. “You are a beast. What kind?”

“A beast?” he asked, his eyes narrowing in confusion. “You mean, am I a shifter? Yeah, of course. I’m a grizzly.”

Ella paled and felt the tenuous grasp of her hand slip on the root. She slid back down to the ground, staring up at him in numb horror. The flashes of mental images overwhelmed her. A grizzly-shifter! One of the most feared Others. They were known for their speed, their ferociousness, and their strength. She was truly dead.

“Why do you play with me?” she asked in a hoarse voice. “I am no match for you. One swipe of your paw and you could gut me.”

“Gut you? Why would I want to do that? Gutting is so… barbaric,” Ty muttered with a shake of his head. “Listen, my name is Ty. What is yours?”

Ella lowered her lance to the ground. It would be ineffective. Her hand slid along her side and down to her hip. No, her knife was the only way. She would drive it through her heart before he could rip it out. She only hoped that he would choke on it when he tried to eat it.

“I am called Ella,” she whispered, lifting her head to stare at him as she pulled the blade from its sheath. “I want you to remember my name, Beast. For I shall haunt your dreams while you sleep.”

“Haunt…. s**t a bloody mosquito,” Ty cursed, landing down in front of her and wrapping his hand around her wrist when she pulled the knife out and turned the sharp tip toward her chest. “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

Ella stared up into his furious eyes. Surprise and shock surged through her at his incredible speed. One second he had been staring down at her from the edge of the pit, and the next he was wrapping his massive hand around her wrist. Swallowing, she began to shake.

“Taking my own life, so that you can’t,” she whispered, licking her lips.

He reached out and cupped her cheek with a gentleness that belied his superior strength. A strange warmth flooded her at the feel of his calloused fingertips against her skin. She drew in a deep breath when he leaned forward.

“You aren’t going to escape me that easily, sweetheart,” Ty muttered, bending forward until his lips were just a breath away from hers.

“Why not?” Ella asked in a husky voice.

“Because, Ella, when a Silverback grizzly finds his mate, he will do everything in his power to make sure she stays safe,” Ty muttered, pressing a warm kiss to Ella’s slightly parted lips.

Ella felt his hand slide down to her hand. With a flick of his wrist, he removed the blade from her grasp. He held her head still while he softly explored her mouth. The warmth she felt intensified, numbing the throbbing pain in her ankle and stunning her with its strength.

Ella didn’t understand what was happening. This wasn’t in any of the story books. He was supposed to be snarling, growling, and disemboweling her, not… not kissing her!

Ella’s hand curled around her lance and she leaned back a little. The move drew the huge Beast slightly off-balance. Swinging with all her might, she hit him with the shaft of her lance. He fell sideways, gripping his head and staring at her with shocked surprise.

“Why did you do that?” he demanded, starting to rise to his feet. He jerked and suddenly staggered backwards, looking down at his thigh in surprise. His back hit the side of the pit. He slid down until he was sitting on the ground. “What the…?” His gaze moved up to the edge of the pit.

Even from the bottom of the pit, Ella could see Jayden standing near the edge, a strange weapon in her hands. The startled look in Jayden’s eyes told Ella that her friend hadn’t realized that she had triggered the weapon. Ella’s gaze moved back to the Beast. He had wrapped his hand around the red tranquilizer dart fired from his rifle and was pulling it out of his thigh. His eyes were glazed and he blinked several times.

“Will it kill you?” Ella whispered, unsure why she cared.

“No… Just sleep,” he muttered. “Ella… Don’t leave.”

“I have to, Beast,” Ella whispered. “You must forget you ever saw me.”

His breathing began to slow and he slumped to his side. “I can’t,” he forced out as his eyelids slowly closed. “You… belong to… me.”

Ella shook her head. “I can never belong to you,” she murmured. “Forget me.”

Ella watched as several ropes were lowered into the pit. Jayden had found another of their hunting parties. Two slightly older women nodded to Ella after they slid down into the pit to help her. Ella glanced at the slumbering beast.

“Should we kill him?” one of the women asked, staring at Ty.

“No,” Ella said with a shake of her head. “Perhaps he will think this is a dream.”

The woman closest to the dart on the ground nodded and picked it up, tucking it into her pouch so the Beast would not see the evidence of what had happened when he woke. With the help of the other three women, Ella was able to climb out of the pit. Once at the top, Jayden quickly wrapped Ella’s foot and ankle. It would be a difficult journey back to the village, but at least she was still alive to make it. Ella glanced one last time over her shoulder at the pit. Somewhere deep inside her, she felt a pang of sorrow. It was as if a part of her was still trapped with the beast.

“Come, Ella,” Jayden murmured. “We need to put as much distance as we can between us and the beast before nightfall.”

Ella nodded and held onto the shoulders of the two women following Jayden. Soon, the forest swallowed them like fairies returning to the hidden corners of a magical world – a world where humans lived, not the unusual shape-shifting beasts who kissed instead of killed.