Beast’s Demands by Sam Crescent

Chapter Six

Ashley

 

“You miss them,” I said.

Emily stared into the candle. It was her first birthday away from Crude Hill, away from the monsters. Away from the life she’d always known.

“All the time. It never stops.”

I’d never had that feeling about anyone. She sniffled, wiping under her nose.

“It will pass.”

“Maybe make a wish,” I said. “For the future. You never know, you might meet them again someday.”

Emily shook her head. “Not possible. There’s no way I’m ever going to be with them again. It’s not safe to.” The sadness in her eyes made me feel sick.

There was nothing I could do to make her happy.

Unlike Emily, I was happy. Yes, my mother had been killed, and there were times guilt did hit me at being okay with that. Mom never once cared about what I wanted or what was the best for me. The first day I was bullied at Crude Hill High, she told me I had to learn to fit in. Life wasn’t going to come easy for me.

“Make a wish,” I repeated.

Emily took a breath and as she did, I made a wish also. One day, I hoped she was in love and back with her Monsters.

****

Pulling out of the memory, I felt the tears start to pool again. I didn’t want to cry. I was so sick and tired of crying. Ever since Earl and Caleb left, I’d been pacing the library. I did this. I was running fingers through my hair, scared. Emily had looked so happy when she got that letter, and now, I felt so stupid.

I didn’t advise her to wait.

There was no reason to stop her. She was so happy. It was all I could think about as I left Caleb’s office and made my way to the front door. No one stopped me as I stepped outside. I needed to make sure Emily was okay.

I made my way toward the end of the drive, then came to a complete stop.

Caleb was running toward me. Vadik, Gale, and River weren’t too far behind with Earl coming as well.

The moment I saw Emily, tears filled my eyes. She was passed out in Caleb’s arms. I couldn’t believe the sight of her. She was beaten so badly.

They didn’t stop, and I tied to follow them, but Earl grabbed hold of me.

“There’s nothing you can do right now. They’re taking her to the hospital.”

“Emily.” I screamed her name.

Earl continued to hold me back, and I couldn’t stop screaming. I was the one who was supposed to look out for her. We shared so much together. So many memories.

****

“Make a wish,” I said. This was now her second birthday with me.

“Ashley, you always say this.”

When we were in our apartment, we never used our brand-new names. Dangerous, I knew, but that was how we kept a hold on our reality. It was a reminder of all that we lost.

“Because you rarely get a chance to make a wish. I haven’t seen any falling stars lately, and it’s your birthday. Come on, please, just do this for me.” I always tried to make her birthdays special. She was a hard woman to please.

We never made friends with anyone else. I’d tried to make connections, to really start this new life, but I’d never been good at it. Once people began asking questions and were curious about my life before we moved to England, I had no choice but to cancel or break up any potential new friendships. Emily was content to just have me, I thought. There were times I was sure she wished I’d been killed right along with my mother, like today, when I wanted her to make a wish.

“It’s stupid,” Emily said.

“Come on, there is nothing stupid about it.” I smiled at her, trying to encourage her. “Come on, please, please.”

“Ash, enough, okay.” She stepped back from the cupcake and started to pace our small living room.

I’d taken the time to decorate, purchasing some streamers and balloons. All of them calling out to the birthday girl.

Two years and still, she mourned.

The decision the Monsters had made had destroyed what little hope and happiness Emily had.

“I know it’s stupid. There’s no chance of wishes ever coming true.” I took a deep breath. “Do you know what I wish for?”

Emily looked toward me, bored. That was all on me.

“For someone to one day look at me like I’m the only person in the world.” Tears filled my eyes as I looked at my best friend. “I hope just once I get to experience what you got for a couple of months.”

“I only got it for a couple of months, Ash.”

“Yeah, and there are women out there who go through life and don’t get it with a single guy. You had it with four. Do you know how amazing that is?” I held out the cupcake. “Stop seeing all that you lost, and start realizing all that you gained.”

****

The memory struck me hard, and I felt myself hyperventilating, screaming. I had to protect Emily. She needed me.

Something sharp hit my arm, and slowly, the world began to slow until I felt my whole body fall.

****

Earl

I didn’t take Ashley to the hospital. After the doctor had given her the sedation, I’d carried her up to the room we’d been sharing inside the Monsters’ house. She was still out of it, and I sat by her bedside, waiting. I’d already received word from the men that Emily was fine, or she would be.

The damage their fathers had inflicted had been quite severe, but that pain was over now. All of them were dead. The contracts on their heads were gone. I’d taken care of everything, and now, my reward lay before me on the bed. I didn’t want to be here anymore. The thought of staying in Crude Hill even one more night was enough to enrage me. Ashley wouldn’t be good until she saw Emily.

My time here was extended, and it pissed me off.

Seated in the chair, I couldn’t believe I was actually watching this woman, guarding her. There was a perfectly good hotel room waiting for us, but I was here, watching and waiting. If my grandfather could see me now, I’d get a beating. He’d have Ashley spread eagled and demand that I fuck her raw. That I take her virginity from every single hole, that I force her to take me in her pussy, her ass, her mouth.

Running a hand down my face, I gave thanks that I’d killed my grandfather.

Ashley let out a little moan, and I watched as the sedative slowly wore off. She’d been so lost in her pain, it had startled me.

This woman was supposed to be easy. She was a sweet woman. Compliant. Submissive. Yet, every single step I’d taken with her, I’d come to see there was a lot more to Ashley than I realized.

Her eyes opened and she lifted her hand with a groan. “What’s going on?”

“The doctor gave you a sedative. You weren’t handling Emily’s attack very well,” I said.

She lifted up in bed, her gaze coming to me. Tears were already falling down her cheeks. “Is she okay? Is she awake? She hasn’t died, has she?” The panic started to rise within her.

Getting to my feet, I moved close to her and sat on the edge of the bed. “The doctor is close by, Ashley. If I need to give you another sedative, I will.”

“Please, don’t. I just … I promised her. Emily and I, we would protect each other.” I had to wonder what Emily had done to protect this woman from me. She swiped at her tears. “I shouldn’t have let her go, Earl. She got hurt because of me.”

“Why should you have stopped her?”

“Because the letter, the vagueness of it. I know these men. They wouldn’t have sent her a letter. They would have come and taken her.” Ashley covered her face and began to sob. “This is all my fault.”

I could let her stew in her own pain, but this was far from her fault.

Cupping her face, I forced her to look at me. “Stop!” My voice was sterner than it needed to be, but the noises she made stopped. “This has nothing to do with you. Emily’s attack was not about you. It was about power and revenge. What you got caught up in, and even what Emily got caught up in, is a family fucking dispute. The change of reign. Those boys took over, and they made mistakes. That has nothing to do with you. You’ve been out of the loop for seven fucking years. You have no right to take this on. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

“But—”

“No! No buts. No nothing. What went down today has nothing to do with you. Fucking nothing. Do not give me a reason to start a war with these little pricks.”

She frowned. “What?”

“You heard me. If you keep trying to take the blame, I will make them pay. You’re not the one at fault. They are.” I was tired of Caleb, Gael, Vadik, and River being a topic of conversation. They had invaded my precious time with Ashley for too long. “Whose fault is it?” I asked.

She tried to pull away from my grip, but I wouldn’t let her. She wasn’t getting away with this. I wouldn’t let her. Plain and fucking simple.

“Earl, please.”

“Answer me.”

She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and then opened them, looking right at me. “It’s not mine.”

“Exactly, so who do you have to blame?”

“The Monsters.”

“Good.” I pressed a kiss to her lips. “If I think you’re going to take any blame in this, I will hunt them down.”

I didn’t move away.

“You can’t keep doing that,” Ashley said.

“What?”

“Threatening to hurt the people I love.”

I paused and looked at her. “You love the Monsters?”

She wrinkled her nose. “No. Eww. I love Emily. She’s like a sister to me. She’s who I care about. Not anyone else.” She blew out a breath. “If anything was to happen to them, I know Emily would never be the same again.”

“Then stop taking the blame for shit that’s not yours.”

She touched her head and groaned. “I feel a little sick.”

The doctor had warned me this might happen. After climbing off the bed, I helped her to her feet, and we made our way down to the kitchen. There were guards everywhere, but I ignored them. I put Ashley into a seat and went to the fridge.

“Do you know how to cook?” she asked.

I pulled out some eggs and glared at her. She held her hands up. “You’ve never cooked for me before.”

“Ashley, you like things overcooked and burnt.”

“No, I don’t. I like my eggs overcooked, according to chefs. To me, they are perfection.”

I didn’t cook.

I hadn’t cooked in a very long time. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever had a reason to cook for myself. When I was a young boy, food was a reward. My father would toss me some bread, or a snack, or something. Real food came when I went to my grandfather, and again, there were times that was held over my head as some kind of reward. I didn’t get the chance to learn to cook. In the world I was raised, women cooked, not men.

With her gaze on me, I tried to think of how to cook.

She tutted at me.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

“Then tell me.” I’d rather have her distracted by helping me cook her food.

“I can do it.” She went to stand up, but I put out a hand to stop her.

“No. I can cook. Instruct me.”

She hesitated, almost like she didn’t believe me. I waited.

“You really want to cook?”

“Does anyone truly love cooking?”

“You must think I’m very weird then. I happen to love it.”

I smiled. “Doesn’t make you weird.” I’d always found her passion for food endearing. There were so many other things that could take away her time. This at least made her happy, and it was easy for me to accept.

She instructed me on how to make her food. I listened, and she taught me. I ended up smashing shells into the bowl, but she was there to guide me. Telling me how to remove it, and then whisking it up.

I burned the toast, and the eggs had some dark brown bits on it.

After plating it up, I put it in front of her and waited with bated breath. She took a bite and smiled. “It’s really good.”

“You’re lying to me.”

She wrinkled her nose but laughed at the same time. “Maybe a little.”

“You don’t have to eat it.”

“I want to. It’s nice that you cooked for me.”

After serving myself some, I had to say, they were downright awful. Ashley though, she didn’t complain. She ate the food, and I watched her, tentatively eating my own. They weren’t great. In fact, on the last mouthful, I was close to vomiting.

Ashley finished all of it.

I made her stay seated while I made us both a cup of coffee. This wasn’t so hard to do.

“Is it all really over?” Ashley asked as I put a cup of coffee down in front of her. I sipped at mine and nodded.

“It’s all over.”

“That means we’re going to be leaving soon, doesn’t it?”

“There’s no reason for us to stay here, Ashley. You know that.”

She nodded and pushed some hair off her face. “Being here, does it make you wish you’d gotten to Emily first?”

Her question took me by surprise. Being back here didn’t make me yearn for anything other than to get the fuck away from it all. I’d never been attracted to Emily. How did I tell this woman that Emily was just business? They were friends.

“No. I don’t want Emily.” I finished my coffee, relishing the burn of it.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“It doesn’t seem right,” she said.

“Now that you’ve seen Emily, do you want to back out of our deal?”

“No. I don’t.”

Silence settled between us. This pissed me off. I didn’t want Emily getting between us. “You need to be prepared for us leaving. At the first opportunity, we’re going to leave.”