Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Beast
I am the president of The Knights of St. Bon Motorcycle Club.
A seven-foot mountain of muscle and bone in a pair of motorcycle boots and a leather cut.
Cursed with demons and darkness and secrets that run deep.
To the people of St. Bon, I am a monster.
To my club brothers, I am a fearless leader.
To her, I am a nightmare.
Belle
He comes out of the shadows and turns my world upside down.
He forces me to marry him to pay off my uncle’s debt to the motorcycle club.
The stakes are high. I must be convincing as his old lady or there will be consequences for the both of us.
But I could never imagine the real reason he wants to marry me.
Or the secrets he is guarding in the forbidden room.
Beast is a Beauty & the Beast retelling, set in the fictional, dreamy town of St. Boniface. It is an enemies to lovers, motorcycle club romance with spice and suspense, touch her and die vibes, and twists you won’t see coming. Beast is book one in the MC Fables series. For readers 18+
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
The shadow steers his Harley through the dark streets of St. Boniface. He rides until he knows he can’t take his bike any farther, then pulls into an alleyway where he kills the engine and climbs off. He takes the rest of the journey on foot through the shadows by lamplight until he reaches his destination. There, he climbs the fire escape to the top of the old theater and stands watching the little house across the street. The lights are on, and he can see her moving about inside. A familiar longing courses through him as he watches her. He hears his heartbeat pound in his ears, feels his blood sing with lust and longing. At his side, his fingers tighten into fists. Fists with blood on them.
Darkness crawls deep into his mind and he turns away.
One day, little one. One day.
CHAPTER 1
BELLE
“And the princess lived happily ever after.”
I close the book of fairytales and rest it against my lap.
“Yay!” cries Aurora, the five-year-old blonde cherub I babysit five nights a week while her parents work late.
It’s bedtime and we’re snuggled up against her pillows.
“When I grow up, I want to be a princess,” she says.
“You already are,” I say, giving her a little bop on the nose. She starts giggling. “You were named after a princess, weren’t you? Remind me again which fairytale she’s from?”
Aurora sticks her little arms up in the air and shouts, “Sleeping Beauty!”
I can’t help but laugh. “That’s right.”
She curls her arms around me. “Please read me another story, Belle. Please.”
“You know I would read to you all night long if I could but then your mom and dad would get mad.” I make a pretend mad face and she giggles. “Besides, you have your costume party at school tomorrow, and everyone knows that princesses need their beauty sleep.”
“They do?” She yawns and rubs her eyes.
“Uh huh. So you need to close your eyes and fall into your dreams, sweet Aurora, because tomorrow you’re going to be the belle of the ball.”
She’s going as her namesake, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Her mom, Dani, is a big-time radio personality with her own show, and somehow managed to get a designer to create the perfect Disney princess costume for her.
Aurora pouts. “Emma Duncan is going as Elsa, and she says Elsa is better than Sleeping Beauty.”
“She did?” I gasp dramatically. “Well, I’m sure Emma Duncan isn’t the authority on princesses.”
“And George Brown is going as a Ninja Turtle, and he says princesses are stupid.”
“Well, that wasn’t a very nice thing for him to say.”
“He’s not a very nice boy.”
“Well, sometimes boys aren’t very nice. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be nice back to him. Try it. He might just change his mind about princesses.”
“Do you think so?”
“Maybe.”
She yawns again, and her lids grow heavy. “I wish you were taking me tomorrow, Belle. Maybe Mommy will let you come with us.”
“Me too, sweetheart.”
But I won’t be. Dani has made it clear that daytime is her time and I’m not invited.
“Goodnight, Belle.” Aurora’s voice is a soft whisper. Her large eyes grow small, and her lashes flutter before they finally lower.
“Goodnight, sweet Aurora.”
Bending down, I kiss her on the cheek, then secure the comforter around her tiny frame.
As I sneak out of the room, I hear the front door open and close.
I look at my watch. It’s seven-thirty and no one is due home for another couple of hours.
I wonder if it’s Dani. Sometimes she finishes her shift at the radio station early and makes it home in time to kiss Aurora goodnight. But it’s not Dani, it’s her husband Julian.
“You’re home early,” I say from the top of the stairs.
He’s shaking off the rain from his hair and carrying a bottle of wine. He looks up when he hears my voice and smiles.
Somewhere in his late thirties, he’s already showing signs of premature balding and thickening around the waist.
I don’t have a lot to do with Julian. I’m usually leaving when he’s just getting home. We once chatted over coffee in their palatial kitchen, but it was uncomfortable and forced, with neither of us having a lot to say. He is socially awkward, while Dani has a big personality and an even bigger presence.
After seeing him at a handful of events in the past six months, he gets lost in his wife’s shadow and it’s obvious it frustrates him.
“I’ll just get my bag,” I say, coming down the stairs and following him into the kitchen.
“Don’t leave,” he says. “Stay, have a glass of wine with me.”
I eye the bottle. I haven’t had wine in a while. Not since Austin broke up with me over Valentine’s Day dinner, and I’d tipped the contents of my glass over him when he’d told me about Julie. And Christine. And that bitch at the burger joint… Frieda. I moved my stuff out of our apartment that night, and the next day I’d hauled ass back to St. Boniface.