Taming the Beast

“Cliff did that?” she asked, staring at his scarred face in disbelief.

Logan nodded. “The bear was seeing red. It was scary being trapped in an out of control wild animal and powerless to do anything. The thought still gives me nightmares to this day.”

“What happened?” Bella asked. “How did you get out?”

“Kevin had gotten my bear so furious,” he continued, “that he broke through the cage.” He looked down into Bella’s shocked face with a sadness in his eyes. “This is where the monster part comes.”

She raised her chin as she gritted her teeth together. “I want to hear it. Those fuckers deserved it for what they did to you.”

“Maybe they did,” Logan said with a heavy sigh. “And maybe they didn’t. Either way, they’re all dead.”

“All of them?”

He nodded. “My bear killed everyone in the building. Over thirty people.”

Bella held onto him like a lifeline as her body trembled. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Logan just continued, ignoring her words. “My bear broke out of the building through a window but he didn’t stop his rampage there. He started lashing out at the innocent people on the street, trying to kill anything that moved.”

“Did he?” she asked with her blood running cold.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I managed to reign him in before he hurt anyone on the outside but he wanted to. He was begging me to release him again so that he could continue his murderous rampage. They broke him. The killings weren’t just survival or revenge. It was a sport for him. He was enjoying it. I could feel the pleasure he was getting from sinking his teeth into every last one of them.”

Bella stared into his eyes that were overflowing with remorse. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Maybe not,” he said with a sigh, “but it didn’t change the fact that my bear couldn’t be trusted around people any longer. I couldn’t take that risk. He had a taste for murder and I could only do one thing.”

“That’s when you came out here?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah,” he said, swallowing hard. “I moved out here and vowed to never let him see another person again. I didn’t want any more blood on my hands.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said with a trembling chin. “That’s horrible.”

“No,” he answered with a shrug. “That’s just life. Life is pain.”

She looked up into his gorgeous face and forced out a smile. “But life can be beautiful too.”

“Yeah,” he said, looking down at her with a heavy sigh. “I’m starting to see that now.”

His sad eyes locked onto hers, nearly breaking her heart.

He had been through so much and she had no idea. Logan had a perfect life; a famous surgeon saving the lives of children every day and they took it all away from him. Now he was forced to spend the long lonely days alone in the forest with his broken bear, wasting his life away.

Something raw and electric passed between them and Bella lifted her chin up as she gazed into his eyes. His lips came down, pressing against hers in a soft passionate kiss.

She moaned as his silky tongue caressed hers, taking her breath away as he held her close and kissed her. Her head was swimming when they finally broke apart.

Bella wanted him badly. Her nerve endings were tingling and stirring as he stroked her cheek like she was the most precious thing in the world.

“Logan,” she whispered as warmth flooded through her. “Take me inside.”

Chapter 10

Logan carried Bella into his bedroom and laid her on the bed, never taking his eyes off of the beauty that he was falling in love with.

He had bared his deepest, darkest secrets to her and she didn’t run away in fear. She didn’t call him a murderer or a killer, or threaten to call the police. She just held him and listened.

Bella didn’t think that he was a monster. She thought the people who his bear murdered were the real monsters, but Logan still wasn’t so sure.