Taming the Beast

“I thought I heard my name,” Eva said, her accent announcing her presence before she even came around the corner.

“Aww,” Eva said, as she came all the way into the room and caught sight of Belle’s face. “You’ve had the dream again, haven’t you? The one where Gastard is still… around.”

“Round, thick and hard, you mean? Oh, yes. That dream. Again. You’re so lucky, you have Vibiere. That guy’s batteries run non-stop, I can tell. I hear you two sometimes, and well, I’m happy for you both. I truly am. But hearing you two just makes me ache more!”

“Ah yes, my Vibiere’s battery life would make anyone jealous, for sure. Belle, sweetie, I know I’ve suggested it before, but why don’t you just…”

“With Vibiere? I could never!”

“No, I meant…”

“I appreciate your offer of a threesome, I really do. I just can’t bring myself to…”

“Belle! I was just going to suggest that you go to him. To Gastard. If he can’t come here…”

“I can’t go to him. I can’t leave the manor! You know what happens!”

“I do. I know exactly what happens when you leave the manor. But you’ve never tried pushing past that and leaving the grounds, have you? What happens when you go past the gate? Can you, even? Get past the gate?”

Belle

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried,” Belle admitted.

“Guess you don’t want Gastard all that much, then. Do you?”

“Eva, the minute I walk outside, I turn into a fucking monster!”

“Oh, calm your tits, Belle. You turn into a shifter. You act like you’re the only shifter there’s ever been in all of history. They actually used to be quite common, you know. I dated one once, before the curse, when I was human. The sex was amazing,” Eva said.

“That’s different.”

“How so?”

“All the shifters I’ve ever heard stories about could shift at will. They could control it. And they were born that way. They had families and packs. They weren’t human indoors with an angry curse one day forcing their shift every time they tried to leave their own home.”

“Except the ones who were controlled by the moon. The early ones, the very f

irst werewolves, they couldn’t control it. And not everyone was born that way, many were bitten and turned. Shit happens around here, ya know. You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last.”

“Why are we arguing about this? It’s silly. I’m not going outside.”

“Look, Belle, this curse your dad put on this manor, whatever it is that makes you shift when you walk outside, at least it lets you go outside. We can’t. That force field or whatever keeps us inside.

Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been able to sunbathe in the nude? I’m almost glad I’m silicone now. I’d be too embarrassed to see how white my human form has got to be by now.”

“You’d be embarrassed to be seen because you’ve gotten pale but you don’t understand why I’m embarrassed to step outside and become a beast?”

“Beasts, I mean shifters, are sexy. As far as curses go, that one isn’t that bad. That’s all I’m saying.”

“I can’t even tell what it is I shift into! Is it a wolf? A bear? I don’t even know what you’d call my animal. Why dad had to add insult to injury and make my shifter form unclassifiable on top of everything else, I just don’t know.”

“Of course you know. He walked in on his precious little princess doing it doggy-style with a townie. He hated that you were seeing someone so common, but to find him here, fucking his daughter, in his manor? Fucking you like an animal, even? He wanted to keep you two apart, yes. He also obviously wanted to make sure that if you left the manor, you’d look like…”

“A freak-show beast of a monster shifter?”

“…like something guys probably wouldn’t want to fuck. That’s all. He was protective.”

“Ya think?”