Beast Lord: (Beauty and the Beast) (Tangled Tales Book 3) Read Free

By the way the attackers dispersed, Stefan knew the men approaching were allies and coming to their aid. The enemy soldiers followed their leader, and when Stefan got to his feet, a wolf was licking his hand.
    “Wolf, is that you?” asked MacKay from behind Stefan.
    “Aye, it is our brother,” said Stefan, running his hand over the wolf’s head in gratitude. Then he heard his father’s voice next.
    “Stefan, thank God you’re still alive. I was afraid we’d lost you.” Lucio de Bar made his way on foot, coming from inside the castle walls, not from the woods with the rest of the army. Lucio had dark hair, was in his fifties, and was a warlock. He was also the only one of the family who had any sort of magical powers – the rest of them were just cursed. “I tried to save Rapunzel, but Hecuba knew I was coming and transported out of there before I could stop her.”
    “Father, the enemy is leaving,” shouted his brother, Arnon – Wolf’s twin. “Should we follow in pursuit?”
    “Nay, let them go,” said Lucio waving his hand through the air. “There’s been enough death here today, we don’t need more bodies to burn or bury. Besides, we need to tend to the wounded.”
    “I’m going to hunt down that bastard and kill him if it’s the last thing I ever do.” Stefan took a step forward and winced in pain. His face and head were split open, his clothes were bloodied and burned, and if the pain of his skin hadn’t been so horrendous, he wouldn’t have let his family stop him from going after the man.
    “Arnon, have the men round up any survivors and bring the wounded inside the great hall,” his father gave the order. “Hugh – we need you in human form now.” At his words, the wolf hunkered down and started to shapeshift right there on the bloodied earth. Then the naked form of his brother, Wolf, got to his feet, taking clothes from his squire and donning them as he spoke.
    “What happened, Stefan? And whom are you fighting? This doesn’t make any sense,” said Wolf, pushing back his long, dark hair that hung down his back, tying it back with a leather strip.
    “Why did you follow us?” Stefan asked instead of answering his brother’s question.
    “Hecuba is dangerous, and I really couldn’t let you face her alone,” said Lucio. “I had a feeling you might need help.”
    “But we left over a sennight ago,” said Stefan, ripping away a piece of his sleeve to see the burnt flesh of his arm.
    “Aye,” agreed his squire. “You would have had to have left right after us, or rode like the wind without stopping to rest.”
    “It was a little of both,” said Arnon, dismounting his horse.
    Stefan wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly what was going on. “You didn’t trust me,” he said to Wolf. “You didn’t think I’d be able to keep your men safe.”
    “Was I wrong?” Wolf shook his head in disgust, looking at all the dead men scattered over the ground. “I just lost some of my best warriors, and for what? We still don’t have our sister back. My warriors’ deaths were for naught. You didn’t protect them.”
    “I’m a better warrior than you and Arnon put together,” said Stefan, so angry now that he pushed aside his pain. He wasn’t going to let anyone accuse him of not being able to protect the others. Blood continued to run down his face and he still couldn’t see out of one eye, but he wasn’t about to show weakness in front of his brothers who always saw him as the flaw of the family.
    “You might be a great warrior, son, but you know as well as the rest of us that when it comes to leading an army you might not be the best choice.” Lucio looked the other way when he spoke, not able to look Stefan in the eye. That action told Stefan that his father was behind this issue of mistrust.
    “That’s not true!” He wiped the blood away again, feeling lightheaded and like he was about to retch. He tasted the coppery tang of blood on his tongue from his lip that was split