Stone Beast Read Free

when she woke up in the morning it would all be better and
her statue would be back safe and sound.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    It was her man.
    Patrick was pacing in front of Deacon. Every
animal instinct told Deacon that he wasn’t supposed to be here. He
looked twitchy and nervous as fuck. He could smell sex oozing off
the other man and not one, but two women. The vile stench of
harpies was fresh and Deacon wrinkled his nose at the pungent odor.
He was fucking harpies? The fucking fool probably didn’t even
know.
    “There you fucking are! This is why you
walked in on the shit you did. You can’t even get out of work on
time. It’s nearly seven at fucking night. I don’t have all day to
deal with this, Beth!”
    Beth .
    Deacon rumbled deep in his chest and allowed
her name to simmer in his mind.
    He fought the snarl that threatened to burst
from the surface. He was back in his stone form. A warm hand glided
over his arm when Beth came into view and she smiled warmly.
    “You disappeared on me,” she whispered. She
was ignoring the little twat and it did things to Deacon’s
chest.
    “Fat bitch! I’m talking to you!”
    Deacon shifted. The son of a bitch was
talking vile to his woman. If he didn’t watch it—
    “Patrick. We are over. I think you made that
pretty clear. Why are you here?”
    The twat shoved his hands in his pockets and
the smug expression on his face spoke of his character. “You owe
this month’s rent. I’m not fucking paying it.”
    He could feel the rage burn off his woman.
She was shooting daggers at the asshole, and he was proud of his
little woman. She shook her head and took a step closer to Deacon’s
stone form and he wanted nothing more than to wrap her up in his
arms and fly away.
    “No, Patrick. Your freeloading—is over. Why
don’t you get one of your other girls to pay? Why even bother with
me anymore?”
    He had the decency to look sheepish for a
moment. “They left. I can’t find Darla. After we finished she left
and her phone is disconnected.”
    She snorted. It was fucking adorable. “That
sucks for you. But I’m not paying. Get a job.” She started to walk
around him and the son of a bitch put his arms on her. He spun her
around and shook her—hard. She cried out and it was all Deacon
could do to control his rage. The warrior bubbled higher. He’d
fought in many wars and this was his new battle. To find his mate
and continue on the family line. Put a baby in her belly and keep
her close. His cock started to grow at that thought, and he shifted
only slightly. He watched as his little librarian fought that cunt.
The sight of him hitting Beth brought a loud raging battle cry from
his stone form.
    Beth was on the ground. The salty fragrance
of her pain and tears filled Deacon’s nostrils and he roared
towards the asshole that had hit his woman. He snatched up the man
and took him up, up, up, and punched Patrick. Patrick’s head
snapped back and it was enough to knock him out.
    Deacon dropped him. He could hear Beth scream
as she watched the asshole’s progression to the ground but he went
right into the fountain. No one else was around and all was silent.
Deacon slammed into the concrete right in front of his woman, who
was still on the ground. A light purple bruise was already forming
on her pretty face where the fucker had punched her. It wasn’t a
slap; Patrick had punched her.
    He looked down at the little woman and took a
step closer. To her credit Beth didn’t scream and run. She had
quite a sense of control about her. His chest swelled with pride
once more that his future mate was quite accepting of all this.
He’d figured it would take much longer to show her this side of
him.
    “Just stop, big guy! You’re—” she looked over
to the empty space where he usually rested while watching over her.
“That—I mean—shit. Help me out here.”
    “I am yours.”
    Her eyes went wide and he watched the flash
of heat in her eyes right before the scent of her fresh,