Captive of The Beast Alpha: Drugging the CEO Was a Mistake.-Chapter 42: Naya: The beast and the blood

The bullet flew right past my ear, and I turned and ran to the edge of the ravine, preparing to jump into the waters below, when something slammed into me from the side.

The impact knocked all the air from my lungs. I felt my feet leave the ground, and suddenly I was flying through the air like a rag doll. I crashed into a thick thicket of bushes, branches scratching my arms and face as I tumbled through them.

I groaned and tried to sit up, tangled in the thorny branches, to see what had happened to me. When I finally managed to turn my head, I froze when I saw it.

The monster from yesterday stood there. The same terrifying creature that had flung a man across the room like it was nothing was now standing a few feet away. Its amber eyes glowed like fire under the early morning sun, and it was looking at me.

The gunmen had stopped moving. All three of them just stood there, staring at the creature with their mouths hanging open. Their guns hung loose in their hands, forgotten.

The monster ignored them completely. It turned toward me, still stuck in the bushes, and started walking over. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst out of my chest. I began to struggle to come out from the thicket, but every time I moved, I sank deeper into the thorns that held me ransom.

When it reached me, it stopped. Then it did something strange.

It leaned down and looked at me. It wasn’t just looking; it felt like he was inspecting me, checking for injuries. My heart hammered in my chest. My limbs froze. Was it going to finish me off? Eat me alive? Rip me apart like it did that man?

Its eyes moved over my face, my arms and legs.

After a long moment, the creature seemed satisfied. It straightened up and turned back toward the men.

Then it roared.

The sound was nothing like yesterday’s. It started deep in its chest and exploded outward, shaking the trees and sending birds scattering from their branches.

I clamped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t help. The sound went straight through me.

That’s when I noticed something odd. There were only two gunmen now.

I looked around frantically. The quiet one—the third man who’d barely said a word since they grabbed me—was gone.

The remaining two men finally snapped out of their shock. They raised their guns and opened fire.

Bullets rained down, pinging off trees, tearing through air and flesh. But the beast didn’t stop.

It just kept walking toward them slowly, like the bullets were nothing. I could see the impacts hitting its chest and shoulders and dark spots blooming in its fur, but it didn’t matter.

The men kept shooting, screaming at each other and backing up.

They ran out of bullets and stopped to reload. The monster was about twenty meters away when it suddenly moved. One second, it was walking, but the next second, it covered the distance faster than my eyes could follow.

It grabbed both men at once, wrapping its hands around their necks.

Their screams were cut off instantly. They let go of their gun as they reached for the beast’s hand, trying to pry it off their neck. I could see their faces reddening as their air supply slowly thinned. They struggled, flailing their legs.

The beast lifted them high into the air, then brought them down hard against a massive boulder jutting out of the ground. Their bones cracked with a deafening sound. Their heads rolled off their body, spilling blood and brain matter.

Unable to hide my fear, I screamed.

The beast stopped immediately. It turned its head to look at me, still holding the limp bodies. Its amber eyes were wide, almost confused, like it didn’t understand why I was making that noise.

I slapped both hands over my mouth, trying to muffle the sounds still trying to escape. My whole body shook. I couldn’t look away from those bodies, from the blood, from the spilt brain matter that was all over the place.

The beast turned back to its work. It slammed the bodies down again and again and again, breaking their bones, ripping their body parts where it was joined, scattering pieces across the rocks and dirt until there was nothing left that looked human anymore.

I squeezed my eyes shut and started sobbing. I wanted to go back to a few hours ago when I was still in the city. I wished I’d declined coming here with Hansel. The beast growled one last time, turned and started coming towards me.

All I could think of was the Ward family. They knew I was going to leave and had sent the beast after me. With the precision and cruelty the beast killed, no one would be able to piece my body together to identify me.

No one would notice I was even gone, let’s start from there.

I started sobbing hard, my body shaking in the thicket where I was stuck. I don’t want to die, at least not like this. I hadn’t gotten around to avenging my mother, and now I was going to die the most shameful death.

I cracked my eyes open again and saw the beast was halfway towards me now. It was moving on all fours.

And for a split second, I thought it looked different.

It looked more like an animal, maybe an overgrown wolf. It didn’t even look as harmful as it did last night, but then it had looked angry that night.

Did it double in size whenever it was angry?

It stopped a few feet away from me and started watching me.

I was still stuck in the thicket. Though I’d tried to free myself a lot of times, I ended up getting more trapped, so I just gave up.

I closed my eyes again, trying to control my chattering teeth.

As the final realisation hit me that the Wards had sacrificed me. That’s what this was. They’d allowed me into these woods to cover up my death. Hansel had lured me to his house and had conveniently remained hidden despite my plea to see him.

Fresh tears spilt down my cheeks.

Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted in the gentlest of ways as if someone was picking up something fragile.