The hellbeasts past, p.1
The HellBeast's Past, page 1
THE HELLBEAST’S PAST
THE HELLBEAST KING
# 8
STEPHANIE HUDSON
HUDSON INDIE INK
The HellBeast’s Past
The HellBeast King #8
Copyright © 2023 Stephanie Hudson
Published by Hudson Indie Ink
www.hudsonindieink.com
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it wasn’t purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite book retailer and purchase your own copy. No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referred to in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
The HellBeast’s Past/Stephanie Hudson – 1st ed.”
I dedicate this book to the wonderful Maggie Day. A huge fan of the HellBeast saga and was loved by all. A true life and soul of any party, with a smile that could light up a room.
May you find your heavenly story in the Afterlife.
Maggie Day
1962 - 2023
CONTENTS
1. Falling from a HellBeast
2. Fighting Instincts
3. The Fool and the Dancer
4. Bargain for Blood
5. Prisoners
6. Chained to Fate
7. Chosen Mistakes
8. Down with the Devil
9. Chained to My Lies
10. The Sum of Our Fears
11. When the Locks Turn
12. The Dress for Rescue
13. Soulful Reflections
14. Beautiful Surrender
15. Owning The Fates
16. Blood for Blood
17. Three Words
18. Belly of the Beast
19. Blood Oath
20. The Fight
21. Birth of an Oath
22. Helping the Cause
23. Impossible Fate
24. All it Ever Means
25. Caught Red Haded
26. Passing Out on Judgement
27. Fighting the Future
28. Parades and Saints
29. Bloody Bad Timing
30. Summoning the Courage
31. A Fated Heart
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Stephanie Hudson
Other Hudson Indie Ink Authors
FALLING FROM A HELLBEAST
ELLA 1799
“Hello again… Ella Connor.”
As soon as I heard this, I swallowed down what felt like a solid lump named panic before I lowered my fearful gaze down to where my necklace lay against his chest.
My wolf.
It was like he had suspected all this time. As if, deep down, that Hellish core of him had recognized what he himself hadn’t wanted to admit. He hadn’t wanted to give weight to the possibility that I could have been that girl. The one his HellBeast had wanted enough to stop him from doing what the man inside him had wanted to do.
Of course, the question now was…
Who was stronger?
Who would win the fight? The man Hell-bent on revenge, or the HellBeast who recognized his Chosen?
And more importantly… would I survive the internal battle?
From the burning hatred in his eyes, I would say not. Not when his hands tightened merciless at my wrists, making me wince against the slight pain as bare rock pressed into the backs of my hands. But this wasn’t the only thing I reacted to because I couldn’t bare the look of loathing any longer, making me turn my face away.
Something he didn’t like… at all.
I knew that when I felt my wrists being transferred into one hand so he was free to collar my throat with the other, now using his thumb to press my chin up.
“You will look at me and you will face your fate!” He hissed this last part, and it was precisely when I found my anger.
So, instead of biting my lip and holding back my response, I sneered back,
“Maybe it’s you who needs to face your own!”
At this he snarled, making me flinch as his face moved closer to my own, baring his fangs at me. Then with my face once again turned away from his in fear, he growled his next words against my cheek. And unbeknownst to him, but it was the exact warning he had said to me the very first time we met this way.
“Word to the wise, girl… in my Hell, your fear is intoxicating to feed from.”
Of course, the question now was, did this mean our Fate was always meant to start from this point? And in it, did that mean that this was the true start of our journey. But if that was so, then the only thing I wanted to know was how far were we from our happy ever after, because right now…
I felt a million miles away and a thousand years from happiness.
Which was why I closed my eyes as the pain and frustration washed over me. A feeling so strong it felt powerful enough to sweep me away completely. Because all I wished for was just to find a way to prove to him, once and for all, that I had nothing to do with the death of his traitorous wife! Which was why I told him on a whisper,
“I wish there was a way for you to see the truth…”
“What did you just say?!” he demanded, lowering his face to mine, making my eyes snap back to his to find them narrowed down at me. The scar running through his brow was almost glowing with his anger. I opened my mouth, about to speak, when suddenly a great raucous happened behind us that I couldn’t really see due to his large frame blocking everything beyond him. But whatever it was, it caused Jared to lose his footing as someone pushed into him from behind. Which meant that now he was right up against me, having no choice but to let go of my wrists and use both his hands to save himself from headbutting straight into me.
Of course, it also meant that it brought his face about an inch from my own, meaning he felt the gasp of air that escaped me whisper against his lips. Yet, instead of snarling at the cause, he suddenly seemed utterly transfixed by the sight. This along with the feel of me being so close. Which was why my hands fisted in his shirt as if he was my protector. My anchor. My saviour.
He was my everything.
So, I clung to him when I knew in the realms of reality, I was purposely ignoring the fact that I should have been trying to get away, not holding on. And he, too, must have questioned it just like I was. Question why a terrified girl threatened by a powerful being such as he would be clinging on to him as if he was the hero in my story.
Not the villain.
My actions were the reason why we both had so many questions behind our eyes, the windows to our souls that were now locked to one and other. There were a million questions and what felt like untouchable years between us, like some invisible barrier.
It was too much. It was heart breaking. It was pain.
“Ahh!” I shouted as that same pain in my heart became a physical thing on my skin. His eyes narrowed down at my arm as even more glass seemed to explode around us, making him quickly grab me to him, this time to protect me better. He did this by tucking me under him as he arched over me.
Now why did he do that?
I had no answer, just as I didn’t know what was happening behind him, but it sounded like some kind of riot! But shamelessly this came secondary to what I really wanted to know and that was, why did Jared still have his arms wrapped around me as if to save me from harm? Especially when he was the one that only moments ago wanted to be the cause of it. It made little sense.
Of course, I didn’t have long to question his actions as even more chaos erupted all around us, jarring Jared from whatever spell he had momentarily succumbed to. Which was why, one second, I was staring into a pair of silver depths and, the next, I was staring at his back as he spun to shield me from the mayhem. This also gave me a chance to peek around him and I gasped when I saw the cause of so much destruction that seemed to echo all around us.
It looked like a fucking war!
Demons of all shapes and sizes were fighting, with some of what I could see as being Jared’s men trying to gain back some semblance of order. But then the closer I looked, it seemed even some of them were fighting the wrong side, making me wonder even more what the hell was happening. What had gone so wrong?
“What’s happening?” I asked in what I knew was barely above a whisper. I saw Jared look down at me, over his large shoulder, the hard tensed line of his jaw telling me he was gritting his teeth in anger as he forced out,
“I don’t know.”
I opened my mouth to speak when, in the end, only a scream of shock came out as a horned Demon with crusty looking green skin was thrown and landed close enough that I thought he would hit us. However, Jared must have known otherwise, because he simply took a step back and forced me to do the same until I could feel my back press ag ainst the stone.
As for the unlucky Demon, he landed into the corner of a wooden cart that had been filled with what looked like barrels of beer. This made one of the wheels splinter and caused the cart to tip along with the barrels, making one fall and split, and causing a foul smelling brown liquid to spill and soak to the dirt floor.
“Oh Gods, what is that awful smell!?” I asked as I started coughing, making Jared sniff at the air before growling in anger.
“Rafflesia Arnoldii,” he snarled viciously, and just as I was about to ask what he meant, I screamed. Only this time, it wasn’t due to anything coming at me but instead something…
Getting at me from behind.
“AHHH!” I shouted the moment I felt the hands at my shoulders coming from an impossible place. But then I felt that impossible pull me even deeper as I started to fall backwards, right through the wall that had fallen away, turning to smoke. I had never felt so disorientated in all my life… but wait, that wasn’t quite true. No, because I had felt this way before. Which was why, for a few blissful moments, I believed that something back in my own time must have happened. Something with power strong enough that it meant that I was now back where I belonged. That this time traveling nightmare was over.
But of course, I was wrong.
Because the second I landed, I did so into a body who caught me and, unfortunately, it wasn’t the Marcus of the twenty-first century. It was the one who was trying to rescue me from the clutches of an angry HellBeast who must have looked seconds away from killing me!
I knew that because I was left looking across the club and to where I had seconds ago been standing. And the sight that met me was that of a furious King now hammering his hand into the wall I had just slipped through. The black smoke disappearing around his fist as he cracked the stone.
“I would say we have outstayed our welcome, wouldn’t you, my dear?” Marcus said, now taking my hand in his gloved one and pulling me around to face him.
“I would say Hell yeah it has, but it looks like Hell is right here.”
“One that should keep them busy enough… Come on Cookie, time to go!” Marcus said now pulling me with him through the crowd, one that was either joining the fight or trying to run from it, like we were. However, I couldn’t help but look back this time to see Jared leaping up onto the raised stone dais, now scanning the crowd as if trying to find me. However, he wasn’t the only one, because it looked as if one of his men was taking matters into his own hands… literally!
“Watch out!” I screamed as power seemed to build up in his circling hands before he pushed his palms outwards towards us. It burst from him in great streams of yellow light and torched everything in his path. A deadly heat that would have hit us had Marcus not reacted quick enough. He grabbed me and dove to the side, meaning despite us being the intended target, the doomed clown who had zero fucking luck, got the blast square in his chest. This caused him to fly backwards and crash into the very tent we had made him vacate our first night here.
“Umm… now what are the chances of that?” Marcus mused as we both raised our heads to watch at the same time from where we lay.
“Surprisingly high,” I commented dryly, considering who it had hit… the poor bastard. Marcus raised a brow at me, making me point out, “Not exactly the time.”
“No, I suppose not,” he said before shaking the dust from his hair and making his bells jingle before telling me,
“Time to run again, Cookie.”
I nodded to this before we both pushed ourselves off the floor and moved from our bellies back to our feet.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I said as he took my hand in his once more, tightening his hold on it as he continued to lead me through the chaos. Although the moment we finally made it to the exit, we both skidded to an abrupt stop as Jared’s men finally caught up to us. HellBeasts flanked us from either side until they met in the middle and were now blocking our escape, snarling a clear and dangerous warning. They all varied in size and look, from black charred flesh to clumped fur like it had been dipped in wet red cement. All though the one thing they all had very much in common, was that they were all utterly terrifying!
“Well, it was nice knowing you, Marcus,” I muttered after my initial gasp of despair. However, the second I heard him chuckle, I looked up and frowned when I found him smirking.
“I’m missing something here, aren’t I?” I asked, hoping… no, no, praying that I was.
“Oh, please, Cookie, did you really think that I wouldn’t have at least one more trick up my sleeve?” he said, making an elaborate show of dipping his fingers into his wide cuff and pulling a shimmering glass bottle from the material, winking at me at the same time. My eyes widened in response to his own glittering with pure mischief, as if he literally lived for this shit.
“GET THEM!” I heard this command roared from behind, but I didn’t need to look back to know who it was that gave the order. Which was why I focused more on Marcus and the actions of a man who was going to save both our asses from this mess. Something that happened the second he threw the bottle on the floor, making it smash right at our feet. This was at the same time that one of Jared’s HellBeasts leapt through the air, morphing back into his human form mid-motion. His dark, midnight-blue scaled fur rippled and peeled away. As if he were jumping through an invisible, body-sized hoop that ripped away his supernatural form from him. I couldn’t help but open my mouth to scream, a sound that started in one place and ended in another.
Because this attempt on reaching us in time didn’t have the desired effect. Not when Marcus and I were currently falling forward into what was now a shimmering smoke on the floor. I braced myself as the scream continued, holding my hands out in front of me and believing I was going to need them to help break my fall. I even braced myself for the pain that I knew would surely vibrate up my arms.
Thankfully, the pain of landing never came and the world tipped around us as if someone had just folded reality up around us. This meant that I was left still standing in a new destination. Oh, and did so with my arms still held out in front of me like I was acting out some kind of cheesy Zombie impression.
“No need for that now, Cookie,” Marcus said, tapping on my arms to prompt me to stop from looking like an idiot.
“Wh-what just happened?” I asked in astonishment.
“I just saved our delectable little souls, that is what,” he replied, and I scanned the area around us to find we were now actually standing outside the Cheshire Cheese.
“Yeah, but how?” Again, my astonished tone wouldn’t leave me.
“Think of it as having a portal in my pocket, now come on, we are not out of Hell’s reach just yet.”
“Is that how you managed to get me away from Jared?” I felt like it should have been a ‘duh, Ella’ moment but I doubted duh was yet a part of the English language.
“That, and I poisoned half the club,” he commented offhandedly, like this was just a regular Tuesday. Or whatever the hell day it was because, by this point, it was impossible to keep up.
“You what!?” I hissed in response making him chuckle.
“It’s amazing just how many takers there are for a free cup of ale, not even the smell put them off,” he pondered happily with an evil grin.
“Okay, so hold up… let’s go back to the poisoning people part,” I said with a shake of my head.
“Oh, don’t worry, the effects will wear off soon enough… well, they should do,” he said, adding this last part as an afterthought by pausing in his steps and rubbing his gloved fingers to his chin.
“Should do?! Jesus, Marcus, I wanted to escape, not kill people!” I cried in horror.
