Chapter 9 Beauty and the Beast
Aiyana's P.O.V
There was total silence and then, there was the sound of bodies lowering, with their knees hitting earth as every man bowed like he was a god.
My breath was a ragged thing in my chest.
Who exactly was this man?
Is this how other gangs worshipped their leaders or was it just with him?
My thoughts ran wild as I guessed and guessed, and assumed.
I stood at his back as he stepped in front of me immediately they started bowing and to the eyes, it may seem like he was shielding me but I grew up on the streets.
Well, not really but mostly homeless. I knew very well what it was like for people to pretend to be your safe space just to gain your trust and stab you when they know it would hurt the most.
This wasn’t mercy.
This wasn’t kindness.
This was ownership, declared in blood.
My throat tightened painfully and my eyes burned with another wave of tears. Every part of me screamed to run, to disappear, to melt into the air itself, but Jerome Black stood in front of me, close enough to feel his presence like a shadow over my soul.
He didn’t look at me when he spoke quietly, so low that there was no mistaking that it was meant only for me.
“No one will ever hurt you again.” He said with a barely noticeable smirk on his face.
His words were gentle, terrifyingly gentle. They slid warm into my ear, in deep contrast to the corpse cooling on the ground.
“But that safety.” He added, glance turning down to meet my eyes. His was dark, consuming, final, and had some mischief in them
“Comes from belonging to me.”
My knees nearly buckled for a reason I could not name.
Newfound fear, his claim on me, the hundreds of men that made me feel like I could be a sacrificial lamb in seconds, I didn't know.
It wasn’t protection.
It was possession.
A gilded cage. An invisible collar made of fear, and yet, somewhere deep inside the fear, a small voice trembled its way through:
No one ever protected me before.
That thought alone nearly broke me more than the chains ever could.
I had never had anyone protect me. Even the bad people on the streets that tried to gain my trust never protected me from the littlest things, not to talk of against this many people.
Jerome finally looked at me fully, expression unreadable but somehow still showing more than it ever had.
He looked so sincere that I almost questioned myself for doubting his protection but I broke out of that though.
I was a big fool to even consider such a thought.
Jerome Black, sincere? I definitely am a fool.
Stating back into the eyes that terrified me, I put on my balls of steel and asked the question that had been on the tip of my tongue for days now
“Why me?” I asked as I swallowed, with my voice barely a whisper. It was so many why’s.
‘Why did you not leave me to die at the gates?’
‘Why save me?’
‘Why am I being chained here?’
‘Why is he claiming that I'm his and wasting his time and resources to keep me safe when he could just let me go and save himself the headache?’
All these thoughts ran through my head in seconds but 8 could not ask them all, so I waited for his response.
He didn’t answer immediately, as his eyes still held mine with an intensity that stripped me bare, like he was peeling back flesh to see what lived beneath bone.
“You’ll understand one day.” He said at last, turning away, coat shifting like a living shadow.
Not today. Not tomorrow, but one day.
And until then, I was here.
It was just evidence of the fact that I was trapped here not for a short time but for a time so long that I could not currently predict when it would be.
Among monsters.
Owned by the king of them.
Alive, but afraid to breathe.
As he walked ahead, expecting me to follow, my legs moved. They were weak but obedient.I didn’t know where he was leading me, only that I followed because stopping meant being left behind with wolves.
Before I could dwell any deeper into my thoughts, like a gust of wind that didn’t care who it blew against, Gerald appeared.
He practically slid into existence beside us, grin wide and unbothered by the gravity of moments before. His presence felt like color splashed across black paint, too loud, too bright, too carefree to belong here.
It was hard to imagine that the two were close friends.
“Well, well, well.” He drawled, eyes sweeping over me shamelessly. “Miss gorgeous still breathes. Good. I’d hate to see a beauty like that wasted.” He said like it was the most natural thing to get wasted
Even though it creeped me out, heat crept embarrassingly up my neck, but fear burned stronger. Compliments didn’t feel flattering here, instead they felt like attention I didn’t want.
Attention that could kill me.
Gerald walked backward in front of us, hands shoved into pockets, with a devilish smile and boyish all at once.
“Do you see this, Jerome? You’ve gone full caveman. Claiming women in front of the troops. Who would've thought?” He taunts like he was deliberately looking for a fight or at least some reaction to his taunting but he got nothing.
Jerome didn’t flinch. Didn’t respond. His hand that now gripped my wrist didn’t tighten, didn’t loosen and was steady like he was holding a possession, not a person.
“They’re ignoring me.” Gerald gasped dramatically, pressing a hand to his heart like it hurt him and complaining to no one in particular. It almost made it seem like he was a little out of his mind but who wasn't crazy here.
Jerome’s silence was immovable, as if Gerald were nothing more than noise in the background. Maybe to him, he was, but not to me.
Gerald felt like proof that normal still existed somewhere. Someone could joke, laugh, and act human even if he was standing next to the most feared man in the country.
He looked at me again, expression softening,not serious, but curious.
“You must be thinking you’ve landed yourself in a nightmarish fairy tale, hm? Beast takes beauty, promises her the world but forgets the part where she has a choice.” He stated like he was relieving a painful sad story.
It almost made me believe that this had happened before, especially from Jerome's jaw that clenched as soon as he stated it.
I swallowed, throat tight. He wasn’t wrong.
It was lowkey a nightmarish fairy tale.
Beast traps beauty with no escape.
My voice felt trapped behind ribs, so thoughts screamed silently instead.
I was in a mess deeper than my mind could process. A place with rules I didn’t understand,
under the ownership of a man that nations feared. I had no one searching for me.
No lifeline to hold onto.