Black Beast Read Online Free Page A

still in his twenties. Half the girls in our class want to boink him.”
     
    Her tone left little doubt as to which half she belonged to. Catherine had to try hard to keep a straight face.
     
    “Boink?”
     
    “Boink, screw, fuck, do. Whatever.” She made the hand gesture again, suggesting she'd been watching too many re-runs of
Clueless.
“He's also the faculty adviser for the new club.”
     
    “We have a new one?”
     
    “It was on the morning announcements.”
     
    “Oh.” Not surprising she'd missed that little tidbit of information then, since she usually arrived too late to hear them. Her attendance record bordered on truant.
     
    “What do they do?”
     
    “Who cares what they
do
? When you see the man in charge, you'll thank me.”
     
    “I doubt it,” said Catherine.
     
    “Yeah,” Sharon said, her face falling. “You're probably right. Chase is probably going to be there.”
     
    That hadn't been what she meant, but it gave her pause. “He's in the club too?”
     
    “Unfortunately. He has the biggest man-crush on Mr. Bordello. I bet it rivals the one he has on you. God, you should have heard him. Bragging about the meeting he was going to on Friday night. It was pathetic.”
     
    “Friday night?”
     
    It came out sounding more panicky than Catherine intended. Chase was coming out of the coffee shop, Styrofoam cup in hand, and was now making a beeline for their store.
     
    “I swear, someone should tell the little jack-off that extracurriculars do not equate to having a social life.”
     
    Something happened during that meeting. Or after it.
     
    Sharon threw down the book she was holding. It hit the desk with a loud thump, and Catherine jumped. Her knee thwacked against the underside of the desk and her startled gasp turned into a hiss of pain. The minor injury was fading even as she became aware of the pain, but her regenerative abilities did nothing for her annoyance.
     
    “I don't know about you,” said Sharon, “but I am
dying
for a machiatto.”
     
    “The dying part could be arranged if you don't stop throwing shit,” said Catherine, massaging her knee for effect. It was what an ordinary human would do.
     
    “I'm going to get coffee from next door. You want anything? The usual hazelnut latte?”
     
    Catherine's anger hesitated like a wolfhound thrown off the scent. “Sharon.” There was a low note of warning in her voice, which was deeper than one might expect from a girl of her size. “Don't you
dare.
”
     
    Sharon cheerily disregarded her. She was halfway out the door. Following up on her threat of an early lunch break, Catherine realized.
     
    “Sharon!
Sharon
! As your supervisor, I order you to get your fat ass back in that chair this instant.”
     
    A mother taking her young son to the library's reading room turned around, searching for the source of the noise, before quickly ushering her child onward. Sharon didn't even flinch.
     
    “You're going to get us both fired, you bitch!”
     
    She had the nerve to wave.
Fucking bitch.
     
    Damn it. Chase would be here any minute and she didn't have time to hang up the sign and hunt down Sharon. And she certainly couldn't leave the register unattended. That really would get her fired.
     
    She sighed, cursed. Pretending to be human sucked.
     

Chapter Two
     

     
    As Chase Hill sauntered up to the desk, his face was lit up with such smarmy pleasure that Catherine wanted to bash his face in. She didn't like it when people—not just men—looked at her in that way. As if she could be bought, or owned. It wasn't just about sex, either. Not entirely.
There are more ways than that to sell your soul.
     
    “Welcome to the Friends of the Library Bookstore,” she said, keeping her voice prim and her eyes cold.
     
    “Catherine,” he said, as if they were long-lost friends. “I didn't know you worked here.”
     
    Liar
. There was no way he hadn't seen her through the large double windows. “Do you need help with