Billionaire Beast Bear (Beast Bears Book 3) Read online

  BILLIONAIRE BEAST BEAR

  By

  Natalie Kristen

  Beast Bears

  Billionaire Boss Bear (Book 1)

  Billionaire Chef Bear (Book 2)

  Billionaire Beast Bear (Book 3)

  Copyright © 2019 by Natalie Kristen

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the author’s written permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  Also by Natalie Kristen

  About the Author

  About this Book

  Kristy knows that to earn her freedom, she has to fight in The Pit, an underground arena. What she doesn’t expect is to face off against Mad Max in her final fight. But when she comes face to face with Mad Max, she realizes that Max isn’t mad at all. In fact, he may be the sanest, and sexiest, male she has ever met.

  Max has returned to The Pit in search of his past. He has climbed his way out of the darkness to become a billionaire. But maybe it’s true what they say: you can take a man out of the darkness, but you can’t take the darkness out of a man.

  The last place Max expects to find his mate is in the violent, bloody underground arena called The Pit. Yet there she is.

  Thrown together into the arena by fate, Max and Kristy know that their fight has only just begun.

  There are dangerous and much more powerful enemies circling, waiting for the chance to strike and destroy them forever...

  * * * * *

  PROLOGUE

  Kristy Caine jumped out of bed feeling both excited and apprehensive. She drew back the curtains and saw that it was a bright, beautiful Sunday. The flowers along the sidewalk seemed to be waving at her, wishing her a happy birthday.

  Kristy gave a small smile.

  It was her eleventh birthday today.

  Her smile faded as she padded to the door. There would be no birthday celebration for her. Her dad never remembered her birthday. In fact, he hardly talked to her.

  Kristy walked out of her room and saw that her dad’s bedroom door was shut. She tiptoed around the kitchen and found eggs, flour and milk. She could make pancakes. Birthday pancakes, she decided.

  Kristy knew better than to expect a present from her dad, but maybe he would take the time to eat with her and talk to her on her birthday. Sometimes a whole week would go by without her dad saying a single word to her.

  Kristy placed the plate of pancakes on the table and went to pour two glasses of milk. She sat down and waited nervously.

  When her dad’s bedroom door opened, Kristy scrambled to her feet and looked at him with hope in her eyes.

  Would he wish her happy birthday?

  “Daddy...” she began, glancing at the breakfast she had prepared.

  He didn’t seem to notice the food on the dining table. Instead, he squinted at her and barked, “Make yourself presentable, Kristy. Don’t just stand there. Get moving! Let’s go.”

  Kristy stood frozen for an instant.

  Where were they going?

  She blinked and a thought crept into her head. Maybe her father was taking her out for a birthday treat.

  Excitedly, Kristy ran to get changed and jumped into the car.

  Kristy looked out the window as her father drove. She smiled happily to herself.

  Daddy does love me. He’s just really busy, but he loves me. He’s going to celebrate my birthday with me!

  They drove for a long time, and Kristy grew increasingly confused and uneasy as they trundled down a long, lonely stretch of road.

  There were no houses or buildings in sight at all. Instead, all she could see were tall, shadowy trees.

  The car finally pulled to a stop and her father told her to get out. Kristy’s eyes widened as she stood in front of the imposing iron gates. There was a castle beyond those gates.

  She peered at the towering, forbidding castle behind the black iron gates and gulped. Turning to her father, she asked anxiously, “Daddy, why are we here?”

  Her father scowled at her and grunted. “Stop asking so many questions. Behave yourself!”

  Kristy swallowed and bit her trembling lip.

  The iron gates swung open and her father shoved her forward. “Straighten up, Kristy,” he snapped. “Walk properly. Don’t hunch your shoulders.”

  “What is this place?” Kristy whispered as her eyes darted frantically around the sprawling castle grounds.

  This wasn’t an amusement park or some castle themed restaurant. They were clearly on private property.

  But it wasn’t an abandoned castle. Someone had answered the intercom and opened the gates for them. There were lights in the windows and as she walked up the long driveway, she saw workers pruning the trees and shrubs.

  The workers were dressed in black and white uniforms and they all wore silver collars around their necks. A few of them stole curious glances at her as she passed.

  “Daddy,” she said, tugging at his hand. “Why are we here? Who lives here?”

  She couldn’t help the feeling of dread at the pit of her stomach. She wanted to get away from this place.

  “Just be quiet, Kristy,” her father hissed. “Don’t mess this up.”

  Kristy gasped when she saw a tall, thin man with pale gray eyes standing in the arched doorway. Kristy squirmed when those gray eyes flicked over to her. The man smirked and nodded to Kristy’s father.

  Her father bowed and said in a fawning tone, “Sir Roland, here is your servant.”

  Kristy frowned. She didn’t understand what was going on at all.

  Roland looked Kristy up and down and asked, “How old are you?”

  Surprised, Kristy stuttered, “I...I’m eleven today.”

  Roland quirked a brow at Kristy’s father. “You’re selling your daughter on her birthday?”

  “Ah...”

  Roland laughed and shrugged. “Humans,” he said contemptuously. “Not smart, not strong, but...most of you will do just about anything for money. Humans make the best workers, in my opinion.”

  �
�Why do you keep calling us humans?” Kristy couldn’t help asking. She always asked questions in class when she didn’t understand what the teacher was saying. She wasn’t a shy or taciturn kid at all. She was only reticent in front of her father. She didn’t really know how to talk to him.

  “Aren’t you human?” Kristy said to Roland.

  Roland looked surprised and amused. “You’re a pretty outspoken lass,” he said at last. “I don’t mind a little chit-chat among my servants, but make sure your hands are not idle while you’re yakking.”

  He leaned forward and said, “I am a warlock. So no, I’m not human.”

  “Paranormal,” Kristy whispered, shrinking back. There were a few paranormal kids in her school and she did her best to avoid them. Some of them used their paranormal abilities to bully and terrorize the other children in the playground.

  Roland smirked and pulled out a thick wad of cash from the pocket of his tailored jacket. Kristy’s father took the cash eagerly from Roland and turned to leave.

  “Daddy! Wait for me!” She ran after him but her father shook her hand away and snarled, “You’re staying here, Kristy. Go to Roland. He’s your master now.”

  “M-master?” Kristy stammered. “I don’t understand...”

  “You belong to Roland now. He is your master. You are his slave. He owns you,” her father said in a hard voice.

  “No...”

  “Stop following me! Go to your master,” he snapped and hurried down the driveway.

  “Daddy! Please, please come back! Please...”

  Kristy watched helplessly as her father turned the car around and sped away. The tall black gates clanged shut and Kristy was suddenly aware of the tears rolling down her cheeks.

  She swiped them away angrily. She wasn’t going to cry.

  Her father had sold her for cold, hard cash.

  He never loved her.

  She had been deluding herself all this while.

  She had been living in a dream world. She kept wishing and hoping that she would have a happy family, that her father, her only family, would give her a crumb of love and affection.

  Her mother had died three years ago, and her father was all she had.

  No.

  Kristy’s green eyes blazed as she balled her fists.

  She never really had a father.

  Reality hit her like a slap to the face. It was a rude awakening, but Kristy woke up right away. She had to. No one was going to look out for her.

  On her eleventh birthday, Kristy stopped being a child and grew up in a hurry.

  “He sold me into slavery,” she whispered. “But I won’t be a slave forever,” she swore. “I won’t!”

  There had to be a way to regain her freedom. The question was, how?

  When Roland snapped a silver collar around her neck, Kristy looked him straight in the eye and said, “What do I have to do to get this off?”

  Roland chortled and pinched her cheeks. “Oh, aren’t you adorable?”

  He stopped laughing when he realized that she was dead serious.

  “Well,” he said slowly. “To get your slave collar off, you’d have to pay me the full amount that I paid for you.”

  “How much is that?” she demanded.

  “But that’s not all,” Roland said, smirking. “If I let you go, I would be deprived of decades of your wonderful service. I’d have to factor that in as well.”

  Kristy knew that the amount would be exorbitant, but she was determined to buy herself out of slavery.

  Undaunted, she said boldly and resolutely, “Tell me the full amount. And tell me how I can get the money to pay you. I’ll do anything.”

  Roland stared at her with a strange gleam in his eye. Kristy forced herself not to flinch.

  “Anything?” he said at last.

  The word was out of her mouth before she had time to think.

  “Anything.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  Eighteen years later...

  Kristy clenched and unclenched her fists as she stood in line for her number. She was the only full-human in the line.

  All the other fighters were paranormals. There were shifters, vampires, warlocks and witches. There was one guy who was a hybrid. He was half-human, half-shifter, so he wasn’t allowed to wear any protective gear or take any weapons into the arena. Only full-human fighters could choose one piece of protective gear and one weapon from the warehouse.

  Kristy blew out a long breath and tuned out all the noise around her. She knew the drill by now.

  She had been fighting in The Pit for almost twelve years now. She had the scars to prove it.

  Kristy knew that she owed it to sheer luck that none of the injuries that she had sustained in The Pit resulted in any permanent damage.

  Many of the older fighters had lost an eye, an ear or some other body part from their time in The Pit.

  They might be paranormals and they could heal quickly. But they couldn’t regrow a body part that had been bitten off or gouged out in a fight.

  Kristy glanced at the muscular, hulking shifters who were in front of her in the line. Kristy was tiny compared to them, but her size was an advantage in the arena. She could dodge and duck and slink out of a tight spot. And with her speed and stealth, she would get the jump on her opponents.

  Kristy had lost many of her earlier fights, but she refused to give up. She wasn’t going to be defeated by defeat. She analyzed the mistakes she made and learned from the fights she lost, and she kept improving. She handed all her winnings to Roland, and she kept a detailed record of how much she had paid him so far.

  She was almost done.

  This was her ticket to freedom.

  If she won the fight tonight, this would be her last payment and she would be free. She would have finished paying Roland every cent she owed him.

  “I have to win,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “I. Am. Done.”

  She had been sold into slavery, but she was done being a slave.

  Kristy closed her eyes briefly.

  She could still remember her father walking away from her after delivering her to Roland. She remembered crying pitifully after him, “Daddy! Please, please come back! Please...”

  But he never came back.

  Her father never came back for her.

  Kristy could hardly remember his face now. Her memories of her father had grown hazy over the years, and she had no idea if he was alive or dead at this point. Well, her father clearly didn’t care if she was alive or dead either.

  She had been a helpless eleven-year-old then. But she was a strong, determined twenty-nine-year-old woman now.

  And she would be a free woman soon.

  She just had to win the fight tonight.

  Kristy had asked Roland at their first meeting what she had to do to free herself. That very night after dinner, Roland had summoned her and told her that he was going to show her what she had to do to earn enough money to buy her freedom.

  Roland had ordered his chauffeur to drive them to The Pit.

  Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Kristy had sat beside Roland and watched every fight in The Pit that night. Roland didn’t need to explain to her what was going on.

  Kristy watched, listened and absorbed every sight, sound, smell and vibe. She understood what The Pit was about.

  The Pit was about blood, violence...and money.

  Money she needed.

  The Pit was an underground arena operated by a coven of vampires. As long as you paid the registration fee, you could fight in The Pit. Bet were placed, and there was a monetary prize for the winner of each fight.

  Kristy quickly learned the rules of the arena and when she realized that the prize money awarded to a full-human combatant was triple the amount that was given to a paranormal combatant, she knew that as brutal and bloody as The Pit was, it was her best chance.

  It was her only chance to get her life back.

  CHAPTER TWO

  After her first visit to The Pit, Kristy ha
d returned to Roland’s castle and resumed her life of toil and drudgery. But every night, after she had finished her chores, she would train.

  She found some old books and videotapes on martial arts in one of the store rooms, and she watched and read everything she could get her hands on. She taught herself self-defense and combat moves and practiced on pillows and sandbags.

  Some of the male servants sparred with her and gave her tips and pointers on how to improve. They had initially tried to dissuade her when they learned of her plans to fight in The Pit, but Kristy refused to be derailed.

  “I’m not afraid to die,” she had told them grimly. “I have nothing to lose. Nothing.”

  Kristy trained relentlessly for seven years before her first fight in The Pit. It had been a painful, terrifying experience but Kristy refused to let her fear conquer her.

  Kristy lost all the early fights and she very nearly died, but she begged Roland to let her return to The Pit.

  “I’ve lost enough money on you,” Roland had huffed. He told her that he wasn’t going to allow her to fight in The Pit anymore if she lost the next fight.

  She won.

  And she continued to win.

  Once Roland saw how much money she was winning for him, he hired a martial arts instructor for her.

  Kristy was a lucrative investment, he decided. He gave her more time to train and relieved her of some of her chores. She was his property, and he could decide how best to use his property for maximum profit.

  Well, she would be his property no more. If she won tonight, she could get her slave collar off and be free.

  Kristy looked up and realized that the line had moved. It was her turn.

  With a wide, confident smile, she stepped forward and greeted the vampire behind the counter.

  “Hey, Ross,” she greeted him. She knew almost all the names of the vampires who ran this profitable underground arena. She had been coming here for a long time. Hopefully, this would be her last time.

  “It’s the full-human again,” Ross deadpanned. That was what everyone at The Pit called her.