The Clever Beast Within The Beauty 1 Chapter 1

Eliza Grate brushed out her long dark hair for the hundredth time before spinning to flip her head over the dingy tub. She smoothed her hands up the back of her head and then pulled her hair into a high ponytail. She stood up and shook out the towel she has been kneeling on. She wrapped the towel around herself while brus.h.i.+ng off a stray dust bunny that clung to the towel.

Eliza looked in the mirror, double-checking that her ponytail was in the middle of her head, before she left the bathroom.

"Dorothy, the bathroom is open!" Eliza walked down the hall, clutching her towel tightly as she dodged the cubs that were playing in the narrow hallway.

Eliza walked down the hall to the bedroom she shared with her sister and two other council members. She pa.s.sed Dorothy and the twins were sitting on her bed when she shut the down behind her.

"Ca.s.sie, Victoria, I need your help." Eliza bent over her drawers and pulled out some clean underwear. "Should I wear the black pencil skirt or the red flowing pants today?"

Victoria looked up from her cards, "I would say the pants because they look great with your skin, but the red might make the coven leaders think of blood. There's also the tiny problem of it still being dirty from Nytasha's date."

Ca.s.sie nodded, "I agree. Wear the skirt and make him stare at your perfect, round -"

"Great! Skirt it is. How did Nytasha's date go?" Eliza walked over to the closet, pulling the underwear on under her towel. She tossed it onto Dorothy's bed as she opened the doors. One snapped off its hinge and Eliza groaned while the other squeaked ominously.

She pulled the skirt off of its hanger and grabbed a blue blouse to go with it.

"What are you two going to wear?" Eliza tugged the top over her head and then stepped into the skirt. She bent over and rooted through the back looking for a specific pair of boots.

Ca.s.sie looked down at her ripped jeans and a torn t-s.h.i.+rt while her sister did the same in a near-identical outfit.

Eliza sighed, "At least brush your hair and put on some unripped jeans. We have to make a good impression if we can make this deal work." She sat back on her heels. "Has anyone seen my black boots?"

Dorothy ran into the room, no towel in sight, with her wet hair loose and soap bubbles behind her ear. "Absolutely not, Timothy!" She screamed behind her and then and slammed the door behind her. She scooped up the discarded towel from her bed and then sat on Ca.s.sie and Victoria's card game.

They snarled at her and she snarled back. Both instantly quieted and began to comb the bubbles and knots of out D's hair.

Eliza crawled over to D's bed and pulled her shoes out from under it. "I found them!" Eliza frowned and looked around at the disarray of the room. "What happened here?"

The trio looked at each other and shrugged.

Eliza huffed, "Hopefully our meeting with the vampire coven goes better than this, or we are screwed. I will meet the three of you in the front in thirty minutes." Eliza pulled on her boots, without socks, and walked out the door. She leaned on the door and then straightened up.

Eliza walked through the house taking note of all the cracks in the walls and the piles of stuff. She ran her hand along the bottom of a painting hanging well above the cubs' heads. She looked up at the painted eyes of her father, the previous alpha. She looked at the empty walls that lined the hallway, sighing at the empty s.p.a.ces were the sold frames had hung. The paintings were rolled in the attic, the frames long sold to try and keep the pack afloat.

The kitchen was also a disaster so she skirted past it head straight for her office. The office, just off the side of the front door, was the only room untouched by the rest of her pack. Eliza sat in her chair gathering her files and confirming that every folder has the appropriate pages in the right order. Eliza put everything into her bag and slipped an extra notebook with some pens into the side pocket. She stood and surveyed the spa.r.s.e room one more time before walking out and locking the door behind her.

Eliza checked her watch for the fifth time before crossing her arms over her chest. She rubbed her arms and looked at the crumbling house behind her. She took in the boarded windows where the gla.s.s had broken and couldn't be replaced and many other flaws of the old building. She wished, not for the first time, that the traditional packhouse could make a newer one and make at least a non-desperate impression on the car that was coming to pick them up.

As she was about to check her watch again, the rest of her council came out of the house. Eliza smiled for the first time that day. They may not have been in business attire but they were all freshly showered and wearing the cleanest, most respectable clothing they could find. Austin Liver's had a hand on his very pregnant mate's back and led her to the s.h.i.+ny, black car that had just rolled up the gravel drive.

They piled into the car and Eliza fidgeted with the end of her skirt. She smoothed her hair back again and played with a string that was coming out of her bag.

The car pulled up in front of a beautiful house after driving through a tiny picturesque town. A footman greeted them at the car and held the car door open for them while another footman held the grand entrance open.

They were led into a conference room with two half-circle tables inside, each with seven chairs. Eliza opened her bag and handed the fourteen folders to yet another footman to pa.s.s out. She walked to the middle chair, failing to notice that opposite her, a handsome male has his eyes trained to her backside as she walks over to her chair in her tight skirt.

His red eyes narrow as she sits and the skirt strains slightly. The male runs a hand through his already messed hair as the footman sets a folder in of him. Before anyone notices, he lifts it to his face and inhales deeply.

By the time the room settles, a cold look is back on his face and he is gazing impa.s.sively at the council of werewolves in front of him.