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The Beast (Book 14)

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“He was reminding her that the future was unknown and unknowable. So if you had the chance . . . even if there was no music and no ballgown, no tuxedo or gala . . . when your true love asked you to dance? It was important to say yes.” -Rhage

The Beast is the fourteenth book of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. It is preceded by The Shadows of the same series, Blood Kiss of the Black Dagger Legacy series, and the standalone novella The Story of Son. It's followed by Blood Vow of Black Dagger Legacy and The Chosen of the main series.

Synopsis[]

His name is Rhage—the deadliest fighter and most voracious lover of all the Brotherhood, whose inner beast could never be tamed. But Rhage found his eternal love in Mary Luce, a woman who once bore a life-threatening curse, while dreaming of eternity with her vampire warrior and protector.  

Main Characters[]

Other Characters[]

Others - Speaking Roles[]

Mentioned or Non-Speaking Roles[]

Plot[]

Warning[]

Readers should be aware that this book contains references to domestic violence, cancer, miscarriage, death during pregnancy, suicidal ideation, fatal gunshot wounds, and drug addiction.

Reminder that this wiki contains spoilers so please proceed with caution.

Chapter 1[]

Story opens in late October with Rhage covertly scanning the abandoned and time-ravaged Brownswick School for Girls, and feeling antsy for action. Inside the dormitories and classrooms were a large group of Lessers, and the Brotherhood had tracked them to the location, thanks to Assail turning on his former associates and joining the Brotherhood's fight against them.

Rhage is really amped to fight, and he blames it on the current funk he and Mary, his shellan, have hit.

Vishous interrupts that thought by approaching Rhage and telling him he's had a vision of this night. He warns Rhage to go home before the fighting begins. Rhage isn't listening, though, too much in need of a good brawl to care of the outcome that Vishous has seen. In desperation, Vishous reveals that Rhage is going to die here on this field in the battle.

Rhage refuses to go, claiming that if he runs from the idea of death and the Fade, he'll never be able to go back into the field again to fight. Further, he warns Vishous that if he doesn't fight, the Beast will break free sometime later that day, probably when they're locked up in the mansion, because he's too juiced to have much control. He tells Vishous that he's not afraid to die, because The Scribe Virgin promised him Mary could go with him anytime she wanted. He takes solace in that fact.

Vishous is so angry, he tells Rhage that if he has a death wish, then fine. He refuses to waste anymore time trying to convince Rhage that his life means something to everyone else.

Rhage thinks about the last time he was with Mary, how beautiful he found her, and how that vision would stay with him always.

At Safe Place, Mary gets a phone call and has to tell a little girl staying there, Bitty, that her mahmen isn't doing well. Bitty's astute and asks if it's time to say good-bye her mahmen and Mary says that it is.

Chapter 2[]

Rhage rushes the dorms of the abandoned school before the signal's given, leaving everyone else scrambling to catch up. During the fight, Vishous catches three human youths recording and has to take care of them before the video can be posted online. Once he's done with that, he has to try to keep Rhage's dumb ass alive, but he's too late and watches Rhage take a bullet straight to the heart.

Chapter 3[]

On their way to Havers' clinic, Mary's internally distraught over what Bitty's going through and how the girl will be left alone without money or education. Annalye hasn't passed yet, but is on the brink and Mary encourages Bitty to hold her mahmen's hand. At the moment contact is made, Annalye dies and Bitty's convinced she killed her mahmen.

Rhage is bleeding out and Vishous is trying to protect him in the midst of the firefight, then he and Butch have to run for it when Rhage shifts into his Beast form. Vishous knows that Rhage won't survive and dematerializes out without explanation to Butch.

Chapter 4[]

Unable to speak, Rhage wants Vishous to go and save himself because he's ready to die, which was what he wanted. His only regret was that he and Mary would never have children and he regrets the distance that's grown between him and his shellan lately. The smell of V's blood as he takes a bullet to the arm wakes up his Beast.

Vishous goes to the Other Side in a panic to demand that his mother save Rhage and finds her lying listless in her bed. She asks him if it's Rhage's future he's concerned about or his own. Vishous assumes that she's sulking because no one's worshiping her, aka kissing her ass, anymore and is hurt when she doesn't do anything. In his grief and anger, he thinks some rather uncharitable things about his mother and is angry that she hasn't been more proactive in the events that harmed those closest to him and the race as a whole. Disheartened, he returns to the fight.

Chapter 5[]

Mary blames herself for traumatizing Bitty, who's been crying in a bathroom stall for half an hour, and tries to reassure the girl that her mahmen's in the Fade. Mary's torn between her training as a counselor and her instinct to comfort the girl. She's so upset for Bitty that she's distracted on their way back to Safe Place and instead heads towards the mansion out of habit.

Back at the abandoned boarding school, the Beast sets his sights on Assail and Evale has to drive the thing off with an elephant gun so V can get Assail to safety, but the dragon follows them. Assail, who's injured, tells V to leave him behind and run for it, which V, of course, refuses to do.

Chapter 6[]

Back at Safe Place, Bitty tells Mary that her uncle's going to come for her and take her home. Mary's reserved about that because Annalye had never mentioned or disclosed any family, but she offers to try and find him for her. They're interrupted by a phone call from Butch, telling Mary to come immediately and texts her a location.

After making sure someone's there to look after Bitty, Mary drives hellbent for leather for the school where she finds the Beast ripping the roof off a shed. Grabbing it's attention, she gets it to come to her, but when more shooting breaks out, it grabs Mary to protect her and attacks the last of the lessers. Afterwards, she convinces the Beast to let Rhage take over, but when he does she sees the gunshot wound and screams for help.

Chapter 7[]

There isn't anything Jane, Manny, and Ehlena can do and they step back so Mary can say good-bye. Although Mary has the ability to follow him into the Fade, she's afraid of leaving Bitty all alone and begs Rhage to stay. Desperate, she gets the others to help roll him onto his side so she can touch the living tattoo of the Beast on Rhage's back. She convinces the Beast to help save Rhage and it somehow heals the bullet wound. He regains consciousness and coughs up the bullet.

Chapter 8[]

Mary explains to Rhage what happened, but feels horrible that she saved him so she could be there for Bitty's sake and not his own. Rhage also doesn't talk about where he's at. Still, they're together while he recovers and Mary realizes it's been awhile since they'd had a night off together since they'd both been so busy with the war and Safe Place; Mary's been dreaming of Bitty nearly every day because of her worry for the girl.

Chapter 9[]

While tracking lessers, Xcor comes across the Brownswick School for Girls and the aftermath of the Brotherhood's battle with the Lessening Society. There he finds a human talking on the phone to a friend about how he just recorded and posted to YouTube a fight with a dragon after three of his friends had already run off. Xcor knocks him out and takes his phone, then dispatches a couple of straggling lessers. While wondering why the Brotherhood would have left such a mess behind for humans to find, Vishous knocks him unconscious.

Vishous assumes the rest of the Band of Bastards is somewhere close, but there's no sign of them. He, Butch, Phury, Blaylock, Qhuinn, and Tohrment had just returned to clean up the battlefield. Tohrment wants to kill him right away, as Wrath had given him the right to execute the would-be assassin, but his Brothers convince him to hold long enough to interrogate Xcor. They send Blay and Qhuinn off in the Hummer mere minutes before Vishous senses that the Omega's coming.

Chapter 10[]

Mary and Rhage reconnect in the clinic where he's recovering.

Layla's on bedrest and upset over her feelings for Xcor, then she has to stay in her room in the clinic while Assail and his cousins are there.

Chapter 11[]

Vishous manages to get up a wall of mhis to hide Phury, Tohr, and himself just before the Omega appears. Worse, dawn is rapidly approaching.

Chapter 12[]

Manny's trying to stitch up Assail's leg, but he keeps twitching because he needs another hit of coke. In fact, he didn't even want to get treated, but the Brothers brought him to the clinic, anyway. Manny calls Assail out on his addiction, pointing out the shakes, weight loss, and constantly runny nose. Manny gives him his number, telling him to call for help detoxing when he's ready to quit, but Assail just tosses the number in the wastebasket full of his tissues.

V and Tohr are racing the dawn on their way back to the mansion.

Chapter 13[]

Mary tells Rhage about Annalye's death and he's upset that she didn't tell him sooner, even though he'd almost died himself. She goes on to tell him how she'd died right as Bitty took her mahmen's hand and Rhage suggests that Annalye had been holding on until her daughter arrived, after all, it's what he'd been doing the night before. He recommends that Mary tell Bitty that her mahmen needed to hear her voice one more time to know that the girl was going to be all right without her, which she would have known since Mary was in the room, too.

As Mary's talking about popping into Safe Place briefly, what Rhage had done truly hits him. He wonders why he'd been suicidal and why there's distance between him and his shellan, he's pretty sure that he's losing his mind.

Chapter 14[]

Dougie drags his roommate, Jo, to the Brownswick School for Girls to show her the aftermath of the fight from the video he showed her. Already skeptical, they only find some trampled grass and she chalks it up to the acid trip he was on.

Chapter 15[]

Wanting to check on Bitty, Mary slips out of the recovery room while Rhage is still asleep and is startled to find the entire Brotherhood gathered in the hallway. She's flabbergasted to learn that they're there to thank her for saving their Brother's life and Wrath gives her an antique sword of ornate gold encrusted with gems and hung on a ruby red sash. He tells her that by saving the life of one of his private guards, she's "held in the highest royal esteem" and that he owes her an equitable boon at any time that she wishes to call it in. Mary's torn with guilt because she hadn't saved Rhage for them, but rather so she wouldn't have to follow Rhage into the Fade and could be there for Bitty. She tries to decline, but all of them start hugging her, even Zsadist, and glare at her when she tries to return the sword.

Xcor's still unconscious and tied up in the gun range and the Brothers debate what to do with him. V and Wrath worry about the Omega taking retribution for wiping out so many lessers at once. They try to talk to Assail, but he's so twitchy that V has to give him his coke just to get him to calm and focus so Wrath can ask him a favour.

Chapter 16[]

At Safe Place, Mary learns from Rhym that Bitty had packed up her things in the hopes that her uncle would come for her. Bitty's still asleep and Mary tucks her in, thinking of when she lost her own mother only to be diagnosed with leukemia soon afterward.

Rhage wakes up, blind as usual in the aftermath of shifting into the Beast, and is greeted by his Brothers, which brings up his guilt over putting all of them through that much worry with his reckless action. Except for Vishous, who cold-cocks him twice for ignoring him and then hugs him. While eating, Rhage realizes he feels empty and it's not the fact that he's starving and sitting by himself.

Chapter 17[]

Assail's having a sort of moment of clarity, wondering if he needs to still be in the drug business and decides to quit it. He feels like helping Wrath with the glymera as was the king's request is the right thing to do and makes plans for a rendezvous with a female.

Bored at work, Jo watches Dougie's YouTube video again and finds another account of someone claiming that vampires are real and living in Caldwell.

Chapter 18[]

Mary's been going over the files for Bitty and Annalye, but can't find any mention of an uncle. When she brings this up with Bitty, the girl says that her mahmen got in touch with him somehow and after thinking for a moment remembers that his name's Ruhn. Mary thinks that Bitty's coping by creating an imaginary uncle who will come to rescue her and comes up with a name similar to that of someone she knows, Rhym. Mary offers to put word out on a private online group for the race to try and find him. Not for the first time, the way Bitty talks about her mother's death seems beyond her young years.

Beth runs into the kitchen carrying a crying LW and covered in blood because she'd slipped, fallen, and cut her hand on a paving stone. She hands the young off to Rhage so she can go find Doc Jane to help her. Rhage is freaking out because he has no idea what to do with an infant and treats LW like a delicate crystal vase. To try and calm the kid down, Rhage tucks LW up against his chest so he can rest his cheek on his shoulder and pats the boy's back, just like he's seen Wrath do and it works. The enormity of holding so much life and so many possibilities in his arms, a little life that's seeking comfort from him, hits Rhage like a freight train.

Chapter 19[]

Assail meets with Naasha and sends a picture of her without her knowledge to V.

V checks on Xcor, who's still unconscious, and he suspects that the concussion he gave the Bastard caused a stroke.

Chapter 20[]

Beth dashes back to the mansion as Jane's trying to finish bandaging her up. When the doctor realizes that she's in a hurry because she left LW with Rhage, Jane urges her to run. Despite their fears, Beth finds Rhage holding her son protectively and crying. She tries to talk to him, but he's too undone, so she helps him dry his tears and sits with him while he holds LW as long as he needs to.

Marissa goes to talk to Mary, who assumes it's about what happened with Bitty and Annalye and begins to apologize, but Marissa cuts her off and says it's about Rhage nearly dying. In fact, she's surprised that Mary came into work at all and urges her to go home because she needs to take care of her own needs before she can help others. She even has to point out that were their positions reversed, Mary would make her go home, too.

At home, Beth tells Mary that Rhage is in their room and that she should probably go talk to her hellren, but won't specify why, just that he's upset. She finds him curled up on the floor of their bathroom with all the windows in their suite open to the freezing cold. She tries to get him to talk to her, but he just wants to make love to her, stopping to stroke her belly.

Chapter 21[]

Rhage is imagining Mary pregnant with their young and what their children would look like if they could have them, how they would raise them, then later on grandchildren. He tries to wipe away those thoughts with sex.

Even though Mary knows what he's doing, she goes along with it if he's not ready to talk. She realizes how tightly wound she's been herself with stress over work. Afterwards, before they can talk, Rhage is summoned to a meeting and promises to return to her immediately afterwards to spend the night together. Instead of relaxing, she goes to Beth and asks her what happened earlier.

Chapter 22[]

As Rhage enters Wrath's office, Qhuinn's arguing for moving the still unconscious Xcor out of the training centre and farther away from Layla and the medical crew.

Layla realizes that the strange sensation she's been feeling is Xcor's proximity and follows the sense of her blood in his veins to find him, but Qhuinn finds her and tries to get her to move back into her room upstairs. Jane, unaware of Xcor, disagrees since Layla's so close to her due date. Returning to her room, Layla feels wetness between her thighs.

Chapter 23[]

Assail makes a report to V that something's definitely happening, but he suspects that someone's manipulating Naasha.

Mary asks Rhage why holding LW got him so emotional. When he's unable to answer, she asks if it's because he wants a young of his own. She understands that seeing his Brothers having children of their own made him realize that's what he wanted. Despite her gentle understanding, he's angry because he doesn't want to feel that way. He says he brushed off Vishous' warning because he's not omniscient and he breaks down, admitting that he thought that maybe things would be different for them in the Fade. Mary asks Rhage if he wants to be with another woman in order to have a child, even though he refuses, she tells him that he can.

Chapter 24[]

Mary's upset that she can't have children and despite her brain telling her otherwise, she feels like less of a woman. She's despairing because she doesn't see any way out of this for them; for once, Rhage is the sensible one and reminds her that if she was capable of bearing young, then they'd never have been together as per the balance that the Scribe Virgin told them was necessary for Mary to survive her cancer. He says he wouldn't change a thing and that they just have a different path, is all.

Chapter 25[]

Poor Layla had lost control of her bladder when one of the babies pressed on it and her water hasn't broken. She's able to confirm that Xcor is down in the training centre by Jane's non-answers.

Chapter 26[]

Jane, Manny, and the Brothers move Xcor to the Tomb.

Chapter 27[]

When Mary gets to Safe Place, Bitty asks her to take her to her old house where she'd lived with her mahmen and abusive father so she can get some of her things in preparation for her uncle coming for her. Mary tries to dissuade her from this, but Bitty insists, again acting older than her nine years.

Peering out the door of her room in the clinic, Layla watches Xcor being moved .

Chapter 28[]

They get Xcor to the Tomb where Lassiter's agreed to keep watch during the day.

Assail goes to a gathering at Naasha's where Throe's also attending. The two males do not get along. Assail suspects Throe's infiltrating the glymera much as he is for intelligence to fuel more of the Bastards' machinations.

Chapter 29[]

Jo Early meets with a friend who's a reporter, Bill Elliot, to ask him about someone he'd interviewed for part of an article. He's familiar with the YouTube video she's referring to. After showing him Dougie's video, he proposes going over to the school and Jo accepts.

Rhage takes Mary and Bitty to the girl's old house in his GTO.

Chapter 30[]

Bitty bonds with Rhage over his GTO, which she thinks is pretty. He even offers to let her drive and has to reassure Mary that he'll find an empty parking lot somewhere. When she checks in with to Bitty to make sure she's ok with Rhage's presence and she tells Mary that Rhage is like a "big, friendly dog."

Chapter 31[]

Since they're searching the Brownswick School for lesser jars, Vishous is there when Jo and Bill arrive.

Naasha takes her dinner guests down to her playroom where Ehric and Evale participate in the festivities, Assail instead decides he's going to seduce Throe, who's in denial over his attraction to Assail.

Chapter 32[]

At the school, Bill and Jo find a roof torn off of a building and markings in the grass lawn that they compare to crop circles, but Jo thinks is actually a giant footprint.

Bitty's old house has been demolished. She tells Mary and Rhage that she'd hoped to get some of her old clothes and books to her uncle's so she wouldn't be a burden on him and get sent away. Rhage tells her that whatever she needs, he'll get it for her, but she declines and muses about getting a job.

On their way back, Rhage offers to take Bitty for ice cream the next night. When she hesitates, Rhage tells her that Safe Place has his cellphone number in case her uncle comes while she's out for ice cream and he could get her back there in five minutes. He chatters on about ice cream and how he has the best cell reception in the city thanks to Vishous, which leads to him going off about Lassiter. Bitty actually smiles listening to his stories.

Chapter 33[]

Assail fills Vishous in on the fact that Throe's moved in with Naasha following his falling out with the Bastards.

Rhage asks Vishous if he and Mary want kids. The answer is a resounding no because V thinks he'd be a terrible parent thanks to the way his own were.

Chapter 34[]

While driving back home up the mountain, Qhuinn nearly T-bones her with his Hummer. He, Blay, Butch, and John Matthew all nearly crap a brick over almost hurting her. She tells them that if they don't calm down, she'll have Fritz paint their bedrooms pink and put up pictures of Disney princesses. At home, she and Rhage re-connect again.

Chapter 35[]

When the Bastards find Xcor missing, they assume he's dead or in the custody of the Brotherhood and soon to die.

Chapter 36[]

After learning who her parents are, Bill accuses Jo of pulling a Blair Witch type project and trying to get media attention. He figures that with her family's wealth, she could have hired CGI artists and a crew to leave the marks on the lawn as a publicity stunt. She corrects him, telling him that she's estranged from her family and will gladly show him her banking statement to prove that she doesn't have access to her family's money so his background check on her was pretty shoddy. He apologizes and asks her to meet with him.

Mary admits to Rhage that she'd begged Jane and Manny to save his life because she didn't want to leave Bitty alone instead of fighting for their relationship. Rhage tells her that he doesn't expect her life to revolve around him 24/7 and he can understand that she didn't want to leave an orphan who'd just watched her mother die alone. As long as she would have actually joined him at some point, he isn't upset. He tells her that it doesn't matter why she did it, but she did and the fact that they're together is a miracle and everything worked out as it should have.

Chapter 37[]

Both Mary and Rhage are nervous about going for ice cream with Bitty. When they pick her up from Safe Place, Mary finds Annalye's ashes in her office. Bitty wants to save them for her uncle, but isn't comfortable with them in her room and asks Mary to keep them in her office for now. At the ice cream parlour, an employee assumes Bitty is Rhage's daughter, but the girl doesn't bat an eye and tells the woman that Rhage isn't her dad. Rhage, on the other hand, acts like he was clubbed with a two by four, which only

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