Bend Her

BEND HER A DARK BEAUTY AND THE BEAST FANTASY ROMANCE THE TRANSFORMATION TRILOGY BOOK ONE CASSIE ALEXANDER Copyright © 2023 by Cassie Alexander All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental. www.cassiealexander.com Cover by the Bookbrander. Interior hardcover art by IV Benjamin. Used with permission. Formatting by Morrigan Author Services. CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 Lisane Chapter 2 Rhaim Chapter 3 Lisane Chapter 4 Rhaim Chapter 5 Lisane Chapter 6 Rhaim Chapter 7 Lisane Chapter 8 Rhaim Chapter 9 Lisane Chapter 10 Rhaim Chapter 11 Lisane Chapter 12 Rhaim Chapter 13 Lisane Chapter 14 Rhaim Chapter 15 Lisane Chapter 16 Rhaim Chapter 17 Lisane Chapter 18 Rhaim Chapter 19 Lisane Chapter 20 Rhaim Chapter 21 Lisane Chapter 22 Rhaim Chapter 23 Lisane Chapter 24 Rhaim Chapter 25 Lisane Chapter 26 Rhaim Chapter 27 Lisane Chapter 28 Rhaim Chapter 29 Lisane Chapter 30 Rhaim Chapter 31 Lisane Chapter 32 Rhaim Chapter 33 Lisane Chapter 34 Rhaim Chapter 35 Lisane Chapter 36 Rhaim Chapter 37 Lisane Chapter 38 Rhaim Chapter 39 Lisane Chapter 40 Rhaim Break Her Transformation Trilogy Book Two Lisane Rhaim Acknowledgments Also by Cassie Alexander About the Author With sincere apologies to Alfred Bester. “Make it a savage war between us. Don't win me . . . destroy me!” —Olivia Presteign Sign up to Cassie’s Newsletter for access to book art, merch, and secret scenes, and be sure to check out Cassie’s website for more information on this and other stories. INTRODUCTION She was my death made flesh, and she was beautiful. My beast was transfixed, and I wrestled to control it again, trying to rein the things that were monstrous in me back, as I lumbered forward to breathe her in deep. In sleep she was perfect. Soft. Quiet. Helpless. And my beast had a feeling she would taste good, no matter where he licked her. 1 LISANE I woke up to utter darkness. That wasn’t so unusual—the women’s chambers of the palace were underground, to protect our quarters from the eyes of enemy mages—so my whole life, I had been a creature used to candlelight. But I wasn’t accustomed to my own breath hot against my face, or the rough feeling of fabric against my cheek—or knowing that my wrists were tied behind my back, painfully tight. I blinked furiously, trying to wake up and remember what had happened to me, and why I was trapped like this. The last thing I could recall was being in a carriage, with Castillion the Spiked sitting across from me. We’d been running away from the Deathless . . . And now I was here. Wherever here was. Tied up, in the dark, on the ground, with a bag over my head. The very thing my father had been afraid of for me for my whole life—and the reason I lived in a gilded cage, only getting to leave the palace when I had throne-sworn mages by my side—had apparently happened. I had been kidnapped. My panic became a living thing inside me, scurrying like a mouse from my brain through my throat to my heart and back, making it hard to think and breathe in turns. My hands throbbed as all the blood my heart was pounding fought to get beneath the ropes that bound my wrists. But I made sure to let nothing show, as I fought against every instinct I had to sit up and run. I didn’t thrash, nor did I scream for aid. I was a princess. I would give no one the satisfaction of seeing me frightened. No matter how dangerous I knew lying on the ground could be. And so I lay still for hours. Waiting. For Deathless to crack open the earth and pour through. And when that didn’t happen, I waited for someone to come and check on me. To name their price. To touch me in ways they shouldn’t. Only no one ever did. I slowly moved to kneel on the cold stone floor. My entire life I’d been told that I was precious. Too precious to see the sun unguarded, too precious to see the stars at night. It was what my father told me, and my brother, and the mages that guarded our doors, and my mother too, up until the Deathless killed her. I’d wanted to believe them with all my heart, but the ties that bound me—and my captor’s ongoing neglect—felt far more earnest and resonated with what I’d always feared to be true: that once precious things were put away, they were easily forgotten. And if they’re forgotten long enough, nobody notices when they break. * * * Three days passed . . . I think. I managed to wriggle the bag over my head off, but the knots around my wrists never slackened, not even after me twisting enough to make my skin burn beneath them. There’d been a bucket of water down here with me, and I’d drank from it awkwardly, with my hands tied as they were. It only occurred to me that I might be better off drowning myself in it after there wasn’t enough water left in it for me to do so. I even dared to use the one spell I knew, creating a small pool of light in my hand, hoping that it would attract someone’s attention—women weren’t allowed to learn much magic, lest it turn us barren or set us aflame—but