Page 202 of Monsters in Love

Then I heard a chilling howl that echoed around the room.

Kavi

She was not what I had expected.

Long blonde hair, a frame much smaller than mine but bigger than many females from her world. Not that I cared. Her eyes glinted brown in the light of the moon as it bounced off the water, and when she dragged the fabric of her shirt across her body my breath shuddered with want. With hunger. I had seen nothing as beautiful as her for years, and I yearned to reach out and touch her. So close, and yet, if I let myself into the light of the moon, she would run. I just knew it.

The water trickled down her abdomen, and a low growl started in my belly, moving up my throat and through my lips. Her head shot up, staring at the entrance to the room that I was hiding in. I was sure she couldn’t see me. Not with her human eyes. I tamped down the sound, swallowing my lust. I did not want to scare her away, not when she was so close.

She went back to cleaning herself off before tugging her wet shirt back on. She tentatively cupped her hands in the water and lifted them to her lips. She closed her eyes and groaned in pleasure, and I just knew she was savoring the sweet taste of my well. It warmed something inside, made me almost step out from the dark.

Another noise came but from a different hallway. The same howl that had echoed through this place earlier. Damn beast. It had no place here, and no place near her.

Her head snapped around, following the sound. Had she glimpsed the creature? There was fear in her eyes, glinting in the light of the lamp she had reignited, a hint of desperation wafting off her now. I ached to step out to reveal myself, to speak with her. But that damn beast was coming. My eyes were used to the dark and I could see it now, a four-legged thing, muzzle of a wolf but with spines protruding from its hips and hocks, a crest of spines.

It grumbled low and long, a snarl that made the woman’s skin shiver and prickle, the scent of her fear escalating. It did not entice me like it might have on other days. It only made my urge to protect her grow stronger. She was mine. This beast could not have her.

I coiled my muscles, lifted my morning star, and ran.

Tamara

When before there had been all but silence, now noise filled the air. I spun around to see a gigantic beast charging from the depths of the shadows. Right at me.

I was frozen. Shock caused all of my muscles to seize up. It – he – was at least seven foot tall, though if I counted the curved double horns on his head, it was closer to eight. His chest and arms were bare, dark grey skin bulky with muscles, and he was wielding a wicked looking morning star. How? How was this reality?

And then I caught the flash of tail, hooves, and black fur peeking out from under his pants, and I think my brain stopped working entirely.

The beast emitted a thunderous roar, and then it was past me, colliding with another creature, another thing that my brain was scrambling to fathom.

What I’d assumed was a wolf or wild dog was not. Because none of the wolves I knew of had spikes coming off them. None of them had fangs that big or claws that lethal.

I braced myself against the well, unable to take my eyes off the battle before me. The meagre light of my torch didn’t show everything, but it was enough. The way the tall creature, a satyr perhaps?How were they real? How was any of this real? The way he swung his weapon, slamming it into the side of the creature, made my heart clench.

Part of my brain was wondering what else I’d expected to find in an abandoned labyrinth, while another part had shut down entirely, and the rest of me was just fixated by the way the satyr moved. He was so big but nimble with it, swinging the morning star easily to smash against the side of the other creature, which was like nothing else I knew or could name.

Get the fuck out of here, Tamara. Run. While they are fighting. This is your chance.

But run where, exactly? I had no idea how to get out of this place. The wolf thing had followed me here, and if it made it out of this alive it could keep tracking me down.

And the satyr?

My gaze caught on the ripple of his muscles. He had lost somehow the morning star and was gripping the beast’s head, forcing it to the side so the vicious fangs couldn’t find a spot to clamp down on. There was blood though, probably from them both.

I’d thought the satyr was going to kill me, but he was protecting me. Saving me from certain death. I didn’t expect the flutter of desire at that realization, but there was no denying it. This primal beast of a male had leapt to my defence without even having met me.

No one had ever put themselves on the line like that for me before.

Kavi

Iwas out of practice.

Too long had I languished in these halls unchallenged. I’d underestimated this beast, for while it might be lesser than me, it was strong, wily in the way that things above ground needed to be to survive. The thorns of its protective layer pierced through the flesh of my hands as I gripped its neck, trying to twist it, snap it, but pain shot through me, spreading.

This beast was poison. If I didn’t slay it now, I might lose my chance entirely.

Maybe I deserved it. I’d let myself fall too far away from the world, lost my touch.

No.The thought roared through my head and I bellowed at the beast. If it killed me, then the woman would be next, and I would not let that happen.

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