Page 69 of The Breeding Cave
The woman moved closer to me, her eyes glowing blue once more, the way they had in the trees when she was a giant creature. “If you stay with Luciano, it will be the death of you. He has more enemies than just the Dragon Clan.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
YEOSIN
“Brent!” I shouted once the monster had disappeared into the woods. “Where are you?!”
Adrenaline rushed through me, and I placed a hand over my racing heart in a measly attempt to calm it. Why—how was this happening? Was this a dream? Was I having another one of those nightmares?
Someone grumbled outside the cave, and I grabbed a rock to my right, ready to hurl it at the next monster that walked in here. I wasn’t taking any more chances. I didn’t care if they weren’t an enemy or?—
“Yeosin,” Brent murmured.
My eyes widened, and I clutched the rock to my chest and peeked around the cave wall outside to see Brent lying against it, slowly opening his eyes. He had a bundle of branches gathered on his lap.
“Brent,” I said, grabbing his biceps and tugging him to his feet. “What happened?”
After placing a hand against his head, he walked with me back into the cave and set the firewood next to the entrance. When he pulled his hand back, thick blood coated it. “Something must’ve hit me in the head.”
“Something or someone?” I asked. “There was something outside.”
“Like a monster?”
“Something like that. At least, she could turn into a monster,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself because a few weeks ago, I would’ve never believed that anything like this was real. “At least twenty feet high.”
Maybe I was hallucinating.
“And a beast like Luciano. He tried to come in here and … and …”
My mouth dried at the thought of what that beast had wanted to do to me. He wanted to do to me what Luciano had done that first night under the full moon, but at least Luciano had some restraint.
That beast … had been wild, unrestrained, and terrifying.
“What’d he do?” Brent asked.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I found myself wrapping my arms around Brent’s waist and burying my face into his chest. While it wasn’t the same as Luciano, my heart was pounding so hard that I thought I’d have a heart attack.
Brent wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer, gently stroking my hair. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and honestly, I was grateful that he didn’t because I didn’t think I’d be able to say anything without letting out a sob.
My entire mind was rattled. First Joseph, now this. What was going on?
“Where is the beast now?” Brent finally asked when I pulled away.
“The monster flicked him away.” Literally like he had been a gnat.
“Fuck. Luciano isn’t going to like this,” Brent growled. “Did she say anything to you?”
“She told me to stay away from him,” I said. “Among other things.”
Those other things being that he belonged to Ruby and that Luciano would never truly love me for my scars. Luciano had told me that it wasn’t true, but he had only started this little thing with me so I could birth his children.
Why would he keep me around after that?
“If she’s going to threaten you, why save you?” he muttered to himself. “To save face?”
I wrapped my arms around myself and rocked back on my heels. “Who’s Ruby?”
