Page 14 of Mated to the Monster God
My fingers hover, hesitate, then graze his arm.
It’s warm. Solid. Rough like crocodile hide, but with a strange softness to the edges of each scale.
He watches me, silent.
When I don’t pull back, he leans in slightly. “May I?”
I nod before I know why.
His hand comes up and brushes my cheek. Gentle. So impossibly gentle. Like he’s afraid I’ll shatter.
His clawed thumb trails along my jaw. I suck in a breath, sharp and full of fire.
“Why?” I whisper. “Why me?”
Sagax’s voice is quiet but unflinching. “Because you were kind. Brave. And because you did not fear me when it mattered most. You treated me as a being, not a parasite. That moment changed me. I will never forget it.”
The jungle hums around us, but all I hear is his heartbeat.
“I will never let anyone hurt you again,” he vows, voice like thunder barely contained.
I believe him.
CHAPTER 4
SAGAX
Ido not breathe, but I inhale her.
Esme.
Even crouched in this hollow tree, dirt smeared on her face and her lips dry with exhaustion, she is the most exquisite thing I’ve ever encountered. My senses are sharper now—richer, endless in their clarity. I see colors that don’t exist in the human spectrum, shimmering auras around her skin where heat meets heartbeat. I smell the tang of her sweat, her fear just fading, and beneath it... her desire.
She hides it poorly.
I do not blame her. I am not what I was. I am no longer small, no longer weak, no longer clinging to survival. I am born again—seven feet of coiled potential, encased in armor that pulses with life. Muscles respond like living pistons. Joints glide like oiled machinery. Each movement feels deliberate, powerful, as though gravity itself must negotiate my every step.
And for the first time in my existence, Istand tall.
My vision now has depth—shadows stretch in dimensions I could never process before. Trees are no longer vertical noise. They are sentinels. Pathways. Tools. Threats. The jungle is no longer incomprehensible chaos. It’s a tactical environment.
But none of it matters.
Not when she’s here.
I glance sideways at her, feigning casual observation. She pretends not to notice. I can feel the twitch in her shoulders, the subtle intake of breath every time I shift. She’s hyperaware of me—my mass, my scent, my proximity. She doesn’t know what todowith me, and I savor the confusion in her pulse like a melody.
Her mind was once open to me—thoughts bright and frantic, bursting with color. Now it is a storm shuttered. She is cautious. Guarded.
But the bond is not broken.
And I feel her anyway.
Her skin sings where my fingers touched her cheek. That moment—small, soft—has marked us both. I could taste her heartbeat in that single contact. I know the rhythm now. I will never unhear it.
My hands... they’re strange to me. So large. So dexterous. I flex one slowly, watching the talons slide over one another with perfect control. These were not meant for brute force alone. No. These were forged toholdher,shieldher. Totouchher with reverence.
The form I chose is not random.
