Page 7 of Feral Monsters
Merit nodded, and reluctantly, I released him so he could follow Dad to the kitchen. Pops looked at me and Wraith. “You two have twenty-four hours to come up with a plan to take Michael out, understood? As soon as you have a plan, run it by me.”
Wraith nodded once. “Understood.”
Pops muttered something under his breath, then headed out the back door. “Vargas, get off your ass,” he barked over his shoulder. “You’re on watch.”
“Mother fuck.” Vargas sighed but got up anyway. “Let me get dressed and armed.”
“Three minutes,” Pops told him.
Vargas narrowed his eyes at me and Wraith. “You two are going to pay for this one day.”
I rolled my eyes. “Go fuck yourself, Vargas.”
Five
Wraith
Merit was sitting on the bed when I emerged from the bathroom, a towel around my waist, while I towel-dried my hair. He glanced up at me. “Where’s Ike?”
“Probably in his room taking a shower.” I turned and hung the towel I’d been using for my hair on the bathroom door, then strode over to my dresser, where I kept clothes on the off-chance I ever had to crash back at my parents’ place. Never knew when that was going to happen. “You want a shower, or are you ready to crash already?”
Today had been an eventful day for him. Between Dad keeping him occupied so he didn’t have much time to think about what was happening and Korain getting him into nature documentaries, I knew he had to be exhausted. And full. Dad had fed him so much, it was a miracle Merit’s stomach wasn’t bursting at the seams and spilling all over the bed.
“A shower will be nice,” he said, scooting to the edge of the mattress. I grabbed a pair of sweatpants that still had the drawstring in them and one of my t-shirts before handing them to him. Without a word, he headed for the bathroom I’d just vacated.
Sighing, I quickly dressed in a pair of boxers, then slid into bed, not caring to get dressed more than that. I hadn’t slept the night before, which meant I desperately needed to sleep tonight. In the morning, Ike and I would need to strategize so we could give Pops a plan. Sure, it would be later than the twenty-four-hour deadline Pops had given us, but he shouldn’t expect anything less from me and Ike.
We never operated on anyone’s timeline but our own.
Ike slipped into the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. Immediately, he clocked the sound of the shower before looking at me. “He okay?”
I nodded. “He seems fine.” I yawned and slid my arm behind my head, shutting my eyes. “He probably won’t be in the shower much longer. I gave him some of my clothes to sleep in.”
Ike nodded and slid beneath the covers on the other side of the bed. “Probably fit better than mine do.” Ike wasn’t wrong. Merit and I had almost the same build, though Merit was a little less muscular than me. Ike was slim and lean, taking more after our surrogate than Pops.
We laid in silence, and I was just beginning to doze off when Merit stepped out of the bathroom. I swallowed a groan at the sight of him in my clothes. He looked so damn good. I wanted to claim him. Own him.
Breed him.
Ike grunted and pushed the blankets down, making the cool air of the room flow over my skin. I shot him an annoyed look, but he ignored me. “Get in bed,” Ike ordered.
“You don’t know the word please?” Merit retorted, annoyance lingering in his voice, but he crossed the room, nonetheless.
“Dad tried to drill it into me, but he failed,” Ike deadpanned. “Come on. We all need sleep.”
Merit snorted but crawled onto the bed between us. Once he was beneath the blankets, I quickly rolled over to face him, wrapping my arm over his hip and keeping my other arm beneath my head. Merit blinked at me, then frowned. Ike clicked off the lamp on his side of the bed. “Why are you staring at me?”
“Because I like the way you look,” I murmured. Ike settled in behind Merit, wrapping our man up in his arms and spooning him from behind. He practically clung to him like a Koala climbing a tree.
Merit’s lips twitched. “Lots of people like how I look, but they don’t stare like you and Ike do.”
“The next people to admire you will get their eyeballs gouged out,” Ike warned, completely serious. “I will carve them from their skulls while they’re still fucking alive.”
Merit shivered, but there was no fear in his eyes. Instead, it looked like he maybe even liked Ike’s threats. And fuck, that got me hard. Merit was a man after my own heart. I might not be able to love him, but he’d own it, nonetheless.
“You like that?” I lifted my hand from his hip to slide my fingers through his damp, messy hair. He hadn’t bothered brushing it, and I liked that. Because when he’d been with his previous owner, he’d been forced to keep himself groomed and neat. To always look perfect. Just like a little doll.
I fucking hated it.
