Page 13 of Their Lethal Pet
“Let me get this straight,”I drawl, propping my feet up on Orcus’s coffee table as I relax against the leather couch behind me. “You want us to venture into an alternate reality where something calledMonsters Nightis celebrated in a Human Realm?”
“Rude,” Reaper mutters. “Mating Night would be a kinder phrase.”
“Or Fuck Fest,” I offer casually.
Reaper sits forward. “NowthatI’ll attend. When do we leave?”
Orcus grunts, his irritation palpable. “We’re portaling into an unknown realm to search for my mother, not play with breakable humans.”
“Who says they’re all breakable?” Reaper asks, cocking his head to the side. “There’s a reason these otherworldly majestic creatures have chosen to visit this realm in search of mates, yes?”
“Majestic creatures,” Orcus echoes with a sarcastic snort. “They could be real monsters, you know.”
Reaper presses a palm to his chest, his expression oneof clear indignation as he straightens his spine. “Are you going to start calling Death Fae ‘zombies’ now?”
Orcus sighs and rolls his eyes. “Can you both be serious for a minute?”
“No,” Reaper and I answer in unison.
Reaper chuckles and sprawls out in Orcus’s office chair like he owns the room. I simply cross my feet at the ankles and tuck my hands behind my neck, my smile lazy as I gaze up at Orcus’s prowling form. He’s pacing his office like some sort of big rival cat. Which is humorous since he can’t shift.
My inner beast purrs with contentment inside me, completely at peace among the two men I call mybest friends.
Only friends, really.
Without them, I would happily live in solitary.
Alas, my jaguar rather likes Orcus and Reaper. Perhaps because they’re useful.
Orcus is basically a god. And Reaper has all the shiny toys.
So much potential.
So muchdeath.
“We’re going to enter an unknown world via an illegal portal. I need you both focused and ready for anything to go wrong.” He pauses midstep to look at me. “Maliki is going to let several ghouls through as a cover story. You’ll be too busy protecting them to get your dick wet.”
I arch a brow. “You severely underestimate my ability to multitask, my friend.”
“I overestimate your ability to pay attention, too,” he tosses right back, causing my smile to return.
“You do,” I agree, stretching my arms over my head.
It’s all in jest.
I’mverygood with details and he knows it. Andnoticing details requires a certain degree of attention, something I perfected long ago.
“Flame isn’t going to let anyone harm the ghouls. And I won’t let anyone harm you,” Reaper drawls as a blade appears in his hand—one he starts twirling between his long fingers. “So if that’s all squared away, let’s talk about what you know.Monsters Nightaside, this reality we’re going into is more… dystopian? As far as Human Realms are concerned, I mean.”
Orcus runs his fingers through his dark hair and collapses into the open space beside me. “Yeah, dystopian is a good adjective. I’ve been using the small window portal Hades created to peek at different parts of the realm over the last week, and from what I’ve gathered, humans are assholes.”
I snort. “That’s not news.”
“They’ve set up this elitist system where certain families in society own villages and basically treat all the humans in those villages like cattle,” he goes on, ignoring my side commentary. “They’re literally breeding them in an effort to create perfect brides and grooms for monsterkind. It’s fucked up.”
Reaper stops twisting his knife. “Breeding?”
“Of course that’s the word you heard in my explanation,” Orcus mutters.
