Page 14 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
Is this why Chloe had accused me of being supernatural?
I needed to feel something intense, to prove my body would jolt and wake up from this dream if it was true. “Lucien, cut me with your claws,” I commanded as my breathing became labored and my heart thrummed loudly in my ears.
“Lucien, don’t you—” Kylo warned, and that was all it took for Lucien to do the exact opposite of what he said.
Or at least I thought that’s what he was going to do as he moved in a flurry of speed and switched our positions, tucking me underneath him as he lifted my hoodie up, exposing my stomach.
His tongue snaked out and licked a slow path of fire up my body until I panted out, “Lucien. Stop playing around. I need you to hurt me so I know if I’m dreaming or not.”
His head whipped up quickly to stare at me, a trace of hurt in his eyes. “I would never hurt you, Alexandra. For you to ask me that and think me capable of it wounds me,” he admitted before pulling away to stand next to Kylo.
Hearing him call me Alexandra instead of angel hurt more than I’d care to admit. He suddenly felt oceans apart from me, and I hated it. I needed to fix it and feel his warmth again. “I’m sorry,” I breathed out before banging my head softly against the mattress beneath me. “I know you’d never hurt me.”
After a moment, I asked out loud, “How do I discern dream from reality?” not really expecting an answer.
Then it hit me. I’d once read in my psychology textbook that in a dream state, to figure out if you were dreaming, you could find a book or a page with writing on it and see if you could read it. If the words were unintelligible or kept changing, then it was a dream.
Jolting up, I looked at the bed for the notebook I had fallen asleep with. Seeing its curled edge underneath my pillow, my hand shot out, pulling it to me and flipping it open.
My handwriting lay on the pages, staring up at me clear as day, illuminated by the soft glow of Kylo’s chest and eyes.
Glancing between my monsters while they quietly stared at me, I started to maniacally laugh to myself. “This can’t be real. You aren’t real.”
Lucien snarled. “Say I’m not real one more time and I’m going to bend you over my knee and spank your ass red until you believe us.”
Fucking hell. If this was a dream, it was doing a damn good job of making the wetness gathering between my legs feel real.
