Page 23 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
This caused the girl to pause and raise a brow in question as she crossed her arms over chest. “All of you have the same girlfriend?”
From her tone, she really didn’t believe us.
“We need to go,” I whispered, concerned that Alexandra’s scent was fading quickly.
Lucien squeezed my shoulder in a silent response as he sped up our pace and glanced over his shoulder to answer the female. “Yes, the same girl owns all of our hearts. We should have a tramp stamp that says ‘Alexandra’s property,’ honestly.”
A mixture of “awhs” and laughs echoed through the room as we pushed open the doors and quickened our pace.
“Okay, is anyone else freaked out by this random information that is just coming to your brain?” Kylo asked. “We have never called her our girlfriend before, yet it just rolled off my tongue like a term I know.”
Glancing around, I spotted her down a path to our left and quickly switched direction to follow her, hissing at the other two, “This way, come on.”
They scurried after me as Lucien piped up, “Yeah, how the fuck do I suddenly know a tramp stamp is a tattoo above someone’s ass on their tailbone?”
“It’s happening to all of us,” I murmured. “I just had a gut reaction that if we rebuffed them harshly it wouldn’t go over well, but how would I know that when we’ve never interacted with other women like that?”
With Alexandra still firmly in our sight, I let myself actually glance around at the world for the first time. It was full of beautiful, bold colors that somehow eclipsed any memory of the outside world that I could recall. Not to mention the wind that was blowing across my body and tickling the skin with its touch.
“Does this all just feel…”I trailed off, struggling to find words for the first time in my life.
“Like so much more?” Kylo offered almost wistfully, which was so unlike him. “Yes. It feels bigger, bolder, brighter.”
That was one way to describe it. It also was this incredible feeling of the land being nourished and free of disease or sickness. It was flourishing here, and it helped drown out any pain or illness I was sensing from the humans around us.
A whistle sounded, and I jerked my head towards it and found a redhead waving her hand at us as she called out, “Walk of shame, boys?”
“It’s not a walk of shame when it happens repeatedly! We’re proud of our girl,” Lucien chirped back with ease.
A walk of shame… That was….
Focusing my thoughts, it suddenly came to me, and my cheeks burned with her insinuation. It was what someone did after a one-night stand. Obviously we had not “hooked up” with Alexandra, but I could see how our shirtless appearances were giving that impression.
“Hell yeah!” the girl yelled back and held her hand up with her pointer and pinky finger raised. “She’s a badass for having a harem. Treat her well!”
Giving an awkward wave, I nodded and hoped Lucien wouldn’t keep interacting. We really needed to get going and not get caught up in conversation. Glancing back at where I had last seen Alexandra, a strangled sound bubbled up in my throat when I didn’t see her.
“Fuck! Guys, where did she go?” I asked as I started running towards the building that had been closest to the path. I heard the pounding of my brothers’ feet on the pavement behind me.
Our pace and appearance drew a lot of attention our way, but I didn’t care anymore. We had to be with her. It felt like a boulder had suddenly dropped on my chest, and my anxiety was spiking to a whole new level as warning bells sounded in my mind.
Flinging the door open, I flinched as the glass shattered everywhere, but I didn’t halt my movement. A balding man wearing a brown suit and glasses approached us, spluttering with a red face. “Excuse me! Who, who are you and why are you breaking doors to my building!”
A snarl echoed through the room, and I knew it belonged to Lucien without looking. Before I could understand why he felt such animosity towards this man, he had his hand wrapped around the older man’s throat and pinned to the brick wall.
“Lucien!” Kylo yelled, “What the hell has gotten into you?'“
Students gathered around us with their phones out and began to record the confrontation, and Kylo scurried to try to pull Lucien off the man. “We need to go!”
Shit. This wasn’t good.
Lucien’s body was visibly vibrating, and I could tell he was struggling to contain his hold on his human form as he lowered his face to sneer at the man. “You think it’s okay to touch your students?”
Wait, what?
Silence descended in the room at his words, and I saw the students glancing at each other, some in shock, others shaking their heads like they weren’t surprised.
It dawned on me then, that Lucien would never get this angry unless it pertained to Alexandra, and in combination with his words… This man had touched Alexandra. He had touched what was ours.
