Page 67 of Captured By the Monsters
SERA
I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep for, but when I woke up, I didn’t feel refreshed at all. Groggily, I rubbed at my eyes, looking around the bedroom. I was alone in the large bed, but I could see my monsters over by the grotto waters, talking amongst themselves quietly so as not to wake me.
Their eyes flicked over to look at me as they spoke when I pushed to sit up. I knew that they were worried about me, probably concerned that I would balk at this new responsibility—that the choice had once more been taken from me, and it had—but by becoming Queen, I might have been granted my greatest wish.
There were some positives to the situation I found myself in.
I wanted to be the one to make my own decisions, to make the choices, and that’s exactly what a queen did. So much rested on my shoulders, but at the same time, I was given the rare opportunity to make change.
It would not only help Paratiisi become what it once was, but I could pioneer the reconciliation between The Above and The Below. I could heal the rift, but most importantly, I could spread the truth. Everyone in The Above was being lied to. We lived in abject fear of the monsters from The Below, but also from our leaders.
We let them rule with an iron fist because we thought they were protecting us, but it was all an elaborate lie—a lie that I planned to expose.
As I pushed myself out of the bed, my Trifecta wandered over to me.
Rowen’s gaze ran the length of me as he asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Still exhausted,” I admitted and stifled a yawn. “It doesn’t feel like I slept at all.”
Axton nodded as if he expected that. “You’ll need to be replenished soon by us. The crystal likely drained all of your energy reserves.”
I quirked a smile at his words and teased him, “It always comes down to you filling me with your cum, doesn’t it?”
His golden-hued eyes narrowed playfully. “Don’t act like you don’t like it,” he growled, and I shrugged, not bothering to lie. They all knew I loved it, and heat or no heat, I craved my monsters’ touch. It was a simple fact.
“After you feel better—” Sylan started to say, but I talked over him jokingly.
“You mean after we fu—”
But before I could finish, he pressed a finger to my lips, cutting me off. “Yes, after that, we’re going back to the castle. We need to tell the leaders.” He chuckled and pressed a kiss to my head.
Sylan wasn’t a prude by any means, but it was cute when he got bashful, as he was now, with crass talk.
“Okay,” I responded easily, already knowing they were expecting that of me today. Sylan shared a look with Axton and Rowen, as if he couldn’t believe my quick acceptance.
Before, I had hesitated to accept my role as Queen. At the time, I had no desire to be the ruler of this land, but I now realized the immense gift I’d been given.
I was going to right all the wrongs that I could and make the world a better place.
“I’ve been thinking…” I started. Rowen looked guarded, as if he didn’t trust what I was thinking, while Axton waited patiently, but Sylan was the one who encouraged me to go on. Taking a deep breath, I exhaled and announced, “I still want to go back to The Above, and I want to do it soon.”
Immediately, all three of my mates started talking at once in a jumbled mesh of disagreements. I knew that they’d been against it before, and I had already prepared for them to be adamantly against it now that I was Queen.
“Sera, my beauty, we can’t go back to The Above. It’s not safe for you there.”
I snorted. “It wasn’t safe for me down here, either, Sylan!” I argued. “What about the women who get sent down here that don’t have an amazing Trifecta to look after them? We have to go back to The Above and tell them the truth.”
Axton stepped in to intervene, gripping my arms. “As long as Paratiisi is being restored, the women that come down here will be safer.”
I wasn’t going to budge on this. If I was going to help fix their world, they couldn’t be surprised when I decided to fix where I came from as well. There was no way I could move on and act like The Above didn’t exist or that those who lived there had amazing lives.
They didn’t. They deserved to be free and happy just as much as the Specters and Rumilus.
“Yes, but what about those that are still up there—the men and the children, too, not just the women. We’re all oppressed, being lied to, being manipulated by a government that doesn’t have our best interests at heart!”
Axton turned his head away, knowing that he didn’t have a good response and that I was right. I understood it wasn’t safe, but there was no denying that it was something that needed to be done.
“Once upon a time, we were all friends—the humans and the Rumilus. I want us to get back to that point,” I forged on. “I know it’s possible if we just try.”
