Page 52 of Captured By the Monsters
SERA
A specter guard floated in and announced, “There’s a commotion in the throne room. Don’t worry, we’re here to protect you.” At this, two other guards came in and shut the door behind them.
“Bullshit!” the brunette screamed, spittle flying from her mouth. “You think I can’t see through your lies! You’re a Specter Trifecta, and you’re here to try to claim us despite the fact that we’ve been claimed already!” She raised her hands and shifted her feet as if preparing to fight.
My eyes bulged, and my pulse raced at her claims. No, that couldn’t be true. That wasn’t how any of this worked. My monsters had explained to me that an unclaimed mate could be fought over, but the crystal chose the mates. I didn’t understand what the point was of fighting over claimed women.
Julie rushed forward, putting herself in front of the crazy brunette. “No, no, they’re here to protect us. What you are saying is impossible! Nobody else can have us after the claiming.”
“She’s right,” the second guard offered, and relief swept through me. I felt so silly for having even listened to the brunette for a second—that is, until the guard clarified. “You should listen to your little friend here,” he growled, gesturing to the brunette with a wispy hand.
Julie swiveled back toward me, a look of fear and horror on her face, but it was too late. We had mistakenly put our trust in what we had been told by our monsters, believing that their kind would uphold any sort of rules.
Apparently desperation would make them do anything to survive—even if that meant taking human women already claimed by another Trifecta.
Did they think they could still become Rumilus if they forced themselves on us? There’s no way it could work like that…but what did I really know for certain?
The Specter grabbed Julie, floated to the ceiling, and held her aloft. “Quickly,” he hissed at the other two Specters. “We must take them to our piece of the crystal to test if we are compatible as mates.”
His words angered me.
“We cannot have two Trifectas,” I snarled. The Specter holding Julie shifted over until he was above me.
“You best hope one of you can be paired to multiple Trifectas, because if you’re not, you’re of no use to us.”
“And if we’re of no use?” I parried back, knowing damn well they were out of their minds for even thinking this was possible.
“Then we kill you.”
Suddenly, I felt as stupid as the brunette had suggested I was.
“Wh-wh-what?” I stammered. “I thought all Specters wanted human women to be tested with the crystal to find the True Queen and restore your lands? Why would you kill us? Human women are cherished. You need us!”
One of the other Specters near the door snorted.
“You’re only good to us if you’re the female that brings us back to our Rumilus form right now. We are tired of being inferior in these forms.”
Another cut added on, malice dripping from his words, “We’ll be taking matters into our own hands now. We want to rule, doing what our brethren before us intended.”
“Intended?” Julie whimpered, still dangling in the Specter’s arms a few feet from me.
The brunette threw her hands up in disgust. “These are the usurpers who killed the original Queen!”
“Well, we’re not the ones who killed her, but we uphold the ideals that a mere human woman shouldn’t rule. Many of us share this belief.”
“How many of you?” I whispered, dismayed that I didn’t know who to trust. I wondered who else was a secret usurper.
“The less you know, the better,” the second Specter announced. “Let’s get going. The sooner we get this done with, the sooner we can get back to our stations. The fight for the unclaimed is a good distraction.”
“I’ll take this girl,” the third Specter announced, floating over towards the strawberry blonde, who still hadn’t realized anything was going on.
“And I’ll get this one,” the second said, coming towards me, making panic claw at my chest. How I was supposed to fight him off? I had no powers and no weapons.
“Good,” the one holding Julie murmured. “Leave the quarrelsome one here. We’ll need to all work together to take her. She has too much fight in her.”
“I’ll kill you all!” she screeched hostilely, launching herself up towards the bookshelf and at them.
They easily floated out of the way, and I wondered how you killed a shadow. Again and again, the brunette tried, and I was grateful that no matter how stupid she thought that the rest of us were, she wasn’t letting them take us without a fight. Or maybe she was just trying to protect herself.
