Page 49 of Monster. Me.

The party is still going strong. Pedro and Timmy are up on stage doing karaoke together, with Timmy clearly carrying the entire thing while Pedro mostly drags it down. Everyone else looks like they’re having a blast, probably half drunk by now, dancing, singing along, and laughing loudly enough to drown out the music.

But Rupert is nowhere in sight. Neither is Juan. Neither is Caspian. That alone is enough to make an uneasy feeling tighten in my gut. Something is definitely going on, and whatever it is, they clearly don’t want anyone else walking in on it.

I slip into the back area. The narrow hallway is empty, but the door at the very end is shut tight, and this time there isn’t a crack to peek through. I clench my jaw, convinced I hear something on the other side, and then another thought hits me. My eyes drift up to the ventilation ducts. Why not check from above?

I go back to my room, strip out of my clothes, and shift.

A moment later I’m inside the ventilation system, moving through the ducts on instinct toward the club. The space is tight, but I slip through it easily, occasionally pausing to peer through the vents until I find the right section. Soon I’m above the back hallway, moving carefully until I reach the final grate.

It opens into the exact room I’ve been suspicious about the whole time, the one where I can hear not-so-innocent noises.

I inch closer and peer down through the metal slats. The angle is worse than before, but still good enough to see what’s happening below. I’m catching the tail end of something intense and too far gone to interrupt.

Juan is finishing deep inside Caspian’s round ass, while both of them are making the room echo with breathless sounds. Caspian has stripped off the program shirt and pants completely, and it’s obvious he doesn’t care about anything except being dicked.

Juan steps back from where Caspian is bent over the table, and I can see a streak of semen slowly running down the young beta’s thigh.

Then another figure steps out from a spot that had been hidden from view.

Rupert.

Oh.

Fuck.

He was in there the whole time!

He takes a step toward Caspian and drops to his knees. A second later he's got his face pressed against the beta's ass, greedily licking up the cum coating his pink entrance. The room fills with disgusting slurping and smacking noises, every wet sound painfully clear to my oversensitive ears. I stare in disbelief, feeling something inside me crack.

A few moments later Rupert gets to his feet, leans over Caspian, and pushes his erect dick inside the beta. That alone is enough for me to guess that he has some specific kink for watching and sharing, but it still doesn’t feel like the full picture. And I'm right, that isn’t the end of it.

While I’m still trying to process what I just saw, I notice Juan moving behind Rupert. His hands drift to Rupert’s waistband, and then he starts pulling his pants down…

Oh, hell no.

The moment he bares Rupert’s butt and runs his finger over my vector’s ass crack, I sigh.

There’s no part of me that wants to stay and watch Rupert taking a dick while still in the middle of fucking Caspian! My nerves are already stretched too thin for something like this.

Rupert is obviously not interested in me, and I won’t have a family with him or anything like that, not ever.

Why the fuck did I come here, and why wasn’t I more picky?

Stupid, stupid me, paying the price for my own desperation.

I turn away from the vent. Whatever this setup is, some three-way mess, I don’t need to see another second of it.

Angry and bitter, I slip back through the ventilation shaft as fast as I can, and there’s only one place that even makes sense anymore.

Only one person I want to see.

FENN DRAX

Reed leans over me and removes the dressing Dr. Lee put on my hip.

"Lucky bastard, as always. Your regeneration is insanely fast. You can barely even see where we went in," he says as he peels off his gloves, his mouth curves slightly, like he's annoyed he doesn't have abilities like mine or… maybe because Dr. Lee sent him to care for my wound. He would rather see me die from infection.

"Good," I reply tersely. "Otherwise I'd already be a wreck after spending three and a half months in this goddamn facility."