Page 57 of Monster. Me.

Instead of demanding more, urging me toward sex, it seems soothed too. Even though I never came, even though my body is still burning with need, that wild, cruel, monstrous part of me has fallen strangely silent. Just being close to Marlow satisfies something inside it.

His fingertips rest against my bare chest. I can feel them making small, teasing movements. His breathing has calmed, though not completely.

"This is so nice… just lying here," I murmur, because I can't keep it to myself.

I think he knows what I feel.

Slowly, his hand slides down my side until it finds mine. Our fingers intertwine.

A shiver runs through me.

There's something unbearably tender about such a simple gesture, a sweet understanding between us. He hasn’t only given me his body for pleasure. But something more; gentleness, so rare in my world, the feeling of closeness with another being.

For a monster, it’s a wonderful gift.

Unfortunately, our moment of bliss is interrupted.

I hear the distant sound of footsteps heading toward my room.

"Shit, someone’s coming," I mutter.

Marlow bolts upright immediately, his eyes still slightly hazy from the blissful state we had been basking in.

"They can’t find me here! They’ll start asking questions about how I got in!" he blurts out. "I need thirty seconds to shift!"

"Okay. Go to the bathroom. There’s a vent cover in there. Lock the door, take it off, and try to get inside after you shift. And be as quiet as you possibly can."

"Got it."

I shove the nail clippers I used earlier to pry open the vent into his hand, and Marlow is already on his feet and running for the bathroom. He closes the door at the very last second because I hear the beep of the code lock.

The person entering the room is…

Dr. Lee.

Oh, wow. Rather unexpected.

Fortunately, he’s a beta, which means he can’t pick up the scents hanging in the air that might make somebody suspicious. Even if he noticed a trace of semen on the bed, well, nobody can exactly forbid me from masturbating and making a mess on my down comforter.

Also, there’s very little chance he’ll hear anything coming from the bathroom.

"What brings you to my humble room-cell, doctor?"

Dr. Lee rubs his chin before walking over to the table and taking a seat. His dark eyes bore into me.

"I’ve wanted to talk to you about something for a long time. As you remember, I previously worked at the Beta Activation facility on Calsing Island. We didn’t have much contact, but even back then I had questions I wanted to ask you, questions the warden flatly refused to answer."

I stiffen immediately.

It’s true. Dr. Lee worked at the same facility where all the events that eventually landed me in prison took place, under the supervision of the warden, Sidorov. Still, I only saw the doctor a handful of times, and never for more than a passing moment.

He studies me for a few seconds, as though analyzing my reaction.

"I’ve gone over the results from your blood samples, your lymph, your semen, even the composition of your sweat, and for the life of me I can’t find a single factor, element, hormone, or molecule that could explain your secret, Drax."

I make a conscious effort to calmly hold his gaze.

"You do produce libido-enhancing pheromones, yes, but they’re irrelevant to the fertilization process, and we don’t use them in therapy. You also produce small amounts of a hormone unique to you, lyxin, which seeps into your sweat and mildly stimulates slick production, also inducing a light preheat phase. That’s what we extract and use in inhalation treatments. But beyond that…? Lyxin doesn’t activate dormant gonads, Drax. We haven’t managed to isolate anything that explains how you’re capable of awakening fertility in anyone."