Page 52 of Mate of a Monster

Why am I feeling this? It wasn’t this strong before. I could ignore it and pretend—

“There is no pretending anymore, mate. We’ve entered the next phase in the bonding process. It will only grow from here.”

Like fuck I’ll be walking back into this trap. Fool me once, King Dickship, but you’re not about to go another round.

“Did you trick me, beast?”

He says nothing.

The guards spread out around the space, and then the other asshats of Rathe push through, jerking to a stop beside Legend. London is there, too, her eyes going wide.

Oddly, none of them say a word, shock painted across their features.

Not that they can broadcast that with all their little minions around.

Every single person in this courtyard is watching us. I won’t be giving any of them the satisfaction of making a fool of myself again. Not unless it’s followed by Legend’s death. Then I could be persuaded.

Hellpet, who are you trying to convince?

I straighten and tip my chin up, crossing the courtyard like I meant to arrive this way.

The crowd parts. Not quickly, but it parts. People step aside in that involuntary way where they don’t decide to move, their bodies making the call for them. I’ve always liked that. It’s one of the few things that translates the same whether you’re on Exile or standing in the middle of some royal courtyard in front of assholes who hate you.

Legend hasn’t moved.

He watches me close the distance with that unbothered expression still sitting on his face, like he’s got all the time in the world…and I’m the only thing in it worth looking at.

Or ruining it.

Both could be true when he’s in the equation.

I stop a few feet short of him, the royal guards closing in behind me.

He briefly takes in my bloody palms before his jaw locks tight and his glare intensifies. It’s hatred, pure and simple.

Ditto, motherfucker.

My throat swells when I swallow, my mouth dry and my heart beating sluggishly in my chest.

Human emotions are fucking torture.

Now that I can get a better look, I study every inch of him.

Had he been lifting iron the whole time I’ve been gone? He seems different. Wider. Stronger. Hotter.

Images flash through my head of the last time I saw him, squashing all my thirsty thoughts.

“Thirst?” The Nightkin purrs. “That’s a polite way to say fate has you by a leash and you’re fucking his.”

I shake my head because shut the fuck up, Beast.

There’s something missing. Somewhere between those pretty blue eyes and that cold, dead heart, I feel the hollowness of whatever used to beat there. As if it’s the very thing that exists in my own chest.

“Us, little mate. He is missing us.”

I keep my breathing level, even though my pulse is about to make me flatline. “How surprising. Who knew that when you push someone out…they fucking don’t return.”

Arabella materializes at Legend’s side like she owns the space between heartbeats, blond hair pinned up in some royal nightmare, gown clean enough to make me want to wipe my bleeding hands on it.