Page 22 of Monster. Me.

One special person.

Beauty and the Beast has a nice ring to it.

Marlow would fit that story almost too well, but the problem is that tales like that don’t exist anywhere except in fiction, and in real life monsters don’t get happy endings.

In real life, monsters get killed.

MARLOW

My head is spinning with emotions. I have no idea what happened, and I spend the entire afternoon stuck in that state. Why did I walk up to him?

Why did that encounter shake me so badly?

Those intense purple eyes had looked at my face almost pleadingly, like I was his last hope, his only chance to live.

The state he was in was impossible to ignore. He looked physically drained. Unattended wounds in the crooks of his elbows, so he'd obviously had blood drawn or gone through some kind of medical procedure. He had extensive red, scalded patches across his chest, as if someone had poured boiling water over him.

But that wasn’t the only thing that caught my attention, but also the traits that set him apart from ordinary humans.

I clearly remember the mannequin from the costume shop, and I have to admit they did a good job recreating it from the original. Fenn Drax really looks like something supernatural and unsettling.

He has massive purple-red markings, like someone had driven crimson thorns into his skin. And the guy is a giant, his feet hung off the edge of the bed, meaning he had to be at least seven foot six. Huge knots of muscle, a broad chest, thick tendons and veins, everything about him oversized and powerful.

And his skin…

When I'd touched him, the heat had been almost scalding beneath my fingers, making… my dick throb.

I squeeze my eyes shut, quickly forcing myself into a calmer state.

It's not right to have inappropriate thoughts about a poor guy who's being treated like a test guinea pig here.

I catch myself sitting curled up on the bed, instinctively gathering my colorful pillows around me in a desperate need to find some kind of anchor. My thoughts are far too restless, like a flock of wild geese scattering across the sky.

There's still one thing that's been bothering me, something I just can't understand.

What happened when I touched him? That electric jolt, as if it really had been the First Touch between fated mates.

Could something like that even be possible with shifters?

Well. It doesn't even matter. The orderly probably had a good point. Fenn Drax is a purple alpha, and they can’t find their True Mates among alphas, only among rose omegas. And that rules the whole thing out.

So I just can’t afford to get my hopes up.

For a minute, I’m debating whether I should sit down with my laptop and do some research on the topic, because what happened is seriously weird, but I hear footsteps and voices in the hallway.

It's probably Rupert.

Over the last few days, things between us haven't gone anywhere.

We've talked here and there, but I haven't sensed even the slightest bit of initiative from him. Either he thinks we should get to know each other better before anything happens between us, or it's something else entirely. Frankly, I'm fine with that, though the whole getting-to-know-each-other part has been pretty half-hearted too.

Despite what he wrote in his application about wanting to break away from his family's dentistry business, Rupert is still deeply tied to it. Even if he doesn't physically work at his uncle's clinic anymore, he still handles reception duties remotely. Every now and then patients call his personal number to schedule appointments, and Rupert books them into the system. Not just with his uncle, either, but with his two cousins who work as young dentists at the same practice.

A lot of our conversations end the same way. We're talking, his phone rings, and Rupert cuts me off to answer some patient explaining that a root canal treatment didn't work and they're still in pain, or that they need a tooth pulled and have to schedule a jaw X-ray first. It's all painfully boring. Usually I turn to my laptop at that point, and the conversation never really resumes afterward.

Rupert isn't a homebody like me. He spends a lot of time walking around the facility, talking to other alphas, especially Juan, Timmy, and Pedro. I've noticed he's really interested in politics, which doesn't do much for me. Sometimes he even launches into heated debates during meals, and I just sit there listening with growing boredom.

He's also a huge sports fan, following every game, analyzing standings, matchups, probabilities, predictions. He gets genuinely excited about it, while I sit there completely indifferent, struggling to stay awake.