Page 4 of Mate of a Monster

The tar shifts, a teeny tiny ripple along its surface dragging answers through my chest before my mind can catch up. It’s a familiar weight, settling low at my spine in a way that feels primal and intimate all at once.

I go still and the air around me changes.

It presses gently between my shoulder blades, waiting to be acknowledged. Something in my chest, something that feels way too fucking familiar, gives the faintest, traitorous stir. But I will legit cut it from my body before I allow myself to be tricked by some witchery again.

I know he’s there before I even turn to face him.

Tar drips from his neck, down his chest, red eyes glowing deeper as they lock onto mine.

“You,” I say, my voice steady but my pulse fucking racing. I hate it, but there are too many unknowns happening around here.

The one thing the island always gave me was peace of mind that I knew what to expect. Sure, it was never anything good, but it was always consistently terrible. Maybe you die differently or by a different hand. Maybe a storm tears through your shelter or floods your food supply.

But the rules never change.

Everything is changing now, Haide. Don’t pretend you don’t feel it.

I clench my teeth, refocusing on what’s before me and the riddle I unintentionally solved.

I’m getting impatient, Hellpet.

“The murders. The notes scribbled in blood and tar. That was you.” I think back to what he said to me when I literally fell at his feet. “That’s what you meant about theatrics with your messages.”

He holds my stare.

“You called me Hellpet when I got here. Those messages weren’t for the royals. They were for me, weren’t they?”

His chest rumbles.

“You also called me your…mate.”

The beast purrs, his eyes flickering brighter for a moment.

“No, don’t get excited. I’m not. We’re not…” I let myself trail off when his purr turns into a warning growl.

Not sure why we’re favoring an animalistic approach over words, but okay.

My gaze roams across the cavern and back. “Did you do this?”

His chin lowers.

“Why? How?”

My head tips up as he moves closer, his muscles rippling in my line of sight as he reaches over.

“Wait!” I try to warn him when he slips his fingers into the petals. But the vines don’t snap out to eat him like they did me. Instead, they wrap around his arm in a soft caress as he lifts the gem from its little cocoon.

He holds it out to me, and the vines begin to shake.

“No fucking way.” I take a step back. “I don’t even know how you haven’t dropped dead yet just being in here. Now you’re just asking for it.”

The demon man keeps approaching and I back up until I hit the wall. “Wait—.” But he presses the gem into my chest.

I gasp, eyes going wide in panic as the gem burns through the leather of my top. “What the hell are you doing!” I slap at his hands, but he just bats mine away.

The vines do not just lash out. They fucking convulse!

The cavern erupts, every thorned braid shrieking at once—a sound so high and sharp it feels like it’s splitting my skull open from the inside. I clamp my hands tight over my ears but it’s pointless. Blood spills from my nose and down my lip, dripping onto the black-and-gold tar at my feet where it hisses on contact.