Page 3 of Avaritia

“I know it’s wrong. I’ll stop, I swear—”

“I’ve already sent a photo to the Council. And to Sebastian,” Deb interjected. “I know you have no parents, and I tried to take you under my wing and show you how to be a good partner for my son, but enough is enough. Some people just can’t be helped, and you’re one of them, Verity. You are just… broken. That’s who you are.”

She shook her head in disgust, and I mutely moved out of the way as she stalked past, pulling open the door. “Stay away from my son. Let him move on with his life; let him be happy for the first time in years, without the guilt of feeling like he has to love you just because you’re an orphan who won’t leave him alone. He deserves a true partner. An equal. Someone normal.”

And with that parting shot, she was gone, leaving me alone with the collection of brightly colored tentacle dildos strewn across my bed, and a broken heart.

Chapter 1

“Get on your knees.”

Fuck yes, Dream Monster Daddy.

I dropped heavily to the ground, appreciating the lack of jarred knees in my smutty tentacle dream world.

“Open.”

Before I could even open my mouth the whole way, a thick, smooth tentacle was sliding over my tongue, pushing my throat past what I could comfortably accommodate, making my pussy clench with need. More appendages pulled my arms behind my back, wrapped around my thighs, thoroughly pinning me in place while carefully not touching me where I needed to be touched. We’d get there, of course. This was my dream. I was just building the suspense for myself.

And yet, lucid dreamer as I was, I still couldn’t visualize a face for the monster man currently reaching for my esophagus. That part of the dream was always hazy and ephemeral.

“Don’t be lazy,” my lover scolded, his limbs tightening around my thighs and arms in a chastising squeeze that made my cunt ache. “You can take more.”

I relaxed my throat instantly, wanting to take it all, wanting to please him. My thighs tried to close of their own accord, desperate for some much-needed friction, but the inky black shackles around my legs kept them pried apart, the tip of one tentacle tickling my inner thigh, moving oh-so slowly up to where I needed it—

“Reowwwwwwwwww.”

Fester’s claws pricked my back through my sleep shirt as he marched up and down my spine, meowing insistently and demanding food and attention in that order.

“You’re such a little demon, did you know that?” I rasped, voice hoarse from sleeping with my mouth gaping open like a fish. “I was about to dream-gasm. You’re lucky I love you.”

Fester peered over my shoulder to yowl indignantly in my face, blinking his enormous yellow eyes at me, which I was choosing to interpret as “I love you too, momma,” and also “get up you lazy cretin.”

I knocked Fester off me for a moment as I rolled onto my back, before redeeming myself by scratching him behind the ears as I stared up at the grim gray stone ceiling above me, wishing I could go back to my psychedelic dreamland. For the most part, I enjoyed the shadow realm far more than the human realm, but I did miss color. And obviously, I hadn’t found a Dream Monster Daddy in real life who’d put up with my loud voice or general weirdness.

It gave my horny dreams a bitter aftertaste when I woke up each morning. In the human realm, monster wet dreams had been purely escapist fantasy. Here, they were unfulfilled accomplishments.

Fester flexed his claws, prodding me in the boob to make me aware that I was still failing in my duties as his servant.

“Can’t you catch a shadow rodent or something? I know they’re here. This building is all cracked walls and dense overgrown vegetation. Frankly, protecting me from shadow rats seems like the least you can do. I clean your shit, you know.”

Fester jumped lightly off the bed, sashaying across the room to his empty dish and stared at me, unmoved by my theatrics as I yawned and groaned my way toward him, tipping some dry cat food onto the plate.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I chided at his baleful expression. “I’ll get you some meat from the kitchens later.”

I felt bad confining him to my room—Fester had been a half-feral alley cat when I’d found him—but Elverston House wasn’t exactly escape-proof, and until I was confident that every Shade in and around the palace complex wasn’t going to kill the foreign animal on sight, it was these four walls for him. While he did look like a creature of the shadow realm with his inky black fur and glowing yellow eyes, I hadn’t seen anything that resembled a cat, or even a domesticated pet, in all my palace wanderings.

It was only the proximity to the palace and clear boundary line around Elverston House that made it an appealing prospect for us ex-Hunters to stay here until we found our forever homes. It was nice to have a Shade-free space, away from the prying eyes of the court, but the building itself was one step above a ruin.

While Fester was distracted with his food, I slipped out to use the basement wash chamber—the only one that got the hot thermal water from the underground spring—and headed back upstairs to get ready, feeling somewhat more human.

“Good morning!” Tallulah sang, meeting me in the hallway and falling into step next to me. “I brought you tea! You missed breakfast in the dining hall again.”

“Breakfast in the dining hall missed me,” I corrected, pulling my door open and making grabby hands at the teacup. “Why do they serve it so early, anyway? It’s not like anyone around here has a job.”

Tallulah laughed, following me into my room and making a beeline for Fester—the real reason she’d come to visit. “Some of them have jobs. I guess realm management has flexible hours.”

“I wish I had a job,” I sighed wistfully, sipping my tea and taking it over to my makeshift dressing table.

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