Page 64 of Their Pretty Little Monster

I turn to the surroundings around me of old stone buildings in ruins, relics… hard to tell really what this place is, but there are homes underground, broken, destroyed. Remnants of a life once existed wherever. Half a door on the ground is covered in dust, and someone’s random shoe lies between two stone walls.

A shadow falls over me, and I twist around to find Wolfe there, both of us staring at each other, aware of what this means.

My heart’s galloping in my chest because I can’t fathom how this can be.

“You’re my true mate as well?” I gasp.

“I didn’t expect this,” he answers, yet his arms embrace me, drawing me against him like there’s no doubt in his mind who I belong to. The warmth from his monstrous form engulfs me. He kisses my face, and I can’t stop smiling. “But it’s everything I could have wished for. For too long, I believed I wouldn’t find my intended mate. Not when my mission had me focusing on anything but.”

With him holding me tightly against him, the smile in his eyes, the excitement in the way his hands stroke down my body, I’m left torn between pulling away from him to make sense of it and following the urgent fire burning inside of me, giving in to my craving for Wolfe.

But I remind myself he’s kept secrets from me, yet the way he treats me so tenderly makes my head hurt with confusion. I think of Killian…

“So, two true mates are possible?” I ask, not really understanding the concept, except for the overwhelming sensations that consume me when I’m near these monsters. The hunger I feel for them, the arousal, it turns me into someone else.

“It’s rare in our world, but it has happened before.”

“So, what now?” I ask, watching him staring up at the ceiling for a bit too long as if the news startles him more than he admits.

“Now, you’re mine. And you’re Killian’s.” His lips come down on mine, and the fierceness in his kiss spreads over to me. My hands are on his huge biceps, and I’m wanting more… “It means that there’s so much I need to tell you, to explain.” He sighs heavily… and I suspect it has everything to do with my father.

He’s glancing at our surroundings, and I follow his line of sight.

“Where are we?” I ask.

There’s pain on his face as he glances around. “A place I once called home. This is the old Silvercrest Kingdom,” he murmurs. “Turned to ash and ruins.”

I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it must be to see his home destroyed, laid forgotten somewhere underground. I lean closer and slip my hand into his, drawing him to glance down at me.

“Focus on me,” I say. “You don’t need to see all of this.”

His hand trembles in mine, and my gut twists in on itself.

“I never wanted you to see this,” he admits in a soft voice. “But you’re my true mate, a Shadowfen, so you should see the ruins of the world we once knew.”

We stand in the dim light, the weight of the old kingdom, the uncertain future.

Once beautiful and captivating, the place is now broken and buried.

“Did my father die in the Great Desolation?” I ask, turning to meet Wolfe’s gaze, but he’s shaking his head.

“I wish I could say he had,” he admits, his response startling. “The son of a bitch is very much alive.”

An ache stabs into my chest, and just as fast, darkness inhales me once more.

Chapter

Eighteen

WOLFE

I’m grasping Sage by the hand, rushing us out of the Chamber of Rituals.

The heaviness of what I lost all those years ago bears down on me from the vision I just experienced, the images of my mother hanging from the edge of broken flooring in her bedroom haunting my thoughts. The ache still sits inside me like a permanent blade in my heart, and revisiting the past twists that knife deeper and deeper.

But we can’t stay in the woods, not knowing Sage is in danger, and our bonding as true mates distracts us to the point of making us vulnerable.

Sage stumbles alongside me, but I can’t slow down. Not when I’m desperate to get her alone, to know she’s safe. Right now, my brain is fucking me up, wrenching me in so many directions that I’m about to lose my shit.

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