Page 165 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Underworld

What the hell is this guy?Because he definitely doesn’t move like a human.

Or my migraine is epically worse than I thought.

Why couldn’t I have taken my medication sooner? Or had a ghost host committee here to greet me rather than Mr. Corporate Evil?

I fight a groan. Clearly, I’ve been listening to Glenda’s anti-establishment rants for far too long.

Dropping the pills back into my bag, I remind myself this is for charity, square my shoulders, and step out of the van.

Wren

She’s here.

My fated mate.

My love.

My obsession.

After ten long years of only being able to haunt her dreams.

To be with her, I would tear apart this dimension.

I offered a dealing demon my services as a Render if he could arrange a meeting in this realmandmagic me the ability to become corporeal around Hayden. Theodopolis is the best matchmaker in history—and also the owner of this horrific house.

But why would he bring herhere? The revenants who torment this manor are by far the worst I’ve ever encountered. They could drive thousands of humans mad, yet this demon dares to expose my mate to them.

I leave for one day to handle a special op in another realm, and he Brings. Her. Here.

Fuck that.

She’s signing something, her head bent low over a table inside her van. Her dark hair is swept over her shoulder, leaving her slender neck vulnerable and exposed.

I charge outside, prepared to rip him to pieces. He meets my gaze, and his human glamour wavers, his true form flickering into monstrous existence behind her. Within reach of her neck. A snap of his claws or a bite of his fangs, and he could kill her.

I won’t let that happen. I unfurl my shadows, letting them writhe like tentacles ready to strangle the demon prince.

Except Hayden looks up and lifts a hand to rub at her forehead, the sunlight catching on her dark glasses and her brown skin. She’s even more beautiful today than she was ten years ago when I poured her soul back into her body, unwilling to let my fated mate slip beyond my reach.

I freeze, not wanting to scare her in my full shadow glory, but it’s too late.

She slips off her glasses and reveals those haunted hazel eyes that stalk my fantasies.

“Wren?” Her whisper of my name and the joy in her voice when she says it? It undoes me.

But then she gasps and crumples forward, holding her head.

Theodopolis reaches for her, and I push him away with a shadow, preparing to wrap it around his neck, but he teleports out of the path to reappear with a scowl.

Hayden goes limp, each muscle in her glorious body going lax. I sweep toward her, aiming my shadows her way while keeping the demon at a distance. Wrapping my true self around her in corporeal form, feeling her lush curves against me in more than a fantasy, seeing her in sunlight where I can spot the freckles her makeup or the darkness usually hides—it’s primal.

I’ll never let her go.

“Humans,” Theodopolis says. “They’re so fragile.” He drops his glamour, the scarlet skin and blazing eyes of his true form revealed. “Her fainting at first sight doesn’t bode well for your match.”

“She wasn’t afraid,” I argue. “It’s her headaches. You shouldn’t have brought her here.”

“You wanted your fated mate. I have delivered her, complete with a signed matching contract.” He flicks his claws toward the table where he and Hayden stood so close. Too close.

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