Page 93 of Land of Monsters

His spine went straight, and he sucked in sharply, his head bowing in acquiescence. “Okay.” He curled his fingers into my head, pulling me into him. “Then we go after him.”

“Try to keep up,” I told him. “When the beast finds the scent to lock on, nothing else matters.”

“You can’t lose me.” He cupped my cheek. “No matter where you go on this earth. I will follow.”

Chapter 18

Ash

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The heavy army jeep left deep tracks on the road. My boots barely imprinted over them while running behind Raven, taking us farther out of town. The snow clouds tumbled overhead, snatching away any bit of warmth from the afternoon sun.

She sniffed the air, tracking her brother, moving faster than I could, but I pushed harder to keep up. I didn’t like being out of reach. I had watched her almost die. The necessity to protect her was always high before, but now it bordered on obsession.

With every step, I could feel her release coating my cock, knowing my cum pooled in her knickers, and it only increased my volatile emotions. It charged fire through me, a deep, fearful rage I could no longer control. Her blood was inside me, a tattoo under my skin. Sheliterallymarked my cock as hers.

Watching her being attacked from across the square, not able to reach her, was my worst nightmare, the epitome of hell. It snapped me back to Lukas and Kek, watching their lives being taken, and I was not able to reach them in time. Save them. Experiencing that with Raven had me losing my mind, ready to gut everyone there, whether innocent or guilty, I didn’t care. I was ready to litter the streets with bodies.

It made everything very clear. She was mine. And nothing would take her from me.

If they did… Well, for those who thought I had lost my way before, they would find me the embodiment of destruction. The image of death and ruin.

Warwick would have a rival in bending death to its knees.

I was there to watch Warwick and Brexley fall in love, the connection everyone could hear and feel from miles away. To undergo most of my friends finding their mate in the last year, to see the protectiveness coming out when their partner was in danger. I thought I understood, or could at least correlate to Lukas and Kek. Because I loved them. I loved them with everything I was capable of.

At that time.

I got it now. What mate really meant. What it felt like in your bones. It flipped me on my ass and called me its bitch. This level of connection was something I never could have imagined before it happened to me. My feelings for Raven weren’t even in my control. They were embedded in my DNA, wound in my very being.

I had doubled down, making sure of it, not even giving her a choice when I sensed what was coming earlier.

I had loved pushing inside her, drenching my dick in her blood, using nature’s response to us to heal her, but when I felt something shift, the blood acting as a conduit, I didn’t even want to stop it.

Blood rituals were not for the faint of heart. The gods and goddesses were a twisted, perverse bunch. This shouldn’t have been on their radar, yet they accepted it anyway. When her blood mixed with my seed, it burrowed our connection into the foundation of the earth.

If there was a second when I thought I could walk away and leave her to her life, that was over.

About twenty minutes out of town, a low rumble came from Raven. Her back curled, blades peeking from her already torn clothes.

“What?” My gaze darted around as we climbed a snowy incline, noting a sign to the First Romanian School Museum. Slowing my footsteps, I peered around, trying to sense any threat.

Why did they bring him here?

Fresh tire tracks drew us up the cobbled lane through an arched stone gate, taking us to an Orthodox church and school. Thick, white stone walls blended into the dwindling hazy daylight. Two army jeeps were parked in front of the school. A single guard stood at the doorway, his rifle set in his hands.

A noise coiled in her throat, a vibrating threat that sounded like death. Her nails extended into claws, her eyes flashing red.

The man was already dead.

A murmur of words rose in a chant, a spell pushing out toward the man. Immediately, I could feel the connection between us, sensing her body being drained. I knew I could have denied it, ignored the tug, but my response was embedded in me now. She needed me. My magic rushed up to help, letting her take whatever she needed from me.

The man dropped his gun, his eyes bugging as he clawed at his head. Raven stepped closer, Latin sliding through her canine teeth.

Red veins in his eyes started to pop, trails of blood dripping from his eyes. His mouth was wrenched open, but no sound could escape.

Her energy weighed heavier on me, a trickle of blood leaking from her nose as she pushed forward. I felt the link between us straining.

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