Page 42 of The Monster's Mate

“It doesn’t matter on our planet. It’s just words for Earth. On our planet, we’ll perform a ceremony with the three of us. We’ll each offer you a mating vow, in front of witnesses, with a kiss pressed to the inside of your palm.” Mejak drops his tentacles to a crouch so that he’s kneeling in front of Sam, clasping her hand in his, and tracing a heart in the middle of her hand. If you don’t accept, you close your fist.” He gently closes her fingers. “Or you wipe it off. For one of us, or for both of us. Even if it’s for the one you didn’t accept the Earth vows with. We know those Match program words are just to get you safely to our planet.”

“And if I accept?” Sam asks.

“Then you kiss us both,” Kalrian answers, turns Samantha’s face and gently presses a kiss to her lips.

Then Mejak leans forward and presses one to her.

I’m watching Lucy and she’s taking it all in with a soft expression on her face. She turns to me when she senses me watching her.

“And that’s how Bronan got Isabel,” I say to her. “Poor female never wiped the wet, sloppy kiss to her hand. She thought he was being sweet.”

Her lips twitch. “He must have been holding his breath hoping against hope.”

“Now tell me what it is about your name that worries the world,” I say. “Lucifer’s Daughter.”

Her smile falters.

“That’s it. My whole name is Lucifer’s Daughter.”

“And Lucifer is a bad person?”

Her jaw drops. “Um, yes. The worst. The devil. The father of all evil. And we’re near the commune, where they’re highly religious. They’ll come after me with burning pitchforks. Remember River wanted to tattoo over her face to cover’s the devil’s mark? Well, I’m marked too. You just can’t see it.”

But I shrug like it’s not a big deal. “Lucifer is a lovely name. Rather elegant, I’d think, though a bit masculine, eh?”

She looks confused. “Masculine? Um, yeah?”

“Well, at least your father was man enough to name you after himself.”

“Oh, but—”

I smirk at her dawning understanding of what I mean. The male thought to slight her by naming her, but called himself out too. By announcing her identity, he also announces his. “Lucifer’s Daughter? Doesn’t DNA testing work here? It will link you to who he is after he announces your name links him to being… the father of all evil, right?”

Lucy bursts into laughter. “Oh, my God. I was two years old when they changed my name from whatever it was before. They were supposedly intelligent adults. They didn’t think that someday he’d be linked to being the Lucifer in Lucifer’s Daughter?”

Even after she’s long done laughing, I gaze at her beauty tenderly. I love how she looks when she smiles. She deserves laughter. “I vow to always make you laugh, Lucy-my-love.”

Samantha clutches her heart.

Chapter Twelve

Lucy:

“Tomorrow I have to go to work. Are you sure you’ll be fine staying in the house?”

We’ve been talking about anything and everything that has to do with our lives. I know Skiden isn’t used to being alone, not when your father was the clan leader and now your brother is.

“About that… you work for Bel, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t I come and help you? You can get the work done in half the time.”

I’d love to have him with me but I don’t dare. “What if someone sees you?”

He shrugs. “Isn’t it an enclosed space? We can lock the doors. If someone approaches, I can hide in another room until they leave. I have a floor-length cloak and if someone thinks my gait looks odd, they’ll excuse it as the dark playing tricks on them.”

The idea makes me pause, staring at him as the possibilities swirl in my head. “The windows are stained glass. No one can look in. I am the only one inside because it’s so late at night, I’m already used to locking the door behind me.”

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