Page 21 of Claimed By Her Monsters

A hand lightly stroked my head, and all I could do was open my eyes and lift my head just enough to see Atticus, completely drenched in the water with his clothes on while he crouched before me.

“Sweet Theia,” he whispered. “Why are you crying?”

Seeing him here made my lips tremble further while my eyes pooled with more tears. I didn’t expect him to be here, and yet his company suddenly made me feel like I wasn’t going to drown in my own sorrows.

“I…don’t think I can do this…on my own,” I sobbed and hiccupped as I looked into his blue eyes that glimmered to gold as they softened.

“And who said you had to?” he inquired. “You’re not alone. Am I not here with you?”

“You could be an illusion,” I argued and sniffed. “Because you look good in wet clothes.”

That made him chuckle before he tugged me into his arms. The two of us were on the shower floor as he held me tightly and comforted me as I cried.

“It’s going to be okay, Nerissa,” he consoled. “We’re going to figure things out together and make a game plan to correct everything.”

“But…Athena…is…”

“We’ll figure that out too, my mate,” he assured me, knowing how important it was to my heart. “For now, all you need to do is let these emotions all out, alright?”

I nodded into his chest and allowed myself to cry until the tears couldn’t be shed anymore. He didn’t rush me in the slightest, no matter if it left us sitting on the shower floor for minutes or hours.

He let me cry until I was emotionally exhausted, and when it was done, he helped me shower before proceeding to draw a bath.

Once he helped me in it, he didn’t hesitate to strip off his wet clothes, leaving me to stare at him slowly as I took in every chiseled line of his muscular body.

“What are you doing?” I ended up asking when he made his way to the end of the bath.

“Scoot forward,” he encouraged instead, which gave him enough space to get into the bath and settle with me right between his legs.

“You never answered me,” I noted as he hooked an arm around me to steady my body against his.

I wasn’t uncomfortable by his bold move.In fact, I was grateful to have his company because I didn’t feel like I wanted to be alone right now. My thoughts were a mess, my energy levels even more of a tousled disaster, but having him here was a distraction, and that was what I needed in this moment.

A distraction until my heart and mind can recover from the mayhem of emotional disaster.

“Figured it’s a good position to help tend to your wounds while you relax,” he revealed as he used his free arm to lift my left arm.

We stared at my pale arm together, taking in the various scratches and bruises that made my arm look like a blotched canvas.

“You got pretty banged up,” he quietly voiced.

“And it wasn’t from sex? What a shame,” I complained, which made him chuckle.

“I feel like I could have said we had a fivesome and you’d believe me.”

“Well, you could, but I’d have to question my memory for I feel like I would have remembered being banged by the Four Horseman,” I voiced and thought about it. “Who’s the freakiest in bed?”

“Arthur,” he voiced, which made me gasp and look back at him.

“Arthur?”

“He’s War after all,” Atticus disclosed like he was revealing something obvious. “His stamina is high and he gets turned on putting women through different things.”

“Sounds like an acrobatic nightmare,” I mumbled.

“You’re intrigued,” he whispered in my ear and brushed his lips along his mark, which made me arch slightly at the shiver-inducing touch.

“The topic is intriguing,” I muttered in an attempt to avoid how his touch did crazy things to me.

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