Page 103 of An Inheritance of Monsters

“I can’t help but feel like I’ve completely and totally fucked him over by showing him this place. What about the Dagonites?”

I picked up my mate, carrying her back towards my cavern. “It is as you said, my mate. He is a man. He can make his own choices. Some men choose to cast themselves into the Void and answer its call. Some even live to return.”

Juno was silent as I settled into my nest, pulling her against me and purring. My cock was stirring at her warmth against me, but she looked exhausted.

She had been awake for over a day, and had not rested. I was not doing my duty to her properly.

“Sleep, Juno,” I growled, stroking her hair.

Her eyes were heavy lidded as she snuggled against me. “But what if he’s no longer a man when he returns?”

I thought that was very likely. Humans could not cast themselves into the Void and remain untouched by its nature.

But she was already asleep, and I was not going to wake her from her slumber to tell her such tales.

Chapter30

Juno

My eyes popped open, and a faint purr echoed through my back.

Rask had curled himself around me, a much more comfortable bed than any I had ever slept in before.

I relaxed in his grasp, amazed at how exhausted I’d been. I barely remembered the events of the previous day.

And for the second time, I tensed, unable to settle back into sleep.

Porter Hudson. Had I really let him walk into the arms of his own death?

I tried to tell myself it was his choice, because in the end, it was.

Even if I’d had Rask bodily throw him from the Void and back into the real world, if he was determined enough, he would’ve found another doorway back in.

And maybe he really needed it. Maybe it was the thing he’d spent his whole life searching for, his bitterness consuming his soul as it always eluded him.

There was nothing I could do now but let him go. He wasn’t my responsibility; the baby bird had flown the nest.

Possibly straight into the mouth of a waiting monster, but again: his choice.

Rask’s next purr grew deeper, and I realized my monster was already awake.

“Did you sleep well, little one?” he asked, running one massive hand over me.

I stretched, wriggling around to face him. I was perfectly happy to be distracted from the latest loss of a guest. “Like a rock.”

Rask blinked all six eyes. “Rocks do not sleep. They are not alive.”

I bit my lip to keep from bursting out laughing.

“True. How about—I slept like a log.”

His eyes narrowed, becoming slices of crimson. “Now you are playing games with me, Juno.”

“Maybe just a little bit,” I teased. I ran my hands over his chest, the thump of his heart beating against my palms.

And as my hands moved lower, over the ridges of his stomach, the last vestiges of sleep fell away and heat stirred between my legs.

His cock was already hard, hot and pulsing. I swallowed, my lungs suddenly feeling too small, all the air sucked out of the room.

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