Page 55 of An Inheritance of Monsters

“You must wear this. Human females like shiny objects.”

I took the necklace mutely, holding the pendant in my fingers. It was a sapphire wrapped in curling silver wire.

Rask beamed when I fastened it around my neck. “Like your hair, my Juno.”

I smiled up at him, feeling more torn than ever.

I wanted to stay. Iwantedthis.

But I’d let my teammates down.

He caught me in all of his arms, pulling me against his chest and purring. The sound relaxed me, and I found myself melting against him despite the conflict raging in my mind.

With my ear against his chest, the sound of his heartbeat soothed me.

A long time passed, and I might even have dozed when I heard his rumbling voice again. At first it was like the distant roll of thunder, and then the words began to make sense in my muzzy mind.

“Soon, I will have theKleestretch you for me so you can be properly mated.”

Popping wide awake, I raised my head and propped my chin on him to watch his face. The way he said that sent a tingle through me. “How will that work? You’re so… big.”

“Yes, I am.” A human male might’ve boasted, but Rask just sounded matter-of-fact. “His slick will open you for me, and you will be able to take my cock and knot inside you. I will come inside you again and again, and make sure allMlul’draknow you belong to me.”

The tingle had become a full-fledged current flowing through me. I was already getting wet again at the thought of what being ‘stretched’ might entail.

I swallowed hard, shifting up onto my elbows. His stomach muscles tensed under me, and he sucked in a rasping breath.

“But we must do this before the comet arrives. We must be properly mated by then, or you will be taken from me.”

The current suddenly died down to a more acceptable hum. “The Fuseli Comet? What does that have to do with anything?”

Rask frowned. “It has to do with everything. When it passes, the Void will be vulnerable.”

I couldn’t help but lick my lips with sudden nerves as I thought, and Rask’s eyes followed the movement.

We hadn’t been invited here when the comet was passing over by coincidence… I just couldn’t see how it had anything to do with the other odd things I’d seen here.

And before I let Rask mate me for real, fracturing my desires to stay or go even more, I needed to know more.

“I… I should talk to Voraal about this.” I kissed his chest, working my way up until I could kiss his face, carefully working my way around the fangs. “But I feel very lucky that I’ve found a mate like you.”

With a deep internal sigh, I tried to shut off the pulse between my legs. As much as I wanted it, this was not the time for more sex.

Rask purred under me, his arms squeezing me tightly against him. “I am the lucky one. I will bring you to the guardian for your answers.”

As promised, Voraal was waiting exactly where he said he would.

And as Rask lowered me to the ground, the smoky monster caught me with his fiery gaze, and held out his hand.

I took a deep breath, and placed mine in that cage of claws.

Chapter16

Juno

His hands closed around mine, as soft as the first time he’d ever touched me.

“I will show you one of the ways back, Juno.”

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