Page 4 of Held By a Monster

“Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “I was kidnapped after work, taken to a house and kept in a basement with other women. The men hunted us.”

“Why?” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice. I saw it reflected in her eyes.

“Sport. Boredom. Because they could. Who knows why twisted rich men do anything?”

She looked at each of us before her eyes landed back on me. “You guys really are enormous, hunh?”

I chuckled. “Yes. I am Drym.”

“Hi, Drym. I’m Kendal.”

I went around the same way she had studied each of us. “This is Kragen, Cavi, Thurl and Quin. Our brother Roul is investigating the men who chased you.”

“Good.” Her features hardened. “I hope he kills every one of them.”

three

These beasts looked likethey could kill the entire house full of men without breaking a sweat. I meant what I said. I wanted them dead.

Fury whipped through me, heating my skin and tensing my muscles.

“Try to relax.” A lighter gray with blue eyes, this one was Cavi. I blew out through pursed lips and attempted to do as he asked. It was easier when I looked at Drym. His gold eyes calmed me. Maybe because he’d saved me, or maybe because he looked at me like I was precious.

He had carried me in his arms, his hands so gentle.

I barely felt a whisper when he used one of his wicked-looking claws to hook a lock of hair that had fallen in my faceand push it back. He smoothed the back of his finger down my cheek, and that small kindness turned my anger to relief.

“You smell sad. Why?”

Tears leaked from my eyes and I reached my hand to the side of his face and buried my fingers in his fur. He was warm and soft and the tears came harder. “Because I feel safe, and my mind is dealing with all the fear I’ve held at bay.”

He nodded. “Yes, you are safe.”

He tilted his head, and I buried my fingers further into his ruff.

“Would you like more water? Are you hungry?”

“Water would be nice.” They didn’t withhold water or food, but I’d been running a long time before I ran into Drym.

Another bottle appeared in front of me, the cap already off. I sipped this one slower. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you guys? I mean, without the horns and tail, I’d say you were werewolves, but I didn’t think anything like that existed. Guess you’re living proof I was wrong.”

“They called us wyrfangs, but you’re right, we aren’t wolves, or werewolves, or dragons. We are all of them.”

I looked around at each of them again. “I don’t follow. Who is ‘they’? What do you mean you aren’t them, but you are? And hold up—dragons? Really?”

The other golden-eyed beast sighed and nodded at Drym. “We knew we’d have to explain to someone, sometime. This moves our timeline up, but perhaps she can help us with what our next step should be.”

“Yes, those creatures exist, and we suspect, many more.”

“Holy crap. Dragons.” Mind blown, I shook my head to get back on track. “Who is this ‘they’?”

“Theywere scientists. They created us, raised us, trained us.” Drym looked at the others. “Tortured us.” He held up his right hand and turned the inside of his wrist toward me. “Branded us.”

The marks on their wrists were a brand? They’d been marked like cattle? A sinking feeling that their story was much worse than I could imagine hit my gut, but I didn’t interrupt.

“From the moment we were born to surrogates, they taught us to hunt and evade. They taught us to survive. They tested our limits. We are a blend of creatures, a mix of DNA spliced into a single embryo. Whatever they thought would make the best weapons, they used. Dragon and werewolf, mainly, but we honestly don’t know beyond that.”

“No one stopped them? I thought the government oversaw all labs doing genetic modification. Actually, I thought those kinds of experiments were illegal.”

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