Page 55 of Guarded By a Monster

“Red. What color are yours?”

“Gold.” She looked over at our mates to include them in the conversation. “The bond lights match your eyes.”

Drym and Thurl looked at each other in surprise. Drym tilted his head. “Yours aren’t gold?”

Thurl copied the movement. “Yours aren’t red?”

Drym shook his head. “We’ll need to tell Bacon. She’ll want to add that to the information she’s compiling on us.”

I perked up at the name. “I like Bacon. She seems nice.”

Kendal nodded. “She is, but her familiar can be a lot.”

“Her familiar?” I needed to brush up on Society terminology. Thurl mentioned there were more binders. Maybe I could borrow them.

“Yeah, Meanosaurus is a talking chicken with a big attitude.”

I blinked. “A… talking… chicken?”

Kendal laughed. “Yep. That was my reaction, too.”

We’d made it to the couch, so I tucked my legs under me and settled against the plush cushions. Thurl draped me with a throw blanket.

“I’ll make the popcorn,” Kendal said over her shoulder as she made her way into the kitchen. She was pulling out an air popper when she exclaimed, “Oh! And have you seen a dragon? There are honest to God dragons.”

“No, but Thurl said they have dragon DNA so I figured they exist. Does that mean all the things we thought were myths actually exist?” My mind spun.

“Well,” she called, her voice muffled from inside a cabinet, “I can’t say if there are unicorns, but the major ones like vampires, and shifters of course, are definitely real.”

“Elves?” I squeaked.

“Fae, definitely, but I haven’t seen any that look like Legolas, sadly.” She winked at me and poured kernels into the popper.

I thought my world exploded when I witnessed a murder in a dark alley. It had, but that was a firework compared to the nuclear blast of finding myself submerged into a whole new universe. It was like the world had tilted on its axis and everything I thought I knew about it was wrong. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.”

The next two minutes were filled with the sounds of popping corn, but when they petered out Kendal flopped onto the couch and offered me a big bowl. “You will. It just takes some getting used to. But look at it this way, even Society didn’t know about wyrfangs until a little bit ago, so you can assume you’ve already met the most fantastical among them.”

Somehow, I doubted that. Surely there was a supernatural that out weirded the ‘fangs, but I stayed silent and leaned against my own fantastical beast who warmed my side and stole my popcorn.

I fell asleep about when Jupiter was embarrassed after telling Caine she’d always liked dogs. I woke up in our bed at Thurl’s house.

I’d always been a heavy sleeper, but being here made it ridiculous. I’d never had this sense of peace and safety before. My brain and body were completely on board with letting the wyrfang take the wheel. Even if it meant going to sleep in one place and waking up in an entirely different one.

I smiled at the flickers of red that danced out the door. I dressed and followed them, slowing when I heard Thurl’s low voice coming from the living room.

“It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I peeked around the corner and my heart swelled until it burst. Thurl crouched on the floor, Pawssanova curled in his lap, Sir Purrs-a-lot perched on his shoulder like a fluffy orange gargoyle, and Whisker was draped over his tail, legs splayed and belly on full display like the slut he was.

Three feet from Thurl’s outstretched hand sat Catzilla. The only person the Bengal tolerated was me, but he sat there slow blinking at Thurl. He didn’t make a sound. Not the hiss that was his go-to whenever anything got too close. Not the yowling growl he trotted out when he really meant business, and not the spit and swipe that happened when both were ignored.

I caught Thurl’s ear twitch in my direction and smiled when he turned his muzzle to look at me directly. “I think you’re winning him over.”

He turned back to the cat and tilted his head. “Do you think so?”

“I do.” I sauntered into the room and ran my hand down Sir’s back before tracing across to Thurl’s unoccupied shoulder.

My phone rang on the kitchen counter, startling us both, and triggering the hiss from Catzilla I’d expected. I rolled my eyes at the cat. “Oh come on, Zilla. It’s not like you’ve never heard my phone ring.”

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