Page 4 of Monster Mistake

“Yeah. It is.”

Only when she glanced over at him, he was looking at her instead of the dog. Surely, that was a coincidence.

He glanced away before she could overthink the situation, which was probably for the best. Right?

CHAPTER 2

It took three shampoos, but Van Gogh no longer smelled like week-old roadkill.

Khill grabbed a towel and wrapped it around the dog before he could shake and splatter wet dog smell all over the front of his T-shirt. “There you go, little man,” he said, giving him a thorough rub down before scooping him up into arms.

Van Gogh blinked up at him like he was Superman or some shit. It was ridiculous. And kind of nice, if he was being honest. He wasn’t used to looks of admiration instead of fear and curiosity.

Even in Sanity Falls, the monster capital of the world, he was an oddity. You couldn’t swing a dead cat on main street and not hit a half dozen vampires, shifters, or demons. Hell, there were even a handful of gargoyles in town. But as far as he knew, he was one of the only orcs.

Probably because the orc dimension was practically paradise, and no orcs wanted to leave it. But that didn’t apply to Khill. He’d been forced out. Which might explain why he was so damn grumpy all the time.

Van Gogh yipped at him, obviously not enjoying the dark turn Khill’s thoughts had taken. Which was just one of the reasons he preferred working with animals instead of humans or other monsters. Animals were creatures of intuition. As a result, they had a capacity for empathy that Khill found lacking in most other beings.

Except for Justine, of course.

He’d never seen anyone who could win over a sick, injured, or scared animal’s trust faster than Justine. Or anyone who was quicker to become annoyed with humans. But he loved that about her. Preferring the company of animals over that of humans was just one of the things he had in common with Justine.

But still, she was way too good for him. She was smart and accomplished and so damn beautiful it hurt to look directly at her most of the time.

So. Damn. Beautiful.

Khill had been in this dimension for long enough to have seen plenty of models and actresses, and he had yet to see one of them who could hold a candle to Justine. Curves for days, strong enough to deadlift a seventy-pound Labrador off the ground and gentle enough to not hurt it while doing so, delicate features, kissable, plush lips, big eyes that were so blue they looked lavender when the light hit them right, shoulder-length, curly brown hair so wild it refused to remain confined no matter what kind of clip she used…phew. She was stunning.

The day she’d boldly told him she wanted to date him—him!—was the best and worst day he’d had in this dimension. Dating someone like her would be a dream come true. But at thattime, he still sucked at trying toliveamong humans. Starting arelationshipwith one seemed impossible. Justine deserved a man who knew how to be…well, amaninstead of a monster. So, he’d turned her down. Told her he didn’t think of her in that way and wanted to remain platonic friends.

And he’d been kicking the shit out of himself for being so damndumbever since.

Finding a way to tell her how he felt now just felt selfish. Especially when she was with that absolute fucknugget Jake.

He sighed. None of that mattered anymore. He’d had his chance, and he let it slip away. It was his loss.

His HUGE fucking loss.

Khill glanced down at Van Gogh. “Guess it’s just you and me, huh?”

The little dog blinked up at him for a second before leaning up to aggressively lick Khill’s chin.

He chuckled. “Thanks for the support, little man. I appreciate it.”

CHAPTER 3

Whoever said men were poor communicators had never met Jake.

Sure, he hadn’t told her withwordsthat he was seeing someone else. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t communicating clearly right at this moment.

Standing in his bedroom doorway with a bag of takeout from his favorite restaurant as he plowed his tiny little penis into a busty blonde from behind was the clearest communication she’d ever had from him.

If she stayed quiet, she could slowly back out of the room and preserve some of her dignity. She could break up with him over text and be spared a very awkward confrontation. That would definitely be best.

Too badquietwasn’t really her style.

“I see you’re feeling better,” she said loudly enough to be heard over Jake’s panting grunts and the blonde’s squeals (fake squeals, most likely) of delight.

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