Page 23 of Monster Mistake

David’s eyes lit up, which, for some reason, made her even more nervous than his feral expression did. “Yes,” he said. “If you hadn’t shown up that night, it might’ve taken meyearsto find you. Decades, even. My fated mate.”

Record scratch in her brain. “Wait…what?”

He grabbed hold of her knees, and she couldn’t hide her flinch/recoil combo. Scarily enough, that did nothing to dim the light in his eyes. “I knew it the moment I saw you, Justine. You’remine.”

What kind of deluded idiot thought his fated mate was a woman who’d just spent the entire night getting absolutelyrailedby her orc husband? “But…I’m already married.”

“No!” He shoved a hand through his hair furiously. “It doesn’t matter. Marriage isnothingcompared to the mating bond. You’ll see that in time.”

That’s when the restraints finally made sense to her. This maniac planned to keep her here, held hostage, until she agreed to be hismate. Yikes.

She was at a loss here. Nothing in all her years of consuming media about criminals and crazy people had prepared her forthis.

What were the odds that her orc in shining armor would show up and save her from a forced mating situation?

CHAPTER 16

Tracking humans was easy. Especially for an orc. So Khill shouldn’t have any trouble following Justine’s scent, even if she was miles away.

And he couldn’t find a fucking trace of heranywhere.

Which meant that someone had masked her scent. A human wouldn’t know how to do that. There was only one possible explanation for this.

A monster had taken his wife.

They’d checked her apartment, the entire grounds of the Spellman Mansion, her favorite coffee shop, and a few other local spots she frequented. The cameras in her clinic showed she’d left there at least an hour earlier. But outside the clinic, there was no trace of her.

He shoved his hands through his hair in frustration as Riordan teleported them back to Khill’s place. “Where the hell could she be? Why would anyone take her?”

Riordan rubbed the back of his neck. “Does she have any enemies?”

See, this was where he wanted to say that everyone adored his wife as much as he did. But… “Well…yeah. We take dogs from people all the time. Lots of people hate us both. Van Gogh’s old owner especially hated her.”

And his wife wasn’t especially pleasant to pet owners she deemed stupid at the clinic, either. Like the lady who’d tried to put her cat on a vegan diet. Justine had ripped that woman a new asshole and told her that if it was up to her, she’d never be allowed to evenpeta cat again, let alone own one.

“Did any of them hate her enough to hurt her?”

He blew out a harsh breath. “I mean, probably. But I don’t see any of them going to the effort. These are mostly assholes who can’t be bothered to take care of their pets, let alone kidnap a woman.”

Riordan thought about that for a moment before saying, “On the horrible TV shows Roxie makes me watch, in cases like this, it’s often an ex. Would her ex do anything to her?”

Fuck! Why hadn’t he thought of that? This whole experience was teaching Khill that he was totalshitin a crisis, and he hated it. “The guy’s obsessed with her. He was cheating, so she dumped him, but he was sending her flowers and music, trying to get her back.”

Riordan cracked his knuckles. “Let’s go pay this jackass a visit. I don’t know where he lives, so think about that, and I’ll teleport us there.”

Man, Riordan was onfirewith the great ideas today. Khill laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder and braced himself for yet another teleportation (which was a super weird, super tingly—and not in a good way—feeling). “Go.”

That’s all it took. One thought, and half a blurry, discombobulating second later, andboom. There they were, right at the little fucker’s doorstep.

Khill lifted his foot to kick the door in, but Riordan stopped him. “Maybe we try knocking first?”

“If it was Roxie, would you try knocking first?”

Riordan stood back and lifted his hands in supplication. “Good point,” he muttered. “Carry on.”

The door exploded into a thousand shards with one kick. They just really didn’t make doors like they used to.

Jake was sprawled on his couch, wearing nothing but a sad bathrobe (suspiciously untied), in the middle of the day, watching what looked to be—Khill did a double take—porn.

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