Page 27 of Monster Mistake

Right now, he had bigger things to focus on. “Did you just say you love me?”

She gaped at him for a second or two before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “Is that really the first thing you want to do at this moment? Ask me to repeat myself? Rather than, say, getting me out of this fucking chair?!”

Oh. Yeah. That probably would be a better way to go.

He reached down and snapped the plastic ties that bound her to the chair, then scooped her up into his arms. He didn’t set her on her feet, though.

“So,” he asked now that they were eye-to-eye, “did you just say you love me?”

“Of course I love you, you big idiot,” she grumbled. “I think I’ve been in love with you for years. I just didn’t recognize the feelings for what they were until now.”

“I can relate to that.”

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He captured her lips with his and kissed the crap out of her.

When they broke the kiss, she tucked her cold nose into the spot where his shoulder and neck met and asked, “How’d you find me?”

“Your stupid ex helped us figure out it was a werewolf that took you. Then we pulled the records from the Monster Match to find the guy. He was dumb enough to take you to his real address, the one he put on his entry form, after kidnapping you.”

She snorted. “That was dumb. He—wait.” She lifted her head off his shoulder. “You said ‘us’ and ‘we’. Who’s ‘us’ and ‘we’?”

He turned her so she could see who was behind him. Riordan gave her an awkward wave with his free hand. His other hand was busy holding up the squirming werewolf. And next to him, was Viktor, beast of Spellman Manor himself.

While Khill was a bit of an oddity in Sanity Falls, Viktor Adamovic was THE oddity—a literal one-of-a-kind.

Sometime in the 1700s, a mad scientist took it upon herself to sew together parts from the men she’d murdered and reanimate the result. Thatresultwas Viktor.

Khill wasn’t a good judge of what was consideredhandsome, but he’d heard plenty of women in town (even Justine, much to his annoyance) say that Viktor was good looking. Not classically, of course. With the scar down the middle of his face, bolts in his neck, and mismatched eyes (one was brown, the other pale blue), there was nothing “classical” about him. But even Khillwould admit all the pieces and parts had been pulled together in a way that was…aesthetically pleasing, he supposed.

Viktor offered her a half smile. “I’m glad you’re safe, Justine,” he said. Khill hated how sophisticated the guy’s Croatian accent sounded. Orcs didn’t have accents. He could sound threatening, angry, or feral. But sophisticated, unfortunately, was beyond him.

“Hi, guys,” she said. “What are you two doing here?”

“I teleported them,” Riordan said at the same time Viktor said, “Lucy would kill me if I hadn’t helped rescue you.”

“Wow,” Justine said, rubbing her temples. “I feel like I just walked into the punchline of a weird joke. All that’s missing is a bartender.”

Riordan and Viktor looked confused, but Khill knew what she meant.An orc, a werewolf, a demon, and a reanimated dead-guy walk into a bar…

“Are you alright?” Khill asked her belatedly. It should’ve been his first question, he realized. But once he heard her say she loved him, his brain kind of shut down.

“Yeah. The asshole bit me, though,” she groused.

Khill growled. “I’ll fucking feed him his own heart.”

“I can chuck him into a feral hog dimension,” Riordan suggested eagerly.

Viktor, ever the adult in the room, sighed and said, “Perhaps we could at leastconsidercalling the authorities?”

“I like my idea better,” Khill grumbled.

Meanwhile, the werewolf in question didn’t seem to have any concern for how precariously he was clinging to life at the moment. He was too busy staring at Justine with wide, confused eyes. “I don’t understand,” he murmured. “Why didn’t you feel it?”

“What’s he blathering on about?” Riordan asked.

“The fated mates thing,” Justine answered. “He was sure I was his fated mate and he doesn’t understand why I didn’t feel a bond or anything when he bit me.”

“Clearly it’s because you’re not his fatedanything,” Khill said.

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