Page 9 of Enticing Monsters

Is that possible?

I think of all that has happened, and I feel a warm, fuzzy explosion in the center of my chest.

Maybe it’s true. Maybe I can enhance my mates’ powers.

Together, we’ll be unstoppable.

Hudson groans, his head lolling forward. “Yes. It’s so much. I hurt so much. I want it to stop hurting.”

He sobs out the words, going limp in Xander’s bonds.

“Confess, forget, and be forgiven,” Kian encourages, cupping the boy’s face.

Hudson nods rapidly, trying to rub his face against Kian’s hand, though the angle he is held at prevents it.

“Forget all of this.”

Hudson’s eyes close, and a blissful smile crosses his face just before he slumps over.

Kian starts to crumple as well, but I’m there to catch him, holding him against me as I lower us to the ground.

“How?” Gage’s word is a whisper.

I can feel his gaze prickling my back, but I ignore him to focus on my incubus mate.

In all honesty, I don’t have an answer to Gage’s question. Somehow, I was able to…amplify Kian’s power. Or perhaps I utilized his gift of compulsion itself, and the two of us worked in tandem.

Is this because I’m his mate…or because I’m a skinwalker?

“I didn’t want to just be a monster.” Kian’s eyes are mostly closed, his words so quiet I’m unsure if any of the others can hear them.

“You’re not a monster, Kian,” I assure him, letting him snuggle against me. “You saved us today, and a monster wouldn’t do that.”

I look up, taking in the others around me.

Gage has clearly taken off his shirt and given it to Foster, who now has it wrapped around his waist like a towel to offer him a little coverage.

V is examining Kian as though he’s never seen him before, the lines around his eyes tight.

Xander has one hand on Gage’s shoulder and one on Foster’s, holding them both back as he watches us.

There’s time for details later, when he has rested and been cared for, when we get all of this mess cleaned up. For now, though, I’ll hold him and protect him, as he’s protected me—protected all of us—today.

“You’re mine and perfect exactly how you are,” I assure him, my eyes holding his as they flutter shut, and his breathing eases out into sleep. “Just perfect.”

I’ll destroy anyone who says otherwise.

CHAPTER THREE

SERAFINA

“Ms. Jenkins, if I can have a word.” Xander’s low, sultry voice drags my attention away from Kian, where he sits slumped in Xander’s office chair.

Gage and Foster already left for class—though Foster was forced to borrow too-small clothes from the lost-and-found that made him look like a male stripper—and V is…somewhere. I think I heard some clunking going on in the air vents. Well, if he’s not maiming someone currently, I’ll take it as a win.

I turn to stare at my arresting teacher and mate before giving a nod and moving out from behind Xander’s huge oak desk. Kian slumps forward even more, his head thunking against the top of the table, his golden hair fanning out around him like a halo. My beautiful, angelic incubus.

My mate.

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