Page 83 of Enticing Monsters

An uneasy, noxious feeling settles in the pit of my stomach.

“You think he’ll have answers for us? More than just the ‘Sera is supposed to be queen’ nonsense?” I will my voice to stay level against the rising tide of panic.

“Foster’s talking to him now,” Tristan says softly, focusing on his hands instead of my face.

Kian laughs. “He’s probably getting a hard-on from all of the knowledge being thrown his way.”

I can’t help but snicker. Yeah. Foster is totally a nerd.

But he’s my nerd.

My amusement abruptly fades when I ask, “Do you believe Cadmus when he said I’m supposed to be the…queen?”

That one word sounds foreign on my tongue. Unnatural.

“I don’t know.” Kian shrugs a single shoulder, his eyes ensnaring my own.

The heat from his gaze gradually drives the cold away. My fingers and toes start to prickle as they regain sensation.

“But I promise you, whatever happens next, we’ll handle it as a team. You. Me. Tristan. Foster. Gage. Xander. Devyn. V.”

I gulp in a harrowed breath. “You’re incredible. You know that, right?” I shift slightly to address Tristan as well, knowing he has to hear this. “Both of you.”

Tristan scoffs. “I wouldn’t say?—”

”Hush.” I gently place my hand over his lips, stopping whatever self-deprecating rant he was about to spew. “I’m not a liar. Both of you are incredible. I’m so lucky I have you as mates.”

Tristan gently grabs my wrist and tugs my hand away from his face. His eyes burn with emotion—I imagine the same emotion he can see emanating from my own.

“Sometimes, I think you’re too good for me,” he whispers in a choked voice.

“For both of us,” Kian adds.

“You don’t see yourselves the way I do.” I squirm slightly at the heat in their gazes.

Kian leans closer—so close that his spicy scent surrounds me in a heated embrace—and brushes his lips across the skin of my neck. My body flushes hot with a sudden wave of intense arousal.

Tristan sucks in a sharp gasp and then murmurs, “I can go?—”

I grab his arm and keep him on the bed beside me. “No. Stay.”

The wolf shifter glances towards Kian, who smiles softly and nods once. Tristan swallows, a muscle in his throat bobbing.

With a gentleness belying the desperate need in his eyes, Kian grabs my chin and guides my face to his. He plants the gentlest, most innocent kisses imaginable against my lips, never taking it deeper than that.

My entire body becomes one big goose bump as I hold myself perfectly still, allowing him to lead this, lead me. I know it’s what he needs after everything he's been through.

A second pair of lips joins the first, tantalizingly soft on my neck. They start at the hollow of my throat before traveling down, down, down, down.

Kian stops the kiss much too soon and pulls away. Tristan stops as well.

“W-what?” I blink in dismay, wanting more but not willing to take anything they’re not readily offering.

Kian stares at me with absolute adoration as he helps me remove my borrowed shirt. I took my bra off when I changed, having wanted it to dry with the rest of my clothes, so my bare breasts spring free, my nipples already puckered. All I have on now is a pair of hot-pink panties with Hello Kitty on the back. Maybe not the sexiest piece of lingerie, but I suppose it’ll have to do.

“You’re so beautiful, angel,” Kian breathes, his voice graveled.

Tristan merely stares at me as if he’s never seen a half-naked female before. And since I know he has, that reverence in his gaze makes me feel good. Really, really good.

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