Page 45 of Becoming Monsterous

He peels his lips back, revealing blood-slick fangs. "So you've finally realized it," he says in a flat, monotone voice. "I'm unworthy of love. The darkness isn't just a part of me—itisme. All that I am, all that I'll ever be."

As he says this, he shudders and thrusts his hips forward, burying his shaft deep inside me. I think he expects it to hurt, but it doesn't. The more he opens himself up to me, the more my body lets him in, his fullness fulfilling needs I didn't know that I have.

Digging my fingers into his back, I draw him down onto me and press my lips to his ear. I feel him shudder inside me as I tell him what I've realized, which is, "You're afraid. Underneath all that bitterness and anger, there's nothing but fear. Fear that you'll hurt me. Fear that you don't deserve me. But you don't get to decide what I deserve, Aleron—I do. And I love you, darkness and all."

To prove it, I press my lips against his skin and pull him inside me. He groans, his fangs nipping my neck. I want more of him, all of him, so I push his head down until his fangs dig into my skin.

Instead of pain, I feel only pleasure.

A pleasure that intensifies as he rocks inside me. The pace of his thrusting, so deep and rhythmic before, grows fast and sporadic. He rocks inside me, burying his cock into my body until I can't tell where he ends and I begin.

Shuddering, I give into the sensations inside and around my body. His cock filling me up. The press and weight of his chest and legs. The mantle of his dark wings around me. And his fangs, buried deep in my flesh, his tongue pressed between them.

As I climax on his length, my back arching in ecstasy, I reach up to brush my fingers against his wings. His moan is silenced against my neck as he buries his silken hilt in my warmth and slowly comes, the tightening of my pussy around his cock milking him dry.

When we're done, he slips out of me, and I stretch my legs. Wetness slips down my thigh. He draws his mouth back from my neck, and I shudder as I look up into his face, his eyes the red of my blood that stains his mouth.

Cornelia slides out of my hair and licks the wound clean so that it heals up.

Aleron studies my face, his expression inscrutable. His wings relax on either side of us, their leather slowly morphing back to feathers, then shrinking and drawing towards his body.

"So," he murmurs, his voice low, his softening length still inside me, "how does it feel to have Aphrodite's powers? Are you an unstoppable, unbeatable force?"

I blink up at him, not understanding.

Then I realize.

And I want to laugh—just as much as I want to cry.

"You deserve my love, you lost little asshole," I tell him, reaching up to cup his cheek, a gesture I turn into a pinch of his pale flesh. "I don't have Aphrodite's powers inside me, because youdodeserve to be loved."

Aleron blinks at me.

Then slides into his nearly human form all at once. His wings settles onto his arms, his horns vanish, and his eyes shift to that soft, open green, with dilated pupils and a wondrous expression.

Putting his arms around me, he draws me into his embrace. My snakes wind their way around him, pressing against the back of his head. Slowly, I let them go, morphing into my smaller human form against him until only Cornelia remains. Aleron buries his hand in my human hair, his chest rising and falling slower and slower, until his breath matches mine.

Finally, after a long moment, he speaks.

"I love you too, Ellie Blackburn." His lips press kisses to my cheek, my jaw, my hair—everywhere he can reach. "What a surprise ending. Who could've guessed it?"

Anyone who isn't a fearful idiot who avoids love and vulnerability at all costs.

Musing aloud, he adds, "I guess we'll have to find someone else for you to love. Maybe Morpheus will do. I don't think he'sundeservingof love exactly, but maybe—"

Growling, I bite his ear. He chuckles against my neck, patting my hair.

"We'll find someone else," I tell him, thinking about the problem myself. "Maybe I can manage to love some other, undeserving monster instead."

Or maybe the answer is to love the truly unlovable.

Maybe I have to love Aphrodite herself in all her terrible glory.

Chapter31

Morpheus

We know what's going to happen next. That's why it's fun to flirt, to tease, to pretend. It draws out the tension.

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