Page 29 of Monster's Pretty Bride

Nothing.

The ground rushes closer, the jagged rocks like teeth waiting to tear me apart.

I close my eyes.

The impact never comes.

A shockwave of heat and fury slams through the air, something massive barreling into me mid-fall, arms wrapping around my waist, wings snapping open.

The smell of fire, stone, and rage fills my lungs.

The world spins and then we stop.

I am no longer falling.

I am no longer dying.

I am in his arms.

Naranus.

His chest rumbles, golden eyes burning with something beyond rage.

Beyond control.

He lands with a force that shakes the ground, his claws dig into my skin and his breath seething.

The gathered gargoyles fall silent.

The one who threw me?

He steps back, something like fear flickering in his gaze.

Naranus lets me go. He drops me onto the ground, breathless, shaking.

He turns.

And he destroys him.

Naranus moves like a storm, his claws slicing through flesh, tearing, breaking, obliterating. The gargoyle who dared to touch me never even stands a chance.

By the time Naranus is finished, the challenger lays broken at his feet, his body twitching, his breath barely there.

Naranus does not look down.

He lifts his gaze, burning over the gathered gargoyles.

"She is mine. Mine in every sense of the word."

The words ring through the courtyard, final, absolute.

He turns to me then, his expression dark, wild, unreadable.

I stare at him, chest heaving.

Shocked. Not by the violence.

Not by the way he punished his own.

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