Page 30 of Monster's Pretty Bride

But because he saved me. And I don’t understand why.

What game is he playing?

14

NARANUS

The silence in the stronghold is suffocating, thick with unspoken words, the tension humming in the bones of every gargoyle present. They don’t dare challenge me. Not after what I did.

Eryss still lies where I left her, her breath ragged, her body battered from the fight and the fall that almost ended her. She should be dead.

I should have let her die.

Instead, I saved her.

Now my kin watch me, eyes flickering with confusion, with something bordering on doubt, as if they’re questioning whether I still rule them with the same ruthless certainty.

I can feel their stares burrowing into my back as I turn, my wings shifting, my shoulders taut. I meet the gaze of the crowd, let my molten eyes cut through the silence.

“She is mine,” I repeat, voice like rolling stone, weighty with command. “If any of you touch her again without my permission, I will tear the wings from your back and leave you broken at my feet.”

A few flinch. Others look away.

But they understand.

Their loyalty does not come from love, nor does it need to. Fear is enough.

I shift my attention back to Eryss. Her breathing is steady, but her body remains tense, as if she is still processing what just happened. The fact that she is alive because I willed it.

I crouch beside her, watching as her gaze flickers up to mine, her silver eyes unreadable. She doesn’t ask why I saved her. She doesn’t thank me. Instead, she wipes the blood from her mouth with her hand, slow and deliberate, before tilting her chin.

"You enjoyed that, didn’t you?" Her voice is raw, scraped from pain but lined with something sharper, resentment.

I let my lips curl. "If I did, then at least one of us had fun."

Her fingers tighten around the dagger still clutched in her grip, knuckles pale from the effort. “You let him do this,” she mutters. “You let me be hunted like an animal."

"You are an animal," I murmur, voice deep, taunting. "A caged one, but an animal nonetheless."

She snaps.

With a sudden burst of strength, she swings the dagger upward, the tip aiming straight for my throat.

I catch her wrist mid-strike.

The impact stings, but not as much as the frustration burning behind her eyes. I don’t loosen my grip. Instead, I tighten it, feeling the fine bones of her wrist press against my palm.

Her chest heaves, her breath sharp, but she does not yield.

“Kill me, then,” she bites out. “If that’s what you want. If that’s what this whole damn game is about.”

I lean in, my nose brushing against her jaw, just enough for her to feel the heat radiating from me. She doesn’t flinch.

She should.

I could kill her.

I should.

---