Page 11 of Monsters in Love

Finding someone like Karis and her lineage is as impossible as myths and legends. And yet, here she is. More telling is my body’s reaction to her. Every beat of my heart pulses with my need to protect her and shelter her from harm.

Especially since this damned place injected her with something that would speed up her already present heat cycle. Even now, she is changing, the scent of her clawing my reason to shreds. It’s subtle now, but soon, it will become insistent. If she’s been raised as a human on Earth, she’s likely never experienced a heat cycle before. The conditions on Terra Prime don’t allow for it, or so the theory goes since they are not common in uninitiated humans. Yet, when the human females are taken off world and in the presence of potential mates...

I will not allow her first heat to be in the bowels of this hellhole.

I glance down at her. Her focus is purely straight ahead, toward the troubled cries. Considering her ordeal, I am grateful she’s calm. It’s already hard enough restraining myself so as not to tear this place apart brick by brick until the labyrinth fully folds in on itself.

I have to get the word out to Tag. I take apart the guard’s gauntlet and adjust it to my own. With a few quick taps in old code, I can send and receive messages to Tag. I punch in a few numbers for coordinates and add a simple command: “Get ready.”

I have to find the holding cell where they have Adalyn. The satyr hinted potential buyers had a way to check out the lots for an early buy-out option. I need to find it. The cavernous wall echoes too much, and relying on the sound will take too much time.

“The cage where they put Adalyn is one in the back. One of the first ones, the farthest from these dressing rooms.” Karis trembles as she looks at one of the closed doors. I want to know what causes her additional fear, but I file that away for later. “Whatever happens, please don’t leave me alone. Please keep me with you.”

She must be some sort of mind reader, because I had every intention of keeping her in one of those rooms until I can ensure her safety. The haunted look I see on her face changes my mind. “I will keep you, Karis.”

Her beaming smile is all the happiness I will ever need.

I move us through the dark. I am both relieved and also sick that so many of the cages are full. Most of the prisoners are in some sort of trance, like a waking sleep. I tap each gate with my pilfered comm unit as I pass each one, sending Tag their coordinates so he can coordinate an exit.

Sounds of people grappling grow louder the deeper into the pens we go until I hear a sharp slap and a trilling cry. Rage narrows my vision, and I charge toward the sound, with Karis slung over my shoulder.

A large Naga with red and gold scales has wrapped his coils around Adalyn. His fangs are already dripping with venom. Without a word, I slip Karis onto the floor, take the broken gauntlet I’d stolen from the guard and slam it into the viper’s mouth before he can strike Adalyn.

I pry his jaws apart until I rip his head off of him. The rest of his coils fall away from Adalyn. It is a slight comfort for me to see that his cock is still in its sheath and so he hadn’t violated Adalyn further.

In the aftermath, I notice the Naga had the markings of a prince. No matter. The outcome would have still been the same. I’ll take the repercussions when they come. For now, my worry melts seeing Adalyn whole.

She launches herself into my arms and together, she and I back away. Adalyn flings herself at Karis next. “I was so scared they were going to ship you away before he got here. I told you Bronn would find us, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did,” she says. She looks at me in a way that makes me feel like I can destroy worlds. For her, I would.

Glowing lights wrap around a cage up ahead before winking back to darkness. Another one glows. And then another.

“What’s happening?” Karis asks.

A portal opens just on the other side of us. It is limned with blue light and ripples like a reflecting pond in the middle of the air. The watery outline barely transmits Tag’s image, let alone his words. “Bronn. Now.”

“No,” I shout back. Alarms sound throughout the labyrinth, and the walls groan from the pressure of too many wormholes. At least the defense system will have a hard time pinpointing me and swallowing me down into the endless void.

I throw Adalyn to Tag. More cages light up as the occupants are being whisked away to safety.

Tag’s eyes grow wide. “Sir! This portal isn’t stable. We don’t have time.”

“I will not leave until they all are safe. Cut transmission of this portal. Divert energy to the remaining cells. Only after they are all transported out, do you open another one at the docking station. That will buy us some time. We cannot stay here. They will easily pin us.”

I don’t wait to see if Tag complies. Scooping up Karis, I run through the stables, backtracking the way we came in. The double doors to the docking station are up ahead, and I charge toward them.

Two labyrinth guards turn in from the main hallway. Their drugged state makes them slow to react, and I easily weave around them. The satyr is right behind them, and I barrel into him. He launches backward, bowling down a motley group of beasts who have the misfortune of being behind him.

“You!” the satyr snarls at me. “Put her down! She’s our property.”

Karis clings to me desperately, her fear tempering the anger that pulses within me. I don’t pause. Instead, I push ahead toward escape despite every molecule in my body telling me to answer the challenge of the enemies at my back and destroy them.

Soon,I tell myself.

I charge through the double doors, the portal barely visible. Tag’s faint voice is fading fast. The connection glitches, but I vault into the shimmering blue.

Karis

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