Page 135 of Monsters in Love

“Then stop wasting time.” He took another step.

My knees trembled and a thousand ants bit along the nape of my neck. I tried to hold on, tried to trap the moan in the back of my throat. But I couldn’t…

“Stay away,” I whimpered, panic making me say anything to keep the beasts at bay. “There’s s-something w-wrong with me…I’m-m s-sick. I’m sick.”

“I know.” He moved so close I could feel the heat of his breath. “Why do you think we’re here?”

I lifted my gaze. His midnight eyes blurred. Black on black melted into one, and right in front of him, my knees buckled once more, sending me crashing to the ground again.

I couldn’t stand, couldn’t fight. Couldn’t do anything but stare at the bindings around my wrists and moan with the agony.

“We can help you,” the beast murmured as he looked down at me.

I flinched away, pushing my heels against the dirt as he leaned closer. He was big…God, he was big.The thick, coarse fur made him a midnight mountain as he towered above me. But he never let out a growl…never bared his teeth.

Fangs, you idiot.

Wolves have fangs.

But these weren't just Wolves, not like I’d ever seen before.

He bent over and lowered his head. A massive pink tongue slipped free of his mouth, catching a bead of sweat as it dripped down the side of my neck. I closed my eyes at the sensation. It was cool…so goddamn cool, like a cube of ice along my skin.

My body quaked as I unleashed a croak. “Again…”Revulsion rippled through me. Still, I pushed forward, craning my head to the side to give the monster all the access I dared. “Please,again.”

The tongue came again, sliding more slowly this time, long and flat, taking the salt from my skin and leaving the frigid bliss behind.

“I can take it from you.” I opened my eyes at the words as he stared down at me. “Give yourself to us, and we can help you.”

Give myself?

A flinch came at the corner of my eye. “What the fuck?”

Only he wasn’t stopping. He leaned even closer. “Give yourself, and we can take the fever and the pain away.”

He lowered his head, his black nostrils flaring as he sniffed my arm. Agony burned through me, so hot I couldn’t tell which part of me hurt the most. But the moment I twisted my hands against the bindings, I saw it…

A dark mark, like a bruise.

Except this wasn’tanybruise.

No…it was a marking in the shape of a skull.

Black, sunken eyes…a hard round head, like the most hideous tattoo.

The kind you get on a dare after a drunken night out with friends. But this was no dare. I didn’t even think this was reality. No, this was a dream, one goddamn awful dream.

“No.” I jerked my gaze up, finding the Wolf lifting his head, exposing his throat to me. My eyes drifted down the matted midnight fur to a faint marking that showed on his chest. One that burned through, all the way to his skin.

It was the same marking.

The same skull.

The same haunting, hollowed glare.

“What the fuck is happening to me?”

But the Wolf didn’t answer, just lowered his head and stepped forward. Shoving his head underneath me, he flipped me up before I knew it. I sailed through the air like I weighed nothing at all, landing on another beast's back with an“Oof”.

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