Page 148 of Monsters in Love

“N… no. I… I’m sorry.”

His eyes narrowed. “For what? For your part in the plan to destroy me?”

It had been so long since Asterion had conversed with anyone outside of the troublesome creatures that shared his home that his voice was raw and his throat ached, but he required answers.

Her mouth gaped, her eyes snapping open and widening in a shocked expression that was almost convincing.

“What?No!” She rubbed her arms as she sightlessly sought him out, her brow furrowed, the entreaty in her eyes stirring something within him best left alone. “I’m lost. I don’t even know where I am, much less how to get out of here.” She ran a trembling hand through her hair, her words so soft and unsteady he only heard due to the grace of his superior hearing. “I certainly wouldn’t have been running blindly through this place. That’s pretty damned unprepared for someone striking out to murder anyone, I would say.”

Asterion snorted, pushing back his unexpected amusement at her words and the strange protective need rising beneath the desire riding underneath his flesh. The female was good. He had to give her that. No doubt, had she been born a male, she would have been as lauded as an accomplished actor in the greatest plays at Knossos. He would not be deceived so easily.

He swept a critical eye over her, noting the simple braid that framed one side of her face that bound the front part of her hair, as well as her coarse clothes, woolen coat and thick boots she wore. The pack strapped around her shoulders appeared particularly well-worn and beaten. Aside from her clean, pleasing scent, there was nothing about her appearance that suggested that she was being employed to act as any kind of seductress, and yet she was as enchanting as if she were Circe herself.

“We will see about that,” he rumbled, dropping his large horned head so that he was eye-level with her. He bared his fangs in a silent warning as instinct demanded, despite her inability to witness it. “Do not tempt the monster by fighting or fleeing. Understand, little female?”

Mouth snapping shut, she paled and eyed him warily before nodding repeatedly in a gratifying affirmation. This one was intelligent, at least.

Leaning forward, his large hands nearly engulfed her small frame as he lifted her up off her feet. The moment her boots left the ground, her breath rushed out of her in a tiny, terrified squeak. Despite her reaction betraying her fear, she thankfully did not unduly struggle in his grip. In fact, her body molded against him when he pulled her up against his chest, her softness stirring his hungers higher, though he struggled to differentiate them. His claws dug against her clothing as he warred with himself to win back his control.

Although he still suspected a trap, some small part of him was aware and dismayed by the knowledge that she would not lean into him in such a manner if she were able to see him. No female would willingly surrender her care to a beast. In the past when he had attempted to control his monstrous appetite, the females he had attempted to spare had ignored his warnings and pleas. Every one of them fled, willingly choosing death when they caught a glimpse of him.

His grip tightened on the female in his arms. Although it had no less bothered him to consume the males, murdering and consuming the flesh of the females he tried to save had broken his spirit that after several years he had quit trying.

Why again now?

Why risk reopening old wounds for a female whose intoxicating scent worked to ensnare him?

There was no logic to his decision.

Grunting unhappily, Asterion strode through the winding corridors of the labyrinth, listening to the murmur of the intelligence that inhabited the structure. The voice that comforted him in his lonely youth and encouraged him to take out his rage on the race of men who imprisoned him was always present. It watched as he passed vine-covered statues of the gods who stared at him with condemning eyes, as his hooves clopped across the stone floors that led deeper to the center.

At the center he would get the answers that he sought. There would be no means for her escape there. The doors of the inner chamber into the labyrinth were concealed and sealed by his blood. Not even the satyrs, who now shared the halls at the labyrinth’s welcome, could find their way in.

His body hardened and ached, his hunger twisting his belly with need as he thought of having the small warm female there in his den. All to himself without risking danger of another trying to take his prey.

That was all she was in the end—prey. He would do well to remember that.

Vicky leaned into the body of the creature carrying her. She had no idea what he could even be, or where she was for that matter, but he undeniably strong… and very warm. Fur brushed her nose when she snuggled her cold face into warmth as she tried to ignore the metallic odor of blood clinging to him. Beneath the blood, there was something else that drew her. Smoke and juniper. It reminded her of winter fires roaring in the hearth, with just a hint of citrus and spice.

The warmth emanating from the large, muscular body pressed up against her and the scent of his flesh worked a surprising magic, seeping deep into her bones, muscle, and tissue. By degrees, she began to relax, a lassitude falling over her that alarmed her even as she melted against her captor’s fur.

The adrenaline that had saved her during her mad dash through the labyrinth was flagging fast. Even though she still trembled with residual fear, she was just too comfortable and too tired to put up any further fight.

Vicky let out a raspy sigh. It was difficult to put up a fight when, for the first time in a great many weeks, she felt warm. She couldn’t fight her way out of a sack, much less fend off the gargantuan creature carrying her. Through the fog of exhaustion filling her mind she considered that if something was going to eat her in this awful place, at least he had the mercy to provide some comfort to her first. Perhaps he would even wait until she was sleeping to deal the killing stroke to save her from the worst of the terror and pain.

She had no wish to die. Far from it. She was just so damned tired. And so very warm.

The furred arms holding her tightened as the creature picked his way quickly through the corridors, taking turn after turn at a pace several times what she would have been able to walk. She could feel the cold air stinging the side of her cheek and stirring her hair from his ground-eating pace.

Other than the heavy stomp of his feet, the silence that surrounded them had an ominous weight to it that was both frightening and reassuring. The unnatural quality of the silence terrified her. Devoid of even the scurry or hum of rodents and insects, it was as if everything was still, watching the passage of the creature through the corridors. That it was also reassuring was a more complicated matter, one that veered a little too close to danger for her comfort. Everything else there, even whatever had pursued her, was afraid of the beast who had her now.

And he was a beast. From the billowing huffs of his breath to the inhumanly wide expanse of fur-covered muscle, every inch of him was of monstrous proportions. Even his rage-filled roars weren’t sounds that any human could make. That he could converse like a man, however, gave her some hope that she might be able to reason with him.

Not that mankind was particularly reasonable or moved to kindness or charity in recent years. If humanity was the stick against which everything else was to be measured, then she was in a lot of trouble. With the Ravening, humankind as a whole had pitched, backsliding into madness. In her years roaming, she had seen the aftermath of enough human depravation that hadn’t needed any help from the other creatures now sharing their world.

The steady beat of her captor’s heart against her ear, however, lulled her into a small measure of comfort. He was not acting on excitement or aggression. Other than the grueling pace he set, she wouldn’t have known that he was in any hurry at all. It certainly didn’t tax him to move so quickly, and that made her wonder how fast he could race through the halls in pursuit of prey.

She shivered as her imagination picked up on that thought. She would never be able to outrun him should he decide to pursue. She could picture the walls skipping by, her feet turning down one corridor after another, as his hot breath fanned her from behind as he mercilessly gained on her, his arms coming around her, and… She shook her head, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip as a chill raced through her body that was equal measures of fear and a peculiar desire that she couldn’t explain away.

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