Page 19 of Ghouls and Girth
A mouse scurries along the floor.Stone scrapes against stone.Cats meow and crickets chirp.
“Khalid, we must get up and claim our omega,” my brother says.
For several heartbeats, I know I must be dreaming.Umar has not spoken a full sentence in six hundred years.For over half a millennium, his responses have been limited to one-word answers and grunts.
But the quality of the words changes as I replay them in my head.
Adrenaline surges through me.I lift my lashes and blink the haze from my eyes until I confirm the truth.
On death’s doorstep after I attacked him because he filled our omega’s belly with his seed, smug satisfaction glimmers from Umar’s darkened orbs.
“Bring our omega back, brother.We must both knot and mark her for her to be ours for eternity,” he demands.
Although roughened from misuse, his voice is exactly as I remember.Unbidden tears drip from my long, dark lashes.If my ghoul could cry, he would, but instead he swings unblinking eyes to the floor under the stained-glass window.
The empty floor.No omega lies in a ruined heap on the stones.
The open doorway mocks me.
Our omega ran away.A trail of seed, slick, and blood leads out into the night.
My brother’s words replay in my mind.
I must bring the curvy country bumpkin back.
She is ours.We need her.
Now.
Chapter 7
Daisy
Everything hurts.I’ve never ached so badly in my entire life.Dim lights illuminate a cobbled path, leading me through the cemetery, but my vision phases in and out as I fight to remain conscious.
My friends’ voices drift to me from far away.I stumble toward them, but my body struggles to follow basic commands.
My knees wobble and pain streaks from between my legs with every step.The last few minutes feel like the worst fever dream in history, and I wish they could be my mind playing tricks on me, but my ruined body proves they really happened.
A wave of need rolls over me, so intense my mind blanks and legs turn to jelly.I catch my palms on a smooth headstone and lock my elbows, desperate to remain upright.
I must escape.They’ll kill me if I don’t.
I won’t survive more of what they want to do to me.Despite the fiery lust melting my bones, the deep, throbbing pain in my abdomen warns me away from the monsters who took so much more than I was willing to give.So much more than I’ve given anyone.
No one would believe I lost my virginity in the brutal attack.Blood trickles down my body from razor-thin cuts.Smears of crimson mat my hair and cake my breasts.The wetness leaking from my swollen pussy washes away the proof of my virginity.
I sob.
My gums ache.Crescent teeth marks burn on my left calf.The decadent hints of mint and citrus fade from my tongue, leaving only the coppery taste of blood.
I bit Mr.Swanky Grouchypants.Mr.Grunty Hunk bit me.
The nicknames seem so stupid and naïve now that I’ve tasted the depths of their depravity, but labeling them any other way threatens to upend my sanity.I was so, so wrong to think of this place as a sanctuary.
Everything hurts worse the further I stumble away.
Bianca’s shout pulls me out of my pity party.I rub my hand over my face to clear my eyes and gag at the goop coating my digits.With one boot missing, my uneven strides become even more of a challenge.The cobbled pathway is gone.So are the lights.
