Page 4 of Monstrous Heat
The jungle seemed to come alive, fighting to trap me for whatever that…thing… was. No way in hell that claw belonged on anything that was indigenous to Guatemala. Branches clutched at me, ripping at my hair and clothes. Roots snagged at my feet. I tripped and caught myself on my hands, scrambling like a crab over a huge fallen tree. I fell into the hollow behind it. Probably the hole left from its roots. I huddled there, hoping maybe I’d lost the…
Tomas’s word played back to me. The symbol on the stone wall.
Monster.
4
KROKTL
At least she didn’t scream. That would have brought out the predator’s urges stronger than ever.
Crouched on a crumbling tree trunk, I stared at her huddled form and swallowed back the vicious roar sure to send her tearing off into the jungle again.Mine!
I’d thought the betrayal that had stranded my squad on this forsaken hunk of rock was the worst possible thing that could happen to me. Until I went into heat on a planet with no compatible females.
Zero.
Thick, musky fluid leaked from my temples, and I reeked like a prime stud in full breeding frenzy. I’d tried to ease the driving urge by finding a human woman, but failed time after time. A dynos didn’t want to fuck a human.
I only wanted to eat them.
Until this one.
She smelledright. Her alluring perfume filled my nostrils and sent a mating urge blazing through me like a solar flare I’d see from a galaxy away.
She’s ripe. Incompatible genetics be damned.
I’d eat her, all right. All night long. I’d spread her thighs wide and feast to my heart’s content. And when she screamed…
It’d be pleasure, instead of terror, that flavored her scent.
Though I couldn’t deny that the sharp spike of fear smelled divine. I could control myself despite her fear—as long as she didn’t run again. I might lose control altogether in the heat of a chase.
Apex predators loved nothing more than the hunt, and no animal existed anywhere in the universe more apex than me.
Her shoulders stiffened, her head rising with alarm. I hadn’t made any noise, but she still sensed the impending doom of my presence. How?
Digging into the soft earth, she scrambled up out of the hole, using tangled roots for leverage. I waited until she was back on the jungle floor before I pounced.
Fuck, her skin was so fragile. My claws sliced through her shirt and into her flesh despite my care. Blood flavored her scent, a dangerously intoxicating perfume. She twisted in my grip, screaming and flailing. I tried to soothe her, but the low hiss only made her shriek even louder. Without injuring her more, I managed to flip her over onto her back. I planted one rear paw on her midriff. Ever so carefully, I tightened my grip on her until she felt the prick of claws in her tender belly.
Gasping for breath, she stared up at me. Her eyes were huge dark pools of terror. Littered with leaves and debris, her hair was a tangled mess. She wore a plain T-shirt and khaki shorts, but I’d never seen anything more delicious. Curves galore with the courage to walk down that path and at least try to face me down, not even knowing what I might be capable of. And her scent.
Fuck. Sweet and spicy and so fucking hot.
She’d have to chop off my motherfucking head to make me leave her alone now.
“Please,” she whispered, her teeth chattering so badly that I could barely understand her. “Don’t eat me alive. Kill me quickly. Then you can do whatever you want.”
NATALIE
Why doesn’tit kill me already and put me out of my misery?
My brain couldn’t comprehend what kind of monster pinned me on the ground. A giant lizard? That walked on two powerful hind haunches? With fuckingclawsand razor-sharpteeth? Even if it was some kind of Gila monster on radioactive steroids, it wouldn’t be upright like this. It wouldn’t look at me with such brutal intelligence. Red eyes gleamed like it’d climbed out of the fiery pits of hell. Long head, huge mouth, loaded with teeth as big as my fingers. A single bite would chomp off my whole hand.
Maybe it was a self-preservation necessity but my analytical mind kicked in. Could some kind of mutated crocodile-lizard live in these deep jungles? I’d read every single book in the university’s library on Guatemalan myth, culture, and history before leaving the States. The Maya did have a crocodile or earth-monster god. Maybe that god had been inspired by a living, breathing creature they’d found in the darkest reaches of the jungle.
This monster certainly appeared to have age. It didn’t look like a lizard. It looked too… prehistoric.
