Page 64 of Monster's Obsession

Didn't he know how perfect he was? Didn't he know he was the only ray of light for me while I’d been trapped in that awful asylum? That my sessions with him and glimpsing the sight of him in the hallway had been what kept me going. Every moment with Steele had bound him to me irrevocably, like our hearts had been stitched together. I never planned on falling in love with a monster, but there was no denying that I had.

"Say it again," he ordered, rough emotion in his voice.

"I love you," I said slower this time, making sure I enunciated every syllable so there was no misunderstanding. Suddenly, his hands were on my face and his lips were crashing against mine. The kiss felt like a promise, and my chest surged toward his until I was plastered against him. A wave of dizziness passed through me, and my heart jolted like it was restarting in my chest, re-born after this moment.

When he broke away from me, he appeared as dazed as I felt.

"What just happened?" I asked, my breath labored as my heart raced in my chest.

His face was alive again, like he'd been restarted as well. That same look of obsessive devotion was on his face, and I blushed from the intensity of it, wanting to wrap myself in it forever because I knew I'd always feel warm, I’d always feel safe, and I’d always feel loved as long as he continued to look at me like that.

"You just triggered our mating bond," he said in a very satisfied voice.

I would've reared back in shock over what he’d just said, but everything inside me was wanting to plaster myself against him and never let him go.

"A what?" I squeaked, even though the rightness of the word he'd used flowed through me. A mate. Mine.

"You're my mate now. You’re mine to love and protect and to have forever. You are the beginning and the end of my world. There is nothing that matters but you for me. And it will be that way forever."

I realized that my hands were clenched in the soft material of his top, almost desperately. And I was rubbing my face against his chest…like I'd been possessed.

I whimpered and tried to take a step away from him, but as soon as I did, panic and anxiety flared through me.

"Shhh, Angel, it's just the mating bond settling. It'll just be like this for a day or so, and then you won't feel quite so desperate.”

"Are you feeling this as well?"

"Like my heart will rip out of my chest if you take any more steps away from me? Yes, I am." He pulled me tight against him and I resumed my strange nuzzling into his chest.

"You can scent mark me all you want. I’m yours forever, baby."

I definitely liked the sound of that.

He tried to move his arm from around my waist, and I whimpered. This was really getting pathetic, but it almost felt like animal instinct, the need to be with him, to touch him, to own him.

He locked his other arm around me tighter but proceeded to pull a hand in front. "Look," he said proudly.

I glanced down, shocked when I saw a bracelet of infinity symbols around his wrist in sparkling gold ink, like he'd been tattooed.

"What is that?" I gasped.

"My mate mark." He sounded like a giddy, giggling schoolgirl with how proudly he stated that fact.

When I began to scent mark him again, he scooped me up into his arms and walked to the other side of the cave, pressing on another red mark on the wall until another doorway opened up, revealing a hidden bedroom in a smaller-sized cavern. There was a large black silk bed on the wall across from us.

Whatever nesting instinct had taken over me, I was desperate to get in that bed with him. The other part of me was balking though, because clearly, this was where they'd fucked their Red Queen. Just the thought of someone seeing Steele and his perfect body made me feel murderous, like if she was still living, I'd be the one chopping off her head. It said a lot for the madness that had overtaken me, because no part of me felt guilty about that thought.

"Baby, it's okay. I'm going to take such good care of you." I glanced down to see I was ripping his shirt, my hands having a mind of their own. It was all I could do to drag them away from him.

He stared at me in confusion. "We are not going in there," I spit out, my arms shooting forward against my will and grabbing onto his shirt again, tearing it in half this time.

"Why not?"

I was now rubbing my whole body against him, and overwhelming heat was spreading across my skin, the urge to have him take me completely overwhelming.

“Because that's where you used to touch her." Thehercame out venom laced, and his eyes widened before a spark of amusement lit them up.

"Creed had everything replaced in here, sweetheart. And this was never where I touched her—" a growl ripped from my throat, a red haze filling my vision as I pushed Steele towards the bed before he could say anything else.

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