Page 19 of Monster's Obsession

His shoulders rose and fell heavily, then he licked his teeth with obvious agitation. Ash’s hands were clenched by his side, Seven remained silent, and Tempest studied me with a dark demeanor, much like his usual asshole self. He never said a word.

Creed’s large hand cupped the side of my face tenderly. “We’ll talk about it later. First, I want to celebrate that we didn’t lose you.”

God, he was frustrating the hell out of me.

“My king,” someone yelled in the distance, though in truth, it sounded more like a screech.

We all turned in unison toward the closest bridge that led away from the castle, manned by huge spider guards. I shivered looking at them.

My attention was quickly diverted to another guard, who appeared more humanoid, if you ignored the bald, round head covered in blinking eyes. His nose and mouth were tiny in comparison.

“My king,” he announced, falling to one knee before Creed, glancing up, and every eye honed in on him. Well, except for the one above his ear, which turned to stare at me.

Was he doing that to everyone around him or just me…because it was freaking me out.

“Speak,” Creed barked, which had the wandering eye swinging back to his king.

“Incredible news. Rachidra has given birth to the city’s first baby since we lost our queen. It’s healthy and everyone is cheering. Some are already celebrating.”

The news struck me as I remembered them talking about the monsters’ inability to fall pregnant for so long, so this was a miracle.

All the men around me gasped, and within the span of a few seconds, everything spilled into pandemonium.

CHAPTER 5

BLAKE

It was chaos on the streets as we made our way to Rachidra’s home. News of the first successful birth in Wyld since the Red Queen’s death had spread rapidly. The monsters had given up hope… Creed had said the celebrations would most likely last a week. In the human world, I knew a lot of new mothers wanted some peace and quiet initially after a birth, but that was evidently not the case in Wyld. Almost immediately after the birth, one of Rachidra’s men had come to the castle asking…for me.

So here we were, headed through the streets filled with raucous monsters, about to meet my first monster baby.

The monsters were…interesting and terrifying on a normal day, but watching them right now…it was a miracle my eyes didn’t fall out of their sockets with how far they were bulging out as I stared at the world around me.

We’d just passed a mutated locust monster, except a locust from your nightmares because it was at least three times my size with four sets of pincers. It had a long, string bean type appendage between its legs which I assumed was its dick. And it appeared to be extremely intoxicated. As were all of its companions--smaller, round groundhog-looking creatures with short spikes instead of fur and razor-sharp incisor teeth that extended down to their stomachs The locust monster was swaying around in a strange dance…urinating…as the groundhog monsters danced around it…like the urine stream was actually a water sprinkler and they were children running through it on a hot summer day. It was both fascinating and disgusting to watch.

Seven caught me staring and chuckled lowly, the sound of it reverberating through my insides, straight to my core. I was glad to see the spark of life in him. He hadn’t been the same since that moment with his…other self? It was hard to characterize the personalities residing in Seven, some much scarier than others. As if he could read my mind, his smile slipped away and he went back to staring morosely at the streets laden with creatures.

Shaking my head, I turned back to monster watching, jumping when I saw a giant Venus fly trap creature burst from the ground a few feet away from me, a coiled black vine reaching out to snap up one of the groundhog creatures. I waited for it to spit it back out, but a minute later I realized that wasn’t going to happen.

“Ash,” I murmured anxiously. He was walking next to me, holding my hand, occasionally swaying it back and forth playfully like we were out for a casual, romantic stroll.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“That giant pod thing just ate one of the groundhog creatures. Is that allowed?”

I knew Ash couldn’t see what I was gaping at, but his senses were so evolved to make up for his blindness, it was as if he could see.

“Mmmh. It’s very much allowed. Thebellistonesare pests. They breed like your rabbits do on earth, and thechamataraskeep them in check.” He sniffed the air. “There must have just been a birth. They don’t usually gather in packs like that.”

Thechamataraburped loudly just then, and I jumped again. Ash snorted. “Want me to kill it?”

“No!” I squeaked, nestling into his side as it scooped up anotherbellistone, this one emitting a loud screeching sound before it was gobbled up by thechamatara.

The city, Wyld, was fucking crazy.

I’d known that before, but it was reinforced on the daily.

“What’s the praying mantis thing called?” I asked, glancing behind me to see that somehow…it was still peeing all over thechamataraswho must not have realized yet they were being systematically eaten.

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