Page 6 of Fated to Monsters

I shrug and grin. “Just watching.”

“That’s your thing, isn’t it?” Wren stands there, completely naked, waiting for my response.

I swallow and do everything I can not to gawk at every inch of her.

Would I rather march over there, throw her onto the bed, and spend the rest of the night learning where every freckle and scar marks her porcelain skin?Absolutely.

But this whole situation is more complicated than that, and I cannot be that reckless. Not when it comes to her. Not when everything is already more complicated than it should be.

She is a hunter. She is my enemy. She is fated mates with Wes, a hellhound with more power than me. And she’s clearly in love with Dash, too, a creature we thought was only real in fairytales—a phoenix.

“Well, are you going to just stand there or do I have to drag you over here?” Wren snaps her fingers in front of my face.

“What?” I focus on the angelic features of her face.

“Come on.” She latches onto my hand and pulls, but when I don’t budge, she turns around and glares at me. “I will not ask again.Come on.”

And because there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her, I move in her direction.

I would follow her to the ends of the world and back, and given that we’re quite literally in another realm, it’s safe to say I’m a man of my word.

For now, I will submit to her requests, but there will be a point in time I have to resist her if I stand any chance of keeping her in my life.

3

Wren

“This shower is nicer than the one at Everest’s safe house.” I adjust the knobs on the wall and watch the stream of water as it changes. “Does the one over there do that?”

“Yeah, Birdie. But you’re going to break it if you keep fucking with it." Bo stands under the other showerhead with his face fully submerged. He runs his fingers through his long black hair and then wipes the droplets off his eyes before settling his sights on me. "Look who's staring now."

I roll my eyes but turn to hide my blushing cheeks. Scanning the labels of the bottles tucked into the shelf in the wall, I locate the one labeledshampooand squirt some into my hand. I work the substance into my hair and bask in how damn good it smells. Upon rinsing the suds from my locks I note how clean they feel. I’m going to have to get a bottle or twelve of that shampoo whenever we settle into a place of our own.

My stomach knots.A place of our own. What if none of these men intend on sticking together once we learn the ways of this world? They always have in the past but that was when they were running for their lives and trying to survive. Without that threat here what if they choose to go their separate ways? What if they choose to start their lives over, and I am not a part of that? I can’t assume that they would want me to be in their new normal just because of our short time together. But I also can’t imagine any future without them. I never meant for the feelings to start but now that they have there’s no turning back. Not for me.

Being with them is the only certainty that I actually have in my life. Everything up until this point has been a fucking lie. I devoted my entire existence to fighting on the side of a war that was unjust. And now that I know the truth, what else do I have? I used to wake up every day with one single thing on my mind—killing as many demons as possible. Without that my life has no meaning, no purpose, no drive. The only silver lining was that I found them. Or well, they found me. They saved me. Not only from death but from a worthless existence.

But things haven’t really changed for them. Hunters still want them dead. Parla is still out there plotting her revenge, and it’s no doubt because of my interference. They may be safe temporarily but until Parla is gone and the soldiers that still wish to carry out her mission, the clock will continue ticking like a time bomb.

We were able to escape Prania but what will happen once she figures it out too? Her desire to kill all demons will no longer be confined to one realm but to potentially all of them. At what point will it be enough for her? She will stop at nothing until she has killed every last one of them.

Wes and Dash and Bo included.

How can I sit back and let that happen? I’ve already done too much to enable her and her sadistic plan to take over the world, I refuse to not use every resource I have to take her the fuck down.

I can’t expect any of these men to want a future with me if they can’t even expect to have a future for themselves. What kind of person would I be to even ask that of them without ensuring their safety?

“You okay in there?” Dash’s gentle hands cup my cheeks and pull me out from under the water. “I thought you were trying to drown yourself for a second.”

I blink through the droplets still trickling down my face. “Yeah.”

“You okay?” Concern hides in the soft corners around his eyes.

“I will be once you kiss me.” Because if this world has taught me anything it’s that we must take advantage of the little downtime we get. It never fails to be gone before we least expect it, and there’s no telling when we will ever get it back again.

“Are you sure?” Dash glances behind him at Bo who has both hands resting against the shower wall and his face down as the stream pelts his back.

Bo might be one grumpy son of a devil but damn is he a fucking masterpiece. Every sinewy piece of muscle is highlighted by the shimmer of the water.

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