Page 5 of Twisted Desires

“I need a breather,” I gasp. Despite the icy water, the whistling wind, and the cloying feel of my clothes against my damp skin, I’m no longer cold. Every inch of me thrums, alive and warm—but I’m so very tired. Tired doesn’t even touch it. Not really. I feel like a wrung-out cloth, crumpled, used, wet, and in desperate need of at least a few hours in the sun.

“Do you wish to concede, Bethany?”

“And be your fucking monstrous baby mama?” I answer.

“Forgetting something?”

“Fuck you,” I spit with a surprising amount of venom in response. I know exactly what he wants to hear. “You can stick your Master up where the sun don’t shine!”

A dangerous gleam flashes in his eyes at my remark, and I brace myself for what’s to come. A slap? A spanking? A brutal onslaught of nipple tweaks? Whatever the punishment, I can handle it. I must. I’m going to win this thing. I’m going to outplay the Devil of Lake Superior and start over. Fuck my useless friends, fuck the guys who treated me like a piece of meat … fuck them all. Including this cunt!

But the monster only smiles this time, and somehow, it’s even more intimidating than punishment. It’s a clear warning and a dark promise. “A fire has sparked within you, I see,” he observes. “You know, you might just enjoy your time with me, Beth,” he drawls. His long black hair spirals lank and wet over his strong shoulders, drawing my attention unwillingly to his rippling, muscular chest.

“I doubt it,” I answer, infusing my words with all the snark I can muster.

“You have so far,” he says leering, before a few of the monster’s tentacles resurface, a bleached white skull in each of their curled grips.

My heart almost stills in my chest, and I forget how to breathe. The fire in me sputters, choking on its own smoke. There’s no mistaking just what kind of skulls those are. They’re human. Fuck me!

“Do you wish to join them, then? They chose not to enjoy my company,” he remarks too casually, inspecting the remains with a cruel and bored curiosity. “This was Becca,” he says, gesturing to one. “And that was Charlotte. And those two over there were men, I think. I want to say Luke and Martin?” He waves flippantly with sinister delight, clearly reveling in my unmasked horror.

“How did they die?” I whisper, my voice trembling with a newfound appreciation of the devil I’m dancing with. Shit. Shit. Shit.

The monster taps his chin with a single long orange finger, his eyes narrowing as if in thought. “Hm,” he says. “I know I drowned at least one of them. She wouldn’t stop screaming. It grew tiresome, so I just fucked her before she went cold. The other? I ate her. Her heart stopped beating at the mere sight of me, and I was hungry, so…” he trails off before continuing. “And the men? Well, one begged me to fuck him to death—that was delightfully messy—and the other went out swinging. But it makes little difference as to their fates. I always take what I want.”

“You ate someone…” Every muscle in my body locks up, the warmth of my relentless orgasm long since gone. I feel as cold as a corpse in the grave. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking. It would have been better to drown than end up here in the caves, playing at deals with such an unholy creature.

“I have,” he answers. “Several someones over the course of my very long life, in fact.”

“How old are you, exactly?” I ask. I wrap my arms around myself, my back to the stone as far as I can possibly go.

“It’s hard to say, pretty. Several hundred of your years at least that I recall. I feasted upon darker-skinned humans—the natives of this land—long before your shade of white arrived upon its shores. And before that, islanders, when I still lived out at sea.”

My mind is reduced to static, and I tangibly feel the blood draining from my face. “Is this wager a lie?” I grimace as my voice borders on plaintive. “Are you going to kill me no matter what I do?”

The monster frowns, folding his muscular arms across his chest. “No. I might be a monster, sweet thing, but you have my word. I have no desire to end your life. Too long have I been alone, and the one offspring I managed to sire has since traveled far from here. I desire new life, Bethany Summers. If you lose, your reward will be my heart, and an eternity by my side, here in the lake. Together we will spawn a family, and you’ll have children to call your own. You will be a mother, and you’ll never have to face losing them, for they will outlive both of us.”

My teeth chatter as the reality of my predicament sinks in. “What do you mean?” I ask, eyes wide. “I’m going to change? Become like you?” The thought churns my stomach, and I hug myself protectively. Tentacles? Me? No, thanks! “You should have left me to drown in my kayak,” I utter under my breath. “There is no hope for me, is there?”

“There is always hope, dear girl. I have waited centuries for a female strong enough, bold enough, and smart enough to carry my legacy into the future. Birthing a baby of my species is a trial in and of itself, you see. Only the strongest survive. And I know you will, Bethany. After centuries alone—after almost giving up on ever finding my match—destiny has delivered you to me. We are Fated Mates. You mightn’t see it now, but you will feel it in your very bones soon enough, and then, you will never want to leave me, I promise you this. But I will keep my word, and I wish you luck in your impossible task.”

Swallowing the dry lump in my throat with substantial effort, I purse my lips before asking my final question. “And how many women have you actually made pregnant if you’ve had just the one surviving child?” Awaiting his answer with bated breath, a tangible knot of fear and anxiety twists inside of me like tangled seaweed caught in a violent current.

“Don’t be afraid, my pretty,” he responds.

His words fall on deaf ears as the world fades around me and my focus narrows. “How many?” I press.

“Too many to recall.”

Well, that’s fucking fantastic, I reel. The odds are clearly not in my fucking favor. Even if I don’t die today, the chances are the bloody monster that grows in my womb will kill me later.

“Will you concede, and join me, Bethany? Or must we continue with this charade and wager for your freedom?”

Flicking my wet hair over my shoulders with solemn determination, I meet the monster’s yellow gaze. “I think I’ll fight for my freedom, thanks,” I answer as evenly as I’m able, though my very soul shakes with mounting dread. “I owe it to myself to try.”

The Devil of Lake Superior inclines his head, eyes flashing in the filtered moonlight. “I can respect that,” he says with surprising sincerity. Rising higher from the water on his many tentacles, he reaches down before me, parting an almost invisible seam in his mottled orange flesh with his fingers, just above where his writhing appendages begin.

A horrified gasp escapes me as he eases out the biggest, strangest cock I’ve ever seen from within. It stands to attention, gleaming in the starlight. Strange, thick purple veins throb around its length in an alienesque spiral formation—just inches from my face. “Dear God,” I breathe.

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