Page 135 of A Monstrous World: The Complete Series

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Echo

N o one is ever especially pleased to see me at their doorstep, but finding me in the middle of the night seems to set everyone I come across even further on edge. We likely should have left it solely to Ridge, considering most everyone in town likes the mutt.

It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to be liked by any of these people; only respected enough that they honor their word to keep Nadia out of any future stories they may recount.

River and Brant easily agree. The elven king will make a fine member of the future replacement council. He’s fair and reasonably levelheaded. The two monsters share a look when I state exactly that.

River simply nods his agreement.

“Is the witch okay?” Brant asks. The bigfoot shifter looks at me expectantly. “Milania wants to see her. I mean, not right now, because she’s asleep, but she wants to thank her in person.”

“Nadia is fine.” My tone comes out clipped to my own ears. I sigh, shaking my head. “She asked about coming to visit, but it wasn’t possible before tonight.”

River glances around, carefully checking to ensure we’re alone. “You’re sure they’re all dead?”

I nod. “Quite positive. I can give you my word.”

Brant swipes his reddish curls back from his forehead. “How is that even possible?”

“They would have killed us all. We had assistance from a reaper. The same one Nadia sent away the night Milania gave birth.” I glance between them. “This town has suffered enough. We stick to the story that we have no idea where they’ve gone and keep under the radar as much as possible.”

“Someone will eventually take notice that Milania is no longer human,” River says pensively.

“They will,” I agree. “It’s inconvenient, but keep her home for as long as possible. Blame it on the fact that she just gave birth and do your best to keep her out of sight. I believe Nadia will be working swiftly to finish the ward and, once that’s complete, we’ll be getting the fuck out of here.”

“Will she be safe?” Brant asks.

Unsure if he means Nadia or Milania, I frown. “I believe you’ll have a better chance once Nadia is no longer in the picture. I don’t think I need to explain what will happen if you betray our trust.”

“Ahh, there it is.” River chuckles derisively. “At least she’s someone worth defending. Trust me, we have no interest in harming the woman who saved our mate.”

Brant nods. “Without the council standing in the way, we can help make North Falls a safe town for monsters and humans alike.”

“I’ll try to bring Nadia by prior to leaving town. Be aware, it’s highly likely Milania has latent omega DNA.”

River’s jaw falls.

“It seems to be something in her magic that activates those once-dormant characteristics. I wouldn’t be surprised if Milania displays more of those qualities over time.

” I yank at my shirt sleeves. “So, keep that in mind and plan accordingly. The reaper said, without that, it’s unlikely Nadia could have saved her. ”

“Thank the gods,” Brant mutters, looking quite pale.

I awkwardly pat him on the back and prepare to take my leave. I have other leaders I need to visit before I can get back to my tether.

I’m nearly to my car when I hear River say, “I never thought I’d see the day he turned on Imogen.”

My head shakes as I fight the urge to zip back inside and slaughter the both of them. They’ve built opinions of me based on who I’ve been as a puppet. A puppet whose strings were pulled by an awful woman I physically couldn’t contradict due to the nature of our bond.

I sigh. They have every right to be leery. What they think ultimately doesn’t matter, even if it burns my pride. It’s not that it hurts my feelings that all the citizens of North Falls think so little of me.

I’ll be relocating with Nadia to Haven as soon as the ward is complete. The slate will be wiped clean, and I’ll have an entirely new opportunity to prove that I’m not who I was previously forced to be.

I finish my rounds, finally making it back to Constantine’s mansion. I haven’t been gone long. No more than two hours, at maximum, but I’ve fulfilled my obligations and I need to set eyes on my witch.

My portion of the collective mission was successful. And the last few monsters I visited were considerably less disrespectful to me and my position. So, that’s a bonus.

As I zip into the massive kitchen, I shake away the lingering bitterness.

I blink at the djinn currently stuffing his face. “Where are they?”

“I’m pretty sure they’re fucking somewhere on the second floor,” he replies, scooping a huge amount of ranch dip onto a cracker. “I’m undecided on the flavor, but the texture is a significant improvement from the last time I was in this realm.”

I blink at him, but hold myself back from saying something condescending. My head cocks, listening for sounds to indicate exactly where they are. “Thanks.”

I zip out of the room and up the stairs. My hearing guides me to the left side of the upstairs corridor. I don’t bother knocking. They’re clearly otherwise engaged.

The reaper and sin eater have quite the Nadia sandwich going on.

I watch shamelessly, approaching slowly.

Wraith’s head swivels nearly completely around to face me.

It’s creepy as fuck , but I toss my palms up to assure him I’m not a threat.

He nods, which also weirds me the fuck out, and then slowly twists his head back in the opposite direction.

I continue until I’m near Nadia’s head and kneel, giving her temple a quick kiss. My cock is like stone, but it has been for the last hour. I’m genuinely fucking baffled. The tether never linked us so strongly before. I can only assume...actually, I have no idea.

“You’re such a good girl,” Wraith growls, slapping into Nadia’s ass. My eyes bug when I catch sight of the knot at the end of his shaft. “I’m going to breed you full of my babies.”

Nadia opens her mouth, likely to protest, but Knight shoves his forked tongue in instead.

They share a dirty kiss that doesn’t help the state in my trousers.

He winks, and I simply shake my head. Everything changed, and yet, I’m completely fucking giddy to find out what giant upheaval comes next.

It seems a pretty consistent theme with the darkling.

Wraith eventually decides he’s done for. He wraps himself up in his robe, taking a seat on one of the club chairs near the desk I’m perched on top of.

Knight still lies across the couch with Nadia’s nude form resting on his chest. They fucked her into exhaustion. She was tired prior to leaving for Constantine’s fucking party. She’s mortal. She’ll always require more rest than any of us.

“Why the fuck do you have a knot?” I ask Wraith after a few minutes of silence pass.

“We both do,” Knight says smugly. “Never had one before she sank her teeth in, but here we are.”

“They appeared when we bonded,” Wraith says in his low tone. “She clearly also has omega blood in her lineage, which is an interesting piece of information when added to the rest of the puzzle.”

“Damn.” I swipe a hand over my face. It’s like the universe imagined all the ways it could put someone at risk in our day and age and shoved every single one of them into Nadia when creating her.

“I was unaware you had claimed her as your beloved. I didn’t notice the change in her scent until you were already gone.” Wraith bows his head. “Congratulations.”

My jaw falls.

“W-what?” I stutter. I’ve faced down Imogen’s soulless eyes as she told me all the ways she would make me suffer and never stuttered.

Seems I’ve lost my poker face recently, and I can only blame the massive number of changes in such a short period of time.

No one can adapt this quickly. Not even monsters.

“You claimed her at some point between when we saw you on pack land and when we arrived here tonight,” Knight says, like this should be clear.

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter. “No wonder they tried to force me and Ridge to kill each other.”

“I did wonder a little about that.” Nadia sleepily rubs at her eyes. “I think it was us biting at the same time, but then Ridge arrived and we had to get here.” Her shoulders bounce. “I don’t know how to untether us, so you were probably going to be stuck with me, anyway...”

“For the love of God,” Ridge growls, pushing himself off the wall and making himself known. “Put her out of her misery.”

I shove off the desk, heading over to kneel at Nadia’s side. It’s a similar position to where I was earlier. My fingers tease over her cheek. “I wouldn’t have allowed you to sever the link between us.”

She stretches a hand around my neck, pulling my mouth to hers. Her tongue swirls around mine in a way that makes it difficult not to rip her right off Knight’s cock and impale her on mine. She moves back, licking her lips. My eyes seem glued to her tight nipples on her heavy tits.

“Your tits are fucking huge,” I groan, shaking my head.

Ridge laughs. I’m unsure when he joined us, but I no longer feel the staggering need to remove his head from his body. Perhaps it’s the newly formed link with Nadia at the center.

“They’ll get even larger when she’s swollen with my pups,” the wolf says.

Nadia opens her mouth. I slam my lips to hers until she grins into the kiss. “Keep dreaming, assholes. Keep freaking dreaming.”

“Oh, love.” Wraith chuckles. “No need to dream. It’s absolutely happening.”

Nadia pushes up on a forearm to flip him off over her shoulder.

“Sorry to break up this tender family moment.” Athos appears in a cloud of blue smoke. “You’ve got quite the collection of monsters on the front lawn.”

“What?” Nadia gasps.

My teeth grind together as tension immediately coils in my entire body. That doesn’t sound good at fucking all.

“Do we have a plan?” I glance between Wraith and Knight.

Ridge, the lucky fucker, managed to be nominated to stay with Nadia. He’s helping her get herself together and acting as the last line of defense if this lovely mob decides to choose violence over survival.