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Chapter one

Kai

T he last time Rainn went missing for this long, I stole one of his packages off the porch out of curiosity and found myself staring at a replica orc cock that had green sparkles in the silicone.

He had to have added the sparkles as a special request, and a small part of me still felt bad that I stole it… but at the same time, he was the entire reason I was a closet monster-porn enthusiast, so it was almost like he owed me.

Almost.

That and I was straight, so there was no way he needed to know that I actually tried to use it on myself.

He definitely didn’t need to know I did it while listening to an audiobook about a demon wrecking his human mate.

And he definitely, definitely… def-uh-not-ly didn’t need to know I orgasmed so hard I fell off the bed, broke the nightstand, and got a black eye.

I told him I got hurt at a job, and thankfully Rainn believed me.

I didn’t use it again after that, but sometimes I pulled it out from beneath my bed and side-eyed it.

I had no idea how Rainn stuffed himself full with things like that every night—and I knew he did it every night because he wasn’t quiet about it at all. I had to guess that someone who wrote monster smut for a living needed to make sure that he knew what he was talking about… but still.

Every night?

That was real…. dedication.

It was honestly the lack of waking up to him moaning that made me realize he’d been gone too long. I’d been so busy on the project I was working on that it hadn’t crossed my mind—I left early and came home late, and it wasn’t until my sleep hadn’t been interrupted for almost two weeks that I realized something was wrong—that was six nights too many for a week-long camping trip.

When I checked his room, it was still empty.

When I checked the refrigerator, there were no new groceries in there.

The bananas on the counter were going brown, and there was a few weeks’ worth of mail in the mailbox.

So…

Rainn hadn’t come home.

Thankfully, I’d finished my project the day before, so I had all the time in the world to grab coffee and breakfast and call our local police station.

“Hey there, Kai.” The bored drawl of the woman who worked dispatch in Destiny was familiar.

“Hey, Charlene.” An easy smile she couldn’t see—but I knew she could hear in my tone—spread across my face. “How’re you today, sugar?”

If she could hear my smile, then I could hear the blush when she let out a small laugh, even though she was in her early fifties and happily married.

“Fine, like always. What has you calling?”

My hand lifted, scratching at my jaw while I tried to figure out how to phrase my concern. It wasn’t like this was the first time Rainn had wandered off. The whole ‘twenty-four hours’ policy didn’t apply to him.

“Just wondering if you’d randomly heard anything about Rainn.” Did that sound casual enough?

She let out a small, exasperated sound. “I’m sure he’s fine, Kai. He probably wandered off to join a dance troupe or something.”

“Nah, Charlene. He’d call me if he did so I could come watch. Besides, he went camping up at Forest Glen, but he’s been gone two weeks instead of a few days. I just wanted to see if anyone reported… I don’t know, bears or something? You know people go missing.”

She blew out a breath. “Like I said, I’m sure he’s fine. Why don’t you go out to check? If you don’t find him, you can call us back and we’ll file a report.”

I would have been offended if it weren’t for the fact that Rainn routinely stayed out longer than he said he would when he got inspired. She was probably right—he’d probably gotten distracted, and I’d find him lying in a field of moss wondering if he could come up with a plant monster with three cocks.

The thought played out in the back of my head—three cocks that could snake out like tendrils? I needed to write that down and tell him when I found him. But how many holes would you need for that? I—

“Kai, honey. Did you hear me?”

“Three is too many, huh?”

There was a pause, and Charlene let out a small sound. “What?”

“Uh. Nothing. Sorry.” Sometimes I had trouble keeping my inside thoughts to myself. I cleared my throat. “All right. Hopefully, I won’t need to call again.”

“It’s always nice to hear from you anyway, Kai.” She was warm when she hung up, but the message was clear—I needed to find Rainn on my own.

Fine.

I could do that.

I didn’t have another job lined up for a few days, so I had all the time in the world to go out to the woods.

With a low grunt, I dropped my phone and picked up a backpack. If I was going to go out and hunt down Rainn, I wasn’t going to do it without some snacks. After all, if he’d found something that distracted him enough to stay out days longer than he should have without bothering to give me a call or text, there was every chance he wouldn’t want to leave it.

Once I stuffed the bag full of protein bars and some water bottles, I headed out. At least the town was so small, it was easy to go out looking for answers if I didn’t find him squirreled away at his usual campsite with a notebook smudged full of bad sketches of monster dick.

With a sigh, I pulled up the app Rainn and I had installed, since we both had a penchant for getting lost and losing track of time. It let me see where he was. His face was grayed out, but that made sense—if he’d gotten himself lost in the woods, of course he wouldn’t take time to charge his cell. But I could still check his last pinged location, and I let out a small hmm . Five miles out from where the usual campsite was.

Up by Sumner Cave.

Had he really gone hiking there?

He did say he was looking for inspiration.

I hopped on my motorcycle and revved the engine, enjoying the feel of wind whipping against my skin as soon as I started driving. It took me a second to realize the reason I was feeling it so much was because I’d forgotten my helmet.

Again.

I turned around to get it… but I didn’t realize I’d forgotten my jacket until I was already a mile out, and I wasn’t turning back for that. I was already halfway to Forest Glen by then.

We’d been here a dozen times, so it wasn’t like it was strange for him to be in the woods. It was just odd that he hadn’t come home yet. It only took me a few seconds to find where he’d parked his car, and I pulled in beside him. It was pointless, but I tried to call him one more time before I took off at a trot, jogging down the path to the site where he always set up by the river if it wasn’t occupied.

His tent was there, but the fire pit he’d built had obviously been rained on more than once, and it looked like something had come scrounging around in an attempt to break in.

“Rainn?” I wasn’t sure why I called out to him—he wasn’t here. But when I unzipped the tent, his pack and shoes were gone.

So he was probably exactly where his phone said he was.

Weird.

And he told me I was absent minded. I’d never forgotten to tell him I wasn’t coming home.

I did a quick loop around the trail to make sure he wasn’t off in the bushes taking a piss or something, and with a frown I pulled out my phone and glanced again—the location feature wasn’t perfect, but it was obvious.

Sumner Cave.

With a sigh, I started toward the trail. He’d probably… I don’t know, set up shop amongst the mushrooms and tried to figure out how to communicate with them. At the thought, my mind spaced—had Rainn ever written mushroom romance? Hadn’t I seen pictures of ones that were shaped like little dicks?

It had possibilities.

I had five miles to think about it as I hiked, and I was glad I’d packed a bag of snacks and water because I’d completely forgotten to eat breakfast in my rush to find Rainn.

By the time I got close to Sumner cave, something close to worry was creeping into my stomach. I hadn’t seen Rainn—I hadn’t seen any signs of him. Not a backpack or a makeshift campsite, not even little scraps of paper like the ones he accidentally left sitting around everywhere at the house.

“Rainn?” I called out his name, but the only sound that came back was an echo and the squawk of some pissed off birds in the distance.

He’d stayed out longer than he said he would before, but something about this felt different. It felt…

I drew up short as I approached the mouth of a cave.

Sumner Cave.

Which Rainn said he was going to explore.

And people went missing when they visited.

“You didn’t actually find a monster to kidnap you, did you?” I muttered the question aloud as I stepped forward, peeking my head inside cautiously—if something came running at me with its dick out, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

The only sound was the drip drip drip of water somewhere in the distance and my voice echoing as I called out Rainn’s name again.

Nothing else.

“Come on. Don’t tell me you got lost in there.” The worry in my chest was starting to spread, making my fingers twitch. This was the last pinged location on his phone—he’d been here.

What if he was stuck somewhere and hurt? What if something really had kidnapped him? I didn’t know about monsters, but he could have gotten grabbed by a person.

Or a bear.

Or…

“Rainn?” I shouted his name again as I stepped into the cave. As soon as the cool air hit my skin, I felt goosebumps rise on my bare arms—if I’d known I was going to go spelunking, I would have definitely gone back to grab my jacket. I couldn’t change it now, though, and I wasn’t about to turn around and alert the authorities that Rainn was missing. Again.

They wouldn’t take it seriously, or they’d take too long.

I was here now, and I wasn’t going to go anywhere until I found him.

My head swiveled to look at the light pouring out of the mouth of the cave—I wouldn’t go in too far. I’d be able to find my way out.

I didn’t get lost that often.

I trailed down the path, keeping an eye out for anything that would let me know Rainn had been here… but it wasn’t like we were in a fairy tale. He wasn’t leaving me breadcrumbs. The only thing leading me forward was the smell of dirt and water, and the echo of my feet on the ground.

When I came to a fork in the pathway, I frowned.

“Rainn?” I called out for him again, and when there still wasn’t an answer, I bit my lip and looked back and forth at the options in front of me.

How would he have picked?

What if he wasn’t even in here?

“He’s not gonna forgive me when I’m the one who gets lost,” I muttered beneath my breath and arbitrarily went to the right.

I took a second to scratch a mark on the wall with a rock—I didn’t want to forget which way I turned. I noticed Rainn didn’t do the same for me.

If he’d been here.

I was beginning to wonder if he had been here.

When I came to another split in the path, I paused.

I needed to turn back.

It would be smart for me to turn back and ask for help.

When I pulled out my phone and glanced down at Rainn’s little grayed-out face on the tracker app, I knew I wasn’t going to. No one had ever accused me of being smart.

Headstrong, yeah.

Handy? Sure.

Smart…

Hm. I think the closest I got was when I was little and my mother was still alive. She’d told me I was bright then, but I was pretty sure she was talking about my smile. I didn’t remember her much, other than how sweet she was and how much she’d loved me. I remembered that her being alive was the last time I really, really felt like I was home, like I was anchored.

Rainn was the closest thing I had to that now. I couldn’t leave him stuck in a drippy, wet cave.

So… I had to pick a direction. With a sigh, I turned left and headed down the fork, hoping if I kept moving I’d stumble on something soon.

After another ten minutes of walking, I finally saw light at the end of the tunnel. I took off at a jog, and let out a small grunt of relief when I spilled out of the mouth of the cave—though the sun on my skin made my body tingle for just a second. I hadn’t been inside for that long, had I? And as far as I could remember, Sumner Cave only had one exit… but maybe I’d gotten turned around?

Maybe there was another way out that no one had found.

Maybe Rainn had found it and…

My eyes searched around and the hope I was feeling slowly dwindled.

This… wasn’t right. This didn’t look like Forest Glen at all.

It didn’t look like anywhere I’d been.

“I don’t… think I’m in Kansas anymore,” I muttered under my breath, then paused. “I don’t live in Kansas, though… so…”

I vaguely remembered how Rainn told me I talked to myself when I was freaking out, and I paused. Was that why I’d felt so weird when I walked out of the cave? Because I was freaking out?

Maybe.

Yeah, probably.

“Rainn?” I called his name out again, and the sound of an animal yowling screeched from the trees in front of me.

That didn’t sound… normal.

None of this was right.

I backed up slowly, and when my shoulders slammed against something solid, I froze—there’d only been air behind me before, so what was it?

Monster?

Bear?

Bear monster?

No. It was too solid. A bear monster would be soft and snuggly, right?

I turned and… there was nothing. Just the mouth of the cave that led into darkness.

When the yowl came again, I jumped and darted forward…

And promptly slammed face first into whatever that invisible thing behind me was, falling flat on my ass in the unfamiliar dirt.