Page 21 of Echo (A Monster’s Prey #2)

I cooked dinner, as the monster standing in my kitchen watched me like some kind of bodyguard.

“Do you eat your meat cooked?”

“Don’t worry about me, Little Rabbit.”

“Will you answer my question?” I snapped at him.

“No.” He smirked.

“Was that so hard?”

“I feed off fear. Taking a slab of meat from an already dead creature won’t do it for me.”

He stepped to stand directly behind me, his lips grazing my shoulder. “I will feed myself. I want you to take care of yourself.”

I huffed. “Fine.”

He took that as permission to hold me against him and stay glued to me as I went around the kitchen.

“You need more meat,” he murmured over my shoulder as I chopped the salad.

He was right. One chicken breast wasn’t that much, at least not compared to the steroid juiced commercial chickens I was accustomed to seeing in the grocery store. But Mark’s words about how I needed to cut back the calories rang in my ears.

“I can stand to lose some weight.” The words came out without thinking, but the sudden swat to my already raw ass, rippling through my body, had me rethinking. The spot where he’d carved something into my hip burned and throbbed.

“Ow!” I yelled with anger and surprise.

“Don’t talk about what’s mine like that again.” The seriousness in his tone didn’t match his previous antics. The anger radiating through him reminded me of why he’d scared me at first.

I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay!”

His tense body slowly relaxed back into me. “More meat.”

“Don’t ever put your hands on me like that again.” I added one of the chicken breasts I’d intended for him in the pan to make him happy, then whirled on my heel.

“I’ve done way worse, and you didn’t even flinch.” His serious gaze bore into me, and I could swear he was studying my thoughts. “Why is this a line for you?”

I stuttered, caught off guard by his serious inquiry. I expected him to laugh at me or grin in amusement. “I don’t know.”

“Think about it.”

It was hard to do soul searching while a soul snatching monster was perusing through my brain with just his eyes, but I managed to get a handle on the source. “

“Because you’re mad at me,” I whispered. “I think.”

He tilted his head in consideration. “You believe I’ll harm you out of anger.”

I nodded, unsure of what else to say.

“I will not touch you without explicit permission, if I am angry,” he declared in that matter of fact tone he used sometimes.

“But you believe you own me, why would you concede to that?”

“I do own you,” he said. “But I respect what you are asking of me. Now that I understand the root need, I can fulfill it better.”

“You’re a weird monster.” The smell of seasoning on the verge of burn caught my attention, so I turned to flip the meat over.

He resettled on my shoulder again. His hands clutching me as if I might escape.

“Doesn’t it hurt your back to lean like that?”

“No.” He sighed as if there was nowhere else he’d rather be. Before me, when was the last time he touched someone he wasn’t hunting?

Even though working around him was a pain in my ass, I didn’t tell him to move.

Stop that, Madison. A monster doesn't need you to baby him. He wants to feed off your fear.

I could fix him. He wasn’t that bad. He was sweet and broken.

I set up my portion on the table, and when I went to sit down, I found him already sitting in my chair. I opened my mouth to scold him, and he pulled me down into his lap.

His warmth surrounded me and swaddled me in his protective embrace. Was there anywhere safer in this world? An insane thought.

“I’ve been hurt by a lot of angry men,” I confessed. Even the ones I adored. The ones who still had my heart in their meaty hands. As much as I loved my dad, there was a reason I fled home as soon as I graduated.

Violent means have violent ends.

I’d ended up locked in this world of danger that I never escaped. All that changed was the breed of hate. Because I loved men with a tragic, dark past, and they loved me.

He pressed his snout against the crown of my head. “I understand.”

Tension that lived deep inside me eased away.

“I want you as you are. Whatever that may be. Never again will a mortal try to make you less.” His arms tightened around me. “Please, eat.”

The moment was serene and yet unbearable at the same time. The monster was worming his way into my soul, and making himself home there. I couldn’t let that happen or I really would never escape.

“If I wear the chicken cutlets and you scare me would that count?” I asked to lift the intensity in the room. Sex was one thing, mental intimacy was another beast.

He froze as if I’d surprised him, before a deep chuckle vibrated my back. “No, but I like how you think. The thing I’m eating has to have the fear in their system.”

“Grandma used to say that tainted the meat. That’s why you never let the animal see your blade.” I remembered her talking about going to the coop to get fresh chicken for the day. She always said it was important that the animal never knew you were coming.

“She was right.”

I ate in silent companionship. His fingers moving over my body distracted me, especially when a hand slid between my thighs. When I was done, he whispered in my ear. “The hunting has started. Don’t leave the house.”

A shiver went through me. “What does that mean?”

“That means I’m not the only monster in the woods,” he warned.

“Is it safe for you out there?” What if there was a bigger and stronger monster outside and he was hurt?

“I’ve defended this land for hundreds of years. Don’t worry about me. This is what I was cursed for.”

I bit my lip and stood.

“I’ll be back before the sun rises,” he promised, turning into Aaron Falin for a brief moment to grab me by the chin and kiss me with a soft gentleness that seeped into the cracks of my armor.

Why did that promise hurt so much?

I cleaned up, listening too closely to the sounds outside. Every howl and roar gave me pause.

I’d been promised that someone would be home by morning countless times. It always opened this deep pit in my stomach, because I knew they were after someone who could hurt them.

Whether it was my dad after another gang or Aurelio dealing with a rival family, there was always that chance they wouldn’t come home. I guess what really scared me about this pit in my stomach was that I shouldn’t have been scared for a monster who’d trapped me here.

A loud bang hit the wall, and I jumped in surprise. Ranger ran to the door and barked.

After a couple days of him being calm and silent, it unnerved me. A loud roar that I did recognize made Ranger settle down, like he knew that things were handled now.

Screams came from my porch, and I gripped the curtain, tempted to see what was on the other side.

“Do not show yourself, Little Rabbit. Stay in the house,” Echo growled as if he could hear my thoughts. Or maybe it was the curtain moving, either way I released my grip.

Unholy screams filled the air all night. I couldn’t sleep. The sounds were from a nightmare. The clock ticked, but it was impossible to know how much time passed, because I was too busy watching the curtains and door.

A shadow appeared in the corner of my eyes, but I knew it was Echo without looking, since Ranger didn’t react. When I finally focused on him, he was worse for wear. He was covered in enough blood I knew it wasn’t all his, but the open gashes told me at least some of it was.

I ran to the bathroom to get the first aid kit and towel. I knew he was hurting, because his chest heaved and his eyes were tired. He also laid down on the living room floor, as he tried to catch his breath.

After cleaning him up, I sewed up the deeper wounds. He never growled or yelled at me, like I’d thought he would. Even when I poured alcohol on the worst spots.

Nights like this were exactly why I hated that promise.

Once any immediate danger of him bleeding out was over, I gathered blankets and pillows to make him comfortable.

“I’ve had worse, Little Rabbit.” He finally spoke, and barked out a short painful laugh. “It’s been a long time though. I didn’t realize how much you Rinah Witches were keeping out.”

“Why did this happen then?”

“The barriers are broken.” He grunted. “Beasts of all kinds are drawn to a Rinah witch. You are here and there are no protections in place anymore.”

“I’m not a witch.”

“You’re a witch,” he spoke in that serious tone. “You just don’t practice.”

“Not a witch.”

“When you figured out I was the dog, Mark said something about you always coming up with wild stories,” he said, and I froze, forgetting about that.

How I’d begged for Mark to realize that the dog in the house wasn’t Ranger.

That explained why I never found the other dog.

“As a witch, you would be attuned to the supernatural and like I said, Rinah witches draw in the supernatural. No matter where you were, monsters like me were following you.”

Why did that explain so much?

People following me that no one else could see. All the times I was convinced I was crazy.

“That said, when the sun rises, I need you to get the barriers back up,” he said.

“Won’t that trap you here again?” I frowned.

“Yes.” He nodded. “But it’s also going to keep them out. I don’t intend to go anywhere, so keeping them out is more important. More and more are coming every night.”

“I don’t know how to fix the barriers.”

“Yes, you do. Ruby taught you.” He closed his eyes. “I can tell.”

“I’ll take care of it in the morning. Rest.”