Page 54 of Mated to the Monster Under my Bed

“Don’t cry, sweetheart—I’ll never stop wanting you. Never stop loving you.”

She looked up at me again.

“Please, tell me—how can I make you real all the time? I want that. I want you.”

I hesitated, my heart thudding.

“I’ll tell you,” I said at last, stroking her hair back. “If you really want to know.”

But inside, I was bracing myself.

Because once I told her what was required… once she knew what it would cost… she might not choose me after all.

And if she didn’t…

If she couldn’t…

She would never see me in the light again.

30

DANNI

I waited, holding my breath, watching the flickering lamplight paint golden shadows across Shadow’s face. He looked so real like this—his broad chest rising and falling, the tips of his horns catching the light, those glowing eyes fixed on mine with such intensity. Real enough to touch…real enough to love.

But not real enough to stay—not yet.

He was hesitating, his jaw working like he didn’t quite want to say the words.

I nudged him gently.

“Come on,” I said, trying to keep my tone light even as my pulse quickened. “You said you’d tell me. I want to know how to make you real—all the time. How do we form the Heartmate bond?”

Shadow took a breath, deep and deliberate.

“It’s not a simple thing, Danni,” he murmured. “Not something I would ask lightly.”

I reached up to stroke his face, letting my fingers glide over his sharp cheekbone and jawline, covered in soft, velvet-like stubble. “I’m not asking lightly either—I really want this,” I whispered. “Please. Tell me.”

His eyes searched mine, glowing golden and solemn.

“To form a Heartmate bond,” he said at last, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that vibrated through my whole body, “I’d have to knot you.”

I blinked, the sharp, animalistic word hanging in the air between us.

“What? What does that mean?”

His voice dropped to a low, possessive growl that was pure sin.

“I would have to make love to you…to bury my cock so deep inside you that you forget where you end and I begin… and then I would have to fill you with my knot.”

My mouth went dry as dust. My eyes drifted down, unbidden, to the thick, potent shadow between his powerful thighs.

I remembered the sheer, terrifying size of him—the feel of that thick, heavily veined, ridged shaft pressing against me—the promise of being stretched to my absolute limit. And then…the knot. Heavy and hot and bigger than my fist. Round and impossibly full—a biological lock meant to seal us together.

“But…” I swallowed, my throat tight. “That would never fit inside me. It’s… it’s impossible.”

Shadow nodded slowly, his gaze never leaving mine, burning with an intensity that was both terrifying and thrilling.