Page 18 of Monsters (Vengeance #3)

Thunder and lightning exploded in the sky as we both shared a look.

When we began to ride in earnest, I felt as though the castle was far further than I assumed.

Christ. I was so about to get rained on.

When the first spattering of rain hit me I urged Midnight to go faster but she wasn’t feeling it and continued to go at a normal pace.

Come on, dude.

Ten minutes later, both of us were soaked. We had a bit of relief as we traveled along a thick, forested path until a massive boom of thunder shook the trees. Midnight took the fuck off.

Oh, okay. Now you want to go!

I leaned forward and hung on tightly, but I knew she was going too fast. She was spooked and as we took a turn I braced myself, my body sliding from her saddle. Fuck, this was going to hurt. I grunted as my body slammed right into a massive tree.

Stupid trees. Now you didn’t want to move?

Rhodes's voice echoed around me but I couldn’t open my eyes. I was at the base of a tree, groaning, blood dripping from my nose. Good. What I needed right now was a broken fucking nose. Honestly, fuck my life.

“Gray,” a concerned voice echoed in my ears as Rhodes's scent surrounded me. I grasped onto him as I groaned in pain.

“Stupid fucking tree,” I muttered as he let out a strangled laugh.

His body was gone for just a moment before I felt fur brush up against me, causing me to look up.

Fuck. Those teeth were massive yet I wasn’t scared of his jaguar form.

The fucker started to nuzzle me and lick my injury which would have been totally gross if it wasn’t healing me at the same time.

Yeah, in case we all forgot… Rhodes has a healing lick.

Ha. I could go so many different directions with that.

“Thanks,” I murmured as his soft fur body wrapped around me and his head lolled against my knee. He was fucking massive.

His golden eyes focused on my face. Despite how lethal he looked, the bastard was sort of snuggly.

I used my nails to run through his fur and a low purr began to hum through his body.

Honestly, I was feeling better now but very sleepy.

The rain and thunderstorm didn’t help because I felt like I was in bed listening to some meditative nature sounds.

Rhodes didn’t even attempt to get up so instead of worrying about everything that needed to be done, I closed my eyes.

Our problems would still be there in the morning.

Taylor

“Should we move them?” Athens asked, clearly amused.

I think he and I were the only ones who found this even remotely funny.

Adyen and Neo had essentially had heart attacks when they’d seen Midnight return without Gray in tow.

After the rather successful and eye-opening mage town hall, we had come across her horse and immediately began searching for Gray.

It had been fairly easy to find them.

There was a small forest pathway that they had clearly ridden through.

I wasn’t positive why they had stopped but the scene in front of me was something out of a fucking fairytale.

Rhodes, the sneaky bastard, had shifted and wrapped himself around our Fae queen.

Her dark hair was spread out around her sleeping form.

The plants around them seemed to be bending and swaying to keep them comfortable.

An owl had planted itself above them and in the late moonlight it was actually fucking beautiful.

A small part of me warmed at their closeness.

I think this god damn bond was making me a softie.

“Yes,” Adyen sighed.

Before either of us could respond, a meow sounded and my eyes darted down to my chest as the other men froze. Our cute kitten escaped from my jacket and hopped onto the soft grass.

“You brought Lunatic?” Neo sputtered.

Athens started laughing and Adyen just fixed me with an incredulous look. How did I explain this?

“Alright so before the town hall, I went back to Gray’s quarters for a moment and Lunatic was just staring at the door making me feel guilty. So, I brought her with me.”

Athens started laughing hard enough to draw tears as the other two just stared at me. When the metal mage could finally talk he gasped. “Oh, Taylor, that is fucking great. I would have never expected you to be the pushover parent.”

Fucking shit.

“I am not,” I demanded his retraction of the obviously true statement. Lunatic let out a meow as if she agreed with the bastard.

Neo shook his head in disappointment as Adyen started chuckling.

I followed his gaze and discovered Lunatic sitting in front of a sleeping Rhodes, her paw on his nose expectantly.

One eye opened. A disgruntled huff came out of him as she jumped on his nose and crawled up his head towards Gray. This was some quality shit.

“Oh, hey, baby,” Gray smiled as Lunatic began purring.

“Rhodes,” Adyen spoke loudly, “you’re getting sort of soft in your old age.”

“Didn’t even hear us approach,” Neo noted.

Rhodes looked at us through narrowed eyes as Gray looked at all of us in surprise. “Oh, hello!”

“Baby girl,” I grinned, “why are you guys out here?”

“I fell off Midnight and got injured so Rhodes healed me and we fell asleep,” she rambled while standing up. Rhodes shifted and grasped Lunatic before she fell. Our leader groaned and stood up looking exhausted .

“I suppose I didn’t realize how tired I was,” Rhodes conceded.

Gray walked towards me and wrapped her arms around my waist before laying her head against my chest. I pulled her close and nuzzled my nose in her hair.

“Let’s get back,” Adyen suggested. The group of us began walking and the rain had pretty much let up. Although I could tell Gray was soaked to the bone from the storm.

“How was the town hall?” She asked as the twins offered surprised looks that she already knew.

“Adyen,” I noted as she nodded.

Neo answered. “Originally, we had done it to gauge general attitudes towards non-natural born mages. What we found was even more interesting. It doesn’t seem the mage community itself has a problem but, rather, the military.

The most biased people we came across were either previous military or current military.

I can only assume my father was to blame for that. ”

Athens continued, “Obviously, they have a right to their extremely stupid opinions, however we made it clear that if any comments or actions reflecting bias regarding non-natural born mage were reported, they would be dismissed.”

I thought it was a fair solution.

Gray squeezed my hand. “How is it outside of the SE Guard? Have you talked to the Red Masques to gauge the problem?”

Both twins nodded and I spoke, “My cousins wouldn’t allow that. However, it is possible it still exists. Why don't we take a visit to headquarters tomorrow morning? I heard Byron mention today that they would be training there. Vegas and her boys included.”

“That’s perfect!” Gray nodded. “Then we can see how they react to them because they are non-natural born. ”

Then a wicked smile lit her face.

“Maybe I can train with Vegas since none of you will go against me with just our natural magic,” she drawled antagonistically.

All of us laughed, but no one denied it.

She could think it was about whatever she wanted but, honestly, I’d seen her power in action and that shit was scary.

I wasn’t one to make a habit out of stupid decisions and challenging her magic would be stupid.

Her magic was not the sweet cuddly version of Gray.

It wasn't the feisty queen version either. It was just savage.

When we entered the castle and made our way up to her quarters, I could see the exhaustion in her face.

Without even showering, she fell into bed and I watched as Rhodes crawled in next to her on one side with Athens and Neo on the other.

Adyen stretched out at the end of the bed.

I considered briefly sleeping on the couch.

Then I said screw it and climbed into the middle of the bed, wrapping my arms around her center.

We really needed a bigger bed.