Page 149 of My Monster’s Keeper

She tries to run, but I reach out and casually swipe my nails through the tendons behind her knees. She collapses with a scream that sends the crowd gathered around us screaming into the distance. I kick her off the box and then step off it, landing in a crouch.

I circle the box and then reach for Wilder’s magic again. It takes me a moment to find a vine. Another moment to coax it to grow for me. A second later, black vines explode from the skulls slipping through the bars of the metal cage until it’s secured, and then they pull. It strains, protesting, but it’s no match for my rage.

The cage tears apart.

Puppy explodes out and is on her before anyone can do anything. She screams long and loud before it abruptly cuts off with a distinct crunching sound.

I wait, tense.

I don’t know what frame of mind he’s in. I don’t know if he remembers me. A confused, scared Grim is a dangerous Grim. But he’s mine. I’m not going to leave him.

He’s all wild animal now. His scales rustling together as he turns to face me. His eyes are slitted. The yellow is almost gone.

“Puppy,” I whisper and walk up to him.

He hesitates as I lean over and hug him. A part of me is waiting for him to eviscerate me. Another part thinks he might run.

I’m wrong. So wrong. He stands up, taking his human form, and takes me in his arms, holding me tight. His breathing is hard when he buries his face in my neck.

“Becks.”

I want to cry. He remembers me; he doesn’t hate me. Puppy called my name.

“I’m sorry it took me so long.” I sob into his neck and stroke his back.

“You came.” He sounds awed.

“Of course, I came.” I squeeze him harder and then press a kiss to his chest. “If you want to kill them, do it quick. We need to find Stix.”

He steps back and smirks at me. “I will be quick. They didn’t feed me.”

I smile at him as he changes again and races after the creatures that tortured him.

He’s true to his word. Soon, he walks back to me, licking his bloody fingers.

Pitch yowls loudly, and Puppy turns his head and studies the cat. To my consternation, he reaches out and reverently lifts the cat into his arms.

“Where is Stix?”

Pitch yowls again, and Puppy stiffens.

“That is not right,” he hisses and looks at me. He holds his hand out. I wrap my fingers around his, not even questioning it.

The shadows envelope us, and then we’re standing in the middle of a vast forest. The trees’ trunks are roughly as round as a human and stretch high into the sky.

I can’t see any foliage on them. I can’t see anything living here. There just appears to be this endless wall of trees.

“Where are we?”

“This is my world. No one comes here. So they put him here. Ableth,” Puppy snarls.

“Wait,” I grab his arm. “They call your home the place where they punish people and send them to die?”

“To step into my territory is to invite death, Omega.”

I shudder, and Puppy turns, looking me up and down.

“You’re in heat.”