Page 174 of My Monster’s Keeper

We’re bonded, and I can feel him inside me. But it’s not going right, neither of us expected this. I can feel fire racing through my body. Everything is changing. My back blazes and burns.

I scream louder and claw at the wood. I peel open my eyes, stunned by the sight of Diablos frantically fighting the circle to try and get to me.

He’s crying. Big, huge tears rolling down his crimson face. Agony in every expression.

He’s calling my name, sobbing my name, he’s screaming, he’s sorry.

He’s sorry.

He’s pleading.

For me.

I can’t lose him, and he deserves everything. He’s the best demon, and he’s a better person than anyone I’ve ever known. He deserves the happy ever after we planned.

I don’t want to see him hurt.

I stop fighting the burning, closing my eyes and accepting the pain, accepting the changes.

I am going to survive this.

I want to be with him forever.

My life flashes before my eyes, all the highs and lows. My wedding day. The day she miscarried the child that wasn’t mine. The hollow, broken house after she left. All my days as a cop. Getting shot, my award for bravery, the day I realised I’d never make detective. High school. My parent’s deaths. All the loss and loneliness that brought me to here. To him.

He’s what I’ve been waiting for. He’s the epic love I didn’t think a bastard like me ever deserved.

Diablos breaks into the circle of flaring light and reaches me. He pulls me into his familiar arms and holds on as the white light sparks and then fades in twinkles that fall to the floorboards and disappear. I stare at his face, refusing to look away.

He’s so beautiful.

The pain eases to a throbbing ache that is bearable.

“Hart, Hart, are you okay?” he whispers urgently.

I nod into his shoulder, lifting my aching arms to wrap them around his shaking body.

“I love you, Di. It’s worth it, and I’m okay. We’re going to be together forever now.”

He buries his face in my neck and sobs.

***

I fold my arms over my chest and stare at the posturing, pissed off Fae in front of me. It’s taken almost two years to find these perfect candidates Diablos is so taken with. He believes if anyone can save an omega, it will be these four.

I have my reservations.

“Frost?”

“That’s not my name!” The white-haired man says with a cold wrath. He sends a spark of blue flames spearing out into the air. It’s gorgeous but extremely dangerous.

After all the alphas we’ve supported as they’ve transitioned here, I’m not afraid of the dramatics, though these four are something else. The danger emanating from them is off the charts, but Diablos doesn’t seem worried.

He’s good at this kind of stuff. I’m the research man, finding clues and whispers of omegas or new arrivals.

Wilder glares at Frost mutinously. Vines grow out of the ground, reaching for him. His green hair floats in the air around him. The Seelie Lord of the Hunt and the Unseelie Prince are never going to get along. I don’t know why he’s pushing them to try.

The Nightmare, Stix, is crouched on a bus stop, behaving like anything but a human. He’s the one that unsettles me the most, with his long black hair and intent eyes. There is something bordering on madness in his eyes.