Page 99 of My Monster’s Keeper

Splintering bones.

That’s what the horned one said.

I gently turn her face, putting my ear to her chest and listening for breathing. She moans.

I snap my head towards the monster. The hunter can heal sometimes. I will take care of the beast. Wilder will save our human.

“No one touches what is mine.”

Wilder, Frost, and Stix jerk their heads in my direction. The two Fae peel away, but Stix stays where he is, distracting the beast while I let a rarely seen form come to the surface.

My claws dig into the ground, thick and sharp, my teeth grow longer. Black fur grows all around me, and I lift my head and sing.

I sing the song of death in the howls of my people, and then I charge the monster that tried to steal my mate.

No one. I mean, no one touches my mate without my say so.

A tentacle slaps down in front of me, hitting the ground hard. It’s easily twice the size of a human head, but I reach out and bite hard, severing it a third of the way down. Salty blood fills my mouth, and then the creature lets out a shrill scream that is heard on a different level than that of hearing. It is almost felt.

I huff a laugh, and the enormous eye of the creature widens and blinks twice. It has one eye, but I resolve to eat it. I want to feel the fluids gushing when my teeth puncture that membrane. I want the pop and the salty tang as it shrieks.

My powerful legs send me flying through the air, and I punch into another flailing limb. The creature moves, dragging its ponderous bulk towards the water, but I grab hold of the limb and set my paws in the ground. I tug, one step, and then another, I drag this fucker out of the water I so despise, where I can dismantle it systematically piece by tasty fucking piece.

It screams and fights, trying to pull against me, but, in the end, it knows it has no chance against me.

There’s a moment of stillness, and then it surprises me. I let go of the limb and watch in displeasure as it thrusts a tentacle into its own body and ends its own life rather than face me.

“That’s cheating,” Stix says, outraged on my behalf.

I snort and glance back at the corpse. Now that I’ve won, the appeal of eating it is gone.

She saved me.

I slowly turn my head back and find her still unconscious on the ground. Wilder is kneeling beside her, gently straightening her limbs. I can hear her breathing. She’s alive. But she might not have been.

My hackles rise just thinking about it, and I whirl and lope towards her. She barely moves when I change and pick her up into my arms. There’s blood coming out of her nose and a cut on her forehead.

My deadly gaze falls on the Hunter. “Heal her.”

“I can’t.”

“Heal her!” I thunder.

“I can’t heal her,” Hunter shouts back. “Not yet, not until.” He looks away. “I can’t do anything.”

The other two can’t. They don’t have the ability. From what I’ve seen of this world, it won’t be possible for them to heal the substantial damage in her. Which leaves one option.

I crack my neck and step into the shadow world. Pulling myself through. It’s as easy as stepping through a doorway. The one I seek is far, but it will answer my call.

My howl enters my realm and brings it to silence. It has been long since the howls of the Grim have floated on the winds. The grey landscape pulses.

I can feel her approaching and tighten my grip around Becky. My Becky. I look down at her and see something other than just meat. She saved me.

Worthy.

I want her alive. I want her voice and her strange gaze. Her soft, weird skin on mine.

The female creature approaches me hesitantly. She’s wearing a long white veil over her face, her horns have pierced the top most fabric. The only clothes she wears are yellow, brown bandages. Her muzzle is long, like a rat's, with long, quivering whiskers, but her eyes are gone. Torn out and swallowed by something stronger. All she has left are sockets.