Page 18 of Ravaging Red (Monsters of the Hollow Realm #1)

The Hollow

Rael

S he was going to be the death of me.

It wasn’t a death that would come quick, done by a blade or a bullet.

This death would be a slow, agonizing torture.

One that stripped a monster down to his bones and carved away every inch of control I had ever put into place.

She would drive me into a kind of madness that made a warrior forget the line between desire and destruction.

Where instinct roared louder than reason and there was no goddamn turning back. That’s what she was going to do to me.

My Red.

With her wide eyes, her smart little mouth, and the scent of her cunt still clinging to my skin. She made control feel like a collar I’d worn too damn long, and now that it was slipping off, I never wanted it back.

There was no way that Red was just called into my neck of the woods by the Blood Moon.

No.

This female had to be dropped into my hell by some cruel witch seeking revenge, or some twisted drunk deity who thought it would be fun to watch me fall apart. It wouldn’t be such a far-fetched thought. I’d ruined several lives and pissed off the council more than once in my lifetime.

I was convinced, this human was specifically sent to disrupt my peace.

And she did. The second she gave me that disobedeient look, the moment she denied me…

my discipline and silence, the walls I’d built out of rage and fucking patience , she sank her teeth into all of it and tore it down like it was nothing.

And I wanted her to do it again.

She was currently standing at the threshold of the cabin, barefoot, bruised, and breathtakingly battered in all the ways that mattered.

The scent of my seed still lingered on her thighs, her nipples puckered from the cool air, the imprint of the leather straps were still etched faintly on her wrists.

Her healing powers worked quickly, and it infuriated me that she would only get to enjoy the pain for a few hours.

When I truly marked her, I'd make sure that brand would never heal over.

With that rebellious spark in her hazel eyes, she had the audacity to stand there, arms crossed tight beneath her full, freckled tits, glaring at me.

Me . The monster who had broken her open with my cock, stretched her until she sobbed my name, knotted her so deep she screamed, begged , and she dared to throw her chin in the air and snarl at me.

“I’m not going out there wearing this.”

Her voice was sharp, and so damn human it made my blood boil and my cock throb at the same time. She was challenging me on purpose. It was amusing that she still thought she could draw some kind of line between what she wanted and what I already fucking owned.

She pointed to the leather sack I’d thrown at her feet an hour ago, like it was something that offended her.

One item spilled from the contents of the sack.

No shift. No undergarments. No fucking shoes. Just that red cloak. Because that’s all she needed.

It wasn’t about modesty or comfort. That red cloak wasn’t just fabric.

It was a warning. A visual threat to every monster and male in the Hollow Realm.

Red was a symbol older than the Council itself, older than most of the monsters who haunted Hollow Glen’s rotted paths, a color that screamed of danger and heat, of blood and sex, of a female already taken and therefore forbidden.

Cloaks like this were worn by mates, unmarked or not.

I was declaring my claim to protect what was not yet sealed by blood or ritual.

She didn’t care. “I need clothes,” she said, each word accentuated her fury. and a fear she didn’t want to admit.

Her voice trembled at the edges, but she held herself still, her shoulders squared like she thought would make herself larger or stronger than me. Her hair was still a wild mess from where I’d fisted it hours before, tangled with sweat, and sex. She honestly looked as pissed off as I felt.

“Isn’t there a dress in a closet somewhere? I’m sure my Nana left something behind. A shirt. Anything.”

She wanted dignity. I wanted her naked on all four, eyes glazed over with lust as she surrendered to me.

But I’d settle at obedience . For now.

“You’ll wear whatever I fucking tell you to wear.” I snarled, the walls of the cabin vibrating under the force of my voice. I wasn’t used to being challenged as much as this woman defied me. And I didn’t very much like it.

“You don’t get to control what I wear, Wolf!” She said the word in a demeaning sort of way, and it did the job, causing me to growl at her.

“You also don’t scare me,” she placed a hand on her hip, her tits looking delectable on her naked frame.

I took a deep breath and the tension in my voice became deadly. “You’ll wear nothing if I say so. You’ll kneel, spread, crawl, however I want you. Wherever. Whenever. That wet little cunt of yours belongs to me now. And it’ll be ready when I say it will.”

Her spine stiffened, but she didn’t cower.

Instead, the rebellion in her eyes ignited again, brighter than before, rage coiling in every taut muscle of her stubborn little body.

“Do you want me to be attacked?” she shot back, her voice cracking with fury.

“Taken away by another one of your kind?” She stared at me.

“You said the Market is dangerous! If someone sees me…”

“They’ll have to get through me, first.”

I took a step toward her, just one. “And I promise you, if it gets to that point, they will not survive.”

“You don't know that,” she huffed.

I took a step closer and she fell back against the door. “Put, the fucking, cloak on.”

Call me cocky, self-assured, arrogant, whatever you wanted, but I did not lie.

Those that had once challenged me never survived.

I’d make them fucking bleed if they so much as looked at her the wrong way.

But the flash of fear behind her fire didn’t go unnoticed.

She was trying to hide it, but I could smell it on her skin, taste it in the air between us.

And gods help me… it softened me. Just enough to see her. Not just the bond or this maddening need, but the human woman, the one who hadn’t asked for this.

I didn’t give in, but it gave me pause, and that seemed to be enough for her.

She picked up the cloak, narrowing her eyes in rebellion as she dragged the worn fabric around her naked body.

She didn’t look at me while she did it. She didn’t speak.

She used the rough leather strap I’d left near the firewood, wrapped it around her waist like a belt, then again over her breasts, cinching it tight.

As much as I hated it, she made it work.

Covering herself away from all those who might harm her.

I watched her hands tremble as she tied the last knot and pulled the hood over her curls, hiding the bite marks I’d left beneath her jaw.

I grunted in aggravation, then turned away before I did something worse.

I let her have this. Let her believe she’d won.

Let her pretend she still had pieces of herself I hadn’t touched.

What she didn’t know was that the world outside this cabin would teach her soon enough that monsters didn’t care how clever a human was, or how clothed she was, only how well she screamed when they sank their teeth in.

We left as the Blood Moon began to dip behind the mountains, its glow still thick in the sky, casting everything in that strange, dreamlike shade of red.

We were headed to the Maw Market. My new mate needed food, and I had no idea what my world could offer her.

So as much as I wanted her beneath me and hidden, she needed strength and nutrients, which meant she needed to be fed.

The path twisted through ravines and thickets and clawed its way down ridges that were difficult for her to travel through, so I carried her through the worst of it without complaint, my claws gripping rock and root with ease as she clung to my neck. She felt soft, and warm in my arms.

When the trees broke, the road to the matket spread before us. I quickly placed her hood on her head, hiding her beneath the robe.

“You are to act unseen.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? If you can smell me, so can they,” she pointed at the drunk Ogres as we walked passed.

They all stared at me, sniffing the air, and I rushed past them quickly.

She had a point; it would be hard to hide a human.

I would just need to keep her at my side at all times.

We continued the walk down the stone path until we finally reached the square. Maw Market was set at the edge of the Wyrm Spine Mountains. Red stood beside me, staring up at the majestic scene before us.

“How big is this place?”

“Larger than your town,” I whispered to her.

“Tell me about it, please.” She looked up at me, those big eyes pleading for a story.

I sighed. “The Hollow is a realm stitched together from the scraps and scars of older worlds. It’s a frayed reality that pulses with old blood and even darker magic. Some call it a sanctuary, some would say it's a prison, but for us, the ones shunned by the Council, we call it home.”

“Home,” she repeated, lost in my words. “Tell me more,” she said excitedly, pulling me to sit down on a rock.

“We don’t have time for this.”

“Make time,” she pouted, patting the rock beside her.

I rolled my eyes but did as she asked. Squeezing into the seat beside her, she tipped over, and I grabbed her, sitting her on my lap.

“Rael!”

“Do you want to hear about the Hollow or not?”

She glanced around the market and when she was satisfied no one had noticed, she gave me a quick nod, leaning into me.

“There are different places within the Veil, the Hollow is one of them. There are other territories as you travel deeper. Places unseen or hidden by magic. It’s not fully governed by logic. It shifts with the rise of the Blood Moon, and pulses with the needs of the creatures that hide within it.

“The rise? So this moon isn’t always this color?”