Page 33 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

YEOSIN

“What the fuck is that?!” I whispered to myself.

When the monster stepped into the moonlight, I nearly peed myself.

At her full height, she stood at least twenty-five feet in the air.

All she had to do was step on me, and I would be nothing but splat on the ground.

One flick with her finger, and she’d send me spiraling into the wall with lethal force.

A branch snapped to my left. I looked over, expecting to see Brent, but saw a beast almost the size of Luciano charging my way. My eyes widened, and I shuffled backward into the cave because Brent had told me not to leave.

But where the fuck is he?!

The monster stopped at the entrance of the cave in his beast form and stood to his full length, towering over me. I had been coming to this cave for what felt like weeks now, and I had never once seen this one here before.

“Please, don’t kill me,” I whispered, backing up and holding my arms in front of my face.

He growled, the sound echoing through the cave. Luciano had told me that not many people knew about these caves and that the only people who really came here were … other beasts like him who had lost their packs.

Light from the moon flooded into the cave, bouncing off his muscles. He stalked closer to me and snatched up my wrist. I yanked it away and stumbled back into a rock, falling over it and landing on my ass, legs up in the air.

Shit! Where the hell is Brent?!

“Please, stop,” I whispered.

He had that same hungry look in his eyes that Luciano always had when he trapped me in this cave with him to fill me, to breed me. Was that what this guy was doing here too? Did he plan on breeding me? Luciano … wouldn’t let that happen.

But Luciano wasn’t here.

Stomach twisting into knots, I shook my head as he grabbed my ankle and pulled me back up onto the rock, moving between my thighs. The full moon … it must’ve made beasts like him angry or horny … or both.

“Please,” I whispered, tears pricking the corners of my eyes.

The twenty-five-foot monster outside the cave suddenly reached in and grabbed him between her thumb and forefinger, which were both at least six inches wide. She dragged him out of the cave and flicked him across the trees.

I scanned the forest at lightning speed in an attempt to find where Brent had gone off to. He was supposed to have supersonic hearing, wasn’t he?!

Where the fuck is Brent?! How long does it take to retrieve firewood?

As she took another step toward me, her bones snapped inside her body, and she shrank from a twenty-five-foot monster into a five-foot-something human woman with raggedy blonde hair and an expressionless face.

“Fertile women shouldn’t be here alone. Other beasts will take humans like you who aren’t marked, especially during a full moon like tonight,” she hummed. “Who was the stupid beast that left you alone?”

“Brent!” I shouted, backing up into the cave and not taking my gaze off her. “Brent!”

“You can yell for him all you want,” she said. “He can’t hear you.”

“Who … what are you?” I whispered, backing up to keep space between us.

Instead of answering me, she crossed her arms and looked me up and down. “You’re the woman who forced Luciano to make the pact,” she noted, a low chuckle escaping her mouth. “ Interesting . A fragile human who can’t fight to protect herself.”

“What pact?” I asked, brows furrowed. “I didn’t force him to do anything.”

“The only way he beats the Dragon Clan is without you,” she said, tilting her head and looking down upon me. “You will do nothing except hold him back from achieving his dream of avenging his pack and his family.”

“Who are you?” I asked again because she was …

She was just trying to get in my head.

“Stay away from him,” she growled.

Fire bubbled up inside my stomach, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Who are you?”

She hadn’t answered my questions and had only come here to hurt me with her words. That had to be it. I needed to keep her away and ask Luciano about her later. If she knew him, he had to know her.

And where was Brent? Firewood shouldn’t take this long to gather!

Her expression remained completely emotionless. “You’re weak.”

“No, I’m not,” I said.

Though … I knew that I was weak. Really weak.

“And useless.”

“I’m not useless,” I said, straightening myself out. “I’m fertile.” The words left my mouth before I could stop them.

It wasn’t a secret that Luciano was trying to get me pregnant so he could continue on his legacy. I was more than that. But not to him. That was the only thing that I was useful for … giving him kids.

“Besides, the scars you hide underneath your clothes are horrendous.”

I tugged my sleeve down over my thumb to hide the burns and pressed my lips together.

“Stay away from Luciano,” she warned again. “He belongs to Ruby.”

Ruby? Who is Ruby? Was Luciano promised to her? Maybe made by the pact?

Jealousy burned inside me, and I balled my hands into fists behind my back. She had just saved my life. It would be rude manners to make demands of her now. But something deep inside me wanted to do more than that.

I wanted to rip that name from her mouth, torture her until she told me who Ruby was and why Luciano was promised to her, kill her. When the last thought raced through my mind, my eyes widened. Kill? Me?

This had to be … someone else talking, getting into my head.

“You should leave,” I said, glancing toward the trees where Brent had disappeared.

Luciano wouldn’t like that this mysterious woman was at the cave with me. Or maybe he wouldn’t care. Despite him telling me that I was only for him to breed, he talked to me and treated me like I was the only person he craved. Except he was flaky.

He was gone now, like he had disappeared last night.

Had he gone to visit Ruby both times and given me the excuse of meetings?

The woman moved closer to me, her eyes glowing blue once more, the way they had in the trees when she was a giant creature. “If you stay with Luciano, it will be the death of you. He has more enemies than just the Dragon Clan.”