Page 34 of The Breeding Cave
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
YEOSIN
“Brent!” I shouted once the monster had disappeared into the woods. “Where are you?!”
Adrenaline rushed through me, and I placed a hand over my racing heart in a measly attempt to calm it. Why— how was this happening? Was this a dream? Was I having another one of those nightmares?
Someone grumbled outside the cave, and I grabbed a rock to my right, ready to hurl it at the next monster that walked in here. I wasn’t taking any more chances. I didn’t care if they weren’t an enemy or?—
“Yeosin,” Brent murmured.
My eyes widened, and I clutched the rock to my chest and peeked around the cave wall outside to see Brent lying against it, slowly opening his eyes. He had a bundle of branches gathered on his lap.
“Brent,” I said, grabbing his biceps and tugging him to his feet. “What happened?”
After placing a hand against his head, he walked with me back into the cave and set the firewood next to the entrance. When he pulled his hand back, thick blood coated it. “Something must’ve hit me in the head.”
“Something or someone?” I asked. “There was something outside.”
“Like a monster?”
“Something like that. At least, she could turn into a monster,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself because a few weeks ago, I would’ve never believed that anything like this was real. “At least twenty feet high.”
Maybe I was hallucinating.
“And a beast like Luciano. He tried to come in here and … and …”
My mouth dried at the thought of what that beast had wanted to do to me. He wanted to do to me what Luciano had done that first night under the full moon, but at least Luciano had some restraint.
That beast … had been wild, unrestrained, and terrifying.
“What’d he do?” Brent asked.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I found myself wrapping my arms around Brent’s waist and burying my face into his chest. While it wasn’t the same as Luciano, my heart was pounding so hard that I thought I’d have a heart attack.
Brent wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer, gently stroking my hair. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and honestly, I was grateful that he didn’t because I didn’t think I’d be able to say anything without letting out a sob.
My entire mind was rattled. First Joseph, now this. What was going on?
“Where is the beast now?” Brent finally asked when I pulled away.
“The monster flicked him away.” Literally like he had been a gnat.
“Fuck. Luciano isn’t going to like this,” Brent growled. “Did she say anything to you?”
“She told me to stay away from him,” I said. “Among other things.”
Those other things being that he belonged to Ruby and that Luciano would never truly love me for my scars. Luciano had told me that it wasn’t true, but he had only started this little thing with me so I could birth his children.
Why would he keep me around after that?
“If she’s going to threaten you, why save you?” he muttered to himself. “To save face?”
I wrapped my arms around myself and rocked back on my heels. “Who’s Ruby?”
Brent snapped his gaze up to mine. “Ruby?”
“Yes, Ruby. Who is she?”
“You don’t have to worry about her,” Brent said. “She’s nobody important.”
I hesitated to ask the next question, but forced myself. “Is she important to Luciano?”
“No.”
“Then why did she?—”
Before I could finish my sentence, branches snapped and leaves cracked in a rushed succession outside the cave, as if someone was running at us. Brent pushed me behind him, his nails lengthening into claws, preparing for a battle.
For heaven’s sake, why can’t we have a quiet night?!
My heart slammed inside my chest, and I inhaled a familiar scent.
Suddenly, Luciano appeared at the cave’s entrance. Disheveled.
“Out,” he growled to Brent, his canines glistening underneath the moonlight. Except his gaze was on me. “Now.”
“Luciano, I think you should hear about what happ—” Brent started.
Luciano snapped his hand around Brent’s neck, lifted him into the air, and squeezed, his blazing gaze still not leaving mine. Warmth gathered between my legs, and a wave of pleasure rushed through me.
Ruby or not, Luciano did something feral to me, especially under this moon.
Another ferocious growl left his mouth. “Out. Now.”
Once he released Brent, Brent scrambled out of the cave.
“Luciano,” I whispered.
“Who is he?” he growled.
My eyes widened. “Who is who?”
“You know who I’m talking about.”
“If you’re talking about the beast who came to the cave earlier, I don’t?—”
“Another beast was here with you?” he roared.
This didn’t look or sound like a man who was promised to someone else.
I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, unsure of who he was talking about. Alvin maybe? Didn’t he already know that he was my ex-boyfriend that led the Dragon Clan and wanted to make my life a living hell?
“ Your fated mate ,” he snarled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He stepped closer to me, his eyes blazing. And if I said that it wasn’t the sexiest fucking thing that I had ever witnessed, I’d be lying.
“You’re mine,” he growled, stalking closer. “Mine.” Another step. “All mine.”
I stumbled back, loving the way he moved closer to me, the way he trapped me between him and the cave’s rocky wall, the way my body was on fire and a deep innate need inside me was begging for him to breed me.
When he stepped closer, my fingers curled around his muscular shoulders. I stared up into the beast’s eyes, which weren’t on mine like they usually were. Now he was staring at the crook of my neck.
Like he wanted to eat me.
“Breed me,” I whispered, pressing my thighs together. “Please, breed me.”
Though I wasn’t sure he heard me, as his eyes only grew hungrier. He grasped my chin in one hand and tilted it away from him, then buried his face into my neck, drawing his large teeth down the column of my throat.
“Nobody is going to take you away from me, and I’m going to make sure of it, mate .”
And then he sank his canines into my neck.