Revealing the Monster (Playing with Monsters #4) by Amelia Hutchins

I’d confused the emotions I’d felt for Katarina with what I’d feel for Lena when she was created. With the ability to sense unborn souls, I’d known which would be evil or more than what they should be. I’d felt my future inside Katarina, and had mistaken the sliver of emotions I felt with her for something else. Love. I’d thought I loved her, but it wasn’t her at all. It was a child from her line that would become my world.

Lena moaned and rolled over, stretching out on the bed while I peered at her from the shadows inside the room. Turquoise eyes, the color of the clearest seas, opened. A soft groan escaped her pretty lips as she awoke to the ache from me taking her for hours on end.

The stretch of her limbs uncovered her perky tits, and my gaze lowered to her flat stomach as a smile played on my mouth at the tiny heartbeat that sounded from her womb. It was strong and healthy. I’d wasted no time in giving her another child, not with my overwhelming need to watch her swell with my babe seated in her belly.

Her hand slowly slid to her stomach, and I wondered if she suspected she was pregnant or if she craved what had been stolen from us as much as I did? Lena sat up, her arms reaching over her head, while a satisfied grin slid over her luscious lips.

In my entire existence, I’d never anticipated that I’d find someone like Magdalena.

She was a selfless woman that didn’t expect or want anything other than to be accepted. I had never met anyone other than Spyder that hadn’t expected something from me. Yet here she was, and she was all mine.

“I can smell you, Blackstone,” she said huskily, sleep clinging to her words.

I didn’t speak because I didn’t need to. Lena knew I watched her, which was why her smirk turned wicked, and she lay back, spreading her legs to expose how swollen she was from the evening we’d spent in our bed.

Our bed.

My home was hers, and she actually preferred it to her world and had admitted it to me last night.

Yes, there was sadness from knowing she would lose Joshua again, but this time she’d gotten to say goodbye. He’d come back long enough to do what he hadn’t done before. Joshua had spent hours here and had met his nephew and niece. He’d said goodbye to the coven, and he’d left to fade into nothing more than a corpse.

Lena had lost her sister, Kendra. But I’d known both couldn’t continue to exist. Lena hadn’t understood that Joshua didn’t simply murder Benjamin. He’d hunted him down with the intention of killing him, sensing he held the other half of his soul. Magdalena and Kendra hadn’t gotten to that point, but they would have, eventually.

It was the cost that was paid for splintering souls between two bodies. Joshua had murdered his brother, even though both of the men had intended to kill the other, claiming what they sensed was missing. He hadn’t told Lena the truth about what had occurred or that his father had been present and died to keep that secret.

Magdalena stood, her eyes sliding around the room, but not finding me. I surrounded her, in the air that she breathed, in the wind that ruffled her soft caramel-colored curls. Lowering my gaze, I slid it over the new marking I’d placed within the furies mating mark. The infinity symbol adorned her right hip, glowing against her tanned flesh.

Instead of continuing to look for me, she showered and slipped into a soft crimson dress that left her upper thighs bared for my hungry stare. Opening the balcony doors, she exited the bedroom onto the open veranda. The cool air entered the room, forcing me to follow her outside.

“I can feel you, monster,” she uttered huskily. “You’re all around me right now. Aren’t you, Tartarus?”

I smiled, slowly wrapping my arms around her waist while inhaling her intoxicating scent deep into my lungs.

“Always, Witch. I am constantly here with you,” I murmured, kissing below her ear. “What do you see?” I asked, allowing her gaze to become mine.

The sun was rising over the mountains in the distance, and souls were stirring among us. Glowing pools of water became present, and we watched in silence as the souls slipped out of the water that refreshed them, strengthening them to feed me their power.

A butterfly slowly moved through the morning wind, struggling to reach the most beautiful being inside the realm. Lena’s hand reached out, offering the soul a place to perch against the soft breeze I’d created to ease her overheated skin.

She laughed as the wings extended, slowly brushing against the palm of her hand before the being took flight once more.

All around us, souls peered up at their new mistress. I was almost jealous of them, taking her in for the very first time. I’d been a selfish prick, keeping her inside to know this was real. The souls I’d collected looked on in wonder and awe at the woman who was now a part of my world.

Magdalena didn’t just fit in; she was already a part of me. I lowered my hands, cradling the babe that we’d created. I wanted to tell her what we’d done together, but I also wanted her to discover it on her own.

Her last pregnancy had been filled with tragedy, but this one wouldn’t be. This one we’d experience together and watch our child grow inside of her; this child would be born out of love and would not know the horrors Benjamin endured.

“What do you think of your new home?” I asked, slowly enjoying her subtle curves.

“I think our daughter will love it as much as I do when she arrives. I believe she will feel her father in the wind, and see his imprint on everything she sees. Like I do, Lucian. I see you everywhere, and it makes me love this place without question. You created it from your soul, and it sings to mine.” Her hands slid over mine, and she pressed them tighter to her belly. “We will need to choose a name for her. I was thinking about Laurie. It means laurel or sweet bay tree, but it is also the symbol of victory. She is our victory prize, after all.”