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

“No, but we’ll find Makenna. If I have to bring Hell to its knees and turn it inside out to get her back, I will,” I murmured against Lena’s ear, appearing beside her with a mere thought from my mind. She leaned back, melting into my body. “I missed you.” Blowing out the air she’d been holding without realizing it, her fingers slid through mine, clutching me against her.

“I know. I felt you.” Lena angled her head to the side, looking up at me. “How’s Spyder?” Her heartbeat echoed, rising to a rapid beat with her question.

“He’s in pain because of the bond he still carries, but he’s adjusting. He’ll come around, eventually.”

That fucking bond haunted me. Spyder was suffering, and we’d found no way to release him. It seemed the more we tried to break it, the worse it became. Lena had cemented the bond between her and me. In doing so, she’d mated me, and through the bond, she’d unknowingly claimed Spyder, cursing him to an endless cycle of pain.

Did I want them together? No. But through the bond, Spyder was cursed to feel us every time I was with her. I wanted him beside me. Instead, he spent his nights away from us, getting drunk and cursing the magic that continued to bind us all together. There were ways to break the bond without physical contact, but they were iffy. And on the flip side, Lena wasn’t into being shared.

Lena felt Spyder as much as she felt me, which meant there were three of us in this relationship, and worse, he wore the same fucking claiming mark I had from her. Poor bastard couldn’t even fuck someone without killing them because of the bonding. Lena had unknowingly claimed the fucker as her mate, just as sure as she’d claimed me, and neither one of us wanted her to know it yet.

Telling Lena wouldn’t fix the problem or change what she’d done. She hadn’t even realized she was claiming me. Claiming both of us through the bond with her dark magic wasn’t something that had ever been done. Furies didn’t mate, nor did they ever wish to be tied to one partner. They were sexual beings, just like the demon that had created them. We’d changed their history to prevent anyone from figuring out what the three original furies held within them and represented.

“We have to fix it. Whatever it takes, Lucian, both Spyder, and Makenna. Kendra’s soul is in limbo, and that’s because of me. She never thought I’d fail in protecting Makenna. I’ve already lost one child. I cannot live with losing her daughter too.” Turning toward me, Lena pushed up on her toes to claim my lips, sending a coil of need racing to my stomach and balls. Her hands twisted and clung onto my suit jacket as she rested her head against my chest. Placing a soft kiss on the top of her sweetly scented hair, I smiled at the innocent gesture.

Lena had a way of making the simplest action into something sexual. Both parts of her, fury and woman, were sexual beings. Together they were sin wrapped in a delicious package I wanted and needed to consume. Lena had given up on shying away from her sexuality. It was as if without a soul, she no longer clung to her human moral code.

“We’ll figure out how to find Makenna and fix Spyder, too. You’re mine now, and that means Makenna is mine to protect as well. No matter how hard it is, we will do what we must so that we’re all spared the pain. I want Spyder with us again and for him to be over you. I’m tired of sharing you with him, Lena. I’m also done playing with Lucifer. When I find him, I will cage him. You will be the one holding the key and will decide his sentence.”

“I wish we could kill him,” she admitted, and I growled in approval at the softly whispered bloodlust filling her words. I lowered my hands, settling around her waist to grind her against the growing erection her savagery created within me.

“If there were a way to do it and fix Heaven and Hell, I would rip that asshole to pieces and eat him just so I could shit him out,” I admitted.

“I don’t know why, but that was really sexy,” she chuckled, wrapping her arms around me and squeezing. My arms tightened around her, and I peered up into the galaxies of stars exposed through the club’s vast, newly built ceiling.

This woman was my world. Lena claimed me with a kiss and a firm tongue lashing that had pissed me off. She’s put me in my place from the moment I’d met her, never faltering in her conviction of what she deserved. She’d been this fierce, tiny witch with so much attitude that I’d wanted to fuck it out of her.

I’d only planned to taste her once, but deep down, I knew it wouldn’t be enough, and I was right. Creatures like me didn’t fall in love, but with Lena, she’d rocked my very foundation. She’d walked right in and crumbled the walls I’d placed around my world like some fucking wrecking ball.

Then she’d fucking died, and my entire world stopped turning. I was empty without her. For the first time since my creation, I felt at a loss for what to do. I’d wanted to destroy the entire world, to leave it an empty, lifeless void matching how I’d felt without her shining turquoise eyes or sweetly scented body next to mine. I’d felt weak, and I’d never experienced that before meeting Lena.

Now, she held my heart in her palm, and I never wanted it back. Inhaling her scent, I relaxed into the soothing fragrance of midnight mixed with magic. Fucking witches, they tended to grab you and hold on to your throat, burrowing under your skin until nothing else mattered, and nothing else ever would.