Monstrous, tome 1 : Soul Eater

I thought about taking my chances on my own in the Wastes, and my whole body clenched up. I wasn't good being on my own at the best of times. But being on my own in the middle of this lawless, barren territory littered with raiders and monsters, and the haunted remains of what life used to be like? Having to spend every single night holed up somewhere, praying that nothing stumbled across me in the dark? How would I find enough food and water? There was a reason the humans who lived out here tended to band together in raider camps. Surviving was too hard.

I shuddered. I didn't think going it alone was an option for me. Nor was waiting here for the military to find me. I knew that deep in my bones, without having to give it much thought. I couldn't do it. I couldn't go back to being a faceless, nameless drone, having to answer to weak men with power who enjoyed torturing other living beings. It wasn't even the risk of being arrested that made me reject that option—it was the risk of that not happening, and me having to return to that life.

Which left... going with Wyn.

"I do too," Wyn repeated, sounding self-conscious. "Feel that way. About you."

His nerves made me loosen up, bringing a tiny smile to my lips. "Feel what way?"

Wyn made a frustrated sound. His hood moved side to side, as if he was glancing around to make sure no one was hiding in the room, listening in. When he turned back to face me, he exhaled a hard breath as he dragged his cool thumb across my cheekbone. "I love you." His voice shook the tiniest amount, making my heart swell too big for my chest. "More than anything in this universe. But you can't tell anyone."

I burst out laughing, happiness filling every inch of me, every cell, until it felt like I would burst. I shoved at his chest. "Because no one can know Wyn the Soul Eater has a heart?"

He leaned in and nuzzled my face, his cool lips brushing my mouth. "Exactly," he murmured, before kissing me. A deep, wet kiss that had me pressing my body closer.

Long moments later, I pressed a second kiss to his chin and smiled against his jaw, closing my eyes in bliss. "I love you too."

"Thank you for saving me. I didn't—I didn't realise it would harm you to do that. You didn't have to—"

Long fingers suddenly cupped the back of my neck again, carding through the short hair at my nape and cutting me off instantly. "Danny," Wyn murmured, and my heart leapt when I realised he was closer to me now. So close, I thought I felt the edge of his hood brush my temple.

"Yes," I whispered, scared to move an inch in case it made him back off. My palms went damp with nervous anticipation. My heart was thudding so hard in my chest, he could surely hear it.

Those fingers tightened slightly, keeping my head still, and somehow, despite the darkness already being so absolute, I could have sworn I sensed the moment that Wyn's hood blocked out everything else. The darkness became more. Heavier. Deeper.

Intimate.

He seemed to loom unnaturally large, but intel told us he was roughly six-foot-five, so not a giant like some of the other monsters. Still, his presence was... overwhelming. Even from this distance. Even though I couldn't see his face, because the hood was up on his calf-length grey coat with its ragged hem. Heavy black boots came up to mid-calves and blended in to tight black pants and a loose black shirt. But it was the horns that held my attention. Long, black horns that stabbed out from the depths of his hood and curved back around his head. Wisps of long, black hair had escaped and moved gently in the breeze, but where his face was supposed to be... there was just impenetrable black beneath that hood. I shuddered in horror. Did he even have a face? What was under there?

I took a deep breath and grabbed my headgear, shoving it all back on before slinging my rifle over my shoulder. I was really doing this. I was choosing a monster over the military. A monster who routinely murdered hundreds of humans and was generally terrifying and had a voice that sounded like a million screaming souls.

But it meant I didn't have to go back to base. I didn't have to spend my nights alone in that tiny cell of a room, waking up and repeating the same day over and over again in that cold, grey, concrete building. Having power-hungry, ruthless men bark orders at me that I was expected to blindly follow. Just slowly withering away until I was nothing.