Raising my hand that was coated in their cum, I licked a finger, enjoying the mixture of dessert-like flavors. My monsters growled at the sight and I winked at them, silently tempting them.
They chuckled this time but didn’t take the bait. Although I always wanted more, I was glad. My body and mind were spent, and I physically don’t think I could handle another orgasm. Besides, from the glow of the crystals in the room, I would say everything and everyone had been well-fed.
Axton laid down to my left, and I turned on my side, giving him my back to snuggle into as Rowen took the front, while Sylan went to sleep between Rowen and the wall. In the morning, everyone would trade places, and I loved having them all wrapped up around me.
Our family was complete…as complete as it would ever get.
A profound sadness drew over me at the thought. Now that our lands were restored and we were beginning to open up our world for humans to come mingle, thoughts of children had begun to trickle into my mind. Relations were flourishing between The Above and The Below, I had three mates who loved me and dedicated their lives to taking care of me, supporting me and ensuring my happiness—and I couldn’t have dreamed of anything more perfect.
It was the ideal world for us to bring a child into.
My crystal pulsed again at my throat just as an unfamiliar flutter of recognition danced inside of me, and I strained to figure out what my crystal was telling me. Suddenly, I gasped, startling my mates as my hand flew to my stomach.
All three men jumped up, wondering if I was sick and if everything was alright, but I could only stare off in daze, using my intuition to listen to my crystal. Over the months, I had become more attuned to how it communicated with me, but tonight, I couldn’t believe it. Joy filled my soul.
“Sera, what’s wrong?” Sylan asked in worry.
“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. In fact, everything is so right, it couldn’t be better,” I admitted, throat straining as emotion overcame me.
“What do you mean?” Rowen wondered, ever the suspicious one.
I beamed a smile at him, staring into his bronze eyes as tears began to fall down my face. Taking his hand, I placed it against my stomach.
“You are all going to be dads.”
The color drained from his face so fast I worried he was going to be sick, but he quickly recovered, scooping me up and whooping before Sylan directed him to put me down. Together, my Trifecta rested their hands on my midsection, peppering me with questions I didn’t have answers to.
“Guys—I don’t know. I literally just found out. It’s not like the crystal used words…I just feel what it means.”
“You’re certain you’re pregnant?” Axton frowned, probably nervous to get his hopes up in case it wasn’t true.
“One hundred percent.”
A slow smile stretched his lips. “We’re going to have a son…”
Again, my crystal pulsed, and I clutched my stomach as laughter overtook me.
“No, you’re not—”
“You said you were certain you were preg—”
I cut him off. “It’s a girl.”
All three men froze, torn between horror and awe, and I felt a moment of panic for our unborn baby girl. The first of her kind. Three possessive monsters for dads… Our poor daughter was never going to be able to date.
Monsters Within by R.L. Caulder: mybook.to/MonstersWithin
Turn the page for chapter one!
Chapter One
ALEXANDRA
I knew life wasn’t sunshine and rainbows for everyone, but honestly, it felt like piss and vinegar for me.
The only bright spot was when I was able to climb into my bed, crack open a spiral notebook, and forget reality even existed while being transported into a world I created when I put my pen to paper.
I poured my every desire onto those sheets. The ink was my pain, and the pages were my savior.
It’s where I found myself now, contemplating the events of the day and how I would cope with them. I was lounging on my bed in an oversized Aerosmith t-shirt I’d found at the thrift shop and some black sleep shorts.
Shoving the rest of my chocolate chip cookie into my mouth, I grabbed the plastic cup filled with the delicious delicacy known as rumchata. Taking a gulp of the cinnamon milk, I swallowed down the lump of cookie that lodged itself in my throat before setting the cup back down on my nightstand.
The rumchata left a trail of light heat in its wake as I reached for a black spiral notebook that had seen better days, flipping to the next blank page near the back of the book. The edges of the pages curled slightly from being bent a bit when I wrote at odd angles. Soon, I would need to grab another and add this full one to the plastic bin beneath my bed. That bin held the only things in the world I cared about or that held any value for me.
The alcohol had been given to me as a move-in gift by a girl across the hall. Actually, it was more of a bribe to not tell on her for having her boyfriend over past curfew, but I didn’t care.
As a ward of the state, I didn’t get many luxuries in life. Even now, being on an academic scholarship for my freshman year at a small private college, I wasn’t afforded much. The single dorm room was definitely a plus, though.
I couldn’t dwell on the pathetic fact that all the possessions I cared about could fit in one measly bin. One day, things would be different. That day just wasn’t today. I was what you would call a pessimistic optimist.
Often, I dreamt of myself being one of the supernatural creatures of the world. Not just a boring human stuck in a mundane life. But unfortunately, this seemed to be the hand I’d been dealt. I just needed to find a way to make the most of it.
It didn’t stop me from checking my teeth to see if they’d elongated to sharp points like a vampire’s, trying to will fire into existence in my hand like a witch, or wishing I’d grown a pair of demon horns over night.
Maybe I was just a late bloomer in the supernatural community? At least, that’s what I liked to tell myself when I found myself sinking in the bleakness of my life.
My scholarship covered my classes, school materials, the boarding, and a small stipend for food. I was the first to admit I had a pretty shit diet. I wouldn’t eat all day, then I’d use my budgeted allowance for the day to order a large pizza and cookies and binge eat as I wrote through the night.
My sleep schedule was almost non-existent, and I often found myself cursing the first rays of morning light as they streamed in through my small window, taking me away from my fantasy world filled with delicious men I was unhealthily obsessed with and signaling that I’d once again be heading to classes running on fumes.
In my eighteen years, I’d never met a man who held my interest, and I was beginning to think I’d be a spinster with only cats and my notebooks as company for the rest of my life.
Thankfully, notebooks and pens fell under the school materials category of my scholarship, so I was able to replenish my hoard when needed.
And truly, it was needed.
Grabbing a pen with a slightly gnawed black cap from my nightstand, I backed into the corner of my bed against the wall, where I had my pillows arranged and smashed in a nest of sorts. Drawing my knees up slightly, I rested the notebook against them, closed my eyes, and tipped my head back to rest against the wall, thinking of where I would be transported to this time.
It was time to cut myself loose from reality and escape to the world between my pages. A world that inspired awe and forged longing within my soul.
My fantasy world was one in which I righted the wrongs of this world. Where the monsters people were afraid of helped me hunt down the true bad guys—the humans.
Because I can assure you, my monsters were angels in comparison to the evil that lurked in my reality. Humans just happened to wear skin suits that were more pleasing to the eye than my monsters were. There was nothing pretty about them, though.
I had met too many dark, ugly, twisted humans for me to trust them.
They’d sm
ile to your face to placate you, whispering the words you wanted to hear, all while taking what they wanted before leaving behind a husk of a person.
The ones who stole.
The ones who raped.
The ones who thought they deserved everything, simply because they breathed.
In my fantasy world, my monsters and I snuffed the arrogance and entitlement out of every single one of those fuckers who had wronged me.
Today’s chapter was about the headmaster of my college, who had lifted my skirt this afternoon and told me he’d forget the claims of me cheating on my assignment if I helped him.
I hadn’t cheated.
There was no need to when academics were a natural gift of my mind. The only way I was even able to attend this college was due to the academic scholarship I’d been awarded. Without it, I’d be on the streets without a penny to my name, like most orphans after they aged out of the system.
There was definitely no way I’d risk any of that by cheating on a dumb assignment that I could ace without even studying. I had a photographic memory that always aided me.
The problem was that Chloe Blufount didn’t like that I continuously ranked above her in our class for the top spot, especially since her father’s money usually got her everything else she wanted. He could buy her lip injections, lash extensions, a constant fake spray tan, and her continuously revolving hair colors, but he’d never be able to buy her top rank in our grade.
So, this was how she got me out of the way instead. Feeding the skeevy headmaster lies, knowing full well what his reputation was. She was one of the monsters beneath a pretty human skin suit. Offering me on a silver platter to a man who took what wasn’t freely given, knowing full well I had no one to help me fight my battles other than myself.
In reality, I had smacked his hand away lightly, told him I’d take the zero on the assignment, and quietly left his office not wanting to ignite the temper I’d heard about many times.
However, as I opened my eyes and let my ink glide on my pages, I summoned my bloodthirsty monster to reenact the scene in the manner I truly wanted.
Lucien.
He wasn’t handsome to the human eye. But he was beautiful in a way that would scare a person, making them inhale sharply as their heart rate spiked in fear and intrigue—yet they could do nothing but be drawn into his trance, only to find out that he was the safe space they’d craved their whole life. He’d slaughter anyone for those he loved without blinking twice or feeling remorse. His skin was a deep red and swirled like bubbling magma. Small fissures of brighter red ran just below the skin instead of the typical veins found in humans. As if he was a volcano waiting to erupt at any moment.
Touch what was his and die a long, painful death as a result.
As he stepped from the corner of the headmaster’s office, his fingers elongated to black points, gleaming like freshly sharpened obsidian daggers. Lucien walked slowly and intentionally, like a predator stalking his prey.
Just as the perv put his hand on my exposed leg and drew it up toward my skirt, as he had in reality, I had Lucien tutt at him, “That won’t do. The only person allowed to touch my angel is me.” The headmaster stood, frozen in fear of my monster, and I smiled wickedly when he pissed himself the second Lucien’s daggers touched his skin in the faintest whisper of a touch.
My monster smiled, revealing rows of teeth that matched his fingers, and the headmaster screamed, begging for his life, in the seconds before his hands were swiftly cleaved from his wrists. Maybe that act should have scared me, but instead, it unfurled a sense of justice and satisfaction within me. Perhaps even a hint of desire towards Lucien for the vicious move.
It wouldn’t be the first time their bloodlust and sometimes barbaric actions had turned me on. But it shouldn’t be a surprise because I had written them to be exactly like that.
Because the thing was—my creations weren’t just monsters. They were my soul mates, and I had created them to be extremely protective and territorial of me. Something I’d lacked in my life growing up.
Honestly, I made them all a tad psychotic, but I liked them that way.
The headmaster’s screams echoed through the expanse of his office, but no one came to his rescue. No one could save him—he was damned from the start of my story.
He fell to his knees as blood poured in rivulets from his severed wrists, pooling beneath him in an ever-expanding lake of blood.
Meanwhile, Lucien retracted his claws and ran his now-smooth fingers along my cheek. His voice was gravelly, as if he had swallowed a handful of rocks. “You’re okay now, Angel. He’ll never touch you again.”
The possessiveness of his words, combined with the deep tones of his voice, made heat pool between my legs. An ache began to build there too, demanding I find a way to satisfy it.
I had yet to bring myself to cross the line of being intimate with my creatures as I wrote my stories, but today felt like the day that was going to change. I needed a little something extra to cheer me up after the headmaster had pissed me off to no end. I’d wanted to punch him in the mouth and tell him where he could shove it with his suggestions, but seeing as I couldn’t give in to that desire…I’d give in to this one instead.
My hand flew across the paper, and ink smeared the back of my hand slightly in my rush to get the words down onto the page, my heart beating erratically at the scene beginning to form in my mind. Such was the issue of being left-handed, but I’d deal with the crime scene on my hand after I got all of my thoughts onto the paper and my desires felt satisfied.
I couldn’t stop now, not with heat pooling between my legs at the thought of finally writing this. Finally giving in to the dreams that plagued the precious few hours of sleep I managed to snag a week. I rubbed my thighs together, craving friction between them as desire slammed through me.
Nibbling on my bottom lip, I envisioned the scene in my head as I wrote, the phantom sensations trailing along my skin as I did. Lucien drew me into his shadows, which wrapped around me like a warm blanket and made me feel at home with him. My vision blacked out as he transported us from the headmaster’s office. Having my sight ripped away was a bit disorienting, but when I came to, I saw he’d transported us to his bedroom. My mouth popped open as I took in the gigantic bed in the middle of the room and the dark curtains hanging in front of the walls of windows. The room was draped in black and red silk, making it feel sensual and luxurious.
Before I could picture more details, he gently gathered me in his arms and laid me down in the middle of his satin sheets, my hair spanning out around me as I looked into his black eyes. They were slitted as he stared down at me, the look and his eyes somehow conveying so much emotion in their dark depths. How was it possible to feel his pent-up anger at the headmaster for touching me simmering beneath the surface, while simultaneously seeing such hunger for me lurking next to it?
I felt his longing for me in that gaze. It practically poured from him as he ran a hand down my cheek in a delicate manner a monster shouldn’t be capable of. Like I was his most precious treasure.
My breath hitched, and I pulled my bottom lip in to nibble on it as his hand drifted down my neck, his claws extending slightly as he reached the top of my school blouse.
With one fluid movement, he shredded the front of it, leaving my breasts exposed in my black lace bra. His head drifted to press soft kisses along the tops of my breasts before turning his dark gaze to mine, begging permission before he went further.
With a nod and a “Yes,” that fell from my lips so quickly I was almost embarrassed, he dug a claw under the middle of my bra and cut it in half with ease.
His mouth clamped around one of my nipples, rolling his tongue around the now hard pebble. Soft moans poured from my lips as his hand cupped and kneaded my other breast before his fingers pinched my nipple slightly. His claws came and went as he kneaded them, the same as his teeth, which had been used to rip throats out in mere seconds.
I moaned in delight, as m
y eyes fluttered closed in ecstasy, “Luci—“
Three rapid bangs on my door knocked me out of my thoughts, and I accidentally drew a line across the paper as I startled from the noise. My head cracked against the wall as I jerked it up, making my ears ring for a moment from the impact.
“Damnit,” I seethed quietly, annoyed at the intrusion right when things were starting to get heated.
This was just my fucking luck.
That was the worst moment for me every time, though—whenever I was so deep in my world that I forgot this one existed, and then something drew me back to bleak reality, forcing me to accept over and over again that my world didn’t actually exist.
But if only…
My body felt wound up from the scene I’d left off in, and my cheeks burned at the thought of someone seeing the explicit words in my notebook. As I jumped off the bed, a piece of hair got caught in my mouth, and I tried to push it out with my tongue as I scurried to shove the notebook into my bin under the bed.
The banging came once more, accompanied by a girl crying, “Alex! Open up, please.”
It threw me a bit off-kilter to have someone call me Alex, as that seemed like a nickname only a friend or family member would say—and I certainly had none of those. I was only ever referred to as Alexandra, my full name.
Shoving the bin under the safety of the shadows beneath my bed, I glanced down at myself to see if I was presentable for guests before shrugging and deciding I didn’t care. They’d get what they’d get, and if they threw a fit, too fucking bad.
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Monsters Under My Bed by M. J. Marstens: http://books2read.com/bogeymen1
Turn the page for chapter one!
Chapter One
ALEXIS
Glowing red eyes stare down at me.
I’m pinned to my bed, my hands and feet tied to the bedpost. Struggle is futile, and my captor’s smug smile says he’s got me right where he wants me. My chest heaves, thrusting my breasts toward his face—and what a monstrous face it is. Scarlet orbs for eyes that blaze in the dark of my room. Up close, I can see the black slits for pupils, like a reptile. A flattened nose above wide, full lips. Inside that mouth, a horror of sparkling, white teeth sharper than a shark and just as dangerous. Behind them hides a foot-long tongue salivating to taste me. Purplish skin completes the nightmare.
Captured by the Monsters Page 23