Edited By Jess from Elemental Editing and Proofreading.
Formatted by Kaila Duff .
Cover design by Rabbit Hole Designs.
To the woman who thinks I write too much darkness and told me to write more positivity and less death. This one is for you.
P.S. I killed you in this book too...
Warning:
There are no heroes in this story, only monsters. Enter at your own risk...
I tried to include a recap, but so much happened in Rage..so here is the basic gist.
Dawn was murdered. She came back. She met a god who turned out to be her mate. Killed and shifted into the skin of many people. Went shopping and had lots of kinky sex while falling in love. Met another of her mates, a fallen, he’s a bit nuts that one. Dreamed of a dragon who is also her mate. Woke up an ancient minotaur who killed witches and bad guys to try and get to her only to be captured.
The dragon goes in search of her and meets three cooky witches along the way. Starts a fight with a sat nav and is genuinely clueless.
Meanwhile, Dawn gets kidnapped and breaks free. Kicking ass and taking names as she tries to figure out what they are doing to human females. She finds a scientist who tells her the big bad, The Others, pay them to do it. To bring out latent, supernatural blood in humans.
Griffin turns up, they escape. They meet at his house with Nos and make some plans and have more sex. Some people are tortured, some killed, until they finally meet Victoria, AKA Victor, who her shitty ex husband was stealing from. Victoria takes down her husband and rings Dawn to meet her there.
Dawn shows up with her mates and they kill the bastard. But then, oh no! The bad guys turn up and kidnap her! She wakes up and meets an asshat called Veyo who works for the council. She pissed him off in her usual Dawn style and is dragged to a cell with a beast...Dume.
Aska stands dramatically on a hill and swears his revenge.
See? Now you are mostly caught up.
Grab the wine, and maybe your vibrator. It’s about to get a whole lot darker...
I must have fallen asleep because I wake with a scream trapped in my throat, Tim’s words echoing in my head, and the horrible, sadistic look on his face right before he killed me.
“You. Are. Mine.”
I swallow them back like razors, he was wrong. I don’t know why I’m dreaming of him now, maybe it’s because I finally got my revenge and now, with him gone, all that’s left where there was once revenge is an aching pain and bad memories crowding my head. I was never his and I will never belong to someone like that again, it’s different with my mates. They don’t want to own me, they want to love and protect me.
“Forever, Little Monster. You will never get away from me.”
Oh, Nos, I hope you keep your promise. I miss my horned god already, miss that smile. Those white eyes and his sweetness...the hard way he used to hold me. Push me to my limit and keep me there, forcing my body and heart to accept everything. He was there when I first woke up into my undead life, he was my constant, and now he isn’t here. I feel it keenly...I wish that when I open my eyes, I’d find him sitting cross-legged before me, his animalistic face tilted as he watches me…
But I don’t.
Chains ring out, slithering across the floor, so I lift my head. I can’t see much, it’s dark, not the inky grey of night but utter blackness. The sight of death, the end, and in it hides a minotaur.
Everything must have been too much, my body shutting down not long after being thrown in here, but now I’m awake. Awake and aware I’m trapped with a mythological predator. So what do I do? I sit up and cross my legs, tipping my head, wishing I could see into the dark.
Then, suddenly, I can, my eyes light up white, bright as the moon’s rays like when Nos is changed...he did say mates can possess some of each other’s powers, and my eyes have turned white before...is that what’s happening now? I’m learning what I am and what I’m capable of as I go, and it seems my mates are as well.
I wonder if I will grow wings like my moody fallen...or scales like my dragon if I ever meet him.
Aska.
How will he find me now? He said he was close...will he give up? Will I ever feel his lips on mine for real like I did in that dream place we met? Only time will tell, but right now I have more to deal with than missing my monsters.
I’m trapped in here with one, after all.
“Minotaur,” I call out, my voice steady. He hasn’t hurt me yet and I’m tired of being afraid. I’ve faced down too much to let it take hold of me. Instead, I’m steady...and curious. Like when I met Nos.
A rumble comes from the corner where even my eyes can’t pierce the black veil surrounding it.
“Hello?” I try again, and this time a louder rumble sounds from the dark.
I slump, almost giving up, but then it moves. Not it, him. Too fast for me to track, he breaks free of the shadows. Towering above me is a monster from my childhood storybooks. Horns protrude from his head, a golden nose ring hangs from his snout, and his legs are splayed and end in hooves. A tail whips the ground behind him. His fur is dark, almost black, and intersected with old scars. He’s huge, almost touching the top of our cell, his body wide and big like, well...a bull. He’s what nightmares are made of, yet I’m not scared. No, something else starts within me, a tug low in my belly, pulling me to him.
Calling me.
I stare at him and he stares right back, his eyes flicking almost red like flames as he takes me in. He moves again, so quickly he becomes a blur, and then he’s so close I can smell him...like fire and ash. He smells delicious.
Getting to my feet, I realise my head barely reaches his chest, and I have to tilt my chin back to meet his eyes, a smile playing around my lips. I’ve met enough monsters now to know this one is something powerful...something special.
“Are you afraid of the dark, Draya?” he asks, his voice like the crashing of two rocks, the clang of shields in war. Blood and pain almost wrap around us from his deep, dark timber. I don’t know what draya means, but the way he says it sounds almost like a prayer. He circles me, the slinking of his chains following him as I stand still, letting him. I don’t even move my head. He doesn’t scare me, no...I want him.
Lust blooms through me, covering the dull ache in my stomach, one that started when I was taken from my other mates. It calls to me, cooing for me to reach out. To touch him, to taste that darkness and pain...and the hate buried inside him. Swathed around every fiber of his being. To find out whether the darkness and animal lingering around me is as strong and as powerful as he feels.
“No, I live in the dark,” I reply, and lick my lips. “I was born in the dark. I died in the dark and I was reborn into it. I’m a monster, just like you. No, I don’t fear the dark... I crave it,” I answer honestly, and a breath blows across my neck, making the hair stand on end. I can feel him behind me, almost close enough to touch. Goosebumps rise from the proximity, my breathing speeding up as my heart races.
“Are you afraid of me?” he whispers. The dark rumbling should send fear through me, but instead I shiver in need. His voice is obviously created to inspire fear, but to me it sounds seductive.