It doesn’t.
And I don’t like it. The new thoughts chafe.
“Yeah.” He smirks, and it appears sinister because of his one eye. His gaze drops to her, and I notice her skirt is lifted and revealing the soft pink flesh of her pussy.
I reach down and cover her, letting my knuckles graze over the smooth skin of her thigh. I jerk my hand back, but the temptation to do more than only look has already risen. “She won’t fuck me.”
“You don’t know that. And you can’t ask now she is unconscious.”
True.And until she was dragged into my cave, I wasn’t that interested in sex. I hadn’t even thought about it for a long time. Now all I crave is a gentle touch instead of a claw or a fist. “You shouldn’t have interfered.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s changing things.” And it scares me because I don’t know what the changes will be.
Horn and I have an alliance where we help each other. While trusting anyone here is dangerous, we have built up something close to a friendship, even though it is as fragile as glass. Will she be the stone that shatters it?
Once, without Horn, I would have been an easy target for something bigger. Now though? My changes have made me fast. I have venom in my fangs, and I could take him on in a fight. I could claim her, at least until someone bigger comes along.
“That might be a good thing.”
“It may not be.” Fear has kept me alive for this long, and I’m not sure how long as I didn’t think to mark the days until I was living in Horn’s cave and enough time had passed that I had already forgotten my name and what my life had been like.
Horn walks over and grabs my hands. “I would rather be affected by her changes than by this place. We know what will happen if we don’t help her. Don’t you want to find out what will happen if we do?”
If we help her. We will be killed. Or we will become human and then be killed. “She will make us soft and weak and human.”
“And we can escape with her.” Hope gleams in Horn’s eye.
I pull my hands free. “If you wanted sex that badly, you could’ve asked.”
While I hadn’t thought about sex with anyone since…I have no idea when I last thought about having sex with someone, I have given myself pleasure. Has Horn? Or had the need faded completely for him until she offered?
If he’d asked, I’d have sucked him off. He could’ve sucked me. Those things have a familiar feel, but so does the press of a woman’s body against mine. They are memories from when I was a different person. When I was a person.
“It’s not about that,” he snarls, and I feel his armor snap closed.
“No, it’s about your need to feel like a savior. You’re always looking for your next cause.” And now I can protect myself. He needs a new weakling.
“And? Maybe my changes are only on my skin.”
“Then maybe it won’t be long until you are eaten.” And where will that leave me? For how long will I last on my own? Eventually the worse monsters will come hunting. They always do. I’d rather have someone at my back than be constantly looking over my shoulder. I glance at the girl on the ground. Julie is a lure. I’m sure that some of the hungrier monsters can sense a new arrival.
Horn crosses his arms, and his scowl hardens until it becomes like ice. “I will not be getting eaten.”
Julie stirs.
I tilt my chin at her. “She will be.”
“Then help me.” His voice is rough, but it’s nothing close to begging. It’s more of a demand and for a few breaths, I want to say no. I want to leave him to die attempting his foolish plan, but the rest of me knows he is right. This is a chance to have something different.
Tobedifferent.
Is it better to die trying to be something other than the monster this place has turned me into? If I’m going to die either way, I should at least choose the road that takes me there. “Fine. But it will end in blood and tears.”
Horn nods. “Probably. But it was going to anyway.”
She groans as she rouses. I have probably lost any chance I had of gaining her trust. That she trusted Horn so readily irks me. Even I don’t trust him fully…because I thought he’d do something dumb and dangerous like this. He likes a lost cause. If he hadn’t taken a chance on me, well, I wouldn’t be in the position to complain about her.