Page 145 of Mate of a Monster

I let the silence stretch, because if I open my mouth right now, I will say something that ends with my teeth in her throat and we already established how that story ends. With me choking on my own power.

She tilts her head slightly. “You’re quieter than usual,” she notes. “Did she run?” The question is casual, but I feel the thread twitch when she says it.

Testing, trying to drag my attention in the direction she wants it.

I instead focus on breathing slow and fucking controlled when I feel anything but.

Because underneath the choking pressure of that thread and the overwhelming urge to tear the entire fucking world apart, something else is happening.

I can sense it in the air around me and the silence that fills my chest.

Something is wrong. so fucking wrong but also…right.

And then the heat comes. It’s not the furious surge of dragonfire, or the burning need of my mating bond, but something deeper, older. It moves through my ribs like smoke sliding through open air.

My ribcage stretches, the swell an intense, harsh pain that has me gritting my teeth, but I don’t dare show any outward signs.

What the fuck is this?

A hint of panic washes in, but then it’s snuffed out and in its place, a satisfactory rumble.

With my next breath, the reason reveals itself.

“Well. That took long enough.”

My spine goes rigid, the voice unmistakable.

The Nightkin, as she calls him.

“As I am named.”

“You’re—” I cut off, panic surging through me so fast I nearly buckle.

“Calm. Our mate is as fierce and alive as ever. Do not give us away.”

The relief is nearly debilitating.

I feel the power, then. It’s deeper than bone, built and woven into the very marrow of my being.

My soul fucking sings and I feel like a man born anew.

My Ethos has risen, my demon born and fucking fierce.

Unstoppable.

Untouchable.

“And angry.”

Yes. That.

I blink, realizing Arabella is still running her damn mouth.

“—such a shame,” she’s saying, her fingers still resting against my face like she’s trying to remember what it felt like to own me. “All that power, all that darkness, and you can’t even touch me with it anymore.”

The Nightkin answers with a low, vicious chuckle. “Oh, sweetheart!”

The darkness spreads through my chest like something waking up from a deep slumber.