Edin (Monstrous, #2)

by Lily Mayne

Don’t worry, human.” He shot me a wide, fanged grin. “I think you’re pretty.”

Was Edin seriously saying that the monsters were actually just… excited tourists?

Edin looked over at me with hard eyes. “Monsters, if you insist on being so general, did none of those things, human. Your military did.” I flushed with anger. “The military—” “—Was the one who started attacking us,” he interrupted. “All of us. Indiscriminately. There are some species of monster that came here who would never hurt a living soul. Yet that didn’t matter, because they looked different.”

Edin stared at my leg. “Humans can’t regrow missing limbs,” he stated. I quirked a brow at him. It sent pain stabbing through my temple. “I’m aware.”

“Although now you won’t be able to stare at my ass all day as we walk.” I choked on a breath, cheeks getting hot even as I glared at him. At least the lower half of my face was covered behind my mask. “In your dreams, scratch.” “Mm.” His big eyes gleamed as he side-eyed me. “Yes.”

No. Edin would be… intense. Not sweet. He’d be like a whirlwind. Or a battering ram. Taking down everything in his path. Taking what he wanted. He’d be overwhelming and almost too much and—

“It means ‘morsel’, human. Because that day we met, when I told you I didn’t want to eat you…” He leaned even closer to nuzzle my ear, making a pleasant shiver run up my spine. “…I lied.”

I didn’t want to say what it really was coursing through me, fuelling this little tirade of misplaced anger. Guilt. Guilt because I knew, deep down, that if I’d asked Edin anything about himself, or his life, he probably would have told me all of this. But I hadn’t. I hadn’t asked. I’d just taken the help he’d selflessly offered and barely even given him a thank you in return.

No—in fact, I was worse. Because I hadn’t even considered Edin’s pain in all this. I hadn’t even bothered sparing a single fucking thought to the fact that he might get hurt. I’d made so many assumptions, and deliberately ignored so much, because he wasn’t human. Because it had been easy to.

“You humans are so prudish.” He stopped beside me and gestured at his dick. “It’s just a cock, human. Just like yours.” He placed his hands on his hips and leaned forward a little, baring his teeth at Charlie in a rabid, unfriendly grin. “Except much, much bigger.”

“Plus, I didn’t realise I’d have to stand and have a conversation about our relationship with my best friend ten seconds after letting you shoot a huge load up my ass, so I’m a little uncomfortable.” Edin burst out into booming laughter, rubbing his cheek against the top of my head in a very monster-like show of affection before stepping past me into the bathroom. “It was big,” he agreed in a conversational tone. “I came very hard.”

Some distant part of my brain was vaguely aware that I was just desperately trying to make sure the two most important people in my life got along. The thought of Edin and Charlie not liking each other caused something like despair to rise inside me, a confused tangle of loyalty that I didn’t want to unpick.

“It was a very, very long time ago, Hunter.” “I know, but… I bet some things feel the same no matter how much time passes.” Edin was silent for a moment. “Yes,” he eventually murmured. “They do.”

Hunter was even talking about catching some of the wild chickens that were everywhere out here, roosting in bushes, to keep for their eggs. I had shuddered at the thought. He was squeamish about eating creatures from my world, but would happily eat eggs? Like I said—humans were very odd.

It was knowing that the pain of losing him, when it did happen, was worth the time that would precede it. Because it would happen; I would outlive him, as much as the thought filled me with bone-crushing despair. But in some ways, I felt like that knowledge made me love him even more.