Captured by the Monsters

by R.L. Caulder

I’d always hated the color pink. However, as I grew up and opened my eyes to societal expectations, I realized it wasn’t the color I hated. It was everything that accompanied the stereotype of a female saying they liked pink. That it made us girly, housemakers, and one day mothers. It was “femininity” personified in a color, and I fucking hated it. I hated being boxed into an image that didn’t fit me. I hated being told that I would be an incredible mother and wife one day, even though I was as single as it got. Couldn’t I be more than that? Or was I not enough as I was right now?

Forty-eight hours until my life was my own. Forty-eight hours until I would no longer be eligible to be offered up as a sacrifice to uphold the treaty between The Above and The Below.

What could be worth a life? How did one put a quantifiable value on that?

“I refuse to be another woman added to the statistic of sacrifices that never return. My name is Serafina Adler, and I’ll be back.”

“We must protect you, precious.” The rough voice swirled around me, seemingly explaining everything that mattered to them in just five words.

“You would slay your brethren?” Azmunch scoffed, acting like he was calling their bluff. My Trifecta responded instantly and with unwavering certainty. “Yes.” “Without a second thought.” “She is ours.”

Were they mine? Was that right to say? And what exactly was mine? They weren’t my men… I suppose they were my monsters.

“I will give you whatever you want, precious. Just say the words.”

“She’s our mate, and we will destroy any that try to touch her.”

“Never apologize. We belong to you, just as you belong to us.”

Sera was a perplexing, unique beauty.

She was perfection personified.

“I don’t just want to immerse myself in your body, Sera. I want to immerse myself in your heart.”

She would come first, always. Literally and physically.

But we weren’t the bad guys; we never were. We were just a dying race trying to make a compromise with the only other species that could offer us what we truly needed.

My three mates chuckled and in turn my heart raced. I loved hearing their laughs.

“Because you’re more than worthy,” I whispered, tying it around her neck.

We’d kill anyone who dared to even look at her wrong.

“I don’t know about humans as a whole, but there is one in particular who’s pretty amazing. She has a smile that lights up a room and is the most beautiful creature in all the lands. Her heart far outshines any of our kind.”

“Sera, I can’t lose you because…I love you. You aren’t just the Queen. You are our everything, gem.”

Sera definitely surpassed any expectation I might have had for a mate. She brought so much delight to my life—to all our lives. She was our light in the darkness, and I wouldn’t let anything snuff it out.

“Obviously not—my heart never came alive until I laid eyes on you. I know because it felt like that organ was dead inside of my chest, the same as our land was. But just as you’re doing with our lands, you breathed life into me. You make me feel alive, Sera. You give me a reason to want to live.”

Greed surpassed fear, and the leader of The Above was the greediest of us all.

There was no other place in the entire world I would rather be Queen of.

I always wondered what my fate would be when I was in The Above—if I had a destiny—and when I’d been Selected, I thought that I was cursed. But in truth, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me my monsters. It gave me a sense of purpose and a place that I now called home. It gave me love. I’d been captured by the monsters, and they’d given me everything I didn’t know I needed.

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.