Gloam (Monstrous, #4)

by Lily Mayne

Was it wrong of me to be staring at a monster’s ass? I was pretty sure the answer to that, if I asked anyone in this camp, would be a resounding yes. Maybe a hell yes. Probably a what the fuck is wrong with you, dude?

Lilac practically embraced awkward moments. Like it was a game to see how uncomfortable he could make people with his silent presence.

Ghost wasn’t perverted. Aury wasn’t a freak or a thing. Neither was the beastie chained to Mary’s RV. They were just different. And different was good, in my opinion. Different was great.

Plead with Ghost to pick him over Aury. He’d never come right out and told Ghost that he was in love with him, but it was obvious. Painfully obvious. To everyone but Ghost, it seemed.

Gloam was a good person. Better than me.

Gloam was still for a long moment, his caged head bent low. Slowly, he started writing. I am so scared that I will have to hurt you.

That was how I started sleeping in the arms of a monster every night.

My gaze met dozens of clustered eyes, blinking back at me sporadically from a shadowed corner of the room.

I bit down hard on my lip as I read his words—what he’d called me. As I scrambled to my feet and made my way through the quiet house back to the garage, a sweet, piercing pain speared through my chest. I did love him. I loved him so much it hurt.

“I love you,” I told him, before I carefully enclosed his head back in the cage.

He let out a soft rumble of amusement. “My Adam.” He brought his hands around to cup my face, big thumbs smoothing over my cheekbones. “I love you.”

I exhaled a shaky breath, my face going pink. “Don’t make me get a boner while I’m kneeling in blood. Who knows what kind of kink could spawn from that.”

“You are my Androcles.” I grinned shakily even as I asked, “Who?” He chuckled. “The slave who pulled the thorn from the lion’s paw.”

“Oh.” I had only vague recollections of the story, but I still flushed with pleasure. “And like the lion,”—Gloam reached out and cupped my chin—“I will be loyal to you always, my Adam. I will never leave your side.”

Gloam rumbled, kissing my cheek. “Not just meet me, little firebrand. You’re stuck with me now. You are my everything.”

“I am your lion,” he said, his deep voice low, his words just for me. “Loyal to you until the end.”

“Why would he not want to come with us?” I threw my back arm around his shoulders. “We’re the best. Monsterfuckers and proud of it.”

“There are people approaching the camp,” he said in his flat voice, green eyes calm but alert. “One of them is big. And purple.”