Heart of a Monster (New Reign Mafia Duet #1)

by Shain Rose

“Because you’re clawing your way around the world, Cleo. Sometimes, you need to let someone else rip it apart for you. It’ll be a nice change, huh?”

even those people who have been steady all your life can be the ones to completely change. He taught me a lot—nothing good, really, except to trust myself and no one else.” “Not everyone will change like him.” “Sasha lied too. Everyone does. If you’re a survivor and life puts enough obstacles in front of you, you’ll do what you have to.” “Or you’ll sacrifice yourself for the one you want to survive more than you.”

I’m the detonator to your bomb, woman. You ignite every single time, and I love watching you explode in beautiful chaos around me.” “Light me up, Rome. I better feel the damn fireworks.”

I embraced the fact that our lightning may only strike once. I had to capture the beauty of it before it disappeared.

“This isn’t indulgence. It's obsession, Katalina. It’s you consuming me. It’s you bound to me. It’s your face on my mind since the first moment I saw you.”

I’m the monster, Katalina. It’s what I always was. And you’re Cleo. What we have will always be explosive, it always was.”

“There’s no arguing your place. Your blood is mine. We bleed together, woman. Always. Remember that.”

“You’re fucking beautiful. And one day—not today, but one day soon—I might have to tell you I love you and watch the chaos that ensues.”

“You’re the biggest distraction because I may put you before everything, even the family.”

It was her time. And my time to stand by her. I stalked up to her and took her mouth in mine. I tasted her power and gave her my surrender. After this, I wanted to help her. After this, I was taking her. Katalina, in the light and the darkest of the dark, was mine. And there went that bomb. Tick, tock. Boom.

“We belong with the people we end up loving. You make your own family. You fit in there.”

“Each of these losses prepare you for the one thing you have to learn. Every fall makes you stronger than the one who’s never fallen before. Get back up, face them again, and beat them.”

The fight wasn’t fair. We all knew that. Bastian most of all. He knew he was surrounded by family that was supposed to protect him but that would protect her instead. She’d outmaneuvered him and the family with a love she didn’t even express. Dante trained her, and Cade talked with her when he wouldn’t open his mouth to anyone. And I slept next to her like a cub trusting a lioness. We respected Bastian as the king of the family. But we loved Katalina.

The only thing I knew for sure, though, was that once a person felt love, the absence of it was all-consuming. Once the love was there, people lived for it, died for it, and killed for it.

It was like the traffic and wind outside stopped. We all stood there, four men about to get on their knees and beg her. We would have made a perfect picture, all the men in love with Katalina. None of us moved an inch either, like we didn’t want her to jump away from us.

I’d kill for her, die for her. I only wanted to live for her. The men in that room were the same.

The monster in me stirred. The beast had fallen in love with her, had made a comfortable place to hole up in while she silenced all the noise that used to aggravate him. Without her, my mind and body screamed. The demons ricocheted around in me, trying to find a way out. The monster wanted answers and names and heads rolling. Anyone who knew, anyone who even looked sideways at how we’d come to know her, had a price to pay. And payment was overdue.