His Huge Horns (Monster’s Bride Erotica)

Chapter I

It was already past midnight and Lily’s sister wouldn’t stop crying.

Her muffled, watery sobs were getting on Lily’s nerves, even though she understood her sister’s plight.

Anna was about to be sent away to the monster’s palace as his newest virgin bride.

To be corrupted and plowed deep like a field in spring. To be filled with the monster’s seed.

Even though Lily’s heart fluttered like a frantic butterfly caught in the net when she thought about her sister’s fate, she would be glad to take Anna’s place. Lily was the older sister. Protecting Anna had been her duty for as long as she remembered.

Like the time when Anna lost their mother’s only piece of jewelry, a gold bangle she had inherited from their grandmother.

Lily took the blame. Or when a pack of gypsies taunted Anna about her rag doll and Lily threw stones at them to draw their attention to herself and help Anna escape.

She was black and blue for two weeks after that one.

Point was, no one was allowed to hurt her sister. Period. And now someone was about to ruin her life and there was nothing Lily could do to prevent it.

She had tried to comfort Anna but there was nothing comforting she could say. Anna had been chosen. There was no escape. And Lily, who was already past twenty, was forever safe from the horror of the Harvest. There was nothing she could say to her sister to make her feel better.

Still, she couldn’t ignore the pitiful, desolate crying. She stepped out of her hard bed and padded on bare feet to Anna’s equally uncomfortable one. She slipped under the covers and held her sister close, murmuring meaningless nothings into her damp hair.

“Shh,” she whispered. “It will be all right. You’ll be back with us in three days, safe as a bell.”

Anna shook her head and cried even harder. Lily just held her close, blinking away her tears. Finally, Anna’s bawling quieted. She lay in the hot darkness, sniffling.

“What if it takes?” she asked, jolting Lily out of half-sleep. “What if I am the one?”

Lily sighed. It was almost impossible and they both knew it. But Anna’s fear wasn’t ruled by reason.

“Then you’ll be queen,” Lily said almost wistfully.

“A monster queen,” said Anna, her body trembling.

“But you won’t be. It didn’t work with any of the girls and how many had there been?”

“Twenty-seven,” Anna whispered. She sounded hopeful and Lily let out a breath of relief. Maybe she was good at comforting, after all.

“See, my little tulip? It’s probably impossible. They keep trying and hoping but… Well. You’re in for three days of wonderful food, lots of pampering, and amazing… adventures, if the other girls can be trusted. There is nothing to worry about.”

“Yes but… No one else will want me afterward. I’ll have been used. Damaged.”

Anna burst into a fresh bout of tears and Lily bit her tongue in self-depreciation. She should have kept her mouth shut and not reminded her sister about the main point of the Harvest. What else could she say to make Anna feel better?

“I would take your place if I could!”

Anna stopped crying. She lay motionless in Lily’s arms, her thin body rigid. Breathlessly, she asked: “Would you? Would you really, Lils?”

“Of course I would. You’re my sister. I would do that for you.

I’m not afraid and I like eating well. No reason for me not to want this…

except, I wasn’t chosen, and I never will be.

” She laughed bitterly. “And I would be perfect to go. No suitors lining up for my hand. I’ll die an old maid because everyone thinks I’m too willful and headstrong to be a good wife. ”

Anna turned in the bed so she could look at her sister. Her face, blotchy and swollen from crying, looked gray in the moonlight spilling inside through their small window. Lily swept Anna’s tear-wet hair from her face. Her heart ached.

“You could go,” said Anna.

Lily didn’t understand at first. Anna’s low, guttural voice was so different from her previous helpless mewling, it brought Lily up short. Only after a moment did she comprehend what her sister was saying.

“But how? They chose you, not me. How in the world could I…” she trailed off, brought to silence by Anna’s urgent look.

“I will be wearing a veil,” said Anna.

Lily frowned, trying to make a sense of it. And then it hit her.

“No!” she breathed. “No, Annie, everyone would know at once! They would notice and we would be punished, you even more!”

Anna shook her head and clutched Lily’s hand in her cold palm.

“No one would know. We look almost the same. The same small figure, the same hips, the same long hair… People mistake me for you when they see me from behind, did you know that? If your face were covered by the veil, they would never recognize you. They would be certain it was me. People are like that, you know? They never notice the details.”

Cold fear gripped Lily’s insides. Anna was right. This could work. But it would also mean that she really could take her sister’s place. She clenched her teeth to keep back her sudden urge to vomit.

She had already said it. I would take your place if I could! Her own words taunted her now, taunted her fear and disgust. Had they been just an empty promise? Was she too afraid to make good on her word?

She closed her eyes and reached inside herself for courage. For a torturously long moment, which in reality lasted only seconds, she battled with herself, two possible paths flashing in her mind’s eye.

She could refuse Anna. She could be safe and sound from the king’s Harvest, normal and pristine until she married. She could let Anna go and be taken by the king, and she could forever lose her sister’s trust.

Or she could put on the veil and go.

There was nothing more important than family. Lily opened her eyes and nodded her assent. She would go. At dawn, she would set out to become the king’s new bride.