Mated to the Monster (Smutt Books #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

LAMIA

"Did you even read this thing before signing it, Lam?

" Porcha asked me, her nose wrinkling as she looked up from the holographic scroll that hung in the air in front of her, projected upwards from the small device the freaky spider aliens had given me to take with me back down to Earth.

A group at a table near us glanced over repeatedly at the contract.

We were starting to see more and more alien tech here on Earth, but it was a pretty distracting sight to see alien tech dressed up with a touch of medieval style.

The font on the contract even looked like some fancy-pants handwrote it with a quill and plenty of time to practice swirling finishes.

A couple of Norratar strolled into the bar, and then the group of people weren't paying attention to us at all, instead staring at the newcomers' general alienness.

"I skimmed it," I said, taking another sip from my tall, blue drink with a rim coated in sugar.

I couldn't taste even the slightest bit of alcohol in it, which was exactly how I liked my drinks: tall, sweet, and deceptive.

I licked the sugar from my lips as I smiled at Porcha's horrified expression. "I read all the important bits."

The important bit was the guy's picture and the fact that, afterwards, he would become completely and utterly dedicated to me. I was down for a little kink to be treated like a Queen for the rest of my life.

I was done with guys who thought that strip clubs didn't count as cheating.

"Lam!" My best friend put one hand on her forehead, covering one of her eyes with the heel of her hand, before she remembered her eye makeup and lifted it up away from her face.

We'd gotten all done up for a girls' night out at the new place that had opened up because I wanted to celebrate signing it, and I'd brought my copy of the contract along because I knew Porcha would demand to read it.

"I knew you'd read all the rest of it for me," I grinned, knowing exactly what kind of reaction my words were going to get out of her.

"LAM!" Porcha groaned. "You already signed it! How many times have I told you not to sign things without letting me read them first?"

And she was right, I shouldn't have signed it without her.

But at the same time, this felt right. Sometimes I was just so impulsive, and when things felt right, I just ran with it like a pigeon trying to get through a shut window, smashing up against the barrier, certain it would give way at any moment, and it often did.

Life worked out well for me. When they flew me up to the moon, I was so excited, thinking I was going to get to go see the movie sets, but the contract negotiation office wasn't even connected.

They showed me a picture of my potential mate, and I was sold, even if his species was considered unsuitable to get to roam around Earth.

Apparently, species that had conflicts with humans in the past weren't allowed to come to the planet to seek out mates. I had no idea why that didn't apply to those naga-like aliens, but Porcha had an entire episode that I could watch later.

"Like a bajillion times," I said, taking another sip. "But this is different. They don't even have the whole scenario set up yet. I have to wait."

"How is this different? This is worse!" Porcha demanded. She lowered her voice, leaning forward and hissing at me as quietly as she could. "Lam, this is a BDSM contract!"

At the bar, one of the Norratar flicked an ear so it was pointed in our direction.

"Don't eavesdrop," I sang out softly, glaring across the room at the Norratar.

He turned his head and flashed me a closed-lipped smile.

I bared my teeth at him, definitely not smiling.

He turned away, flicking both his ears pointedly back at his friend as his tail twitched in a jagged, agitated motion.

Porcha's forehead wrinkled, then smoothed with understanding as she followed my gaze to the aliens standing at the bar.

"I can understand why you signed up in the first place," she took a sip of her hot tea as she stared at the aliens for a little bit longer before glancing away.

She always brought her own tea bags with her, ordering hot water.

She didn't do it to save money; she made plenty.

She used to work for a huge law firm before her streaming videos took off when she switched from explaining human law to breaking down about the new laws that came with our alien overlords.

She quit her job to run a full-time channel, choosing a life over an office.

In terms of Norratar law, she was the one I trusted the most. "But this isn't the normal program.

This contract is... intense. Tell me what you understand about it so I can fill in the blanks. "

She brought her own tea bags because she was particular about what she liked.

I always wondered why I fell into the category of people she liked.

"Well, first, the money isn't bad," I said. "And there is a strict guarantee that he has to take care of my needs for the rest of my life to a standard of living that is pretty great, and provide for my integration into galactic society as well if we move off planet."

"Lam, I know you didn't sign up for this for financial gain," Porcha said. "You have a trust fund, a good one. You aren't doing this for the dowry, which is a questionable practice in the first place, especially with a contract like this."

"He isn't buying me," I said. "I can leave at any time. The money is there to ensure the human's financial freedom and choices."

"Lam," Porcha said. "He is buying your peace of mind. Did you even read what you have to put up with for the courtship? He wants to frighten you."

“It didn’t read that way to me,” I said. “He isn’t even allowed to choke me. I actually asked the spider lawyer about that one, because it didn’t say anything about that and you know how you can get brain damage as quickly as thirty seconds from being choked.”

"They're called Chyrriths, not spider lawyers," Porcha corrected. “What did they say?”

“I think they were concerned?” I said. “It was hard to tell. They pointed out the clause about me not being harmed at all covered that, but they added in a specific no choking section as well.”

“Not being physically harmed,” Porcha said. “But what is outlined in this contract can be psychologically damaging.”

"That behavior isn't frightening to his species, and you know it isn't frightening to ours if both people agree in advance to it.

Plenty of people are into kink, including me.

Plus, it will only happen when they finish building the facility for the scenario," I said.

"The spider explained everything. They wanted to monitor the whole process, but he had a pretty detailed list of requirements, so they're going to work with the film studio to set up a whole Truman Show-esque deal for it, so there isn't a risk of someone calling the cops on him if they notice something. "

As flippant as I was about the contract, I did read it, especially the first section, where it detailed exactly what kind of courtship was giving consent for.

The whole thing reminded me of some of the dark romance novels I loved, only better, because this way I knew what was coming, had agreed in advance, and had a series of safe words for specific moments.

I had one to make it all stop, and I also had one for a check-in, like a pause button.

Kink with consent sounded like a good deal to me, especially when the human stories of his species pre-Norratar invasion tended to be stories of murder sprees.

I took another big sip of my drink, the warm buzz of the alcohol sinking into my limbs. My face was starting to get a little numb, a sure sign that my drink was a lot stronger than it tasted.

“He doesn’t have to wait for the facility to be built,” Porcha said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Right here," she said, turning the contract so I could read it. "It started as soon as you signed."

I pursed my lips then took another big gulp of my drink, an excited flutter in my stomach.

"That was a week ago," I said, thinking back on my week. "Nothing has happened. He has to be waiting for the scenario."

"I'm going to send a security company over to your house to double-check your doors and windows," Porcha said.

"I don't need to do that," I said. "I signed up for this. I'm excited about it."

"It specifies in the contract that you should fight back and defend your space with any means desired," Porcha says.

"It even says you are encouraged to shoot and stab him.

It is very clear that he wants you to fight back, and.

.." she lowered her voice again. "Lam, if you want this mate to respect you in terms of his cultural expectations, then you can't just leave the door unlocked and lie on the bed with your legs open.

Aren't you worried he is going to hurt you? "

I flushed, giggled, and took another big sip. "Mating with me without harming me while I fight him is an important part of his biological requirement for the mate lock. He isn't going to be able to do the deed if he hurts me. They get limp."

Porcha turned the contract back towards her and scrolled through the text. She gave me a knowing look as she found the section. "Skimmed it, huh?"

I grinned and nodded as the room swam a little. The need to pee punched me in the bladder like a hot knife. "I gotta pee," I said, lurching to my feet.

Porcha grabbed a napkin from the table and laid it on top of my drink before twisting in her chair to look towards the archway that led to the bathroom.

"It's over there," she pointed. "When you get back, I want to talk about the long-term effects of this decision.

This isn't like a one-night stand deal. If you go through with this, you are going to have a psycho alien mate for life. "

I saluted her and swayed my way across the crowded room.

There were two doors in the small hallway, one with a generic picture of a humanoid form, the other with a picture of that same form but with ears and a tail.

I laughed and pushed open the door with the sign for aliens on it.

I let the door swing closed behind me as I made my way over to the normal-looking toilet.

This bar hadn't done anything different in this bathroom except for a prominent sign over the trash can that said: "Sheddings go in trash, not toilet! "

I swiped the seat with toilet paper to make sure I wasn't about to sit down into a mess, lined the rim with more toilet paper, then did my business. When I was done, I flushed and washed my hands at the sink.

The door I forgot to lock banged open, and a bleary-eyed human man with a five o'clock shadow and a beer belly stood in the doorway.

"Almost done!" I said as I reached for the paper towels.

"What the huu... hurrrrrry," he slurred as he tried to shut the door behind him, sending my cheerful mood careening into the trash can as anxiety spiked through me.

The door didn't close.

Above the drunk man's head, a set of strong fingers wrapped around the door.

The drunk man frowned, trying to pull the door towards him with a yank, but the door didn't move; instead, his fingers slipped off the handle, and he stumbled towards me with the momentum.

I swiveled, pressing myself back up against the sink to avoid him, and he caught his balance a few feet in front of me.

He turned, looking at me with empty, soulless eyes, alcohol painting anger across his features in lines that would last him the rest of his life.

There was a flash of blue, the sound of a yelp, a soft breeze of body odor and stale beer, and the man was gone, out the door.

A door that shut with a click, a towering figure standing with his back to me.

He wore jeans that fit his form like he had to paint them on, and a light brown jacket that screamed everyday normal man, even though his height begged to differ.

His hair was brown, the back of his neck a slightly lighter shade of brown, but it had that shimmer to it, that one that Porcha had told me to look out for.

She made me look at dozens of pictures to make sure I knew how to spot the sign of one of those alien technology disguises.

You could only catch the shimmer if you were close up and knew what to look for.

The man standing with his back to me, dressed and looking like an everyday Joe, was definitely an alien in disguise.

"Vlacul?" I asked, my heart thudding in my chest.

He turned around to face me, his chin tilting up as he narrowed his eyes, looking down at me like I was a treat he couldn't decide if he wanted to bite into now or save for later. I gasped. I recognized the sharp angle of his cheekbone, the smile that caught in the edge of his mouth.

"You were the shuttle driver!" I said. "Who brought me back to Earth! Does that mean we aren't waiting for them to set up a facility?"

If he snuck into driving me back down to Earth, then he knew where I lived, which meant he definitely had started acting out some of the things detailed in the contract already.

"You noticed me?" he asked, his words having an undertone of a rumble I could feel in my toes.

"Of course," I said.

He moved so quickly I didn't see him move.

One moment he was standing by the door, the next he was looming over me, his arms around me to grip the sink, to cage me against his as he leaned it towards me, his eyes still narrowed as he lowered his head closer to mine.

My skin prickled with the awareness of his closeness, of his heat.

"Great, I don't want to wait either," I breathed out in a rush.

I reached up, wrapped my arms around the back of his neck, and kissed him.