Chapter 7
seven
EVEREST
Staring across the empty mall, I feel a small pulse of gratitude that I don’t work on shit like commission. Otherwise, I’d be broke as fuck.
Mall culture is dying. It has been for a while, but last year, the mall put up a new policy banning anyone under the age of eighteen from being there without an adult, and anyone under the age of twenty-one from being in groups of more than three.
It was a hyper-reaction to bullshit TikTok trends that never actually reached the borders of our small town. And the powers that be seemed to forget that it was teenagers who kept traffic flowing through the corridors.
Adults have jobs and lives to live. They turn up for holidays, and that’s about it. It seems like once a week, a shop is closing its doors permanently, and at some point, I’m going to need to figure out what to do with my life because this little hot dog stand isn’t going to last much longer.
I haven’t sold anything in three hours, and no one has so much as looked my way.
I’m bored, which is usually a dangerous thing for me to be because it’s when I’ve come up with my worst ideas. Like when I came up with a murder-mystery-themed party with a drinking game attached that had all my friends leaving on the verge of alcohol poisoning.
Or when I thought Zane and I should have a contest to see how far we could jump out of the tree in his mom’s front yard without breaking a bone.
I lost that one. Hairline fracture in my radius that took six weeks to heal.
Except, now my mind is floating to the monster currently living in it. Or, well, part-time anyway. He’s left me alone today—mostly. There have been a few times I felt him creeping in, like he’s peering through my eyes, but he’s left off the demands that I show up at the clinic.
I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad about it. It’s a strange sensation in my chest, like I want him to fight for me, even though I really don’t want to take any more of those fucking leaves and dump more cum than my body wants to produce down his throat.
Oh hell, maybe I’m just lonely. I’ve managed a couple of hookups in my day, but I’ve never had an actual relationship, and there’s a good chance that’s the problem.
As much as I don’t want to admit it, Rathyn is the first person—well, creature, I should say—to pay this kind of attention to me.
I’m not ugly, but I’m not the hottest guy around. Girls aren’t really turned on by the ugly hot dog hat.
I have very little to offer these days, and considering how much I’ve been into getting my dick sucked by monsters—not just in fantasy, but in real life—I’m starting to question myself.
Straight had been the easiest identity, and I don’t know if there is some new one for people who are into monsters, but I’m starting to think there should be. Zane will kill me, of course.
If he has even an inkling about how I’m feeling, he will tie me to my bed and leave me there to rot until I come to my senses.
The problem is, I think I already have.
I breathe out a sigh and turn to do some early closing side work when suddenly I feel something zipping through me.
It’s him.
Rathyn.
He’s in my head again. Closing my eyes, I attempt to see him, but there’s just blackness with little sparks of color.
Except…I can still feel him. I can feel his breath, and the beat of his heart—hearts? Do they have more than one? It’s a gentle, thrumming pulse, and it’s getting closer.
And louder.
And…
“Hello, little human.”
I nearly scream, jumping half out of my skin as I turn and see him. He’s wearing no shirt but a pair of sheer linen pants, his clawed feet bare on the mall tiles.
His hair is pulled back into a severe bun, and he’s wearing an extra-large septum ring with a jewel right in the center of it.
I don’t understand their piercings, but something about them seems significant.
His long, thin tongue darts out and wets his lips as he stares at me with his rainbow eyes.
For a moment, I’m entirely the prisoner of his gaze. I can’t speak. I can’t move. My dick thickens in my work pants, and his nostrils flare like he can smell the precum threatening to spill from my slit.
And then he blinks, and suddenly I’m freed. My breath fills my lungs with a gasp as I rush toward the counter and lean in.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“You did not come.”
God, the way he says that. I know what he means, but there are so many layers to the way he speaks. I didn’t show up, no. But I also haven’t touched myself since starting these sessions with him.
“I told you I had work. You can’t just show up here,” I hiss.
He hums, the sound almost like a growling purr, and he glances from left to right. “Your job does not seem very important or necessary.”
“Uh, first of all, fuck you. I feed people. Second of all, it’s very necessary to pay my bills so I can eat and have a place to live.”
“I told you I would—”
“No,” I say swiftly. God, I do not need some eavesdropping asshole at one of the other shops to hear this Vyastil telling me he wants to build me a goddamn shelter.
Even if the idea of it makes my heart twist in my chest.
I take a deep breath. “You can’t go around saying shit like that.”
He frowns. “Why not?”
I genuinely don’t think he’s being antagonistic. I don’t think he gets it at all. “Because it’s…it’s not a thing, okay? You can’t just build someone a house and have them live in it. There are rules and regulations.”
“Humans are needlessly complicated.”
I scoff. “Right, because you’re so simple?”
“We are not simple,” he tells me, sounding almost insulted. His preternaturally long fingers spread along the counter, reaching toward me without touching. “But we do not complicate basic needs. Food. Shelter. Pleasure.”
The fact that pleasure is considered a basic need for them explains so much.
“Healthcare,” he adds. “Peace. Sleep. Nurturing…”
“I get it,” I grumble.
Even with monster tech, we still have to deal with bullshit insurance and property taxes and rising rent costs. There are still homeless people who can’t afford even the most basic necessities.
They came with peace, but not a cure for humanity. And we are who we are.
“Well, that’s nice for you, but it doesn’t work that way here. You’d have to jump through a shitload of financial hoops and red tape to build me a house.”
He hums that melodic purring sound again, then reaches for me. I’m so startled that I don’t move away as his fingers make contact with my jaw. They trace my heated skin, dancing over my parted lips like he’s feeling my breath, then down my throat, pressing gently against my hammering pulse.
“You aren’t afraid of me.”
I swallow. Am I not? No, this feeling inside me isn’t fear. Annoyance, yeah. Confusion—more than I’ve experienced in my lifetime.
Want, but there’s no point in denying that.
And there’s something else humming beneath my skin that I can’t quite name.
“You’re not very scary.”
He huffs something like a laugh. I realize I’ve never seen him smile, and I know he can because Quilliyn smiles at Zane all the time. But right now, Rathyn’s lips turn up at the corners.
“You may be the first creature to say those words to me.”
I don’t know if he’s being honest or trying to intimidate me, but his words rob me of my own.
After a beat, he sighs. “Where can we go that is private?”
It takes me a second to realize what he’s implying. “Oh no. Hell no.”
“Little human—”
“Everest!” I snap. “My name is Everest. Ev if the full thing is too complicated for you.”
His eyes flare, and his ears twitch dangerously. “Nothing about you is too complicated for me.”
I swallow heavily. “We are not doing that here.”
“Why not?”
My eyes go wide. “Are you serious?” He can’t be serious. He knows exactly how loud I get when he, you know, does his thing. “Everyone will hear.”
“And?”
“And,” I say, throwing up my hands. God, do they just fuck in public on Erethar? I wouldn’t be surprised if they do. “We’ll get arrested for public indecency.”
This time, he fully smiles, but his amusement is a little terrifying with his fangs digging into his lower lip and his rainbow eyes practically glowing. “Monsters do not get arrested, Everest.” He says my name like he’s singing it. Like it’s a hymn.
My toes curl in my shoes, and I barely manage to bite back a moan. “Well, I don’t have bail money, so I’m not taking the risk.”
He hums, and it’s then that I realize he still has his hand around my throat. “Where do you live?”
“Nope.” Zane will literally murder us both. Or, well, he’ll try and then end up dead by the hands of a monster, and that’ll spark a war, and… “My roommate isn’t registered yet, so technically he can’t be allowed near any of the, you know, dick sucking.”
He lets out a small sigh. “I have quarters here.”
“I—oh.” I’m running out of excuses to say no. “That’s not allowed…is it?”
“There’s very little I’m not allowed to do, Everest.”
“Stop saying my name like that.”
The look on his face tells me he knows what he’s doing. “There is no pleasing you.” He stops and smirks. “At least, not with my voice. Now, when do you finish at this…place of employment?”
He might as well have called the mall shit on his shoe. Not that he wears shoes.
I clear my throat and glance across the wall at the massive clock. “Half an hour.”
“I will be outside with transportation.”
“I have a car.”
“You will not be allowed to gain access to our living quarters without me,” he says simply. “You will be outside in thirty minutes. If you are not, I will be back to obtain you.”
Obtain me. What the—
Before I can voice my extreme protest, he’s already several hundred feet away from me, his claws clicking on the tile as he makes his way toward the doors.
My heart thuds against my ribs, and as much as I want to call out to him and tell him there’s no fucking way, something in my chest tells me I don’t want to say no.
That I want this.
That I want him.
“Good boy,” his voice echoes in my head.
Oh fuck. He’s learning sexy human praises?
Tonight is going to be the night I die.