Found by the Lake Monster

Copyright © 2022 by Lillian Lark. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except
for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either
the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Editor: Ellie, My Brother’s Editor
Proofreader: Rosa Sharon, My Brother’s Editor
Created with Vellum
 CONTENTS

Content Warning
1. Amy
2. Adrian
3. Amy
4. Adrian
5. Amy
6. Adrian
7. Amy
8. Adrian
9. Amy
10. Adrian
11. Amy
12. Adrian
13. Amy
14. Adrian
15. Amy
16. Amy
17. Adrian
18. Amy
Epilogue
Adrian

Note from the Author

About the Author
For all the Amys out there.
 CONTENT WARNING

Dear reader,
Found by the Lake Monster includes lying, breeding, accidental oviposition
(eggs), knotting, male heat, being lost in creepy woods, fertility discussions,
painless cervical penetration, and a child in the epilogue.
There’s also a lot of cum.

Be kind to yourselves,
L. Lark
1
 AMY

“W HAT AM I DOING HERE ?” I mutter, jumping when something hoots back

from the oppressive darkness.
The light from my flashlight doesn’t give me near enough illumination,
only hitting the surrounding trees and leaving long, creep inducing shadows.
Leaves crunch under the snow boots I’d pulled out from their spot under my
bed and only use when I make my annual trips back home for Christmas. I’m
not an outdoorsy person with a closetful of hiking boots and fleece.
When I’d agreed to this adventure, I hadn’t thought about the logistics of
wandering around creepy woods at night. I’d only had a mind for not staying
at home for the millionth time with my expertly shaped toy collection.
Go find a lake monster, they said. It will be fun, they said.
I’m a fucking idiot and am totally going to walk into a spider web. A
shudder of disgust travels down my spine, and I squeeze the flashlight harder.
But… it’s a Friday night, and I didn’t want to rewatch Stranger Things or
read a monster romance that inspired another toy purchase. The ten oddly
shaped artworks of dildos would already be difficult to explain to the person
unlucky enough to clean out my cozy apartment when I don’t make it out of
this spooky forest.
Wait. I won’t have to explain the sex toys if I’m dead. It’s all about the
upsides.
Great-Aunt Wilma always told me that my need for new adventures
would get me into trouble. She’d say it with the gleam of kinship in her eyes.
She had been quite the rabble-rouser back in the day.
I’d scoffed at the notion that any of my adventures would get me into
more trouble than I could handle. I’m not an adrenaline junkie or anything. I
don’t go jumping out of airplanes for a thrill. I just want to experience more
new things than the town I’d grown up in could provide. Harmless
adventures.
I’d rather eat her year-old fruitcake than admit that this time, Great-Aunt
Wilma might be correct.
The walkie-talkie at my waist spews static and I fumble the flashlight, the
beams of light travel every which way as I steady it again. The voice of Rob
breaks through the static.
“Anything on your side, Amy?”
I unclip the walkie-talkie one-handed and press the button before I do
something else clumsy like drop it… Because if it broke in this place with
spotty cell reception… and I got lost…
I’m not going to think about that.
“Uh—all clear over here. I don’t see anything that looks… out of the
ordinary,” I say as if I’m an expert on how the woods look at night.
“Have you been making sure to check for tracks?” he asks.
“Um, yeah…” I peer down at the ground of pitch-black foliage. The
moon had been behind clouds for the majority of the night and we’re miles
away from any civilization for light pollution to make the darkness any more
friendly. I haven’t been checking for tracks because the flashlight lighting the
trees is what’s keeping me from losing my nerve.
Just lie. If the tracks were important, we wouldn’t be hunting for them in
the dark. It’s just a little lie—
“It’s a little hard to see the ground unless I have the flashlight pointed
directly down,” I say.
Dammit. I curse the part of me that is a stickler for honesty.
“We need tracks to prove this thing exists. I went over everything before
we started.” His frustrated tone of condescension makes my cheeks start to
burn. Everyone else on this expedition is on this channel.
I’m the only “civilian” of the group, a term that doesn’t make sense
because this isn’t some organization of military personnel; this is a small
group of people hunting after supernatural things. They are professionals in
that they get paid to put cameras in people’s homes to catch sightings of
ghosts… or cats that tip over water glasses.
I know this because I’ve seen their invoices. I’m an accountant, and not
the sexy kind of accountant that people mean when they don’t want to
explain what they really do for work.
And currently, I’m their accountant.
I work for a lot of different businesses. It helps keep the boredom of
numbers in line, but sometimes the monotony of my life gets to me, and I
find myself accepting offers of payment that I should have shut down. Offers
like finding a legendary lake monster over the weekend instead of ordering
the seasonal soup from the local coffee shop and surfing Netflix.
It sounded exciting. An adventure I’d never embarked on. Did I also
agree to it while in a groggy state from staying up late and reading a romance
with tentacles? That may have happened.
The likelihood of a lake monster being both real and anything like a
romance book hero is minuscule… but my curiosity would not allow me to
turn down the opportunity.
What my brain didn’t connect when I agreed is that exciting things tend
to be exciting because of the risk of danger.
“I’ll be sure to look for tracks,” I mumble.
Rob doesn’t respond and it makes it worse somehow, imagining the
people who had raised a brow at me being included, snickering while they
canvas their own patch of wilderness. I slide the walkie-talkie clip back onto
my pocket.
I didn’t think we’d all split off in the woods. Doesn’t that go against
every survival rule in the book? But Rob said that the only record of the
creature being seen is at night, so here I am, in the dark.
I swallow and tilt my flashlight down, illuminating the shapes of leaves
and vines while I walk. I try not to think about the dark woods that spread
around me. I try not to think about getting lost. I’m only looking at the dirt
and vines… aren’t there snakes in the woods?
Deep breaths, Amy. Breathe so you don’t pass out alone in the forest. I
really should have stayed home. A chocolate-tasting class would have also
counted as an adventure… albeit one with fewer monster dick possibilities.
Something hits my face, and the tickle of legs is enough to shatter the
control I have over my nerves.
I scream.
I flail my arms, dropping something and trying to swipe my hands over
my face and hair. My fingers catch the delicate pull of something that brings
to mind furry legs and multiple eyes. Every pass of my hands makes it worse.
Things crawl over my skin, down my neck. The panic screams in my mind
and I do the only thing my body will allow.
I run.
2
 ADRIAN

I FLICK THE BURNER OFF . The stew that bubbles in the pot is ready a full hour
earlier than my anticipated guest. The bread is almost done rising, but I’ll
force myself to wait to bake it. If a fresh loaf doesn’t sweeten my rusty
courting skills, nothing can.
All I can do now is be patient.
I pull the collar of my dress shirt away from my neck. The heat that
pricks my skin and stokes my arousal makes wearing clothing uncomfortable,
but it’s better to get used to it. As much as getting naked and fucking the heat
away is hoped for, I’m looking for more than that with this date.
This may be the last heat I experience.
I can’t say for sure. I only have some ache in my body and soul that’s
warning me. A literal ticking of my biological clock rather than metaphorical.
This could be my last chance at having young. Driven by that alarming fact,
I’d hoped against hope for a miracle and contacted a renowned matchmaker.
The chances are small, but maybe I’ll find someone who wants the same
things that I do. Females of my kind are rare, but we’re compatible with a
few other species.
The matchmaker had been very kind, very understanding.
Leaving my territory during a heat is uncomfortable. It had taken some
discussion, but with extra spells to ensure the safety of the candidate the
matchmaker selected, combined with my glowing references, I’ll be picking
up my match for a candlelight dinner as soon as she gets to my forest.
I only need to be patient about it, to be a gentleman as we have our date
to determine if my match will stay with me during the heat.
 I’ve been matched with a witch. Witches are a catchall in our world, able
to reproduce with the greatest number of species even if some assistance is
needed. The matchmaker let us know that while we may be compatible based
on the information given, we may not be a successful match upon meeting.
The match isn’t a perfect one.
I appreciated the honesty.
The witch and I chose not to disclose any information about each other
except what’s required for arranging transportation and such. It’s the safer
option if we’re completely incompatible. We’ll exchange names when we
meet.
The witch only knows I’m an aquatic creature that is experiencing a heat.
My kind are rare and rare means valuable on the black market. The
matchmaker has all my details, but she’s trusted in the rarer supernatural
circles.
I take safety measures seriously. I have local friends and we share a
territory and the expense and responsibility of warding it.
I start to pace, tugging again at my collar. My cock is already half-mast in
anticipation, but I ignore it. There is much to be done before that part of me
gets what it wants. The scent of the witch may not call to me at all and then
I’ll be spending the next couple of days, when the worst of the heat will hit
me, mindlessly fucking a Fleshlight and getting over the fact I waited too
long to both choose a mate and have young.
A plucking sensation tickles my skin and I freeze. Someone has crossed
the wards. The wards only keep out people who are looking for me or those
like me. With everyone else, it informs those that live around the lake of a
presence. I frown.
My phone buzzes with a text from Seamus.
Seamus: There’s a woman stumbling around in the dark. Is it your
date?
Me: I’ll check. She’s early.
Seamus: Maybe she’s as eager as you are.
I smile at that before something stirs and I tense. My instincts scream at
me to go. To find. To rut.
My breath catches at the drive, and I push it down. It’s time to greet my
match.
My mate.
3
 AMY

I STUMBLE AGAIN . This time it’s a rock tripping me instead of a tree root and I
manage to catch myself. The light from my cell phone isn’t as bright as the
flashlight I’d lost on my screaming run through the forest. Stupid, stupid,
stupid.
The walkie-talkie connecting me to the only people who know I’m out
here was another casualty. When I’d finally stopped running and talked
myself down from ripping off my clothes and burning them to rid myself of
the creepy-crawly sensation, I’d tried to backtrack to find the walkie-talkie,
but it was no use and only added to my confusion of where I am.
I can’t even call anyone. The shitty reception I’d had before has gone to
being nonexistent, like I’m in a dead zone.
Fear has my breath on a knife’s edge. My heart thunders in my ears, but I
still hear every hoot and cricket. My throat is tight, and I hold back the tears.
I’m lost.
I’m lost and alone in the woods near a lake with spiders and snakes. Deep
breaths. I can only see a few feet in front of me at a time. Breathe.
I blink at the darkness. Hopelessness and panic flood my chest, but
everything freezes when I see a light in the distance. I stumble toward it,
hoping against hope it’s a lake house of some type with a friendly family that
will have a landline.
My snow boots snag on something and I trip forward. My phone clatters
to the ground, but I don’t. I fall against something warm and solid with an
oof!
“Whoa!” The something’s voice is deep and rich.
 Someone, I mentally correct.
“I’m so sorry!” I say, the words are an automatic breathless response.
The stranger helps me upright. His hands linger on my arms, but I’m not
complaining. I assume it’s a him anyway. I can’t see a damn thing.
His touch is so grounding it helps push back the worst of my emotions
even though he’s a stranger. At least he isn’t a snake. At least I’m no longer
alone in the darkness. My brain is concerned and tries to whisper things about
serial killers, but there’s something about the stranger that exudes safety. My
fight-or-flight response is probably broken after the night I’ve had.
“That’s quite all right,” that beautiful voice says. “Are you okay? I didn’t
think you’d gotten here yet, otherwise I’d have come to escort you. It’s easy
to get turned around here.”
I frown in the darkness. Is he one of the group? I don’t recognize his
voice. “Let me get my phone so I can see you.”
“Oh, allow me! I forget not everyone has my night vision.”
My brain screams at me. Who has good enough night vision for a cloudy
night? But I smile anyway as my phone is picked up from the ground and
turned upright. The stranger hands it to me. The light from it illuminates the
two of us, and it’s confirmed that my fight-or-flight response is broken
because I freeze.
Actually, my brain supplies, the something rather than someone was
correct.
I’ve died.
I must have tripped during my run through the woods. I tripped and hit
my head or fell down a well and died.
Either I’m dead, hallucinating, or I’ve found the lake monster.
And he thinks he knows me because he keeps talking. “I’m so relieved
you came here. I know traveling somewhere so remote can be a pain, but my
heat makes moving out of the territory—I just really appreciate the
concession even though the matchmaker said our compatibility—”
His skin is pale from what’s visible from the phone light, with mottled
markings in place of hair. His lips appear humanlike, but I catch a flash of
fangs as he smiles with chagrin. His face is flat where a nose would protrude,
with slits for nostrils. The most inhuman part of him though, are his big black
eyes. Translucent skin flashes over the dark orbs and I jump. Nictitating
membrane.
Because that mystery is what my brain needed to solve right now.
 “—in person may differ.” The lake monster scratches the back of his head
in an awkward fidget.
This is impossible. This hallucination is from reading all those monster
romances. Does this mean I get to try out real monster cock instead of
dildos?
No! Bad, Amy!
I pinch myself covertly, but the lake monster is still in front of me. In a
light-colored dress shirt, the skin of his face appearing flushed.
“Oh, my apologies! I’m Adrian.” The lake monster holds out his hand to
me. Five claw-tipped fingers with webbing in between.
I blink, but impossibly my body begins to thaw. Maybe it’s the way he
fidgets, his dress shirt, or my brain has abandoned me as being too stupid to
live, but something about him puts me at ease. Intrigue keeps me where I am
as much as surprise does.
“Amy.” I grip his hand, expecting his skin to be cold, but it isn’t. His
texture is soft, moister than a human, but very warm. My heat.
This hallucination is absolutely fucking with me. I meet a monster in the
woods, and he is literally breedable. I keep my snort to myself.
My hand is still in his as I stare at him, my brain going to places it really
shouldn’t. Adrian inhales almost as if he’s scenting the air and that
translucent membrane covers part of his eyes in a way that communicates
pleasure. His pale face flushes a darker color.
“I’m very glad to meet you, Amy.” The timbre of his voice drops, and the
sound is a caress over my nerves.
I swallow and heat gathers in my body with alarming quickness. My
cheeks burn as a distant part of my brain tries to make a case for turning tail
to run. A larger portion of my brain doesn’t want to run.
The things he’s said and even the presence of his dress shirt start to form
a picture. Matchmaker, escort, compatibility, and heat. He’s expecting
someone to show up. He thinks I’m that someone and that I’ve been sent by a
matchmaker.
A date for his heat.
I should tell him it’s a misunderstanding. That it seems as if I’ve been
exposed to a world that I very much shouldn’t have been.
But if I do, whatever interaction between us that is making me breathless
and my blood heat stops. I’ll be an outsider and an outsider who isn’t his
date.
 Lie.
The instinct is stupid. I never lie. Something makes the act almost
impossible for me. It’s an attribute that makes me a good accountant.
Trusting.
It’s as simple as the sky is blue, good dildos are art, and I never lie.
“I thought I could find you myself. I should have called,” I say, my heart
beating out of my chest from panic and something else.
Excitement.
4
 ADRIAN

M Y WITCH IS NOT what I expected. I lead her carefully through the dark back
to my lair—cabin—I mentally correct myself. My instincts want to drag this
woman to my den with primal force and offer my mate all sorts of comforts
and food before fucking her silly.
I internally roll my eyes at myself. Amy hasn’t agreed to anything more
than a date. Not a mating yet, just a meeting.
The arousal brimming in my body makes it hard to think. I’m not helping
myself in that regard. I take every opportunity I can to touch her. My hand
slides into hers as I help her over a log. I use a claw to pick a twig from her
hair and she shoots me a grateful smile.
The matchmaker chose well. Amy’s scent lights up every instinctual urge
I have, and visually she’s just my type. Her long hair is fine, getting tugged
by the errant breeze in a whimsical dance and tangling with itself. My fingers
itch to run through the delicate strands. She’s tall, almost matching me in
height, with long limbs that flail with every stumble in the dark. Her coat
covers most of her body, but I imagine that the flare of her hips would beg for
my hands to grip them and I beat back my incorrigible mental ramblings.
My date stomps through the underbrush with heavy snow boots that have
me pausing before shrugging. Not everyone is an outdoorsy person and
they’re better shoes to walk through the woods in than heels. The last date I’d
invited home—gods it must have been five years ago now—had worn heels
and complained so loudly that I’d taken her back to her car on the excuse that
my neighbor had an emergency that I needed to help with.
The oddities don’t stop at her shoe choice though.
 “I’m surprised you didn’t conjure a light spell,” I say before I think better
of it.
“Uh, I can’t do that.” Amy blushes, looking uncomfortable, and I want to
kick myself.
“Of course, that was rude of me. I’m sure we can talk all about your
magic practice, should you wish, after dinner.” I try to soothe.
“Oh, that’s fine. Um, you cook?”
My chest swells and I preen. “Yes, and I promise it’s great. I’ve tested
this recipe on two of my neighbors.”
“And they survived?” she teases.
I like her teasing me.
I grin. “It was touch and go for a bit, but I have no fatalities to my name.”
“Do you have many neighbors?” Amy asks, looking around the dark
woods.
“I have a few.” If Amy stays past my heat and this compatibility turns
into a mating, I’ll gladly introduce her to all my neighbors. Until then, I
remain light on the details. This forest is our safe haven.
“I can’t imagine a lot of people live out here. I thought I was going to be
lost forever until I ran into you.”
I shake my head at our dark surroundings. No wonder she was so jumpy
when I located her. “It’s the ward we have set up. That’s why I wanted you to
call me. It keeps the wrong kind of people away and has an underlying part
that induces the sensation of getting turned around.”
“Oh, so it’s very good that you found me,” she says, appearing pale.
I nod, taking in every flash of emotion over my date’s face.
An owl hoots in the distance, and Amy starts, stumbling toward me and
our shoulders bump.
“Sorry!” she says.
I hum with pleasure at the contact of our bodies. Even with clothes on,
the contact soothes and incites my nerves.
“No problem. You can huddle into me as much as you like. I don’t mind
at all.” My voice is a purr.
Her laugh is high and reedy. “I never realized that I was such a scaredy-
cat in the dark.”
“I promise this place is much more welcoming in the daytime, but I won’t
let you get lost.” My hand strokes the small of her back and the shiver of my
date makes my lips curve.
 I’m gratified that Amy is not put off by my appearance. The matchmaker
would never have sent her here if it was something that disgusted her, but
there is a varied spectrum from being disgusted to finding something
attractive.
I really should have donned a glamour before venturing out to meet her,
but my heat must be messing with my mind. Wearing a glamour is
uncomfortable and even more so during a heat. I’m not surprised that I forgot
to have it in place before meeting my date.
I don’t realize how close I am to Amy until the breath she blows out
tickles my heated cheek.
I blink and go to take a step back, to give this poor witch some space, but
Amy grabs my hand.
“No, I like you close. Makes me forget that I can’t see into the darkness
ahead of us at all.”
“I’ll protect you.” My voice deepens at the primal stir of instinct.
Amy bites her lip at that, and arousal sweetens her scent. My chest rises
as I take in her reaction. For a moment, it’s a struggle to remember that I’m
not going to be tackling this woman to the forest floor.
I clear my throat. “As much as I think you’re enjoying this nature walk,
we should head back to my cabin.”
“So that you can protect me?”
I grin. Minx. “So that I can feed you.”
The playful way we interact is everything I’ve never experienced from a
date. I’ve never wanted to strip someone and lick their scent off them with
such need before and I’ve been with others during a heat.
Amy is something special and I already know I want to keep her past this
date.
She swallows. “Well, lead on.”
5
 AMY

A S MUCH AS Great-Aunt Wilma warned me about trouble, she imparted more

wisdom in the arena of looking for adventures. When something
unexplainable happens, something so out of the realm of ordinary, lean in.
Be brave. Life is an adventure if you put yourself out there.
And this is definitely an adventure.
The cabin we enter is surreal. Not because there’s anything that screams
monster hanging on the walls, but because it’s so normal. The decor of soft
pillows and folded throw blankets on the couches, the macramé on the walls,
and the vintage fashion kitchen look straight out of a cozy, rustic living
magazine.
Everything is warm and comforting down to the crackling fire in the
stone fireplace. My numb nose starts to thaw, and I sigh in pleasure. The
savory scent of seasonings and herbs fills the air.
The homey atmosphere must be what startles a realization out of my
brain. I like Adrian. We’ve only had a nature walk in the dark, but as a date,
he’s a million times better than any of the guys I’ve gone out with. He rolls
with my humor, is considerate, and the chemistry. Sweet baby Jesus, the
chemistry is off the charts.
I haven’t even had to lie anymore since it seems like he didn’t have any
details about the woman he was supposed to meet.
I freeze as something occurs to me.
“I’m glad you’re early,” he says.
I hide my relieved sigh. Adrian’s real date isn’t stumbling around in the
dark. But she’ll be here soon. He’ll get a call and then he’ll realize that I’ve
lied.
A pang of loss rings through my heart at that.
What is your game plan, Amy? Are you going to find the landline and
leave it off the hook? How far will you go?
I’m not going to do that. I can barely lie; I can’t imagine doing something
that nefarious.
I don’t have a game plan. This was not the adventure I’d had in mind, but
I’ve found something special. I’m moving solely on instinct, not allowing
myself to think of the future. I’m going to embrace this time I have with
Adrian, whether it’s for thirty minutes or all night.
Adrian nods to the fireplace. “I figured you’d appreciate a warm cabin.”
Now that he mentions it, I notice the way his skin glistens in the light.
“Is it too warm for you?” I ask.
Adrian shakes his head disparagingly. “Don’t worry about it. Everything
is too warm for me right now.”
He pulls on the collar of his shirt and my mouth opens before I think
better.
“If it helps, I’m fine with you taking off your shirt.”
Adrian’s dark gaze catches mine and now it’s my cheeks that are heating.
The smile that pulls at his lips is sly.
“I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of me soon enough,” he says before
seeming to roll his eyes at his own words. “If that’s something you want, that
is. Here, let me take your coat.”
I forfeit the garment that’s more useful for running to the coffee shop than
trekking in the woods, and Adrian hangs it up.
“Whatever your mysterious recipe is, it smells good,” I say.
“Oh! I’ll put the bread in the oven. I started everything a little early.”
Adrian shrugs and his cheeks darken. “I’ll admit I was anxious for you to get
here.”
I blink. The lake monster made fresh bread for his date.
“Well, you have perfect timing,” I say.
I follow Adrian over to the kitchen space and try not to fidget as he slides
the bread into the oven. I look into the pot of boiling stew on the stovetop and
identify what looks to be potatoes and various other veggies.
“I hope you like fish,” he says.
“I like fish. I’ve never had it in a stew though.” Of course the lake
monster eats fish.
 “Well, it’s my best recipe and I figured you might be cold from the
walk…” Adrian trails off. “Can I get you something to drink? Wine, juice,
water? A beer?”
“A beer would be good,” I say. I’d be able to occupy my hands with the
bottle if nothing else.
Curiosity makes me fidget as Adrian pulls a couple of beers from the
fridge and opens them. I have so many questions about the world I’ve
stepped into and Adrian, but I don’t know how to ask them without
highlighting my ignorance. I stroll around the open-concept room, my eyes
landing on a picture frame.
I freeze.
In the image, Adrian has his arm around a dark-haired woman with a
mischievous smile. If that isn’t enough to send a strike of jealousy through
me, the two miniature versions of Adrian fighting in front of the couple
threaten to stop my heart.
“You have kids?” My question has a screechy quality to it. Where are
they now? Do monsters get divorced? Have I become a liar and home
wrecker all at once?
“What?” Adrian’s brow creases in confusion.
I point to the frame and the lake monster in front of me has the gall to
grin, fangs flashing.
“Oh! Those are my parents. And no, I don’t have kids.” He hands me a
beer and I try not to drop it in my stunned state.
I look at the photo again, squinting to pick up details. The lake monster
that I mistook for Adrian does look eerily similar to him, if not greener in
color and the fin on top of his head shorter. The clothing they wear and the
colors in the photograph harken back to the nineties. His parents.
I clear my throat, embarrassed.
“Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to assume…” I stumble over my words as my
cheeks heat.
Adrian snorts. “That’s okay. Our blood runs pretty strong. We’re nix by
the way. I don’t know how much you know about us…”
“Nix?” I ask.
Adrian nods. “The variation of nix we are is relatively rare, but most
water sprite types just see themselves as nix with the amount of intermarrying
over the generations.”
“Is your mom nix?” I frown at the photo. She looks human to me.
 “Oh, my mom is a witch. It’s a common pairing for us.” Is Adrian
blushing?
A pretty common pairing… for making babies? That must be why Adrian
is fidgeting.
I clear my throat to change the subject from mini-nixes. “I really like your
place.”
The smile he flashes me is proud. “Thank you! I remodeled it myself. It
used to be a hunting cabin, but I gutted it and added some rooms. Now it suits
my needs.”
“What kind of needs?” I ask.
Adrian falters a bit before answering. “I’ve got my home office and a
couple of spare rooms other than the master. I wanted to be able to grow in
this space.”
Now he’s definitely blushing. Grow. Of course, he is in heat after all. If
we’re going to keep skirting around the topic of babies, we might as well
voice it. That should make it less awkward.
“So you want kids?” I ask.
Adrian’s smile is strained.
“Can we come back to the subject of kids after dinner?”
My eyes widen at that.
Adrian rushes to explain. “It’s just complicated and a delicate topic for
me. I want to get to know you first.”
“Okay,” I say, immediately appreciating how communicative he is about
his boundaries. Turns out there are men that can communicate their feelings.
They’re just not human. Figures.
“What kind of work do you do in your home office?” I ask. That’s a
normal date question.
Adrian smiles gratefully. “I’m an accountant. I get away with being
remote because I cater to clients like me who need to use a glamour to get
around in the human world.”
I laugh, because why not have the first guy I seem to be super compatible
with also do a similar kind of work and be someone I’d never have met in the
human world? If I were superstitious, I’d be super eeked out right now… but
maybe I need to change my stance on superstition.
“I’m an accountant too!” I exclaim.
“Really? How have I never met you before?” Adrian asks.
I hum. It figures that magic communities would be insular. “I work for
humans.”
Adrian snaps his fingers. “That explains it.”
We talk shop—turns out accounting for magic people and regular people
have a lot of overlap—until the timer goes off and Adrian bustles into motion
getting the bread out. I help him set the table and the meal part of our date
begins.
6
 ADRIAN

A MY ’ S MOAN of pleasure when she takes her first bite of my stew has me
dropping my spoon. Luckily, the witch is so involved with my culinary
creation that she doesn’t notice. I pull at my collar and go back to being on
my best behavior. I’m relieved that she’s a fan of my cooking.
It’s the only type of relief I get.
My cock must have an impression of my zipper on it with how hard I’ve
been through this whole date. Usually, the member would be tucked away in
my body, but with being so close to my heat, that isn’t an option. And having
Amy’s sweet scent mixing with mine in my lair—cabin—is uniquely
pleasing to my primal side.
It takes much of my concentration not to gravitate toward her and press
my face into her hair. I’m glad she’s on the other side of the small table. If
she had made that sound right next to me, I don’t know how I’d have reacted.
I have a sneaky suspicion that she’d be on my lap right now with me feeding
her.
Slow down, Adrian.
This date is going so much better than I ever considered it would. The
matchmaker has truly outdone herself. If she hadn’t already warned that this
wasn’t a perfect match, I’d be convinced that Amy was made for me.
“This is really good!” Amy says.
“Well, it’s my favorite, so you know where to go if you ever want more.”
That wasn’t too creepy, right?
But Amy laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind. Do you have any hobbies?”
Our conversation flows with ease. I tell her about living on the lake,
swimming, reading, and my fly-fishing obsession.
“Do you need a fishing pole to catch fish?” she asks. “Sorry if that sounds
ignorant. I’d just figure that you could catch them while swimming.”
I laugh, not minding the question at all. “Catching fish that way is easier
for someone like me”—I wiggle my webbed fingers—“but fishing is more of
a sports thing about technique, especially fly-fishing. And I admit I love to
collect and make fishing flies.”
“Oh, I totally understand the satisfaction from collecting—” Amy’s
cheeks suddenly flood with color and she coughs. “So what books do you
like to read?”
I tell her of my murder mystery collection, and she tells me about her
favorite shows and the fan fiction she writes in her spare time. I don’t bring
up magic again. If she wants to talk about what kind of skills she has in that
area, she’ll bring it up.
I forget that there are hierarchies for witches and some families value
certain types of magics more than others. If Amy is one of the witches with a
more targeted skillset in magic, it might be something she’s self-conscious
about.
It won’t matter to me if her greatest magic skill is knowing exactly what
wool would make the best sweater. I’m not on this date with her for magic.
Amy as a person is so much more than whether she can turn paper clips into
frogs.
After we finish eating, Amy clears our plates, and we clean up the kitchen
together. We work as a team as our conversation about which Sherlock
Holmes adaptation is the best continues.
When we take a seat on the couch and Amy scoots over to my side, my
anxiety about this date completely recedes. The scent of her interest in me,
our compatibility, and the heat of her thigh pressing against mine make this
whole evening clear to me.
I’ve found my mate.
7
 AMY

“I’ M REALLY glad you came here,” Adrian says, his dark eyes looking into
mine, soulful and full of promise.
“Me too.”
And I am. I’m turned toward Adrian with my elbow propping me up on
the couch back. I’ve kicked my snow boots off and have my legs curled
under me. My knee presses against Adrian’s pants and I’m close enough to
feel the heat coming off him. The sensual, radiant warmth makes me want to
curl up closer.
But I don’t. There’s a stiffness to Adrian, as if he’s holding himself
carefully still and I don’t want to move into his space. Yet.
I have a crush on a lake monster, a nix. I have a crush on Adrian,
accountant to other monsters, and an avid fly fisherman.
I brush my fingers over his thigh and thread them through his. Adrian
seems taken aback at the action and his hand squeezes mine. Impossibly, the
touch has me pressing my thighs together.
Adrian inhales and a satisfied sound comes from his throat. The smile he
flashes me is hungry, but he seems to scale back the arousal kindling between
us.
“There are some things we should talk about,” he says.
“Oh?” I bite my lips, worried that this will all end before I’m willing for it
to. If I ever want this ease to end.
Adrian swallows. “I’d like you to stay for my heat.”
My breath catches and Adrian puts a finger on my lips to stop what would
have definitely been an agreement. The brush of his skin on mine does
something to me. Something that makes me feel bold. Something that makes
me want to lick the finger in front of me, but I behave.
We haven’t even done anything and already a heady cocktail of want and
need course through my veins.
“You don’t have to, of course, but I think we have a real possibility of
making a go of this as a relationship. There are some things we should
discuss beforehand though.” Adrian pulls his hand away.
“Is your heat contagious?” I ask without thinking.
Adrian stills and the curve of his lips are full of seduction. “No, my heats
aren’t contagious. Anything you feel in my presence is completely
unaltered.”
And he knows how hot under the collar I am for him. Well, good.
“What did you want to talk about then?” I ask.
Adrian winces and runs a hand over his dark hair. “It’s about the kids
thing.”
“I want kids,” I supply for him.
“You do?” His nostrils flare.
“Yeah, well someday,” I say. “Do you not want them?”
He shakes his head. “It’s complicated.”
I squirm in my seat. “It’s not a deal breaker for me if you don’t want
them.”
Adrian’s smile is slow, if full of discomfort. “I’ve always wanted kids,
but I don’t know if it will be possible.”
I frown, but Adrian starts talking again before I can ask about it.
“This is normally not something I talk about on the first date, and I don’t
want to freak you out at all, but because of circumstances… anyway, this heat
could be my last. So while I’d love to have kids, it’s complicated. My kind
are only fertile for five to seven years in our life.”
“Oh.” Holy fucking shit. The one lie I tell, and it puts this guy’s fertility
chances on the line.
Adrian rushes to respond. “Please don’t feel obligated or anything. I
didn’t say anything about the immediacy to the matchmaker because I’m the
one who waited too long. This is something I’ve dealt with and am
comfortable with leaving it to the Fates to decide.”
The Fates. Because if magic and lake monsters exist, why wouldn’t they?
“And you can’t like preserve your sperm?” I ask.
Adrian blinks. “Not precisely.”
 I frown in consideration.
“I don’t think I can have a kid at this very moment,” I say. At least
physically. I’m on birth control and I’m pretty sure that it would take at least
a month—am I considering this? If it were possible, if I weren’t on birth
control, would I consider this?
I might.
I’m mentally blown away for a breath.
Adrian’s shoulders drop a tiny bit, but surprisingly he looks a little
relieved. And isn’t that a sucker punch after my internal revelation?
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Does that mean you don’t want me to stay for your
heat?”
Maybe he doesn’t like me as much as I thought, but Adrian shakes his
head.
“I want you to stay! I guess I just felt like if you agreed to breed with me,
it would have been because you felt bad.”
I blink. “I am as accommodating as the next woman who says sorry too
much, but I don’t think I’d agree to be impregnated just because I feel bad for
you.”
The tension between us breaks.
Adrian’s laugh is loud, and he wipes his eyes when he responds. “I guess
that was a silly worry.”
“I am sorry,” I say, my tone sad.
Adrian shrugs. “Like I said, I’m comfortable leaving that up to the Fates.”
The Fates… if they exist, I’m not here by accident. My lie, my getting
lost, Adrian finding me… maybe I’m meant to be here. Fuck it, I really like
Adrian. I’d seriously consider letting him impregnate me if it were possible.
I’m going to shoot my shot.
And with that mental pep talk, I lean in and kiss him.
Nothing happens at first. My lips meet his and it’s merely the press of
them against his soft, hot skin.
Adrian growls and it’s as if he snaps. My yelp is cut off by his mouth
when I’m pulled to straddle his lap. His webbed fingers clutch my hair,
tugging my head back. His mouth devours mine and I gasp. His tongue
sensually invades. His taste fresh and sultry all at once.
I melt as a cascade of unaltered heat flows over me.
Adrian’s other hand grips my ass, pulling me up against the hardness of
his erection. I moan into his mouth. How am I already so needy? It’s as if all
he had to do was crook his finger and I’m ready to climb him.
I grind on Adrian, and he growls again.
“Fuck, Amy, just like that. You’re so wet for this already, aren’t you?”
He licks and bites my neck and I moan.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all night,” he says in my dazed lust.
I laugh. “Just like this?” I tease.
Adrian rolls his hips against me. “Well, some changes. No clothes for
one.”
His hand slides under my shirt and he rakes his fangs over my lip.
I almost don’t hear the ringing of a phone.
But when I do, my whole body freezes.
His date.
8
 ADRIAN

I GROAN when I pull myself away from a suddenly still Amy. I frown at her.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Her answer is breathless, and the phone keeps on ringing.
I move her off me and she bites her lip. “Do you have to get that?”
“It could be one of my neighbors.” I grimace, not wanting to leave the
embrace with my mate. “No one calls unless it’s an emergency.”
Amy nods. Much more subdued than she’s been up to now.
I grab my cell phone from the end table and go walk out the front door to
take the call. My neighbors are all secretive. Once Amy meets everyone, it
won’t be as much of a hassle to keep details from her.
I frown in confusion when Rose Love’s phone number is on the display.
Why is the matchmaker calling? Maybe she’s just checking in. I tap to
connect the call.
“I’m so sorry,” Rose blurts out. “But the witch I sent got caught up in
some old business she’s been dealing with and won’t be able to make your
date.”
Confusion scrunches my brow. “The witch—”
Rose interrupts. “Yes, I thought that Belinda would be the most
compatible of the options I have right now, but I can make some more calls.”
Belinda is the witch Rose sent, not Amy.
Who is Amy?
My mate—No!
A stranger. A stranger that I’ve brought into my space. Shock numbs me.
“Adrian?” Rose asks.
 Do I want her to find me another match? The primal part of me mentally
keens in denial. It won’t be appeased by a different person now.
I swallow.
“My heat is coming in too quickly for another person to make it here in
time. Thank you for trying,” I say.
Pain spreads through my chest. I want the woman I’ve been enjoying the
evening with to be the person I expected and she’s not and the
disappointment claws my insides bloody.
“I’m so sorry, Adrian,” Rose says.
I inhale. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
Which is true. I’ve passed heats on my own before. It’s the inviting a
strange woman into my lair and convincing myself that she’s my mate that’s
new.
We say our goodbyes and end the call. I breathe in the fall night air and
the sound of crickets. The hurt is bottomless. All the precautions I and my
neighbors have taken for our safety, and I blow it by letting the primal part of
my psyche bring a stranger in.
The jagged edge of loss accentuates the hurt and shame brewing in the pit
of my gut, sending poison tingles along my skin. I thought I’d found my
person. The gap of loneliness that had been welling these past couple of years
had seemed to be Amy shaped.
But that’s just what my heat wanted me to believe.
My biology lied to me, just like she did.
“A-Adrian?” Amy peeks out of the front door. Her lower lip trembles and
with the warm glow of the cabin light, she looks radiant. I’m struck with
painful urgency, with need. Even knowing the deception, I want her.
The hurt turns to something cold. Just who is this woman?
Amy reaches out and strokes a finger up the back of my hand as if asking
for forgiveness. As if she knows what my phone call was about.
“I-I can explain,” she says.
The soft touch rouses a vicious twist of hunger. I snatch her wrist and pull
her forward, running purely on instinct.
Amy wants me. I don’t know why or who she is, but the base parts of
myself don’t care.
I crash my mouth on hers in an unforgiving kiss and she doesn’t miss a
beat. The way her body falls against mine has triumph roaring in my veins. I
press her against the cabin exterior, each angry kiss is returned as if she’s as
desperate as I am.
I break my kiss and Amy gasps in a breath, her mouth opens as if to
explain herself.
I’m not in the listening mood. I rake my teeth over her throat and the
flavor is exquisite on my tongue. My senses communicate the delayed truth
of what this stranger is. Human.
A human who, upon meeting me, decided she wanted to be my date. Who
decided she wanted to fuck a creature that bears no resemblance to what she’s
used to.
Amy moans and I grind my erection against where I know she’s wet and
wanting. My actions don’t make sense to me. It’s as if I want to punish her or
devour her. Claim her so that she can never leave me.
“Fuuuck,” she whispers when I lave my tongue over her pulse. Her
fingers claw into my shoulders.
“Mine.” The word comes out as a growl.
Amy squeaks and nods her head. “Yes!”
The responsiveness of her under my hands stokes the fire of my anger and
arousal higher.
If she wants the monster, the monster is what she gets.
“You’ll take all my eggs, won’t you?” I bare my fangs.
Amy’s eyes go wide. “ALL YOUR WHAT?”
It’s masochistic to enjoy the way her face drains of color. It’s satisfying
how much I’ve horrified her, and at the same time, painful how horrified she
is by me.
I make myself release her, and Amy gasps against the cabin exterior.
This human woman I found in the woods may appear to be compatible
with me and there are parts of me that want her very much, but she’s here for
some unknown reason, and I can’t let my dick make my decisions.
It’s time for her to go.
9
 AMY

A DRIAN TAKES A STEP AWAY , a muscle in his jaw twitching with how stiffly
he’s holding himself.
He knows. He knows and he kissed me like he couldn’t help himself.
“I’m so sorry,” I say. It’s a belated apology. I would have spoken the
words sooner, but it would have been difficult with his tongue in my mouth.
“That seems to be a popular thing to say to me tonight.” Adrian shakes
his head. “It’s time for you to leave.”
Gutted. That’s the hollow nothingness carving into my stomach and
lungs.
Also, eggs?! I mentally push that detail away.
“Stay here, I’ll get your shoes and coat,” he says and ducks back inside.
It’s as if his absence extends into infinity. I stand on the deck, my sock-
covered toes curling against the wood as my mind tries to find purchase with
the detail that Adrian doesn’t want me in his home, even for the short time it
would take to don my coat and shoes.
He returns. His motions sharp as he pushes my coat and snow boots at
me. A large flashlight under his arm.
“You’re just going to let me leave?” I ask.
Adrian shakes his head in annoyance. “I’m walking you out of the woods,
so you don’t get lost again.”
I swallow against the kindness of that and tug on my coat before clumsily
stepping into my boots.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Adrian’s frown is fierce. “What did you think I’d do? Slay you?”
 I shrug. “I don’t know.”
Adrian looks pissed. “Am I the first paranormal being you’ve met?”
I widen my eyes. “Well, yeah.”
I jump at his angry-sounding hiss. He inhales and holds his breath before
exhaling through his nostrils as if to calm himself down. It must work.
“If you meant me harm, you wouldn’t have been let as far past the wards
as you were,” he says as if to reason with himself.
“I don’t mean you harm,” I say.
Adrian’s look is poison. “If you go prattling about me and magic, it
would harm me.”
“I’d never do that,” I vow. “Trust me.”
His upper lip curls. “I don’t trust you.”
My chest aches at that. “I’m sorry I lied.”
“It doesn’t matter that you’re sorry.”
“I’m sorry I took the place of your date. I hope—” My voice cracks. “I
hope I didn’t ruin anything you might have with the witch.” I hope I didn’t
hurt you. I hope I didn’t steal your opportunity to have children with this
perfect witch.
Adrian scoffs. “Don’t worry your pretty little head over it… she’s not
coming anyway. I want you gone.”
I blink in confusion. The witch isn’t coming? “What about your heat?”
“That’s none of your concern. Come on.” Adrian flicks the flashlight on
and walks into the tree line.
I scramble after him and the glow of the light that illuminates the ground.
The tears welling in my eyes escape down my cheeks, one by one.
Adrian doesn’t need the flashlight. He brought it for me.

I TRAIL behind Adrian through the woods. With him, the night sounds don’t
make my heart rate jump and my brain doesn’t unhelpfully spiral about the
creatures and creepy-crawlies that surround us.
None of those things bother me because I’m drowning in misery.
We walk with silence between us. Time stretches as I follow him. We
seem to walk forever and I bite my lip until I can’t keep myself from
speaking.
 “Adrian—”
He doesn’t turn his head in response, just keeps walking.
I swallow and try again. “I never lie.”
Now he scoffs, which is fair.
“I got turned around without my group and I was terrified, but when you
showed up, thinking I was your date… I wanted it to be true.”
Adrian stops walking but doesn’t turn around.
“Why?” he asks.
“Well…” I trail off, my face heating. “I was curious… about what you
are. We were looking for a lake monster…”
I clear my throat.
Adrian turns toward me. The flashlight illuminates the derision on his
face.
“You wanted to fuck a monster,” he says, his voice flat.
The shame and misery that has been stewing since he’d discovered my lie
surge.
“Yes.” Pain makes the word breathless. “That’s how it started, but then
we had dinner and I got to know you and…” My throat is thick with emotion.
“I really like you.”
“You really like me?” Adrian’s jaw tightens.
“I wanted to see where this went. You mentioned the Fates and I thought
—”
Adrian’s angry laugh cuts me off. “You thought what? That my body is
so hungry that I’d ravish a human, and really give you a night to remember?
So that you could skip away and leave me in my forest?”
I rear back at that.
“N-no, I thought—we seem so compatible, and I thought that maybe we
were…” Meant to be. My voice gets quieter until I trail off, unable to voice
the tender thought in the face of Adrian’s anger.
“I wanted you as my mate!” he bellows, and his words echo in my soul.
I wanted you as my mate.
“Amy! There you are!” Rob’s aggravated voice cuts into the moment
with the precision of a freight train.
10
 ADRIAN

T HE FLASHLIGHTS of approaching humans blind me and shock roots my feet

to the ground.
Everyone freezes.
Reckless. Fear suffuses my blood, and each thud of my heart feels like my
last. I was so caught up in Amy’s words, in my impending loss, that I didn’t
realize that we’d exited the wards.
I didn’t sense their approach and now I’m a sitting duck as five strangers
stare at us.
Amy’s laugh breaks the silence, shrill and hollow.
“False alarm, everyone,” she says, waving her hands. “This is my
boyfriend. He knew we were looking for the lake monster and thought he
could scare me with his cosplay.”
“Cosplay?” someone asks.
Amy nods aggressively.
“Yeah, you know, a costume. He’s really going to win The Shape of
Water custom contest this year, don’t you think?” Amy’s voice is high and
even though I haven’t known her for long, I can tell she’s lying. She’s quite
abysmal at it.
But instead of the humans stepping forward to trap me as their prey,
everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
“The single fin on his head doesn’t match the movie,” a guy in the back
whispers, not in disbelief, but disgruntled. “The amphibian man has two on
his head.”
He must be a fan.
 “She did say custom,” a woman snaps back at him in the same low
volume, her eyes rolling.
The apparent leader of the group shakes his head, laughing awkwardly.
“Damn, man, that costume really got me.”
I clear my throat and force myself to speak. “Uh, yeah, it took me a long
time to make.”
The words sound lame and completely unconvincing, but the leader just
rolls his shoulders as if to loosen the tension there and frowns at Amy.
“We’re out here for science, not to goof around.” The sneer the leader
gives the woman at my side has my hackles rising. If I were her boyfriend
and ambushed her, she wouldn’t be to blame at all. I decide I don’t like this
human.
Amy seems to wilt even further under the man’s derision, and I want to
curl around her. Do something unwise like rip out the offender’s throat.
Never mind that I’d treated her not so differently just a moment ago.
The growl starts low in my chest, but I cut it off before it gains volume.
“What are you all doing out here?” The gruff voice has everyone
jumping.
My neighbor, Seamus, comes into view, carrying a lamp that shows his
glamoured form. Even when he appears to be human, he’s intimidating. Tall
and wide in a way that that few humans are shaped.
The leader puffs his chest up. “These are public lands. We’re fine being
here.”
“Aye, they are public, but this part of the woods is dangerous. Especially
with the snakes going into heat.” Seamus lifts both brows.
If my heart wasn’t thundering right now, it would be comical how the
group of humans squirm at the mention of snakes. They had come looking for
some sort of lake monster, but snakes are too scary.
Seamus shakes his head. “It’s like I’m pulling lost hikers out of this
section every week.”
“Uh, thanks, I think we got turned around,” the group leader concedes
and turns to leave. “Amy? Are you and your boyfriend coming?” he asks, like
the woman beside me is a hassle.
“That’s one impressive costume,” Seamus says to me, his mouth curving
into a grin. “Mind if I ask you a few questions about it? I’ll lead you two out
after.”
He waves off the rest of the group. The humans exchange some looks and
shrug before trudging off.
My relieved sigh is gusty.
“That was a close one,” Seamus says, he gestures at a still Amy. “So this
is your date?”
I open my mouth, to say what, I’m unsure, but Amy beats me to it.
“No, I kind of crashed his date. Thank you for stepping in.”
The lips on Seamus’s human-appearing face curve. “Crashed it? Being at
the right place at the right time hardly seems to be crashing it.”
Amy opens her mouth and closes it, seemingly unsure of what to say to
that.
I blink at the knowledge that he’s been following us and heard our
argument. Paranoid creature that he is.
Was he keeping watch for me? I can blame heat brain, but I hardly think
the group of humans could have snuck up on Seamus with the relationship he
has to the trees around us. Maybe he’s watching something else. Maybe he
wanted to see what Amy would do.
And she saved me. It hadn’t been life and death, but the risk was high.
“I-I should be going.” She hooks her thumb in the direction the humans
had gone.
Should she?
Seamus’s heavy hand pats my back, and he gives me a look before
departing back into the woods. He approves of her. My secretive neighbor
approves of the human that lied to get a date with me.
He approves of my mate.
Stop, I mentally chide myself for calling her my mate. But… should I
stop?
A lot of the anger and hurt whirling in me has cooled in the face of
possible exposure. Amy’s mettle was tested, and she protected me. She lied,
if poorly, for me.
If there is some crumb of truth about the Fates, can I let her walk out of
my life?
“Amy, wait.”
She stops, her face full of vulnerability as if she’s waiting for me to berate
her again. I don’t know if this thing between us truly has a future, but my
primal urges and my logical mind want to try.
I want to forgive her.
“Do you want to stay for my heat?” I ask.
11
 AMY

I’ M stunned by his question.

“You want me to stay?” I ask as if he hadn’t just said the words. Disbelief
has me sure that I hallucinated them. Did I actually fall into a well? Am I
Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz?
I shake my head to dispel that thought and Adrian’s carefully stoic face
falls.
“I’m not saying no,” I rush to say.
“You’re not?” he asks.
“I—You were so angry with me.” You said you thought I was your mate.
I’m not bringing that up. He’d stated it in the past tense and this peace
between us is too fragile.
“I felt betrayed,” Adrian says, his throat tight. “And now, I just don’t
want you to leave.”
I hurt him, but he doesn’t want to call what’s between us quits anymore.
This may not be some declaration of mating or whatever his kind does for
that, but it’s something.
“A clean slate? Can we start over?” I ask. “I know my lie was bad—”
“I want to start over,” he says.
I hold my hand out to him to shake hands. “My name is Amy Davis. I’m
human and was lost in your woods.”
He regards my hand like it’s going to bite him before sliding his palm
against mine. His soft sigh at the contact of our skin warms my body.
“Adrian. I’m your local lake monster and nix. Care to go back to my
lair?”
 My smile spreads across my face. “Yes. In regard to your heat—”
“Don’t say yes yet,” Adrian says. His hand tightens around mine and his
face shows discomfort. “We’re out in the wilderness and with my adrenaline
being what it is, it’s a struggle not to seduce you on the forest floor with the
delicious way you smell.”
My mouth snaps shut. The forest floor does look very uncomfortable for
those types of activities.
“I’d love to see your lair,” I say instead.
A hopeful smile breaks over Adrian’s face and he pulls me to follow him
back into the woods.

W E PASS the time on our walk back, trying to make conversation that doesn’t
mention the arousal burning between both of us. It’s such a reversal from our
walk out that it’s as if I’m in shock. It turns out that being in shock makes it
easier to roll with the punches.
Each step brings Adrian closer to me and every so often he inhales near
my throat. I try not to react because I really don’t want bark burn or to pull
pine needles from uncomfortable places.
When the tip of his nose brushes against my neck a tiny desperate sound
falls from my lips and the appearance of civility breaks. We stop walking and
Adrian steps behind me, pressing his face against the crook of my neck. The
feel of his breath against my ear has my whole body tightening.
The arm that isn’t holding the flashlight wraps around me. I can barely
feel the caress of his hand on my stomach through my coat. My breath
shortens when he pulls my back against his front. His hardness presses
against my ass.
“Adrian,” I pant.
The growl that rumbles over my neck makes me gasp.
“Fuck, Amy.”
“The cabin—” I start but Adrian makes a sound that has the words dying
on my tongue and heat surging between my legs.
He pulls his head away from my neck and slides the flashlight into my
hand. “I’m not going to make it to the cabin.”
I cough a laugh. “That sounds dire.”
 The sound that comes from his throat is pained and my laugh dries up.
“Usually, I’d have more time to anticipate the heat, but with you—I need
you, Amy.”
I swallow.
“You need to run,” he says. “We’re close to the cabin. I can let you have
a head start and hopefully, when I catch up to you, we’ll be inside.”
“And if I don’t make it?”
Adrian doesn’t respond, and my heart pounds in my chest. Fear is
prevalent in my mind, but so is excitement. He’s going to chase me down.
This is definitely the best date in the history of ever.
“If you catch me first, you can take me wherever,” I blurt out, suddenly
not caring about bark burn. Even my concern about poison ivy doesn’t
supersede my horniness.
Adrian’s body is tight. The woods fall silent.
“Run.”
And I do.
The light from the flashlight bounces as I dash onward. The trees and
darkness around me blur as the wind rushes past me and I focus on the light
in the distance. The cabin.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, I mentally chant as I try not to trip in my snow boots.
Miraculously, I don’t twist my ankle. A crash behind me tells me that the
lead time he gave me is over. The rush of fear and delight makes it hard to
think.
I push past the last bush and come into the cabin’s clearing with a shout
of triumph that is cut short when a hot body collides against mine.
I stop my scream as soon as I realize it’s Adrian’s grip that carries me to
the steps of the deck, but no farther. The flashlight clatters away and my
hands and knees hit the wood. My clothes are pulled. A ripping sounds
through the air and my flimsy coat is gone.
My pants and underwear are pulled to my ankles, and I gasp when the
cold air hits the wetness between my legs.
Two hands grip my hips and I shout when a wet heat envelops my pussy.
Adrian’s moan is deep and my lower belly fills with a bloom of warmth as
his tongue glides against me.
“Fuck,” I gasp. His tongue is long and licks over me like he can’t stand to
let any of my wetness go to waste. That tongue slides inside me and my
knees go weak.
 I’m nonsensical when he pulls away.
“By all the gods and Fates, I want to lick you for hours, but I need you,”
he says.
“Yes,” I say as if my consent up until now hasn’t been loud or
enthusiastic enough. More ripping sounds come from behind me, and before I
can turn to look at my bed partner, he thrusts inside me.
Our moans are in unison, mine desperate and Adrian’s relieved. He’s
fleshy and girthy, almost seeming to expand inside me as he rocks in and out.
Everything is so wet; I’m familiar with how wet I get and how much lube I
need when being penetrated, but there’s somehow much more. I almost
cramp with the need to be fucked deep.
The thickness is wrenched from me and Adrian hisses. I make a sound of
dismay.
“Can’t be inside you,” Adrian pants. “Not protected.”
“I’m on birth control!”
Adrian groans. “That’s not going to work.”
My brain halts and I twist to face Adrian. The wood of the deck very
chilly against my bare ass.
“It won’t? How does—” My tongue freezes when I see him. His dress
pants are shredded and a thick cock shines in the porch light. It doesn’t look
all that different from a human cock… except for the ridges along it… and a
swell near the base like a kind of knot… and his lack of testicles… and the
dripping tip. Okay, so his cock is actually pretty different from a human.
The way he drips solves the mystery of the profuse amount of wetness
between my legs.
The smeared lubricant he’d left in me heats my insides and makes me
needy.
I swallow. Focus, Amy. Right, eggs.
“How does the egg thing work?” I ask.
“My body would make you ready to receive them.”
I clear my throat. Well, that makes me even more wet.
Adrian growls, my scent communicating my interest in that.
But my scent isn’t the one driving the decision to get implanted with
eggs. We just barely met each other. It’s too soon to let him breed me.
Don’t think about that. I tell myself. My arousal sharpens to a pressing
need at the very thought.
We can do this responsibly.
 I gasp as my body tightens in need on nothing.
“Your precum is an aphrodisiac?” My question sounds polite.
Adrian nods and my core starts to ache.
“Can you come without depositing eggs?” I ask.
It would be a terribly cruel joke not to be able to offer Adrian any sort of
relief.
“Yes, I only start implanting eggs in the presence of a compatible womb.
My past partners have had magical methods of birth control.”
“How does your cock even tell the difference?”
Adrian’s headshake is pained, and he shrugs. “Magic?”
I nod my head. “Magic.”
With the short number of years his kind are fertile, it makes sense that
they don’t quite know everything about the process.
I’m trying to think, but Adrian’s slick inside me increases my already
significant arousal.
“What about a condom? To stop the… eggs?” I ask.
Adrian makes a sound. “I don’t have any condoms.”
I crow in victory and start to paw at the shreds of my coat. “I have one!”
A single, optimistic condom I keep in my wallet in my coat pocket. I find
the smooth foil package and take it out like it’s a tool that’s going to save
civilization instead of helping me get laid.
Adrian’s eyes track the movement of the foil in my hand and my exposed
skin throbs in the cold.
I point at him and summon my most stern voice. “We fuck indoors.”
I keep my eyes on him as I would a predator and move slowly to stand,
though how I’ll walk with my pants around my ankles is yet to be seen.
He moves in a flash, and I yelp. Adrian lifts me over his shoulder and
dashes into the cabin. The warm air is a comfort but the surroundings blur in
a nauseating way. Adrian doesn’t stop and we scale the stairs to the upper
level of the cabin.
When I’m tossed from his shoulder, it’s to land on a sea of pillows. I sit
up on the “bed” which is a recessed, padded floor.
“Huh, no water?” I ask.
Adrian’s chuckle is disbelieving.
“My kind mate on land. The condom, Amy.”
I kick off my ruined pants and pull off the rest of my clothing with haste,
keeping the condom.
 “Have you ever put one on?” I ask and Adrian shakes his head.
“Clothes off,” I say.
Adrian’s clothes are gone in a single breath and it’s a fight not to be
dazzled by his exposed body. The mottled dark-blue pattern continues over
his whole body, denser on his back, leaving his front paler. The muscles of
his torso stand in relief, and I want to lick his tenseness away.
“Allow me,” I say. “We only have one, after all.”
I crawl toward his standing form and kneel before him. His cock is still
dripping a lube-like fluid. I grip his substantial girth; it feels much fleshier
than a man’s erect cock and has a hard inner core. When I pull, he lengthens
in my hand. Some of his aphrodisiac precum splashes on the skin of my
breasts and tingles.
“Oh,” I marvel. I look up at him for permission and he reluctantly nods.
His cock lengthens into something like a stiff tentacle, the end tapering
into a point.
“You implant eggs with that?” I gesture to the point.
Adrian’s swallow is audible. “Yes, it roots around and penetrates a
female’s cervix.”
I almost fling my hands away, but stay where I am. “That sounds
painful.”
Adrian shakes his head. “My slick softens it. I’ve never done it, but I’ve
been told it isn’t painful.”
Well… that sounds kind of hot now. I blame the alien romances.
“And a condom should stop that whole penetrating my cervix?” I ask.
Adrian nods.
“Yes, I’d only produce more slick, which can’t cause pregnancy.” Adrian
seems to hesitate before continuing. “But even if I gave you my eggs, you’d
have to take a potion to carry them.”
So then why…
Adrian’s face is pained. “I would rather not implant eggs that aren’t
welcome. It would be difficult to know… that they won’t be viable.”
Oh, I swallow. A gamut of emotions rush through me, but I can’t pause to
take them in when both of our bodies crave action.
I nod. “Okay, let’s wrap you up then because I need to have you inside
me.”
Adrian groans at that and I carefully apply the condom. I say a thankful
prayer to the strength of latex as Adrian’s cock returns to its mouth-
wateringly fat girth and manageable length. No rooting happening here.
Adrian holds himself still as I work the protection over him and finally
over the slight swell at the base.
I look up through my lashes. “That should hold.”
He breaks into motion. My back lands on pillows and I spread my legs to
welcome him into my body. My pussy aches for him.
Adrian comes over me and stills. “Would you rather I take you from
behind?”
“No! I want to watch!”
Adrian sighs in relief.
“If it’s not already obvious, I’m hot for you, Mr. Lake Monster,” I tease,
stroking the fin on top of his head. My curiosity is satisfied when Adrian
shivers at the touch, reveling in the small contact.
I take the opportunity to run my other hand down his chest. His hot skin
has a slick texture now that his heat is farther along, and the slide of my
fingers over each curve on his chest is oddly erotic. His body would slip
against mine with ease. He’d even be able to slide home between my legs
even if I’d wanted to squeeze my thighs closed…
My breath catches at the naughty thought.
“Can I struggle?” I ask.
Adrian cocks his head, but not moving too far from where I’m petting his
fin.
I swallow whatever shyness I have. “I want to be pinned down and taken.
I’ll say stop if I want you to stop.”
Adrian growls and his cock jerks against me. “You’re going to be the
death of me, Amy.”
I grin.
His body presses against mine. The weight of him makes the idea of
being able to struggle at all comical, and I whimper, tightening my legs
around his hips.
Adrian’s hard latex-covered shaft grinds against my folds, the slick from
it seeping from the condom and smearing against my skin, adding to my slip
and slide fantasy.
His fanged smile is equal parts hungry and teasing. “If a lady wants to be
pinned to the bed, who am I to deny her?”
I bite my lip and push against his chest playfully. My eyes nearly roll to
the back of my head at the rock of Adrian’s hips. He captures my wrists with
one hand, bringing them over my head. The move has my nipples slipping
against his chest as I wriggle as if to get away. Each part of my body feeling
more alive and sensitive with every glide and crush of his.
I moan.
Adrian pants, grinding against my folds again, my clit giving a sharp stab
of pleasure that curls my toes.
“Mine,” he groans, and the same primal satisfaction spikes in me as
before. His.
Each push of his hips against me sends my body higher and higher until I
writhe, tugging against his firm grip. My mouth opens to a beg. “Please—”
Adrian cuts me off with a kiss and finally slides his cock to my entrance
before pressing forward.
My body gratefully accepts the plush, hot head of his cock. I curl my toes
and moan as the rest of his hardness disappears inside me. The stretch is
delicious. Not too much, not too little. The pressure and drag of his thickness
grows the more he feeds it into me.
The swelling at the base of him is soft and slides inside easily, providing
the lip-biting sensation of being stuffed too full.
Our kiss breaks off our groans when his body meets mine. The press of
him inside me hits everywhere.
Adrian huffs and rolls his body against me.
“Oh god,” I whisper.
“You feel so good,” he pants.
I clench around him and his composure falters, pulling back before
thrusting in with a jolt.
“Fuck, yes!” I cry out, my body needing the smacking thrust.
Adrian growls and starts to rut.
I’m so wet from my arousal and his slick that each rut of his body into
mine is easy. I could ride this kind of cock for hours without being sore.
Each impact of his body against mine smacks and spirals higher toward
bliss. The drag of the ridges on his cock provides just enough texture that
pleasure grabs at me with each pass. I whimper when Adrian leans up and
drops his hand between us, his thumb pressing in circles around my clit until
the pounding of the blood in my veins reaches a crescendo.
I clutch at the padding above my head, my wrists still restrained as the
overwhelming sensation comes over me. White-hot pleasure shoots through
my body and Adrian groans as my body clasps his.
 Adrian bellows when he comes and his cock throbs. His cum overflows
the condom and cascades down my ass. My face heats at the sensation.
Adrian’s breath comes out in heaving gasps, his face showing blissful
relief. I let my eyes wander over his face as I come down from my own
orgasm. He really is beautiful.
After a moment, he seems to come back to himself. He releases my wrists
and grips the condom as he slides out. It’s messy and the latex bulges around
his cock, full of his release.
I hum.
“It’s a good thing your cum can’t get me pregnant,” I tease, wiggling my
hips and delighting in the slick sensation of my skin.
Adrian’s lips pull into a dry smile, his eyes staring at my wet pussy and
messy thighs. “Yes, as helpful as this contraption is at protecting you from
being filled with my eggs, it does seem to be lacking in its ability to keep in
everything.”
He doesn’t pull his gaze away from my spread legs and sexual tension
fills the air between us. We should be satisfied, right? Sex that great should
result in a couple hours of teasing, but as the seconds ticked with Adrian’s
intensity, my body responds.
Adrian shakes his head and swallows, pulling off the full condom. The
sight of the condom heavy with cum causes a surprising spark of pleasure in
my core.
Adrian looks back to the condom.
“Can I put it inside of you?” he asks.
“Um…” My cheeks heat. “Your cum?”
Adrian nods reluctantly as if he’s embarrassed but wants this too much to
relent. Curiosity and interest have me biting my lip.
“Is it instinct?”
“Yes, it will help your body heal and give you energy for the rest of the
heat.”
The rest of the heat.
I nod and Adrian inserts the open end of the latex inside me. I tighten
around the sensation of Adrian sliding the ring of the latex as deep into me as
he can. Adrian’s gaze meets mine.
“You like being filled by me, don’t you?” he asks. There’s a dark,
possessive look under his disbelieving smile.
“Yes,” I whisper.
 His eyes glitter in satisfaction when he empties the condom inside me.
The flush of heat makes me breathless. I moan as my body prepares to be
taken again. Arousal surges to unbearable levels.
“I need…” I trail off.
Fuck, no more condoms.
12
 ADRIAN

A MY REALIZES the issue at the same time as I do. My slick is an aphrodisiac

and I’ve just filled her full of it.
She squirms in need.
Breed her.
No. Being inside her is phenomenal, but without more condoms, it’s a
one-time thing.
I press my fingers inside her, unable to help myself from spreading my
release into her, massaging her insides until her head falls back on a moan.
It comes right back up and she looks concerned. “Don’t you have claws?”
I smirk and wiggle the fingers of my other hand. “Retractable. I just can’t
get very deep because of the webbing.”
Which is a problem. My cum will make her want penetration, make her
want to take me as deeply as she can until the knot at the base of my cock
swells and locks us together for me to lay my eggs in her.
I shake the thought from my head as Amy moans.
We’re not doing that.
I lower my face and run my tongue over her sweet little clit. My mate
gasps and mews as I do it again, stroking and sucking. I try to press multiple
fingers deeper, targeting her G-spot. The tension in her body thrums tighter
and tighter until her legs squeeze around my shoulders.
I replace my fingers with my mouth and lick up the rush of her release as
she cries out.
Amy’s breath is shaky and satisfaction reigns in my blood.
“Fuck, that was good. I’m a fan of your mouth,” she says.
 “Just my mouth?” I tease, thinking back to how I’d pinned her. She had
been a fan of that too.
She nods, a little loopy. “And your cum, the way it heats me from the
inside. I want to taste it.”
My body tightens at that, and my foolish little mate pats the pillows next
to her as if I’m not a needy beast trying to give her a breather.
She’s not my mate.
Not yet.
But after this heat… when we’re both thinking with all our faculties…
then we can come back to the mate question.
“It’s better if I keep my distance.” I gesture at my aching cock. The taste
of her and the combination of us on my tongue already have my body on the
edge of needing release once again.
“Oh.” Her face flushes a pretty pink and I bite my lip to keep from
climbing over her and giving her a reason to blush.
Then she licks her lips and my mind short-circuits. I convince myself that
I’ve misheard her.
“What?” I ask.
“Can I use my mouth on you? You smell so good. I want to taste.”
This human is going to be the end of me.
I don’t realize that I’m nodding until Amy grins and sits up and pushes
me back on the padding.
I’ve had blow jobs before, but never while in heat. It’s always been about
biological imperatives with individuals that had magical protection from
being implanted with my eggs. A trick of my body to appease the heat.
Oddly, my primal self doesn’t reject the idea of coming down this pretty
human’s throat. Maybe Amy has cast a spell on me.
Amy takes my hand and puts it in her hair. “I like when you pull a little,
and if you want to thrust up and fuck my face, I like that too.”
She winks at me.
I’m stunned to silence until she takes me into her mouth. The sound I
make is drowned out by the thundering of my heart in my ears.
Amy’s mouth is hot. There are no hesitant licks or coy looks.
She sucks the head of my cock down, running her tongue over it to collect
all the precum she can. She releases my cock with an audible pop and a
moan. Her eyes are closed in bliss as if to savor my flavor.
Impossibly, I get harder.
 I tug on her hair and push her head down almost without volition. The
grin she shoots me hits my gut like hard liquor. She wraps her beautiful lips
around my cock and engulfs me in the hot slide of her mouth and throat.
Every inch more she takes in has me making shameful noises, but I don’t
care.
Amy taps my wrist when she needs air, or to swallow my excessive
precum. She can’t swallow it all and it spills from between her lips, erotically
running down my shaft to pool on my stomach. When she swipes her fingers
through the liquid and starts touching herself with my slick my groan is loud,
and I push her head down harder.

S HE MOANS around my length and the vibrations rip away my control. Like a
beast with no manners, I come.
I cry out at the explosion of ecstasy spreading up my spine.
Amy drinks down my release, the excess overflowing from between her
lips. She releases my cock with a gasp, and I watch her hips rock against her
hand and her blissful expression as she comes.
I’m drained. Usually, my heat would ride me until late into the night, but
with Amy’s talented mouth, I’m finally at ease.
I sigh and pull my human into my arms before pulling a blanket over us.
The heat has been appeased for now and I’m going to cherish this
moment with Amy until the burn needs to be quenched again.

I WAKE SWEATY , hard, and alone.

My heart jumps into my throat until my mate saunters into the room
naked, carrying a plate of food and a large bottle of water.
I reach to pull her down into the padding and she makes a sound of
disapproval.
“None of that until you eat something and drink some water,” she says.
“I’m not thirsty but I very much want to eat something,” I say, my mouth
watering at the scent of her on the air.
“Adrian, no.” Her tone is stern, and I take a few breaths to calm the
raging arousal that the sight of her bare skin and confident stride stir.
 I gesture for the food and water, and she gives them.
“Water first,” she lectures, and I smile.
Despite not feeling thirsty, I start guzzling the water and don’t stop until I
empty the bottle.
The scent of the omelet on the plate has my stomach growling and I dig
in. I’m halfway through the meal when I realize Amy doesn’t have a plate.
“I already ate,” she says. “I wanted to let you sleep longer.”
I frown. “I should be the one providing for you.”
“You have different primal objectives at the moment. You can make me
more delicious fish stew after your heat.” Amy tilts her head. “How long does
a heat last anyway?”
“A few days,” I say, making myself slowly finish the rest of the omelet.
Now Amy is the one frowning. “It’s too bad we don’t have any more
condoms. I could run to the drugstore—”
I growl without meaning to and cut the sound off, shooting an amused
Amy an apologetic look.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to have you leave my sight.”
Amy sighs. “What a pity. You really do feel fantastic inside of me.”
I choke on the last bite of egg and glare at a grinning Amy.
“Do you have any toys?” she asks.
“Toys?” I answer as if I don’t know exactly what she’s asking about. My
cheeks heat and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
Amy pokes my thigh with her toe.
“Sex toys, Mr. Monster that goes into heat.”
I clear my throat. “I have a Fleshlight.”
“Oh, that’s a good option! I’ve never used that on someone. No dildos?”
The image of sweet-looking Amy jacking me off with my Fleshlight
seizes my tongue and I stare at her until I remember the question she asked.
“No dildos,” I say, my voice sounding higher.
Amy’s brows furrow. “That’s unfortunate.”
I want to sweep that frown away and open my mouth without thinking.
“…I have English cucumbers out in the garden.”
Even if she isn’t a witch, her laugh is magical and fills me with
happiness.
“We’ll see,” she says. “I love penetration, but there are other options and
places that we can exhaust first.”
I tilt my head, a mixture of wanting to pull Amy into the cushions so that
I can use my tongue on her again and confusion at what exactly she means.
My face must show my internal struggle because Amy smiles like the cat
who caught the canary.
“I’m talking about anal,” she says.
My eyes widen in shock.
“You would let me do—” I break off. Scandalized and unbearably
aroused at the same time.
She’s broken me. The tantalizing human who snuck her way into my life
has broken me.
I think I love her.
13
 AMY

I THINKI’ve broken Adrian.

The pale portions of the skin on his face darken in an endearing blush.
“You’ve never done that?” I ask, and he shakes his head. “That’s a shame
with the amount of natural lubricant you make.”
The thought of the aphrodisiac cum deep inside me has my thighs
squeezing together. I’m a fan of anal, even if most of my exploration of the
arena has been done solo. And we wouldn’t have to worry about him laying
—
“Wait, you wouldn’t lay eggs in my ass, would you?” I ask.
“No!” He shuts his mouth and opens it again before shaking his head.
“That’s not a worry.”
His voice is low, and I can’t quite interpret his tone.
Shyness and doubts rise at his reaction. Maybe there’s a reason he’s never
done that before. Maybe I’m too forward for him. That would be
disappointing because I already like him too much.
We just met, but my feelings for him are so much deeper than that.
Maybe this is just a boundary for him.
I swallow. “If you don’t want to—”
He interrupts me. “I want to.”
“Oh?”
Adrian holds his body in absolute stillness and the air around us heats.
His cock, which has been hard since I woke this morning, bobs as if it wants
to dive deep inside my body and forget these discussions about preference.
“I wouldn’t want to hurt you,” he finally says.
 Relief makes me giddy.
“If we go slow enough, it’ll be fine,” I say with a small amount of
bravado. I’m like ninety percent sure it will be fine.
Adrian pulls me into the padding and I’m under him without pause.
“Sexy, sexy, Amy. I think you’re enjoying driving me crazy with how
much I want you.”
The heat of his bare body pressing against mine strokes over my senses.
“Me? I’d never tease you. I’m only suggesting a new experience
together.”
I nip his lip and Adrian’s mouth captures mine in a soul-searing kiss.
Everything with Adrian somehow feels natural. We just fit. His humor to my
wry commentary, his fierceness to my ease, and his desire to my wickedness.
I break the kiss, breathless.
“Let’s enjoy a new adventure,” I taunt.
Adrian kisses me in a way that makes me ache for breath and my lower
body aches for something else. That something else is hard against my pussy.
The soft friction of his skin against my clit has me needy and wet even as his
cock paints trails of slickness on my lower stomach.
“Please,” I beg.
“Are you begging me to slide my cock into your tight ass?”
I moan and nod. “I need you.”
He presses his face into my neck and inhales. “I need you too. I need to
feel you take all of me, need to fill you up.”
Fuck me. I want that.
“We can spoon,” I say. “That way I can move if you go too fast.”
Adrian nods and pulls my back to his front. His hips rock against my ass,
his shaft slipping between my cheeks. The precum he smears against me
heats my skin in a delicious way and I moan.
I rock back into him, letting the tip of him smear his lubricant over all the
sensitive skin of my asshole and taint, teasing myself when he slides through
my folds and pushes against my clit. It’s all so slick that each grind is bliss.
Adrian’s hand covers my breast, squeezing and pinching at turns.
His voice is deep and growly. “That’s it, my mate. Rub your little pussy
with my cock, soak me in your juices.”
I moan into the pillows and gasp. I let the mate thing go. We’re both out
of our minds with pleasure. It doesn’t mean anything, even if it does cause a
flutter of happiness in my heart.
 I drag his cock back to my asshole.
“I want you inside me when I come,” I say.
Adrian’s groan is breathless and more of his precum jets against my
asshole.
“Oh fuck,” I say.
Adrian’s fingers spread the slickness over the sensitive ring of muscle,
and I moan.
“Oh, just like that,” I moan. I definitely should have told Adrian to do this
rather than rush forward. It’s a good thing he’s being more practical about
this than I am.
His chuckle is low and hungry, his fingers slip inside my ass easily from
the lube. “I don’t know how you’re planning to fit me.”
I position his cock again and his fingers fall away.
“It will fit,” I say and press back onto his cock—and stop.
Oh jeez, he’s big.
I’d known that he’s a sizable guy, but knowing and pressing a cock
against my asshole are two very different things. It burns at first, but slowly
the slick cum and stretch starts to feel amazing.
“Slow, Amy, let my slick do its job. Let it relax you for me.” Adrian’s
voice is strained.
Oh, fancy cum for the win.
Adrian runs his hand up and down my arms, my hip, with soft touches
and reassurances.
I take deep breaths and the burn subsides until my need to take more is
greater than my need to go slowly. I press back onto his cock more and we
both groan when he slides in deeper.
“Oh, Amy, oh sweetheart.”
Adrian buries his face into the crook of my neck before licking and
nipping the skin there. Each rake of his fangs against my skin sends shivers
over my body and I take more of him. The plushness of his cock makes this
much easier now that my ass is filled with his lubricant.
I groan when we get to that bulbous part of his cock at the base. When my
body gives to the fleshiness, it stays at the inner entrance of my ass even as
Adrian moves gently in and out.
“Oh, fuck,” Adrian growls, completely gone to sensation.
I moan in agreement when he spears me deeper.
This isn’t like any anal I’ve ever toyed with. This is a deep, resonating
pleasure. The easy slide of our bodies causes each stroke inside me to catch
fire and cascades sizzling sparks to the tips of my fingers and toes.
Every breath we share is intense and I wonder if I could come from just
Adrian fucking my ass.
Is his aphrodisiac cum going to my head? Do I care?
The answer is that I don’t care.
I want it all.
“I want to be in doggy,” I moan.
Adrian’s rhythm falters with a curse, but we move until I’m on my hands
and knees. This angle feels even better.
“So fucking hot,” Adrian says, leaning back as if he’s watching his cock
enter me. I clench on him helplessly at the thought. The heat and pressure
inside me grows with each thrust until I feel the spill of Adrian’s slick
running down my pussy.
The heat of his slick, tingling effects, combined with the deep fullness of
having him inside me is what begins the avalanche of sensation.
I cry out and Adrian snarls behind me, his cock feeling even thicker
inside me. My arms give out and my face presses against the padding of the
bed.
Adrian’s body follows me down, pressing his chest against my back in a
primal, satisfying way. Each rut of him prolongs my climax until stars appear
behind my eyelids.
Adrian’s shout hails his orgasm and jet after heated jet fills my ass until
my body rallies with a responding shiver of release. The orgasm is thready
and weak as if it’s been wrung out of my body.
We lie in bed, panting and hot.
“That was…” Adrian trails off, head shaking. “I have no words.”
The hungry glint that had been in his eyes since waking has vanished for
the moment. He smiles at me and it’s as if the whole world lights up.
I have serious feelings for him.
Oh.
14
 ADRIAN

M Y MIND HAS BEEN BLOWN by anal, but as much as my body wants to be

inside Amy again, there’s a satisfaction simmering in my blood that gives me
a clarity I usually lack during a heat. With the respite, I carry a giggling Amy
into the bathroom and clean us up.
I take time and pleasure in spoiling the woman in my clutches, drawing a
steaming bath and pulling her into the large tub.
Amy sighs in delight when I massage the tight muscles in her back and
hips. My cum may have healing effects, but sex is still a physically rigorous
activity.
“That decides it,” she says. “This is officially the best date I’ve ever been
on.”
I laugh. “I think this counts as more than a date now.”
Amy nods and relief tumbles through my chest. I hadn’t realized how
hopeful I am that her experience is matching mine. That she feels that this
thing between us is more.
I dig my thumbs deeper into her back and her moan makes my cock stir,
but I ignore it.
“Do you like living in the city?” I ask. That sounds casual, right?
Amy hums. “I do. I ran from a rural town to the city with big dreams of
not having to drive an hour to get food and partying every night.”
I try to keep my shoulders from falling. My cabin is remote from the
nearby city. She isn’t looking for this type of life.
When I manage my disappointment, I notice Amy chewing her lip as if
she wants to say more.
 “But?” I ask.
“But… it’s okay. Being close to everything is nice, but I never really got
the hang of adult friendships. I like my alone time. And it turns out that after
a few years, dancing every night doesn’t hold much appeal. I guess… it’s a
little lonely.”
My heart rises at that, and I have the urge to scowl at myself. I shouldn’t
be so delighted at her saying that, but I don’t want our relationship to end
when my heat does.
The longer I spend with Amy, the more I’ve been convinced that my
inner creature is right. A fanciful part of my soul is convinced that our scents
have already started to mix in the way my kind mates, but there’s no physical
evidence of that yet.
That doesn’t matter. She belongs here. She’s my mate.
It’s too soon to come out with that. Paranormal beings have fated mates,
so whirlwind courtships aren’t unusual, but Amy is human. Humans have
drawn-out courtships full of dates and wooing, according to the movies. I
don’t want to scare her away.
15
 AMY

I WAKE with the slide of a tongue through my folds. The hot, slick rub of
texture has me moaning his name on a gasp.
My lake monster chuckles against my wet flesh. The light of morning fills
the bedroom, cutting shapes on the piles of pillows around us. I spread my
thighs wider now that I’m awake and Adrian sucks as he flicks his tongue
against my clit.
He knows everything I like now. The muscles of my body are tired from
the sex marathon of yesterday, even after Adrian pampered me with a second
bath, but I’m not sore, not even from the anal.
Magic cum for the win, indeed.
I ache to be taken still. We’d done all sorts of creative non-penetrative sex
and the anal was spectacular, but my lower body still aches with need. I never
thought I would be jealous of a sex toy, but watching Adrian’s wet cock fuck
into his Fleshlight while I’d held it and ground against his thigh had made me
jealous enough to make him wait as long as possible to orgasm.
Every time his body would tense to climax, I’d slow the movement of the
toy and squeeze the base of his shaft until Adrian would pant a curse. Finally,
when sweat shined on his skin and his knuckles were white from gripping the
padding of the bed, I removed the toy and took him into my mouth as he
started to come, swallowing each pulse of his salty release until I couldn’t
keep up with it anymore.
His roar had been deafening.
He’d repaid my efforts with oral, and I’d come so hard I’d swear I’d seen
the Milky Way.
 Maybe I should have him get those cucumbers from his garden.
I place my hand on his head, brushing the fin on the back of it before my
brain catches up with me. His skin is cool to the touch now.
“Your fever is gone,” I say.
Adrian stops licking my pussy and shoots me a grin. “You, amazing and
scandalizing woman that you are, must have ended my heat early.”
His heat is done. He didn’t get to lay any eggs. There would be no
children for Adrian this time, and maybe ever. Something about that makes
my heart hurt.
It’s silly to feel that way. I can’t regret not letting him lay his eggs inside
me. We just met! We hardly know each other… but is that really true?
We spent all yesterday together. Between incredibly hot activities, we’d
laughed and talked about everything under the sun. For a space in the
evening, Adrian had us pull on clothes and cook dinner that we ate on the
back deck, watching the sunset color the lake orange and pink.
Everything had happened fast, but I can’t lie to myself and say that we
don’t know each other… or that I don’t have big feelings for him. Feelings
that defy all modern dating expectations. Feelings that make me want to
never leave this cabin by the lake and the monster that resides here.
“I still need you.” His words break me from mental musings. His face is
serious and a glow of warmth lights in my chest. Maybe he feels the same.
The craving hits hard even while my heart enjoys the warm fuzzy
feelings. I know exactly what I want now that Adrian’s heat is over.
“I want you inside me, in my pussy,” I say.
Adrian’s body stills the way he does when he wants something but
doesn’t want to alarm me. He isn’t the only one who knows the other’s cues.
He shakes his head.
“I don’t want to risk your happiness. We should be responsible and wait a
few days,” he says.
I pull at him, and he allows me to direct his body until he’s above mine so
that I can wrap my legs around him. His cock slides against my core, hard
and ready. Both of our breaths catch at the sublime sensation.
“I don’t want to be responsible,” I whisper. “I’ve been aching for you
there since the first time you took me. It’ll be fine. You’re cooler now than
last night, and I burn for you.”
Adrian groans. “Amy—”
My body throbs. “Please, Adrian?”
 “Are you trying to make me even crazier for you than I already am?”
“Yes.” My tone is unapologetic.
“You want to take the risk just so you can feel my cock deep inside of
you?” His voice lowers and strokes over all my nerve endings.
I moan. “Yes.”
Adrian growls and pulls away, my legs unable to keep a hold of him. I
start to pout but he flips me on my hands and knees. I go light-headed from
need and lower my chest to the padding. The position leaves me so open, so
vulnerable. I shiver at the tickle of Adrian’s breath along my bare skin.
“Fuck,” Adrian drawls. “You look like a treat like this, with your pussy
on display. Like you want me to breed you.”
I whimper at the blaze of need that races through my body and burns in
my core. I want that. I want me dripping from him like yesterday. I want him
over me and forcing my face into the padding.
“Adrian, I need you.”
His fingers slide through my folds that are already messy from my
wetness.
“It does feel like you want this.” He’s so measured now. His body wants
this too, but unlike his heat, he’s making me wait for it and it only stokes the
flames of my desire higher.
A finger slides inside me, and I keen. I can’t even blame his cum for
making me like this since I haven’t had any slipped inside me since last night.
All of these desperate sensations are because Adrian is the one I’m with.
“Is this what you need, my mate?” he asks.
“Yes, more, please,” I pant, enjoying the trill of happiness that rings
through my soul at him using the M word. He’s no longer in heat and still
saying it. Does that mean he wants me as much as I want him?
“Then you’ll get more,” he says.
Adrian slides the tip of his cock through my already sopping opening and
my breath stutters. His hardness isn’t as heated as last night, but I groan at the
contact all the same. I try to rock back into him. He teasingly pulls away from
me and I cry out at the loss.
I’m not left empty for long. He pushes into me all at once and I groan.
His body is heavy and large inside of mine, just like the one time we’d done
this before. His cock still spreads his slick inside me, heating and tingling.
Adrian’s teasing persona cracks.
“Oh gods, Amy, you feel amazing.”
 Adrian drags his cock out before thrusting in with a moan. Each
movement he makes is controlled and a pressure builds in my belly.
I whimper. “Harder.”
I push back into Adrian’s next thrust and the smack of his body against
my ass has the breath escaping from my lungs.
“Yes! Just like that.” I say.
Adrian makes a vicious sound. His movements pick up speed and force as
his control crumbles.
He pounds into me and it’s heaven. Deliverance. Each impact ripples
through my body and stirs a hunger for more.
“More,” I beg.
“Such a needy mate,” he teases but his voice is breathless and deep.
I reach down to stroke my clit, my orgasm close.
Adrian groans and his movement slows. I’m about to complain when
something starts to feel different.
He freezes.
I moan as his cock expands. The bulbous, fleshy part swells inside me to
the point of discomfort and Adrian hisses as he fills me with his release. I
gasp at the sensation of pressure building from the copious amount of his
spend trapped in my body.
Fuuuck, that feels good. Everything south of my belly button feels heavy
and warm.
I rock back onto him, and his claws bite into where he clutches my hips.
“Don’t move!”
He sounds freaked out.
“Adrian?”
He breathes out. “I’m going to try and slide out of you.”
“Um, I think we’re locked together,” I say, wincing when his movement
tugs on the part of him locked inside me.
“Fuck,” Adrian says, a mix of frustration and pleasure. “Just don’t move.”
“But you feel so good,” I moan.
Adrian grunts as more of his release fills me. It’s as if my core is
blooming under the heat and I wriggle to try and ease the pressure.
“Amy, I am going to lay an egg inside you if you don’t stop.”
My eyes widen. Oh.
“So… I guess your heat isn’t actually done yet,” I say, a tiny bit
apologetic.
 “Apparently.” His voice is strained. “I’m so sorry.”
“I was begging for it.” My voice is wry. I’m not panicking. Everything
feels too good to panic.
I groan when he floods me again. The warmth of his release melts the
stress of every daily worry away. It’s not quite like being drunk, but it is
floaty. My body cramps in a primal need that I’d experienced the last time
Adrian had filled me with his cum.
The need to fulfill the purpose of the heat, to mate and be together.
The idea is like a light bulb going off in my head. “Do it.”
“What?” he asks, his question strained.
I grip the padding under me, surer with every throb of pleasure.
“Fill me with your eggs, Adrian.”
He grunts. “You don’t want—”
“I do,” I say, and I realize it’s the truth. I want to keep him, I want a part
of him inside me, and I want him to breed me.
It doesn’t take much more convincing. I don’t know if he really could
have stopped even if he wanted to. The grip he has on my hips relaxes. He
moans as something moves inside me, almost a flutter, stroking over my
internal walls.
It feels odd but good, and my body starts to climb in an orgasm.
Adrian releases more of his magical cum inside me and my belly is full of
hot butterflies of desire.
“Jesus, that feels good,” I pant.
Adrian rocks his hips against me, nudging the swell of his cock deeper on
a moan. “You’re doing so well, softening up for me.”
That’s what his magical cum is doing to me. Softening me up to be
penetrated where nothing ever has before.
I clench around Adrian’s cock, half in nerves and half in a foreign thrill.
He groans. “You love this, don’t you? Love being bred by me.”
“Oh, fuck, yes,” I pant. From the way my whole body burns when he says
it, that’s a kink I’ve collected now. Or at least, just with Adrian.
My lower body cramps as if to beg for this type of penetration, and
there’s a weird popping sensation in the base of my belly, like something
giving.
I gasp. A tickle spreads from there up my spine and over my arms.
Adrian’s groan is low. “That’s it, take me.”
There’s more heat, more stirring in a place that I’ve never felt movement.
He hadn’t lied. There’s no pain, only pleasure spiraling upward, but instead
of winding my body up, it eases everything. A warm flowing syrup flowing
through my veins like a sedative.
My moan is breathy.
Adrian grunts and I feel something passing from him to me. It’s surreal.
The intimacy between us through this connection is like nothing I’ve ever
experienced before.
I’m so blissed out and in a happy haze that we could have stayed like that
for minutes or hours until the thing that was moving deep inside me recedes,
leaving nothing but warmth.
The knot, because that is surely what it is, softens and slides from me
when Adrian pulls out.
I hum, almost drowsy as I curl up in the padding. I turn to pull my lover
into the padding to spoon me but freeze at the look on his face.
Adrian looks horrified.
“I’m—” He shakes his head, looking pained. “I need to go.”
“What?” I ask, the word garbled.
Instead of stopping to explain his actions, Adrian races from the room.
16
 AMY

I T TAKES a while for the tingling drugging ease to leave me. Slowly I feel less
like I’m floating on a cloud and a little more like I was just pounded into the
recessed bed. My brain stops losing track of what I need to think about.
When I sit up, I sway. The world is still slightly fuzzy. My body feels
satisfied, as if I’ve had an amazing workout and my endorphins are high-
fiving my brain. I open my legs and Adrian’s release runs out of me, messy
and viscous. The eroticism of the sight arrests my breath… along with the
consequences. I shake my head.
Shower. I need a shower first. Everything else can come after.
My reflection startles me when I flick the bathroom light switch on. My
face is flushed, expression relaxed, but my hair is matted in a nest that defies
gravity. I slowly comb it out while the water heats up. Each gentle tug brings
my hair back to a manageable state and with it, my mind starts to dispel the
floaty numbness.
The shower is hot, and the water pounding against my skin gets my blood
flowing again.
I lather the body wash and massage it into my skin, remembering the
blissful way Adrian had massaged me yesterday. I could really use some
pampering now.
Where is Adrian?
My hands run over my middle and I stop, my breath sucking in with a
hiccup. Adrian filled me with eggs. Does that mean I’m pregnant? Am I
going to have a lake monster baby?
I don’t panic. My palm presses my belly and I consider it.
 Is the idea of having children right now scary? Hell yeah. I don’t know
when it wouldn’t be scary. But it’s not some random person’s kids, they’re
Adrian’s.
The lake monster I want to be with.
I want to have Adrian’s kids. My shoulders fall and a small laugh escapes
my mouth. I can work with this. We can work this out. I could do accounting
remotely, maybe even work with Adrian. We can live in this cabin and
experience the terrifying concept of parenthood together.
The look of horror and panic on his face before he left finally penetrates
my brain and leaves a hollow sensation like hurt. We should talk.
I finish the shower and dry off, pulling on one of his shirts. The panic that
had been absent up till now starts to edge in.
Why hasn’t he come back yet? Maybe he’s making breakfast?
I descend the stairs. “Adrian?”
The cheery decor of the cabin stands pristine. The kitchen is empty,
untouched from when we’d cleaned up from last night.
Adrian is gone.
I want to have Adrian’s kids… but does he want to have them with me?
17
 ADRIAN

I CUT through the cold water, my body moving quickly as if I can truly
outswim what I’ve just done to my mate, the violation of it. My muscles burn
in exertion, but the pain is welcome.
The ground rises from below me, the water becoming shallow. I burst to
the surface, transitioning from breathing through my gills to the air above
with a gasp. I stumble to shore, my mind full of static and panic. My webbed
feet grip the silt beneath them even as the world tilts, my mind attempting to
catch up.
What have I done?
A voice startles me from the panicked spiral of my thoughts.
“Hello, neighbor.” Seamus raises a steaming mug to me. The dark green
of his face stretches into a smile and the plantlike hair on his head flutters in
the morning breeze.
“Seamus—” My throat catches.
Seamus frowns. “You smell newly mated, but you don’t look happy to
be.”
Under other circumstances, I’d be delighted to be truly mated. A mating
only occurs for my kind when strong emotions are at play. It’s not binding
and will fade should the individuals break up, but it’s still significant.
It’s one more thing that I’ve ruined.
“She’s carrying my egg,” I say.
Seamus’s brows rise in surprise. “Congratulations.”
I shake my head. I want to be joyous, but I can’t. “It was an accident.”
My friend’s face becomes serious, and my senses shiver a warning of
danger over my skin. Seamus is first and foremost a protector.
“You forced her?” he asks.
“Yes, no, I don’t know. She said to do it, but it was the heat of the
moment,” I gasp, trying to keep from sobbing.
Seamus’s shoulders relax. “And she doesn’t want your child?”
A child. I don’t allow my mind to absorb that yet.
“How could she?” I ask. “She’s human. We just met. She has a life in the
city.”
A life she’s already confessed to finding lonely. The insidious thought
doesn’t make a dent in the guilt I’m swimming in.
Seamus scoffs. “Did you ask? Humans can be more adaptable than the
majority of magic folk.”
“I—” I didn’t ask. I ran away and left an impregnated Amy alone in a
cabin. What if she leaves? Would I ever be able to find her again?
Seamus nods as if I’ve voiced any of my thoughts. “You have the potion I
gave you that would make a witch, or a human in this case, able to carry your
child. Calm yourself and speak to your mate about how she feels about all of
this.”
I swallow and nod, only slightly soothed by his even tone.
The possibility of losing this opportunity for young is a stabbing grief.
Without intervention, the egg placed inside her will dissolve away as if it had
never been there. My instincts scream at the possibility.
But my instincts won’t keep my mate by my side and happy.
Amy is the one I should be talking to. Not Seamus.
At the very least, I need to apologize. Though, I do not know how she’d
find it in her heart to forgive me.

T HE SWIM back to the cabin takes minutes, but I rush inside.

“Amy?” I call out. My heart falls through my chest when there is no
response.
I race up the stairs. The air is humid from a shower, but the recessed bed
is empty.
“Amy!” I shout.
I can’t lose her before I apologize before I confess my feelings. What if
she falls ill or gets injured? What if I must wake every morning without her
presence at my side? To know my mate is out there and not with me?
The panic of that possibility constricts my throat. How quickly this
woman has become my everything. I can’t imagine not having her in my life.
There’s a distant sniffle and I freeze.
It’s not too late. I dash down the stairs and out the front door.
Relief cascades through me when I see her. She’s standing by the deck
railing, one of my shirts brushing the tops of her thighs and her snow boots
on her feet. She wipes a tear away. The sight of her red nose and misery
holds my heart in a vise.
Something crosses over her face, and she turns away like she’s going to
run from me. No! The instinct screams at me and I grab hold of my mate, my
arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her back to my front.
“Don’t leave,” I say. “Please don’t leave. I know I crossed a line, but I
need you.”
Amy’s body against mine quiets the frantic mess of my emotions and
brings solace. I run my lips over the crook of her neck and the scent of her is
homecoming, the quiet of dawn before the sun truly rises.
I shouldn’t be holding her like this, but I physically can’t let her go. She’s
the other half of my heart.
Amy hiccups and leans back into my chest, her body softening.
“You left.” Her words sound hollow.
I swallow. “I know. I was… overwhelmed.”
Amy nods as if she’d already figured that.
“I didn’t know if you’d come back or if you wanted me here when you
came back,” she confesses.
I hold her tighter against me.
“You were going to leave me?” My voice wavers from the pain of that,
but I can hardly blame her.
She twists in my arms and glares at me, but I don’t release her. Her front
presses to mine so I can see the blue of her eyes, the depth of the frustration
there, the shiver from the lake water I’m saturating her borrowed shirt with.
The chill doesn’t deter Amy’s glare. “I left my phone number on your
counter.”
The pain in my heart eases. She gave me what I needed to contact her.
She didn’t intend to flee from my presence to never be seen again. It’s a gift
that gives me hope.
 Amy shakes her head and gestures to the woods. “But then I realized that
my clothes are ruined and I don’t know how to find my way back to where I
parked and… I just don’t want to leave.”
The tightness of my throat makes it hard to swallow.
“I don’t want you to leave,” I say, my arms squeezing tighter around her.
“I’m sorry for abandoning you after…” I struggle with the words to describe
what occurred between us.
Amy shrugs, but her lower lip trembles. “You needed a minute.”
“I did. I—” My throat swells, making it hard to speak. “Please forgive me
for…”
“Getting me pregnant?” Impossibly, Amy’s lips quirk, but there’s
wariness there.
Am I sorry that she’s carrying my young?
No, and that makes the guilt in my gut sharper. I take a different
approach. “I’ll understand if you feel violated. It was an accident, and we
already discussed your feelings about children from this heat.”
“What about you?” she asks. “How do you feel about having children
with me?”
Amy’s voice cracks with the question.
I try and keep myself from carrying Amy off into the cabin to make sure
my mate will not leave me.
I need to keep a level head. Somehow I force myself to take a step away,
my arms falling away. I don’t want Amy to feel caged for any part of this
conversation. The front of her shirt sticks wetly to her skin, and her lower lip
trembles.
“Can we talk inside?” I ask.
It’s the wrong thing to say because more tears spill from her eyes.
“I want children with you,” I rush to say. I take her hand, caressing my
webbed thumb over her hand. “I want to fill you for the rest of our days,
whether it results in young or not. But I want you as my mate more.”
“You do?” she asks.
“How can I not? You’re brave and funny. I’ve never felt about anyone
how I feel about you.”
The smile that breaks over her face chases away my worries, my fears,
like shadows fleeing sunrise.
Amy’s brow creases in worry. “You said the eggs—”
“Egg,” I cut in. “It’s a single egg.”
 A precious opportunity that I’d thought forever lost. Amy’s hand comes
over her stomach and my heart stutters.
“Oh, well that is much more manageable than the litter I’d imagined,” she
says.
I bark a laugh. A litter. Amy imagined a litter and she isn’t throwing
things at me and screaming in anger. Is it possible that she wants it as much
as I do?
“You said the egg wouldn’t be viable without a potion,” she says.
“We have some time to decide about that. Come inside. It’s cold and I’ve
gotten you all wet. As ravishing as you look in my shirt, you aren’t dressed
for a walk in the woods.”
Amy smiles. “I’m dressed for being chased down by a monster in the
woods.”
“Temptress,” I say without heat.
Amy moves toward me and I can’t hold back. I draw her into my arms
and kiss her. I groan as my mate kisses me back. This. This is what I need in
my life. No matter what other decisions we make, I need my mate by my
side.
18
 AMY

A DRIAN HUMS while he prepares breakfast. The action is domestic and calms
the high emotions from the deck. Now that Adrian knows that I want to stay,
some of the primal intensity from before has eased and he doesn’t even
complain when I go change into something dry.
When he catches sight of me in another one of his shirts, the membrane of
his lids nictates in pleasure.
I liked that primal intensity too much. It cuts through all the insecurities
that rose in Adrian’s absence.
I sit on a stool at the counter and watch the lake monster make French
toast and bacon. Adrian plates me too much food but I dig in. I’m ravenous. I
made sure that we stopped and ate throughout Adrian’s heat, but we still
burned a lot of energy in the past couple of days.
“How does being the mate of a lake monster work?” I ask.
Adrian chokes on his toast and coughs.
“What?” I ask, pointing at him. “You’ve called me your mate already.
You can’t even blame your heat for that last time, and you don’t want me to
leave. I don’t want to leave. So how do we become mates?”
Adrian blushes. “We already are mates. Our scents have combined. It’s a
natural process that can happen with my kind when both parties feel
strongly.”
My smile stretches my kiss-sore lips. “Well, that’s easy then.”
“I’d like you to move here,” Adrian says shyly. “Will that be okay? I
need to live next to a body of water and I have connections here—”
I interrupt him. “I’d love to move in.”
 Adrian’s shoulders relax and he shakes his head with a huff. “You’re
making this much easier than I thought it could be.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
Adrian shakes his head, his lips twitching. “No, not at all. It just makes
my worries feel unfounded.”
I reach across the island and thread my fingers with his. “I think that’s
normal enough. This is all happening pretty quickly.”
He frowns, worried again. “Do you need to go slower?”
I snort. “I think that option has been taken out of our hands.”
Adrian’s face is stricken. “I don’t want to take away any options for you.”
“Let me be the one to worry about my options. You need to trust that I’ll
voice my concerns if I have them.”
Adrian’s dark eyes meet mine for a long moment before he nods.
Speaking of concerns, there’s a heaviness to my belly that is new and
makes me bite my lip in worry.
“So about this egg…” I start.
“Amy.” Adrian swallows. “I’m so sorry for violating—”
I wave my hand, cutting off what I’m sure would be a very thorough
apology.
“I literally begged you for it.”
“But that was in the heat of the moment. I should have resisted—”
“Adrian,” I cut him off. “It was an accident. Accidents happen between
couples. There’s no use feeling guilty about it, but you can always assuage
that guilt with foot massages.”
Adrian’s shoulders drop in relief at that.
“I’m happy to give you all the foot massages.” Adrian’s tone becomes
serious. “About the egg… I don’t want you to feel pressured to drink the
potion.”
I cough a laugh. “Remember what I said about being amenable? I
wouldn’t take the potion unless I’m sure it’s what I want.”
“I don’t want to rush you.” A line of worry creases Adrian’s brow.
“There’s always the chance that I’ll have more heats.”
“And there’s the chance you won’t,” I say gently. I let my hand drift to
my belly and the way his eyes flare at the gesture says it all. “I want this,
Adrian.”
Adrian turns from me and retrieves something from a cupboard. When he
turns around, he places a wax-stoppered vial in front of me that looks straight
out of a fantasy movie. The glass is clear and a purple concoction swishes
back and forth inside with the movement.
“And this will make the pregnancy viable?” I ask.
“It will become like a regular pregnancy, if a little further along.”
I frown. “Like a human?”
Adrian’s tone is careful. “The child will be like me.”
He casts a glance over to the family portrait on the wall and I remember
the mini-versions of nix. Our kid would have his big black eyes and be the
next generation of lake monster.
“Good,” I say and unstop the vial. “Cheers.”
I down the contents, my heart racing. I expect the potion to taste gross but
am delightfully surprised with the spicy herb flavor. I don’t recognize any of
the ingredients, but that may be for the best. A tingle runs through my blood
and I shiver.
Adrian picks me up and takes me to the living room, arranging me on his
lap and hugging me to him.
“My brave, beautiful mate.” Adrian nuzzles his face into my hair.
No other words in all my life have ever shot my emotions so high. It
reminds me that I’ve skipped a few steps in our courtship.
“I love you,” I croak.
Adrian freezes and pulls back. A smile curving his lips as if he already
knew about my feelings before I voiced them. Maybe he does. My actions
leave little room for doubt.
“I love you too, my impossibility.”
Even though I expected the words, they create a bloom of happiness in
my chest.
“How do you feel?” Adrian asks. His hand hovers awkwardly over my
stomach before he starts to pull it away.
I make an annoyed sound and place his hand on my lower stomach,
enjoying the warmth of it through my borrowed shirt.
“I feel good.” The tingling is mild and pleasant. I lie back against him and
hum. “Do you think that they’ll be lonely without siblings?”
Adrian’s breath hitches. His joy and disbelief fill the air around us.
He clears his throat. “I guess there need to be more kids around. I don’t
think Seamus is looking for a mate though.”
“But you do know a matchmaker.” My smile is mischievous.
Adrian presses his cheek against mine. “That I do.”
EPILOGUE
 AMY

I BREATHE a sigh of relief as I type the words “The End” on my current book.
Adrian had suggested I publish my original stories when I started getting
restless after a few months together. There would be no more treks into
unfamiliar woods to find another monster, mine is much too possessive for
that, so I needed to find a different adventure to keep myself out of trouble.
The world of self-publishing romance with monsters that look like
monsters has been both so much harder and easier than I expected. It keeps
me on my toes, and now I have quite the backlist built up and a hungry fan
base.
I roll away the stress tightening my neck and send the manuscript to my
editor. With this book done, I’ve earned myself a vacation.
And now to find my family. I walk out to the deck, knowing exactly
where they are.
“Good job, buddy,” Adrian says, lifting our son out of the lake water in
triumph before carefully removing the flopping fish from his mouth. Toby
grins up at him with matching tiny fangs. Our son is a miniature version of
Adrian in fins and coloring. Seeing them together always warms my heart,
even if I’m much too squeamish for their kind of fishing.
I stopped worrying about our son in water when Adrian had taken a
newly born Toby into the lake to use his gills for the first time. There’s
nowhere Toby wants to be more than in the water. He’s a nix. Being a lake
monster is in his blood.
“Mom!”
I swear Toby’s big black eyes light up when he sees me, and I wave.
 “Hey, sweetie, you caught such a big fish!”
Adrian shoots me a conspiratorial look as he releases the small fry back
into the water.
“You want to try for another one?” Adrian asks Toby. “A different one?”
I purse my lips to hide my smile at Adrian’s attempts to spare our local
wildlife from too much abuse.
Toby nods, giddy, and throws himself back into the water.
Adrian shakes his head when Toby’s bobbing fin disappears. He pulls
himself out of the lake and I admire the rivulets of water that run down his
bare body before dripping on the deck.
“All done with the book?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“It’s time to celebrate then.” Adrian pulls me into his arms and my
sundress soaks up the lake water from him. His skin warms mine even though
he’d just gotten out of the water. An aquatic perk, I’m sure. “Should we go
somewhere? My parents invited us to go south.”
Nix may prefer spreading out and having their own territory, but as soon
as young are in the picture, everyone wants to get together. Toby’s
grandparents on both sides like to spoil him.
My parents had taken the lake monster revelation rather well when they’d
heard that they were getting a grandchild out of it.
“That sounds nice,” I say.
I’m distracted by a splash in the lake from Toby going bottoms up and
diving deep again.
“You know,” I start. “It’s not fair that he takes so much after you and not
at all after me.”
Adrian scoffs. “I do believe the way he rushes toward adventure is all
you.”
I purse my lips and consider that. “There might be some truth in that.”
“And maybe, if the Fates are so kind, the next one will take even more
after you.” Adrian’s smile is soft with a teasing edge that has heat curling
under my skin. My mate squeezes me against him harder and I bite my lip.
We always talk about the chance of a second child gently. Adrian hasn’t
gone into heat again and it’s been a couple of years, but both of our hearts are
open to the possibility. If only the planets would align or whatever these
Fates needed to grant our wish.
A voice breaks through the summer air and startles us out of our teasing.
 “Hello, nix family!”
“Uncle Seamus!” Toby runs out of the lake and the tree man gathers him
up in his arms.
I grin at our neighbor. “Seamus, it’s good to see you!”
There’s a gleam of mischief in his dark eyes when he responds. “I
thought I’d take Toby to stay at our place for the next few days.”
Both Adrian and I still in surprise and Toby cheers.
“That’s generous of you,” Adrian says.
The tree man waves his hand as if to say it’s no trouble.
“We’ll just be going now. Call to let me know when you want him to
come back home.” Seamus turns and carries our son into the woods, an air of
mystery surrounding him. I’m not concerned about the surprise childcare.
Toby stays with Seamus and his mate often enough that he has everything he
needs at their cabin.
I place my hand on Adrian’s chest to say as much, but the heat of his skin
distracts me. The twinkle in Seamus’s eyes suddenly clicks in my brain.
“Adrian, you’re going into heat!”
Adrian’s eyes widen at that, and his mouth stretches into a grin. “Tricky
bastard,” he says, but his voice is thick with emotion before he sniffs. “Well,
my beautiful mate, what do you say to adding to our family?”
My body responds to the purr in his voice. I jump and wrap my legs
around his hips. “Yes!”
Adrian’s eyes darken. “So eager to be filled.”
Movement between my legs has me panting as Adrian’s cock begins to
extrude.
“You’ll accept my eggs?” he asks.
I moan, my logical brain quickly vanishing as his slick warms and tingles
against my clothes-covered pussy. “How many eggs?”
Adrian smiles against my lips.
“We’ll see about that. You have to work for them. Would you like that,
mate? Fuck my eggs from me until you’ve been bred?”
“Yes.” I grind against my mate.
Adrian shakes his head with humor. “We should stop at one egg, or we’ll
be outnumbered.”
But my mate sounds like he likes the idea of being outnumbered.
“We’ll see how much you can fill me then,” I say.
 ADRIAN

I T ’ S hours later when I let my mate take my cock. I’ve enjoyed the ease of
this heat. It’s as if my body knows that it will get what it wants, and I have
plenty of control to stoke Amy up to the point of mindlessness with one of
the sex toys from her vast collection.
Her collection had been quite the surprise when she’d moved in. Amy had
tried to convince me that the interestingly shaped dildos were only for
aesthetics… she really is the worst liar when she even manages to get that far.
“You’re taking it so well. I think you’ve earned my cock,” I say,
watching her body accept the swell of the “knotted” dildo and gently circling
her clit with my thumb. My cock is harder than steel and slick but the sight of
Amy submitting to my every whim is beautiful.
Amy moans.
“Please, Adrian!” she begs.
She pushes the dildo out and my cock jerks at the sight of the slick toy
coming from her. Amy grabs my face and kisses me.
“Are you ready to take my eggs, mate?” I ask.
“Past ready. I need you to fill me up where only you can.”
I grit my teeth at the surge of satisfaction before pressing my body into
the cradle of her sweat-damp thighs. Pleasure races up my spine as my slick
hardness slides inside her tightness. The swell of my deflated knot pops into
her clutching heat with ease.
Amy and I moan at the same time. I drag my cock out and push it back in.
The way Amy’s eyelashes flutter at the motion makes me glad that I’m
facing her this time.
 “Please, Adrian, I need it harder.”
I grin, dragging myself from her body only to thrust in completely. Fuck,
that feels good. I find a rhythm of smacking our bodies together. Amy’s body
clasps me with each impact.
“My mate,” I growl, falling into the primal pull of the heat.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she chants.
Our bodies flow into each other as we chase the sparks of bliss. Pleasure
surges and I grit my teeth at the first spurt of my slick inside her. I groan as
her legs come up around my hips, bringing me farther inside her body. Each
pant and sound from my mate slides over my sensitive skin and pushes me to
give the woman I love everything I have.
I rut into my mate. Amy cries out and I hiss when her orgasm locks me
inside her for a beat. I’m helpless to stop my own release, my knot inflating
and locking us together. My cock lengthens inside my mate, spreading my
release, filling her to the brim with slick.
I kiss my mate. A tenseness in my lower belly tells me that the egg will
drop as soon as Amy is ready to take it.
“I like this,” Amy says, lightly running her fingers over my damp brow.
“Last time you were so freaked out.”
I huff in amusement. “I thought I was going to do something that would
make you leave me. I was terrified.”
Looking back, I know now that as soon as the knot had swelled, there was
no way around laying the egg that became our son.
We both moan when more cum fills her.
Amy smiles, her expression floaty with bliss from my cum.
“No fear this time.” Her voice is soft.
“No fear,” I say and kiss her, breaking it after a beat. “Only love and
hope.”
Amy hums. “I love you, Adrian.”
I swallow. “I love you too.”
I groan when the rooting action of my cock starts against the mouth of
Amy’s womb. Her breath stutters.
“Accept me, my mate,” I say as if Amy can let me in merely by relaxing,
but her lashes drop in bliss.
We both gasp when the tip of my cock pops into her body. I grunt as the
heaviness of my belly gives way as the egg travels through me to my mate.
Amy arches when her body accepts it.
 The beat of our hearts slow and eventually my cock leaves the innermost
part of her body and I slide out completely. A giddy Amy pulls me into a
kiss. Time blurs with the taste of her mouth and the slide of our tongues.
Eventually I pull away and Amy grins, her hand sliding down and
covering her stomach. Satisfaction roars at the motion.
Thankfully eggs drop one at a time. Surprise triplets would be stressful.
Amy’s eyes sparkle and the late afternoon sunlight that dots our bedroom
turns her eyelashes gold. She bites her lower lip.
“Let’s go for one more,” she says.
My smile is slow. Two eggs… two more children to complete our family.
“I can’t deny you anything,” I say, and rest my forehead against hers, so
glad that she’d crashed my date years ago.

THE END
Curious about the matchmaker’s love story?
Read Stalked by the Kraken!
 NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Hello Dear Reader!

Thank you for taking a chance and reading Found by the Lake Monster!
I always worry that I’ll go too far with an idea… but then the ball gets
rolling and I can’t be stopped. This project was very much an ode to my love
of alien romance and spooky feels. Oviposition and getting lost in the woods,
yes please!
On a more serious note, this book was the short feel-good story that no
one asked for, but what I needed to write to climb out of the pit that is
burnout. For that, Amy and Adrian and their highly lubricated happily-ever-
after have a special place in my heart.
A thank you to Liz Alden, and Elizabeth for beta reading this romp of a
good time. Your commentary helped shape this story into one that hit a little
deeper with a more realistic world around it. (As realistic as we can get with
eggs and lake monsters anyway)
As always, thank you, Dear Reader, for reading my book. It’s always a
marvelous thing that people read the books that I create and I’m grateful to
you.
L. Lark
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lillian Lark was born and raised in the saltiest of cities in Utah. Lillian is an avid reader, cat mom to
three demons, and loves writing sexy stories that twist you up inside.

More information about Lillian can be found on her website at LillianLark.com

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