Page 13 of The Monsters We Are

He slowly dipped his head. “Wynter, both my monster and I would lose our sanity if we lost you irrespective of whether you were bound to my creature in some way or not. We need you. The only thing that would keep us going would be the knowledge that you were out there somewhere for us to find.”

Which was sweet and all, but it didn’t erase her concerns. “Would there be other consequences to your creature’s life-force being tied to mine?”

Cain shook his head.

“Then I don’t really get why your monster would be so keen on this. I mean, it gains nothing from it.”

He tapped her nose gently. “Wrong. It will have the satisfaction of knowing you’re committed to it. And . . .”

“And, what?”

“And you will carry its venom inside you. As you already know, my creature wants that. It resisted before now because if you had died you’d have returned fully healed and so its venom would no longer flow in your veins—the whole thing would have been for nothing. But now that you’re immortal, you’d survive the bite. The venom would then live in your blood.”

“So it’s the venom that forms the binding?”

Cain dipped his chin. “Once it has been absorbed into your bloodstream three times, you and my monster would be forever tied.”

“And how would you feel about that?”

His brows inched up. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I asked. You have very few vulnerabilities. Letting your creature entangle its life-force with mine would make it and, by extension,youvulnerable to an extent.” She didn’t like that part at all. “I don’t want to ever be a weakness to you.”

He pinned her gaze with his own. “You couldneverbe anything but my greatest strength. As for how I’d feel about all this . . . I wouldn’t have a single issue with it. I want you bound to me in as many ways as possible. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that I own enough of you; that you’re as tied to me as I need you to be.”

She frowned. “You own my damn soul. Need I remind you of that?”

“Oh, pretty witch, it’s not at all necessary to remind me of that—it’s not something I would ever forget or take for granted. I treasure it, much as I treasure that you trust I’d never abuse that hold I have over your soul.” No one else had ever had that level of faith in Cain; none had ever expected “good” things from him until Wynter.

“But?”

“There’s no ‘but’.” Cain dropped a kiss onto the tip of her nose. “I just mean that, despite owning your soul, I very much like the thought of also being preternaturally tied to you.” Wynter always felt slightly out of his reach due to her partly belonging to a deity. Which was another reason why owning her soul satisfied him so thoroughly—his claim to her now ran deeper than Kali’s ever could.

Also, it gave him a sense of security that he didn’t like admitting he needed. But when you were the son of Satan, it surely wouldn’t be so surprising that you didn’t have complete faith in your ability to keep the people who mattered to you close.

“So you really want this, then?” she asked.

“I do.” He wanted to know she accepted him to such an extent that she also wholeheartedly accepted his monster. She’d assured him that she did, and he wholeheartedly believed her. But her agreement on this would prove and cement it, and Cain found that he needed that.

Her brow flicked up. “And how much of that is because you’d then feel I was officially trapped in this relationship?”

Cain licked the inside of his lower lip. “I don’t want you to ever feel ‘trapped’ with me but, as I said before, I want you bound to me in as many ways as possible.”

“You think I might one day leave you?”

“Haven’t we been over this before? You might try, but you’d only find yourself chained to my bed.”

She gave him a droll look. “Ah, yes, I did forget that.” Pausing, she twisted her mouth. “Was Lilith’s consort bound to her creature before he died?”

“Yes. It would have allowed nothing less.” When it came to Wynter, neither would Cain’s own creature. And, not viewing itselfasa monster, it didn’t see why Wynter wouldn’t agree to make such a commitment to it. But Cain did, so he added, “You don’t need to make a decision now. Give it some thought. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes, I can do that.”

“Good.” He gave her a quick kiss. “Now let’s shove aside all serious discussions so we can enjoy the rest of our evening.”

“I’m absolutely up for that.”

“Thought you might be.” He let his gaze drop down her body. She might only be dressed in a t-shirt and panties, but . . . “You’re wearing far too many clothes.”