To Love A Monster

by Marina Simcoe

  TO LOVE A MONSTER

  _____

  By Marina Simcoe

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  To Love A Monster

  To My Hunter

  A Special Thank You

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Epilogue

  More By Marina Simcoe

  DEMON MINE | Demons, Book 1 | Chapter 1

  About the Author

  Please Stay in Touch

  To Love A Monster

  Copyright © 2018 Marina Simcoe.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please contact the author.

  Marina Simcoe

  Marina.Simcoe@Yahoo.com

  Facebook/Marina Simcoe Author

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions or locales is completely coincidental.

  Cover Original Art and Design © 2018 Marina Thompson

  Marinathompson.deviantart.com

  First Edition

  Spelling: Canadian English

  Editing by Two Horses Swift

  Proofreading by Nikki Groom, The Indie Hub

  Warning:

  To Love A Monster is a paranormal romance with graphic descriptions of intimacy, coarse language, and potential triggers. Intended for mature readers.

  To My Hunter

  A Special Thank You

  TO CASS FROM TWO HORSES SWIFT for making me realize that the Monster I had in my head never made it to the paper with the first draft.

  Thank you for helping him emerge in all his tortured-hero glory.

  Chapter 1

  MONSTER

  Intruders!

  He leaped out of the icy water onto the rocky riverbank and shook his hide.

  Rising on his hind legs, he stretched to his full height, sniffing the air. The breeze was in the wrong direction—he didn’t smell them yet. But he felt the trespassing. He was all the way by the river bordering his property at the east. The intruders must have entered from the road to the west.

  He had no idea what date it was, but judging by the leaves falling from the trees and the frost on the ground in the morning, it must have been around October, maybe November. Either way, the hunting season would be in full swing, which could mean that the intruders were hunters.

  There were plenty of Private Property, No Trespassing and even Violators Will Be Prosecuted signs placed all along the barbed wire marking the boundaries of the estate. However, this didn’t seem to deter the occasional hunter from crossing over in a pursuit of a deer or an elk.

  As long as it was the deer that they were after, he had nothing to worry about, except that people in general were a nuisance.

  Maybe the cougar will get them.

  The sneaky cat had been stalking him for years. Of course when he wished him to show up and chase the intruders away, the cougar wouldn’t be around.

  He drew in another lungful of air, searching for any foreign scent on the breeze.

  Nothing.

  Still, the nagging feeling of the intrusion wouldn’t leave him, forcing him to move west, towards the house. It couldn’t hurt to make sure the hunters stayed away from it.

  He sped up until he broke into a full-on sprint, his paws hitting the leaf-covered ground soundlessly. Hot blood pounded through his veins along with the satisfaction of being alive.

  Further west, an inhale of air finally brought in the scent of the strangers, bringing him to an abrupt stop so fast, he almost tumbled over his head like a clumsy puppy.

  The scent wasn’t what he expected.

  None of the usual smell of oil and gunpowder of a hunter. Instead, the faint scent of fancy cologne and delicate, flowery perfume reached his sensitive nose. And it was the subtle, delicate scent of female bodies underneath the perfume that hit him like a punch in a gut.

  His blood boiled, his vision clouded, and his cock hardened so painfully fast, it slapped his underbelly with force.

  Primal need to breed forced him up onto his hind legs again. He threw his head back, his long horns pressed against the shoulder blades. Flexing his fingers, he released razor-sharp claws, and roared into the cold air around him.

  The mating call of a beast reverberated through the woods, bouncing off the tree trunks in cascading echoes.

  Chapter 2

  “WHAT WAS THAT?” ASHLEY froze in her tracks. Following closely behind her, I bumped into her.

  “What the fuck?” Jason, my boyfriend of over two months, tightened his grip on the axe in his hand, his knuckles white.

  I was pretty sure my face was just as pale. The deafening, blood-curling howl had made my insides turn to chilly slush.

  “No clue,” I replied. “But it certainly sounds vicious.”

  “We should go back, guys,” Ashley muttered.

  “It’s just some wild animal. Probably a wolf.” Jason seemed to have recovered quickly. “There are three of us. It won’t attack in the broad daylight. Come on.” He moved ahead, lifting the axe he had brought to cut through the bush in his right hand and cradling his precious camera to his chest with the other.

  “There was too much roar in that howl for a wolf.” Ashley pointed out, not moving from her spot. “And it sounded way too loud. If it really was a wolf, it must be the size of a bull.”

  “I’m with Ashley on this one.” I nodded, not moving either. I’d known Ashley for three days and in that time we hadn't agreed on everything, but right now we were definitely on the same page. I shivered. Our fun afternoon outing didn’t feel that harmless anymore.

  Last night, after a long conversation with a drunk at the bar of the hunting lodge where the three of us were staying with a group of Jason’s hunter friends, he decided to go on a search of an abandoned cabin in the woods.

  The drunk had described it as ‘the most fucking beautiful hunting cabin that you’d ever see’, which spiked Jason’s interest as a photographer.

  “I think we should go back,” Ashley sounded more adamant by the mome
nt, glancing around nervously, her hands twisting the cord of her backpack.

  Unlike her boyfriend, Ashley didn’t hunt, and neither did I. Bored out of our minds from waiting at the lodge for the hunting party to return every night, we tagged along with Jason for something to do.

  “We’re almost there, Ash,” Jason insisted. “Look, if you really want, you can go back and wait in the truck.”

  “Uh-uh.” Ashley appeared resolute. “I’ve watched way too many horror movies to be the one waiting in the car. If we go, we all go together.” She moved ahead muttering under her breath, “At least this way I’d have a chance to get away if that thing attacks you first.”

  I hesitated for a second. The blood still ran cold in my veins, and the terrifying sound of the howling roar continued to ring in my ears.

  From my limited knowledge about wild animals though, they rarely attacked unless provoked, and I had no intention of provoking anything.

  Jason and Ashley started walking away so I hurried after them not wanting to be left behind.

  “Aha!” I heard Jason exclaim triumphantly. “This must be the driveway the guy was talking about.” He pointed at the dense, seemingly impenetrable wall of wild rose bushes to our right.

  “A driveway?” I stared at the prickly shrubs, confused.

  “He said the old driveway is overgrown with rose bushes, and the cabin itself is surrounded by them.”

  “It makes no sense. Why would the driveway be more overgrown than the woods around it? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

  “Fuck if I know.” Jason shrugged. “Isn’t the Wild Rose the provincial flower of Alberta? You’re from Alberta, Sophie. I’m from BC. If you don’t know why it grows the way it does, how am I supposed to know?”

  The bushes in front of us might have been Alberta Wild Rose, but I’d never heard of them growing like this, high and dense, forming an impassable hedge.

  I rolled my eyes at Jason’s logic, but kept silent. Lately, I’d noticed it was best not to reply in cases like this. Jason would never miss a chance to argue simply for the sake of having an argument—just another opportunity to hear himself talk.

  “Anyway,” he continued. “All we have to do now is follow the rose bushes all the way to the cabin.”

  “Easy-peasy,” chimed in Ashley, marching ahead with much more bounce in her step than could have been expected after her earlier hesitation. And I followed, trying to keep up.

  It didn’t take long before we ran into another wall of rose bushes. This one grew perpendicular to the one we had been following. This time of the year, the delicate pink flowers of the wild rose, had already been replaced by red, glossy fruit.

  “And there it is,” Jason grunted with satisfaction then started swinging his axe left and right to crush the thorny branches in our way in order to make a passage through the hedge.

  Ashley squeezed by him as soon as he stopped. “Holy cow!” I heard her whistle. “Is this the cabin?”

  “Yesss,” Jason hissed triumphantly and thrust the axe back in my direction then lifted his camera as soon as I took the axe from him. “This is something else! Totally worth the trip.”

  I stepped around him and into the clearing. The rose bushes circled the yard of the cabin in a neat shape, like a live fence, with a spectacular building in the centre.

  “I wouldn’t call it a cabin.” I took in the enormous structure in front of me.

  Two stories high, with a third-floor glass observatory on top, the sprawling log-and-stone building looked more like a high-end estate home or a movie star’s retreat.

  “Who would build something like this here?” I asked in shock.

  “Some rich folks who didn’t know what else to do with their money.” Jason already snapped busily away with his camera.

  “How did they get all these rocks and logs in here?”

  “Hey guys,” Ashley called from the front porch. “Wanna go in? The door is open.”

  The circular gravel driveway that led to the four-car garage on one side of the house and the wide carport on the other was surprisingly clear of rose bushes. Instead, the forest undergrowth had sprouted through the gravel here and there.

  “Sure,” Jason jogged ahead, holding the camera in front of him like an army standard.

  The solid, wooden front door must have been half-open for at least a few seasons now. Leaves, dead grass, and dirt piled up high on both sides of it, firmly holding it in place. The gap was big enough to walk through.

  “They just left everything behind, eh?” The echo of Ashley’s excited voice bounced off the solid timber walls inside when I entered the huge open space of the main floor.

  An enormous stone fireplace, big enough to drive a truck through, was the main focal point of the living space. Half a dozen French doors behind it let in the afternoon sun. The broken glass in one of the doors had fallen out, and the cold November air blew freely though the house piling dead leaves and pine needles in every nook and cranny.

  Faded area rugs littered the oiled-wood floors. Couches, side tables, and armchairs stood around at random, some lying on their sides.

  Ashley was right, the house seemed to be fully furnished, even if everything was buried under a layer of dirt.

  “Sophie! You’ve gotta see this kitchen!” she called from around the corner and I followed her voice in that direction. “They at least should have taken the appliances. This fridge alone must have cost thousands of dollars,” she lamented, stroking the double-door of a built-in fridge. “Maybe they figured it was too expensive to haul it all the way from this far up North?”

  “They don’t seem like the type of people who would worry about anything being too expensive,” scoffed Jason.

  Through the arched opening behind the massive kitchen island, I could see him choosing the best angle to shoot the fireplace.

  Whoever had decorated the place was obviously going for expensive rustic chic with a mix between a hunting cabin on steroids and a medieval castle—timber, wrought iron, and natural stone. There were even a few animal hides and antlers on the walls.

  I headed to one of the two sets of staircases that led to the second floor balcony overlooking the main floor. Several second-floor doors visible from below must have led to more rooms upstairs.

  “The coffee maker is still plugged in,” observed Ashley from the kitchen then I heard the sound of cabinet doors open and close. “Guys, they even have booze in here!”

  “I’m going upstairs,” I shouted back, tracing my finger along the dusty surface of the ornately carved railing.

  To me, the place felt like a museum with a mystery of an abandoned house mixed in. Suddenly, I wanted to know more about the people who’d occupied it, wondering what compelled them to build this monstrosity in the middle of nowhere and then leave it all behind.

  I had no idea how long the house had been sitting abandoned, but there was not a creak in any of the stairs as I ascended.

  Built to last.

  At the top of the landing a massive set of double doors greeted me, imposing in their size and ornateness.

  This must be the master bedroom.

  With a loud screeching noise, the rusted hinges turned, letting me in the spacious room with a stone fireplace in the middle and a massive four-poster bed far behind it.

  The expensive, over-the-top décor of the downstairs was carried over to this bedroom as well.

  The extravagance of it reminded me of the many residences of Henri, my father, even as the style of the rustic wilderness here was a direct opposite to Henri’s taste in opulent French elegance.

  I leant the axe against the wall and took a step towards the bed when the same blood-curling roar suddenly reverberated through the house, making me jump up in horror as my heart all but stopped.

  This time, the howling sound didn’t break into pieces of echo in the woods. Instead, it appeared to be trapped inside the house, shaking it to its foundation.

  Whatever made the terrifying noi
se was in here. With us.

  “Jesus fucking Christ!” Jason’s voice held so much terror it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

  “Run, Sophie!” Ashley’s piercing shriek full of horror cut through the air.

  Run!

  Panic shot though my veins, propelling me downstairs. From the window on the landing, I glimpsed Jason’s back as he sprinted towards the passage in the rose bushes.

  Jumping over the two bottom stairs, I almost crashed into Ashley dashing past me to the main door, chanting “Run, run, run . . .” under her breath.

  Then I saw it.

  Standing on the other side of the fireplace was the hulking figure of a beast.

  Bigger than any wolf, it balanced on its hind legs.

  Horns. Massive head on wide shoulders. Scruffy, dark fur all over. . .

  I didn’t pause long enough to notice any more details, as the monster bared his teeth and produced another booming roar.

  Without wasting another second, I turned on my heels and dashed to the front exit. Ashley’s back had just disappeared through the gap in the rose bushes, and I headed that way too, afraid to turn around to see if the thing was chasing me.

  But the very moment I reached the hedge, something slammed in my back and I heard the thick fabric of my khaki jacket rip.

  The impact knocked me off my feet, and I crashed into the bushes—my outstretched arms in front of me.

  Another roar came right from above me.

  I scrambled to all fours and crawled towards the gap in the hedge, in desperate denial of reality refusing to believe that there was no escape.

  A powerful blow from a heavy paw threw me away from my path to freedom. I flew through the air a few feet and landed on my butt, painfully hitting the ground.

  The monster leaped after me, and I crab-walked backwards in a hopeless attempt to flee.

  My breath came in harsh pants. I couldn’t even yell for help—every ounce of my energy was directed towards getting away.

  The animal slammed a hind paw on my leg, pinning me in place.

  Frozen in horror, I expected it to lunge forward and rip my throat out.

  The beast rose over me, and I had to crane my neck to be able to see its face.