by K. A Knight
Contents
Author’s Note
Previously on Rage …
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
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also By K.A Knight
The Fallen Gods Series
Excerpt: Pretty Painful
Hate (Her Monsters Book Two)
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to places, events or real people are entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 K.A. Knight, all rights reserved: Written by K.A. Knight
Edited By Jess from Elemental Editing and Proofreading.
Formatted by Kaila Duff .
Cover design by Rabbit Hole Designs.
To the woman who thinks I write too much darkness and told me to write more positivity and less death. This one is for you.
P.S. I killed you in this book too...
Warning:
There are no heroes in this story, only monsters. Enter at your own risk...
I tried to include a recap, but so much happened in Rage..so here is the basic gist.
Dawn was murdered. She came back. She met a god who turned out to be her mate. Killed and shifted into the skin of many people. Went shopping and had lots of kinky sex while falling in love. Met another of her mates, a fallen, he’s a bit nuts that one. Dreamed of a dragon who is also her mate. Woke up an ancient minotaur who killed witches and bad guys to try and get to her only to be captured.
The dragon goes in search of her and meets three cooky witches along the way. Starts a fight with a sat nav and is genuinely clueless.
Meanwhile, Dawn gets kidnapped and breaks free. Kicking ass and taking names as she tries to figure out what they are doing to human females. She finds a scientist who tells her the big bad, The Others, pay them to do it. To bring out latent, supernatural blood in humans.
Griffin turns up, they escape. They meet at his house with Nos and make some plans and have more sex. Some people are tortured, some killed, until they finally meet Victoria, AKA Victor, who her shitty ex husband was stealing from. Victoria takes down her husband and rings Dawn to meet her there.
Dawn shows up with her mates and they kill the bastard. But then, oh no! The bad guys turn up and kidnap her! She wakes up and meets an asshat called Veyo who works for the council. She pissed him off in her usual Dawn style and is dragged to a cell with a beast...Dume.
Aska stands dramatically on a hill and swears his revenge.
See? Now you are mostly caught up.
Grab the wine, and maybe your vibrator. It’s about to get a whole lot darker...
I must have fallen asleep because I wake with a scream trapped in my throat, Tim’s words echoing in my head, and the horrible, sadistic look on his face right before he killed me.
“You. Are. Mine.”
I swallow them back like razors, he was wrong. I don’t know why I’m dreaming of him now, maybe it’s because I finally got my revenge and now, with him gone, all that’s left where there was once revenge is an aching pain and bad memories crowding my head. I was never his and I will never belong to someone like that again, it’s different with my mates. They don’t want to own me, they want to love and protect me.
“Forever, Little Monster. You will never get away from me.”
Oh, Nos, I hope you keep your promise. I miss my horned god already, miss that smile. Those white eyes and his sweetness...the hard way he used to hold me. Push me to my limit and keep me there, forcing my body and heart to accept everything. He was there when I first woke up into my undead life, he was my constant, and now he isn’t here. I feel it keenly...I wish that when I open my eyes, I’d find him sitting cross-legged before me, his animalistic face tilted as he watches me…
But I don’t.
Chains ring out, slithering across the floor, so I lift my head. I can’t see much, it’s dark, not the inky grey of night but utter blackness. The sight of death, the end, and in it hides a minotaur.
Everything must have been too much, my body shutting down not long after being thrown in here, but now I’m awake. Awake and aware I’m trapped with a mythological predator. So what do I do? I sit up and cross my legs, tipping my head, wishing I could see into the dark.
Then, suddenly, I can, my eyes light up white, bright as the moon’s rays like when Nos is changed...he did say mates can possess some of each other’s powers, and my eyes have turned white before...is that what’s happening now? I’m learning what I am and what I’m capable of as I go, and it seems my mates are as well.
I wonder if I will grow wings like my moody fallen...or scales like my dragon if I ever meet him.
Aska.
How will he find me now? He said he was close...will he give up? Will I ever feel his lips on mine for real like I did in that dream place we met? Only time will tell, but right now I have more to deal with than missing my monsters.
I’m trapped in here with one, after all.
“Minotaur,” I call out, my voice steady. He hasn’t hurt me yet and I’m tired of being afraid. I’ve faced down too much to let it take hold of me. Instead, I’m steady...and curious. Like when I met Nos.
A rumble comes from the corner where even my eyes can’t pierce the black veil surrounding it.
“Hello?” I try again, and this time a louder rumble sounds from the dark.
I slump, almost giving up, but then it moves. Not it, him. Too fast for me to track, he breaks free of the shadows. Towering above me is a monster from my childhood storybooks. Horns protrude from his head, a golden nose ring hangs from his snout, and his legs are splayed and end in hooves. A tail whips the ground behind him. His fur is dark, almost black, and intersected with old scars. He’s huge, almost touching the top of our cell, his body wide and big like, well...a bull. He’s what nightmares are made of, yet I’m not scared. No, something else starts within me, a tug low in my belly, pulling me to him.
Calling me.
I stare at him and he stares right back, his eyes flicking almost red like flames as he takes me in. He moves again, so
quickly he becomes a blur, and then he’s so close I can smell him...like fire and ash. He smells delicious.
Getting to my feet, I realise my head barely reaches his chest, and I have to tilt my chin back to meet his eyes, a smile playing around my lips. I’ve met enough monsters now to know this one is something powerful...something special.
“Are you afraid of the dark, Draya?” he asks, his voice like the crashing of two rocks, the clang of shields in war. Blood and pain almost wrap around us from his deep, dark timber. I don’t know what draya means, but the way he says it sounds almost like a prayer. He circles me, the slinking of his chains following him as I stand still, letting him. I don’t even move my head. He doesn’t scare me, no...I want him.
Lust blooms through me, covering the dull ache in my stomach, one that started when I was taken from my other mates. It calls to me, cooing for me to reach out. To touch him, to taste that darkness and pain...and the hate buried inside him. Swathed around every fiber of his being. To find out whether the darkness and animal lingering around me is as strong and as powerful as he feels.
“No, I live in the dark,” I reply, and lick my lips. “I was born in the dark. I died in the dark and I was reborn into it. I’m a monster, just like you. No, I don’t fear the dark... I crave it,” I answer honestly, and a breath blows across my neck, making the hair stand on end. I can feel him behind me, almost close enough to touch. Goosebumps rise from the proximity, my breathing speeding up as my heart races.
“Are you afraid of me?” he whispers. The dark rumbling should send fear through me, but instead I shiver in need. His voice is obviously created to inspire fear, but to me it sounds seductive.
A dare.
A challenge.
And if there is one thing I’ve learned about myself since waking up as this new person, it’s that I always rise to a challenge, and nothing or nobody will ever make me feel weak, like prey, again.
Because I’m not, I’m as much of a predator as this creature. Just in a smaller package. I turn to face him then and move closer until we’re touching. He sucks in a breath, smoke curling from his muzzle to me, but he leans down so his face is almost level with mine.
“If you wanted to play who is the biggest monster, you only had to ask, beast man.” Standing on my tiptoes, I dart my tongue out and lick his nose ring. “I will gladly play.”
My dragon takes over and I let him.
I feel the echo of my mate’s pain, her scream in my head covering the distance between us through our bond, and a roar of agony fills my animal at being helpless, at being so far away while she suffers.
I leave my car on the road as I smash my way through the woods, following her scent. More animal than man, no rational thinking, only the need to hold my mate. To see that she is safe and to destroy the souls of those who dared touch what is mine. I break through the witches’ protective circle like its paper.
I. Am. A. King.
They dare hurt her?
They think they have seen power and pain, death and bloodshed, but they haven’t seen anything yet. I will burn this world apart until I find her, I will bathe in their souls and hear their screams.
My animal and I agree with that.
The once sunny forest turns dark with the spirits and powers leaving my gaping mouth. It blots out the sun, wrapping around the trees and ground like a mist. All noise stops as every animal cowers, feeling my immense power.
I reach the place she was last and circle, her scent, her soul more prominent in this location. She was here for a while, as were others, and then they left...but not of their own accord.
Tire tracks lead through the mud, as does the dragging of feet. But only one set.
Who was with her? Where are they now?
Just as I think that, I see a flash to my right, bright white cutting through the darkness. I turn my massive head, snout open and rows of teeth flashing in warning at any who comes too close. My purple eyes shine through my own blackness, like lasers seeking out a target. Anyone to take out my frustrations on.
My spine ripples as my spikes come out, my scales locking down like armour. Another flash comes, this time near one of my wings on my left. Spinning in a circle, I lash out with my tail when I hear movement, and a grunt follows.
“Fucking dragons, what the fuck next?” comes a snarl, followed by a snort and the flapping of wings.
“Fallen, remember why we are here,” someone growls from the trees, and I find a horned man—if you could call him that—standing there surrounded by animals.
The wings freeze and a grumble comes before another man joins the first, his hair down to his shoulders, his eyes flashing black, and his feathery wings spread out behind him like a warning. He glares at me, arms crossed and face snarling.
A fallen?
A forest man...only one I know exists in this country.
But what does a forest god of old and a fallen have in common?
My animal takes back over, overriding all rational thought. He doesn’t care who they are, just that they are not her. My mate...Dawn. He roars and flaps his wings, taking us up and flattening the grass and flowers around us. His mouth opens, ready to suck out their souls and kill them.
She grins at me, and she is so close I can almost touch her. Does she know who I am? Does she know what she is to me? The witches left me here to rot, they stopped coming in after I let my animal maul two of their people, and then out of the blue the door opened...and in came my mate. Tumbling into a graceful heap where she proceeded to pass out. I watched her the whole time, protecting her, my animal wanting to roar at having found her, but I wouldn’t let him, she needed her rest.
She is a tiny thing. I was sure during the time she slept and I watched that she would be terrified of me. Such a little body with long, golden hair the likes of the kings and queens of old. Her beauty unmatched throughout the ages, her eyes huge and blue and I wanted to see them again, craved those long lashes to open so those orbs could once again lock on me. Her body is curvy, and I ache to reach out and map each dip and flare.
But no, she was not terrified of me like I thought. What irony, I had thought, to give a monster like me a tiny mate who wouldn’t be able to fight. Yet here she stands, toe to toe with my animal. A feat no one else has ever managed...and lived. Those eyes as blue as the water near my home, unwaveringly focused on me. Her red, rosy lips pulled up in a smile that has my cock rock-hard even in this form.
She might be small, but she is a warrior.
I can tell as much by her bravery to face down a monster like me, her courage outweighing any fear she may have. I inhale hard, I don’t smell any at all. No, something else. Something sweet. It wraps around me, drifting from her body, and settles into my bones. Its roots spreading through my veins, pulling an echoing call from deep within my soul.
It isn’t her who steps away or cowers, it is me.
“What magic are you pulling?” I roar, moving until my back hits the cell wall. Never again will I be trapped, not even by the woman who is to be my mate. No magic will force me to servitude, not again. Whatever she is doing, it won’t work.
“Magic?” she echoes, tilting her head and watching me as she strolls closer, uncaring that more and more smoke drifts from my snout as my anxiety spirals. I can almost feel the magical chains dragging me back to my pit. How much of a fool was I, thinking I could trust another being? She will betray me, they always do.
“Witch,” I hiss. Surprisingly enough, my animal is...calm. Settled almost, wanting to curl up around her and purr. It is my human half which is suspicious, always is and always will be. Mate or not.
“No, try again.” She laughs like we are playing a game, finding amusement in seeing me scared of her.
“I can feel it,” I snap, and my hooves clank against the floor in agitation.
“Can you?” she purrs, stepping closer and laying her head on my chest. Her eyes widen. “I can taste the racing of your heart, is it you who fears me?”
�
�I fear no one,” I snarl at her. “I do not want to be trapped by a pretty face again.”
Her expression softens then as she searches my eyes, an understanding entering them, but how could anyone understand what I have been through? “Me either,” she whispers. “I promise you, minotaur, I’m not doing magic. I don’t think I even have any, not like that,” she vows, and it echoes around—truth.
“Dume,” I rush out. “My name is Dume.”
“Dume.” She rolls it around on her tongue before a smile curves her lips. “What are you feeling that has you spooked?”
“My heart is racing, head fuzzy...I, erm, my cock is hard. I want you, so badly with an inhuman need,” I admit.
“It isn’t magic, minotaur.” She laughs, her eyes bright with amusement, lips stretched in a grin.
