She narrows her eyes back on mine.

“Do you know what I would have given to have been raised in an era where you can swipe right to go spread your legs with a pretty boy, without having to deal with all their gushing emotions, back when hard men could only show their soft sides to a woman in the sack?” she gripes.

“You really are a bitch, aren’t you?” I ask her very seriously.

“No, I’m a monster. I’ve lived for too many centuries to even keep up with the numbers anymore. I’ve lived through fire and ice hells. I’ve watched the world constantly change its mind about right or wrong. I’ve watched egos bounce back and forth, to the point where nuclear war is threatened because of an insulting mouth or two. I’m a jaded, hardened, seasoned monster, who knows more about war than any soldier in any human army. Just like all of them,” she says, her eyes staying fixed to mine.

She reaches out, taking my hand in hers, and gives me a pitying look.

“You’re twenty-six years old. Four jaded, hardened, seasoned monsters, who’ve lived through countless heartbreaks and vicious wars are not the sort of men who are going to care too much about your feelings, dear. Either you’ll have to settle, or they’ll have to change everything about themselves to accompany your demands. You decide what love is for yourself, and then make your decision.”

This conversation started with me having her on the ropes. It’s ended with me on the ropes instead.

She’s not telling me a whole lot, because she’s sure deflecting damn hard.

Instead of saying anything, I give her the final word, and she leaves, likely feeling satisfied.

A ghost I’ve not seen in a while pops through the wall, and I startle. It’s that weird guy the triplets introduced me to.

“Why did you start ignoring me?” he gripes.

“Why did you start stalking me?” I counter, feeling defensive.

His eyes level mine. “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s meant to be.”

I blink. Rapidly.

“What?”

He shrugs. “She’s not wrong. You and them? You’re nothing alike. With four against one odds, you’ll never make it. But it doesn’t happen all at once. You build a foundation, make it sturdy, and build the rest brick by brick. My father taught me that.”

He turns and starts walking away, and I sigh harshly.

“Did you seriously stalk me just to eavesdrop and offer unsolicited advice?” I ask him.

“Of course not,” he says over his shoulder. “I stalked you because you started ignoring me. I don’t like to be ignored.”

With that, he disappears.

“Why couldn’t I have been a normal girl who played with Barbies?” I whimper, as I slide down the wall and shut my eyes.

A weird smile suddenly stretches across my lips. Then again, since I met the four of them, I’m starting to love being a monster. You know, when it isn’t a pain in the ass.

Chapter 1

Now…

VIOLET

Dorian Gray is in my office, alone with me, and smiling like he’s planning to do something that will prompt my monster to break free. I really don’t trust my monster enough to let it loose in a houseful of Simpletons it could rip apart, after I’ve promised to keep them all safe.

I end up backing into my desk so hard I bump a few papers off, and Dorian grins down at the bottle of apple shampoo in his hands.

“This stuff is quite remarkable. Did you know it masks a person’s scent?” he asks me, looking up to meet my gaze.

Swallowing thickly, I tune out my mother’s voice in my head. She said to take the apple products off the shelf. She told me not to grow the apples. She said it’d be used against me.

I have no sense of smell. It’s not like it affects me one way or another.

But the guys won’t know he’s here if—

“To be honest, I didn’t believe it when Idun first told me such a thing. I thought she was setting me up for my younger brother to destroy me for coming to take his potential Flame away,” he tells me, using far too casual of a tone, while placing the bottle on the desk.

He’s eerily similar to Damien, but when Damien says stuff like this, it’s a turn-on. When Dorian says it, my skin crawls.

“You can’t be in Sanctuary without—”

“I’ve read your book quite thoroughly, Violet Carmine,” he says as he grins broader. “By the way, they can’t hear us in here, so speak freely. The sound-trapping illusion is a specialty of mine. Damien was never quite as good at working the audio as well as he does the visual. I do have to hand it to him for being a master of visionary illusions, though.”

The words he says doesn’t sound threatening, but the threat is clear: No one can hear us.

I swallow against the instant lump in my throat.

“There’s a loophole for alphas you should have considered, though, in regards to a great many of your rules. You see, once you invite the Head of a House into any House that’s been established with the same authority as an Alpha House, you legally extend such an invitation to all members of their alpha family. I suppose Vance should have been more involved, since Avery isn’t abridged on most of those tedious details, regarding alphas—”

“What do you want?” I interrupt, my nervousness ratcheting up, as I fight down the urge to panic.

I can’t panic and tear apart Damien’s brother. Also, what if Dorian destroys me? I have no idea what he’s capable of.

His smile is so sinister that it immediately starts a flurry of warning bells in my head.

“You’re a Neopry monster. By law, you’re a part of Idun’s House. Whether you’re registered or not, and regardless of having Portocale blood or not, you’re still regulated by Neopry law as much as you are Portocale law. And by Neopry law, your alpha has the right to loan your services out to another alpha. I hear you break curses, and I have one I desperately want broken.”

I startle when he takes a quick step toward me, and his grin doubles as though it excites him.

“I wonder if it works even without the curse in effect,” he says as he taps his chin, dramatically feigning deep thought.

When his cold gaze returns to me, he winks.

“By law, I’m allowed to use your body to set me free from a curse that prevents me from doing my duties to their fullest extent. Not even Sanctuary has a law to stop it.”

His eyes rake over me very deliberately, as he pauses for dramatic suspense.

“Turn around and put your hands on the desk. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Even if you later hate yourself for how much you’ll enjoy it. My brother will certainly hate you for loving every second of it,” he continues, his dark smile stretching wider.

My knee slams up, prepared to collide with his balls, but I’m suddenly against the wall and he’s coming down on my back, wrenching my arm behind me so hard and fast that I cry out in surprise.

“Scream for me, Violet Carmine. Nothing would please me more,” he whispers.

My heartbeat starts to drop almost immediately, ready to release the monster, regardless of the consequences. But images are suddenly hammering through my mind, and a scream really does tear free from my throat, as thousands of knives start stabbing me from all directions, feeling so real it’s nearly unbearable.