All Chapters of When Monsters Mate: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Lydia’s POV There was a crack in the ceiling above my bed, long, thin, staring at me like it could somehow understand what I was going through. There were voices, not mine. Of people laughing, joyous, moans of pleasure while I lay down after another failed attempt at getting pleasure. This was what peace looked like now. I didn’t have to walk on thin ice around my father, or his clan members. I didn’t have to hide my talent because I was supposed to sit and look pretty, waiting for when I’d be sold to the highest bidder. This was stillness. This was calm. I pressed my thumb to the metal cuff in my hand and turned it again. And again. The bracelet was old. Its silver was dull, the carvings almost worn smooth from years of worry. But I knew them by heart. Every curve. Every line. They weren’t just designs. They were a map. A mark. A memory. Fifteen years ago, a boy had found me crying in the woods behind the Morvain estate. My dress was torn, my knees scraped. I’d been hidi

Leonidas’s POV I smelled vampire the moment the wind shifted. It was sweet. Too sweet. Like rotting flowers drenched in perfume and spiked with venom. That scent always made my skin crawl. It reminded me of battlefields, of soldiers turned lovers, then corpses. Of betrayal sealed with a kiss. But this one... she smelled different. She smelled alive. She smelled like a remedy for disaster. The second I laid eyes on her, I knew she wasn’t like the others. She was pale, deathly pale, but not fragile. Her skin was smooth, freckles free and soft. Her hair spilled down her back in loose waves, black as midnight. And her eyes; blue, icy, unbothered, locked on mine without fear. She should’ve been afraid. But instead she looked at me like she wanted me. Like she needed to scratch me off her back. I didn’t know I was going to see her at the ball. The ball I had been reluctant to attend but had to to show people I was very much capable of leading my pack. Her scent hit me so hard my wolf

Leonidas’s POVShe smelled like frost and old fire.Like rain after a drought.Like danger you don’t run from.I didn’t follow her.I didn’t need to.Lydia would be on my mind long after the blood dried on that alley floor. She always lingered. She was the one thing I didn’t prepare for as I attended the ball.Even when she pretended not to see me.Even when her voice curled around mine like a blade hidden in silk.She was cold, yes, but not dead.And I knew death.I’ve held it in my hands. I’ve buried it. Burned it. Worn it.She was something else. Something that had once burned too hot and learned how to freeze.And I? I was the idiot who kept walking into the fire, knowing damn well I’d melt if I stayed too long.I returned to the compound just before dawn.The dark already getting use to me and I, it. I crossed the threshold of my gates just as the sky began to bruise with morning. The heavy iron arches groaned shut behind me, their sound echoing through the stillness like a warn

A week later. Lydia He hasn’t left my head. No matter how many times I blink. No matter how much coffee I drink. No matter how many times I tell myself he’s just a wolf , just teeth and trouble dressed in skin. Leonidas. There’s something wrong with the way he’s settling in my chest. Like he’s part of me now. A bruise beneath the skin. I’ve tried to forget him. Tried to focus on anything else, the string of dull clients at the parlor, the broken ceiling fan that now hums a tune I swear is mocking me, even Rina’s absurd obsession with rom-coms and dramatic lip gloss. Nothing works. Because I keep hearing his voice. Keep seeing the way he looked at me like I was something tragic and holy at the same time. I hate that look. I hate what it does to me. The summons came on a torn envelope sealed with my family crest, a black raven with blood on its beak. So subtle, Father. I nearly burned it without reading. But curiosity is a disease, and I’ve never fully

I remained frozen at the door, Leonidas’s voice and scent filling my lungs, curling into my bloodstream like smoke I couldn’t cough out. My heart thudded like a hunted thing in my chest. My brain conjuring various scenarios to save me from what was actually happening. The sharp slam of my father’s office door down the hall dragged me out of the fog, snapping me back into the moment. But it didn’t help, not with Leonidas watching me like I was prey that wandered into the den willingly. His eyes followed my every step as I tiptoed further inside, silent as a whisper, but still too loud under his gaze. I hated that he looked so calm. So collected. The soft gleam of amusement danced in his eyes like he was enjoying the show. I hated him more in this moment. But I also hated my father, for letting me walk into this without warning. Into his presence, the enemy. Leonidas had the upper hand in this meeting, and he knew it. It was written in every lazy tilt of his mouth, every