All Chapters of When Monsters Mate: Chapter 41 - Chapter 45

Lydia’s POVGrief is not loud. It is not screaming, or wailing, or even the sound of glass shattering.It is quiet.It creeps in when no one is watching, when the world has gone to sleep and the only thing left is silence. Silence that digs into your bones, silence that mocks you because you know the person you loved will never break it again.That’s what Rina’s absence feels like. A silence so sharp I feel like it has replaced my blood with knives.Every time I close my eyes, I see her. Not smiling, not laughing like she used to, but lying there in the dirt, her hair tangled and her skin cold. My mind won’t let me remember her the way she was alive. It forces me to replay the image of her body. Gone. And it’s my fault.I keep saying that to myself, over and over, until the words carve themselves like open wounds inside my head. If I had been faster, if I had seen the signs, if I had never pulled her into my world, she would still be here. She would still be alive, breathing, cursing

Lydia’s POVLeonidas and I walked in silence back toward the castle, the sound of our footsteps crunching against the gravel path the only thing filling the heavy air between us. I should have been thinking of Rina, of her face, of the way she used to laugh until her stomach hurt. But instead, all I could think about was the way Leonidas looked stepping out of the water, broad shoulders gleaming, droplets running down his chest like they belonged there, every muscle moving like he’d been sculpted by something otherworldly.And the shame of it burned me from the inside out.God, Lydia. Just weeks after your best friend’s death, and here you are, wanting. Wanting your husband like you’ve never wanted anyone else. Wanting him so badly it hurt to walk beside him, hurt to breathe the same air, hurt to keep your hands to yourself.The closer we drew to the castle, the tighter my stomach knotted. I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t dare. If I did, he would see it all written across my face, th