Rage (Her Monsters Book One) - K.A Knight Page 0,8

question again, only to receive a prod for my words.

Then I feel it.

A call.

Not just any call, her call.

It wraps around me, cooing at both my beast and me, restarting my heart and kicking my emotions into overdrive. My body hardens, my cock with it, and everything comes back with snap. The colours, the sounds, like I have been living in the grey—and now I am whole.

I let it wrap around me, cradling my magic. It begs for me, so filled with pain and horror that my beast pushes through my body, something which hasn't happened since the beginning when I was a young calf. He doesn't wait for me to call him, instead, he pulls through my body, changing me. Once my shift is complete, my head falls back and I let out a roar of anguish.

She needs me.

Uncaring of the pain or magic, I rip free from the chains, a feat only a bond could attain. I feel the steel rip through skin and fur, trying to contain me, but it can’t. Not anymore. I have a new purpose.

Once free, I waste no time, following the tugging in my soul, which leads me up and out. My beast allows me to shift my legs back once more and I begin climbing the walls. I huff in anger, anger that she is alone and in pain, while I wasted away down here. Smoke bellows from my snout, the black tendrils curling around the stone, eroding it. My horns scratch into the stone as I climb and my golden armband squeezes into my chained muscles, reminding me of what I am—a monster.

When I reach the top, I shift my legs back and charge through the winding hallways, leading me up to my freedom. I ram into a gate and roar again as it stops me, halting my progress. Not for long. Letting the call fuel me, I rip the twisted metal and the magic binding it, and then I smell freedom for the first time in over half a millennia.

I let loose a deep bellow into the night, causing the animals around to halt their calls and the humans to shiver in their homes, but it is for her. To let her know I am coming. Anyone who has hurt her will feel the wrath of my monster.

The deep darkness of my eternal slumber falters for a moment. I ignore the tug and retreat into the comforting nothingness, but it comes again. Snorting, I roll over, which traps my wings uncomfortably beneath me. I retract the leathery appendages back into my body, returning to my human form, and snuggle back into my nest to sleep. It comes again. Groaning at the irritant, I slit open one eye and glance around my cave to see what has disturbed me, I picked this isolated spot for a reason. To retreat from a world I no longer understand, high up in the mountains where no one can find me. I am hidden away in nature, forgotten... so what woke me?

The tug is persistent, pulling at my magic and soul. I open my other eye and jump to my feet, the muscles collapsing after weeks and months of disuse. I wonder how long I have been asleep. The smells around me are familiar but other than that, everything feels foreign, like the very world I had existed in is gone.

My dragon responds when the tug comes again, tumbling into the rock wall, fighting the change, unsure why, after so long, my dragon would force the change. It huffs at me as I take back control. Enraged, he roars in my mind. Relenting, I shift until I am my monster once again. Lifting my muzzle to the air, I sift through the multitude of scents, but I cannot detect anything amiss. Tilting my head to the side, I allow the glow of my purple eyes to light the darkness of my cave. If the cobwebs and growth are anything to go by, it has been years since I was last awake.

The tug comes again, stronger this time, wrapping around me both inside and out, like a comforting hug, familiar and yet so strange that I halt. I know what that is, my dragon huffs out a laugh at my stupidity, obviously already recognizing the call.

Once it connects with my magic, I let out a powerful roar which shakes the mountain, agony and pain race through my body, trapped within that call. They dare hurt her?