Page 58 of Monster's Obsession

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes as I glanced around, wondering where Ash had gone.

I heard him before I saw him. He was humming in my closet. It was adorable.

So, I slid off the bed, amazed at how loose and relaxed I felt as I walked over to the closet.

I came to a screeching halt when I saw what he was doing.

First of all, he still had my blood all over him. And second of all…he’d built some kind of…bed in the closet.

“What exactly is all of this?” I asked, gesturing to the pile of odds and ends he’d put together...carefully, I might add. He seemed to have a specific method to his madness.

“I have a perfectly good bed out there, as you know,” I teased.

He glanced up from his work happily. “I’ve made you a nest,” he announced proudly, pointing to the mess on the floor.

A nest…I wasn’t familiar with that.

“Is that a Wyld city thing? Because I’ve never heard of it.”

His face didn’t fall one bit at my confusion. “It’s for you to cuddle in, now that you’re officially breeding.”

Breeding? W.T.F.

“I’m actually doing the opposite of breeding,” I told him. “Human periods mean you aren’t having a baby…remember?”

“The book’s wrong,” he said, peeling off his shirt and carefully tucking it into a crevice between a pillow…and a shoe.

“You’ve been here for months. And you haven’t had your period. I think your body changed…like your hair. And you’re actually breeding now.”

I was absolutely sure he was wrong…or at least I was absolutely sure that I hoped he was wrong.

Before I could say anything, a pair of wings caught my eye. I leaned over and then grimaced when I realized there were white bugs sprinkled all over.

“What? Did I put something in the wrong spot?” Ash asked, clearly concerned.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “You’ve put bugs in my nest.”

“Oh,” he said, sounding stumped. “Is that bad? Flufferhorn marges have very soft wings and a sweet scent.”

I blew out a huff of air, hungry for some chocolate cake suddenly, anything to escape this conversation. “You should probably write in that book of yours that I’m decidedly anti all bugs. And definitely not where I’m resting…err, nesting, I mean.”

“Even flufferhorn marges?”

I did my best to hold in the laugh that was desperate to come out. “Yes, even those,” I responded, keeping my gaze averted from the so-called flufferhorn creatures.

Ash was nodding his head like he was absorbing everything I was saying. He pulled out his book and wrote something in there, taking my request seriously. “I’ll get rid of the bugs right away and redo the nest. Might take me a few hours more, but I’ll get it done.”

My giggle finally escaped because, seriously…he was standing there with my dried period blood all over his face, looking like a demonic dream. And he was building me a monster nest…because he thought I was breeding and would want one, apparently.

“How about we just cuddle…on the bed,” I offered. “You can worry about the nest later.”

He pursed his lips, clearly torn about leaving his project.

“We can eat more cake,” I offered, taking a step back and hoping desperately he would follow me.

Ash perked up at that but still didn’t move toward me.

“And then you’ll let me eat you again…right, baby?” he finally purred, stalking towards me.