Beep. Beep. Beep.
[ MATE WITH ALL FIVE OF YOUR HUSBANDS OR DIE WITHIN 7days ]
I blinked at nothing. The sound was inside my skull, not outside it, which meant either Pauline's tequila choices had finally broken something in my brain, or something a lot worse had just happened.
The rank smell hit me like a bullet the thick scent of stagnat water, too green-smelling, thick deciduous trees surrounded me like barricades, what the heck was I doing in a forest, I sure as hell couldn't have walked from the bar, buzzing sounds caught my attention, I looked up into the canopy of the tree I was standing underneath, a huge hive of bees were buzzing like it was no one's business, their comb full of holes so bizarre it made me want to throw up, sticky thick brown viscous liquid dripped from the comb attached to the tree, I wasn't in the bar. I wasn't anywhere I recognized.
I was on the ground.
Wet ground.
I pushed myself upright, head swimming, body lightweight like the wind would toss me any moment and that's when I saw him.
It — him — whatever the hell it was.
Seven feet of muscle, scaled skin catching the light like broken glass, amber eyes fixed on me with the kind of focus that made my stomach drop straight through the floor. A lizard. A massive, horrifyingly built, human-shaped lizard, and it was staring at me like I was the most interesting thing it had seen in years.
"Oh hell no, could this dream get any wierder"
I ran.
My legs were not cooperating. They felt like wet paper, useless and folding under me, but adrenaline is a beautiful thing and I made it maybe thirty steps before the world tilted sideways and the ground came rushing up to meet me.
"You need to mate for restoration of energy," the voice said inside my head, calm as anything, like it was reading me a weather report.
"I need to what —"
Everything went black.
***
The bed felt weird. How the fuck did I get here from the forest and beehive
Too soft for my taste, I could feel my body almost sinking into it, it reeked of a unusually pleasant fishy smell and other smells I couldn't name because I couldn't garner what they were. I opened my eyes and the ceiling above me was gold , an actual chandelier, massive, dripping with crystals that caught light from somewhere and threw it in pieces across the room. Marble walls. Heavy drapes. A bed so large I could have fitted my entire apartment inside it.
I sat up too fast. Bad idea. The headache from Pauline's terrible tequila choices came roaring back with reinforcements.
"What the actual —"
Beep.
[ TRANSMIGRATION TO THE BEAST WORLD COMPLETE. HOST BODY STABILIZED. ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL. MATING REQUIRED. ]
"Mating," I said out loud, to the empty room, to the chandelier, to whoever thought this was an appropriate thing to put in someone's head. "You said mating."
[ Confirmed. Five mates assigned. Bonding process must begin within 48 hours or energy depletion will accelerate. ]
"Five."
[ Five. ]
I was a barista. I made oat milk lattes and watched other people's children three evenings a week and the most dramatic thing that had ever happened to me was Pauline convincing me to do karaoke last Thursday. I was not equipped for the drinking evident from the headache I was having like a gong was being repeatedly banged on my head.
A knock at the door.
I froze.
The door was marble, heavy and extravagant, carved with patterns I didn't have the brain space to appreciate right now. I pulled the bed cover up and looked down at myself. A negligee. White, barely there, definitely not mine.
"Absolutely not," I whispered. I didn't even like negligees they were so darn uncomfortable!
The knock came again.
I slid off the bed, legs unsteady, and tiptoed toward the door. There was a small viewing hole. I rose onto my toes, stretched, cursed under my breath — too short, I only caught a tanned neck, the line of a jaw, dark hair.
I twisted the knob.
The man who stepped through was the kind of thing that shouldn't exist outside of a fever dream. Tall enough that he had to angle slightly through the doorframe. Blue eyes so pale they were almost white, and they hit me like something physical. A smirk curled at the corner of his mouth like he already knew every thought I was about to have.
I gripped the door handle hard.
"It is time to mate," he said. His voice was low, unhurried, like he had nowhere else in the world to be. "The others are on their way."
"The others." I stared at him. "What others."
"Your mates." He tilted his head, something amused moving behind those unsettling eyes. "Delvin. Jason. Zach. Ramses." A pause. "You seem confused. You were not confused last night."
"Last night," I repeated carefully, "I was in a bar in Cincinnati."
The smirk deepened.
"Last night," he said, "you were here. In that bed. With us." His gaze dropped, just briefly, just enough. "You liked when I put my mouth on you."