Claimed By Shadow Chapter Four

March 31, 2026

3–4 minutes

Time didn’t seem to exist in this place, or because it was dark and I couldn’t tell what time it was, it didn’t matter. One or the other. After what seemed like forever, he came back with some kind of kill in his hand.
The monster glanced at me with those same odd looking purple eyes and cocked his head. “You eat?”
“Are you asking if I’m hungry?” I shrugged. “It’s not like there’s a fast food place around here.”
He watched me for a little longer and then threw what I could finally see was a rabbit on the table. He skinned it while I watched in disgust.
“That’s gross,” I said, and he glanced at me.
“Can’t eat fur,” he said simply. “You need meat.”
“I don’t need meat,” I countered. “You never told me why I am here, or how, or anything.”
He stopped and looked at me again, letting his hand stop cutting the rabbit meat mid air. “Mate,” he said.
“Mate?” I repeated. “I am not a mate.”
“My mate,” he repeated. This time when I just looked at him, he moved towards me and leaned down to let his face nuzzle my neck.
The mark turned to fire. I took a sharp breath and instinctively grabbed his arm that was holding him up. The chains rattled as I moved, but he didn’t look at them. “My mark.”
“You did this to me?” I almost whispered.
“Must find mate or die,” he said, his breath hot against my skin. His tongue flicked against the mark. “You, my mate.” He leaned back, watching his words sink in, but all it did was make me more confused.
“There’s no such thing as mates,” I said, but my stomach twisted as I spoke, and the words felt wrong. One minute I had a warlock trying to marry me for my power and the next a monster trying to tell me he was my mate. Oh my god, I completely forgot about my power. I was sitting in this cave when all I needed to do was use the fire I tried to forget about breaking free and get out of here.
“No fire,” the monster said, and I stared at him.
“How do you know that?”
“Know thoughts,” he said with a weird smile on the muzzle of his face.
I finally could see more than those glowing purple eyes. His face was closer to a dinosaur than a human, with a long snout and a large mouth. He had sharp fangs that showed when he pulled his lips back to smile or snarl. His body was massive with dark, rough skin and markings lining his body in a dark, almost black purple.
“That’s really rude, you know. You didn’t even bother to ask,” I said, trying hard to keep the snark in my words, but between the surreal feeling of this creature being right in my personal space and the feeling of this mark, I couldn’t hold it.
“Marked you so you could come. So you would know,” he almost purred. “My mate. My woman.”
“What was that other creature that was chasing me?”
“Brother. Trying to see if you were his mate. Had to show not,” he said. “Mine only.” He stepped back and walked to the rabbit on the little table and went back to cutting. “Soon we mate.”
“Excuse me,” I said, followed my a nervous laugh. “You’re a creature and I’m a human. That would be impossible.”
He stopped cutting and glanced my way, his lip curling into a smile. “Possible.”