AN/ Here you go my loves!! :) Enjoy my update!! 

A bit of +18 and harsh language in this chapter

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HIM POV

My fingers absently grabbed a crumble of stones that had scattered all around. A cage was now open. 

I was awake. 

'Interesting.'

I inhaled deeply and then exhaled, in three intervals. That was the way my type breathed.

The night smelled fresh, divine. 

'Zerberus' My beast called me from within me, 'Find mate.'

He was ravenous. And so was I.

She had kept us waiting, for a long time. I was starving for her. For her soul. For her pussy.

Her delicious scent and my awakening were the only proof I had that she really existed.

A distant growl conquered the night. Another victory... One of my brothers had found his beloved. One of my brothers had left the constriction of his sleeping cage.

I winced at the sound of those human screeches.

Pets.

As the mass of unclaimed humans traversed a land older than the fossils of their homo sapiens, I glanced down, where the ruins of my former cage lay in a mound.

The statute he had trapped me in was enormous ... his features had even resembled me.

Surely our king had quite the sense of humor. 

My lungs filled with air after six centuries of dreamless sleep. Mmh, my mate must have passed this way if I could breathe and see.

I craned my neck to the side, stretched my arms above my head, my tail whipped the wind, and I let out a growl. For a moment, everything was silent. 

Then a chorus of snarls filled the air. I smirked, crossing my arms in front of me, watching the valley of temples in front of me as I stood on the stones that had been my cage.

There were cracks everywhere, the air filled with dust, the ground shook under the awakening of the monsters. More stones fell, other statues split, freeing their prisoners. More brothers of mine were waking up from that almost eternal sleep. Yet many, too many of them, remained in their slumber. Waiting. Maybe their mates weren't even born.

"Maybe in six more years". I muttered to myself when my eyes lingered on a hideous gargoyle statue. Lucius, whose tongue had stolen many virginities and whose mouth had swallowed whole villages.

Felix, on the other hand, freed himself from the elephant head's statue right in front of Lucius's grotesque cage. 

We exchanged a knowing look, a nod of acknowledge, then he swooped down on a little thing, a female, who was as petrified as he had been for four and a half centuries. 

She stood there, mouth parted, tears flooding her cheeks. Just looking at him. At the greatest fear of hers.

His arms gathered her, pressing her to his chest. Her screams faded as he kissed her fervently. When Felix soared in the air, with huge wings holding his inhuman weight, she didn't even notice. When Felix's long tail ripped off her clothes, she whimpered, her tiny hands on his scaled chest. Hard to tell if she was trying to push him away or attract him to her. If Felix flew away, to look for a secluded place to mate with his beloved, other monsters didn't have the same patience.

I watched as more brothers chased their own soul mates, who had freed them, ready to capture them and immediately start our next generation. I chuckled as I watched those puny humans scatter around like the rats they were, trying to run away from their fates.

Many began to mate right here. Why wait any longer? 

Soon the screams turned into moans. The sound of flesh against flesh filled the air together with the smell of blood. 'Virgins,' I thought, as a slight grin came over my lips.

Few of us growled with excitement when we noticed that our mates had escaped the valley.

I scoffed.

Those unfortunate humans who were not anyone's mates but had seen us rose from the statues, would join the harem of our guardians as slaves. Some could become kitchen helpers or cleaners at the castle too.

"My lord," Tugus, a lizard butler, approached, "Welcome back. We are happy to have our king back."

"I'm not king. Whatever crown you put on my head, it would simply melt." I replied, eyes lingering over the valley of the temples spreading beneath me.

"Sure, of course." he bowed impossibly lower, brushing the dry floor with his reptilian green head. "Shall I prepare my lord's room for your highness and our princess?"

"Do that. And prepare human food."

"Oh, they eat it cooked, right?"

We both winced. "Yes."

Speaking of princess ... it was time to meet her. She was trying to escape me.

I chuckled, eyes on the path she had taken, as I rose in the air.

"I'm on my way, pet." A smirk transformed my features.

I inhaled once again. Her rich scent curled around me and made me shiver in anticipation.

Then I exhaled...

My butler gasped and yelped, running away with his tail in his hands, as a shower of fire came out of my nostrils.

My mate lit my fire.

Literally. 

###

HER POV

I was not sure how long I had been running. That growl was the scariest thing I had ever heard. Everything inside me shouted to put as much space as possible between me and the source of it. 

Gianni was some feet behind. I could hear his steps and laboured breaths...

Until he wasn't there anymore. He had fallen behind.

I decided to slow down, to allow him to keep up. But I couldn't stop.

Never stop. Not with something that could produce that growl, free to roam.

"So quiet", I mumbled, both to myself and to test the silence. There were no birds, no rustles, even the bugs had fallen silent.

The fog had snaked away, a little, and I could make out the outlines of ghostly trees on either side of the lighted path.

The forest was eerily empty. Even the screams of my human fellows were long gone.

Was it because they had already been drained by vampires? The problem was, I didn't know if they were vampires. I had a feeling they weren't...

Suddenly, I noticed trees on the left side of the path shudder, as if grasped by unseen hands. 

'What is that?!'

I gasped, eyes widening. 

"Damn it, Gianni." I cursed, aloud, "Where are you!"

Going against all my survival instincts, I turned and ran back, tears scattering in the wind and caught in the thickest fog. 

I almost missed them, but the blue light from the torches reflected off the lenses.

It was then that I saw them. His glasses! My heart fell when I noticed that one lens was chipped. 

I picked them up and brought them to my chest, trying to figure out where he had gone, hoping to catch a glimpse of his inky hair and lanky smile. 

"No." I sobbed, my eyes searching. 

Gianni had left the main path. 

"Nooo!" This time I yelled.

Oh God...did he follow the voices? He wouldn't! 

"Gianni!!" 

And I did the most stupid thing. I left the path too...

###

Trying to gain an idea of where Gianni was, my mind was swirling in a maelstrom of thoughts.

Between that scary growl that had left a permanent fear within me, and Gianni's disappearance, I had acted stupidly. Impulsively. 

I felt watched and exposed here, in this forbidden land. 

Suddenly, out among the pillars of rock and tree came the slight echo of small stones rolling. My tears stopped and my heart began to pick up its pace slightly. Then the sound came again, closer, this time followed by a strange thumping and slithering sound. 

So very silently, I hid in the hollow of a tree, bringing my knees up to my chest. The sound grew closer and closer and soon out of the semi-darkness a shape began to form. It looked like a man at first. But it wasn't. The head was too long, legs and arms strange. 

Peering at the silhouette, I almost died when I saw what lay between the shadow's legs.

'Could that be what I think it is!?' 

The creature had a tail dragging behind it... It was making the slithering sound as the beast pulled it over the ground!

"Mmh, what do we have here?" 

I froze, tears trickling down my face. Oh no.

"Oh my, my" he droned. "Aren't you delectable? Let me see you,"

It was the end. I was going to be eaten!

The beast was covered in green scales and rubbery spines. Yellow eyes lay atop a long snout-like skull. It was a crocodile head with some snake features in it.

He was so close. And he smelled like... raw meat.

I prepared to make a desperate run for it, but what happened next, was either a miracle or a tragedy.

"Please don't!" A voice came a meter away from my hiding place.

I froze.

My heart stopped.

No!