Clearing my throat quietly, I wrote, I shouldn’t stay out here for too long, but I’ll come back soon. Even if I haven’t thought of a way to free you yet. If you just want to talk.
My cheeks were burning when I handed the notebook to him and waited for him to read what I’d written. Why would he want to talk to me? I wasn’t all that smart. Or interesting. I could be funny, but this wasn’t exactly a laughing matter.
And this beastie was clearly intelligent. Mary had called him a brute, but he wasn’t at all. His body was big and muscular, but he moved gracefully, even with that heavy cage weighing him down.
He handed the notebook back after writing something in response.
I tried to ignore the burst of warmth that bloomed in the pit of my stomach when I read the words, I would like that very much, in his elegant jagged scrawl.
When a strange woman shows up outside our camp in the Wastes with monsters chained up to her RV, it feels like I’m the only one who actually wants to help them.
That big, grey-skinned monster with the cage on his head and the chain hanging from his back—something is telling me I need to help him. I need to free him. But I have absolutely no idea how I’m supposed to do that, especially when he can’t even talk to me to tell me how.
Collector Mary is finally leaving our camp to head back to her monster menagerie, so I do the only thing I can think of to help him. I go with her.
Now, this big beastie and I are travelling companions for the foreseeable future. Now I just have to think of a way to get that cage off his head, which seems like an impossible task. But I’m not giving up. He has no one else, and when I start to discover who he is beneath the cage, my motivation to free him becomes far more than just a desire to help.
This is so dangerous. The military is lurking. Vicious monsters are lurking. And when Mary turns out to be even worse than we could have ever imagined, my desperate bid to save this monster turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to die out here.
Gloam is Book Four of the Monstrous series, a post-apocalyptic m/m fantasy series that features monsters and human men falling in love. It is best to read the series in order.
Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers. It also contains graphic depictions of torture and violence.
Trigger warnings: Explicit sexual content; non-human genitalia and reproductive system; captivity and slavery; existing grievous injury to MC; graphic descriptions of on-page killing, injury and violence; mentions of cannibalism; cults and forced servitude; insect- and spider-like monsters.
If there are any scenes you wish to skip, you can of course get in touch with me and I am more than happy to tell you where certain triggers take place.
LILY MAYNE 