Monsters of Durnbone

1. The Reunion

Unknown: Welcome home, Sina.

Unknown: Welcome home, Sina.As Maxine pulled me toward a large house in the outskirts of Durnbone, I stared at the text message sent to me from an anonymous number, my chest tight in anticipation. Since I had left Dad’s home three days ago, I hadn’t told anyone that I was coming back to my hometown.

Only Maxine knew.

“Girl!” Maxine shouted, grabbing my phone from me. “We’re about to head into your first party since you finally got the balls to leave your father’s estate and come back to town. Put your phone away!”

I took my phone from her and shoved it into my purse, tucking some brown hair behind my ear. “I thought you hated partying?”

“My best friend is back in town. You bet your cute little tush that I’m going to party, no matter how much I hate the smoke and drunk monsters trying to crawl up into every girl’s bed. Gods, I see enough of that at the pub.”

After looping her arm around mine, she pulled me into the dimly lit house. Smoke and haze lay heavily around grinding bodies. People of all species danced and drank together, actually getting along, unlike what Dad had tried to tell me for the past four years.

When I’d finally turned twenty-two, I’d refused to live under his strict rule anymore. Four years ago, he had forced me to cut off all communication with Maxine and the four wolves I had grown up with. They had been my best friends for so long.

One day, something must’ve flipped in Dad’s stupid, annoying head because on my eighteenth birthday, when I woke up, all my bags were packed for me, my phone was destroyed, and I had been in the back of his car on the road to someplace that took me ages to figure out how to escape from.

“Hello?” Maxine said, waving a hand in my face and handing me a drink. Two scars from a wolf attack years ago peeked out from underneath the top of her shirt. “What’s with you tonight?”

How could I tell her I had missed this place so much? That I missed those wolves too? That I feared Dad would find me sooner than I expected?

Deciding that I wouldn’t let Dad ruin tonight for me, I smiled at her and grabbed the glass from her hand, taking a sip of what people in Durnbone called Midnight Moon, this region’s most popular drink that got every monster drunk in one glass.

every “You don’t think this is a bit too strong for a human?” I asked, scrunching my nose at the bitter taste.

Dad had only let me drink sweet white wine these past few years. This brew was stronger than any other alcohol.

“You’ll get used to it,” Maxine said.

After forcing myself to take another sip, I relaxed my shoulders and blew out a deep breath, as if it would push away all my troubles. I scanned the room, trying to spot anyone relatively familiar to me. But so much had changed in a few years.

“Do you know—”

I turned my head to see Maxine was no longer beside me, but flirting with a demon whose face was half human, half demon with huge teeth and one piercing red eye. She had mentioned him briefly. Xorgor was his name, I believed. And if I was remembering correctly, Maxine had told me that he came from the royal demon bloodline.

My purse buzzed, and since Maxine was distracted, I pulled out my phone.

Unknown: You’re back in Durnbone, and you haven’t even said hello.

Unknown: You’re back in Durnbone, and you haven’t even said hello.This message was from another unknown number. I scanned the room to see if anyone was watching me, my chest tightening even more. Whoever this was knew that I was back in Durnbone and possibly at this party. This was the only place I had gone besides the supermarket today.

After quickly glancing over at Maxine to ensure she was occupied, I texted back.

Me: Who is this?

Me: Who is this?Unknown: Downstairs. Third door on your right.

Unknown: Downstairs. Third door on your right.Me being the dumb b***h that I was, I told Maxine that I had to use the bathroom and hurried to find the stairs to the basement. Demons, wolves, vampires, and other monsters danced around me, some trying to pull me toward them, but I continued moving.

When I finally found the stairs, I carefully walked down them without sloshing my Midnight Moon over the edge of the cup. I glanced down the long, dimly lit hallway and walked toward the third room on my right.

Just as I was about to open the door, someone slapped their hand over my mouth and tugged me into the opposite room. I struggled against them, desperate to get out of their hold because I wouldn’t spend my first night in Durnbone getting r***d.

That would play right into Dad’s narrative of monsters.

I threw my elbow back into the hard abdomen and scurried out of the man’s hold. Twisting quickly on my heel, I spotted Jaroth grabbing his side and shaking his head with his black horns at me, annoyance written all over his pretty face.

“What the hell, Jaroth?! What are you doing here?” I asked.

“What are you doing in Durnbone?” he asked, smoothing his shirt that clung to his body.

you “Not expecting to find my ex-boyfriend,” I said through gritted teeth.

He stepped closer to me, his eyes darkening the way all incubi eyes did right after they had too much to drink and wanted someone right then and there. But I wasn’t falling for that s**t anymore.

I moved away and poked him hard in the chest. “And why are you texting me?”

“Texting you?” he asked, taking another daring step closer and grabbing at my hips. “I haven’t texted you in over a year now, Sina. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the way you taste—”

Before he could finish his sentence, someone grabbed him by the collar and threw him out of the room and across the hallway. My eyes widened as I stared at four tall, muscular, sexy-as-f**k wolves.

Holy f**k.

Holy fuck.Calder, Gaian, Darius, and Thayer stood before me. When I had left four years ago, they had still been high school boys, barely come into their own, shorter and skinnier then. Now, they were men with tattoos, piercings, muscles, and …

Get those thoughts out of your head, Sina. What are you even thinking?!

Get those thoughts out of your head, Sina. What are you even thinking?!“Get the f**k out of here, Jaroth,” Calder, the alpha, growled.

I wasn’t sure how they knew Jaroth, as I had started dating him after I moved away from Durnbone and behind my father’s back for the most part. Maybe they had been keeping tabs of my whereabouts or maybe they’d heard whispers of everything my father had been doing with me.

how Jaroth stood up from the floor and brushed off the drywall that had fallen around him from the mere impact of Calder throwing him against the wall. He gave me a long and hard look, his gaze dark, then stormed up the stairs.

The four guys turned back to me, and I had to physically tear my gaze away from their muscles. These guys weren’t boys anymore. They weren’t the guys I remembered them as. They were wolves now. I could see it in their piercing golden eyes, those long, extended canines, and the veins pressing against their skin around every curve of muscle.

“Pretty Bird,” Darius said, stepping forward with his lips curled into a smirk. “It seems like our messages did get through to you. Welcome home to Durnbone. You’ve been gone for far too long.” He looked at the other guys beside him. “And you owe us an explanation.”