Heart of a Centaur (Monster Hearts)

I thought I was doing the right thing. Hunting down alien monsters for IMRA, stopping them from hurting people. I’m a hunter, and my job is done once they’re captured and caged.

But then the tables turn, and I end up the prisoner of a centaur. He calls himself Athos and says he’s a scholar from planet Yacheron. He’s been living on Earth for years, isolated in the mountains, never hurting anyone. I don’t know if I should believe him. He tells me I’m his guest, not his prisoner, and as time passes and we’re forced to live in his hut until I heal, he reveals to me that I’m his… mate.

How can it be possible? This attraction I feel… All-consuming, almost obsessive… It’s madness. Because I’m human, and he’s only half man. We weren’t made to fit together.