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Tonight, one of us will step through that ethereal doorway and straight into the demon realm, bound by the Goddess to marry a demon of Her choosing.
It’s the best way I can describe my meager gifts. The odd ability to know things about a book by touching it, the ease with which I’ve always been able to study languages.
scent her before I see her. Her essence is singular and unmistakable. A promise and a temptation
and the deepest dark desires of my soul all rolled up into one. She’s mouthwatering, irresistible, and I haven’t even seen her yet. Even so, I know she’s here. How could I not?
My mate. My bride. The one the Goddess has sent me.
It’s not unpleasant to me, her fear, but it’s also not something I want her to be feeling, not right now at least. The sweetness of her fear is the first thing to check me, the first inkling that all may not be right with my bride.
Eren—King Eren Ashblood—is a towering, muscled male with deeply tan skin, thick dark hair, wickedly curled horns that spiral back from his temples over the top of his head, and midnight black wings spreading out from his wide back.
“Because I’m not powerful enough,” I say, meeting Eren’s crimson gaze. “I was never supposed to be chosen.”
Allison Hawthorn is mine, despite her disconcerting lack of power.
“Know that this is where you were always meant to be, Allie.”
“I am sorry this was sprung on you so unexpectedly, but know that nothing will hurt you. Not tonight, and not where we’re going. I promise you this.”
I am going to die this night. Surely, the amount of caution and control I’ll need to exert to get us both through this is going to kill me. Still, there’s no force in this realm or the next that could stop me from bending down over my little witch—my mate, my wife—and tilting her chin up toward me. At the first brush of her sweet mouth on my own, I know my soul is well and truly lost.
I’m kissing a demon. Not just kissing, but full on making out, because a moment after our lips meet, it’s like I’ve been consumed.
“Too much a temptation. I want to take this night slowly. I don’t want to frighten you.”
“I could bring you right to the edge, again and again, until you were crying and begging for release. I could
hold your pleasure in the palm of my hand until I had you pliant and willing to do absolutely anything for it. Yes, then I think you’d have no problem calling me Sir.”
I have a demon’s tail in my pussy. A demon’s tail. In. My. Pussy.
No matter how I mince the words in my mind, there’s no making sense of them, so I stop trying.
“I think…” she says finally, her voice wild and hoarse and hungry. “I think I want to be hunted.”
“So soft and sweet, little witch.”
I curl my hand around her cheek. “When you take my knot, I’ll rut you. I’ll spend myself so deep inside you, filling you up with my seed and my child.”
The audacity of this man, this demon, is astounding.
“I’m going to claim you, Allie. I’m going to make you hunger
for me like I hunger for you. I’m going to make you surrender your soul to me.”
“Allison Ashblood,” he says, equal parts graveled reverence and sin. “You’ll kill me yet.” With that, he strikes.
“You take me so well, my mate,”
“Oh, my god. Did you even want it to be me, back in the human realm? Were you disappointed when one of the others didn’t turn out to be your… your mate?”
“No, Allie, you’re mine. The Goddess chose you for me. And me for you.”
I should be there, washing her, soothing her. She’s my wife, my mate…
On some level, I think I could already sense that Allie needed to feel chosen. The way she couldn’t believe it was her the Goddess selected for me, the way even her own mother had no faith in her abilities.
Eren didn’t choose me.
So why do I care so much about the mate thing? Eren is obviously attracted to me, and worships at my body like it’s an altar.
“I would choose you in this realm or the human realm or any of the rest. I would choose you always, you beautiful, sweet, unearthly creature. Mates or not, Goddess-blessed or not, there could never be a life in which I did not know you as my own.”
Allison Amethyst Ashblood was always meant to be mine. Already my life seems brighter with her in it.
And truly, who am I to argue with a demon king who just wants to give me pretty dresses?
“She carries my name and my authority, and as such demands the respect and fealty you give me.”
“To Allison Ashblood, long may she reign”
All these people—these demons—looking at me with hope in their eyes and kind words on their lips like I might be the answer to their prayers. It makes the weight in my chest get heavier and the sharp fear in my gut more pointed as I realize just how many will be affected when my laughable bit of magick can’t do anything to make an actual difference.
You’re not powerful enough. Even having a High Priestess for a mother isn’t enough to justify your place with the other witches.
It was a constant reminder that I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t talented enough to earn myself a place in that world.
“It means,” I tell her, brushing my lips along the back of her knuckles, “that you’re mine. And I’m yours. We’ve belonged to one another for our entire lives, even if we only found out yesterday.”
My demon husband is taking me on a breakfast picnic.
“Allison Ashblood.” Her name is a warning, a promise. “You know what happens if you run.”
“Catch me if you can, demon.” She turns and runs, disappearing into the trees.
Allie wants to play? We’ll play.
Clever prey, my Allie, and all that much more satisfying to capture.
“Everything you’re willing to give me, I’ll take.”
One day. Some distant future where the realm is safe and my Goddess-selected husband is mine fully. Mine to claim and keep, mine to enjoy without fear.
“I want to do this so I can stay with you.”
I chose you today, Eren, and I meant it.
