Page 71 of Mated to Monsters
It’s not easy to drift off to sleep.
Not with the weight of my guilt hanging over me. I stare at the canopy mesh, lying in a bed made to suit a creature twice my size. A warm bed. Good food. These are luxuries most humans can never partake in, and here I am, wallowing in paradise.
It’s difficult to imagine the other women, caged or worse. I hope, for their sakes, they’re not like me. I grip my barren stomach. How was I to know that’s all the Demon King wanted? I dare to close my eyes, seeing their faces again, drawn long. Terrified.
I bury my face in the pillow as if that will do anything to banish the images.
Outside my window, the storm rolls on. I’m starting to think it’s a regular thing, in this city called Ti’lith. It feels- unnatural. I miss the stars. The sun and the moon. Their absence is strange. They’ve been there my whole life, and now they’re just… gone.
I remember how Cora and I used to play behind the settlement after a long day’s work. I was exhausted and she had to coerce me into coming out, but it was always worth it. I took it for granted, the green fields and fluffy white clouds.
We used to lie on a hill and watch them pass for hours before the sun set.
It’s in this memory that I find my exhaustion now, and my eyelids grow heavy. I can imagine I’m still living there, before my choices got others killed and taken. And maybe that’s where Matt and Beth are right now, imagining a better world for themselves.
That’s when a door downstairs slams shut.
It’s not like Akos to make such noise. He’s an expert at keeping quiet, at staying undetected unless he knows he’s safe. Could it be…
The steps creak under the weight of a demon’s footsteps, and they grow closer with each passing second. I sit up as my door opens, and the silhouette of a demon stands in my doorway. It’s him, I think, taking a tenuous breath.
I gather the blanket around me. “Rej’thorek,” I say, the name hardly suited to my soft tongue. Akos told me it in confidence, and I rehearsed it for hours so it wouldn’t sound silly when I finally used it in his presence.
He doesn’t respond.
I can’t be surprised. He does what he wants, when he wants to, regardless of what I say. But there’s something different about him tonight. Like he has his own personal storm hanging around him. It crackles in the air between us as he approaches the bed.
I shrink under his attention, his gaze bright as he takes me in.
“What do you want from me?” The question sounds pathetic in the presence of him. My core warms against my better judgment. I have a feeling I already know.
Rej’thorek tears the blanket off the bed, then reaches for me. I shriek when he grabs my leg and yanks me down as he kneels over me. He catches my face with his massive hand, his thumb tracing the line of my mouth.
I open it at his insistence as he presses the tip of his claw against my tongue so I can’t talk. His grip tightens on my jaw as he leans in for a kiss, lashing into my mouth with hard insistence.
I yield to him, too frightened to ask what this is all about.
He’d left with his friend hours ago, and I have to wonder what caused him to become so furious in such a short time. But he doesn’t take it out on me, his touch urgent, rather. Like he’s trying to forget something.
I understand that better than most.
I slide my nightgown open to reveal myself to him, making him pause. His eyes spark with dark magic as he takes me in. “I need you, Rej’thorek,” I say when he releases my mouth, stroking his heated cheek. “Now, finish what you started on the dining room table.”
His gaze flickers up to meet mine, and his lips part as if he means to say something. But they firm up again, and there’s something determined in his simmering eyes. I swear there’s a wretched smile on his face before he flips me on my stomach in one swift motion.
The breath goes out of me on a whoosh, but I don’t have time to process it when he shoves past my defenses with several fingers. I can’t count them as he pushes into me hard, forcing my body to strain against the sudden intrusion. I yelp as his final knuckles pops through, overfilling me in an instant.
My scream is muffled by a heavy hand, and I’m dragged against him, skewered to his wrist. His mouth finds my throat and he scours me, tightening his hand into a fist with heavy pumps until my body is quaking.
Against my back, I can feel his cock going rock hard.
If I have any hope of taking it, I have to relax. He’s right to use his fist, first, or I might be broken by his massive appendage before we’re through. Twice more, he delves in, forcing my body to form to his merciless hand.
Then, slowly, he loosens his grip and slides out, making my body shudder in its absence. I clutch the bedsheets to brace myself, but there’s nothing I can do to prepare for the fullness of him. My hips are nearly too tight, though he doesn’t seem to care, a deep groan escaping him as true agony grips me, making me scream again.
He doesn’t bother to muffle this one, hunkering over me and forcing himself all the way in, straining my insides with his girth. My core threatens to push him out, my muscles rippling in defiance when he grips my hips and jams himself to the hilt.
My legs straighten of their own volition, and the first wave of ecstasy barrels through me. My eyes roll back in my head, and I choke on a wail. His hand slips under my arm, bracing me against him as he stands, pumping hard with each thrust.