“Boo,” he whispers in my ear, and when I spin he’s gone again.
Suddenly, I’m launched at the bed. I fly through the air and land on the soft edge of the silk and slip to the floor. I grunt as I’m pressed to the flooring, mist covering my entire body, and in that mist I spot his eyes. Moaning, I look down to see almost ghostly fingers tracing up my thighs and pushing them apart.
He wrenches them wide, sending pain through me as those ghostly fingers glide across my wet pussy, making me still as I stare into those floating orbs. “What were you saying?” he asks, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere.
“That you can’t even—” I end on a scream as those fingers suddenly turn corporeal and plunge into my pussy, stretching me around them as he fucks me with them with sharp, mean thrusts. He twists them, which has me bucking and lifting my hips. Needing more, needing him.
“Still, can’t,” I pant, mocking him.
He snarls and then his weight comes down on me, his body turning solid as those lips I love turn up into a snarl and he yanks his fingers free, wrapping them around my throat. He squeezes, harder than he ever has before, and for a moment, I see the flash of death written in his eyes—he will kill me.
He keeps me on that edge, my vision blurring, my ears ringing as my chest screams for air. I can’t even fight him, the energy is sucked from my body as he grabs my leg and throws it over his shoulder, and with one hard thrust, spears my pussy.
My mouth opens on a wordless scream as he stretches my channel, the pain and pleasure of him filling me mixing with my body’s natural panic at feeling myself slip away. He fucks me through it, pulls out and slams back inside me, filling me, fucking me, each thrust painful and oh so fucking good.
Leaning down, he grins against my lips. “Like I said, I could kill you and still make you come as you die,” he utters, his voice flat, emotionless, and so opposite to the harsh, angry hand around my throat as his hard cock slips through my clenching pussy. He’s right, my own cream is dripping down my thighs, even as I feel myself die.
I bring my hand up and scratch at his, trying to loosen his grip, but he just laughs. It’s a cruel sound, all while those powerful thrusts jerk my body beneath him as he drags on my nerves, setting off fireworks through my body, ones I can see as my eyes go black. Bright orange and red lights flash before me, my body clenching and tightening, already on the brink of release as I ride the knife’s edge of death.
He keeps me there, controls it, showing me exactly who is in charge. Just how much he has been holding back. This isn’t Griffin, this is his madness. This is the monster who hides so deep within he doesn’t even know it, the one that craves death and blood, pain and pleasure, who needs it to survive.
I feel my body slump, the pounding of my blood in my ears as my heartbeat slows, turning sluggish even as he fucks me. Then, suddenly, I don’t feel him anymore. I’m floating in the dark. Ropes surround me, twisting me, keeping me attached, dragging me back, and abruptly with a snap I’m back in my body.
I rear up, sucking in lungfuls of air, my eyes wide and locked on Griffin’s smirking face as he pushes me down and continues to fuck me, even though my body won’t respond. My throat aches, my lungs scream, and my eyes are dry and yet, yet with one press of his finger to my clit, I come with a silent, ragged, raw scream, my pussy clenching around him and milking his cock. He roars, filling me with his cum just as the door smashes open behind him. I peer over his shoulder, still panting and shaking from the most intense orgasm I’ve ever had.
There, in the doorway, is my forest god. Dume and Jair are behind him, but all I can see is Nos. His head is covered in his skull, his eyes black in those sockets, his body tall, almost touching the ceiling, and I feel his panic, his utter hopelessness, but when he sees me alive he stills, staring at me from those black holes as that panic recedes and a burst of relief and love flow to me.
“You have been busy, Little Monster.”
Griffin rolls from me as I sit up, staring at Nos as tears well in my eyes. All this time I’ve been so strong, but looking at my first mate now, I’m weak, needing his embrace even though I was just in Griffin’s. It’s been too long, too fucking long without him.
Griffin brushes a kiss across my cheek, tasting my tears. “Go to him, Vasculo,” he says softly, his voice filled with love.
He might have just killed me—well, partly—and then brought me back, but he knows I need Nos right now.
A cry slips from my throat and then I’m on my feet. I stumble, my body still recovering from almost dying, and fly across the room. Nos storms towards me and meets me halfway, scooping me into his arms and pressing his skull to mine, those black eyes flickering white for a second as I shiver in his grasp.
This is home.
With them, all of them.
“I missed you,” I whisper raggedly.
“I missed you so much, Little Monster, so very much. I felt you—I thought you had died,” he rasps, the end filled with pain, and I shake my head.
“You know me, no one can kill me,” I tease, even as I bring my lips to his, my nose crashing against the skull. His big hand comes up and covers the back of my head, holding me softly as he brushes sweet kisses along my fumbling lips.
“Shh, I’m here, Little Monster. I promised, did I not? I will always come for you, no one will ever stop that. Not death itself,” he reminds me, lending me his strength.
I nod, shivering and shaking in his arms. With him, I always feel so small, so weak, but when he holds me, I feel his strength bolstering me, his love filling me up. I didn’t even notice the hole where he should have been, but now that he’s here, I feel it and it hurts until it’s replete, like a piece clicking back into place so I can breathe again.
“Where have you been?” I question.
“Here. I spoke to a fate and gathered others, they are outside waiting for orders. And you, Little Monster, you’ve been busy.” He lifts his head and looks around, noting the bodies and destruction.
“Yes, so much has happened I don’t even know where to—”
“Shh,” he hushes me, and the skull melts to reveal his human face, his eyes white and hair flowing over his shoulder. “Show me if you wish. Just reach for my mind and I will look.”
I nod and close my eyes, focusing on his link, his pull. I follow that line and throw open the door to my mind. I feel him rush in, his warmth and the fragrance of nature that follows him filling my head and relaxing me. He flickers through everything, I can almost see it, and then pulls back, leaving a trace of his love in its wake.
Opening my eyes, I meet his gaze as he smiles sadly. “Do not believe him, my little monster. They might have made you, but you are so much more. You choose what you are and what you will become. You are the strongest of us all, and not because of magic or science, but because it was willed. You are special, not just to the world, but to us. To me.”
I shiver. How did he know I needed that? I was so worried about what I could be, what they might have made me, that I didn’t even think about asking for reassurance, yet he knew. He always does.
Just then a pop sounds and we all turn just as a panting Aska skids to the doorway, his eyes going to me as he slumps in relief. My wolf trots behind him with a snarl on his lips as he growls at the others, coming towards me and only stopping when I reach down and pet his silky fur on his head.