She looked like she wanted to interject, but when he paused to let her speak, she didn’t. Instead her shoulders slumped, the dark circles underneath her eyes seeming more bruised than ever. She needed him.
“Selma… We need to make you better, little one.”
She shrugged and attempted to straighten, but he could still see the strain on her face. Their previous seeding had not been nearly enough to make up for her depletion of energy, and he suspected that her usage of the powerful light hadn’t helped things.
“I’m okay,” she said, though her gaze slipped from his to where her hands lay in her lap.
“You’re not okay. I need to take you again. And I will need to do that every day until he is born.”
She paled noticeably, and Kain’s heart sank into his stomach. If he had to force her, he would never be able to look at himself in the mirror again, but he would do anything to save her life. Even this.
38
Selma
She knew he was right. No matter how much she tried to ignore it, bone-deep exhaustion was lurking right underneath the surface, threatening to break through and render her helpless.
She hadn’t thought much about it when they were preparing to rescue Kain—had written it off as a natural reaction to the stress and trauma she’d endured since the attack in Colorado. But after she’d collapsed at the queen’s residence, she’d come to realize that it was so much more than that.
In her bones, she knew that if Kain hadn’t done what he did—as mortifying as it was to be fucked on the side of the road with his father and brother watching—she would have died, along with the life she was carrying.
Selma glanced at the large demon perched on the bed next to her. He was frankly terrifying; there was just no way around that. Though she’d been able to accept that he was her mate, the thought of willingly submitting to his monstrous cock while he looked like this made her heart pound.
The grim determination displayed by the set of his mouth made her remember what he’d said in the car after she told him she was pregnant—that he would take her, regardless of her protests, as long as she carried his child. She knew it was to ensure both she and his son survived, but it had been a lot easier to accept when he still looked like the incredibly handsome and more human man who’d saved her time and time again.
This… She shuddered as memories of being chased and tormented flooded in. The attack she’d endured before coming to Ravenswood House was all too vivid in her mind—big, scaly monsters with horns and fire in their eyes pushing her to the ground to force their way into her body.
And then Marathin, who had more than once shown her what it was like to be forced into submission.
A tremor traveled up her spine. This time, there would be no escape.
“Please don’t fear me.”
It was a hoarse plea, so completely contradictory to his brutal appearance, that for the briefest moment, her heart ached for him.
He was still Kain.
Selma closed her eyes and bit her trembling lip hard enough to taste blood. She had to submit without a fight. She owed him that much.
“Just do it.” It wasn’t the most heated of permissions, but it was all she could manage right now.
Judging by his relieved exhale, it was enough.
The bed dipped underneath his weight as he moved closer, a waft of his heat brushing against her skin before his large hand came up to cup her cheek.
“I will never hurt you,” he murmured, and then that soothing hum that resonated within her core vibrated from his wide chest.
What was it about that sound? Selma breathed deeply as every muscle in her body slowly relaxed, inadvertently filling her lungs with his heady scent. Though she was still very much aware of the hulking demon whose touch warmed her skin, it was as if his hum numbed her anxiety. Her fear was still there, of course, but as long as he made that sound deep in his chest, she could deal with it.
Kain pressed his scorching lips gently against hers.
He tasted like heat and male and something wild she couldn’t name as anything but Kain. The soft pressure of his lips teased her mouth open with its gentle insistence.
Selma sat frozen in place as he slowly devoured her mouth, her eyes firmly clenched. Her body recognized the taste and feel of the demon’s kiss, and a thread of desire wound its way through her apprehension. It wasn’t enough to alleviate her tension, but it was something.
Kain’s low growl told her that he’d sensed her wakening response to his ministrations. The sound sent another shiver down her spine—this time not purely from fear. While the animalistic growl was a disturbing reminder of what sort of creature had her trapped on the bed, it also spoke to something warm and needy in her core.
She had more or less expected him to twist her ring and immediately take her to get it over with, but as the demon moved in closer, wrapping his strong arms possessively around her waist, she knew that had been a foolish expectation. Even when in the throes of the mating thrall after the auction, he’d taken the time to explore her body and set her skin aflame with more than just forced lust.
