Now that the reassurance of Kesh’s voice was gone, the darkness seemed to press in on her again, making her every hair stand on end. Somewhere out there, demons were hunting her.
The phone in her hand lit up with a text message—directions from Kesh.
But before she managed to read the text, a scraping sound from the other side of the car cut through the darkness, chilling her blood.
What the hell was that?
“Hello?” she called stupidly before biting down hard on her tongue. If whatever made that sound was capable of responding, she didn’t exactly want it to.
Moving faster than she’d thought possible Selma lunged at the driver side door. The sooner she got out of here, the better.
Her heart drummed hard in her throat as her adrenaline spiked for the second time that evening, but when her fingers pulled frantically at the handle, it didn’t budge.
How was it locked? She’d made sure to leave it unlocked when she got out, leaving the keys in the ignition. Frantically she pulled on the door again, but it still wouldn’t budge.
“Even when you reek of fear, you are the most delicious thing I’ve ever seen,” a deep, familiar voice purred.
Cold shock froze her to the spot, her fingers still curled around the handle. No.
Movement in her peripheral vision made her snap her head around just in time to see a large shadow move around the back of the car. It was too dark to see his features in the faint light of the stars, but she didn’t need a visual to know who it was.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
“Marathin.” She whispered the name of the man who’d first captured her, hoping against all hope that she was mistaken—that the demon who’d promised to bend her to his will wasn’t here, about to take her away and break her. “No.”
“Now, now, don’t say it like that, my sweet. You’ll hurt my feelings.” There was a distinct smirk in his voice—the sound of a man who knew he’d won. “After everything I’ve done to ensure we could meet without the interference of that brute who thought he could claim you after you’d given yourself to me.”
Oh, god. Sick realization nestled in the pit of her stomach. “You are behind this? You captured Kain?”
“Oh, no—only another Lord could do such a thing. But I may have been the one to suggest to the Prince that he should take care of your unworthy mate. No royal can ignore a direct threat to their power, and His Highness was more than willing to listen to my suggestion of how to get rid of the Lord who challenged and beat him.
“You see, once Kain—” He spat the name as if the very taste of it tongue disgusted him. “—got out of his mating high for long enough, he may have decided to lay claim to Naharan’s position. It’s his right, after all, since he defeated a royal in an equal fight. So as you can imagine, Naharan didn’t need much persuasion. I mainly provided the contacts.”
Contacts? Those females…
“What’s going to happen to him?” Despite her fear of the dark creature slithering around the car, she needed to know her mate’s fate. Somehow, she would make it through this nightmare and she would find him again. As long as he was alive, this monster couldn’t break her.
“Oh, the queen was most receptive when I approached her. You see, while Naharan worried he couldn’t take your mate on by himself, he couldn’t very well involve other Lords in this. Killing one of their own without provocation? It is treason, even for a Prince of Demons.
“So I came up with a simple solution: The females are struggling because our Lords are so much stronger than them—the males they can kidnap and breed with do not produce sufficiently powerful daughters. But if we were to offer them a Lord and a Stone of Power? Let’s just say that it’s very beneficial to me that the Queen of Demons owes me big.”
The chill in her blood reached her heart. “You’re going to… breed him? He’ll never stand for that!”
Marathin chuckled and finally stepped close enough that she could make out his face in the darkness.
“I care nothing for the Lord’s fate—what happens to him will be in the hands of the queen. I only care about you. The Prince thinks he’s procured my services on the promise that I get to mount you for a night, along with a sum of money, before he hides you away as his secret mate so no one will discover what he did. You and I know better.”
“You’re betraying him, too.” At this point, the fact that he would double-cross even the Prince of Demons didn’t shock her—it was merely a statement as she watched him slide a gloved hand over the side of the car. “You’re going to give up everything just so you can claim me.”
He smiled, faint starlight reflected in his teeth. “That is how much I love you, yes.”
Love. The word seemed to mock her as the face of the man who had truly given her his scarred heart flashed in her mind.
“You’re sick,” she snapped, anger suddenly welling up to mix with her fear. “You know nothing of love—you only want to possess me like some trinket! And you ripped my mate from me, thinking you could ever replace him. I will never be yours, you sick bastard!”
His smile turned into a sneer. “You signed my contract—I own you, every ounce and every breath. Did you truly think I was going to stand by and let someone take what’s mine? I found you—I was the one who first mounted your little cunt, the first to teach you how to take a demon’s ridges. You begged me to keep you, remember?”
Before she managed to react, he took the final few steps to reach her and his hands came down on each side of her, clamping onto her shoulders. This close, she could see his face clearly, and the rage marring his handsome features was terrifying.
