Reality bent, colors bleeding away until only the space between waking and dreaming remained. I’d walked this path a dozen times. I could navigate the dream realm blindfolded. But where Barbie’s presence should have blazed, there was only darkness.
An emptiness so complete, it felt like a punch to the gut.
“No!” I pushed harder, desperate to reach my mate. She had to be there.
She couldn’t just be gone. Not when I’d finally claimed her, when I’d finally broken Lilith’s chains to choose her.
The Underworld’s ancient wards slammed against my dream-walking power like walls of iron. I recognized their signature—my grandfather’s work, woven into the very fabricof that realm. Hades had crafted barriers to repel other gods, paranoid even in his absolute power. Centuries after he’d abandoned the dark realm, those same defenses now kept me from the one person who mattered more than breath.
I rammed against the wards, lightning crackling through their surface as I threw everything I had into breaking them. Blinding pain bloomed behind my eyes. Blood trickled from my nose, but I didn’t give up. Every second Barbie spent in that realm without me was a second she could be hurt, captured, killed?—
The dark thought threatened to break me.
Another assault. Another failure bounced back to me. The barriers didn’t buckle.
My mate was trapped in enemy territory, and I couldn’t protect her. Couldn’t even tell her I was coming for her, no matter the cost.
What if she thought I’d abandoned her? Ice burned in my veins. And what if she was calling for me right now, wondering why I wasn’t there?
Angst and longing tightened my heart, the memory of the first time I’d dream walked to her burning behind my eyelids.
She’d snuck into a shifter’s apartment for a private shower, disguised as a boy, and was singing ‘Cry Me a River.’
Letting that magnetic pull guide me, I’d materialized in the tub with her, steam curling around us both. One moment she was alone, soap sliding over her skin. The next, my hand was on her, unable to resist the need to touch her.
“What the fuck?” She’d reacted instantly, grabbing my wrist and twisting with enough force to break a normal man’s bones.
Her strength had caught me off guard, though back then, I had no idea she was a goddess, the daughter of the God of Ruin.
But when she spun around and saw me, lust seared her eyes. The way they traveled down my body, taking in every inch with raw hunger, shattered my control.
She didn’t believe I was real, especially after I’d transported us to my gold-and-marble bathtub.
“This has to be some kind of dream, a super ridiculous one,” she’d announced. “I’m going to pinch my tit and wake the fuck up!”
“Or I could pinch it for you,” I’d smirked. “Actually, I can do much more than that, if you’ll let me.”
Without invitation, I’d slid a hand between her thighs and palmed her bare pussy, slick and hot and needy. I’d rubbed it to ease her ache until she’d boldly demanded, “Will you fuck me and give me the kind of pleasure I need? I’m not like any woman you’ve fucked before.”
She wasn’t like any other woman. Even at the bottom of the academy’s food chain, she’d never been afraid of me or anyone. The vampire heir once complained to me, “Little Bob is the worst servant ever. He doesn’t have a single service bone in his small body.” Back then, Louis hadn’t realized “Little Bob” was a girl, and I hadn’t enlightened him.
I’d covered her mouth with mine before she could spit more threats. Even as her body arched into me, surrendering to the heat between us, she bit my lip. As turned on as I was, I decided to punish her defiance.
I thrust two fingers into her tightness, moving ruthlessly in and out. The sounds she made, half gasp, half moan, set my blood on fire.
A greedy little thing. Just my type.
“You knew I wasn’t a boy?” she’d asked, breathless. “How?”
“I’m not a fool like the others,” I’d purred, twisting my fingers in her narrow passage and eliciting moans from her. “Iwanted to fuck you the first time I laid eyes on you. Your cunt is made for me, tight, hot, and demanding. Made for me to fuck.”
She became aggressive and slid a hand into my swimming trunks to seize my cock, mercilessly pumping her fist up and down my length. Her thumb fondled the thick ring of my crown, rubbing it and pinching it.
“You’re playing with fire,” I’d groaned at the incredible sensation before bending her over the tub.
My granite-hard cock placed at her slick entrance, I savored the moment, as I’d wanted to fuck her for so long. I’d pictured pounding into her cunt every night while I pleasured myself.
“Like it rough?”
