Page 21 of Zodiac Demons

Embarrassing.

I didn’t want Marcus to see me as someone weak and defenseless, but I likely always looked that way compared to Omari. “I assume I don’t need to explain that he’s the golden son, and I’m the unfortunate extra.”

“I could have guessed that, too, being you’re an Arya with a shifter scent.” The way he shook his head with such a wide grin continued to be disarming. “I probably shouldn’t even be talking to you, technically, but being I’m also the not-so-golden son, I’m not sure it’s even possible to be an even bigger disappointment to my father, so I’m not going to worry about it.” So carefree. I wish I could think that way, but even as the secondary heir, there were still many. many expectations of how I would uphold the bloodline. “Anyway, I know you said you can’t go outside on a full moon, but maybe we can find somewhere a touch more comfortable than a supply closet to pass the night?”

Again he offered, and again I knew I should turn him down. Maybe it was my own confused, moon-fed hormones, but something in me didn’t take that question as a platonic offer of quiet friendship. And yet... “I have a key to the library.”

The library would always be my sanctuary. On a full moon night, on a new moon night—every day of the year, I wanted nothing more than to hide here and escape into a thousand worlds that weren’t mine.

But tonight I had invited an Alpha shifter to share this place with me, and I could only assume it was Purnima that was making me take that chance.

While he’d all but personally confirmed his Hybrid status, he’d still not told me of what order. Could he also be a zodiac shifter? Was that why this felt so natural?

No, that would be entirely too coincidental. This draw I felt was purely because the moon was in my head, and I had always liked the scent of sage.

“So you can’t go outside at all during a full moon? Is that a hybrid Omega thing?” He asked, while his eyes combed the moonlit room. That imposing light was clearly visible through the window, while the glass was fortunately built to keep out its power. It was the only way I could enjoy what was otherwise a beautiful sight, tainted by countless ugly memories.

“It’s not a hybrid Alpha thing?” I intentionally avoided a clear response.

“No, I have specific triggers on nights like this. If the requirements aren’t met, I can basically bathe in the night.” He paced over to the lore bookshelf, and he ran his fingers down the richly textured spine of a book on Greco-Roman and Egyptian gods. I joined him at my favorite bookshelf, wanting to take in that perfect mixture of his Alpha scent and bound leather. “But when they are met…” He trailed off with a half-smile that contradicted the frown in his eyes.

“You aren’t in control anymore.” I finished his sentence, then bit my lip, realizing I might be accidentally admitting too much. My sense of self when shifted was a complicated push and pull. I was conscious, but my Gemini mind took over my choices. I reverted to base desires as if I was deeply intoxicated, while still operating with clear and concise intent and awareness, and I never could discern what was truly me, and what was a monster lurking beneath, moving my body on tightly wound puppet strings.

Yet to vocalize all of that was scarier than simply saying I was out of my mind and out of control.

“Right.” Marcus glanced over at me with curiosity. “For me, I don’t even know what I’ve done until I shift back the next morning, and all of the night’s memories come rushing back to me. It’s been fun at times, but only at times.” He stepped closer to me, and I fought the urge to recoil. “I’ve regretted more nights than I’ve enjoyed, but I think I’m starting to figure out how to use my gifts and my curses in my favor.” He moved so I was between him and the bookshelf, and I turned to face him. He put his forearm beside my head blocking my escape route, and I pressed my back into the bookshelf to reclaim the smallest amount of space. “There’s no reason a full moon night needs to always be so traumatic though. There are definitely times where letting that pull take over, listening to that call, and giving in can be…” He placed a single finger beneath my chin, and lifted my face to hold our gazes level. “Liberating.”

My heartbeat skipped, and my breathing hitched, as I was forcing my mind to catch up with what was happening. Maybe the phase of the moon was getting under my skin, too, because something about his proximity was doing things to me I wouldn’t admit. Just because we weren’t shifted, that didn’t mean we hadn’t been exposed to night after night of partial moon beams building up our demons until now.

“You don’t have to be so afraid of me.” He whispered in this empty room. “I do bite, but I make sure it’s enjoyable.”

“A vampire and a wolf?” I guessed, and he laughed.

“Not even close.” He inched in closer. So close that I could feel his breath warming my skin. Th-this wasn’t why I’d taken him here, was it? My heartbeat pounded in my chest, betraying the lies in my thoughts. “But I know exactly what you are.”

“I doubt that.” My breathing was shallow, while he traced my bottom lip with the tip of his thumb. He was so close. I was grateful that he helped me, but I wasn’t trying to… to… What am I trying not to do, again? “But I’ll let you prove me wrong.”

“Gladly.” He connected our lips, then our tongues, then our bodies, as he pressed me fully into the bookcase, and the quiet, contrary voice in the back of my mind told me it was okay to let him. That I wanted this as badly as my physical reaction told me I did. Neither face of my Gemini presented any protest, as he controlled me with his kiss, punishing and commanding in a way that robbed you of choice, of resistance, and power. This was an Alpha dictating the role of his Omega, and that raw instinct in my soul was bucking and giving in without a second thought, not even hesitating when he added, in the cruelest whisper. “What you are is mine.”

Those words hit something primal in me in their possessive simplicity, and my physical reaction made my emotional one even more difficult to regulate. This was by no stretch my first kiss, but it was pulsing an electricity through me that made me wish it could be the last, and that had to be the moon talking, because that small, needy whimper in the silent library couldn’t have been from my sane mind.

I let my hands wander, hastily undoing the clasps of his uniform jacket, then feeling my way up the firm muscles under the thin layer of the cotton shirt beneath. I was writing every hard plain into my memory, only to have him grab my wrists and force them against the leather bound books at my back. He ground our hips more tightly together, my body just as at attention as his was, and he smirked into our kiss with a devious sort of need.

I should push him away. I shouldn’t be doing this. If this was the trap Omari had set, I’d walked right into it. He was an Alpha without question, and the amount of power he could have over me meant it was way too soon to be trusting him like this.

But he tasted so much more like rebellion than compliance.

He increased the pressure on my wrists, his thumb over my pulse so firmly, it was as though he was counting my heart beats to gauge my every reaction, seeking whatever careful touch, nip, and movement added another couple beats per minute. He was good at that game, because that pressure he kept on between our hips and through our lips was sending me to the moon and back, and it was almost terrifying to know I was being so easily read and manipulated on the most basic and undeniable level.

We were both breathing heavy as he broke the kiss and laced his fingers through my hair. What at first was a gentle and tender gesture turned into a balled fist and a hard tug, forcing my chin up, and exposing my neck in an open invite to a predator. He nuzzled into me, pressing kisses down my sensitive skin, before he ran his tongue up the length of my jugular.

He started undoing my belt, and I took a sharp inhale.

“W-wait.” I stumbled over my argument, while my focus fell on the sound of leather sliding through metal.

“I don’t think either of our bodies want me to wait.” He emphasized the point by sliding his open palm along my clothed length, before slipping his fingers beneath my waistband, connecting skin-on-skin. I shuddered as he wrapped one finger at a time around my cock and started stroking me with well-practiced and too-skilled pressure. “It’s been a stressful semester so far, so how about you shut up and let me get you off and work out some of this frustration.” He kissed me again, slow and lingering, while he varied his grip pressure with each maddening shift along my sensitive skin.

I breathed heavily through my nose, and I bit into my lip, trying not to make a sound that would give away how badly I wanted him to keep going. He took the small gesture as me listening to his command.