Page 37 of Zodiac Demons

Me: How many beds did they give you?

Little Serpent: I’m blocking this number.

Me: That’s fine. I always know where to find you. It’s more fun when I don’t give you a warning.

“By the damn Devil, Marcus.” Ceto snapped as he opened the door to his room to take his bag. I’d half expected him to keep it locked, and wait for me to leave, but as always, he couldn’t resist seeing me. “I’m not doing this with you again. I knew the moment I was in my right mind and realized that pact had been completed that this was going to be torture.”

“Mmmhmmm.” I leaned against the side of the doorway, enjoying his discomfort entirely too much. He did only have one bed, but Lila and I had a bigger one. Enough to sleep three, even. “Are you going to invite me in, or do you want to have this conversation where the whole hotel can hear? I’m sure the ladies in the sewing club would love to have something to gossip about.”

“You’re already tied to me by the transitive bond. We both know I don’t have to.” No fun at all.

“I wasn’t asking for vampire permission. I was asking for your permission.” I rolled my eyes at my needlessly aggressive old friend.

“Right, because consent is so important to you.” He scoffed, set his bag on his bed, and stared down at it for a few seconds. His chest heaved with a heavy breath before he said, “Come in. Shut the door.”

Cute. That’s what I thought.

I did as I was told, then just to give him a reason to feel extra secure, I turned the deadbolt with a pronounced click. His whole body stiffened at the sound, and dammit that reaction always did so many things for me.

“Why are you so upset? You know you didn’t have to come on this trip. It was an option to just ignore the invitation, and we could have actually dealt with the issue before the full moon, so we wouldn’t be in this very public predicament.” So dramatic for someone who made the entire bed he was sleeping in. “Or we could have dealt with this before the trip, if you weren’t so dead set on avoiding me.”

“What does ‘deal with it’ even mean? Like you would have just released me from an arrangement that benefits you so completely?” He started angrily unpacking, and I couldn’t help but frown at that. We both knew he needed an Alpha’s permission to break a bond, but considering I’d done that for him before, when our bond was between just the two of us, and I was completely in love with him, I didn’t actually understand where his intense distrust came from. I wouldn’t ever say I was a trustworthy person in all ways—I barely trusted myself some days, and being a hybrid who was a slave to mania under a full moon, I’d be a fool if I did—but I’d always done right by him, even if he didn’t appreciate that.

But then again, he’d never told me the true cost of saving my life back when I marked him in the first place, and he likely held that against me. I guess the fact that I had marked him when he’d told me I couldn’t so many times was my failing, all in all. He didn’t believe me when I said it was an accident, and I wasn’t sure I was being entirely honest myself.

“We could set ground rules? Custody agreements? Play rock paper scissors to see who gets to become her rejected mate?” I said with a shrug.

“You never take anything seriously.” He shook his head.

“And you take everything too seriously.” I snorted. “We could have at least talked about it and figured out where you stood, what happened, and then come up with a plan so tonight isn’t a completely fucked up mess. Maybe—and hear me out here—work out some of our differences, so one of us doesn’t have to become unmateable to the shifter half of our blood for the rest of our eternity.”

“I don’t care if I become unmateable because of permanent rejection. If anything, I’m probably better off that way. After everything that happened with you, I figured I’d never complete a mate pact as it was, so it’s not a big loss to me to lose that ability. None of our parents have pacts, so it hardly matters.” Ceto latched on to that suggestion, and only that suggestion. Devil forbid we have a conversation about our actual relationship. “However much I like Lila, I would rather be condemned by the stars than stay mated to you. But there’s no realm where you’re going to actually let me have that.”

Well, at least he admitted he likes Lila.

“You’re right, there isn’t. But not because I’m in any way trying to torture you or keep you bound to me. It’s because you’re making rash decisions while your head’s in a completely irrational place.” This time, I was the one who sighed. “I get it. You’re an Arya heir. There are expectations. I’ve heard it all before ad nauseam. But the reason I’m not going to let you dissolve your pact after five fucking minutes of completing it is because, first of all, you just admitted out loud that you do like Lila.” His eyes widened, like he hadn’t even noticed that himself. He probably didn’t, in all fairness. “Second of all, you were the one who made this pact in the first place, which you couldn’t have even done if you didn’t have genuine feelings for her, and I know it’s still fresh, you’re panicking, and you’re not thinking straight. That’s not the right mindset to make a decision as permanent as true rejection.” I approached him, while he was now simply staring at his bag, listening instead of trying to stay busy and distracted. “Third, let’s be realistic. You rejecting Lila wouldn’t save you from your family’s rules. It would just shrink your dating options down to non-shifter species, and you’d still end up getting matched with someone eventually, who more than likely only sees you as a trophy. Right now, you have someone—two someones—who see you as tremendously more than that.” The way he stopped breathing as I said that spoke more to his mental state than his words ever would. “And lastly, because I’m not going to let your parents dictate the rest of your eternal life. If in the end, you decide you don’t want to have this pact, truly in the deepest parts of your fucking soul, then I’ll give you the permission you need to break it. But I’m not condemning half your magical existence to exile, and your other half to an arranged marriage to a stranger, because you’re scared of the consequences of doing something for yourself for once.”

I hugged my arms around his shoulders from behind, and he didn’t fight me, but he also didn’t respond. We were close enough in height that I comfortably rested my chin beside his head. “I’m surprised you could actually complete the pact with her, considering your blood almost killed me once.”

“She’s Lamia.” He muttered quietly, but he still didn’t push me away. “She’s probably one of the only possible combinations of species I could complete a shifter pact with.”

“Almost feels like fate, don’t you think?”

“Western Zodiac shifters don’t have fated mates.” He reiterated an old joke between us, and I didn’t miss the slight quirk to his lips as he said it, even if he was quick to fight his own smile.

“No, but that doesn’t mean our lives aren’t written by the devil’s design.” I ruffled his hair, then stepped back, giving him space to breathe. “You know, you still haven’t told me what your shifted form is like, and Lila is shockingly protective of your privacy.” Although she sure thinks about it a lot. “How bad is it going to be for you tonight?”

Ceto snorted, then he turned to face me, an unexpected smirk painting his lips. “Oh, it’ll be fine for me. You’re the one who should be worried.”

“The Cancer is an easy trigger. I’m not remotely scared of a little Omega Gemini, I promise.” I raised a brow, and Ceto just kept that smug expression as he resumed unpacking. At least that was better than his sneer. Though he was very good at being my submissive plaything in bed, I never forgot that he was very capable of being the vicious and untouchable killer when he had to be. We’d fallen right back into that routine of push and pull, and I’d have to admit, that felt good.

“Then don’t worry about it.” He waved me off, but it sounded a bit like a threat, and I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t my favorite side of him. I missed this. “Lila seems to love shifting during the full moon, so I won’t be the one to stand in her way.” He lifted his chin in a small show of arrogance, earned by his bloodline. “It’s a party, after all.”

“Both of your faces are absolutely adorable, you know that?” Was I flirting? Maybe. Okay, absolutely yes. How could I resist?

“You haven’t seen my other side yet. But I’ll be happy to finally introduce you later.” He walked past me to his door, and he propped it open for me to leave. “Just don’t forget which one of us actually has the most lethal bite, kitten.”

A submissive monster. If ever I’d met a switch, Ceto was the two-faced demon I would never get enough of. His threats probably weren’t supposed to get me hard, but well, I was sure Lila wouldn’t mind a little pre-gaming before the big event.