Bonus Spicy Prologue - Rath

Rath had never known hunger like the kind she carved into him.

Not when he was a young demon, eager to prove himself after the courts of his realm bowed to his father. Not after his uncle betrayed him, when he was vicious in his pursuit of justice. Not even when he had spent years searching through human dreams, hoping to one day find his fated mate.

But she…she made him undone. And she did not even need to press her lips to his to do so.

The realm was quiet that night as the black sun steadily declined and the blood moon rose on the other horizon. The skies above the Mephistopheles manor bled into slow ribbons on crimson-black, like bruises mixed with blood. Down the steep hill, the towers of Pandemonium rose in elegant curves.

There were likely gatherings down there—music drifting through marble halls, demons clamoring to watch tonight’s show of the Danse Macabre. His brother, Kael, was no doubt drinking himself into a stupor at whatever party he had been invited to.

But Rath did not deign to join any of them.

He could have if he so desired, though, in his experience, they were filled with loud noises and meaningless indulgences. Even if he cared for such things, he had far better things to do.

Things like his beautiful mate.

He closed his eyes and searched through his mind for the thread linking them together. It was always there, like a fault line beneath his existence, something he would follow until the realms cracked in two. She lived in a fragile human world, one that knew nothing of the darkness his held.

And yet, every night, she called out to him with a surrendered prayer.

It took a few seconds to find which thread belonged to her, but with every passing night, it was becoming easier to find the one that glowed within him. Picking apart human minds was like detangling a ball of knotted yarn, hoping that one string deep in the center would be the right one. It was why it took years to find her. 

While they dreamed, the veil between humans and demons was thin enough for him to easily traverse, especially with his growing power. But there were billions of humans. It took time to search through them all, pulling apart each thread, visiting night after night while he hoped each human woman he laid eyes upon would be her.

One night, he had appeared in her plain bedroom, almost ready to give up his search for his fated mate after going years without the slightest bit of success. Elder nobles insisted it took time, especially if his mate was human, but time was something he did not have. The memory of his parents and their love kept him going even when his hope threatened to collapse.

And there she was, sleeping soundly in her bed. When she opened her deep blue eyes to look at him, her breath hitching, he felt himself slowly unravel. The knowledge hit him instantly deep in his soul. He was hers, and she would one day be his. 

Until then, he would live like this. Utterly undone.

He was hollow, and she was the only one who could fill him. Rath held onto their bond, hoping one day she would join him in his realm. Hoping one day, he would be enough to fill her, too.

A sound dragged between the realms, a voice that made the hunger inside of him renew.

“Azarath,” she whispered through the veil in the voice that made him want to hear her scream for him. The thread of their bond glowed brighter with her invitation. “Come.”

The air bent, and the realm thinned. Within a moment, he was gone.

. . .

Her world was always warmer than his. It made his skin crawl with discomfort—or perhaps that was from the feeling of being trapped in between four walls and a set of summoning candles.

Rath hated the smallness of it. He hated the way the air in her room felt static, stripped of the ozone and violent magic of his home. In her world, he was reduced to little more than a phantom, his crown feeling more like a collar.

But he would endure a thousand years in this airless cage just to look at her.

Violet was still in the bed, her sheets smooth in a way that tempted him to rip them apart. She wore a plain, white nightdress with lace covering the valley between her breasts and two loose straps that tested his composure. Rath vowed to steal that one for her closet in his manor. She had only recently started letting him touch her—only a few weeks ago, he had been content with whispering to her while she slept—but he was hopeful that she would one day come back with him to his realm. And when the time came, he would make sure she had everything she desired.

Her blue eyes tracked the expanse of his body while her chest heaved with little, stuttering breaths. How he craved the sounds those parted lips made, the little whimpers that escaped when his fingers pressed into her warm flesh.

“Hello, nightflower,” he said as he held himself back from pulling her lips to his.

Fated mates were sacred to demons. As soon as a mateship was recognized, they would seal their bond with a kiss. They worried about what life would be like afterward later, trusting that fate would not lead them astray. 

But Kael had helped Rath learn about humans, who did not view things the same way. They did not marry at the first sign of a “crush,” as Kael called them, nor did their customs include binding souls for eternity.

So even though every instinct inside of Rath screamed to go to her, to kiss her until she was finally his, he held that part of himself on a tight leash. Her comfort was far more important than his.

Even if that leash was slowly shredding apart.

Violet’s honey-brown hair fell down her back, beautifully mussed from sleep. Her cheeks were flushed as she stared at his chest, which was exposed in his shirt. Though he fought to keep his face calm around her, his tattoos betrayed him, swirling rapidly. Every part of him longed to bury itself in her—his fangs in her neck, his cock in the pussy he knew was wet and waiting for her, his lips against hers.

Just the thought of them—of her petal-pink mouth pressing against his, binding their souls together for eternity—made him harden.

“You came,” Violet said, her voice soft. 

When Rath was young, he used to dream of his future mate. He pictured a demon woman with a warrior’s heart and strength to rival his own. Not someone soft and fragile like his human nightflower.

After he grieved the loss of his parents for several decades and recovered from the fight that gave him his scar, he searched the demon realm for his mate first. When he did not find her there, he began to look through human dreams, still suspecting his mate was a demon woman he had yet to meet.

Which was why he was surprised to find her, a human “accountant” (whatever that meant) with big, expressive eyes that saw every part of him and skin that broke so easily if he was not careful with her. Though he did not dare question fate’s choice for him, he was a little shocked by its decision at first.

But over time, Rath learned he was wrong about her. Violet may not have been a demon, but she did have the heart of a warrior and the strength of a thousand demons. And every time he laid eyes on her, he sent up his thanks to fate for proving his early ideas wrong.

“Of course, I came,” Rath murmured. “You called for me.”

And he would every single time. Even if she never kissed him, even if he spent the rest of his existence in this torturous space between friends and bound fated lovers, he would come for her in a heartbeat.

Violet nodded. “Yeah… Yeah, I’m still getting used to that.”

When Rath first met Violet, he worried she would feel forced into their mating by forces no one quite understood. But now, he realized she always had a choice. It was his job to prove that he was the right one.

Every night she called for him, it felt like she was choosing him. And that was a glorious feeling.

The pounding of a heartbeat broke him from his thoughts. Rath turned to Violet with a smirk, finding her staring at his lips, at the forked tongue that swiped across them. 

Sometimes, Rath worried that appearing too demonic would frighten her. He glamoured himself to appear like another mortal man, but sometimes, when his desire for her clouded his senses, the glamour dropped. Last night, when he tasted her sweet honey, the magic dropped, and the ends of his split tongue found themselves pressed against two places inside of her. The screams Violet let out were enough to make him never want to glamour his tongue again.

Her cheeks turned a delicious shade of pink when he caught her staring. He loved the sight of the blood rushing to her flesh. It was proof that his cravings were not nearly as one-sided as he used to worry. “Does the sight of my mouth entice you, nightflower?”

“Y-yes… It’s very nice,” she stammered, blushing even more fiercely now.

Rath grinned. “Oh, really? Perhaps you should ride it, then.”

And then he was on her, pressing her into the mattress while Violet gasped and arched her back. He flipped them so she was on top of him before shoving her dress above her hips and pulling her until she was hovering above his mouth. Fuck, the sight of her pussy wet and glistening above him was driving him wild.

“Do you want me to stop?” he gritted through his thin veil of control. Just the scent of her was fraying it at the edges.

“God, no.”

He wasted no time lining her core with his lips and pressing his tongue inside of her. Rath groaned with satisfaction. There was nothing better in all the realms than the taste of his fated mate’s arousal.

Violet rocked her hips against him, moaning at this new position. They had not explored many during their time together, something Rath intended to rectify, especially since he had recently learned how much she enjoyed his tongue licking her cunt and sucking at her clit. And Rath had been surprised at how much he enjoyed doing it. With all of his previous partners, he cared little for their pleasure.

But none of them were Violet.

“That’s it, nightflower,” he said against her folds. “Take your pleasure from me.”

As one of the most powerful demons in the realm, Rath could easily read emotions—especially those belonging to humans, whose souls were weaker and unable to block the demons’ powers. It was something his kind regretfully took advantage of in the past until his grandfather outlawed manipulative bargains between the two species.

But though it was not a new power to him, there was something intoxicating about feeling Violet’s emotions while he licked and sucked her. At his dominating words, he felt a flicker of pleasure that was not his own, and a voice practically begging him to do it again.

Interesting, he thought with a smirk. She likes it when I take control.

Rath grabbed her hips and began to rock them against his lips. “Pull down your dress. I want to see your breasts while you ride me.”

Another wave of pleasure, and Violet was practically ripping the straps off her shoulders. Her pale nipples were the same color as her lips, so hard and perky. He could not resist reaching one hand up to palm her breast, rolling the hardened skin between his fingers. His mate threw her head back and moaned.

“Fucking beautiful,” he growled.

Violet’s pussy contracted against his tongue, and his cock strained against his trousers, needing to be inside her, to feel her hair wrapped against his fingers while he pressed into her from behind.

No, he told himself. Not yet.

He did not want to fuck her like that until she was in his realm, until their relationship was something beyond dreams. But though he was committed to that decision, it was still agony to wait for that time to arrive.

Violet’s pussy contracted again. “I… I’m almost there.”

“You say that like I will stop when you come,” Rath said with another grin. “Do you think I will be finished with you? Oh, no, nightflower, I am going to suffocate between your legs until you cannot feel them anymore, and they are twitching with aftershocks. Then, I will press you into this bed and clean your cum with my tongue before my fingers take over and milk every ounce of pleasure from this body. I want you to wake up with the memory of me between your legs. I want you to become addicted to me like I am to you. I want you begging for me tomorrow night.”

A soft whimper slipped past her lips. Rath chuckled. “There’s my girl. So fucking needy.”

Violet’s orgasm must have slammed into her because, suddenly, she cried out while the sweetest taste filled his mouth. The echo of her satisfaction reverberated in his chest. 

It took everything in Rath not to come alongside her. But tonight was not about him. It was about her—convincing her that they were right for each other, doing everything to make her desperate for his kiss.

One day, Rath silently vowed when he began again, twisting his tongue inside of her so the forked ends brushed against the exact spot that made her lose her mind. One day, she will kiss me. And she will be mine.