Empusa's Hunger: A Reverse Harem Romance (Monsters and Gargoyles Book 8)

by Lacey Carter Andersen

  Too late?

  He jumps to his feet, and then I’m slung over his shoulder. I hear the sound of something loud outside the cave. The gargoyle who carries me races through the dark cave. I want to tell him to put me down, but I sense doom approaching. I glance forward and see the light from the outside disappearing, and then it’s swallowed.

  “No!” The gargoyle shouts.

  We reach the spot the entrance had just been, and I hear the gargoyle pounding his fists against whatever has closed us inside. But it’s no use. After a few minutes, he stops, breathing hard.

  “What just happened?” I ask, trying to sound calm.

  He takes a minute to answer, but when he does, he sounds angry. “The beast lured me here earlier, attacked me, then locked me in with the boulder. I passed out while I was trying to figure out what the hell to do.”

  Boulder. Fuck. I remember a certain myth about a cyclops who locked his victims in a cave and ate them at will.

  “Are the kids in here?”

  “No,” he sounds distraught. “There’s nothing else in here.”

  “And you can’t move the rock?” It seems obvious, but I want to hear him say it.

  “Not a chance.”

  “Fuck,” I mutter.

  “Fuck is right. We’re very very fucked.”

  For some reason, his words turn me on. Stupid lust!

  “Want to put me down?”

  His entire body stiffens. “Oh, right. I forgot.”

  And then he does. But it isn’t fast. He sets me down slowly, my entire body rubbing down his.

  My damn nipples harden again, and I realize I'm panting. This… this is so wrong. We’re trapped in a cave, waiting to be eaten, and all I want to do is taste this damned gargoyle.

  “I’m Lucas, by the way.”

  “Em,” I tell him softly.

  It’s too quiet for a long moment before he says, “Don’t worry, my brothers will find us soon.”

  “I know. I saw them just a bit ago.”

  “You did?” he sounds surprised.

  I’m glad it’s dark because my cheeks feel hot. “Yeah.”

  He clears his throat.

  I struggle to say the right thing. “If we go back, we can probably find where I dropped my flashlight, and then come up with a plan.”

  “Good idea.”

  We walk together, struggling to find the place I’d found him on the ground. After a moment, he reaches out and takes my hand. My first instinct is to punch him, but I struggle to ignore my natural instinct and slowly hold his hand back.

  “Don’t want you to fall,” he says, his voice a little husky.

  “I was more worried about you,” I counter.

  He laughs, and the sound is a delightful rumble. “We gargoyles are pretty steady on our feet.”

  “And on your backs.” The moment the words leave my lips, I want to take them back.

  “Oh yeah? How many gargoyles have you had on your back?”

  I chew my lip, feeling embarrassed beyond my wildest dreams. “Tonight or in total? Because the number is the same.”

  He freezes. “You’re not joking. Are you?”

  I don’t know what to say.

  He turns, coming closer to me. “You and my brothers… you didn’t? Did you?”

  My breath is coming in and out too fast. “I don’t know what happened. It was like we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. First, Rokad, then Narath and Conley.”

  “What?” Now he sounds shocked and pissed.

  “What?” I say right back, feeling a bit defensive.

  “Nothing,” but it doesn’t sound like nothing.

  “You sure?”

  He keeps walking, his palm sweaty against mine. “It’s just… I figured when we finally, well, with a woman, it’d be together. Usually, our kind shares one woman, since women are so rare in the gargoyle world.”

  The hurt in his voice surprises me. “So, you feel left out?”

  He laughs, but there’s still sadness in his voice. “Nah, I’m good. Really. I mean, I’m glad… that happened for all of you. I’m a bit surprised. Not about Conley, I’m sure he’s had his share of women, but I don’t think I’ve seen Narath and Rokad do more than look at a woman before. And Rokad seems too responsible for doing something like that so quickly. While, Narath, well, he’s got his own shit going on.”

  I roll his words around in my mind. “Well, this was also kind of a first-time thing for me.”

  He freezes again, then starts walking. “So you’ve only had us… I mean, them?”

  I nod, then remember he can’t see me. “Yeah.”

  He doesn’t say anything more, but we reach the back of the cave and split up, touching the ground, searching for the flashlight. But, it’s no luck.

  Finally, I sigh. “I think it might be long gone.”

  “A needle in a haystack,” he says, coming closer to me.

  “So, what do we do?”

  He takes my hand again, surprising me, but I find myself enjoying it. “Over here. We’ll tuck ourselves into a corner and wait. Whether my brothers come back, or the creature, we’ll be ready.”

  My pulse picks up. “Think it’ll be back tonight?”

  “Not a chance. I think it’s going to go guard wherever it’s keeping the kids. And chances are my brothers will find it and the kids first, then go look for us.”

  I feel oddly useless. “So we just have to keep busy until then.”

  “Wonder if we can find a way to do that,” he says, adding a sexy purr to his voice before laughing.

  I hate that his words turn me on. “You know, I’m not just going to mount you because you’re a gargoyle. I don’t even remember what you look like.”

  “I’m hot,” he rushes out, sounding smug. “Hair shaved pretty low, but it works for me. And my eyes are light brown. I have a lot of tats, something I did for myself that my brothers thought was stupid as hell, but makes me happy.”

  “Where are your tattoos?” I ask, wishing I could see them.

  “My arms and one shoulder,” he says, then we stop walking. “Here’s the cave wall. Want to sit?”

  “Sure,” and we sit together, like being in a dark cave waiting to be rescued or eaten is a completely normal thing.

  I slide my back down the side of the cave, and he sits next to me. The heat of his body strangely nice. His leg touches mine, and then he puts a hand on my leg, mumbles an apology, while drawing it away.

  To my surprise, I set my hand on his thigh instead. “Should I apologize too?” I find myself smiling.

  “Nah, that’s… nice,” he sounds breathless.

  And my body reacts.

  I tell my demon side to calm down. That we’ve filled our lust bucket enough tonight to last a lifetime, but I feel like my demon just laughs at me. She wants this man. And there’s a strange sense that if I do anything, give him any sign, I could have him.

  “So, after your night, I bet you’re tired,” he says.

  I laugh. “You’re the one who got beat up.”

  “Well, I’ve seen my brothers naked enough to suspect a little woman like you might be wishing she got a different kind of pounding tonight.”

  I laugh again, and it’s strange. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much in my whole life. Even the sound of me happy is strange to my ears, like the sound belongs to someone else. “Can I be honest with you?”

  “I prefer honesty to lies,” he says, again with a teasing note to his voice.

  If we weren’t in the dark, I don’t think I could say it, but I force the words out. “I’m kind of tempted by you. You know... if you’re as hot as you say you are.”

  “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath. “Don’t say that to a virgin. I have hundreds of years of need built up, so you could give me the smallest sign, and I’d be on my knees for you.”

  “Your knees?” the words come out husky.

  “Double fuck,” he mutters. “Or, any way you want me.”

&nbs
p; “Lucas, this is a bad idea, right?” I ask, heart pounding.

  “No, this is an amazing, incredible idea,” he practically groans.

  I can’t believe I’m considering this. I can’t believe after all I’ve done tonight, I want this man too. But the truth is, I do. And some voice whispers in the back of my mind that if I don’t do this now, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.

  My thoughts spin to my life so far, and it’s strange how lonely I’ve been. I always thought I was alone, but not lonely, but now that notion feels like a lie I’ve told myself so many times, that I almost believed it was true. And after tonight, I knew that I was going to run as far and as fast from these men as I could get because they fed my demon side in a way they shouldn’t.

  So, it’s now or never.

  I release the breath I’ve been holding and slowly trail my hand up his thigh, hesitate, then grasp his cock.

  A groan slips from his lips, but he doesn’t say a word.

  I start to work him through his jeans, loving the way his erection grows. Before tonight, I’d seen a few men naked, but that was different. Seeing chained prisoners dragged through the halls of the Underworld isn’t exactly hot. But after touching these gargoyles, after tasting them, I’m excited by the feel of a man’s hard cock.

  Undoing his jeans, I pull him free and listen to the way he pants, feeling myself strangely turned on by his reaction. I lean down, take him in my mouth, and suck.

  “Fucking hell!” He gasps. One of his hands falls lightly on the back of my head, and I bob on him, taking him in and out. Wanting to taste him, as I’d tasted the phoenix.

  I cup his balls, rolling them in my hand, and his breathing comes in and out faster and faster. My nipples are hard beneath my shirt, almost painful inside of my bra, and I keep shifting my legs, feeling myself swollen and wanting.

  “Okay, you better stop,” he pants out. “I’m going to go.”

  Only, I want him to go. I want to taste him. I want to feel him.

  Pulling back from his dick, I whisper against his tip, “So go.”

  I follow my words up by licking the top of his cock, and then I take him deep into my mouth. His tip hits the back of my throat, and I make a noise around him. The hand in my hair tightens, and then he gently begins to guide me up and down and up and down until every muscle in his body tenses.

  And he comes.

  Oh, fucking hell. I’d heard women say this was unpleasant. I’d heard women talk. But this is nothing like that. He tastes sweet and salty and like a snack I want to have over and over again. As he continues to pump me up and down on his cock, I devour him until he collapses back.

  Then, I lick him clean and pull away, panting against the wall of the cave.

  I feel so hot and ready, I don’t even know what to do with myself. My hand slips down to the space between my legs, and I almost touch myself, when his hand falls over mine. “Can I?”

  What woman would refuse that? “Please.”

  He slips his hands into my pants. He seems unsure at first when he touches me, but then he grows more confident. His fingers stroke and play with my folds in a way that has my legs twitching and my entire body wound so tight that I feel like a spring about to snap.

  At last, I say, “I want… I want your cock inside of me.”

  I don’t even know what’s happening when he stands, but I can hear him. Undressing. And then, he helps undress me too.

  There’s a distant thought that a cyclops might come to eat us and find us fucking, but the thoughts fades when he picks me up and pushes me against the wall of the cave. HIs cock is hard, and I help guide him into me, and it feels so good I know I’m going to lose my mind. He’s long and thick and exactly what my body wants. The fit is so tight, ridiculously tight, even though I’m wet and ready.

  I don’t go as slow as I had before. I push myself down on top of him, and our strangled cries of pleasure come at the same time.

  And then, we begin to fuck each other. It isn’t a slow exploration. It’s a hard and fast race to the finish line, where we both know we’ll be winners.

  He kisses my lips, sucks on my neck, and then takes one of my nipples into his mouth. I ride him hard. Harder than I ever thought possible, and then find myself chanting his name as I go crashing over the edge.

  He’s there a second later, coming inside of me, filling me with his hot seed. And the knowledge only makes my own orgasm better, stretching it out and out until I think I’m going to pass out.

  I’m panting, holding him close, when I hear a sound outside the cave.

  He sets me down, and we’re both scrambling, throwing on our clothes in the darkness. When we’re dressed, neither of us says a word, he takes my hand, and we creep toward the entrance of the cave.

  “Lucas?” I hear Rokad shout into the darkness.

  “Yeah!” the gargoyle beside me shouts back, and we rush faster to our freedom.

  “Hurry up! We found its cave, just a little ways from here, and the kids are inside.”

  When we come out into the night, every man I’d ever slept with in my life is there, staring at me. I feel strangely vulnerable. I’m sure my hair is a mess, and my lips feel swollen. Not only that, but I’m still wet, and the after-effects of my orgasms are still rolling through me.

  “Em?” Rokad finally manages, sounding shocked.

  I manage to find my voice. “What are we waiting for? We have a monster to kill.”

  Chapter 9

  Conley

  * * *

  I don’t know what the hell is happening tonight. I have never seen these gargoyles even seem like they have dicks. They’re all about the mission, all about loyalty. Nothing has steered them from their course in all the time I’ve known them.

  And then the crazy gargoyle, who hates me, invited me to have a threesome with him…

  I’d done it. Hell yeah, I’d done it. This Em is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. And watching her with Narath had turned me on in a way I never expected.

  But it’d also been more than that. Him inviting me to join them felt like he was accepting me for the first time ever. I mean, having a threesome with someone has to draw you together, right?

  I didn’t know. But then, Em was gone and Narath and I were left naked in the woods searching for her. We’d ran into Rokad and quickly realized something was off with him, and even though we’d been dressed when we saw him, I was pretty sure he knew something was up with us too.

  In typical Rokad style though, he hadn’t said a word. Just redirected us on our mission. We’d flown over the woods, searching for any sign of our target. We saw him leave this cave and go to another one, sealing it shut behind him. We’d sensed people inside both caves, but we’d gone to this one first, just to be sure.

  And now we find Em with Lucas, her hair messy, that glow to her skin, and I think we all know what happened. Yet, it’s not time for that. We have a hungry cyclops and a bunch of missing kids to deal with. But we would deal with this eventually, and I prayed this was more than just one strange night of hotness.

  “So, the other cave?” Em says, clearly embarrassed.

  I almost ask her to explain what the hell is going on, but Rokad is the first to answer, “It’s close.”

  He turns and starts heading in the direction of the cave. Narath, on the other hand, is staring at Em like he wants to devour her. I’m not even one hundred percent sure he realizes the rest of us are here.

  I glance at Lucas and nod toward his brother.

  Lucas gives me a slight nod. “Narath, want to lead us there?”

  Narath doesn’t answer, he just keeps staring at Em. His dark eyes growing darker.

  Em, for her credit, glances away from him and starts toward the cave.

  He catches her wrist, effectively stopping her. “Em?”

  She glances nervously back at him. “We need to get there before the kids get hurt. Remember? We have monsters to hunt.”

  This is normally t
he moment when Narath completely loses his shit. He’s not a man to be told what to do. When he has something in his sight, he can’t let it go. It’s part of the reason he scares me just a bit. So it’s no surprise when both Lucas and I carefully move closer, worried he might hurt the woman.

  To our shock, he nods, releasing his wrist. “I’ll stay close to you.”

  Em looks relieved and hurries after Rokad. And just as he said, Narath stays close to her, right at her heel. His hands curled into fists, his head swinging from side to side as he searches, presumably, for anything that might threaten the tiny woman.

  “What the fuck was that?” Lucas mumbles to me.

  I shake my head. “Not a clue.”

  We follow them all, feeling lost. Who is this woman? And how the hell is she able to tame Narath with such ease? The big guy is scary. Not just scary to me, but scary to all of us. And yet, a tiny woman with claws is able to get him to follow her like a puppy?

  So miracles really do happen.

  A few minutes later, we come to the cave we’d spotted our target entering. He’s managed to roll a big rock in front of the entrance. But between all of us, I have no doubt we can move it. We just have to be prepared for whatever we might find on the other side.

  Rokad looks at all of us and shifts into his stone form. Instantly, his pale skin turns to grey, and his wings become stone too. The other two shift too. And then, they move toward the rock.

  I step forward too, but Narath snarls back at me, “We have this, phoenix.”

  Damn. That hurts a little. Apparently, our little threesome meant more to me than to him. At the end of the day, I’m still a phoenix, and he’s still a gargoyle, and that’s all that matters to him.

  Em slides to my side, and the heat of her skin takes a little bit of the sting out of Narath’s words. But when the big guy sees her beside me, his hands drop from the stone, and his gaze grows thunderous. He moves away from the stone, charging at me like a wild bull.

  I tense, prepared to have his huge form crush me, but then Em is standing in front of me and Narath stops just before touching her. His eyes are wide and confused, and Rokad and Lucas are staring at us all, waiting for what might come.