Dark Secrets

by Madeline Pryce

  The demon walked to Micah and clapped a hand on his shoulder. From the bed, I could see the tendons on Castro’s hand flexing as he tightened his grip. “I couldn’t tell you, Micah.”

  Heat pricked the back of my eyes and I fought to hold back the tears caused by the pure, raw sincerity in his voice. I blamed a wicked case of PMS on my stupid fucking girly emotions.

  “I wanted to, so many times,” he continued.

  Micah clenched his jaw.

  “You need to know, your mother was pregnant with you before she met Richard. Derrik,” Castro drew in a deep breath, “I’d never felt him radiate such joy. When Richard took her, Derrik went after Marianna and I never saw him again. It took me years to discover what had happened, that you existed, that you’d survived. So I waited and I watched.”

  “I’ll deal with Richard,” Micah said.

  Castro shook his head. “There were others, Micah.”

  Anxiety swept through me and my heartbeat tripled. I whipped my head back and forth between the men, waiting with bated breath for Micah to respond. He didn’t disappoint.

  Micah’s voice was ice cold and mirrored not just how I felt, but what I was thinking. “What do you mean, ‘others’?”

  “Richard discovered something about our genetic makeup that makes us compatible to breed with other species. While they held Derrik captive they made him…sire others before they killed him.”

  Some of the notes I’d seen in the folders made more sense. I flashed back to the pregnant women whose restraints I’d cut, how her belly had seemed to stretch past what seemed possible.

  “Holy fuck.” Micah ran a hand through his hair. “In the files, they made these notes. It seemed like the breeding was unsuccessful. You’re saying I’ve got…siblings?”

  “Had. They didn’t make it past puberty. They’ve tried over the years using different demons with various results. Only a handful have survived, but they aren’t of our line. One of the women you brought in carries a halfling. I can help her through the delivery—do my best to ensure her babe survives.”

  “The ones that made it, do they work for the agency too?”

  Castro nodded. “I keep a close eye on them for any signs that the demon has fought free of its restrictions, but so far you are the only one—and I think that’s because Genevieve meddled when she shouldn’t have.”

  That succubus bitch—Micah’s aunt—was still on my shit list no matter if she was now extended family.

  Micah walked over and sat on the corner of the bed. I hugged the sheet to my chest and crawled to him. I pressed against his back and wrapped my arms around him. I looked at Castro, then glanced at the door, hoping he’d get the hint and leave before I accidently flashed him.

  He didn’t move.

  “We’re gonna need a few minutes alone. Can you give us some time to digest this?”

  “Right. I interrupted. Time isn’t an option, though. The portal you crossed through sped time—which is partially my fault for not opening it up with more care.”

  I’d learned that depending on which demon opened a portal between our world and one of the ones surrounding hell, time could shift or become unstable.

  “Crap.”

  “Julian waits for you.”

  A rumbling noise emanated from Micah’s throat.

  “Have you heard anything about Roy?” I asked.

  “You’ve lost two days top-side. He appears to be mending nicely—I sent one of my minions to replace a nurse who was attending to him.”

  I sucked in a relieved breath.

  “They will start weaning him off the medications they used to induce the coma. Once he awakes, they will know the extent of the damage.”

  My nose stung and I cursed Mother Nature. “Thank you.”

  “Eli?” Micah asked.

  “Healing. He’ll need a day or two to recover, but he did remarkably well. The Fenrir are stronger than most weres and Eli is something special. Marcus has indicated that Eli is an alpha. Your brother won’t be comfortable in any pack unless he’s at the top, but he won’t be at the top until he learns how to control the beast. The Argent Clan can help him if he’s interested.” Castro glanced around the room and half of his mouth quirked up when he spotted the shreds of my shirt and pants. “Shall I scrounge up some clothing for you to wear?”

  Heat rushed to my face. “Clothes would be good.”

  Castro went for the door, paused. “Micah, you aren’t alone in this. Whatever you need, I’m here. I’ll take care of your mother, work to restore her memories. The women you brought will be treated and set up wherever they wish.”

  The second the door closed I slid into Micah’s lap. I pressed my palms flat against his chest.

  “Your uncle is a good man.”

  Micah cupped my hip and pulled me closer. “I think he might be.”

  “Are you going to apologize for beating the crap out of him?”

  “Fuck no. He shouldn’t have lied to me.”

  I drew in a breath that smelled of sex and Micah. I tried not to think about Julian or that stupid slip of a dress he expected me to wear. “All of this will be over soon.”

  “It will be.”

  * * * * *

  I sat in front of the dressing mirror in the bedroom I shared with Micah and stared at my reflection. I didn’t look like myself. Not at all. One of Castro’s “minions” had transformed me from rough-and-rugged hunter to…someone elegant and delicate. My up-swept hair had been twisted into a low bun that looked kind of messy and thrown together, but had in fact taken almost an hour to perfect. Dark-brown curls spilled down my bared neck.

  My make up was dark and smoky, heavy on the charcoal. The result made my bright-blue eyes stand out even more. Through the reflection, Micah walked into view and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. Our eyes met, his bright and almost wild, mine vivid and terrified.

  I couldn’t do this party thing—not without him.

  I turned and ran my gaze over him. He was wearing a pair of dark-blue jeans and a long-sleeved green Henley that fit his chest, shoulders and arms in the best way possible. His hair was still wet from his shower and I longed to run my hands through the strands and mess them up even more.

  His jaw tightened yet he remained silent, something he’d been since we’d left the Vault a few hours ago. Down in the pits of hell, it was easy to pretend there wasn’t an entire world that pulsed with life and responsibilities.

  I rose, adjusting the silky skirt of the vibrant blue gown Julian had chosen for me. The neckline plunged low, almost to my belly button, and revealed the V between my breasts. The back had a similar dip that stopped at the base of my spine, leaving me more uncovered than covered. One wrong move and I was sure to bare it all. Maybe that had been my sire’s evil plan all along.

  My steps wobbled a little thanks to the three-inch heels I wasn’t used to. The second I came within touching distance, Micah stroked his knuckle down the side of my neck, between my breasts. I trembled. He opened his palm and spread his hand out over the material of the dress to cup my side and pull me to him. Heat infused me, thawing out the cold pit of dread I couldn’t seem to shake.

  Desire swirled between us and now that I knew what to look for, I could tell he was projecting—like Castro had the first time I’d met him. Micah’s need was dark and demanding, a consuming desire filling me with sexual tension.

  “You look beautiful.” The hunger in his gaze was more prominent than the hard ridge of his erection pressed against my stomach.

  Anger surged and made his want primitive and violent. I shivered under the storm of his emotions. His voice went hard. “But I hate that you’re wearing this dress for him. That he manipulated you into leaving me to be with him.”

  Intoxicated by my mate, I smoothed my hands up his chest until I cupped his shoulders. I wished I never had to let go, that we could stay like this forever.

  “I hate it too.” I rubbed back and forth against his cock. “Do you realize
we’ve never been out on a date?”

  A fraction of the tension radiating from him eased. Micah gave me a half-smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He tugged on one of my curls. “You mean long walks through the cemetery at night don’t count? I thought burying bodies together was quality bonding.”

  I moved closer to his heat and drew my lips along the pulsing vein in his neck. His blood surged in a rapid beat that had my fangs pulsing. I nipped his skin and reveled in the way he flexed his fingers against my side.

  “Although my idea of a good time does include knives, blood and mayhem, you know what I mean. When this is over, Julian’s party, the trial, can we go out?”

  He stroked his hand down my hip, over to the curve of my ass. He scrunched the material in his fist and pulled, inching the silk up my legs. “We can do that. How much time do we have before you need to leave?”

  Taking his hint, I cupped his cock through his jeans and licked the spot just under his ear. Under my palm, his erection surged. His skin smelled like our soap, and under that something that was Micah. Leather. Male. Mine.

  I popped the button on his pants and trailed my tongue over the curve of his jaw. “Does it matter? Julian can wait.”

  Micah growled and spun me to the dresser, lifting to set me on top. He slapped a palm against the wall above my head, caging me in. Escape, although I didn’t want it, would have been near impossible.

  “Don’t even say his name. One day, I’m going to rip out his spinal cord.” The coarse golden hair dusting his jaw rasped against my cheek as he took my mouth in a kiss that sent us both spiraling.

  The aggression lurking inside him coalesced. Demanding. Rough. He moved his hands over my body, exploring me as if we’d not already memorized every inch of each other earlier that day at the Vault. Mindless to anything except the male body in front of me, I was lost to all reason.

  I threaded my fingers through his hair, holding him against me. I stroked my tongue against his, addicted to the taste of him. When I tilted my head to the side, our teeth clanked. Our embrace deepened as he dug his hands into the soft flesh at my hips and slid me close. He ground his body against mine and devoured me.

  The demon lurking under the surface made me yearn for it to claim me. Never breaking the kiss, Micah moved the material covering my breast aside and cupped the tender weight. A sharp spike of need ran straight to my core. His hands were calloused, the perfect texture moving across my sensitive nipple. The sudden need pulsing through me was going to tear me in half.

  When he released my mouth, I gasped for breath. The sensations he caused had me clutching the corded muscles at his back. Feather-light, such a contrast to the frenzied need to mate surging between us, his lips moved across my cheek to my neck.

  “I want your hair down.”

  He tugged at a few things and within seconds, my painstakingly created up-do fell apart. He ran his hand through my curls. The gentle touch turned forceful. Forming a fist, he tugged, eliciting another needy moan when my head snapped to the side allowing the access he desired.

  He nipped the scar on the side of my throat, the imprint of his teeth. I trembled from head to toe.

  “Julian may get you tonight, but it’s me who you’ll smell like. My come inside your body. My marks on your flesh. I’ll make sure you remember the feel of my cock with every single step you take.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I nibbled the flesh at Ella’s throat, sucking her skin as she mewled against me like a soft little sex kitten. Seeing her in that pathetic excuse for a dress filled me with both hunger and a fierce need to stab Julian through the eye. Fucker. One day he’d learn Ella wasn’t his girl anymore.

  She was mine and I was seconds away from proving it.

  I spread her thighs and rubbed her pussy against me. The thin material of her panties didn’t hide how wet she was. Ella moaned and rocked her hips.

  The little sounds she made went straight to my cock. I wanted her naked and panting. I wanted her tied to the bed and flushed with desire. I wanted to fuck her until she was too sated to move—to leave me.

  I traced the slight indent of my bite Ella would forever wear on her throat. She trembled and arched, begging for more. My words were a rough whisper, the first hint I was losing control. “I’m going to fuck you so hard, you’ll still feel me inside you hours later.”

  I pulled her off the dresser and carried her to the bed, throwing her onto the mattress. Her tits bounced and I licked my lips, deciding where to start first. I had half an hour at best before the undead fuck would come to collect my queen.

  “Spread your legs, baby.”

  She met my gaze, hers full of hunger and want—mine full of possession. Ella drew her lower lip between her teeth. As she parted her legs, I trailed my finger from her heel up to her ankle and then to her knee. Under my touch, her muscles quivered.

  “I’ll come back to you, I promise.” Her words were a fierce declaration that did jack shit to soothe me.

  I palmed her thigh and squeezed the lithe muscle, honed from years of vigorous training.

  “You’re mine,” I demanded.

  She sat and scraped her nails against my neck in a way that made me arch against her. Her defiant gaze met mine. I tugged her panties to the side and grazed my knuckles along the lips of her pussy, teasing the leaking slit.

  “Say it.”

  Ella rocked her hips and kept our gazes locked together. “I’m yours, Micah. Only yours.” Her voice lowered as she grabbed my hand, the one branded by my demon, and placed it over her heart. “Heart and soul.”

  Fuck.

  I crushed her to me and pressed my mouth to hers, kissing her as if it would be our last time together, wanting—needing—to memorize her taste all over again. I cupped her pussy and she shivered despite the raging fire we created. A tremor of arousal coursed through my cock, jagged, like a bolt of lightning.

  “Mine.”

  She tilted her head, deepening our kiss. The urgency between us grew with each swipe of our tangling tongues. When I pushed, she pulled, and vice versa until nothing remained—no thought, just sensation. I pressed two fingers inside her wet heat, twisting my knuckles in and out in a fast rhythm. Her inner muscles clenched around the invasion. Her desperate pleas for more came out as whimpers.

  Stretching her wider, I added a third finger and pushed them inside. My momentum increased as I tore my mouth away from hers. The demon surfaced, filling me with savagery. Unafraid, Ella held my gaze and let me see the pleasure coursing through her.

  Her acceptance was all I needed. Harder, faster, deeper, the world disappeared until only my mate remained. Her pussy was wet and hot, a tight, snug heat that beckoned me.

  “Micah,” she gasped, the word slipping from her lips as her body tightened and flexed around my fingers.

  Her breath stuttered and a red flush crawled from her chest to her neck. Little drops of sweat glistened on her skin and I vowed to lick each one away. She writhed on the bed, her hips lifting each time I flicked her G-spot. God, she was gorgeous.

  “That’s it, Ella. You’re so fucking hot when you come for me.”

  “Yes, yes, yes.” She cupped her breasts, squeezing the mounds together to create a crevasse I wanted to push my dick through.

  She tensed. Her orgasm started deep inside and her muscles tightened. Ella threw her head back and screamed my name loud enough for the entire house to hear. Good.

  Before she could catch her breath, I withdrew my fingers and flipped her onto her stomach. I pushed her dress up over her hips to expose her upturned ass. Hunger filled me. The knowledge that I was the only man who’d ever felt the tight ring of muscles pulsing around my cock as I pushed into her ass filled me with savage pleasure. Even though it had been two months since the first and only time I’d taken her like that, I couldn’t forget how fucking good it had felt, how primal it was to claim her. Tonight, I’d do it again and Julian would know that I possessed what he hadn’t had the balls to keep. I gr
abbed her panties and pulled until fabric ripped.

  Her pussy was swollen and glistening. I reached for the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, wanting to feel her, skin on skin.

  Ella went to move and I palmed the back of her neck, pressing her down until she submitted.

  “Don’t move.”

  I undid the button on my jeans and pulled the tab of my zipper, releasing my cock. My dick was heavy and thick, cum already leaking from the slit. I leaned forward, making sure to rub my erection against her ass so she could feel how much I wanted her.

  “Do you know how delicious you smell?”

  “Please, Micah.” She arched against me and I moved back a little to admire her splayed out in front of me, at my mercy.

  Slowly, tenderly, I caressed the swell of her ass. Her skin was as soft as silk. I moved lower to trace the swollen lips of her sex. My grazing touch was such a contrast to what I wanted. Everything inside me was screaming to fuck her, to take her hard and deep. To claim her as no one else had.

  On her hands and knees, ass pointed high in the air, pussy wet and swollen, she look like an animal in heat begging to be rutted. I wrapped my hand around my shaft and stroked from base to tip. I pretended it was her hand, imagined the soft walls of her pussy gripping me. Up and down, I pleasured myself, wanting to prolong this moment.

  I bit my lower lip to keep silent, to keep from spilling my seed on her ass. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I pressed forward and drew the tip of my cock against her folds.

  “Micah.” Ella tried to push back and impale herself on my shaft, but I held her still.

  One slow, torturous inch at a time, I pushed my cock inside her pussy. Her heat gripped me. She was soft and wet. So fucking tight. Pleasure engulfed me. Being inside her was ecstasy.

  I withdrew my throbbing dick completely, leaving her empty and waiting.

  I squeezed her ass hard enough to redden the flesh with the imprint of my fingers and entered her again, as slow as the first time, tormenting us both. Ella growled, tried to turn her head, but I held her down with a firmer grip, ensuring my prey wasn’t going anywhere until I told her she could.