by Nora Ash
* * *
At first, Kain had no idea why his attention was drawn to her the moment she stepped foot in the dingy bar, practically creeping along the panels to the most secluded booth she could find that wasn’t already occupied.
She was a scared-looking little thing, seemingly in her twenties and dressed in a baggy sweatshirt and jeans, with long dark hair and bangs that nearly covered her eyes; not the kind of human he’d normally look twice at. Yet this one... he narrowed his eyes as he watched her order her food from a bored-looking waitress. She fidgeted and didn’t look the other woman in the eyes, slender fingers playing nervously with the edges of the menu, and when she was alone again she drew as far into the corner of the booth as she could physically get.
He didn’t get a sense of potential danger from her, but she was obviously a shady sort. Possibly on the run from the police or the mafia; humans trying to disappear off the grid were not uncommon at this place. Of course, that didn’t explain why he kept feeling an urge to keep an eye on her.
It was unsettling, really—the pull from somewhere in his gut resembled the instincts that kept him alert of potential dangers, but he sensed no threat from her.
Kain kept glancing at her as she ate the greasy meal, her eyes closing while she chewed as if she hadn’t had a proper meal in a while. She looked exhausted.
It wasn’t until she brushed a hand across her face in a gesture emphasizing the tired draw of her mouth, displacing her bangs in the process, that he finally understood.
He stiffened in his seat at the silvery shimmer from her forehead, eyes raking over her once more. She shook her head, making the bangs fall to her eyes again, but he’d already seen it. The mark.
Inhaling discretely, but deeply, in her direction he tested the air and found what a thick layer of deodorant and the contamination of the other patrons had kept hidden until then; the scent of an awakened Breeder.
Kain hissed softly and leaned back, eyes doing another sweep of the bar, but she was definitely there alone—unescorted.
A runaway.
His cock strained painfully against his tight jeans, completely alert after scenting the ripe female, and he cussed silently at his body’s involuntary reaction. Damned little thing didn’t have to do anything apart from sit there for his hormones to attempt mutiny of his normally perfect self-control. The fact that she was obviously scared didn’t help; the undercurrent of day-old fear in her scent was what had his body in a state of alertness even before he realized what she was; a Breeder that smelled like she needed a protector.
What the fuck was she doing in his territory? None of the surrounding areas had reported any new Breeders escaping—in fact, no one had claimed a Breeder in his, or the surrounding areas, for a few years now, and no woman who’d spent enough time with them would be stupid enough to try to run.
Obviously, he needed to cancel the evening’s scouting mission, grab her when she left the bar and bring her back to whoever had claimed her; it was his duty to his kin, and the little fool wouldn’t be safe on her own. Especially not here, now, with the reported sightings of female demons within his area.
The Breeder stirred, as if she felt his intense scrutiny and, suddenly, chocolate brown eyes looked up, locking on him.
She stared at him, those scared eyes widening in fear, as if she could sense his demonic nature despite the mark blinding her.
Kain held her gaze, aware that it was too late to pretend he hadn’t been looking at her, but he didn’t follow when she grabbed for her bag, tossed money on the table and nearly ran for the door. If he did, he’d have to take her in, and with the way the poor thing had acted it was quite obvious that she didn’t want to have anything to do with his kind.
Fighting the instincts that raged for him to follow and keep the scared Breeder safe, he grunted in agitation and gripped the edge of the table until her lingering scent had evaporated. He had no desire to force a girl into a lifetime of rapes; as far as he was concerned, the fact that she’d done a runner meant that whoever had kept her had missed his chance at convincing her to stay as his mate. Bringing her back against her will... He huffed in disgust before taking a deep swig of his whiskey, clearing his palate of the remaining taste of her. No, he had better things to spend his night on.
Killing the vile bitches that thought they could prowl his territory for easy pickings, for one
* * *
He was one of them. She hadn’t needed her Second Sight to know—he was simply too big, and something about his looming form seemed off; as if too much mass had been pressed into the shape of a man, leaving an odd air of force around him. And his eyes...
She shuddered, forcing her legs to move quicker as she made her way across the walkway, cursing her decision not to park right by the bar. The sooner she got away from this place the better, and having to run half a mile to get her car was not helpful. The theory was that if they’d managed to track the license plates on the heap of somewhat movable metal she’d bought from a shady car dealer, and they found it while she was sorting out her needed pit-stop, they wouldn’t be able to find her just from which shop she’d parked in front of. Of course, in practice, the plan had a rather obvious flaw.
It was the first time she’d caught a demon’s attention since she ran from Ravenswood House nearly a month ago, her constant vigilance and moving from town to town seemingly working well in keeping her off their radar, but for some reason it hadn’t been enough with this one. Why had he noticed her? She cast a quick glance over her shoulder to see if she was being followed, and drew a sigh of relief at the nearly empty stretch behind her. For whatever reason he hadn’t taken up chase.
However, her deep breath was caught short when something caught her ankle and she tripped, landing face-first on the pavement with a startled shriek, scraping her hands and knees in the process.
Pain shot from her cheek, knees and palms and she tasted blood from where she’d bit her tongue when she fell. Just great. Falling over her own feet while trying to escape a demon was not exactly a winning moment.
“Are you okay, sugar?”
Startled, she looked up from the pavement at two young women, one of who was bent over her splayed-out form.
“Y-yeah, thanks.” She scrambled to get up, only to get hoisted up by strong hands grabbing her by the elbows.
“You don’t look so good,” the woman still holding on to her with a firm grasp stated. “Why don’t you come with us and we’ll get you sorted out, hmm?”
Something in her eyes was off. The coldness there sent shivers of blinded recognition down her spine, and she pulled back in an attempt at getting free. “No, thanks, really—I’m fine.”
The grip didn’t loosen, and when another hand was placed on her shoulder from an unseen third person, panic started bobbling in her veins, making her chest heavy with icy realization. In her desperate escape she’d nearly forgotten that not everyone she needed to fear was male. “Let me go!”
“Or you’ll do what? Scream?” The woman who had yet to touch her pulled a blade from her sleeve, pressing it warningly against her sweatshirt, right up against her stomach. “Breeders. Come now, or die on the street—your choice.”
“Please.” She gasped as the knife pressed closer, letting them drag her down a narrow passageway as all her thoughts turned immediately and sharply to the one goal of surviving. “Please, I don’t want to be a Breeder. You don’t have to do this—I ran away from them; I won’t give them any offspring. Please, just let me go.” She was vaguely aware that she was babbling, but maybe if she could find the right words they would spare her life.
“I am on your side; I think what they did to you was terrible—oh!” Her pleas were cut short when she was shoved roughly through a sliding door and into what most of all looked like a half-empty warehouse with sawdust on the concrete floor. She stumbled and nearly fell again, but managed to catch herself on a wooden box.
Heart hammering in her throat she turned around slowly, swall
owing thickly as the door closed and she was alone in the half-lit room with what had to be three female demons. The still-drawn blade in the dark-haired one’s hand shimmered ominously against her.
“God, please don’t kill me, please! I’ll do anything you want... do you want me to help trap one of them? I-I can do that. My scent—”
“Yes, thank you, we’re aware of what your magic vagina can do.” The one with the cold eyes stalked in a semi-circle around her, forcing her to twist in an attempt at keeping an eye on all three. “Now, what we want to know is who and where your master is.”
“I don’t have a m-master.” In any other circumstance she’d probably been offended at the notion, but at that moment terror was too strong a presence to allow for such luxurious emotions.
“That pretty little mark on your forehead says otherwise.” The lightest of the three took a few steps closer, and she drew up against the box again, pressing her back into it. It felt oddly good and solid—real—in a world of fear and nightmares made flesh.
“I ran away before anyone claimed me.”
“Pretty little liar you are, hmm?” The one with the cold eyes fell in from the side, but she had nowhere to go. Feeling panicked tears filling her eyes she sank into a crouch next to the box. No trickery or endorphins would help her against these three, of that she had no doubt. Her only hope—and it seemed increasingly fleeting—was that the truth would somehow make them release her.
“No, I swear, I’m not lying! Dr. Hershey branded me, but I escaped before he could sell me and—ugh!”
The electric current that went through her from where an elegant finger was pressed against her mark was weak in comparison to what Marathín had caused when he touched her, but it went straight to her pussy with a sharp jolt, forcing her to her knees. Her mind hazed over for a moment while the painfully pleasurable cramp shot down her spine, but when the demon removed her finger she was able to think somewhat clearly again. Shocked, she stared up into the cold eyes. How could they affect her so?
“Who is your master?”
“I told you, I don’t have one,” she whispered hoarsely, still reeling from the unexpected sexual assault to her mind. Somehow, being forced to feel pleasure from a gender she wasn’t naturally attracted to made it feel like even more of a violation than what Dr. Hershey had put her through.
The next touch to her mark had her whimpering on all fours, hips pressed back and up in a plea to be mounted before they relented.
“We can do this all night, darling. All we need from you is a name and a location. Don’t try to be a hero—you won’t get anywhere with being stubborn.
Selma pushed back on shaky arms so she could sit on her knees, trying to gain back a little of her dignity. “I told you, I don’t—“ A rough shove to her back pushed her down on her hands and knees again and she grunted on impact as the scrapes on her hands ground painfully against the concrete.
“I did always wonder what the big deal was about a Breeder’s cunt,” the dark haired drawled from behind her in a voice that made chills crawl up her spine. She didn’t dare sit back up, but the hand traveling lazily over her backside made her shudder with trepidation. “Maybe I’ll find out, if you don’t start singing, little bird.”
“Please, I don’t have—No, please!”
This time the finger stayed in place until she was all the way down on her stomach, ass in the air and pressed desperately against the fingers trailing the outline of her crotch through her pants. When it was finally removed she was sobbing from need and humiliation, and the hand still stroked teasingly over her now soaking jeans.
“I do believe she wants to play with us, ladies,” the demon toying with her aching core purred. “Let’s see how long it will take her before she begs for a fisting. I hear Breeders love that.”
* * *
Kain’s agitation grew exponentially as he trawled the boardwalk, waiting for his underlings to arrive for the planned mission. They weren’t late—the arranged meeting time was not for another half hour—but he’d been unable to focus inside the bar, his thoughts continually circling back to the little Breeder he’d scared off earlier in the evening. He’d thought some fresh air and patrolling might have been able to clear his mind, but as he stalked the pavement he kept getting hit by the small reminiscence of her scent lingering in the air from where she must have passed more than an hour ago. No demon would have noticed, not even a Lord, if it hadn’t been for the previous exposure, and he had to inhale deeply to taste her at the back of his tongue.
Irritated with himself he stopped the full breaths he’d greedily been sucking in through his nose. Damned hormones.
His body was tight with defensive reflexes ready to kick in at the slightest sound, and knew it was caused by the unmistakable touch of fear she’d unwittingly left in the air, and the terrified way she’d stared at him before fleeing the bar. Apparently, that her fear was largely caused by him didn’t seem to affect the idiotic instincts roaring to protect her, and he groaned in frustration when he felt something deep in his gut tug insistently in an attempt at making him follow her trail.
Maybe he should. Just to make sure she at least got out of his area safely, and then she’d be someone else’s responsibility.
Of course, anyone else spotting her would more than likely bring her directly back to her mate, or keep her and fuck the ever living daylights out of her, but at least if it was the former she would be safe and off the streets.
His body had started moving down the boardwalk before he even realized, gait smooth and fast as he followed her delicate scent. Yes, he would find her and bring her safely to the border of his territory, ensuring that no other male got his claws in her soft body...
The excited burn in his blood made him grit his teeth as he fought against the other instincts suddenly flooding up from the primal parts of his brain. He was hunting a Breeder, stalking her scent while she fled from him; he’d need to keep his head in the game, or the girl would be out of luck, despite his best intentions.
He hadn’t walked far before faint traces of blood on the pavement caught his attention, and his entire form went rigid at the scent that wafted up against him. Her blood, mixed with …
All remains of calm and sense left him as he barreled down the nearby alley; nothing apart from the immediate and painful death of the three enemies he had smelled where the Breeder’s blood had been spilt filling his mind. He paused in front of a sliding door.
It wasn’t the soft moans from within that made him kick in the door with a deafening roar; no, it was the overpowering mixture of a Breeder’s lust and absolute terror finding its way through the cracks in the door to his flared nostrils, the implication stripping him of whatever control that had remained.
The sight that met him when the door ripped off its hinges made his conscience flip into a black void of rage.
* * *
Captured
Captured
The roar drowned out Selma’s pained sobs and vibrated through her bones, pulling her attention from the forced lust radiating through her body to the entrance to the small warehouse where she’d been trapped.
Someone was there—someone big and furious. That was all her hormone-addled mind could piece together before the room exploded in movement.
The fingers that had been tormenting the mark marring her forehead were snapped away, and something warm, wet and coppery-smelling splattered against her face. Angry screams and the sounds of fighting followed as the female demons launched themselves at the intruder.
Too distraught from the prolonged torture to look at the desecration happening around her, Selma stayed kneeling, her face pressed against the sawdust covered floor to cool her agitated mark. Her body pulsed and burned with need to be mounted, her hips angling desperately into the air to display her dripping and exposed pussy to whomever might take pity on her, despite the fear and repulsion she felt at what they had done to her. She had vague thoughts of needing to get up, to pull hersel
f together so she could escape while they were preoccupied, but the empty and aching sensation from her core made the idea seem downright idiotic. Nothing could make her body stop the fitful spasms deep inside, apart from the release it was so desperately calling out for, and she was incapable of moving of her own accord before it had been granted.
She didn't even attempt to hold back the tears that had been flowing since early on in the torture. This was worse than when Dr. Hershey had teased her mark, because his touch had blitzed away her ability to think about what he was doing when she demanded his cock. Now … now she was fully aware of the humiliating display she was making of herself, fully aware that she had been begging and pleading for sex from the very beings that had captured and tortured her.
“Breeder,” a gruff voice broke through her low sobs. “Get up.”
The tone of it … It was a male. A man. Someone who could help her.
Ignoring the shame now nearly muted by the roar in her veins, she arched her back and twisted, displaying herself in the direction she'd heard him speak from with a pleading whimper.
If only he'd just take her, mount her …
“Oh god, please! Please, help me!” The words escaped her without her consent, but it didn't matter, as long as he complied.
His responding growl, low and rich, made more liquid trickle down her thighs, and her eyes rolled back in her head as it vibrated through her spine. The smell of musk made it through the coppery scent of blood and sawdust, and a high-pitched whine pressed through her dry throat in answer to his call. Something in the primitive part of her brain, triggered by the abused mark, recognized his body's pheromones, and knew that he was willing, knew that he was about to ….
Rough hands grabbed the pants around her ankles and pulled them up over her butt.
“Ugh!” Her undignified grunt was quickly followed by a squeal as she was lifted by her hips until she was forced to carry her own weight.
