Chapter 11
Rykr’s home, Earth
Lucy was lost in Rykr’s memories. There were so many beautiful moments with his mother and father gazing down at him as a baby and toddler. And with Lucy. She felt the child’s overflowing love for her.
Later, she was thrown into his memories of soaring in the air with his doting father and grandfather, Ophelia riding on Hades’s back instead of using her tiny wings. Her heart expanded with each memory.
More memories came. She felt his determination to learn to teleport faster so he could be with Lucy all the time.
All the memories were perfect, even up until he teleported into Fólkvangr, the Sacred Realm of Thule. The plane was magical and alive with tropical flowers and impossible beauty. The waterfalls in the distance were the souls of their world. He picked her flowers with such thrill and mischief, knowing she’d love them.
And then she’d crushed him at the lake. She felt his hurt. Felt the frustration and arrogance, that he would find her and they would be together no matter what she said. It ripped her apart to feel his pain. Pain she’d caused thinking she knew what was best for him. She’d been so wrong.
She saw him reform in Hell Realm, and dread filled her, knowing what would come next. He was on a huge cliff that looked down on the beasts milling below. Her beasts, the ones she’d freed as a kid.
He was close to her there, and that only made him sadder. He’d lost her. He felt like he’d lost everything. He turned and slammed a fist into the rock at his back. He kept swinging, crushing the stone until his fists bled. Drops of crimson spilled at his feet and splattered against his chest. Before he knew what was happening, the ground shifted and rocked under his feet. He went to teleport or fly away, but it was as if he were yanked into the depths of the mountain. His wings were ripped and ravaged with the fall. He landed in a crouch in the eerie depths of a dark cavern, bloody and broken with dust and stone filling the stale air.
Suddenly, he felt raw power emanating from beneath his fractured knee. He was assailed with a dark compulsion too strong to fight. Before he knew it, he’d shifted and reached for the bronze disk as she mentally screamed for him to stop. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t logical. Her heart was racing as he gazed at the glimmering artifact. Light flickered over it from the small hole above. The magic of it crackled beneath his fingers, and then a violent surge of power erupted through the metal into him until he cried out into the shaking bowels of the Realm.
Then she saw them. Black clouds of pure fury and hatred shrieked as they flooded the cave. All their darkness rocked into the boy, dropping him to the ground. Agony seared him. Seared her with him. If she weren’t in his mind, she’d have dropped to her knees and screamed as the clawing threatened to rip him apart. Rip her apart. She felt it when the brand scorched his neck.
She saw his mother and father, panicked, above him as they demanded to know what happened. He couldn’t speak through the relentless agony tearing into him.
“No one can know.” He barely got the words out as the small space filled with his grandfather and the healers, Drake, Aphrodite and her mate, all demanding answers. Answers the boy was terrified to give. He felt the blackness in him. Felt the creatures’ fury. And he knew exactly what they were even though he had no idea where the knowledge came from. It was just there. And it was terrifying. The shame nearly choked him. He felt so alone that Lucy was sure she would bawl if she were in her own body.
Later, there were memories of Hades trying to vanquish the demons, only to make their rage-filled clawing that much worse. She watched as healers worked and his powerful Thulian uncle cast spells that only left him feeling more desperate by the day, shamed, yet determined to destroy the fiends inside him. He fought it all with a strength that was staggering. It was all for her. To get to her.
So many years passed as he ruthlessly forced back the constant pain. His one true reprieve was when he let them out to hunt. She felt it as he commanded the blackness. It seeped from his body, leeching out into the depths of buildings in war-torn areas, into caves where evil plotted. Every time he forced them to task, he hunted them, moving like the winds, securing and imprisoning them with the ease of a God. She watched as human skin paled, turning ashen before the creatures destroyed host after host. The fiends cursed him from those bodies, their vacant black eyes seething with hatred as the humans died, sending the dark entities hurtling back to their master every time. It was agony, but he refused to allow them to feel his pain. She would be trembling in her own body right now. He hadn’t been kidding about the sheer horror of it, and she understood his need to protect her.
She saw and felt it all. Over and over again like some macabre nightmare. All his torment and the killing. All of his hunting for answers and a way out. A way to her.
She saw his young cousin Valdr sitting in front of him, using healing power to mark Rykr’s skin. It was his twentieth birthday, and Lucy’s heart clenched at his emotions and thoughts. He was taking the mark of a mated male, the twin dragons she’d admired on his chest. If it were possible to cry, she would have. He’d craved her with the same unyielding need she’d felt every single day since he’d grown into an adult.
Later she saw him reading texts, this time of Hippeus. Her race. He’d relentlessly sought out and studied information on how to please her.
She witnessed every single time he sought her out. She felt his sense of calm mixing with harsh, blinding need. Every time, he returned home and imagined her while taking his cock in hand. He thrust with violent wild need as he imagined the moment he’d finally claim her.
She was still shaken from the erotic images and struggled to focus fully on the next memory. She forced herself into the new moment and realized it was when Rykr found the first and only clue to his curse. David. A mortal leaving a burning building at the end of the world. The cameras captured the male walking away. His neck bore the mark of the demon. The same four circles with sets of horns on each side that marred his neck now.
There were only two things that gave him any kind of ease. When he came to see her and when he let the beasts loose. That stilled her. He felt at ease with her. Her heart ached, wishing she were there with him from the start.
For ten years, he’d suffered without her.
In between, there were spells, poring through old tomes of information, and hunting anyone and anything he could find on David Severain.
Then she saw the video of David at Slake. She felt Rykr’s fury and worry. She felt his anger and his fear for her.
She saw more. His meeting her at the lake. So much need flooded him. Not just for her body. He wanted her in every way. He actually craved her presence in his life.
She saw herself in his room and felt more anger. Then she experienced his pure, undiluted pleasure in her touch. It sank into her as if it were her own.
When his body was in hers, she mentally groaned. He’d imagined it a thousand times, yet he’d never felt anything like the way her body hugged him. Then she experienced his primal satisfaction at seeing her virgin’s blood. His. It was all there. That and the knowledge that he’d never given himself to another female. That made her nearly as primal as he felt at seeing the evidence of her innocence.
Then she saw their vows.
Love. Blinding absolute love for her filled her, and it was incredible. The true beauty of their bond was something magical.
Lucy woke up to Rykr staring down at her. The emotions in his memories were reflected on his face. There was so much love between the two of them that it felt like it would explode from her heart, but she was already feeling the effects of the frenzy.
She pulled him down for a deep kiss full of everything she couldn’t put into words.
He broke free only to growl a warning. “We’ll talk about the drugs later.”
She burst out laughing. “I wouldn’t have done it.”
He nodded. “That’s the only thing saving your ass from a spanking right now. You brought that necklace here. Later, when the need isn’t so out of control, I might not feel so generous.”
Her lips twitched even though her body was on fire for him. She didn’t care about what came next, only that they were together through whatever it was. She’d already felt the agony through his memories. She’d be prepared if it came for her.
He was already licking and sucking her neck with his talented lips. Lips that belonged to her. She nearly growled. “I want to taste you.”
He groaned against her collarbone. “When I’m done.”
Was he greedy with everything?
“Yes.” The smile in his tone only made her shake her head. Her mind was wide open to him, and she left it that way, hoping he’d do the same.
When she felt his lust through their bond, her back bowed, pushing her breasts into his roving mouth.
Twice the need was flooding her now. It made her dizzy to know how hard his cock was, the things he wanted to do to her. He was made up of her darkest fantasies.
“Yes.” His eyes bored into hers. “Yours.”
Every inch of her skin was sensitized to his mouth, her pussy ached, and then he was there, eating her, demanding more from her as he gripped her hips and feasted.
Winds started to whip through the room like a tornado, and she wasn’t sure if it was his power or hers. She didn’t care that it might be destroying the place. She looked over and saw the jar of cream spinning around them. She called it through the winds and it dropped to the bed. His gaze went to it before flashing with so much heat she felt it all the way inside her.
“Yes,” he rumbled.
A second later, he was kneeling on the bed. Lucy watched as his wings unfurled behind him, draping off the side of the bed. He was losing control. The whirlwind in the room only increased as the moment ticked by.
She felt wild by the time he pulled her against him. His desire was in her mind, filling her with dirty thoughts that matched his. Her fingers caressed his shoulders and wings. He reveled in having her hands on him, and that only made her more excited. She licked and nipped his skin, noting every sensitive spot.
When she got on her hands and knees to glide her tongue over the sexy V at his hips, his nerves twitched and his cock bobbed impatiently. “Don’t tease, Lucy.” His fingers were in her hair, lifting it away so he could see what she did as she turned her neck and tilted her ass in the air.
She ran her hands over his thick thighs as she licked his bobbing cock. It was so hot and thick. She moaned when she finally got him in her mouth, lapping up all the pre-come. He tasted incredible. She wanted to get lower, to lick his sac and nuzzle him. He growled and rose higher on his knees. “Suck it deep,” he demanded, and her bottom wiggled in the air. She was so turned on that she felt drugged. Air currents slid over her pussy, and she knew he was using his power to torment her. She licked and sucked hard, loving all the animalistic noises that fell from his lips and how demanding his power and words became.
When he finally came, it was sexy as hell. His entire body tensed, and the tendons of his neck strained as he shouted her name. She eagerly drank his hot jets of come before licking him clean. He tasted so damned sweet she couldn’t get enough.
His cock never fully softened. Instead, it hardened in her grip, and she gasped when he lifted her and slammed her hips down on him, her knees sliding to either side of his. Her mind hazed as he rode her up and down. His thighs spread her wider, forcing his cock deeper. Her clit slid against him at every grinding thrust, making her entire body tremble with impending climax. Her fingers dug into his back, his hair, anything she could grip as she got closer.
The sound of a lid opening seemed far away, but then one thick finger caressed her ass, and she understood. He was using the cream. She felt the warm magic of it easing her open for him. She pushed back for more, but her pussy was already full of him and the shift only angled him in a way that made her keen in pleasure. He sent dirty images into her mind, images of him holding her down and sliding his cock into that tiny back hole, stretching her, owning her.
She was gasping and begging, her voice hoarse from calling his name. At that moment, everything felt like one large climax. She was warm and filled, with his fingers sliding in and out as his cock ruthlessly powered inside her.
Her soul surged to meet his as sensation after sensation rocked her. Her animal reared up in her mind, demanding more. The scent of their need filled her lungs until all she could do was hold on to him.
“I want your ass, Lucy. I’ll pin you and fuck it after you come for me.”
She cried out as she came hard, shaking and clenching as he roared his own release.
His strength and speed left her dizzy when he lifted her and spun her around, her back to his massive chest as he caressed her breasts, plumping them, pinching her nipples. When he leaned down and bit her shoulder, she bucked and fought for more.
It was a compulsion to force his dominance. When he notched his cock against her ass, she nearly lost her mind. His thick forearm held her chest firmly against him. She couldn’t move as she panted. She could only take it as he entered her slowly, stretching her with a bite of pained pleasure until the cream worked its magic, leaving only raw, blinding pleasure in its wake.
She was spinning, her entire body on fire with need. More. Harder.
He held tight, but he didn’t move harder or faster. He forced her to take it how he wanted to give it, inching himself inside as her pussy wept for more.
“You’re mine, Lucy. So fucking tight and perfect. You’re sucking me in.”
“Yes.”
He leaned in and nipped her ear before growling. “Your pussy. Your ass. It’s all for me. If you need the exhibition, I’ll give it to you. But no one sees what’s mine.” She flushed and gasped as his warm breath and demanding tone ignited every nerve in her body. She knew exactly what he meant. Her kind tended toward displays of dominance. Hippeus were possessive as hell, which meant it was a “look at what you’ll never touch” thing as they claimed their mates.
Her lips parted, yet speaking proved impossible.
“I know what you need. Imagine it now, Lucy. Imagine me taking your ass in front of others. I’d lift your skirt and force my cock deep as you gasped and begged, but no one would see these.” His hand cupped one breast after the other while his forearm braced her shoulders back against his unyielding chest. Those fingers plucked the tight buds before sliding down her stomach to her pussy before adding, “Or this.”
“Yours.” That one word was all she was capable of.
“Fight me. Know that I’m strong enough to force you to take it.”
She panted for breath as she attempted to push her hips back and down. She couldn’t move. That was the point. That was what she needed, and he knew it. His fingers circled her clit and then pushed inside her aching pussy until she cried out.
“Good girl.” He slammed in deep, forcing that huge cock into her ass, making her come hard on his hand. When he slid in and out, she only seemed to climax longer until her words were completely incoherent and her juices slicked her thighs and his.
Their combined pleasure in her mind was too much. She felt her vision darken the second he filled her with hot come.
Claimed.
Before darkness could take her, she felt her power surge wildly at the same time their souls rushed out. She cried out with the rush of light and the wild, raw beauty of her soul meeting his.
And then agonizing pain.
Soul-deep rending.
It felt like something was tearing them apart.
She screamed and Rykr roared as he held her to him. Blinding fear and regret slammed into her from him.
Then the pain was gone, and she saw them—wisps of black clouds flooding from Rykr’s body out through the wind tunnel their power had created. They soared through the area that should have held a roof. Even the jungle canopy had thinned to reveal the pink streaks of the coming dawn.
She collapsed in his hold, reveling in the way Rykr cradled her in his arms. She didn’t remember him turning her around, but he had.
His lips were on her cheek, kissing away the tears.
“Gods, Lucy. Gods.” His big muscles were shaking as he held his nose against her throat.
She felt his fear. He’d thought she was getting his curse.
That pain had been the demons ripping free of him.
“I’m okay,” she promised. “I’m fine, Rykr.” She pushed him back so she could look into his beautiful eyes. “I’m perfect. They’re gone.”
“Fuck. Yes, they’re gone.” He rested his head against hers. His relief was tempered, as if he was waiting for them to return. She felt him sending mental feelers out, and then he relaxed in degrees. He still didn’t release her, and she didn’t want him to. She wanted to stay there forever.
He tensed a moment later, and she felt his power going out into the house. “What is it?”
She sent her own power out and felt only the remnants of all the power that had been unleashed. Nothing was there.
“Paranoia, maybe,” he said with a shake of his head. The wind tunnel had finally started to dissipate, but the roof above the bed was definitely gone.
She’d never been happier in her life. She felt perfect. Whole. Her power was there, a brilliant light back inside her, flaring as bright as it had in her youth. His soul was merged to hers, part of her now, as was his power rushing in her veins. It was incredible, like she could move the world.
He relaxed, and she felt his smile at hearing her thoughts.
Fate had finally been on their side. Maybe it had been all along.