Wren

“Wait!” I gasped. “Corson, wait, stop!”

He growled against my breast, the rumbling sensation causing my muscles to quake in response. My traitorous body was more than willing to keep going with him, but my mind refused to shut off again as his bite brought a cold dose of reality with it. Reality, panic, and a surprising heartache that I hadn’t been expecting filled me.

I need to think, and I can’t do that with him inside me!

I wasn’t sure my words reached him, and if they had, I didn’t think he would stop as he thrust into me again. But then he released his bite on my breast and lifted his lips to settle them right over the place where he’d bitten my shoulder. His body stilled within mine before he pulled out of me.

I had the overwhelming urge to cry and take him back inside me, while I resisted the impulse to shove him off me. What he’d done couldn’t mean what I imagined it might; it couldn’t!

Corson settled onto the couch beside me while I lay panting and staring at a large, brown water spot on the ceiling. Right now, I didn’t know which way was up or down, right or left. I wanted to flee into the night as badly as I wanted to cry.

Corson locked his arm around my waist when I rolled over. He settled behind me, drawing my back flush against his chest as he held me possessively against him. If I allowed it, he would be inside me again, but I couldn’t allow it. Not after what had happened.

Mine. The possessive way he’d said the word hammered through my mind. And I’d felt his release inside me. The intensity of his orgasm had triggered another one from me, as had the unexpected pleasure his bite aroused in me. Bites were supposed to be painful, but his had sent me spiraling further out of control.

His bite! Corson didn’t have fangs, not like some of the other demons I’d seen. I knew there were demons who had permanent fangs, and others who had fangs that extended when necessary, but I’d never witnessed anything like that from Corson. I’d seen him pretty pissed off and excited for a fight before too. No, Corson’s teeth had always been perfectly normal or human in appearance.

Bits and pieces of our earlier conversation played through my mind again…

“Demons also only bite another during sex if it is their Chosen,” he’d said. “If for some reason, their bite marks should fade, other demons will always know when another has been claimed and stay away from them.”

“A bite and sex are what decides a Chosen?”

“No, there is far more involved in the bond than that. Male demons don’t produce sperm until they find their Chosen and the females don’t produce eggs.”

I was positive there had been sperm.

“Some of the demons who went to Earth before the angels entered Hell found their Chosen amid humans.” He’d also said that at some point too.

My heart raced, and my fingers dug into the fabric of the couch. He couldn’t think I was his Chosen. I cared for him; I did. I wouldn’t have slept with him otherwise. Maybe there hadn’t been a whole lot of feeling with Todd, but there was with Corson. There was too much feeling with him.

I’d gone into this knowing there could never be a lasting relationship between us. The whole immortal/mortal thing was only one of some fairly large obstacles between us, but I’d thought maybe he cared for me, and not because some screwy demon DNA told him he had to to be with me so he could have demon babies.

To my horror, I realized that I wanted him to desire me for me, and not because he could suddenly produce sperm with me!

Not to mention, there was Randy and all the other Wilders to think about. A fling with Corson would have been one thing, but to be claimed by a demon and expected to reproduce with one was something else entirely. I didn’t know how they would react to this.

Not much made me feel like crying, but the possibility of losing all of them, and everything I’d ever known, brought a lump to my throat.

I recalled almost laughing over the thought of Corson having to romance anyone into staying with him. There hadn’t been much romance involved between us, but this situation was far from amusing.

Behind me, Corson lifted his head. “What’s wrong, Wren?”

I hated the trace of hurt in his voice, but I couldn’t stop my need to get away from this place and him. I had to have time to process all this.

You’re getting way ahead of yourself! You've seen bite marks on people after they’ve had sex before. There was also that ridiculous time Jolie allowed some guy to make a ring of hickeys around her neck. Corson may have been mistaken about that whole biting aspect of a Chosen. He had to have bitten someone else over the numerous years of his extremely active sex life.

Now I could add jealousy to the flight instinct my body had going on as the idea of him with another woman set my teeth on edge. I didn’t want to be a demon’s Chosen, but I didn’t want him biting anyone else either.

I was losing my mind. Somehow, this man—demon—had managed to turn me into an irrational mess!

Before he’d sauntered his earring-wearing ass into my life, I’d been nothing but pragmatic and remorseless. I didn’t live with guilt or feel bad about possibly hurting someone. I didn’t recall the past. Those things would only eat me alive if I allowed them to, yet now I was experiencing all of them and all because of him.

“You bit me,” I said. I couldn’t stop my hand from resting against the marks on my shoulder.

Two punctures, like he was some vampire or something. His bite had shot a fresh jolt of pleasure through me until all I could do was come apart in his hands, and I had come apart, multiple times. Still, I couldn’t stop the crushing sense of being trapped those marks brought to me, and being trapped equaled death.

“I did.” His voice remained casual, but the muscles in his chest became rigid against my back.

“You said…” I swallowed to get some saliva into my parched throat. “You said demons only ever bite their Chosen.”

“Wren—”

“You said demons only produce sperm with their Chosen.”

“Yes, I said those things.”

“Were they lies?”

“No. Do you want them to be?” He didn’t breathe as he waited for my answer.

“I don’t want to be the Chosen of a demon.”

I felt a slight recoil within him though he didn’t move.

“Not a demon, my Chosen,” he said in a tone that reminded me of a predator waiting to pounce.

“I’m not… I won’t be anyone’s!” I cried, and my heart twisted at the possibility of hurting him.

Maybe I more than cared for Corson if I worried about hurting him, but I couldn’t give myself over to anything more than sex between us. Immortal or not, he could die, and I’d lost far too many in my life to endure the loss of another.

I loved my friends and Randy. I would grieve their passing if it came in my lifetime, but I had a feeling Corson’s death could tear my heart out and leave me a broken mess afterward. I might not survive it if more developed between us and I lost him. My parent’s deaths almost destroyed me, and I’d vowed never to let something like that happen to me again.

“I belong to myself and no one else,” I stated.

“You do belong to yourself.” He leaned forward to nuzzle my hair with his nose. Before I could stop myself, I melted against him. “But you are also mine.”

“No!” I jerked away from him and leapt to my feet before my body betrayed me again. “No!”

Storming around the back of the couch, I snatched up the clothes I’d placed there from where they’d fallen on the ground. I hugged them to my chest as I spun to face him. He remained sprawled on the couch, his long body taking up all of it. His posture was casual, but anger simmered in his eyes, and he didn’t bother to hide the erection sticking out from between his legs.

My gaze went to the bead of liquid forming on the head of his cock. Shaking my head to clear it of my impulse to jump him, I started to dress. They would be a small obstacle for him, especially since I no longer had underwear or a bra, but clothes were still a barrier between us.

“Did you suspect?” I demanded as I yanked my pants up one leg. “You said sometimes demons know or at least suspect another is their Chosen before sex, did you?”

He hesitated long enough that I knew his answer before he spoke it. “Yes.”

I froze with my foot halfway through my other pants leg. The awkward stop threw me off balance, and I almost toppled over. I caught myself before I hit the ground. I scowled at him as if my clumsiness had been his fault, but awkwardness was another thing I’d never experienced until he entered my life.

Regaining control of myself, I jammed my foot the rest of the way into my pants and pulled them up to button them. They were too big for me, and I had to roll the waistband over twice to get them to stay up.

“I started to suspect earlier tonight, but when I look back, I realize I should have guessed it sooner. You’ve been in my head for a while. There isn’t anything I won’t do to protect you. When the ouro and macharah touched you, all I could think about was destroying them. I haven’t been with another woman since I first met you—”

“Liar,” I said as I tugged the sweater on.

One second he was lying on the couch, the next he stood before me. Gasping, I stumbled back before I could stop myself. I’d never seen anything move with that kind of speed. I hadn’t known it was possible.

“I am not lying.” He advanced on me as he spoke, and I edged further away. “If I were going to lie to you, I would have denied that I suspected you were my Chosen before I claimed you, but I didn’t deny it.”

Refusing to yield any more to him, I stopped backing away and lifted my chin as I stood my ground against him. His orange eyes darkened to a near red hue as he stared at me, his body looming over me and his chest brushing against mine. I had no idea why I didn’t fear him, considering what I’d seen him do to that macharah, and he appeared more pissed off now, but I had no worries he would put his hands on me in anger.

“I will take many things from you, Wren, but I will not take being called a liar. I will never lie to you. I never have, and I’m not going to start now. The only woman who has entered my mind since meeting you is you. And you’ve been on my mind every night as I’ve jerked off to imaginings of you. I’m not a human who can’t get laid; I’m a demon who can go to any tree nymph or most any other female demon at any time to get off. My hand is not something I use. But use it I have, too many times in the past couple of months.

“I should have known what you are to me sooner; I didn’t. But I cannot change what happened between us, and despite the fact you drive me insane, I wouldn’t change having you as my Chosen. I warned you earlier that I might not let you go. I gave you the chance to tell me no. You didn’t.”

I gave up trying to hold my ground against him and backed away as his words melted my resistance. He wasn’t lying. He hadn’t been with anyone else, and he had given me the chance to walk away from him; I hadn’t taken it.

He will hurt me. It wasn’t a matter of if he would hurt me, it was only a matter of when it would happen. Human or not, everyone died in the Wilds.

Corson’s hands flexed at his sides as he watched me, but he didn’t try to stop me from putting some space between us.

“Yes, you did warn me,” I murmured.

I should have listened to him more, but I’d been too caught up in the moment, and him, to think it through. Plus, I hadn’t believed I could be his Chosen. Things would have been different if I’d known; I would have walked away from him. But even as I thought that, I wondered if it was true. I’d wanted him with an intensity that hadn’t left any room for rational thought. I still wanted to give in to him now, but terror kept me from doing so.

“We’re good together,” he murmured.

“The only reason you want me is because you have no choice in the matter,” I said and awkwardly tugged on a sock while continuing to move further away from him. His eyes stalked my every move like a hawk circling its prey. “Some biological demon thing has told you that, for some insane reason, you can only have offspring with me. If you had a choice, you would prefer someone else.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

I ignored the cold when I jammed my foot into my soaked boot. “You’re only saying that because you just shot your load for the first time!”

Corson lifted a black eyebrow at me; he smiled briefly before suppressing it. What the hell was I saying? I didn’t know anymore. I only knew I had to get away from him. I shoved my foot into my other boot and tied the laces with fumbling fingers.

“I will admit that what I experienced with you is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before,” he said. “I didn’t know sex could be that good. I’ve heard what they say about a demon with their Chosen, but I thought they exaggerated. I was wrong. There will never be anyone else for me, only you.”

“Because your DNA is telling you to feel that way.”

I ran my fingers through my hair in an attempt to detangle it as I edged toward the hallway. I had to keep moving. If I stopped, I would have to acknowledge the sense of loss growing within me.

“I would still care for you if you weren’t my Chosen,” he said.

“You can’t possibly know that, and don’t say that!”

“I can know it, and don’t say what?”

“That you care for me.”

“Wren—”

“The people who care about me die!” I snapped. “The people I care about die. My parents weren’t the only losses I’ve endured over the years. There have been countless others. Maury who had a potbelly and a lopsided grin. He loved Greek mythology and was teaching me about it. He had his head ripped off when a demon crept out of the bushes behind him while he was in the middle of telling me about Hermes.”

The sympathy in Corson’s eyes didn’t make me stop speaking. If anything, it made my words come out in more of a rush.

“Or there was Rebecca, who would watch me when Randy went out to hunt. She’d play games with me and braid my hair. She died while giving birth, and so did the baby. She bit on a stick for hours to keep from screaming, but in the end it was for nothing. I watched as she bled out and the baby never took a breath.

“Over the years there have been so many others who cared for me and died. Do you want to know about them?” I demanded. “Do you want to know their names and stories too? Because I hadn’t thought about them or recalled their names in years, but I remember them all now.”

“Wren—”

“I still have some friends, but I’ve learned not to get too close to anyone anymore. Randy is the only one who has managed to last these past fourteen years, and even he might be gone now.” I hated that my voice choked on those words, but I couldn’t stop it.

Corson opened his mouth before closing it again. Before I could stop him, he stepped closer to me and rested his hand against my cheek. “I’m not easy to kill.”

I shrugged his hand off and backed further away from him. “You’re still killable, and death is the way life works.”

“Yes, it is, but I do care for you,” he said. “You are the most infuriating, stubborn, and hostile woman I’ve ever met. You're also kind and protective, even when you try to hide it. I admire your ruthlessness and your willingness to kill anyone or anything that endangers someone you care about.

“I’ve witnessed you placing yourself in front of other Wilders to shield them. I watch you wait until your followers have all eaten before you do, and I see you take less food than they do. You worry about their injuries and speak tenderly to them when you clean and dress those wounds. You show this callous, brash side to the world, but I see through it. You try not to let anyone in, you convince yourself that you keep everyone out, but your followers are in your heart, and there is more caring in you than you’ll ever acknowledge. You wouldn’t have traveled to the wall otherwise.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“You’ve come to like and trust demons and civvies more since going to the wall, but it was your need to make sure your fellow Wilders had a better life that brought you to the wall in the first place. You wouldn’t have come for yourself.”

“Maybe I was trying to save my own ass by traveling to the wall. I saw what came out of that gateway and knew how much worse the Wilds were about to get.”

His small smile melted my heart a little further. “We both know you would have rather died than turn to the demons.”

He was right; I couldn’t deny it. I didn’t care enough about saving my ass to agree to working with the demons, but there were children in the Wilds. When we’d first gone to the wall, we’d kept the children safely hidden from the civvies. As our trust in those at the wall grew, we decided to bring the children there to live with their parents, if they still had parents. The children remained at the wall now.

“Probably,” I admitted.

“You may be my Chosen, but that is not why I want you. I want you because you’re beautiful. And not just on the outside, you’re also beautiful within. You can try to deny these things, but they’re all true. I know who you really are. I may even know you better than you know yourself, Wren.”

My skin prickled at his words. They sounded so arrogant, so sure, but he was wrong. He didn’t know me as well as he assumed. As my memories had revealed to me recently, I’d forgotten who I was, so how could he possibly know me?

“That’s where you’re wrong, Corson,” I said as I braided my hair and knotted it around itself at the end to keep the braid in place. I was exceptionally proud my fingers didn’t tremble while I worked.

“And why is that?” he asked.

Tossing the braid over my shoulder, I held his gaze as I replied, “You claim to know me so well, yet you don’t even know my real name.”

He frowned as he stepped toward me. “What are you talking about?”

“Wren isn’t my name, not my real one, not the one my parents gave me.”

If I’d reached out, I could have pushed him over with one hand as he stared at me in confusion.

“Get dressed,” I said. “I’ll be on the porch. We have to leave.”

I didn’t wait to hear his reply as I turned away from him.