Chapter Six
“What did Jasper mean when he said Ezra had decreed you were his?” Demon asked in the darkened bedroom.
Ana sighed. “I am wolf shifter, and Ezra is my Alpha. We were all made to pledge to him after he killed our Alpha. He now has that right.”
The two of them were lying in the bed of the master suite, the thin t-shirt she wore the only barrier between them. Ana was amazed at how relaxed she felt. She would have thought she’d have been embarrassed by her actions in the kitchen, but Demon never gave her the opportunity. In true Alpha Razorback style, he decreed the moment to be “hot as fuck” and then carried her into the master bathroom. He’d stripped them both down, and led her into the huge shower. He had cared for her, soaping every inch of her, telling her how beautiful she was, and even took his time washing and conditioning her hair. Once he was sure she was clean, and more relaxed than she ever thought she would be standing naked with a dominant, he handed her the soap and demanded she learn his body.
Those were the exact words that he used, but she was starting to understand her razorback a little more now. He knew that she was a virgin, and by giving her free rein over his body with the soap, he was allowing her the opportunity to get familiar with his form. She had seen a lot of his body the night he had saved her, but she had been too busy being scared out of her mind to really pay attention. She had also discovered that when he demanded things of her in a tone that she had initially mistaken as anger, it meant he was feeling a little unsure as to what her reaction might be.
Determined to show him she, too, was willing to challenge her limitations in order to explore this bond between them, she took the soap from him and moved to his back. She’d seen glimpses of the substantial tattoo he had on his back, but it wasn’t until this moment that she got to see it in all its glory. The tattoo was a large set of angel wings, each one starting from his shoulder blade, arching up and reaching slightly over his shoulders and then down his back, almost to the hard globes of his butt. They were a dark intricate ink, and they moved when his muscles flexed beneath her fingers. She took her time learning him, just as he asked.
A while later, and yet not long enough as far as Ana was concerned, he’d said he was clean enough. He’d leaped out to dry himself before pulling her out and gently dabbing her dry with a soft towel, and then pulled her back into the bedroom. He tugged a soft t-shirt over her head before using a hairdryer on her hair. He then put them both to bed. Ana had seen his cock, standing tall and erect, the head a dark painful-looking purple, but Demon didn’t say anything about it, just settled her into the large bed and curled in behind her. She had been lying there floating on a sea of contentment when he asked his question.
“The right?” Demon asked.
“It is the right of the Alpha to grant the wish of any senior pack member, and I am just a dispensable lowly ranked submissive,” Ana explained, patting Demon’s arm until he quieted when he growled in displeasure at her words. “As Alpha, Ezra has the power to make decisions that affect others, and once he has spoken the words, they are law. If he decreed that I was to be Jasper’s, then I would have to comply. I would be unable to defy his words and I would feel physical pain if I tried to.”
“You gave yourself to me in the kitchen,” Demon said, his hands stroking up and down her arm. “I know you did. Maybe not in the true physical sense of the word, but you did. Did it hurt you?”
“No.” Ana rolled in his arms so that she lay facing him. “For the decree to stand, I have to hear him say the words. I never did.”
“So maybe Jasper was lying?”
Ana shook her head sadly. “No, I don’t think so. When Jasper said the words, they were truth.” Wolf shifters could tell a lie among their own.
Demon scowled. “So can the fucker just tell you to die and you will?”
“No,” Ana said smoothing the lines from his face, “he can’t force us to stop breathing or anything like that. Our own self-preservation would kick in and refuse to comply.”
“Can you be claimed?”
Ana sighed. “I can, but with the Alpha bond so strong within me, it would come with great pain. And even then, I would have two distinct bonds. Both of them strong, but the Alpha bond to Ezra would remain.”
“How is this Alpha bond broken?” Demon asked in a calculating tone.
“His death, or mine,” Ana answered solemnly.
“Okay then, so once I kill him, then we’re good,” Demon said calmly.
“Just like that? Ezra is a killer, Demon. He took our last Alpha out in a battle so fierce and so quick it was over before it had even begun.”
Demon nodded. “He’s gonna come at me anyway because I killed his brother in a not so nice way. Freeing you from this pack bond will just be a fucking fantastic benefit. He’ll be coming for me any time now. Hell, I left him an engraved fucking invitation before I left your pack lands.eHe”
Ana frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I left him a message and some directions on the wall of that cell he had you locked into. I had heard about the new Alpha and Beta of the Eastlands pack, so figured whoever the Alpha was, he wouldn’t take his brother being killed like he was lightly. I would guess he’ll be heading this way in the next few hours.”
Ana tried to sit up, but Demon held her still. “Ezra’s coming here? We have to run. He’ll hurt you. He won’t just kill you, Demon, he will play with you first. I have seen him do it to the strongest in our pack. He is a killer, a true monster.”
“A monster will fall at the feet of a Demon anytime, Ana.”
He had such confidence. She envied him that strength, but feared for him nonetheless. The only time he had shown any type of hesitation was when they had spoken of his parents.
“So, am I allowed to ask you a question now?” Ana asked.
Demon huffed a sound that might have been a laugh. “You just did, but because I am in a good mood, I’ll let you ask another one.”
“What did your parents do that made you believe that you were meant to be the angel of death?”
Demon froze and Ana thought perhaps she had overstepped her place.
“If we are to be what the Fates believe we can be, then you have to open yourself to me, as I do to you.”
Demon was quiet for a long while and Ana began to wonder if he would just let the question go.
“My parents were paired because of their levels of dominance,” Demon said in a flat tone that had her wolf pressing forward, wanting to comfort her mate. “Both of them were Alphas. They were paired by a woman who many in our clan believed to be a seer. She told them their son would be born a warrior and would lead the clan, meeting any and all challenges. The razorbacks had been hunted for so long there aren’t that many clans of us left. They thought I would be some fucking second coming or some shit like that.”
Ana reached up to trace her thumb over his brow, trying to ease the tension there. “I have heard the stories, Demon, you don’t need to finish the story if you don’t wish to.”
Demon tightened his hold, pulling her closer until their foreheads touched. “You probably heard that I killed my clan, including my parents. I wish I could tell you that wasn’t true, but I can’t.”
Ana heard the self-loathing in his tone and leaned in to press a soft kiss to his lips. “I was trained to kill from a young age. Hell, it seemed like from birth, to be fair. My parents were always trying to push me to be faster, bigger, stronger, fucking meaner than any other male in our clan. To test that theory, they would have me challenge them. I would win. They were always to the death. My one saving grace is that I never took the dishonorable kill. I never drained their life’s blood. That was something I refused to do. I figured I was damned as it was, I didn’t need more stains on my soul.”
If a shifter took a life in their animal form by draining their victim of their life’s blood, consuming it until they died, then they took on that animal’s strength. The repercussions for that were believed to be eternal damnation. Only the truly desperate or fundamentally evil would ever consider doing such a thing.
Demon continued talking in that flat tone that bothered her wolf so much. “My father, in particular, was so damn determined to have bred the world’s most dominant razorback, he never saw the deaths of the others in the clan as anything but acceptable collateral damage. Not even when he had my mother challenge me.”
Ana pressed as tight as she could to him, wrapping her left leg up and over his thigh, tugging his body into full contact with her own. “I cannot believe anyone would ever do that to another human being, let alone their own son. I am so sorry they did that to you.”
Demon gave a slight shake of his head. “I am not telling you this for you to feel sorry for me. You asked me to be open with you. You need to know what you are getting yourself into, Ana. I wear these words”—he pressed a hand to his own chest—“and the wings on my back as a sign of who and what I am. I am Demon by name and Demon by nature, Ana. I did kill the males of my clan. I killed my mother when she challenged me, and despite trying to not hurt her, I had to kill her in order to survive. I challenged my father straight after that because he fucking deserved it.”
“I get that, Demon, I do. If I had been with you then, even as submissive as I am, I would have been cheering you on from the sidelines. But I have a different theory to offer you.” She reached up her hand to touch the tattoo on his chest. “Perhaps you wear these words as a reminder of what you have had to do to survive, and you had the wings done to represent what you were living for, but never knew what that was.”
“Explain.”
Ana smiled at his gruff tone. Her razorback was uncertain again.
“My mother was a New Zealander. She was human, and when she met my father, the mating bond snapped into place for them almost immediately. Because she was human, having me was difficult and not without risk. She died of complications from the birth less than twenty-four hours after having me.” Tears formed as she spoke, and this time it was Demon reaching up to stroke her face in an attempt to ease her pain.
“As it is with true mates, my father passed into the arms of his ancestors soon after that, but not before he honored my mother’s last request and named me Anahera. She was part Maori, and Anahera in English is Angel.”
Demon stared at her for a long while, his frown clearing, and Ana was struck once more by how gorgeous he was. “You know what I like most about that theory?” Demon asked after a while.
Ana shook her head slowly.
“It would mean that you were always mine. Mine above and before all others. Mine to keep, mine to cherish, and mine to love.”
Ana’s heart began to thud. “Love?”
Demon smiled and the earth seemed to grind to a stop. “Yeah. You’re my mate, Ana. My mate in truth. I’ve been falling for you from the moment you warned me in that goddamn ring. You are the only person who has ever looked out for me.”
“You’re my mate, Demon,” Ana said emphatically. “I will forever look at that beautiful tattoo on your back and know it is there for me. I started falling for you when you came for me. Not just on to pack lands to break me free, but out to the carpark. You came for me.”
Demon cupped her cheek in his hands and Ana melted. Despite the fact his hands were calloused, she had never felt so cherished and safe. “I always will, angel.”
“Then make me yours in truth, Demon,” Ana said breathlessly. “Please.”
Demon’s face morphed right before her eyes. The awe that had filled his expression just moments before slid away to be replaced with a need and heat that had her heart pounding.
She had no idea what happened next, but she needn’t have worried. Demon took her mouth with his. He completely took her over, using his tongue to sweep into her mouth and adding just the right amount of pressure to have her arousal spiraling out of control within her.
Ana didn’t protest when he reached down and gripped the bottom of her t-shirt, and then lifted off her for a moment, breaking the kiss so that he could pull her t-shirt up and off. Ana had no time to even think about the fact she was laying naked in bed with a man for the first time in her life. Demon lowered his body to lay against hers and went back to kissing the awareness out of her.
Over and over he licked into her mouth. When he pulled back to bite seductively into her bottom lip, Ana felt her body’s response. Soon the room filled with the scent of her arousal, and she could feel the strength of Demon’s arousal against her lower abdomen. Demon broke the kiss and left both of them breathing heavily.
“Fuck, Ana.” His growl was so sexy it had her shivering. “Your mouth is fucking addictive, but I wanna know what my mate tastes like.”
Ana was desperately trying to comprehend what that might mean when he began to kiss his way down her body. He stopped at her breasts, and Ana cried out and arched her back when he drew the sensitive peak into his mouth. Again, he used his extremely talented tongue to great advantage and had her writhing beneath him on the mattress.
Ana felt hot, and restless, and so damn close to exploding into a million tiny little pieces she could do nothing more than moan. Demon traveled even further down her body, and Ana lifted up onto her elbows to watch his descent. There was a fever in his eyes that told her he loved her body. When he nestled between her thighs, he pressed until her legs spread wide, making a place for him between them and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Beautiful,” he whispered in a voice that was the perfect mixture of need and reverence. “I love the fact that you are bare for my viewing pleasure.”
“I get waxed,” Ana blurted out.
Demon looked up and grinned at her. “I love that you do. But you are mine, which means this beautifully bare pussy is mine to take care of, too. If it’s okay with you, I want to learn how to do it for you.”
Ana swallowed at the thought, but nodded. Hell, the way she felt in this moment, she wouldn’t deny him anything. She inhaled sharply when Demon looked back at her body, laid out as it was for him. Then when he leaned in and placed his mouth on her, she cried out. The sensation of his tongue sliding up and over her sensitive pussy was almost too much to bear.
Unable to tear her gaze away, she watched as Demon pleasured her with his mouth. The slide of his tongue up and over her swollen clit had her body shivering in reaction. When he placed his mouth almost completely over her and sucked, the sensation was so pleasurable she couldn’t stop from shouting out. And when he took her clit into his mouth and bit down gently on it, she couldn’t hold back anymore. Arching her back and inhaling deeply, she screamed Demon’s name to the world at large.