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“Too bad.” Riling Dove up was still second nature. “I don’t have the power I used to have, Dove, and I refuse to lose my gift.”

Slowly but surely, his Dove nodded.

“I still don’t want Gaz to hurt herself for me,” he mumbled, gaze down.

I’ll save him, Paymaster.

Melchom’s eyes locked with the hellhound. Under any other circumstances, he wouldn’t have just taken her at her word. Dove was her master, though. Protecting him was her number one priority.

Thank you.

“Okay,” he said to his tiny human. “Let’s get you bathed. You reek.”

“Rude,” Dove scoffed.

He still let Melchom kiss him, though, still let him nibble and bite down his jaw to the crook of his neck until he was close to tearing skin. That spike of fear in response was the most delicious thing he’d tasted all day. Throughout the years, Melchom had somehow allowed himself to forget he had preferences when it came to the fear he’d rather consume.

“Say you’re mine, Dove.”

“I… am?” the poor human kept himself from stuttering.

Melchom placed him in the large tub before he answered, towering over Dove with his cock in one hand. This time he’d even bothered to get the human’s clothes off. “Do you need me to mark you more?”

Dove’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. The lust in his gaze was clear, though, pupils dilated as his eyes focused on Melchom’s length. His cock twitched, arousal hitting him in all the right ways.

The stream hit his human on his collarbone first, the pungent smell invigorating for the two of them. Melchom painted all of Dove’s front before he was grunting at the human to turn around. He watched, mesmerized, as golden rivulets dribbled down his back, pooling above his glutes before descending down his Dove’s crease and sliding beautifully down all that smooth skin.

It was an exhilarating sight, made even better by the spikes of intertwined arousal and fear drifting off his human.

His.

Melchom’s nostrils flared as he grew more and more resolute.

No one was going to take his gift, or even look at him wrong.

Dove was Melchom’s to defile and corrupt. Only his.

“I don’t know what’s going on between us,” his Dove murmured while Melchom scrubbed him down, rubbing his cock against that delicious skin.

He didn’t either, but it didn’t matter. Melchom didn’t need to know so long as his Dove let him be in charge—in charge of him.

“Rest, tiny Dove,” Melchom brushed the hair off his face.

He’d wake him up later to drill him into the mattress and let go of all that pent up angst and uncertainty. Later, though.

His Dove was also only his to take care of and keep in pristine condition.

CHAPTER 15

DAVE

“Melchom?” Dave rubbed the sleep off his eyes.

He’d gotten used to waking up with the demon’s warmth threatening to suffocate him over the last few weeks. Gaz breathing down on him because she got excited about going out to play had also become his norm. There was none of that, though. It confused him, but there was a weight in his brain that made properly opening his eyes harder.

“Gaz?” he still managed to call the hound.

His mouth felt cottony, though. He was used to it sounding lower and scratchier because of all the sulfur in the air, but cottony was new.