Page 103

Where I was now had been made to appear almost comforting.

My breath hitched as I took in the walls that were smooth, shadowy, black, and polished like onyx. The fire illuminated the space enough that I could see every corner. But the flickering light cast long shadows over the strange symbols and designs that were etched into the black surfaces.

A language from what had to be another world.

My fingers dug into the thick furs, deep and plush, and as lush as the royal material in the palace I’d grown up in.

The main fire burned in a carved depression in the rock itself, and I saw a primitively designed flut that whisked the smoke away. There was a small fire that burned low in an iron brazier in the center of the room.

It was after searching the large space that I saw him. It.

The creature stood at one edge of the room as he watched me.

A tremor worked its way through me when I took him in for the first time, the light illuminating every single part of this… monster. He looked like something out of the storybooks of children’s tales told to keep them from disobeying, when their parents or nannies warned them not to run off.

Yet this wasn’t a story or even a nightmare but somethingreal. My reality.

Because I had done exactly what those tales had cautioned me not to do. I ran away, into the woods.

And here was this creature—a literal demon.

He was impossibly tall, his form powerful and thickly muscled, his blackened skin gleaming under the firelight. It was the same shade as the onyx walls surrounding us.

His enormous, clawed hands flexed at his sides, and his curling horns cast menacing shadows up the walls. His face wasn’t a face at all. It was a terrible skull-like visage, whichshould have filled me with horror. But my fear was tangled with something else. Something more dangerous.

Curiosity.

His glowing red eyes were eerie, horrifying, yet strangely… beautiful. I didn't know how tall he was, but the cavern ceiling had to be at least ten-feet high, and this beast was no less than seven feet in height, not including those vicious horns.

I breathed shallowly, forcing myself to take in the rest of him. God, he was big, muscular… and totally naked.

And this monster didn’t have just one very male-shaped appendage. Buttwo. And they were both thick and long. One dick was placed normally, as in where a human male’s cock would be. And the second grew out from directly below the first, with a set of heavy twin weights hanging beneath, which swung slightly when he shifted those hooved feet.

Yes. Hooved feet.

And the demon’s cocks were now getting hard.

He was aroused.

He growled, and I snapped my eyes up to hold his gaze. His molten eyes were locked on mine, unblinking.

“Where am I?” My voice cracked, and I was surprised I’d been able to form words at all in my current situation.

The demon—because I didn't know what else to call this creature—tilted his head, his expression unreadable. “In my lair.” His voice was distorted and deeper than any I’d ever heard before, a rolling thunder that settled deep in my bones. It shouldn’t have created a warmth in my belly, but it did, and I felt sickened and ashamed by the response.

I clenched my fingers into the furs and swallowed hard. “What do you want with me?”

He stepped forward, slowly and deliberately, his large, hooved feet hard and pounding on the smooth stone. My bodytensed, my heartbeat raging against my ribs, as every part of me said to run.

But there was nowhere for me to go, not when the only exit I saw was a jagged opening on the other side of the cavern, and he blocked my escape.

The creature crouched before me, bringing himself closer, though he remained just out of reach. If I thought he was enormous before, having him this close made me realize I’d vastly underestimate his size.

“To keep you safe,” he finally answered me. His glowing eyes scanned my face.

It was surreal to see his skull-face this close, to know I’d never seen a beast like this before. I could never even imagine something like this in my darkest nightmares.

“You ran from something far worse,” he said straight-forwardly. “And you ran into my arms.”