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I swallowed, my throat tight as I shook my head. “I—I didn’t run into your arms. You took me.”

He didn’t have lips, but I knew he was grinning. “And yet, here you are. In my furs.”

Something about the way he said it sent a shiver down my spine. I’d fled from one monster, only to stumble into the bed of another.

“You can’t keep me here.” I wanted to sound firm, strong, but my voice was just a whisper.

He reached forward, and I was too stunned to move as he used a claw to snag a lock of my hair before letting it fall back to my chest.

“Can’t I?”

My body screamed at me to stay still, to be careful, but my mind was roaring to be defiant and reckless. “I need to go.” Tears fell down my cheeks, and I shook my head.

He was on his haunches, his thick, tree-trunk-sized thighs covered in bulging muscles and sinew. His hand dropped to his knee, his clawed fingers flexing against his skin. His burning gaze held mine as he said, “You’ll go nowhere. You’re in my lair, little one, and I plan on keeping you here.”

Little one.

The way he said it made something tighten low in my belly. I lifted my chin, my breath shaking.

“You ran from something you feared.”

“You don’t know that.”

He made a sound that made me think he was amused—like he knew I was lying.

“Why else would you venture into my lair at night?”

I couldn’t get over the sound of his voice and how otherworldly it was.

“There are monsters in every darkened corner of this world” was all I said.

The demon studied me for a long moment. Then, in a movement so swift I barely saw it, he lifted one of my wrists and eyed the bruising there from when my father tried to keep me in the palace.

“This will never happen again.”

I knew he meant the marks. The pain. I didn't know how I was so sure of that, but I felt it in my soul.

My pulse leapt as he turned my hand over, his claws barely skimming over my skin.

“And it will never happen again, because you are mine now.”

I jerked my arm back, and I knew it was only because heallowedme to pull away. My breath rushed out. “I belong to no one. What do you think I was running from?”

His chest rumbled, a sound that wasn't aggressive or dangerous but wholly predatory. He leaned in, closing the spacebetween us, his massive body taking up my entire vision. I couldn’t breathe.

“I’ve already said you’re mine, little one. And I’ll prove that in the only way a monster like me knows how.”

My heart was thundering, because I knew what he meant. God… I knew what he meant.

Death and violence were in the demon’s eyes. He was going to make sure my pain and fear never happened again, and he’d show me how savage he truly was.

CHAPTER FOUR

Geraldine

When the demon moved back, I sucked in a ragged breath.

My pulse thundered in my ears as I forced myself to stand, my legs shaky but determined. “I need to leave. I want to,” I said, my voice sharp despite the dread coiling in my gut.