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S aint leaned his forearms against the cool tile of the bathroom shower, lowering his head to let the hot water rain down on his shoulders and back. He’d left the bed so he didn’t wake Mist and take her again, like his demon was riding him to do. He wanted nothing more than to sink into her wet heat, but now was not the time. They were supposed to be meeting with everyone in less than twenty minutes.

He needed to concentrate, hunt down Darius, and end him so his beautiful mate was safe. He knew she could take care of herself, but going up against a demon prince was a whole different ball game than what she was used to. Demon royalty possessed abilities other demons did not, and it would be hard to best him.

He didn’t want Mist to face Darius alone, but he refused to hide her away like everyone else did, as if she was powerless. He wouldn’t make her feel useless and as if she weren’t good enough. His mate would fight by his side, always. He had no doubt when he told her what his club was a part of, something very similar to what she and her coven did, that she would want to be a part of it.

Saint frowned as he shut off the water. Opening the glass door, he stepped out and grabbed a towel to dry off. He needed to see if Genesis could find Darius, because no one else seemed to be able to.

“You didn’t wait for me.”

Saint froze, holding his towel to his chest as his gaze went to the woman who stood in the open doorway. Her eyes were glued to his cock as she licked her lips.

His already hard dick hardened even more, pre-cum leaking from the slit at the tip. He had to clear his throat to get any words out. “Was letting you sleep.”

It was partly true. He had wanted her to get more rest, but he also knew if they got started again, if he held her close, her soft, smooth skin against his body, they were going to miss the meeting. One that really needed to happen soon.

Mist crossed the room and took the towel from his hands, tossing it away from them. She dropped gracefully to her knees in front of him and placed her hands on his thighs, looking up at him through thick, dark eyelashes. “While I appreciate that, you have something I want even more.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, as she leaned in and licked the head of his aching cock. “Kitty, we have a meeting soon.”

“Better be quick then,” she said with a wickedly sensual grin.

He didn’t argue when her tongue slid over the head of his dick again while her hand wrapped around the lower part of his shaft. She moaned as she licked around the tip, and then slid her mouth down as far as she could, engulfing him in flames.

“Yeesss,” he grunted, thrusting into her warmth, needing to be as deep in the hot recesses of her mouth as he could get. Mist gagged slightly and pulled back, but then her eyes met his and she took him into her mouth again, managing to get his shaft in even deeper. Her eyes watering, she squeezed him, then moved her hand down to cup his balls.

He couldn’t take anymore. Pulling out of Mist’s mouth, Saint palmed her ass, lifted her and walked forward until her back was against the wall. His hands slid down to cradle the backs of her thighs, holding her up. “My turn,” he rasped, as he found her wet channel and slid deep inside. He didn’t pause, he couldn’t, he needed her too badly.

Saint took her hard and fast, her firm, full breasts bouncing as his chest rubbed against her nipples. His mouth found hers and he groaned as he slid his tongue inside to taste her. She sucked on it, moaning loudly.

The woman was perfect. Better than anything he could have hoped for in a mate. And she was his.

“So close,” he growled against her lips. “Come for me, kitty. Bathe my cock with your juices.”

Mist’s eyes began to glow a pretty gray, her jaguar rising to the surface as her gaze went to his shoulder. “Saint! Mine!”

He tilted his head to the side, giving her access to the mate mark she’d left on him earlier. “Do it,” he ordered gruffly. “Bite me.”

Mist’s eyes darkened, and she dug her nails into his shoulders as she struck. Her fangs sank into his skin, causing his balls to draw up, and Saint managed to thrust deep inside her two more times before he came. As he did, he felt her walls contract around him, squeezing him tightly, drawing every last drop from him that she could.

Saint lowered his head to Mist’s shoulder, resting it there as he tried to catch his breath. She slowly slid her teeth from his shoulder, licking the blood from the wound to help heal it. She placed a soft kiss over her mark, then turned her head to nuzzle her cheek against his. “How about that shower?”

He huffed out a laugh, leaning back to look at her. “We’re going to be late.”

“I’m good with that.”

Saint chuckled, shaking his head. It had been a long time since he’d had a reason to laugh. Normally, he was quiet. Didn’t talk much, and didn’t have a lot of reasons to laugh. But with Mist it was different. They’d just met, but somehow it felt as if she was already claiming a place in his heart that had been empty for a long time. He knew it happened quickly with mates, but feeling the way he already did still shocked the hell out of him.

Sliding out of her, he guided Mist to the shower, turning it back on as he stepped inside. When it was warm, he pulled her in after him and grabbed the washcloth and bar of soap. Mist raised an eyebrow, “I can tell I’m going to have to bring more to this realm than Aurora and Desi probably packed.”

The corner of his mouth kicked up in a grin as he began to run the cloth over her silky skin. “I’m sure we have what you need here, mate.”

Mist stiffened when he stroked the cloth over her stomach and sides, and then knelt to run it down her legs. Leaning in, he kissed one of her scars, and then another. He kept going until he had kissed every scar he could find, both old and new, as he continued to wash her.

“It happened after I left foster care.” The soft words came to him. If he wasn’t a shifter, he never would have heard them. “I was eighteen, so they had to kick me out. But I would have gone anyway.” Her breath hitched, and there were tears in her soft gray eyes as she stared down at him. “He caught me in a small town in Nebraska. I was traveling, trying to find somewhere I fit in. It was only a few months after I was out on my own for the first time.”

Saint rose and wrapped his arms around her, running the washcloth over her shoulders and down her back. He kept quiet, knowing she needed to get the words out. She’d chosen to share something with him, something he was pretty sure she’d never shared with anyone else, and he was going to listen. Then, if he needed to, he was going hunting.

“I’d never met a vampire before,” Mist said quietly. “Hell, I’d never even met another Paranormal before. I had these powers, gifts that I had no idea how to control, but I had no idea there were others out there like me.” Her hand came up to trace a finger over his lips. “Like us.”

Saint set the washcloth aside, and then moved Mist back slightly, urging her to tilt her head back. The water ran over her golden tresses and he stroked his fingers through them to make sure they were all wet. Then, he reached for the bottle of shampoo.

As he began to wash her hair, Mist continued. “He was so strong and scary. He had this dark aura that surrounded him. It was evil. Tainted.” She swallowed, then bit her bottom lip.

As Saint stood there washing the shampoo out of his mate’s hair, listening to her, he felt the first tug of something inside him, near his heart. It was as if it were reaching for Mist, and he knew immediately it was the bond between a demon and his mate. Sometimes the bond was instant. Sometimes it took days or even years to form between mates. It would seem his was taking just hours, and he was just fine with that.

“He took me from behind the diner I was working at. I was taking out the trash, and suddenly he was just there. Appearing out of nowhere.” She paused, blinking her eyes before focusing on him. “Did you know that nothing you ever heard about vampires is true? Garlic does absolutely nothing to them. They eat food, just like all of us, they just require blood too. And that thing about them only coming out at night, totally false, because it was bright and sunny when he grabbed me.”

Saint shut off the water, needing to get Mist out of there and somewhere he could hold her. She was trembling, and the bathroom was filled with the scent of her fear. Opening the shower door, he stalked over to the closet and grabbed a towel that he wrapped around his waist, not bothering to dry off. He took another one and went to Mist, bundling her up in it before lifting her in his arms.

In the bedroom, Saint grabbed the blanket off the bed before sitting in a large plush recliner that was in the corner of the room and covering her with it. Slowly, he began to rock back and forth, holding her close as he waited for her to continue.

“He had me for three long, horrible, terrifying months. He tied me up and beat me. He would cut me, and drink from me. I don’t know why he never actually bit me, but he always used knives. Then he would drink from the gashes he created, but he wouldn’t close them right afterwards. He’d leave them open, sometimes for hours.”

Rage filled him, and Saint had to fight to keep flames from appearing on his body. He knew why the vampire did what he did. He was fucking with Mist, plain and simple.

Her entire body was shaking so hard, Saint couldn’t keep quiet anymore. Holding her tightly against him, he promised, “Your safe, my mate. He will never hurt you again. I will track him down and send him to hell.”

“He’s already dead,” Mist whispered, burying her face in his neck. “She saved me. She came in the night when he was in the middle of feeding from me. She stabbed him through the heart and then took his head. She freed me.”

“Who, kitty?”

Mist looked up at him, and he wasn’t sure she was going to tell him, but then she murmured, “She was one of the Goddesses. She taught me so much. It’s because of her that I am where I am today. She saved me and put me on a path that lead me to the Goddess and my coven. I will forever be in her debt.”

“As will I,” Saint said gruffly, cupping the back of her head and placing a gentle kiss on her lips. As he did, he felt the bond between them pull tight, snapping in place and binding them together for the rest of their lives. As it did, he could suddenly feel her emotions. There was pain and sadness, but also something else. What could only be the beginning of love… for him.

“What’s that?” Mist gasped, her hand going to her chest under the blanket. Her eyes widened, meeting his as a look of shock covered her face. “Wait, I remember Aurora’s grandmother talking about it once. That’s the bond a demon gets when they mate, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Saint agreed, kissing her lips lightly. “We are bonded in the way of shifters, and now as demons.”

“We’ve been blessed twice,” Mist whispered in awe, her large eyes misting over with tears. “When we claimed each other earlier, I thought that was it. I didn’t even think about the bond demons have.”

Before Saint could reply, there was a loud knock on his bedroom door. “Yo, brother, are you going to be much longer? The damn clubhouse is full of demons and witches and fucking shifters that do not belong here. I’m not sure how much more of this I can handle before this beast inside me decides to fuck some shit up.”

When Mist looked at him in alarm, Saint closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before opening them again and standing with his mate in his arms. Slowly, he let her slide down his chest until her feet touched the floor before he replied, “Give us ten minutes, Zion. Can you do that?”

There was silence, and then Zion said in a low, rough voice, “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Hey, Zion,” Mist called out, moving across the room quickly and opening the door.

His brother stood there, his face a dark mask and his body strung tight, as he looked at her. “Yeah,” he grumbled through large fangs that shouldn’t have been showing.

“Why don’t you wait here in the living room while we get ready? It’s quiet in here, and that could help with your… issues.”

Zion glanced over to Saint where he stood behind Mist, his arms crossed over his chest, wearing nothing but a towel. “That good with you, brother?”

Saint gave him a short nod. He didn’t have a problem helping a brother out, and he could feel his mate’s need to help Zion through their bond. “Grab a beer out of the fridge. We won’t be long.”

Zion looked back down at Mist, and some of the tension seemed to leave him. “Thanks, little sister.”

Without another word, Zion walked across to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, leaning in to grab a drink.

Mist shut the bedroom door and turned back to look at him. Saint stepped closer to her, lifting a hand to cradle her jaw as he lowered his lips to hers. It was a gentle kiss, one to show her what it meant to him that she put his brother’s needs before everyone else’s. No one ever bothered to take the time to see Zion and what he needed. She not only saw it, but fixed the situation before it could spiral out of control.

“Thank you, baby.”

She smiled. “You don’t have to thank me for taking care of family.”

Fuck. He was in love. It hadn’t even been a full day, and he was in so deep he almost couldn’t breathe.

“We better get dressed.” No matter how he felt, he sure has hell wasn’t telling her those three little words right now. She’d probably think he was crazy. Shit, maybe he was, but that was the way with Paranormals. They fell fast and hard and bonded for life.

He walked over and grabbed Mist’s suitcase and took it to place it on the bed. “Need help unpacking?” When she looked at him in confusion, he grinned. “Did you really think I was going to let you go after you got your fangs in me? Because, let me tell ya, with how heavy that damn suitcase is, your friends knew better. I think they brought everything you could need for a long ass time.”

A slow smile spread across her face, and Mist hefted the duffle bag off the floor with a grunt and threw it on the bed. “Holy Goddess, what do they have in there?” Her brows furrowed as she unzipped the bag and opened it, then her face turned a fiery red as she slammed the sides shut again before he could see what was inside.

“Mist?”

“We better hurry up,” she said in a rush, moving over to the suitcase. She unzipped it, hesitated, and then shoved it open. “I am going to kill them.”

Looking over her shoulder, Saint began to laugh. Deep, uncontrollable belly laughs. There, on top of a pile of clothes, lay one of the biggest, purple dildos he’d ever seen. Beside it was what looked like a silver butt plug, and something else that he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Anal beads, maybe?

Heaving a sigh, Mist opened the duffle bag wide enough that he could see bright pink, furry handcuffs and if he wasn’t mistaken, a flogger. She grabbed the dildo, butt plugs, and whatever the other thing was, and shoved them in the bag, turning to glare at him. “Just so you know, not all of those things were actually mine.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” she snapped, her ears so red they looked like they were on fire. “Do you think I cuff myself to the bed and use the flogger on myself?”

Placing a hand on her hip, Saint took a step closer and leaned down to say in her ear, “If you want to play, kitty, we can play later. I’ll cuff you to the bed and use every single toy they brought on you. You just say the word, and I will have you so fucking hot and wet with need that you will be begging me to come.”

Licking her lips, Mist stared into his eyes as she whispered, “Word.”