Page 32 of Hunted By Fear

“I’ve never heard of what makes mates, mates, though, have you?” he asks, glancing at me as we walk down the main grand stairs.

“I haven’t,” I say with a shake of my head. “I’d never cared to pay attention before.”

How annoying.

Bast laughs, shaking his head as well. “Yeah, me neither. How ironic.”

Ironic isn’t the word I would use at all; maybe maddening, that seems more fitting.

“Speaking of ironic things, why has a demon, who is fully capable of summoning food into the room, walked all the way here, leaving the mortal alone?”

The tips of his ears turn red, and suddenly, he’s looking anywhere but at me.

Call me crazy, but this is the reaction I was more prepared to see around Aerilyn. But while he seems more than content around the tiny female mortal, this clearly has something to do with her.

“Um…” We make it into the grand hall, and I get the feeling he’s looking for an escape.

There isn’t one, not if he wants to be able to bring her food.

If anything, he’ll be even more cornered when he walks into the kitchen to retrieve their meal from the imps.

With a sigh, his shoulders slump, and I know he’s realizing what I had.

“Things were getting a little…” he trails off as if searching for the right word. “Tense?”

Why did that sound more like a question than an answer?

“What?”

“I believe the master is referring to sex!” a female imp shouts from near the other end of the hall, where she’s dragging out scraps toward the back door.

For a moment, I’m confused on multiple fronts—that is, until she pushes open the door and I hear the very distinct growl of hellhounds.

The imp tosses the scraps before pulling the door closed as quickly as possible, letting out a sigh of relief when she presses her back to the door as the sound of their growls and snapping jaws sounds from beyond the door. Those beasts are feral, and the imp has every right to be terrified. I’ve heard they’ve eatenmore than their fair share of castle employees over the years. The only one safe from them is Lucifer. While I could kill them if needed, it would take a lot out of me, and honestly, I’m not sure I could take them three on one.

Not to mention, they listen to Lucifer, much like ‌mortal pet dogs do.

Why must they all have pets?

“What?” I ask the imp, shaking all thought of the ravaging beasts away in favor of finishing our previous conversation that had just been interrupted.

She looks uncomfortable as she looks between us, and I wonder if she’s just now realizing who it is she spoke to.

“He was referring to sex, sir,” she says in a low voice, her gaze remaining stuck to the floor.

I had heard her right.

I turn to Bast, and where his ears were slightly pink a moment ago, they are now so red it only makes sense she was right. Not to mention, he isn’t actively denying it.

Bast looks up at me slowly as if he really doesn’t want to, but I get the feeling he can feel my eyes as they bore into him.

“You know, in this state she cannot truly consent?” I ask before I can think better of it. I don’t even know why I‌ said it.

What do I care if she consents? This is Hell. I am a demon. And she is just another mortal woman ‌Bast is currently obsessed with.

In a few hundred years from now, none of this will matter.

“No, not like that.” Bast holds up his hands as if to pacify me, and it’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him I don’t actually care and leave, but even as I open my mouth, I can’t make the words come out.