Page 1

CHAPTER 1

SHANNON IN SOMbrA

SHANNON

I found my happily-ever-after with a monster.

Do you believe me? Go back a couple of years and I wouldn’t believe me. It’s the stuff of legends. Of fairy tales. Of steamy romance books that I gobble up like candy on my e-reader.

A human woman who finds an ancient spell book—a freaking grimoire—in this old, used bookstore down the street from her apartment? Who bought it for a laugh even though it was fifty bucks, completely forgot about it, and when she remembered it, she was amused to see it had a true love spell in it?

Who followed the funny directions… bought chalk… sprinkled salt… drew a protective circle… and then read the spell, never expecting it to work until she summoned a seven-foot-tall demon into her apartment?

And then she discovered that he was her true love, she was his one true mate, and the two of them would live happily-ever-after—emphasis on ever since their mating meant that her immortal shadow demon husband made her immortal, too?

It’s true, though. And nearly two years after I gave him my mate’s promise, banged the hell out of my demon, and ended up knocked-up for my trouble, it’s not just the two of us who have gotten the romance-standard HEA.

Four cycles ago—or four months since I might live in Malphas’s demon world and speak Sombran now, but good chance I’ll always think like a human—I gave birth to our daughter, Alana. And, yes, if you’re keeping track, that means I was pregnant for just about a year and a half. I guess I can’t complain. Demonesses take three years to gestate. Since our baby gets half her genes from me, half from Mal, I tapped out early, but it was just the right amount of time for Alana.

She is the cutest thing. She has my blonde hair, these tiny black nubs for her demon horns, slightly peachy-colored skin that Mal refers to as colorless instead of, you know, white , and a pair of glowing gold eyes that she stole directly from her father. She’s well-tempered, advanced for her age, and the best baby ever—and, no, I’m not just biased because I’m her mom. She really is the best.

Oh, and she’s also supposedly the child of a prophecy that I’ve spent the last four months trying to pretend isn’t real.

Because of course it isn’t just demons and true loves that exist in this world. So do prophecies, and the fantastical idea of a ‘chosen one’.

Only, in this case, the chosen one is a half-demon, half-human baby whose birth was supposedly the herald to the end of times in Mal’s demon world. Duke Haures, Sombra’s ruler for the last two freaking thousand years, and the doppelseers, a pair of super freaky twins with the ability to see the future, are convinced that my sweet little baby will either doom Sombra forever, or lead it into a new age.

I’m hoping for the latter, personally.

I mean, honestly? How can Alana be Sombra’s version of, like, the anti-Christ?

She’s not. Point blank. Whatever Lucian and Damien think they saw… whatever Duke Haures believes… she’s my sweet, innocent angel, even if I’m looking forward to a couple of hours away from her.

One upside to having a half-demon child? Alana might only be four months old, but she’s closer to a human toddler. I feed her from my tit for the sole reason that I produced milk and Sombran formula had a little bit too much ash in it for my taste. Since her first month, though, she’s been sleeping through the night and only needs about four feedings a day. Maybe even three if she really sucks it down for lunch.

I feel like she’ll be a real kid—and not spawn, because like how I cling to ‘month’, I can’t go along with referring to my daughter as ‘spawn’ like the demons do—before she hits her first year. I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m not complaining.

Especially since I don’t feel that uncomfortable leaving her with a sitter tonight.

I’m not the only human woman who lives in Sombra. These days, there are at least four others who make the demon world their full-time home: Susanna, the duchess of Sombra and Duke Haures’s mate; Kennedy, my new best friend, the bookseller that actually sold me the Grimoire du Sombra in the first place, and Loki’s mate; Billie, Glaine’s mate; and Tandy, the most recent addition to our little group, and the lucky chick who got stuck with the doppelseers for the rest of her life.

Apart from Susanna, Kennedy’s lived in Sombra longer than any of us. She’s also the second human woman to get pregnant by her mate. She’s ready to pop any day now which is why, when I mentioned missing having some private time with Malphas, she offered to watch Alana for us.

She thinks of it as practice for when her baby is here. Me? I’m just happy that someone I trust is willing to take care of Alana for a couple of hours while I reconnect with my mate.

I was cleared to have sex with Mal within the first month after giving birth. Azazel, our village healer, gave me a potion to help me to heal faster. It worked, and I made up for the lost time after my pregnancy made it too awkward to sleep with my demon.

But then, like all new parents, adjusting to having a newborn took its toll. Add that to a complete upheaval of my life as I knew it and, yeah… sex was put on the backburner for a while.

I had no choice. I always thought that, after Alana was born, the three of us would live in the human world together for a little bit. We even had a nursery all set-up for her in the apartment we lived in over the store I took over for Kennedy. My parents are in Florida, our home in Jericho, New York, and I managed to hide my entire pregnancy from them and my friends under the guise of being too busy at work.

But then I had Alana. Between the horns and the glowing eyes, I knew I would have to forever hide her. It’s one thing keeping my shadow demon mate a secret. Due to Duke Haures’s first law, I had to or risk the dungeon. But Alana? I couldn’t hide my daughter, though I would have to.

And that’s when the duke dropped the bomb about the prophecy and, welp, it looked like it was Shannon’s turn to live in Sombra.

So we’ve been slowly, but surely turning Mal’s old bachelor pad into a home for a family of three. I got better at integrating into the community, thanks to Kennedy and Lilith, the demoness who acts as the clan mother since she is the clan leader’s bonded mate. I have a kinda job. A daughter who adores me. A mate who worships me.

I’m happy here, even if my happily-ever-after is looking different than I once expected.

But it’s been a couple of weeks since I had any alone time with my mate that wasn’t just me snoring, and Mal telling me how adorable I am when I snore. Demons need half as much sleep as us humans do, so I let it go, especially since he’s painting our daughter’s nursery and decorating the house when he’s not watching me sleep.

And then, of course, last night was the gold moon. No matter how many that pass, I’m not used to how damn horny it makes me. That’s its purpose, obviously. When mated couples fuck during the gold moon, the chick ends up pregnant. There isn’t birth control strong enough to stop the magic, and while Mal took the edge off last night by giving me head, I missed the good stuff.

I missed his shadow dick.

Now, I have self-control. No way in hell was I ready to get pregnant with baby number two right on the heels of giving birth to baby number one. Shit. I already told Mal that I was one and done. We have our baby, and I’m good with that. Kennedy’s gonna pop soon. If Alana gets lonely, she’s got a built-in best friend already.

So that meant not P-in-V sex last night. I didn’t trust myself to let Malphas in the back door since it would be too easy to convince myself that one hole or the other wouldn’t make a difference in the long run. We stuck to oral instead before sleeping off the worst of the gold moon-inspired lust, but now that its power has waned and I don’t have to worry about another bun in the oven…

I throw my hands over Mal’s shoulders, nearly purring at the sensation of his strong muscles and heated flesh against my front. He’d crouched down low, working on adding to the painted scene in our bathroom—complete with a tub that I would normally use… if I didn’t have another, better idea in my head—when I snuck up on him.

“Kennedy has Alana,” I tell him, speaking directly into the shell of his pointed ear. It twitches, whether from my cooler breath or the promise of what an evening without our child might mean for my mate. “She said she can keep her all night if we want.”

“Ah, my Shannon,” rumbles Malphas. “You assume that I will last for more than a few moments once I have you laid out on our bedding.”

I grin. “I was thinking maybe we should go outside. Take a walk. Go somewhere private .”

My big demon shudders. Yup. That’s definitely because he knows exactly what his insatiable human mate has in mind.

Slowly, he rises up to his full height. I release him as he does before I end up hanging off of him like a little girl on her father. Because Mal? He might be Alana’s, but he’s my mate .

He turns, hands going to my waist. He must’ve dropped his paintbrush on top of his palette of paint smears because he’s tugging me toward him, his erection a brand against my midsection as he shows me how ready he is to be just that.

“You want to take a walk?”

“Why not? You’ve got something better to do?” I tease.

His eyes flare, brighter than ever. “Than you, my flower? Never .”

I pat Malphas on his solid chest. “Good answer, babe.” Dropping my hand at the same time as he releases my left hip, I let his hand swallow mine as his big fingers close around my fist. “Come on.”