Page 29

Nightmare

I t was on the third day of Nightmare escorting Matteo around town that Matteo finally saw another familiar face, this one not so welcome.

Nightmare had just finished fetching his mate his ice cream cone for the day, and they were sitting on one of the town’s benches as Matteo discussed the local wildlife.

“I don’t think I’d mind being a seagull,” he mused, watching one of the birds in question dive to the sidewalk to snatch an errant french fry.

“They get to live by the coast and steal human food, but they don’t get the bad reputation of, say, a pigeon.

” His brow furrowed as he considered. “But there’s something lonely about birds, I think.

Maybe because they don’t have anywhere cozy to go.

Bird nests are just so open to the elements.

If I were a fox, I could have a little den.

” He took a lick of ice cream, turning to Nightmare. “What do you think?”

Nightmare had no interest in being any earthly creature at all, but he’d play the game for his mate. “One of the big cats in the mountains,” he said after a moment. “Solitary, with a large territory. I’d protect your fox den from intruders.”

Nightmare was rewarded with a huge, beaming grin from his mate.

And then, a moment later, the soul connection between them thrummed with shock, and the ice cream fell from Matteo’s hands.

Nightmare’s shadows caught the dessert before it could hit the ground.

They were always close at hand now, his shadows. Where once they hadn’t ever deigned to emerge while Nightmare was in his lesser human form, they now tucked themselves into his clothing, waiting for any opportunity to rush out in secret to swarm their mate.

But Matteo didn’t reach for the little cone suspended in air, and eventually the shadows let it drop to the sidewalk.

Nightmare followed Matteo’s dismayed gaze to a wiry blond man who was pretending to read a newspaper in one of the outside seating areas of the local café.

“Dominico?” Nightmare asked, though he didn’t think Matteo’s reaction was in keeping with his greatest fear come to life.

“No,” Matteo said dully. “But…one of his.”

The man rose unhurriedly from his seat, tossing cash on the table before walking off, the newspaper left behind.

“Is that it?” Matteo asked. “Just let him see me? He did see me, right?”

Nightmare sent one of his curious shadows after the man to make sure they didn’t lose his trail, then rose from the bench, holding out his hand. “Come.”

The two of them followed Nightmare’s shadow, which led them away from the downtown area and into the surrounding neighborhood. They came around the corner to find the man had stopped under a tree and was digging his phone out of his pocket.

About to report to his master, no doubt.

Swifter than a breath, Nightmare strode forward, letting his human nails extend into talons and pierce the man’s neck, his venom seeping out eagerly. Nightmare kept it to a light dose—this man wasn’t meant to meet death so soon. Not when he still had a role to play in their plans.

Nightmare pulled the man’s slack form into a dark patch of grass hidden by the trees and let his shadows pour forth, delving in through the cracks and crevices of his mind. The shadows found the man’s recent memories, and Nightmare began to twist them.

“Are you— What are you doing?” Matteo asked. He’d crept up to Nightmare’s side, huddling into him in a way where he didn’t come into contact with the man Nightmare held.

“He’ll remember seeing you,” Nightmare explained. “But he’ll also remember you speaking about exactly where you’ll be Friday night. You said you didn’t want Dominico finding you in Sascha’s home.”

“And he won’t remember this moment? You attacking him?”

Nightmare grinned at his shadows, busy in their work. “No.”

The man would be lucky to have the majority of his wits left when Nightmare was done with him. His shadows weren’t being particularly careful, and Nightmare wasn’t in the mood to admonish them—not when this man’s very presence had cast such a pall over their day.

“Make me happy in the memory, when he sees me,” Matteo requested, a mere whisper in Nightmare’s ear. “Make sure I’m smiling and laughing. Dominico will hate that.”

Nightmare hummed his agreement, but he didn’t share his second task as he delved into the man’s mind.

Didn’t share that he was searching deeper into those recent memories until he came upon a face.

A man perhaps in his mid-fifties, with graying hair and a thin-lipped sneer.

He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a butterfly knife he kept flicking through his fingers as he barked out orders to the group surrounding him.

Dominico Caruso.

Nightmare couldn’t scent the man’s soul through memories, but he knew it would be vile, rotten to the core in every sense. He kept the vision of the human in his mind’s eye.

He’d know who to search for now.

“He looks uncomfortable,” Matteo said after a moment.

“It’s very painful to have your memories tampered with.” Or perhaps it was only Nightmare’s methods. It mattered little to him. This stranger had pledged his allegiance to the wrong man—pain was his due.

But Matteo didn’t chastise or balk. He cocked his head, eyeing the agonized expression on the blond’s face. “Good,” he said quietly. “I’m glad.”

And Nightmare realized in an instant that, for his mate to be so bloodthirsty, Matteo must have been hurt by this cretin, either directly or by way of this man delivering him to Dominico.

It was more difficult than Nightmare could have imagined, not killing the man that very second.

But Matteo was counting on Nightmare. So when his task was done, Nightmare released the man, letting him fall to the grass in a tangled slump.

He’d sleep off what had been done to him and wake up with the memories Nightmare had created.

He’d report to his leader, as intended, and Dominico would come.

And then this man would die.

Nightmare toed at the sprawled form with his booted foot. “I look forward to ripping your heart out of your chest,” he hissed.

He turned, wrapping an arm around Matteo. “Shall we get you another dessert?”

“No.” Matteo shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the unconscious man. “Take me home, please.”

When they arrived at Sascha’s home, Matteo tugged Nightmare past the living room, where the warrior and the chaos demon were playing some card game that had Kaisyir glowering and Chaos cackling.

“Do not disturb until further notice!” Matteo yelled out as he hurried Nightmare up the stairs.

His words only made Chaos cackle all the harder.

Once in the bedroom, Matteo began shedding his clothing at an alarming rate, coming much too close to falling on his face as he attempted to tug his pants off before removing his sneakers.

Nightmare’s shadows began helping him as Nightmare switched back to his demon form, stretching his neck in relief as the weight of his antlers settled into place.

Matteo sent a glare Nightmare’s way as he climbed naked onto the bed. “No clothes.”

Nightmare sent his clothes off into the ether.

Matteo lay on his belly over the covers, tugging a pillow under his hips. “Like before,” he said. Demanded, really.

“I assume you refer to our mating?” Nightmare asked, his voice laced with amusement and no small amount of arousal. As rushed as this seduction was, it was impossible not to feel desire with his mate splayed before him, his perfectly round globes of flesh propped into the air.

They hadn’t had a chance to repeat their act of penetration yet, much to Nightmare’s dismay. There were too many people in this damned house, and Matteo was often impatient to find release in other ways when they finally had time to themselves.

Apparently today Matteo’s impatience ran in another direction.

“I want you to fuck me, and I want your petals to do their thing, and I want you to keep fucking me while they do, and then I want to fall asleep tonight with you still inside me.” Matteo looked over his shoulder to Nightmare looming at the foot of the bed. “Is that too much?”

It would never be too much—not in this lifetime or any other—but Nightmare climbed onto the bed, pulling gently at Matteo’s shoulder until he was flat on his back.

Nightmare pressed Matteo’s thighs up and back and settled himself between them, cupping Matteo’s fretful face.

“I won’t let him harm you,” he promised.

“I know you won’t.” Matteo blinked large brown eyes at him. “But I need—” He bit at his lip, shaking his head. “I just need .”

“And you will get what you need, little mate,” Nightmare soothed, rubbing his thumb over Matteo’s cheek. “But I would look at you while I claim you.”

“Oh.” Matteo’s gaze softened even as he pouted. “Okay.”

Nightmare dipped his head, stealing a kiss from those pouting lips. He couldn’t help but slip his tongue inside, and Matteo groaned, sucking eagerly as he always did. Nightmare let his heavy cock slide up and down along Matteo’s hardened member, teasing them both.

Nightmare knew this pliant state wouldn’t last long, not when Matteo was so desperate for physical reassurance.

So he gathered the viscous precum from his cock, using blunted fingertips to work the slick substance into Matteo.

Nightmare didn’t take his time with it, not this time.

Matteo was too impatient—too unsettled—and Nightmare wasn’t cruel enough to make him wait.

So Nightmare did the best he could, distracting Matteo with gentle nips and fevered kisses, and he managed to get two fingers in before Matteo started biting at Nightmare’s tongue and pressing up his hips, wordlessly demanding his due.

Although, he didn’t stay silent for long.

“Fuck me,” Matteo panted when Nightmare growled at him in reprimand for knocking away Nightmare’s fingers. “You promised.”

And since Nightmare intended to keep each and every promise he made to his little human, he notched the fat, spongy head of his cock to his mate’s entrance and pressed in.

Matteo moaned in eager abandon, wrapping his legs tightly around Nightmare’s hips as he bore down and let him in. Nightmare hissed at the tight squeeze, the way Matteo’s inner walls sucked in the head and pressed at his so-called petals, urging him ever deeper.

Matteo wound his arms tight around Nightmare’s neck as he bottomed out. “Yes,” he sighed, some of the tension melting from his frame. “Yes, yes. More of that, please.”

Nightmare rocked his hips back and drove in again, battling Matteo’s body for dominion.

The slick of his precum eased the glide as he fucked into him, biting at that tender neck with blunted teeth.

He allowed his shadows free rein, letting them swarm and caress and squeeze until Matteo was crying out in no time at all, splattering his own sweet belly with creamy white cum.

Nightmare sped up his pace, a growl erupting from his throat. The shoddy human bed banged against the wall again and again.

Matteo whimpered and whined and urged him on, lifting his hips again and again despite the shudders that racked his frame from his drawn-out release. “All of it,” he ordered, biting savagely into Nightmare’s pec. “You promised.”

His display of sweet, tender viciousness spiraled through Nightmare like a flame, setting his nerves alight.

He could feel Matteo’s need through the bond, the ache of his want.

The way he coveted being surrounded by Nightmare in every way.

The hole inside him that the usual mechanics of sex weren’t enough to fill.

Matteo needed to be bred and locked in place, claimed by Nightmare inside and out. Consumed by him until nothing was left but the bond they shared with each other.

Nightmare groaned, and as he spilled inside his mate with one last hard press of his hips, he could feel the sweet relief of his petals expanding, making a home within Matteo’s tight passage.

Apparently Matteo could feel it too.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he chanted, digging his heels into Nightmare’s ass as he clawed at his back, rocking and writhing until those petals had locked into place and he was forced to still.

Nightmare stroked every bit of skin he could reach. There was nothing like it in this world or any other, to be lodged so deep inside his mate. To have his cock squeezed like a vise as he emptied his seed into such a welcoming vessel.

Matteo’s sigh was pure relief as he smiled up at Nightmare, still wrapped tight as a limpet around him. “Thank you, Scary.” His smile fell immediately into a concerned frown as he took stock. “You’re all hunched though. Did you really think this position through?”

In answer, Nightmare rolled them with ease until his mate was on top of him, his thighs to either side of Nightmare’s hips.

“Oh.” Matty pressed his hands to Nightmare’s taut stomach, regaining his balance with a small giggle. “Hello.”

“Better, sweet?” Nightmare stroked his hands down Matteo’s thighs, and Matteo leaned down until he was plastered to Nightmare’s chest, his cheek to Nightmare’s sternum. He wiggled his bottom, and Nightmare groaned as his cock was massaged by the move, spurting weakly inside his mate.

“Oh yes,” Matteo sighed. “This is good.”

He relaxed in Nightmare’s hold, trusting Nightmare to keep him comfortable and safe and free of pain, and Nightmare accepted it for the gift it was.