Chapter Three
CHAPTER THREE
Geraldine
M y body ached as I stirred awake, my limbs heavy and my mind sluggish. I had no idea what happened after the beast had taken me. Everything had gone hazy, and then a different kind of darkness slammed into me.
The surrounding air was thick with warmth, carrying a faint scent of fire and something darkly sweet. I heard the fire crackling nearby but still kept my eyes closed, not wanting to accept this reality.
I inhaled deeply, my fingers twitching against the softness that was beneath me and covered me. When I was brave enough to open my eyes, I realized my surroundings didn’t look like the cold, damp earth of the cave.
Panic seized me, and I slowly rose, pulling the furs and blankets up to my chin. I wasn't in a home, not in the traditional sense, but there were no jagged rocks or sounds of dripping water like the cave I had been in.
There was a small mercy at the fact I still wore my tattered gown.
Where I was now had been made to appear almost comforting.
My breath hitched as I took in the walls that were smooth, shadowy, black, and polished like onyx. The fire illuminated the space enough that I could see every corner. But the flickering light cast long shadows over the strange symbols and designs that were etched into the black surfaces.
A language from what had to be another world.
My fingers dug into the thick furs, deep and plush, and as lush as the royal material in the palace I’d grown up in.
The main fire burned in a carved depression in the rock itself, and I saw a primitively designed flute that whisked the smoke away. There was a small fire that burned low in an iron brazier in the center of the room.
It was after searching the large space that I saw him. It.
The creature stood at one edge of the room as he watched me.
A tremor worked its way through me when I took him in for the first time, the light illuminating every single part of this… monster. He looked like something out of the storybooks of children’s tales told to keep them from disobeying, when their parents or nannies warned them not to run off.
Yet this wasn’t a story or even a nightmare but something real . My reality.
Because I had done exactly what those tales had cautioned me not to do. I ran away, into the woods.
And here was this creature—a literal demon.
He was impossibly tall, his form powerful and thickly muscled, his blackened skin gleaming under the firelight. It was the same shade as the onyx walls surrounding us.
His enormous, clawed hands flexed at his sides, and his curling horns cast menacing shadows up the walls. His face wasn’t a face at all. It was a terrible skull-like visage, which should have filled me with horror. But my fear was tangled with something else. Something more dangerous.
Curiosity.
His glowing red eyes were eerie, horrifying, yet strangely… beautiful. I didn't know how tall he was, but the cavern ceiling had to be at least ten-feet high, and this beast was no less than seven feet in height, not including those vicious horns.
I breathed shallowly, forcing myself to take in the rest of him. God, he was big, muscular… and totally naked.
And this monster didn’t have just one very male-shaped appendage. But two . And they were both thick and long. One dick was placed normally, as in where a human male’s cock would be. And the second grew out from directly below the first, with a set of heavy twin weights hanging beneath, which swung slightly when he shifted those hooved feet.
Yes. Hooved feet.
And the demon’s cocks were now getting hard.
He was aroused.
He growled, and I snapped my eyes up to hold his gaze. His molten eyes were locked on mine, unblinking.
“Where am I?” My voice cracked, and I was surprised I’d been able to form words at all in my current situation.
The demon—because I didn't know what else to call this creature—tilted his head, his expression unreadable. “In my lair.” His voice was distorted and deeper than any I’d ever heard before, a rolling thunder that settled deep in my bones. It shouldn’t have created a warmth in my belly, but it did, and I felt sickened and ashamed by the response.
I clenched my fingers into the furs and swallowed hard. “What do you want with me?”
He stepped forward, slowly and deliberately, his large, hooved feet hard and pounding on the smooth stone. My body tensed, my heartbeat raging against my ribs, as every part of me said to run.
But there was nowhere for me to go, not when the only exit I saw was a jagged opening on the other side of the cavern, and he blocked my escape.
The creature crouched before me, bringing himself closer, though he remained just out of reach. If I thought he was enormous before, having him this close made me realize I’d vastly underestimate his size.
“To keep you safe,” he finally answered me. His glowing eyes scanned my face.
It was surreal to see his skull-face this close, to know I’d never seen a beast like this before. I could never even imagine something like this in my darkest nightmares.
“You ran from something far worse,” he said straight-forwardly. “And you ran into my arms.”
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 he allowed me 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 space between 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.