Chapter Three
Traum
I sat up with a gasp, my hands running over my chest with quick, frantic movements. For a moment I was sure that maybe, for the first time in my lifetime I had lost control over my mind. But then, I looked down, my claws curling together around a single golden lock of hair.
She had been real.
Instead of sliding into dreams, feeding off of that sexual energy that I plied from them, I had spent my entire evening in Bailey’s living room.
In my mates house. My human mate.
She had pulled me through my dreams, pulling a reversal on my own abilities as only an incubus or succubus mate could. Only a mate could engage with us, or allow us to touch them. And while we could interact with our dreamers to a certain extent, there was only one way that I could have brought this strand home.
“Oh fuck,”
I held up the blonde strand in front of my face in order to examine it one more time. It had been sitting on the edge of her couch, a castoff strand from the woman who had watched me with such wide, fascinated eyes. Impulsively I had picked it up, letting the silken strand tangle with the darkness of my claws.
She was real. And she was mine.
My life was about to get really fucking complicated.
I swung my leg over the edge of the bed, straightening with a small grunt. I needed to find my brother, before he somehow found out about this before I had a chance to explain Because there was one thing I knew about my family. They always knew what was going on. And this, this was news that would shake the foundation of the tribes.
There was a small voice in the back of my head that wanted to be frustrated about being the first in such a long time to have a human mate. But then, each time I considered it, a pride and joy so thick and heavy smothered all other emotions. I wanted to crow to the Underworld sky that I was claimed in every way that mattered to my species.
I nearly raced through the house, desperate to go to the center building in our tribe, nicknamed the Core, where I knew I would find my brother. Hades willing, he would be easy to convince that this was good news. Because come tonight, I was going to be back in the living world. I had a mate to court.
When I burst into the chief’s office a few minutes later, Albtraum’s eyes were wide as I hurried over to the table he was perched at. His immense form made even the incubus crafted furniture look petite in comparison. “Traum, brother, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I need to talk to you.”
Albtraum sighed, “Clearly. So sit. Talk.”
He patted the chair to the side of him, scooting the chair out for me. I sat, my chest rising and falling as I realized that in all my rush to come in here, I wasn’t actually sure how to begin this announcement.
“I-uh. Something happened last night.”
Albtraum had looked back to the parchment in front him as I gaped into silence. But now, he looked up, worried lining his eyes. “Here at home, or in your dream?”
As the mated chief of our tribe, Albtraum no longer had to enter others' dreams unless he opted to. He and his mate, a succubus named Rifa, fed off of each other, and while he was besotted with his mate, it was clear Albtraum was more disconnected from the dream world as of recent times. Especially since Rifa was heavy with child.
I cleared my throat, “I was pulled into a human’s dream last ni–.”
“That is pretty typical, Traum.”
I growled at the interruption, surprising both of us. “Let me explain,”
I lowered my voice, my temper feeling raw, “Last night I was pulled into a dream, but when I got there, I was able to interact. I was able to move through multiple rooms.”
I was nearly whispering now the words falling from my lips in a rush, “Albtraum I was able to touch her.”
Albtraum’s claws wrapped around my chair leg, yanking me closer. His nostrils flared, his eyes beginning to glow. “What did you say?”
“I could touch her,”
I swallowed, slowing my words, “She’s, my mate. She has to be, nothing else makes sense.”
Albtraum slowly released my chair, sinking back into his own and his and pining me with a deeply serious look. “Who else have you talked about this?”
“No one. I came straight here.”
Albtraum was nodding now, his eyes moving around the room. “I knew that this would happen when Arafel undid the magic, but I didn’t realize it would happen this fast,”
he looked at me, “Or to someone like you.”
“Like me?”
my brow lowered, deep in my chest my temper stirred to life, “What does that mean?”
“You are a legend in the Underworld, the most powerful of us, and your feedings have served this whole tribe. But you haven’t exactly been interested in finding a mate. Ever. I didn’t think you were the type.”
I bristled, confused by the blunt comment, “Well she found me. And as my brother, I was hoping you might find it in your schedule to be happy for me.”
I stood up, moving towards the door before he could stop me. “Wait, Traum, I didn’t mean it like that. I just–.”
I kept walking, letting the door shut behind me. My grandmother, who was entering Core, her cane at her side, gave me a surprised look which quickly transformed into a smile as she turned towards me. My instincts and temper were too raw and close to the surface. I held up a hand in what I hoped was both a greeting and an apology, moving past her.
“I’m sorry, grandmother…”
I couldn’t trust myself to stay here.
“Traum!”
Albtraum was shouting from behind me as I stepped out into the main area of our town. To one side, there were several open market stalls, with the vendors still setting out their wares for the day. I recognized several incubus and succubus who looked up in surprise as I stormed back across the central square to where my sister stood in my family’s front entry door staring at me with a cocked hip.
Antheia gave me a long look as I approached. She was wearing a short black dress, and her shoulder length black curls were wild around her horns. “What is going on? And why is he chasing you?”
I pushed past her, entering the darkness of the house once again, “I found my mate, she’s a human, he forgot I was his brother for a minute, and not just a tribesman.”
“What? You found your mate?”
I kept walking towards my room, looking for a moment to silence the raging emotion that burned in my blood. I could hear Antheia’s footsteps following me and a moment later, her hand, cool and small pressed against my shoulder.
“Traum, talk to me. What happened?”
“Lord Arafel took down the boundaries,”
I said, turning so I could see her nodding her agreement, “And last night, she called me from my dreams into her world.”
“The living world?”
Antheia’s voice was full of wonder.
My chin jerked twice, “And it was so different, nothing like the usual dreams. And when I reached for her, I could feel her. I touched her and,”
I sighed, “She is everything. I can feel her heartbeat, the way her eyes look in the dark. Her scent, her voice, her presence, it is the thing I’ve always wanted. I just didn’t know it until I met her.”
Antheia sat down on the edge of my bed, staring at her hands in her lap. “That’s….”
I braced myself.
“That’s amazing Traum, I’m so happy for you.”
I sighed, smiling at my little sister. “Thank you, Theia.”
“What are you going to do first?”
“I have no idea. I –I need to make sure I can get back to her tonight. I’m not sure how to do that.”
Antheia smiled at me. “I know exactly who we have to ask.”
I started to open my mouth when she caught me off, “Not Albtraum. I meant grandmother. She must remember how it used to be, before the boundaries were closed.”
“That’s a good idea,”
I commented, shoulders relaxing a little. From her seat on the edge of the bed, Anthetia wound her fingers through mine, squeezing hard.
“All my ideas are good, but this one is spectacular. After all, I am desperate for a new sister.”
I snorted and Antheia dropped her hand, standing up with a flourish and moving out the door. “Let’s go slowpoke, we have a mate to meet.”
“Antheia…”
My sister pivoted in the doorway, her hands gathering the rogue curls away from her face. “Oh, and I haven't even asked about the mate in question. What is their name? What are they like?”
I sighed, then followed my eager sibling back to the front of the house. “Her name is Bailey. And she is perfect.”
*** Bailey
I stared at the coffee maker, at the slow, dark brown fluid that leaked drop by drop into the carafe below. Fluorescent light bulbs glowed, the refrigerator hummed and all around me the sounds of my coworkers invaded my brain like tiny pinpricks into my flesh, each more cutting than the last.
My heartrate was a rolling thrum in my ears. How was it that the entire world simply carried on when my personal viewpoint had been completely rocked?
Demons.
Not just any demons, but sex demons. They were real. They had to be.
Two nights ago, I woke up to find a demon male in my living room. An enormous, horned demon with a beautiful face and fangs the size of a tigers. And he had smiled at me, told me about his family, about his own dreams, about his abilities, the spicy and less spicy ones… And yet the morning after we had talked all night, I had woken up feeling just as rested. In some kind of confused trance I had showered, dressed and driven my little gray sedan through the swirling silver storms and straight to my boring gray cubicle.
I had to be completely crazy. I was sure of it now. Some part of me wanted to be impressed that my subconscious brain had dreamed up something as beautiful and vibrant and not…me. He was a splash of red and passion in my world of survival.
Maybe that’s why I had dreamed him up.
I needed him. Something to focus on, to pant over. Because to be frank, I felt like I had lost complete control over my body since the night he had come into my life. Nothing like a passing sexy dream.
My reality was this, I was desperate for something. I had gone looking for my vibrator twice yesterday and I had been proud of my ability to hold off. Because even after I came, slick and wet and wanting, I had pushed my fingers deep into myself, letting that subtle fire reignite all over again.
I was insatiable. I even woke up last night, sweating, my hand down the front of my sleep shorts as I called out a name.
His name.
Someone bumped into me, “Excuse me,”
a nameless coworker shuffled by, unaware of the throbbing need that echoed in every cell of my body. I mumbled something to the coworker already leaving the break room.
Alone, I pressed my hand to my gut, quelling the waves of displeasure that filled my entire being. Fuck. What was wrong with me?
Coffee. I just needed coffee. Thank god the machine was done. I filled up my mug and hurried back to my office, trying to ignore how much the sensation of my thighs brushing together under my pencil skirt thrilled me right now.
My toe tapped under my desk as I desperately attempted to focus on the tasks ahead of me. One hour. Two.
My mind wandered, filled with images of the Traum. The dark tongue that I’d glimpsed as he spoke.
The clawed fingers that had gripped the door jam as we said our goodbyes. My panties were soaked, and there was no hiding it.
Suddenly a head popped into my cube, startling me and making my cheeks flush with a barely repressed gasp. Elena’s grinning face didn’t seem to notice my discomfort. “I hate to spring this one on you, but would you mind sorting through the archive sometime today? I cannot find anything in our current files.”
I swallowed, thighs shaking as I pressed them together. “Oh, um, yes of course.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Bailey. Let me know if you find it.”
I nodded, slowly moving to open the drawer of my desk and digging for the keys that I’d picked up a few days before. The archive was a dark room at the corner of the first floor, enclosed and nicely finished, but just packed full of drawers and drawers of paperwork. In my initial tour of the building, I’d barely noted the room, only that we only had one or two people with keys, including me.
As I tried to focus on the hall in front of me, I wondered briefly if Elena wanted to do this task as some kind of ‘new employee’ hazing ritual, or if it was something else. But honestly, I could use the distraction, and nothing like staring at hundreds of files looking for the one we needed to distract me.
I pulled up short to the room and with a quick jerk of my hands, I opened the locked down and slipped inside. The lights were soft, dimmer than the ones in my office and somehow that quieted some of the anxiety that lit me up inside as more thoughts for my not-real visitor continued to plague me. A mixture of shame and surprise battle in my chest as my eyes slip around the room’s walls and corners.
No cameras.
I was alone.
Hesitating, I found a switch by the door. It was nearly lunch time. I needed a moment to compose myself. I hit the lights, letting the darkness of the windowless room wrap around me like a lover's caress.
I sighed, letting my breath whoosh out of my chest. With a shaking hand, I found the cold metal of the first filing cabinet. Leaning against it, I pressed my forehead there.
“You have to get a hold of yourself Bailey. It wasn’t real. He wasn't real. This is all insane.”
My eyes closed, as if on their own violation and a moment later, the energy seemed to be pulled from my body. I slid down, down, down, until I rested in a pile against the metal cabinets,
My eyes remain shut tight, more of that tightness, that heat that burned so hot inside of me spread. From one hand, up my arms, across my chest, making my nipples pebble, my heart pound and straight back down the others until my entire body felt like it was an instant from combustion.
And I had never wanted anything more.
“Poor, poor little mate. You must be wanting me badly if you pulled me to you while I was awake.”
I jolted, staring up at the dark shape that lurked in the shadow across from me. I raised a hand, to point, to stop them, to do something, but it merely flopped in my lap, my fingers trailing up and down my thighs as I whimpered in need. The shadow solidified more.
“Yes, my Dream, feed me more of that delicious want,”
the shadow had a head now, because I could see it cocked to one side, watching me. My fingers moved higher, pushing desperately at the line of my pencil skirt. Too tight, fuck it was too tight. I needed more access.
“Fuck, you smell like dessert. I might die if you don’t show me what’s under that little skirt.”
The shadow said, now stepping forward, the powerful shoulders, graced with a simple white shirt and dark pants looked as real as anything on my body. And yet, it couldn’t be.
“Who are you?”
My voice trembled, even as my fingers finally managed to scoot my skirt up high enough that my fingertips could trace over the soaking wet mess of black lace.
“Oh, Dream. You know who I am.”
A low, rumbling purr filled the room, and as if that sound had been a caress, every part of my body lit up in welcome. “You know who your body weeps for.”
“No,”
I wetted my lips, horrified and thrilled by my body’s response. “No, you aren’t real. I made you up, some kind of wild dream.”
A smirk curled his beautiful mouth, “A wild dream? That part may be true. But no, mate, I am here, I am real, just as much as you are.”
My fingers are still moving, stroking, teasing. “I don’t know what’s happening to me?”
And then he’s kneeling in front of me, glowing red eyes staring at the place where my fingers still trace the line of my panties, over and over. If only I could pull the lace to the side, to feel that sweet, slick, skin on skin pleasure. But this fucking skirt, I couldn’t manage it. I whimpered.
“I’m so sorry, Dream, I didn’t mean to stay away for so long,”
His finger traced down the line of my calf. It felt like someone was following the line of his finger with hot breath, my entire body jerking as the near contact. “Do you know what happens when a succubus or incubus finds their mate?”
I shook my head, my fingernail catching on the edge of my panties, my panting breaths filled the air between us. “No.”
My head fell back in pleasure as I finally succeeded with yanking my panties to the side. My eyes were glued to the ceiling as Traum’s deep purr turned into a rattling growl, the temperature in the room skyrocketing.
“There is a sort of bond established. Not always one based on mutual interests or common likes,”
I slowly lowered my head so I could stare into those beautiful red eyes, “It is raw, primal, desperate sexual longing.”
I moaned.
“And when that need isn’t fulfilled, other than feeling the shame of being a male who left his female wet and wanting, the feelings will only grow.”
His claws were long tonight, digging into the linoleum floor. “Until the male is called to his mate’s side. No boundary, no magic, no Lord above or below can stop it.”
My finger circled my clit, a gasp muffled by teeth sinking into my bottom lip. “How do I fix this? I want it–I want you so badly.”
His form grew, or perhaps it was the dark shadows that still swirled around him, cloaking him in the darkness he had sprung from. “Only you can call me here, keep me here. I live only to serve you now.”
His fangs flashed, “Tell me, mate.”
“I need you here, I need you to touch me, to make me come.”
I barely got the words out of my mouth before my hand was shoved away, baring my cunt to the dim lighting of the records room.
“Traum-”
The words, the reasoning to tell him not to…. whatever else my brain might have been considering vanishes the moment that one, thick finger slipped over my clit and down the line of my core.
Pleasure as I had never known it from such a casual caress suffused my body. I quaked, my legs falling wider open, my hips jerking up. “Traum, oh my God.”
That rattling growl filled the room again, making my nipples ache as another finger joined the first, circling my clit now, slowly, pressing harder with each pass until pressure throbbed in my belly.
“Not God, mate, only me,”
Traum’s voice was close, the heat of his breath coasting over my exposed chest. I kept my eyes clamped shut, afraid somehow that if I opened them, he would be gone and again I would be waking up to a world without him.
Without this.
Because this was utterly addicting. Life altering.
“I need you, please, Trauma. Fuck me, right here. Right now.”
His fingers twisted, lowering and pressing into the sopping heat of my body. I cried out, the muscles in my thighs leaping as I tried to spread myself wider–to accept more of him. Anything he would give me to make this burning need go. But his hand waited, fingers moving ever so slightly, and then I felt it.
“Open your eyes, Dream. I want to see the look in your eyes when I make you come.”
I shook my head, “You’ll be gone, I know it.”
His soft, cedar scented breath washed over my face. “Never again, mate. I am yours now. Open your eyes.”
I let my chin drop, my eyelids peeling back as I looked straight into the enormous male kneeling in front of me. His growl softened to a purr again, his fingers pumping in and out of me. “There you are, beautiful. I can feel how bad you want me, how your sweet cunt is gripping me so hard.”
“You need to come, don’t you?”
I’m nodding now, my hands, now reaching for him. He would doubtlessly be warm, I needed to feel all that heavy weight over me, on top of me, filling me completely. “I’m ready, Traum. Please.”
“Ready?”
Traum let out a short, quick noise, “Not nearly ready. When I take you for the first time, Bailey, it will not be quick.”
I swallowed.
“It will not be rushed.’
His fingers pumped into me, curling his fingers against something inside of me that made me cry out.
“And after I have rendered you boneless from tasting you, stretching you, and feeling your sweet pussy gush slick all over my fingers…only then will I give you my lock and my cum.”
“Your lock?”
I was so close, my body rising and falling against his hands now, chasing that sensation the one that bloomed between us.
Traum’s laugh was low and dark, “A nifty little trick from my demon blood, it binds you to me while I breed this human body over and over again.”
Lightning struck, my entire body tensing as the first wave of pleasure hit me. Again, and again Traum’s fingers drove me over another crest of pleasure, my orgasm dragging on as his other hand moved to support my back.
My tongue was thick, my throat dry as I rasped out his name over and over again. His purr was surrounding me, soothing away the lingering questions as I slowly came back down onto reality.
Minutes later, hell, maybe hours, I found myself staring into Traum’s burning gaze.
“You’re still here.”
My heart leaped in my chest as he slowly pulled his fingers free. Bringing his hand to his mouth, he hesitated a few inches away, a tongue straight from my dirtiest fantasies darted out, dancing over the fingers he'd buried so far inside of me. My pussy twitched, my body already sparking again in his presence.
His eyes closed in bliss as he systematically cleaned every bit of his fingers, and then met my gaze head on.
“I am yours, Bailey. Yours to command. Yours to fuck,”
he said that one with a smirk at me, before his face grew serious once again, “Yours to someday, maybe, love.”