12. Mébh
I awoke surroundedby warmth and the scent of a bonfire. My Wolf was utterly content. Gray had come to bed, and I was happily wrapped in his protective embrace, a little spoon to his big. He moaned softly, and I recalled it was a sound of distress that had woken me. His body twitched in sleep and then the arm draped over me flexed. He fisted his hand as dark claws began to grow in. He had to be in the midst of a nightmare.
I turned toward him in his embrace. His face was screwed up in pain, and his eyes moved rapidly behind their closed lids. I placed a hand on his chest. His heart beat wildly under my palm. A growl escaped his throat, and his fangs peeked out below his upper lip as they grew in.
“Gray. You’re dreaming,” I said softly, trying to ease him from sleep. I hated being woken up in general, but it was especially jarring when being woken up from a dream sleep.
His eyes remained closed, his face screwed up in torment. This was going to take more than gentle waking. Fuck being eased out of sleep—the alternative had to be better than whatever nightmare he was stuck in.
I moved my hand from his chest to his stubble-covered cheek. “Wake up, Gray! It’s a nightmare,” I said loudly.
Silver eyes opened, searching frantically. When they met mine, he launched himself at me, hands flying to cup my cheeks, while he pressed his forehead against mine. His chest heaved.
“Are you okay?” I asked, now very concerned with his dramatic reaction. “What were you dreaming about?”
He panted a few more times before easing away from my forehead. “Nicodemus.”
I got the impression there was much more to it. But when he awoke, he was relieved to see me. I wondered if he had been dreaming about me? I didn’t press him for more information. Now was not the time. If he wanted me to know more, he would have said it.
He continued staring at me sorrowfully, both of us on our sides, just studying one another as he cupped my face. I felt like his silver gaze penetrated deep into my soul. The tension in the air shifted as his eyes began to reveal something else . . . hunger.
He used his claw-tipped thumb to trace over my lower lip. The scent of his arousal met my nose, and the air rippled with his power. Gone were the walls he had put up around himself last night. Was he really going to give in and do this? Or would it be fun until he pushed me away again? My heart beat quicker in anticipation, nonetheless. I wanted this. My Wolf wanted this. We wanted him.
He moved his head closer, and a hand slipped around to cup the back of my head. His lips met mine tenderly at first. Tasting. Teasing. His tongue was currently one solid piece. It prodded inside my mouth, and when I aggressively met his with my own, the duel began. We kissed harshly, unable to control ourselves anymore. My Wolf howled within me. I fought for the upper hand, but we both knew who was going to win this battle. The fight for dominance was everything. My Wolf loved this and wanted more, unwilling to concede just yet. For once, instead of hating who I was making out with, she reveled in experiencing this with me. We fiercely returned his attack and then launched our own with a growl. My tongue delved into his mouth as I hooked a thigh over him and slid on top, bodily pushing him onto his back. His hands flew to my hips as I started grinding on his thick cock, now barely contained by his boxers.
A growl reverberated deep within Gray’s chest. He tore his mouth away. “This isn’t a game, princess. You’re playing with fire.”
I smiled wickedly down at him. “Then burn me up, big guy.”
He snarled, showing his fangs and sharpened teeth that I longed to feel tease me and even pierce my skin. Werewolves liked it rough, and a bite was required to claim a mate, or at least it was for werewolf-werewolf matches. Molly wore Nikos’s claiming bite, even though he was a vampire. But Gray was a demon. I didn’t know the particulars, but I hoped to experience those fangs.
He flipped us so he had me pinned to the bed underneath him. My Wolf growled in approval as he effortlessly dominated us, putting me in my place beneath him.
Grinning triumphantly, Gray dipped down and reclaimed my lips. This kiss was all about him touring my mouth unimpeded while his hands slid up my sides under my pajama top.
I couldn’t help but moan as his fingers grazed my breast. It seemed all the invitation he needed and suddenly he was pulling my entire top up over my head before returning to the kiss. His hands each found a breast, and he squeezed, causing another lusty moan to escape my mouth.
“So responsive,” Gray groaned. He dropped his head, and those lips found one of my nipples.
I gasped as my belly fluttered, and I felt an echo of his tongue’s ministrations directly in my core.
He switched to the other nipple, and I grabbed one of his lengthening horn points. He growled around my breast. He was beginning to shift a bit more, his facial features sharpening, his muscles bulging. I’d never seen him finish his shift, I realized. I was curious where the changes stopped and what he looked like in full demon mode.
“You have no idea what you do to me when you touch my horns,” he rumbled, his voice so deep from shifting, I felt it between my legs.
I had a pretty good idea, though, and if he liked me touching his horns so much, what would he think of me touching his pierced dick?
I grinned up at him. He returned to licking my nipples, and I continued to stroke his horn point as if it were his cock.
His fingers were suddenly prying my pajama pants down. He retracted the claws on two fingers and then stroked my clit with his thumb while he dipped one finger and then the second into my weeping channel. He found my G-spot immediately and began to massage it. I was awash in sensation. The pleasure just kept building higher as he fingered me harder and harder.
I slid my hand from his horn and dipped into his golden hair. It was as soft as I’d hoped it was. I gripped a fistful in my now clawed hand. My fangs were also elongating. My Wolf wanted to participate like I’d never experienced before, but this was my mate I was with, not some teenage werewolf male just looking to get his rocks off tonight. This was so much more.
Gray switched back and forth between breasts as the pleasure deep inside climbed even higher. I was lost to all else besides him. He was the thing that grounded me, kept my legs literally pinned so I wouldn’t float up and away like my body so desperately wanted to, my hips raising to meet his finger motions.
He began stroking me deep inside to a faster rhythm. I met him stroke for stroke, groaning as my Wolf yowled. The sound that came out was a feral mix of both, and Gray briefly glanced up while switching between nipples, the look on his face one of male pride.
I thrashed my head, my body practically vibrating with the need to release. I stood poised on the edge and Gray seemed to realize, prolonging the feeling as he stroked between my legs expertly. As I clenched tighter, I knew this was going to be earth shattering when it erupted.
“Come for me, princess,” Gray suddenly snarled and thrust his fingers in and out of me at an inhuman pace.
I screamed as I careened over the edge, falling into oblivion. Pleasure rocked my world, making every nerve ending light up. My core clenched hard. I grasped at Gray as I writhed mindlessly, my orgasm having taken over me completely. Gray controlled me now, body and soul. He stroked me to completion, carried me down from the high, and brought me back slowly to reality.
“That’s my good girl.” He grinned, and I flushed, preening under his praise.
He sat back up on his haunches next to me and ran a hand down the large bulge in his boxers. His body was still showing signs of his demonic shift, his horns still slowly growing before my eyes, as were his muscles. His tail flicked out behind him and swayed in the air.
I reached for the bulge, but he grabbed my hand before I could touch him.
I met his eyes in confusion.
“Before you go there, I have to warn you. I-I have piercings,” he finished in a rush. He sounded nervous.
“‘Piercings,’ as in more than one?” I asked, shocked. “I’ve seen the one on your dick’s head. Are you saying there are more?” I lit up with excitement.
“Yes,” was his stoic, undetailed reply. He still looked hesitant.
“Why do you have them?” I asked cautiously. “Do you remember?”
Gray scowled. “I remember part of the reason now. It’s in demonic culture in Shoal. It’s supposed to be an enhancement on the natural parts the Lord gave us, a kind of snub.”
I nodded in understanding. “How many do you have?”
“Eight in total. A Prince Albert and seven descending barbells making up a Jacob’s ladder.”
I didn’t really know what a Prince Albert was or a Jacob’s Ladder, but I just kept hearing “eight” and found myself practically drooling. I had to see this. I had to play with them. It was only fair. He gave me a mind-blowing orgasm. I needed to return the favor—and check out these piercings. “Show me.”
Gray nodded slowly. He laid down on his back once again and peeled his boxers down his thighs. His pierced cock bobbed in the air, and I stared, fascinated.
I reached out, thought better of it, and brought my hand back. “Can I touch it?” I asked, looking up to meet his eyes.
He nodded with a slight smirk. “It’s not a snake—it won’t bite you.”
I ignored his cheekiness and reached out once again, wrapping my hand around him. My fingers didn’t come close to meeting. Damn, he was girthy. Along the bottom of his shaft, seven bars decorated his length and a complete circle was pierced through his slit on the head.
“Are they painful?” I asked, running my fingers along each barbell.
He chuckled. “No. They have long since healed over.”
“What about sex? Do they hurt during?”
“They are designed for the female’s pleasure, Mébh, not my own.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, flabbergasted.
“The piercings double as ridges that stroke you from the inside.”
I had no idea what they were for, and it blew my mind that he would have gone to the effort of piercing his dick, not for his pleasure, but for his bed partners. I ignored the rush of jealousy from my Wolf at all the previous females that had gotten to experience his piercings. That time was over. He was mine now, whether he liked it or not.
I looked down and ran my thumb over the gold hoop, then the head of his cock. He groaned, and liquid coated my finger—his pre-cum.
“Do that again.” Gray’s power seemed to crackle with his demand.
I swiped my thumb again, and he groaned all over again, throwing his head back.
I slid my hand lower on his shaft, allowing the bulbous part of his cock head to pop through my fist. I descended my hand down his length, and I suddenly knew exactly what he meant by “ridges that stroke from the inside.” His barbells created massive ridges that massaged my hand. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how incredible they would feel inside me, not that I’d felt much beyond getting fingered before.
“Your hand feels so good,” he rumbled as I thrust it back up his shaft, feeling him up as I went. Moon Goddess help me—he was huge. I wondered how he could possibly fit inside me. My Wolf did not possess the same worry. She only had desire for the demon male before me—our mate.
Another bit of pre-cum slicked my fingers as my hand reached his cockhead again. I dipped my head and licked his slit and hoop first. A shot of salty spunk hit my tongue, and I groaned. He stared down at me, his mouth hanging open, fangs and sharp teeth on display. His clawed fist found its way into my hair, and he gripped me for dear life, but didn’t press my head down further. He was rather gentle, surprisingly. I sucked just the head of his cock into my mouth—it was practically all I could take until I relaxed my throat more—and used both hands to fist the rest of his shaft, enjoying every ridge.
“Fuck!” he punched out.
I hollowed my cheeks and sucked, gaining another shot of his salty pre-cum in the process.
I tongued the hoop, and he growled with approval. “That’s it, princess.”
He abruptly threw his head back again as I sucked the head into my mouth and cupped his balls with my other hand while stroking him. He seemed to really like that. I repeated it over and over until he was shaking with need.
“Your mouth is exquisite,” he rumbled, voice distorted.
I answered him by sucking a little harder and he growled in fresh agony. “Keep that up and you will see me lose my Goddamned mind.”
I sucked harder still, jerked his shaft, and that’s when I saw his eyes roll back in his head. His body stiffened, his grip on my hair bordering on pain.
“I’m going to come!” he yelled at the ceiling as his hips jerked up, forcing more of his cock deeper into my mouth.
I kept right on sucking, and he exploded with another bellow. I eagerly swallowed the deluge as he continued thrusting into my mouth. But then he pushed me off his cock all of a sudden, forcing me aside, and then gripped his head in anguish, his body taut as a bow string, heels digging into the mattress. This was similar to when his memories had returned the previous times.
I crawled up and knelt beside him, putting a hand on him gently to offer comfort as he struggled. “What are you seeing?”
He spoke through gritted teeth. “The barbells.”
“As in your cock piercings?”
“Yes. There are seven: Pride. Greed. Wrath. Lust. Gluttony. Envy. Sloth.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have seven barbells to represent each one of the seven deadly sins.”
He continued gripping his head in agony. “I’ve seen this before. I am at a table with seven other demons, all with different-colored sashes on. Lethe is among them with a green sash. They are looking to me for answers, but every time I open my mouth nothing comes out. I am incapable of speaking for some reason, like I’ve been struck dumb. One demon with an orange sash points and says, ‘See? He’s losing his mind. He can’t even talk anymore. We need to elect a co-regent or risk all-out war in Shoal between the regions.’”
Slowly, Gray opened his eyes as he heaved in big lungfuls of air. His hands then slid from his head. The memory-returning episode was over, but he seemed more shaken this time.
“Are you okay?” I asked, truly concerned. This was the third time his memories had returned like this, yet these ones, especially the second, seemed really important to his history, to the puzzle of why Lethe took control of his mind.
He nodded, distracted. “Yeah.”
“What does it feel like when the memories come back? You look like you’re in such pain.”
“The release is not painful—it feels like part of your mind, the memory, has been tied up and it’s finally untangled and free again. When they are free, they play unbidden behind my eyes and flash rapidly. It’s painful in the sense of it being a bit of a mind fuck with rapidly unwinding and playing memories.”
“That’s intense.”
“No shit,” he said, rubbing his temple.
“So in your memory, the demon wearing the orange badge wanted to elect a co-regent or risk the regions going to war?” I asked as I cocked my head to the side thoughtfully. “Does that make you regent of Shoal? I didn’t know there was a hierarchy. I assumed God just shoved his fallen all together.”
Gray pursed his lips and looked up at the ceiling. “Lucifer is the Prince of Hell for a reason. Demons are often violent creatures by nature who need to be kept in line, but there is no way that I am prince of Shoal. The Lord does shove his fallen angels into dimensions all together, but in Shoal there are seven regions, one for each of the seven deadly sins. Demons fall into the region named for the sin that cost them their wings.”
“Is that why there were seven other demons at the table with you in the memory? One leader of each of the regions?”
“Probably.”
“What region was Lethe leader of?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Was Nicodemus there? What about that other demon who tracked us?”
“I didn’t see Nicodemus and no Warwick or black sashes at all, for that matter, only colors of the rainbow.”
“So what did the black represent?”
He shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“So then how did Lethe end up messing with your mind?”
He glanced at the ceiling, frustrated now. “If I could tell you that, we wouldn’t be here now and on the run.”
“You said you couldn’t speak no matter how hard you tried,” I pushed, seeking more clarification. “Did Lethe do that?”
He fell silent for a moment, thinking, then shook his head. “I don’t know what she did or how she sunk her claws into my mind. I am still missing so much of my life before she took over my mind. I do remember that I served in the heavenly army before being cast out. I assume after I fell, I was part of my region’s army. I have memories of leading attacks in Shoal, demon army against demon army. Territory between the regions was everything. Remember I said demons were violent creatures? We enjoy fighting, especially over land. Besides, there is no way the Lord would have thrown me out of heaven as a punishment, only to put me in a position of power.”
With the immense power he possessed, and his sheer physical size and massive horns compared to any other demon I’d seen so far, I was fairly certain he was kidding himself. “Are you sure? Maybe the Lord had a plan?”
“I don’t doubt that he did, but it’s not me. I never wanted to rule anything. I ran from my angelic duties—I just wanted to make my own choices.”
I wasn’t really hearing a reason why Gray believed he wasn’t Hell-prince material, only complete denial. He was clearly not ready to accept what I was plainly seeing. Maybe with more time and returning memories, he would accept the inevitable.
This was yet another time the memories returned while we were canoodling. “Isn’t this the third time you’ve had memories return when we, you know”—I wagged my eyebrows at him—“are doing stuff? The first time we kissed.” I ticked them off on my fingers. “The second was after you ate me out in the shower in London. You never mentioned what memories returned then.” I glanced up at him. “And now more return after I blow you? I am starting to think I am the reason. Maybe Ophelia meant you had everything you needed to return your memories because of me, your mate.”
I said this jokingly, but you would have thought Gray had seen a ghost from his expression. His eyes were round, stormy-gray orbs blazing, and he had tensed up, his lips pressed into a fine line. “I think you’re right,” he rumbled softly and then abruptly got out of the bed.
It was like he was running from the words he had just uttered. It made me nervous. He’d only said he was going to help me find out what happened to my mother. Did that mean he was still planning on leaving me after? Or was he really into this? There was no question his body was, but when he said things like that, it made me panic, fearing being left behind yet again. My mother left me, Molly was now gone. I couldn’t lose my mate.
He grabbed his discarded boxers from the bed, and his jeans, hoodie, and a flannel from a nearby chair. Then he stalked naked to the bathroom, giving me a view of his perfect, muscular ass and those red wing scars decorating his shoulder blades, reminding me of his fall. I didn’t think any less of him for being a fallen angel, but he definitely thought less of himself for it. “We should get a move on before Nicodemus has a chance to catch up with us,” he threw over his shoulder.
I remained in bed, thinking. He emerged a few moments later fully dressed, with his hood up, already covering his horns. He was quickly returning to his normal form. “Your turn.”
Putting my swirling thoughts on hold, I focused on the fact that we were about to be in another new city. Reluctantly, I got off the bed and trudged into the bathroom. I put the black body con dress and my boots back on and returned to the main room.
“Are you ready to go?” Gray rumbled.
“What city are we going to next?” I asked. I was excited to see where he had planned to take me.
“Someplace I think you will like,” he replied with a sexy little grin, which broke the tension rolling off him and helped me relax.
He reached out a hand, and I took it immediately.
Just as light peaked over the horizon through the big windows in Paris, Gray misted us. When the blackness cleared from my vision, I found myself on a sandy beach at dusk, palm trees waving in the warm breeze, and a spectacular orange sunset filling the sky.
My mouth dropped open in shock.
“You enjoyed the sunset in London so much,” Gray explained, “I thought you might like to see it again on Maui.”