Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NOVA
When I careen out of the haunted house, I enter the purple orange swirls of twilight. Dawn teases the horizon, but the sun isn’t going to rise as fast as I’d like.
It took me all of my five minute head start to navigate down the stairs without falling, considering most of my body is covered in the oily sheen of butter.
Now I have no chance to hide.
Only run.
My bare feet pound the dirt as I race toward the cornfield. The tall stalks and muddy paths are my only chance—and it’s not much of one. Damek can fly at a speed a plane would be jealous of, and he has far more control than the unwieldy metal tubes.
This is my last chance, and I’m not sure if I have any hope.
I’m also not sure if I want any.
What happens if I win tonight? Where do I go from here? There’s nothing appealing about my old life, but how am I going to establish something new while starting from nothing?
I don’t even have any clothes on my back, like most people would. It’ll only be me and the memories of being hunted and worshipped in a way I’ll never experience again.
Ahead of me, a scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern head watches from a fork in the path. I choose a direction at random, swinging that way.
My breath whooshes from me when an arm wraps around my waist, pulling me to an abrupt stop. On instinct I kick back and try to shove the arm down to get away, but it’s no use. I’m trapped against a hard body, feeling the thick length of his cock against the small of my back.
“Damek—” I say his name as I turn my head to look at him, not sure what I’m going to beg for. Mercy? Freedom? His cock?
The sight of him stops me from saying anything.
The scarecrow I saw… wasn’t a scarecrow at all. It’s Damek with a jack-o-lantern covering his face, wearing different clothes than he was the last time I saw him.
I know it’s him because of his skin tone and markings peeking from beneath the pushed-up sleeves of his flannel. It’s a miracle I didn’t notice the horns poking out of the pumpkin head as I rushed toward it or the wings tucked behind him.
My heart races as he runs his hands up my torso to cup my breasts. He tweaks my nipples, hardened from the cold, and draws a moan from me.
“W-what are you doing?” I ask.
Am I talking about the pumpkin head, or the way he touches me? Again, I don’t know.
His chuckle echoes in the hollow pumpkin. “Isn’t this in the spirit of your All Hallow’s Eve? Dressing up and chasing beautiful women through fields of corn?”
“I guess, but—”
He pinches my nipples once more and pushes me away. I stumble through the mud, catching myself before I fall.
“Then run, love. But this time, know that I’m hunting you, and know what happens when I catch you.”
This game isn’t as frustrating anymore. Now it’s exhilarating, like a shot of adrenaline to my bloodstream. As I take off down the path, I don’t resent the fact that I’m guaranteed to be caught before dawn breaks.
I look forward to it.
I want him to push me into the mud and take my virginity, whispering dirty nothings in my ear as he does. I want to shatter around his cock while he tells me that I’m to be his queen.
What a difference a few hours makes.
But I’m not going to make it easy for the demon king, either. I’ll fight with everything I have against my inevitable loss. That part is just in my nature.
Holding my arm across my chest to stop my breasts from protesting the lack of support, my vision tunnels on the path ahead. There’s no winning if I just run, but all I have left is to run or fight.
Footsteps thump behind me, and my lungs burn from the effort of keeping ahead of him. He doesn’t even have to use his wings, and he catches me by the hips before I can make it out of the stalks.
This time he doesn’t keep me upright. He throws me down to the ground, my knees landing in a muddy puddle and splashing me with dirt. I try to scramble up, but he places a booted foot on the small of my back.
“There’s no escaping, Nova. You’re my queen.”
The weight of him keeps me down on my hands and knees, unable to get him off and unwilling to give in just yet. He barely chased me, and there are still minutes before dawn.
I want him to sweat before he wins.
Damek won’t have me until the final possible second.
“You’ll be a warrior queen,” he says. “We’ll teach you to fight and gift you magic so no one dares to oppose you.”
He presses his boot down and I strain against the weight.
“But for me, you’ll crawl. Won’t you?”
The boot vanishes. I’m halfway to my feet when he grabs my hair and shoves me back down. “Crawl, and when you reach the next fork in the path I’ll let you run. Otherwise, I’ll claim your cunt right here and you’ll lose.”
Jaw clenching, I look back over my shoulder. The jack-o-lantern face is smirking, and I imagine he is too. Being humiliated like this sends a righteous fury racing through my veins, but I’ve learned from tonight… I like it.
I love the fight, but I want them to win.
So I crawl awkwardly down the path, coating my arms and legs in mud while he stands immobile, watching me. He can see everything from there—the sheen of cum coating my thighs, my dripping pussy, my well-used asshole.
My cheeks are heated to infernal temperatures by the time I reach the fork. Clambering to stand, I take off down one of the paths, toes sinking into the mud with every step. The next time he catches me, he isn’t going to let me go.
Not with the orange hue brightening the horizon, promising that dawn is near.
I fling myself off the dirt path and into the stalks of corn, using it as a last ditch effort to lose him. I can’t see where I’m going, corn leaves hitting me in the face, but I just keep running.
Until hands land on my shoulders from in front of me, slowing my speed so I don’t break my nose on a hard chest. I peer up at Damek, the jack-o-lantern eyes almost seeming to glow while his horns jut out the top.
He drags me from the corn into a wide open field. Somehow I got turned around and started heading back to the pumpkin patch. My arm aches where he holds me, and he doesn’t let me go even when he sits down on a hay bale.
Damek undoes the button and zipper of his jeans with one hand, shoving them down just enough to free his cock.
My gasp sounds way too loud in the quiet morning.
“Why do you…” I trail off, staring at his length.
It’s slick with his precum and long enough to break me, but the other demons weren’t much smaller. What has me stunned is the thick knot at the base, so girthy that there’s no way it won’t hurt to take.
He casually strokes himself, and his hand is barely big enough to wrap around the knot. With my smaller hands, my fingers wouldn’t touch if I tried.
“The knot is surprising to you?” he asks. “Only the king has one. I’ll use it to lock us together as dawn breaks—and we’re losing the twilight, love. If you don’t want me to hurt you with my knot, you should hurry.”
“Hurry and what?”
“Sit on my lap.” He releases my arm and pats his thighs.
There’s nothing holding me back—I could run again. If I was still opposed to being dragged down to the Underworld, I would. I think he knows my mind has changed overnight. Maybe he just hopes it has.
Either way, I want his knot to bring me pleasure when I take it for the first time, not pain. And he’s right—the only way that’s going to be possible is if I’ve gotten used to the rest of his cock already.
I climb onto the hay bale, straddling him with pieces of hay poking at my knees and shins. Reaching down, I grab his cock and position it at my entrance, taking the tip inside me. There’s resistance that stops me from sinking further. He’s big, and my pussy isn’t used to this kind of stretch.
Breathing shakily, I lift the pumpkin from his head and toss it to the ground. His hair is a mess beneath it, his burgundy skin flushed. Now that I can look into his eyes directly, I see the tenderness shining in them.
“I’ve never done this before,” I whisper.
Damek already knows, but since he’s spent the night watching me get railed in every other hole by his advisors, I want to remind him. I don’t know if that’ll make him be gentle. Gentle might not be what I need anyways, but I need him to have that little fact on his mind.
He’s my first. They all are, in different ways.
“Neither have I. My body is only for you; only for my queen.”
Damek’s admission steals my breath. “Never?” I ask.
“I choose my mate for life, and I’ve chosen you. I wouldn’t let anyone else sully our bond. Now, love, I can fill you for the first time slowly or quickly, but you don’t have long to decide.”
These traditions are nothing like what I expected from the Underworld. He sounds so reverent when he speaks of me, nothing like the teasing tones he’d used at the castle. Is it because I passed all his tests?
There’s no time to ask, no time for anything but him. I place my hands on his shoulders, pressing my hips down until the resistance becomes uncomfortable.
Then, I choose. “Fast. Do it fast.”
His fingers dig into my hips, and he holds me in place as he slams his cock up. I scream, tears beading in my eyes at the unpleasant stretch. The knot rubs against my clit when he’s fully seated, but the faint strands of pleasure can’t offset the discomfort.
“Look at you, taking me in that tight, virgin pussy,” Damek murmurs. “I know the others told you already—as our queen, you’re meant to take us. Your body will accept whatever we give you.”
He only pauses for a moment to let me adjust, and the discomfort hasn’t gone away by the time he lifts me off his cock and slams me back down. I blink away my tears, bracing myself on his shoulders. His gaze locks on mine, soft and affectionate even as he sets a punishing pace.
We’re racing the sun, his cock pounding deep, and every thrust brings me closer to pleasure again.
When his hand slides down to my core, I whine, but he doesn’t pause to pleasure me for long. Instead, he slips two fingers inside me alongside his cock, the digits stretching me so full I’m worried he might tear me apart.
But that’s still not as thick as his knot, and he’s running out of time to get me ready.
“Touch yourself for me. I want you to come one more time tonight,” Damek commands.
Will I be able to? I think so, because despite the pain… there’s something about it that has my body wound up tight. Making sure I’m well braced with my other arm, I slide my hand down his chest and then bring it to the apex of my thighs.
He fucks me with short, deep thrusts, keeping me full to the brim.
I swirl my fingers around my clit, the bud aching from how it’s been abused tonight.
The discomfort of his depth and girth is slowly lost to hints of pleasure, his length hitting a spot inside me that has a hard line to my sweet spot.
“It’s almost time,” he says.
His fingers slide out of me, and he brings his hand to my hip again. I feel the press of his knot against my hole and sink my teeth into my bottom lip.
I’m still not ready for something that huge, but I haven’t got a choice. To be his queen, he needs to take me according to tradition—and after a night of being hunted, I want to be queen. His, Brellan’s, Lorcan’s, Izoran’s. Worshipped and wanted like I never thought I could be.
Damek leans forward until our lips brush, an electric shock originating from the touch. I move in to deepen the kiss, and he takes control, his sharp canines scraping my lip and spreading the coppery taste of blood between us.
As that shock of pain tingles through me, he pushes his hips up once, roughly forcing his knot inside me.
It fits. Barely.
I cry out, the foreign sensation of his knot swelling sending waves of pleasure to combat the uncomfortable stretch.
There’s a release just out of reach, my fingers frantically moving to get me there.
I need to come, to clench around him as he groans beneath me.
He devours me with his lips and tongue, still holding me down on his pulsing length.
We’re locked together, king and queen, when the first hint of sunrise peeks out.
He stands up and I wrap myself around him. The air shimmers beside us, and with one step to the side, we’re not in the pumpkin patch anymore. He steals me away at the break of dawn, like he always said he would.
He sits us down on the edge of a bed with dark red silk sheets, my body locked against his, and something about the way the air shifts pushes me over the edge.
I come with a scream, tightening on his cock like I can pull him deeper when he’s already too fucking deep—I’m already way too full of him.
Damek jolts against me, pulling back from the kiss to bury his face against my neck. I can feel every twitch of his cock, his cum sent deep inside and locked there by his knot.
Slumping against his chest, I pant heavily. My eyes slide shut, exhaustion catching up to me. My skin tingles, confused by how we went from nearly frosty temperatures to this warmth.
A throat clears behind me, hauling me back from the hazy promise of sleep. Lorcan speaks, his tone ripe with amusement. “Looks like you lost after all, little human.”